At 2 a.m. the small group sat in a circle in the floor of the room that Flame Prince had provided for Prince Gumball. It was a simple square space with a plain cot in the corner, not lodgings that the prince was accustomed too. All the same, he tried to make the best of the situation. At least they weren't still wandering around in the forest, at the mercy of whoever happened to stumble across them. Marshall had been given a room adjacent to that one, and Fionna and Cake shared one across the hall. Two guards were assigned to the area around the rooms. They acted as if they were for protection but Marshall Lee had a lurking feeling that they were really there to keep an eye on him.
"That's the worst idea ever!" said Fionna with a groan. "It'll never work. I don't want it to work."
"It's not ideal," Prince Gumball agreed, "but it may be feasible if we can convince her."
"I'm sure you can convince her if you agree to marry her first," Fionna said with a roll of her eyes.
Prince Gumball's face twisted in disgust. "Eww."
"It's worth thinking about," shrugged Marshall. He sat with his legs crossed, hovering about six inches above the ground. "I don't know how much of a difference it would make against an entire army, though."
"Bad idea," said Cake, taking Fionna's side. "She's crazy, and not your typical cornfield crazy, either. She'd be just as likely to turn on us."
"Cornfield crazy?" repeated Gumball.
"Ice Queen is out," Fionna said. "We are not asking her for help."
"You've said that about everyone," said Marshall. He ticked off their past suggestions on pale fingers. "The Duchess of Nuts, the Party God…You're being too picky."
"I'm not picky, I'm realistic!"
"Just put the Ice Queen on the maybe list," Marshall said, peering at the notebook that Gumball had been scribbling on. Most of the names had been marked out with neat, straight lines.
"What about the Goblin Kingdom?" Cake suggested. "You were their queen once, remember, Fionna?"
"Yeah, I remember," she muttered.
"So… is that a no?" said Gumball.
"Of course it's a no, have you ever tried to convince goblins to do anything? Their rules are ridiculous!"
"Then who do you want, Fionna?" said Marshall. "You can't expect the perfect army. We're kind of desperate here."
"We need someone strong," Fionna said, adjusting the edge of her hat. "Someone who will scare them and be able to fight them off at the same time… Marshall?"
"Yeah?"
"Well… you're the vampire king, right?"
"No way." Marshall pushed away from the circle, shaking his head as he floated away. "Don't even think it, Fionna."
"Come on! Who's better for an army than a bunch of vampires?"
"This is not something you want to deal with," he said. "I know everyone adores me, but other vampires and I don't have much in common."
"But can't they just-"
"No, Fionna. Drop it."
"Fine." She crossed her arms and set her jaw, glowering at the floor in front of her. "I guess we'll just storm the castle with the stupid Ice Queen. That's a great plan."
With that the subject of vampire allies was discarded, but as the conversation continued Gumball kept glancing at Marshall, a gleam of speculation in his eyes.
Finally Cake said, "How about we argue over all this tomorrow? I think we could all use some sleep. Maybe we won't be gnawing at each other's throats."
"Good idea," Fionna said, her voice garbled by a yawn. She stood up and stretched, her fingertips almost reaching the low stone ceiling. "Goodnight, guys."
Prince Gumball said, "Goodnight, Fionna. Goodnight, Cake."
Marshall just raised a hand in a casual farewell. The girls walked through the doorway and the vampire started to follow until the prince stopped him.
"Marshall, could you wait one minute?"
The vampire hesitated on the threshold before slowly floating back to the middle of the room. Gumball stood and flipped the notebook closed, placing it carefully on the corner of his cot.
"I was thinking," the prince said, tapping a finger against his chin, "about what Fionna said. About your fellow vampires."
"You've got to be kidding. You of all people should know better than to-"
"No, no, that isn't what I mean," Gumball said, cutting him off. "Vampires can't be trusted, especially not in a matter of such importance. No offense intended."
"Of course not, why would I ever take offense to that?" said Marshall, rolling his eyes.
"No… actually I was thinking of the other side of your family."
Marshall stared at him for a long moment. He immediately knew to whom the prince referred, but he hoped that he was mistaken. At last he confirmed, "You mean demons."
"Well… yes, I suppose I do."
"You've got to be kidding me. How in the hell do you see demons as better allies than vampires? What's wrong with you?"
He expected Gumball to get flustered, perhaps even confrontational. What he didn't expect was the somber expression that masked the prince's face, imparting a severe seriousness that the vampire had rarely seen in him. "I am trying to rescue my kingdom, Marshall," he said flatly. "My people are dying. Like you said to Fionna, we cannot afford to be choosy. Vampires would be just as bad as the opposing army, but demons… they can be controlled."
"Sure, if you're my mom. She's the only one who can do anything with them. Have you been to the Nightosphere lately?"
"I haven't," said Prince Gumball, "but last I heard she was willing to welcome you back into the fold. Perhaps you could speak with her."
"Apparently you haven't tuned into the news lately," said Marshall. He inverted in the air and watched Gumball while hanging upside down, his hair falling away from his face. "The last time I talked to my mom I ruined whatever relationship we still had for good. She wants nothing to do with me and I don't really want to see her, either. She'd never help me and I'd never ask for it. Drop it from your list of options, Gummy. It'll get you nowhere."
"Marshall," he said slowly, "I don't think you understand. I would do anything to rescue my kingdom."
"Okay…" said the vampire, waiting for him to get to the point. He didn't like where this conversation was going.
"If that involves overthrowing another dictator, particularly a cruel one," said the prince, "I have no qualms about it."
Slowly, Marshall flipped himself upright to stare at Gumball. A lock of black hair drooped into his face but he didn't notice.
"I must be hearing this wrong," he said, certain that Gumball wouldn't even consider the possibility. "Because there for a second it sounded like you might be thinking of staging a coup against my mom."
"That's a strong way to put it," Prince Gumball said. He fidgeted a bit beneath the intensity of the vampire's gaze, adjusting his collar with a curled finger. "I'm merely suggesting that we place control of the Nightosphere into more capable hands. Hands that would guide the demons into battle against our foes."
"There are so many holes in that plan that I don't even know where to start. Oh wait, yeah, I do. If we can't fight off Lemongrab's army what makes you think the four of us can storm the Nightosphere and take over? That's stupid, Bubba. I know you're upset but you're not even thinking straight." He started floating toward the door, keen to escape the conversation, but Prince Gumball seized his arm.
"It won't require an attack from the four of us," he said, the calm of his voice unwavering. "It will only require you."
In a flash of intuition Marshall understood. He yanked his arm from Gumball's grasp and backed away from him. "You're insane!" he said, appalled. "I hate my mom, but I'm not going to kill her!"
"That is not what I said!" Gumball protested. "She wouldn't have to die. Once you defeated her you could simply lock her away for a few eternities. It would be your decision."
"Do you see what's happening to you? Who did you sound like just then? A million years dungeon!" he mimicked, the mockery more disgust than jest. "We're not going down this road. I'm not going down this road. You go to Ice Queen or the goblins or the idiot hot dog knights for all I care, but you stay away from this one, you got that, Gummy?"
Before the prince could respond Marshall had gone, sweeping out the door in a blur of shadow.
"But my people," Gumball said to the empty room, his eyes hollow. "Dying."
A few hours later Fionna woke with a gasp. She sat straight up, clutching the thin, threadbare sheet of her cot with the death grip that she reserved for her sword. Her fingers crawled across the flat mattress until they wrapped around the hilt of the weapon, her panic ebbing as she touched the familiar crystal. She wiped the back of a hand across her forehead. It came away smeared with cold sweat.
Cake slept at the foot of her bed. In the near darkness she could barely make out her friend's white shape, curled into a tight ball.
Fionna knew she should shake off the nightmare and go back to sleep. It might have been the last chance that they would have to rest for a while. Still, she couldn't force her eyelids to shut. When she thought about again being submerged into complete darkness her skin crawled and the phantom scent of a burning kingdom wafted to her on the still air.
She slipped out of bed carefully, upsetting the mattress as little as possible. Cake didn't even fidget. Fionna knew how her best friend loved to sleep, and she hadn't gotten nearly enough of it lately.
She feared the retrieving the sword would wake Cake, so instead she resigned herself to being armed only with the small knife that was tucked just under the edge of her skirt. She left her hat and her backpack on the floor and tiptoed into the hallway on sock-clad feet, inching the door closed behind her.
Two guards still stood watch, one on each end of the hall. They may have been the same ones that had originally been posted; all of them looked the same to her. Without speaking to them she walked past and started down another hallway that branched off of theirs. One of the guards twitched as she passed by, as if considering stopping her, but then he glanced at Marshall Lee's door and remained fixed in place.
Fionna knew she shouldn't wander around the Fire Kingdom, especially not alone, but that didn't stop her from choosing random corridors that wound in widening patterns, her feet padding silently against the stone floor. She stored the turns in her mind so she could retrace her steps back to the room. Fionna only wanted to clear her head. She planned to be back before Cake woke up and freaked out, although making the cat worry would be only be fair considering that Cake had abandoned her to run off to Lord Monichromicorn.
As Fionna turned a corner she nearly walked directly into one of the fire people. Startled, she stumbled back and started to blurt out an apology. Then she looked up and realized it was Flame Prince.
"Oh, uh… Hi," she said awkwardly, taking an extra step back. "Sorry, I was just, umm, walking. Didn't see you there."
She felt herself start to blush. When she realized it was happening the heat on her cheeks intensified.
"That's fine," said Flame Prince. He stared at her, his hair burning lazily. "What are you doing walking around so late?"
"Well I was just awake, and I had a dream about… something." She rubbed at the back of her neck and glanced away. "What're you doing? Shouldn't you be asleep too?"
"I probably should be," he said, "but it's impossible to relax when so much is happening. My guards say soldiers are roaming around on the surface, searching. If they discover I'm hiding all of you here I'll have to pay for it."
Fionna felt a surge of guilt. It was her fault that he was even in such a situation. She had coerced Gumball and Marshall to take shelter here, thinking only of their safety. She hadn't considered the effects that their presence would have on Flame Prince and his kingdom.
"I'm sorry," she said. She lowered her head and twin curtains of hair fell into her face. She pushed it back automatically. "We'll go. We can find somewhere else to crash, it's not a big deal."
"Of course it's a big deal. If it wasn't you would not have come here. It was probably hard for you, after what we've been through."
She wasn't sure what to say to that so she just nodded.
"There aren't any hard feelings, you know," said Flame Prince. "I'm not angry. I care about you."
Fionna fought the flush that flared at those words and lost. "Me too," she said.
"Since neither of us are sleeping anyway you should come have a drink with me. I have tea. Do you like tea?"
"Sure, tea is good."
"Good. Come on."
Flame Prince started down the hallway. As he moved past her Fionna felt a soft warmth radiating from him, the breath of a flickering fire. She remembered the warning that Gumball had given her when they had arrived, that rekindling relationships was not good for their current situation. She knew he was right. Spending too much time with FP was a bad idea, especially since she got a warm fluttering feeling in her stomach every time she looked at him.
She should just walk back to her room and try to sleep. She remembered all of the turns. It would only take five minutes to find it.
Instead she followed Flame Prince and hoped that Gumball wouldn't find out.
A/N Thanks for reading! And thank you in advance for any reviews. ^^
