Fionna couldn't get it out of her and it made her mad, she hated that the Ice Queen had played her like that. She'd thought Gumball seemed a little different, sure he wouldn't normally have thought that way about her, but she had hoped. He's seemed so sincere, so sweet, so nice. And then there had been Ice Queen laughing at her.
It had been a good plan, Fionna would give the crazy lady that, but.. why?
She lay on the bed, warm and safe in her sleeping bag and listened to her sister's soft breathing, she lay there and tried to calm herself, tried to sleep. But she couldn't get it out of her head. Ice Queen hadn't struggled, hadn't complained, hadn't tried to stop them as they put her in a cell in the dungeon. She hadn't said a word since Fionna's little speech.
Fionna sighed, that had been what she wanted, she had wanted what Ice Queen had been giving her all day. She'd wanted warmth and affection that seemed to come from the heart. She'd wanted honesty and look where she'd ended up.
She sighed and rolled over, determined that she would sleep. She remembered that song Ice Queen had sung her, remembered that moment before they'd jumped from Lord Monochromicorn. That had been fake, hadn't it? It had all been fake.
She rolled over and spied her friend sleeping soundly. With a sigh Fionna got up and started to descend the ladder. "Where ya going?" Cake asked sleepily.
"Just getting a drink," she lied to her friend.
"Hmm," Cake was back asleep in moments.
Fionna climbed down the ladder into the living room and further down to the entrance. She quietly opened the door and shut it quietly behind her and started towards the candy kingdom. She needed to talk to the woman, needed to understand why Ice Queen had done that to her. She should have turned back, she thought, the woman was crazy, she'd just give a crazy answer.
But Fionna didn't turn back, she wanted some kind of answer and if a crazy one was the best she would get then so be it. She knew she wouldn't get to sleep until she'd talked to the Ice Queen. So she walked to candy kingdom. It took longer without Cake, but she didn't mind, it was cool night and the brisk pace helped to clear her head.
Not that it being clear was good.
Ice Queen sat in her cell, looking tired, and stared at the wall. She seemed to be lost in thought, occasionally sighing or shaking her head. Fionna didn't like to watch people's private moments, they always made her feel weird.
"Ice Queen?" Fionna gently interrupted the woman.
"Do you think I'm still the Ice Queen when I'm not wearing the crown?" the woman asked, looking up at Fionna. "Sorry, did you want something?"
"Well..." Fionna was taken aback by weariness in the woman's gaze. She shook her head, now was not the time to feel sorry for the Ice Queen. "Why did you do that to me?"
Ice Queen took a deep breath and opened her mouth as if to speak, but then she paused and shook her head. It took a while for her to speak again. "I figured I could get you alone and freeze you, so you wouldn't be able to stand between me and the prince," the woman said.
"So it was all fake, all to get me to go into that room with you so you could freeze me?" Fionna demanded, anger rising.
Ice Queen looked up at her and again seemed about to speak before she stopped. "I can't say," she said eventually. "It won't… I can't say."
"You're being weird, Ice Queen," Fionna told the woman.
"Aren't I always?" Ice Queen asked.
"Stop being weird," Fionna commanded.
Ice Queen got up, brushing off the back of her dress. "I can't," she told the girl, approaching the bars. "I haven't been… I just can't."
It was like something kept stopping her from saying what she wanted to say. Every time the Ice Queen started to make sense she couldn't. Something stopped her from making Fionna feel better and that was the entire reason the girl was there.
She wanted to know one way or the other if the Queen had just been tricking her the whole time. Fionna had no idea what she would do with the information, she couldn't have said if she wanted to know if it had been real. But she wanted to put the matter to rest.
"Why won't you give a straight answer?" Fionna asked, anger draining as she realised how hard it was for the woman to do so. It seemed like wasn't that the woman didn't want to, she just couldn't quite manage it.
"I can't give you an answer to that for the same reason you need to ask," Ice Queen told her. "I can't say yet, it… I can't say."
Fionna sat down on the ground a little distance from the bars that held the Ice Queen and sighed. Ice Queen sat down facing her, knees up against her chin. The two of them sat there in silence for some time before the Ice Queen spoke.
"I'm sorry I ruined your dress," she said.
Fionna hadn't expected that. "I didn't really like it," she admitted. "Cake made me wear it."
"It was a nice dress," Ice Queen said.
"Thanks," Fionna looked at her feet.
Ice Queen smiled a little.
Before Fionna really noticed, she'd started to nod off, it was quiet there, there wasn't anything there but for the Ice Queen, who was silent. Before she knew it she was properly asleep, she hadn't gotten what she wanted but somehow she didn't mind as much as she had before. She'd found out that the Ice Queen was less crazy than she had previously thought.
Or maybe it was another trick.
"Fionna," the voice was loud and seemed to belong to Cake.
"Leave me alone," she mumbled, "I'm sleeping."
"I told you."
Fionna heard the Ice Queen and sat up. She was in the candy dungeon. "What am I doing here?" she wondered, memory of the previous night hazy at best.
"What did you do?" Cake demanded of the Ice Queen.
"I haven't done anything," the Ice Queen sounded calm. "Give her a minute and I'm sure she'll be fine. What could I do anyway, without that thing""
Fionna didn't need to look at the woman to know she was pointing at the Tiara they'd taken from her. Cake appeared in Fionna's field of view. "Are you alright?" the cat asked.
"Yeah," Fionna said, looking around.
"Any idea why you're here?" Cake asked.
"I came here last night," Fionna said. "I think I needed to ask the Ice Queen something."
"What could you possibly want to know from her?" Cake asked.
"I don't really remember," Fionna lied. "I was pretty tired."
That was weird, she thought, she didn't keep things from Cake, she'd never been able to keep things from her friend. But she didn't want to tell Cake about this, at least not until she'd gotten an answer. She just didn't think her friend would understand.
"Ice Queen," Cake turned to the woman in the cell. "What did Fionna ask you about?"
"I'm not sure whether she would want to share it," Ice Queen said, looking at the girl. Fionna got the impression the Ice Queen knew she'd lied. "I'm sure it will come back to her and you can ask her then."
"Of course she'd share it with me," Cake asserted. "We're best buds."
Ice Queen shrugged. "I don't know that," she said.
Fionna noticed she was still sitting in the same place she had been last night. She hadn't moved all night as far as the girl could tell. It took the girl a moment to realise that that meant the woman had spend the night watching her sleep.
Cake escorted Fionna from the dungeon, leaving Ice Queen by herself in that quiet place. "What's going on Fi?" Cake asked almost as soon as they were outside.
"I bet she's messing with us," Fionna replied. "Remember the last time she was in there, we ended up in the cell."
Cake nodded, not like she was convinced.
"I swear Cake, if I remember what I needed to ask her I will tell you," Fionna felt bad lying outright to her friend. She would tell the cat one day, but only after she'd gotten a straight answer out of the ice witch.
"Ok," Cake said, cheering up a little. "What do we do today?"
"I don't know," Fionna said. "We'd normally be rescuing princes from the Ice Queen."
Cake laughed. "Let's go home and play Beemo until someone asks for help," she said.
"Sounds good."
So they sat on the couch all day and played Beemo and didn't talk at all about the Ice Queen, which Fionna appreciated but for the fact that they weren't talking about Ice Queen. It was an obvious thing they were not doing.
Eventually it came time to sleep and again Fionna couldn't manage it. She lay on her bed and wondered what it was that kept Ice Queen from answering questions and why the woman had covered for her.
Fionna sat up in bed. "Cake," she whispered, not wanting to needlessly wake her friend. There was no reply so Fionna got up and again went to visit the dungeon. She just couldn't keep herself from it, there was something going on with Ice Queen and she wanted to know what it was.
"Hello again, Fionna," the Ice Queen said. "You're the only person who visits me, you know."
Fionna sat down a little distance from the bars and Ice Queen sat down on her side of the bars. She didn't know what to say, she still had all the same questions and she knew Ice Queen couldn't answer them. There was nothing for her to say.
"Why did you cover for me to Cake?" she asked eventually.
"You have been nicer to me than she has," Ice Queen told her with a little smile. "I know we don't really get along, ever, and I even know why that is. But even after what I did to you, you aren't even short with me."
"Well I'm just a nice person," Fionna said, it wasn't the whole reason, but it was enough.
"You know, I…" Ice Queen tried her best, Fionna could see it. "Can't say."
Ice Queen sighed and lay back, stretching her legs out before her where her knees had been tucked up under her chin before. The woman's dress bunched up revealing thin, light blue, legs. Nice legs, Fionna thought, not like her muscled ones. Fionna realised that she was staring and was glad the Ice Queen didn't see her blush.
"Is there some way I can help you?" Fionna asked, she was determined to get answers.
"You can," Ice Queen told her with a sigh, she didn't sound happy about this. She continued before Fionna's hopes could get too high: "I can't tell you how, though."
It was Fionna's turn to sigh. The woman couldn't answer questions and couldn't say why, she couldn't even tell Fionna how to help. Fionna was all about helping people, it was the biggest part of her job, it was what she was good at.
"This is the longest I've ever gone without my powers," Ice Queen suddenly told her. "It still won't go away though."
"What won't?" Fionna asked, trying not to get her hopes up.
"It… won't," the Ice Queen curled up on the floor of her cell. "I can't tell you."
Fionna sighed. "Why can't you tell me?" she demanded, frustrated, despite knowing the answer. "What is stopping you?"
"Why do you even bother?" Ice Queen asked, sitting up. "I can't answer your questions."
"Why are you so weird, Ice Queen?" the girl asked with a sigh.
"Natural talent," Ice Queen lay back down. "That and the voices in my head."
"What made you weird?" Fionna was out of obvious questions.
Ice Queen sat up again and grinned at the girl. "Brilliant," she exclaimed. "The crown made me weird, it made me crazy and magical."
"The crown is why you're crazy?" Fionna asked, not sure if she should be sceptical or not.
Ice Queen nodded emphatically. "It certainly did," she said. "And not a day goes by that it doesn't remind me. That crown is what made me a witch, it is why I am this way."
"So, if the crown were gone, you'd be able to answer my questions?" Fionna asked.
The Ice Queen thought about it for a while. "I don't know," she finally said and looked as if she would continue, but stopped and sighed. "I can't say."
That decided it for the girl, she needed to get the crown away from the witch before her, or get the witch away from the crown. She couldn't move the Queen far, and wouldn't know what to do with her is she did, so that left the crown.
"I'll come back tomorrow," she promised the woman, getting up.
Ice Queen watched as Fionna took the crown and left the place with it. She took it from the castle, from the candy kingdom, to her favourite place to leave things she didn't want. Cake had found it and had left something there not long ago.
She hoped the lake knights would not try to put the crown on, she was certain it would go badly.