Simon Petrikov's Final Breath
The sun had just set over the Candy Kingdom and the surrounding grasslands. With all of the Candy People asleep, save for the occasional on-duty Banana Guard, there was scarcely a sound to be heard for miles around. There weren't very many nocturnal creatures in this region of Ooo.
Not far from the enormous, sugary citadel, a lone figure trudged up a small hill. Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum's thick, pink wellington boots crunched the frost-covered grass as she made her way towards a small, crudely constructed shack. From the decrepit structure, an icy mist seeped across the ground, freezing the grass and chilling the Princess' ankles. She shivered and wished she'd worn thicker trousers, as well as her fluffy, pink coat.
In addition to the cold, the Candy Princess' nerves made her shudder at the thought of what she was about to attempt. She had only met the shack's resident a few weeks ago, but already knew that she despised him. She had only come to see him to carry out a very important mission for an extremely special person.
Once Bubblegum reached the top of the hill, she stopped and looked around. So this was the Ice Kingdom? Even to someone who wasn't as old and well travelled as Princess Bubblegum, it would have been very underwhelming. Cringing slightly, Bubblegum reached up and tapped lightly on the door, worried that knocking too hard would cause it to fall off its hinges. Before she had even finished knocking, there was the sound of things being knocked to the floor, from inside the shack, followed by a few hurried footsteps. The door flew open, revealing a large, old man in a navy blue robe, grinning through a wild beard that reached his toes. Perched atop his head was a solid gold crown, with three red gems imbedded in it.
"Princess!" The Ice King beamed. "I knew you'd come around to my way of thinking eventually!" He pursed his lips and rolled his eyes in an obviously rehearsed attempt to look cool. "So, you here for a date, or are we skipping straight ahead to the wedding?"
Princess Bubblegum stepped back, revulsion on her face. "Ugh! That's not what I'm here for, you creep!" She reached into her pocket and produced a wad of folded paper. "I'm here because I need you to fill out the paperwork for the establishment of your own kingdom!"
As the Princess studied the Ice King's vacant expression, it dawned on her that she might have put too much work into her cover story to hide her true reason for visiting him. It seemed like the ancient, blue wizard was barely listening to her.
"E-what-blish? You mean you want me to show you around? It's pretty sweet huh?"
The Ice King's beard parted down the middle and the two halves began to flap, lifting him into the air and out of the shack. As soon as the Ice King's back was turned, the Princess held up her watch and lifted up the face, revealing a small monitor underneath, displaying a 3D image of the Ice King. She studied the rapidly scrolling list of data carefully, while keeping one eye on the Ice King, in case he turned back around.
"I can't believe how much the economy in the Ice Kingdom has boomed in three short weeks! I can't sell Ice Kingdom property fast enough! Just ask Gerard over there!"
The Ice King pointed at a slightly melted snowman, standing on the side of the hill, and turned back to face the Princess. She quickly hid her watch behind her back and smiled innocently.
"Hey, what'cha got there?" He asked, sounding mildly curious.
Suddenly, a figure faded into being behind the Ice King. It was a seemingly twenty-year-old girl with pale skin, bite marks on her neck and flowing, black hair. Despite the sun having already set, Marceline still wore a wide brimmed sunhat. In her hands, she held a large fishing rod. She looked over the Ice King's shoulder and shrugged questioningly at Bubblegum, while taking care not to make a sound.
"Erm, just a second, Ice King!" Bubblegum hinted loudly. "I… erm… need to know what the primary export of the Ice Kingdom is. For the Royal Court…"
Unphased by Bubblegum's unusual behaviour, the Ice King held out his hand and a small mound of snow formed in it.
"Snowballs. You want one? Only twenty dollars!"
Suddenly, a sharp beeping came from behind Bubblegum's back. Disregarding the Ice King, Bubblegum returned her attention to her watch, the source of the sound. Lifting up the face, she stared in delight at the fresh stream of data, against a pulsing green background.
"It's green!" She bellowed, making the Ice King jump. "GO! GO! GO!"
Just as Marceline had, two gargantuan, metallic figures suddenly rendered themselves visible, one standing on each side of the Ice Kingdom. Unlike Marceline, the Gumball Guardians' apparent materialisation was accompanied by a bright blue glow. Their heads lit up like light bulbs, flooding the area with cold, electronic light.
At the same time, Marceline swung her fishing rod over her head and cast the hook at the Ice King. With trained precision, the hook dropped through the top of the crown and latched onto the rim, allowing Marceline to heave the crown off the Ice King's head and into her free hand.
Robbed of his crown and his powers, the Ice King fell to the floor, finally rendered speechless by everything that was happening. Before he could get up, Princess Bubblegum strode over to him and pulled a device from under her coat that resembled a small, electric-blue crossbow, except without a drawstring or arrow.
She pointed it at the Ice King's forehead and bellowed, "YOUR NAME IS SIMON PETRIKOV!" And without waiting for a response, fired.
A month earlier, Princess Bubblegum had stood in her lab, wearing her labcoat and goggles, and holding a phial full of glowing, green liquid with a set of metal tongs. With her tongue between her teeth and one eye closed, the Princess very carefully held the phial over a small lemon on her worktop, trying to prompt the tiniest of drops to pour out.
The door to the lab flew open with a crash and Marceline flew in.
"BONNIE!" She cried.
Bubblegum screamed and shot upright. The phial flew from her grip and smashed over the lemon on her desk. The lemon soaked up the liquid and, in a matter of seconds, mutated into a yellow, six-armed creature, the size of a truck. It grabbed the Princess with all six of its arm, shoved her, head first into its gaping, toothless mouth and began to suck on her like a child with a dummy.
"Hey!" Marceline shouted at the creature.
She flew towards it, wrapped her arm around Bubblegum's waist and punched it as hard as she could, sending it flying off Bubblegum and across the lab. While Marceline turned Bubblegum to face her, to make sure she was ok, the lemon climbed to its feet, waved its arms around and screamed madly, then it made an attempt to dive out of the lab's tiny window, which, after a loud crash, resulted in a large hole in the wall.
"Sorry for janking up your experiment Bonnie…" Marceline said remorsefully.
"That's ok Marcy, I have other lemons. So what's up?"
Marceline's panicked urgency returned as she remembered what she had come to tell the Princess.
"You remember that guy I told you about? Simon?"
"The guy who took care of you when you were growing up?"
Marceline had alluded to an unnamed, important person from her past on several occasions before Bubblegum was eventually able to coax Marceline into telling her the story of her past. That had been several years ago, and they hadn't talked about Simon Petrikov since.
"Yeah, well… He's alive!" Marceline exclaimed, the shock on her face mirroring her initial reaction to the discovery.
"What!?" Bubblegum shared the Vampire Queen's bewilderment. "But… he must be hundreds of years old by now! I thought you said he was human!"
"He is! I guess the crown made him immortal, or something."
Bubblegum didn't need to ask if Simon's mental state had improved. Marceline's evident dismay made that very clear. As Bubblegum thought back to Marceline telling her about Simon's affliction, she remembered how her scientific curiosity had been sparked. While feeling great sympathy for her dear friend, Bubblegum also mentally raced through the possibilities of a personality reconfiguration, induced by a pre-programmed personality algorithm uploaded without any visible transmitter, all achieved with nothing more than solid gold headgear.
One particular thought had prompted a great deal of consideration from the Candy Princess, and had kept her up in her lab until the early hours of several mornings, exploring the possibility. Because it had never occurred to her that Simon Petrikov might still be alive, she had kept her research hidden from Marceline, for fear of upsetting her further, but now that he was back…
"Marceline! Now that Simon's back… well… I don't want to get your hopes up… and I'd need to scan him to see if there's really a chance… but… I think we can help him!"
"What do you mean…?" Marceline asked carefully, not daring to hope that Bonnie meant what she thought she meant, until the Princess said it herself.
"Marceline…" Bubblegum started, a grin creeping across her face. "I think we can bring Simon back!"
Once the trigger was pulled, the blue band on Princess Bubblegum's device shot forwards and snapped forcefully around the Ice King's forehead.
"Ow!" Ice King complained, standing up and trying to pry the metal headband off his forehead, to no avail. "What's wrong with you crazy chicks!?"
Without another word, Bubblegum pulled a device from her pocket, resembling a TV remote, rectangular and covered in buttons, and pointed it at the Ice King's head. The Ice King flinched, with another of PB's contraptions pointed at him. The Candy Princess pressed one of the device's many buttons, and instantly, the headband and the crown glowed brightly. Ice King fell to his knees and howled, grasping his head again, he opened his eyes, revealing that they, too, were a brilliant white, even more so than usual. The hand Marceline was holding the crown with shot towards the Ice King and dragged her through the air for a couple of feet, before she was able to react.
"B…Bonnie!" Marceline grunted, as she placed her feet on an imaginary surface in front of her, in an attempt to slow the crown's steady advance, back towards its master.
Bubblegum looked between the Ice King and the Crown, then looked at her scanner watch and gasped. The crown's software was far more advanced than she had thought it would be, and it was getting clever with her. She looked back at her controller device and began to frantically tap buttons.
"Marceline!" She called with authority, as she continued to tap. "I'm gonna give you a window of opportunity, you need to use it to get the crown as high as you can!"
"Got it…" Marceline grunted, as the crown inched its way forwards, despite her efforts.
Bubblegum quickly clicked on a small earpiece she was wearing, and then returned to the device in her hands.
"Team Mega-Rad, we're gonna need the circle a little early! Stand-by!" She ordered.
With one final, dramatic stroke, Bubblegum pointed her controller at the Ice King and pressed the last button. With another distressed wail from the Ice King, a shockwave of blue light erupted from his head, sending Marceline and the crown flying backwards. The Vampire Queen stumbled in the air, and then, realising the crown had been rendered dormant, rocketed into the starry sky.
With her hopeful eyes on Marceline, Bubblegum didn't notice the Ice King, and how, like fire on oil, a layer of ice was spreading across the ground from his unconscious body. The Princess screamed loudly as the frigid cold pierced through her thick boots and began to creep up her leg, she tried to move but her feet were frozen to the ground.
Suddenly realising how Marceline would have reacted to her screaming, Bubblegum looked up and, sure enough, she had stopped to look down at her, worriedly.
"KEEP GOING!" Bubblegum bellowed up at her, despite the ice climbing up her legs, rapidly robbing her of the feeling in her lower body. "WE'VE ONLY GOT ONE SHOT AT THIS!"
Bubblegum had already explained to Marceline that, if Simon's former personality could be recovered, there was still a decent chance that the crown would have the power to delete him permanently if threatened, and her scan had confirmed that.
Marceline looked between Bubblegum, Simon and the crown desperately. Despite her order, Bubblegum's eyes betrayed her distress and fear of freezing to death. The crown began to grow heavier as its power to pull itself through the air slowly returned. With the proverbial clock counting down on her, Marceline was conflicted by an impossible choice. Up or down? Simon or Bonnibel? The joyous reunion she had spent so many years dreaming of, or still having the Princess there to console her when she was denied it? As if she could ever choose…
Marceline swung her arm around and, with all her strength, hurled the crown skywards. Then, she shot herself at the icy ground, directly between Simon and Bonnie, rapidly morphing into the form of a giant, hairy bat monster as she did. Marceline slammed her muscular, grey forearms into the ground and the entire hill quaked. Simon's shack was instantly blasted to splinters and he and Bonnibel were launched into the air, along with a shower of ice shards. With a swing of her clawed hand, Marceline snatched the frostbitten princess and, with her safely on her shoulders, returned to the air, with a quick, concerned glance at Simon. He was lying on his back, his mouth hanging open in a silent scream, and the white light still shining from his eyes and headband.
"Come on Marceline!" Bubblegum cried. "If he's gonna have a chance, the crown needs to be as far away as possible when we make the circle!"
Needing no more encouragement, Marceline gave a mighty flap of her wings and accelerated her climb. The two of them noticed a glint in the sky above them and Marceline raised her clawed hand in preparation of the crown's descent back towards them. Although it was still attempting to pull its way towards Simon, at the distance Marceline had climbed to, it's effect seemed to have weakened, to the point where it barely slowed her down once it fell into her hand.
"We're gonna be ok!" Bubblegum called over the wind. She addressed her earpiece. "Team Mega…"
Suddenly, Bubblegum was forcefully interrupted. A crackling bolt of blue lightning blasted into the heavens from below them, grazing Marceline and leaving a thin layer of ice covering her arm. The two girls looked down and could only stare in awe. With no crown on his head, Simon's beard had parted and was slowly lifting him into the air. His glowing eyes were full of rage and his teeth bore like fangs. His usual, grating voice screamed up at them, but his words were echoed by a menacing growl that seemed to be coming from within Marceline and Bubblegum's own heads.
"RETURN MY VESSEL!" Simon bellowed.
"Vessel…?" Marceline looked at the crown, somewhat alarmed. He had never called it that before.
"That's… not Simon talking, Marcy." Bubblegum said, cringing slightly.
Marceline almost dropped the crown as she realised what Bubblegum meant.
With a flourish of his wrists, the slowly climbing Ice King sent blast after blast of icy lightning at the two girls, high above him.
"CIRCLE! NOW!" Bubblegum ordered into her earpiece, as Marceline shot left and right, avoiding her precious, old friend's magical attacks.
From a hiding place behind a neighbouring hill, two figures streaked through the air towards the Ice Kingdom, like a blur. One of them was a light blue, the other bright white. They shot in a wide circle around the Ice King, each one flying in an opposite direction. They flew faster and faster, until they created a wide, circle of light around the maniacal wizard.
The white blur was Lady Rainicorn. Like a professional jockey, Peppermint Butler crouched on her back. On his head, he wore a helmet with a small, metal transmitter sticking out of the top, which was projecting the white light behind the Rainicorn. The seriousness on the circular mint's face showed how seriously he took the mission his princess had entrusted him to assist with.
On the back of The Morrow, the Princess' giant falcon, Cinnamon Bun was securely tied down with ropes, a transmitter like the one of Peppermint Butler's helmet was crudely jammed into his icing.
"Hiii Ice King!" He called cheerfully, blissfully ignorant to what was happening.
As the circle of light intensified, the Ice King's powers were suppressed, he was dragged slowly back down to the ground, and his icy blasts began to lessen in intensity. From high in the sky, Marceline almost thought she saw his beard begin to retreat into his face.
Shrinking back to her normal form, and holding the Princess on her back, Marceline asked, "So what do we do now?" She desperately wanted to be doing something to help Simon's recovery, instead of just waiting in the sky.
She didn't have to wait long. Far beneath them, the Ice King knelt on the ground, clutching his aching head. The whirling blue light in front of him slowly began to fade and was replaced by crushing darkness.
"YOUR NAME IS SIMON PETRIKOV!"
The Princess' words rang in the Ice King's ears, but what did they mean? He hadn't given it any thought at the time, 'pointless lady nonsense' he had passed it off as, but now he was sure the Princess had meant something important.
"Princess?"
Simon dwelled on the word for a moment, as though the word itself suddenly interested him. Suddenly, a face swam into view, a spectacled woman, with shoulder length, red hair. And then another, a little girl with fangs, wearing a blue dress and clutching a worn out teddy bear. His heart fluttered, there were no names in his head, no places, nor memories of who these people were or how he knew them. All he knew was that he did know them, and that they were very, very important to him. In fact, they were all that was important to him. Nothing else mattered, he just had to… protect them? But from what?
Suddenly, Simon heard a rasping, growling sound from behind him, accompanied by squelching footsteps. As if he had rehearsed the action countless times, Simon shot to his feet and grasped at his left thigh. Once he realised there was only darkness behind him, Simon wondered what the sound had meant, and why it made him want to reach for… the crown? Why would he keep it tied to his waist, as opposed to wearing it?
All of a sudden, it was like a plug had been pulled in his mind, and the memories began to fade away.
"No! No!" Simon shouted at the darkness. "That was important!" He began desperately describing what he had seen to himself. "Red hair, spectacles, the child, the creatures, the crown, mustn't… mustn't put the crown on… You're gonna act weird again…"
He whispered the last sentence slowly. As he said the words, he knew they were a quote. He remembered the exact tone of voice it had been said in, and a moment later, he remembered when. The post box. The rat. The car. The rustling bushes. Memories flooded into Simon's head, but as quickly as they came, they faded away.
The previous morning, the Ice King had been so sure of himself, but now his head was full of these memories, and he knew they weren't his, so why were they in his head? And who was Simon?
"Bonnie, do something!"
"Keep pulling, Marceline!"
"I am! It's stuck!"
Moments after Marceline had played her role and asked Princess Bubblegum what else she could do, the crown had sprung back to life, without warning. It darted left and right like a rabid animal, and then, utterly oblivious to Marceline's resistance, shot back towards the ground like a meteor, dragging the Vampire Queen, as well as the Princess on her back with it. The two girls screamed as they helplessly plummeted towards the Ice King. As they approached, the Ice King was lifted into the air as if by invisible puppet strings. Moments before the crown slammed down onto his head, the Princess' headband began to crack, and then exploded into dust.
Realising the crown was successfully resisting their efforts, The Morrow and Lady Rainicorn ceased orbiting the dramatic scene unravelling before them and watched breathlessly.
"Bonnie, what's happening? What do we do?"
Marceline was desperate for Bubblegum to dramatically reveal one final ace up her sleeve, but the Candy Princess simply didn't have one. Truthfully, she was awestruck by the crown's relentless ferocity. She had remotely tested the software deactivation virus she was using, on some of the military satellites orbiting Ooo, and they had been destroyed in seconds.
Suddenly, a jagged pillar of ice exploded out of the ground, missing Marceline and Bubblegum by less than a foot. The next second, another flew up behind the Ice King. Marceline looked down at the coat-clad arms wrapped around her shoulders, and felt a twinge of guilt for what she knew she had to do.
Letting go of the crown, Marceline cried, "Bonnie, take my hand!"
Unsure of what Marceline was thinking, Bubblegum let go of Marceline's shoulders with one arm and took the hand offered to her, then screamed as Marceline spun around, arched her back and threw the Princess over her shoulder and towards Lady Rainicorn.
As soon as she realised what Marceline had done, Lady sprung into action. She darted through the air and swept her head past the falling Princess, allowing Peppermint Butler to catch her flailing arm.
"MARCELINE!" Bubblegum shouted angrily, as Peppbut helped her onto the Rainicorn's back.
As Marceline turned back to the Ice King, and continued trying to pry the crown from his head, more and more shards of ice erupted from the ground around her, as the crown viciously tried to ward off those who would try to take away its precious host.
Slowly, the Ice King's trembling hands lifted above his head and rested on Marceline's making her jump, but what surprised Marceline even more, was that she could feel the warmth in his hands. For the first time in hundreds of years, Simon had body heat! His hands pressed down on Marceline's as he too tried to pull the golden crown off his forehead.
Nearby, Lady Rainicorn darted back and forth, attempting to get close to the two immortals, but constantly having to avoid another jagged pillar of ice as it burst from the ground, always getting larger and spreading further away from the Ice King.
"Princess, this is getting too dangerous!" Lady Rainicorn protested, in her native Korean.
"Indeed!" Peppermint Butler agreed. "Even if we can approach Miss Abadeer, how can we assist her?"
On the other side of the Ice Kingdom, The Morrow hovered in the air, edging away as the forest of icy shards expanded, torn between her fear and her loyalty to the Princess.
"We can't just leave her!" Bubblegum insisted, although her voice was full of doubt, caused by putting her other friends in danger for Marceline's sake.
"Princess, I implore you! Miss Abadeer is immortal! We are not!" Peppermint Butler pleaded.
A tear rolled down Bubblegum's cheek as another pillar of ice fully obstructed her view of the distant Vampire Queen.
"Ok…" She sighed remorsefully, and then shouted into her earpiece, "Morrow, Gumball Guardian one and two! Pull out! Mission aborted…"
Within the icy tomb at the heart of the Ice Kingdom, Marceline continued to heave on the crown, despite the utter futility.
"SIMON!" Marceline pleaded, tears streaming from her eyes and freezing on her cheeks. "YOUR NAME… IS SIMON!"
The Ice King opened his eyes and stared at Marceline. The bright light faded and two pupils swam into view. Marceline watched breathlessly as the Ice King's beard crept upwards and back into his face. He blinked repeatedly as the thoughts flew around his head like bees and he desperately tried to make sense of who he was. He didn't even notice the pandemonium going on around him. The Ice King looked into Marceline's pleading eyes. They were so familiar… So comforting…
"M… Marcy?"
For Marceline, time seemed to stop. Simon Petrikov's voice had the same effect it had had hundreds of years ago. It dissolved Marceline's worries and assured her that everything was going to be ok. The second she heard her old friend's voice again, there wasn't a doubt in Marceline's mind that he was saved. Sadly, the crown had other ideas…
In an instant, the air froze. Marceline was encased in a coffin of ice and she could barely make out the hazy blue blur that was Simon, just in front of her. She tried to struggle, but the cold numbed her senses and blocked her powers.
Half a mile away, Bubblegum stared open-mouthed from Lady Rainicorn's back. The shards of ice that had encased Marceline and Simon had fused together, forming a frozen pyramid, and it was growing. Layer after layer of ice materialised, forcing the structure across the grassland and high into the sky as the crown exhausted all its power to protect its wearer.
As well as the mountain of ice, a tidal wave of snow swept across the landscape, flowing beneath Lady Rainicorn and bringing frigid air with it. Bubblegum's heart sank with each layer of ice that came between her and her beloved Vampire Queen.
After almost an hour, it all stopped. The mountain stood, towering into the sky, four times the size of the Candy Kingdom, and the snow stretched out for miles. Suddenly, the name "Ice Kingdom" was a great deal more fitting.
"Back to the Candy Kingdom." Bubblegum ordered quietly. "We're gonna need some fresh equipment."
As the sun began to creep above the horizon, Bubblegum stood in a tunnel, reaching deep into the heart of the Ice Kingdom. On her head, she wore a miner's helmet with a torch fitted to the front, and in her hands she held a menacing flamethrower, the fuel canisters for which were strapped to her back. Peppermint Butler and Lady Rainicorn stood anxiously behind her, both of them wearing matching helmets and Peppermint Butler holding a large pickaxe.
Bubblegum continued to dig her way deeper, following the undead equivalent of life signs on a visor built into her helmet. Every few seconds, she would walk towards the end of the tunnel and unleash another blast of fire, scorching the lower half of her face and her hands, but she pressed on.
"Marceline will be ok, won't she?" Lady Rainicorn worried aloud, her own concern for Marceline temporarily making her forget tact.
"Of course." Bubblegum said shortly. "You can only kill a vampire with sunlight or a wooden stake."
It was through extensive testing that Bubblegum had confirmed that only wood could be used to stake a vampire. But then again, Marceline wasn't a normal vampire, and Bubblegum hadn't exactly tested the effects of various staking on her.
Eventually, Bubblegum began to slow down. She released several tiny puffs of fire to inch her way through the ice, and then set the flamethrower down, shrugging the canisters off her back. Through the ice, two amorphous blurs could just be made out, one blue and one black.
"Pickaxe." Bubblegum ordered, holding her hand out.
"Of course Princess!" Peppermint Butler hurried forwards and placed the tool into the Princess' hand.
With both hands, Princess Bubblegum swung the pickaxe as much as the width of the tunnel would allow, and struck at the black blur. As soon as the ice was pierced, soupy, black smoke began to gush out around the pickaxe, as if Bubblegum had struck a gas pipe. The smoke rose up and began to take shape. As she was still solidifying, Marceline stepped forwards and put her arms around Bubblegum. Every inch of the Vampire Queen was covered in frost and her skin was even paler than usual.
"Thanks for trying, Bonnie…" She whispered, sadly.
"It didn't…?" Bubblegum began, but realised her question had already been answered.
"He was there for a second… But then the crown…" Marceline trailed off, shaking slightly, but not from the cold.
Bubblegum dropped the pickaxe on the ground. "Can you guys dig out… Can you guys finish up here?" Bubblegum said quietly.
"Of course, Princess."
"I'm so sorry, Marceline."
Marceline didn't speak Korean, but Lady Rainicorn's sympathy was clear.
"Come on Marceline." Bubblegum said gently, Leading Marceline back up the tunnel, with her hands on her shoulders. "Let's go home."