The Mad Swordsman


There's something deeply miraculous about the simple act of bathing. Through heat and water, we can wash away anything, through the subtle, pleasant chemistry of hygiene we erase the accumulated blights of yesterday, letting it all pour down a hole in the floor and out of the light forever. Of course, water and heat would have a dreadful effect upon a body made of sugar, erasing structure and swallowing all memory of taffy flesh and gum arabic into the swirling waterways below. So, naturally, Princess Bubblegum washed away the filth she felt crawling on her body not with water, but with a most strange elixir she herself designed for the very purpose. It flowed like water if heated to the proper temperature, conveniently the same temperature that she found most comforting after a stressful day.

She let the sea green colored alchemical mixture pour from the shower head across her body, and she dragged her hands across her arms slowly without much more than a thought about how much she liked the heat. … She decided not to dwell too much on the idea of craving warmth. Bubblegum's hands roamed up to her shoulders as the the icy chill of remembrance, and she hugged herself and bowed her head into the shower, drowning her full head of hair in the flow of hot elixir. She pulled the mass of her hair around and draped it across her chest as she turned slowly. Her back happily drank in the reward of the shower, her torqued muscles thanking the conscious effort for relief. But the tension in her back was not the only thing that let go. She fell to her knees then and there, clutching her hair tight to her chest, and the tiny, perfectly shaped tears that fell from her eyes were washed out by the sea green potion that fell over her body. Bubblegum choked on a few hiccups, perhaps still not wanting to cry, fearing a show of weakness, but after a shuddered breath, the pain finally weaseled its way out.

She inhaled deeply, then sobbed horribly to the sound liquid striking the shower pan; her eyes jumped from a few tears to a river breaking its banks. Her fingers dug into into her arms where they rested, her nails digging into her skin, pushing her flesh down to her bones. With another crushing spasm of crying shame, Bubblegum fell to her hands. But it thankfully seemed that was to be the last of her swallowed sadness, and she mustered the effort to stand once again, relying heavily on the shower wall for that endeavor. Breathing, though, remained an exercise all its own. As the shower poured over her chest and stomach, her lungs filled up again and again with heated, steamy air. She turned off the shower, leaving only the sound of her breathing in the tiled room. One last heaving sob echoed out from her throat, followed by a gasp and a hard swallow.

"Huh… okay. Yeah. Yeah, I'm good now."

She slid the shower door open, but was strangely afraid to go out into the bathroom, fearing she might see her stalker waiting there for her. That thought was dreadful, as it would be to just about anyone in so vulnerable a state as being naked in the shower. For Bubblegum, though, the more dreadful thought was being trapped there forever, not by her foe, but by her fear of him. And she resolved not be a victim of her own fears, a part of her she could control. One damp foot left the shower pan behind, and the delicate thing was planted upon the rug just beyond the frosted glass door, each toe finding its way to the cotton-soft surface and pulling her inexorably away from panic. Her other foot found sanctuary soon after, and Bubblegum stood quietly at that threshold with a faint shudder haunting her frame. She held her hair around the front of her body still, tired eyes scanning the room with the continued expectation that Finn might be lurking in the shadows. Her mane was released when the only thing to greet her was the empty space, and her body was exposed when her locks fell to the side. Without breaking eye contact with the door, she reached for her towel. All the while, she couldn't shake the feeling of not being alone.

Finn, meanwhile, sat on the railing of the balcony, bear skull lifted up to free his eyes of the macabre tunnel of vision, exposing the view of Ooo's grasslands. His dour, almost gargoyle-like appearance, contrasted wildly against the boyish smile on his face, as he popped one piece of rock candy after another into his mouth, feet kicking gently about as he swung his legs about. His thoughts, by observation, seemed to be clear for the first time in a good long while.

Bubblegum, dressed now in an after shower gown, twisted a towel around her hair to squeeze out the remnants of the bathing potion. Her feet went from cold tile to the soft, warm rug of her bedroom floor. She was still tinged with the anxiety of being watched, but was just the same slowly letting go of that feeling as she went room to room, checking closet space and corners. Pulling the towel away, Bubblegum closed her eyes and shook her hair about, fluffing the gum out and sighing wistfully. The world might be okay after all, she thought to herself. … And the air is awfully fresh in here, as well. The princess opened her eyes and turned in the direction of the breeze, expecting to see her windows open, perhaps left that way by Peppermint Butler when he performed his morning duties. An open window, that's all she wanted to see. Not the gaping hole in the wall, edges caked with ice and frost.

"… Oh Grod, not today," she said to herself through a sigh, "Ice King…"

"Hee hee, hi princess. How ya doin'?"

He emerged from his poorly chosen hiding place behind Bubblegum's dresser, and had she been looking for his blue robe and obnoxious crown instead of the contrasting black and white of Finn's ensemble she probably would've skipped to the part where he was noticed and banished. She put a hand to her face and rubbed her eyes whilst growling subtly.

"Ice King, please leave."

"Aww, come on," he prodded whimsically, "aren't you happy to see me? I'm happy to see you. Tee hee!" He leaped onto her bed with another laugh, causing it spring beneath him. He kicked his feet up and swayed them about. "Hm hmm, I love your choice in gowns, you know. And-!"

"Ice King, leave!"

Her shout echoed through the bedroom and out the hole in the wall as she leaned forward and clenched her fists, eyes screwed shut by the frustration. It just wasn't enough, was it? Glob was just that cruel, felt she deserved the strain of the Ice King in addition to her sea of troubles.

"Oooo, touchy touchy. Why so serious princess? Do you need a foot rub?"

"I don't have time for this! Get out or I'll have you thrown into the dungeon to rot!"

"Hmm, that doesn't sound like fun," he spoke mostly to himself, climbing from the bed and scratching his hip idly, "mm, yeah, I don't wanna go to the dungeon…"

"Alright then. Now, leave."

"Yeah, you're right. C'mon, Bubblegum, let's go."

He reached to her, cold, boney fingers stretched and twitching in a bid to take Bonnibel by the wrists. The hand brought to mind the same feelings of anger and shame and revulsion from the last man that touched her; she hissed, and lashed out at him, slapping his hand away fiercely and growling as she spun about.

"What is wrong with you?!", she gasped out in anger, "what is wrong with men?!"

"Hey hey hey, where's this coming from? I've been nothing but a perfect gentleman. For instance," he said with a faint smile as a bolt of blue magic was ejected form his fingertips. It conjoined with her ankles, causing her to fall to the floor as her feet were locked together by ice. "I'm going to do the gentlemanly thing and carry you over the threshold of my bachelor pad."

She breathed heavily into the carpet pressed against her face, a face contorted by pure panic. It was to happen again, wasn't it? She was going to violated again, and again… that's all that was ever going to happen. No. It would only happen again if she let it. Learn from your mistakes, she told herself. You believe in science, believe in changing the outcome. When the Ice King was standing over her, she pushed herself from stomach to her back, and took to striking at his legs and stomach with wanton swings of her tightly balled fists.

"Whoa ho, you're fiery today princess," he said playfully. He reached at her again and again, trying not to get hit in the process. When one of her fists found a mark, concussing his finger violently. With a hiss he backed off, gritted his teeth, and growled angrily. "Enough of this!"

A second bolt of blue, and her fists were bound together. Princess Bubblegum lay bound and helpless again. Well, bound, at any rate; she flailed about more angrily than before, like a freshly caged animal, defiant and full of wrath. But so bound, Bubblegum constituted no more a threat than a flounder pulled from the sea. Ice King plucked her from the floor and tossed her casually over his shoulder.

"See now? Much better. Off we go!"

He walked casually to the hole in the wall, whistling a jaunty tune to himself as Bubblegum defiantly cursed and shouted. He leapt into the air and took to flight.


Finn, meanwhile, was leaning against the railing with the breakfast plate Bubblegum had left in the study. Cake for breakfast… his anatomy would have words with him later, but for the time being, all the boy could do was enjoy the endless suite of sweets. That is, until bitter smokiness clouded his senses. He heard her, somewhere in the air above him. She was screaming, and the scream ruined his calm, summoning brief flashbacks. When the panic faded, Finn wheeled his head about, scanning the sky for Princess Bubblegum. Where was she…?

"Put me down you greasy son of a-!"

There! He spotted her pink form as she started to fade from ear shot. She was flying off… no, wait. It wasn't her. It was Ice King that was flying away. And the thought of that, of Ice King stealing his lady, his divine muse, inspiring a wrathful flow of blood up and down his chest. Not another word came from his lips, his lips twisting into an angry frown, his eye brows bending darkly at the whim of murderous thoughts. Finn reached to his helm and pulled it down over his face just as he turned to run to the door. He had to do something… every thought was twisted to fit this agenda, and he didn't stop once as he tore through the halls of the castle. Not even when he blustered past Peppermint Butler; they exchanged looks for the brief moment they were in each other's company. Peppermint Butler's expression, previously blank with thought, fell into grim, determined scrutinization as the observed blitzed effortlessly passed the observer. Finn's expression was unobservable. And as quickly as the moment came, it left; Finn spent not another thought on the matter, but Peppermint Butler was not in the least dismissive of the encounter. He stared down the hall where the man in black ran, and he knew that what he had felt before was correct. Finn slammed into a heavy door at the end of the run, opening himself up to a stair case that showcased the open sky. Climbing the steps was easy enough, and the boy knew exactly where he was: the aerie of the Morrow, exactly where he needed to be. Though having spent several minutes running top speed, Finn walked to the great eagle not because he was tired, but because he was calm. Calm, and very, very angry.


Calm was not the word to describe the princess. Perhaps livid was the better choice, or irate, or wrathful, or possibly unhinged. No, as she flailed about in the Ice King's unwanted embrace, perilously close to dropping a thousand feet to the ground whereat there would be only the embrace of the earth at the end of gravity's unforgiving pull, calm was not what she was. And this, the fact that despite the circumstances, and how Ice King felt she should be, and how different she was behaving compared to his previous abduction attempts, made him not so calm as well. Frustrated would be the proper term here.

"Princess, now! Hmph! This is not respectable behavior!"

"Ask me if I care," she screamed at the top of her lungs, "put me down, you slorbees!"

"What?! What did you call me?!", he hissed as he brought her around for a face to face, "… No, seriously, what?"

Bubblegum lashed out at his face, thrusting her frozen fists against his nose and causing the fool to lose his grip. She fell without a scream, though despite the fact this was somewhat according to the plan, she couldn't help but think now that the plan was, well, bad. The rush of air replaced all sound, even the fevered beating of her heart in her ears. The sky above… it seemed comforting, really. At least she couldn't see the ground approaching, if she kept her back to it. The sudden stop would be a surprise. Almost as much of a surprise as the less sudden feeling of arms under her back, the feeling of wind being knocked from her lungs as she rapidly decelerated into Ice King. Once they both stopped dropping, albeit at a pace much slower than Bubblegum's free fall, the wind was gone, and all that was left was that beating heart, along with the gentle flap of bearded wingbeats.

"Woo, boy. See that? Yeah," Ice King said proudly, "Saved your life. I think that deserves a kiss, don't you?"

She didn't answer, instead letting her face contort into an angry, lip-biting state as a response. Being more than impervious, Ice King did little more than stop smiling. He wondered why she looked this way, why she acted like this. She's been strangely short with him all morning. Maybe, just maybe, left-field theory with no support, maybe it was…

"What, you not gettin' enough fiber?"

"Ice King," she whispered venomously, "you'd better-!"

"Put her down!"

She and he wheeled about as a rush of wind and a wingbeat marked the entrance of a third player in the latest abduction attempt of Princess Bubblegum. She recognized him immediately, but Ice King was more than confused about the arrival of a black-garbed, skull-faced interloper on the back of Bubblegum's precious pet eagle.

"Eh? What is this?"

"Put her down…", he spoke calmly and reached back to the hilt of his sword, "And you won't have to die today."

"… Bleh, spooky," Ice King responded half-seriously. "He-hey princess, who's this guy?"

"Ice King, put me down…"

She seemed not so angry now. Not irate, nor wrathful, nor unhinged any longer. Mildly afraid was now the proper descriptor. Afraid of what, though, was the question. And as imperceptible Ice King was about her fury, he had no inkling as to the source of that fear she felt now.

"You heard her," Finn barked out now, "put her down!"

He drew his sword, that blackened, razor-sharp stretch of cutting alloy. It gleamed angrily in the morning sun for a brief moment before tiny flecks of metal in its surface came to life. They sparked briefly, glittering like fire, until with a mean pop the whole sword lit up with a flaming aura. They thereafter regarded each other, the Ice King and the intruder. He lost his bemusing sentiment the second he was menaced by this young whelp, eye brows bent in serious thought.

"Wanna' play, do ya'? You don't know who you're messing with boy."

"I know exactly who you are…", his voice hissed with deep loathing in time with a change in the wind.

A moment passed where the two parties stared at each other, hovering in the air on beard and wing. Ice King, perhaps not wanting to risk anything serious, perhaps not considering everything, began to descend to the earth below. Finn watched through his helmet for a moment before directing the Morrow to follow suit, and in moments both he and his foe were earthbound.

"Right, since we're dueling like gentlemen for the hand of the princess," Ice King began, taking a few steps away from Finn and depositing Bubblegum on the ground. He turned to walk back to where he began, pausing only to wheel about and discharge twin volleys of magic at the ground around her feet. Pillars and spines of ice sprung up about her body, holding her fast in a freezing cold prison. It sliced her clothing slightly and pressed aggressively against her limbs, causing her gasp loudly.

"Princess!"

"Hey," Ice King turned with an accusatory digit, "don't move. I'm talking. Since we're dueling for the princess, I'm just gonna' keep her nice and safe."

"You call this safe, you lunatic?", she fired back at him. He dismissed her concerns with a subtle chuckle.

"Alright blacky, I'll give you first- whoa!"

Ice King's taunting, an activity he usually indulged in for more than mere seconds, was cut short by a great sword burying itself nearly where he stood. He had fallen back in time to avoid being bifurcated quite neatly, and from his vantage point on his rump, he could easily see the eyes glimmering inside the bear's skull. It wasn't a friendly glimmer, as Finn stood over him, clutching the blazing sword that sliced open the dirt and singed the grass. He pulled the blade free and prepared another swing.

"Oh boy! Nope!", Ice King yelped out, throwing up a hand to release a gout of snow and ice at his would be attacker, who seemed content to merely pivot his body so the flaming great sword took the brunt of the snow-blind. Steam burst from the spot where the opposing essences crashed together, filling the air with vapor and a low hiss. Ice King hastily, albeit clumsily, stood up and hopped backwards pointing another hand into the spot where steam had gathered. "Want some more?"

His answer was a swing from the sword, a horizontal slice that emerged from the cloud of white vapor without any warning. The fire coating the black blade licked out at Ice King's whiskers, but did little else, besides cause the old man to step back. Finn flowed with the attack, circling out from the cover of the steam in time with his swing, gaining momentum, and swinging a second time, this time with a vicious growl and a cruel sound of slicing air. Spry despite his age and frozen body, the Ice King did not fall to this otherwise vicious power attack; springing back with the air of his beard, he hovered a foot or so off the ground and swirled his hands about. The somatic display gave rise to volley of ice shards, which with a twitch of his fingers were sent hurtling Finn's way; knowing this attack would fail, Ice King muttered briefly and conjured an even deadlier weapon to follow up. Finn merely crouched as he continued his spin, swinging his blade through the lower portion of the volley as he ducked to avoid the rest of it. He raised his blade and cleaved through the large icicle sent for his heart. It shattered with the sound of crashing thunder as the sword sliced it up the middle. Ice King's cruel smile faded to a sad, dumbfounded look.

"… Okay. That's pretty good. Princess, this guy's pretty good," he said looking back at her. She didn't deign to respond, instead focusing on shivering inside her arctic prison cell.

"Last chance to let her go Ice King," Finn called to him as he stood and assumed a stance wherein his sword touched the ground in front of him, "or I'll have to cut you in half."

"You know kid, you sound real familiar… did we meet sometime? Oh, I bet I know! You're probably one of those goth kids I used to run around with!"

"Have it your way!"

Pulling his sword across the earth with a mean scrape, Finn took to spinning once more, which at first must have made little sense; his enemy was some ten feet away, hovering, ready to take flight at a moment's notice. What neither Ice King nor Princess Bubblegum knew though was how versed this Finn was in fighting in new, brutally effective and surprising ways. When Finn completed his rotation, he loosed his sword from his hands, and it spun angrily toward the Ice King as he floated in the air. Now, this posed a puzzling problem with only a second to make a choice. The blade was wide enough that banking to one side or the other would probably result in, at the very least, a crippling and severely painful wound. There wasn't time enough to fly up high enough to avoid being cut down at the knees, an equally undesirable outcome. Forward and backward? Certainly not. The choice was made instantly, because what other choice was there? Ice King dropped to the ground and ducked, as to do anything else would be certain death. He heard the blade fly over his head, the heat of the flames warmed his skin as it approached and passed. And the unmistakable sound of metal striking metal filled the air. When the sword was safely passed, the wizard reached to his skull in panic, knowing full well that his crown, his source of power, his only reasonable weapon, had been uncannily knocked off his head. Ice King had closed his eyes while narrowly avoiding decapitation, but he opened them again when he heard rapid approaching foot steps. He spied his opponent closing in in time to see a fist drifting speedily towards his face. The whole of his wrinkled, wintry face rippled from the impact of Finn's punch, his body contorting to flow with the heavy momentum of the attack. But Ice King didn't drop; it seems being pummeled on a regular basis by the likes of Finn and Jake had the curious effect of making him slightly more resilient. Or maybe it was that scar tissue from all those pummeling was finally thick enough to soften blows. Though dazed, Ice King managed to keep standing, raising his shaking hands to defend himself. As his attacker pressed the advantage, the disarmed magic user found himself needing a trick to rely upon. Again, his many scrapes with his friendly nemeses provided some use. Thrusting his hand to his pocket with ninja like speed, Ice King gripped tight what he found there and flung to eye holes of the skull-wearing menace.

"Ba-boosh, pocket sand!"

The desired result was achieved, and Finn staggered about angrily for a matter of seconds while Ice King reached up his sleeve, gripping that most handy of ninja weapons, at least to his knowledge. He pulled loose his nunchaku and spun them wildly in defense. He thought quietly to himself, or as quietly as he could in that rambunctious mind, that he should have attacked, he should have cracked open the mercenary's head and won the duel handily. But as Finn slowly stood and growled, sounding less like a man and more like some furious beast, he could do little else other than keep a defensive stance with his whirling weapon. With bloodshot eyes staring him down through the sockets of a sun-bleached bear's head, Finn communicated murderous will in the mere seconds before lunged forward, charging past Ice King's left side. He tumbled through a hole in Ice King's defense, who tried and failed to swing his weapon in time. The old wizard didn't even get to see Finn punch him in the kidney, or grab and pull his left arm around, forcing Ice King to drop his weapon and cry out in pain. He twisted hard, forcing the Ice King to his knees. With a curt release and a cruel frown behind his mask of death, Finn drew both fists into air above his helpless foe's head, and brought them down to the soft spot he learned again and again lay there. He growled out viciously, and the sound of his gloved fists crashing into the back of Ice King's head caused Princess Bubblegum to grimace.

Of course, that wasn't the only thing that made her grimace over the course of this short-lived brawl. Though she wasn't entirely sure she wanted either party to win, and indeed would be hopelessly trapped in either case, Bubblegum began to feel more and more sympathy for Ice King, particularly once he took that blow to the face. Never had she thought Finn could be as ruthless as this, even this Finn from the mirror, who had already displayed significant deficiencies in humanity. She winced when Ice King, her standby threat, was shocked by the punch to his back, and she uttered a slight gasp when Finn took to twisting his arm around. The finishing blow, which left the wizard crumpled on the ground like a wasted paper bag, left her somewhat nauseous, yet a little glad that she didn't need to see more. But when Finn reached to his boot and pulled loose his knife, Bonnibel gasped out loud. He raised it above his head with a great eagerness to tear into ice cold flesh and be done with it. But before the blow could be struck…

"Stop!"

And he did, though he didn't know why at the time. Turning aggressively on the source of the impediment, the sound that halted his coup d'est grace, Finn gazed coldly at the princess, who continued to shiver away in what may shortly be her frosty tomb. He walked quietly but quickly, and noticeably angrily, toward her, stopping a foot from her face.

"Why? Why should I?"

"F-finn," she began, though was interrupted by a shudder, "you can't do this… you h-have to stop yourself. Y-you can't just …"

"He'll just do it again! He'll just come back and screw it all up again! I can end this right here, right now," Finn hissed, "I have the means and the end."

He stomped back to the Ice King's crushed form, and stood over him for a moment, knife in hand but not raised for a killing blow. Bubblegum watched him, hoped quietly, despite her chattering teeth. She hoped that the bloodlust she witnessed could fade. She whispered her appeal one last time and hoped he would hear.

"Finn… please don't…"

After a time of deep and heady contemplation, he made his choice. Finn sheathed his knife, waited a moment, and half-heartedly kicked Ice King in the side. The old fool didn't respond, except to draw a short breath of air. The boy grumbled still as he walked away from his downed adversary and toward his sword, which lay several yards away near the magic crown. For a brief moment, he thought about taking the crown, finding this more passive way to remove the Ice King as a threat. But he chose not to. He chose to address the more pressing matter; slinging his sword behind his back, Finn hustled to Princess Bubblegum, who was starting to look blue from her cold confines.

"Finn, I-."

"You're safe now… that's all that matters. Princess, please hold still."

He curled his hands around his sword hilt and drew it back out, this time dancing with crackling flame. Pressing the blade against the columns of ice caused them to melt somewhat, to the point that a good strong hit would crack them apart. Finn took a step back and swung his sword, slicing the pillars horizontally with the tip of his blade. The searing metal struck hard and ruined the icy bonds one after the other. Princess Bubblegum fell free from the ice, though not without falling forward across one of the wicked sharp remnants. She emerged from the cage with a long, ragged looking cut down the side of her leg. She cried out as the wound was made and fell to the ground. Finn, upon seeing this, dropped his weapon and crouched to her aid. He tried to pull her into his arms, but she fought against him, albeit weakly.

"S-stop it! This is… you. Your fault. It is…"

"Princess? Are you all right?"

"I'm… cold…"

She faded from consciousness with a tired and frozen sigh. Without her resistance, Finn found it remarkably easy to scoop her up and carry her back to the Morrow. The great bird cocked its head and stared at its charge with concerned eyes as Finn did his best to situate her on its back; once he was sure she wouldn't fall, he returned for his sword, sheathing it securely in its holster before taking one last, hate filled glance at the Ice King. He got to live today. Tomorrow, maybe not so lucky. He sprinted back to the Morrow, mounted it, and with Bubblegum safe in his arms took to flight.


The Morrow returned to its aerie after what seemed like hours, though given the Morrow's legendary speed, that was likely just Finn's imagination. He clutched Bubblegum to him as the bird soared back to the Candy Kingdom, holding her close to him, feeling the cold seep from her body back into his. He remembered everything he told her last night, and this morning… how all he wanted was to be warm. But left alone with his thoughts, all he could think about was how he should be cold instead. The Morrow descended with a screech, and as it landed, the aerie came alive with a troupe of Banana Guards. Peppermint Butler, certain of his instincts, had gathered a group to find and arrest what he was sure was an impostor. Not finding him in the castle was unsettling enough. Finding that the princess was gone was worse. And finding that gaping hole in the wall of her bedchamber? The last straw, as it were. When the Morrow landed, and the intruder clambered down with Bubblegum in his arms, his fears spiked.

"Guards! Secure the princess! Arrest the intruder!"

Time slowed to a crawl; the Banana Guards began to move toward him, and Finn, not free to draw his sword, clutched his hard won damsel closer to his body as his legs tensed. It seemed that violence was to be the theme of the day. But it was not to be, as the princess had regained some semblance of waking over the course of her flight back to the castle.

"Banana Guards… stand down…"

"What?", Finn and Peppermint Butler said in unison, though from opposite ends of the aerie. Both also looked to the princess to see what followed, and the guards waited for orders to come.

"Peppermint Butler… find Finn and Jake…"

"Princess…?", began her servitor. He was cut off when Finn hurried past him, running down the stairs and into the corridors. The guards rushed in pursuit, though stopped when P. Butler raised his hand to them. The frown he wore spoke volumes of his discontent… but for now, he would have to believe his lady was safe. She wouldn't have stopped him otherwise. And in the mean time, he would follow orders.

Finn took the princess to her bed chamber. With some minor difficulty he managed to open the door without dropping his ward, and walked slowly into the half-lit space beyond it. The hole in the wall was partially covered with a tarp and two lines of red tape, a temporary solution, he supposed, and that blocked out a good portion of the now noon-day sun from that side of the room. He stood in the center of the room for a while, peering about through his helmet. Sand still ground about in his eyes, so with a slight shift he reached up and pushed the skull up over his face. No sooner did he do this was Finn greeted with what might have been the greatest sensation he ever felt; Bubblegum, in a bid to warm herself further, nuzzled her chilled face into his neck and check, now freshly exposed. His heart threatened to burst from his chest, and with a dire blush and weak smile Finn walked the short remainder of the distance to the bed. He laid her upon it and swaddled up her torso with the blanket spread across the mattress, planning to cover her legs much the same way when he saw the glaring wound on her thigh and calf. It dripped blood, or whatever passed for blood in her body, to which Finn responded by removing his gear. Helmet, sword, armor all went to the floor until he was dressed only in his under clothing, and he thereafter hurried to the bathroom. Bubblegum, meanwhile, shuddered under her covers, shivering into waking and breathing sharp, short breaths. Her eyes scanned the ceiling above her, and at once she knew where she was. She didn't remember, though, too much after she blacked out in the field, so how she got here and how she wound up mummified in her bed spread was beyond her. She guessed, though, that it was…

"Princess," he said softly, "you're awake. How do you feel?"

"Finn… what are you doing?"

She tried to lean forward, but found herself too weakened by hypothermia to do so. The princess, though, was able to tell that he was handling her wounded leg, if only because it throbbed painfully in his hands.

"Ahh! Get away!", she yelled and tried to struggle against him, "*I told you not to touch me!"

"Stop this right now."

His voice came stern and strong, pulled her eyes to his. He seemed possessed of an iron will at this moment, unwilling to accommodate any more of her efforts to thwart him. The feeling in her heart, seeing those eyes and feeling that force of will, was outright alien. She herself had to use those tools more than once in her life, because she was a princess, a ruler of many people. Sometimes you had to show the power behind the crown, and that was a fact of life. Having that power used against her… that was unusual indeed.

"Hold still, princess. This will only hurt a little bit."

She didn't speak again for time, though she wanted to, nor did she move. All she did was close her eyes, and wince as she felt him touch her injury. There was a noticeable burning, and a sensation of heat, and after seeing how viciously this Finn handled life, she feared what she was feeling was the touch of his flaming sword. He must be cauterizing my injury, she thought. How barbaric, what a horrible thing to do. She bit her lip because of the thought, and in remembrance of his other brutish activities… and then, she opened her eyes, and noticed that there was no pain. Gathering up her strength, Princess Bubblegum lifted her head and looked down at her leg. It had been neatly wrapped in bandages, top to bottom, containing the injury; the bandage was crude, but subtly whispered of an expertise only available on the battlefield. The burning… it must have been medicine.

"There," Finn began, a small, proud smile on his face, "how's that feel?"

She didn't answer him, simply letting her head fall back to the bed. She was still freezing cold, and was starting to get a splitting headache. This was easily the worst two days of her life. Well, maybe only the second worst, but still pretty bad.

"You don't have to say anything," he continued, shifting the blanket around to pull her freshly bandaged leg under the covers. His gentleness with her leg made Bubblegum sigh in disbelief. "It'll heal fine. But… you're still really cold."

"I know that… I'm hypothermic," she whimpered while rolling over to her side.

He sat on the bed and looked at her; he bit his lip thinking about how cold she must feel. He hated the feeling himself; it made it seem like his body had become winter's private sanctum, and that he'd never know the gentle warmth of the sun again. And he knew he needed to remedy that suffering, just as he remedied her injury. As the princess lay in her cotton cocoon, Finn set about disrobing. He was deliberately slow in this endeavor, letting his mind wander over everything. It didn't take him long to think back about the night before. Not what he said this time, but what he did. How did it come to that, he asked himself? Never once did he think that sort of behavior was in him… even when he was down to his underwear, Finn just sat on the bed's edge and stared at the floor. Feeling a shudder through the mattress he sat on, Finn's attention returned to the real world. All he could think of… it was her. Right here. Without a word, Finn pulled loose the swaddling around Bubblegum's back. She panicked at first, screamed quietly in shock when she felt his hand touch her back.

"Bubblegum… it's okay."

Her eyes were open as wide as could be as wove his hands around her body, her voice shuddered when he pulled her against his chest, and after a moment of rigidness, she sighed tiredly as heat radiated from his nearly naked body and filled her freezing, wearied frame. Despite everything, for the first time since the world ended, Princess Bubblegum felt an iota of peace, wrapped in the warmth of this Finn who wasn't Finn. Sleep finally came easy.

"It's okay," Finn whispered to her, not drifting off as quickly as she, not noticing she wasn't awake to listen to him, "no one is going to hurt you anymore. No one."

His last thoughts dwelled on what she said up in the aerie. Find Finn and Jake… he would.