A/N: Sorry for the delay on the update. Forgive me. I just got this idea for a Portal-Doctor Who Xover I just HAD to write, but check it out if you're a fan of Portal, Doctor Who, ChellDOS, or all three! Anyway, the other reason that is WAY more understandable than 'writing another story' is that I went to Italy for twelve days and had too much fun to get in a lot of writing (even though I wrote this author's note and a majority of this chapter AND the entire first chapter of my Portal fic, 'Autophobia') but, hey. Who's keeping track? Well, enough of this; onto the chapter!

Chapter 4

While Ice Queen was busy thawing Inficere, Fionna and Cake were busy trying to find him. They'd already ruled out Fire Kingdom because it stood in their reason that if he was human, then he would probably die if he went in there. But, they had already checked in the Grasslands, Lumpy Space, and even went to see if he had gone to Marshall Lee's place; all to no avail. Fionna put a hand through her hair as she thought more on the subject, then spoke, "Cake... I think he may have gone to Ice Kingdom."

Cake gave her sister an incredulous look, "Nuh-uh, sugar. If he comes from a place where he knows everything and everyone, wouldn't he know to stay away from that weirdo?"

"Did you see how overreact-o he was? He was probably hysterical enough to go anywhere," Fionna said.

"Eh, alright, baby. We'll go and check, but I still think he didn't go to that old cracker."

Fionna whooped and gave a fist pump, saying, "Shush! Now, onward my trusty steed!"

They sped on, in hopes that their new friend was with the number one weirdo in Aaa.

"...so, then, Lark dumps the entire bottle of Gatorade down my shirt, in the middle of the snow, and has the guts to say 'don't eat the yellow snow' when it starts dripping into the snow! I mean, I know it was wrong to spy on her and her...'dude-friend'... but, she didn't have to do that!"

By now, Ice Queen was in a fit of uncontrolled giggles, only to be thrown into an even stronger one when Inficere said, "And, come on, what else is a brother supposed to do than annoy their sister and be protective? I killed two birds with one stone!"

The monarch laughed harder at this until she said through the fit of laughs, "Haha- oh, that's hilarious! Plus- eheh- I've never heard of the younger sibling being the protective one. Ahaha!"

"Well," he started, but hesitated, then continued, "When our parents died, I had some growing up to do. Larkspur did, too, but mostly me. But, one night, I was out walking..."

FLASHBACK! WARBLEWARBLEWARBLE...

You see, back when my name was just... James, it'd only been a month after Mom and Dad died- very long story; not comfortable saying- and I hadn't changed much. With the small fortune I had inherited from our very much rich parents, I neglected all of it and had already spent more than $2,000 of the $100,000. In one month. I'm ashamed to say most of it was spent on my own pleasures, such as clothes, gaming consoles; pretty much anything a 15-year-old would want. Not women, though; I'd never really indulged myself in women just because I didn't care for that kind of thing-

"So, wait... you're not gay, are you?"

No! Anyway, that one night... it changed everything. Including the way I looked at life and responsibility. I was out with my so-called "friends." More like leeches who stuck around only because I spent money like it was the end of the world. I went outside the club I was at when I'd heard some commotion coming from alleyway across the street.

When I had gone to go check out what was going on, I saw Larkspur and she saw me. She was pinned to the wall by her date and she screamed, "Jimmy, Jimmy, help!"

I realized something then and there; my sister... my older sister...

Someone was trying to rape her.

But it was when he struck her that something deep inside snapped. I saw red; just completely lost it. Barreling towards the guy, making a beeline straight for him, I launch my fist just as hard as I could into his gut. Then, I'd already slammed him down onto his back on the cold concrete.

And I just started punching.

I don't know what made me do it, I really don't. I just remember Lark screaming at me, "Stop it! Stop it! You're hurting him!"

But, I kept going.

More and more, I kept hitting him; in his face, mostly, but his ribs, too. It was a fit of rage I couldn't have any control over. I just kept punching and punching and punching until... he stopped squirming and resisting. Only then could I see the blood on my hands and all over his face. His eyes were open, but the light was gone.

I'd just killed a man and all I could do was stare. Stare at the eyes I'd made the light go from; stare at the blood- his blood- that I'd spilled. It was so horrible that when I got up, I went to my sister, looked her straight in the eyes, and I hugged her.

Then, I wept.

All the pent up frustration at Mom and Dad's death left me and so did all of my childish wants. My innocence was gone after that night because I had taken the life of another man; another human being. After that night, I didn't sleep for days... or was it weeks? I don't know, nor do I care to recall that time, either.

"...All I know is that is that I came out of it the man I am now. I may not look like a man, nor may I be old enough to be acknowledged as one, but I've had to grow up enough to be one."

Inficere's forehead was now in his hands and his breaths quavered with raw emotion that threatened to spill. The next thing he knew, he felt a source of cold wrap around him. He shivered at the touch, "W-What-"

Ice Queen laughed nervously at this and said, "Isn't this how people comfort others? One of these? It worked on Marshall, so I thought..."

"No, no. It's alright, really. It's actually... kinda nice," he said, leaning more into the embrace.

But, as everyone knows about such moments, all good things must come to an end, whatever form the end may take. The form Fate had chosen for the end to this good thing was the form of Fionna riding Cake, who was stretching through the open window. With a vault off of Cake, Fionna pulled out her family sword, which was made from Angels' Blood*. The blade itself was a luminous, gold color that seemed to have a glow all its own and the hilt was a pure, sterling silver Crucifix. Of course, not knowing anything about the Roman Catholic Church, the teen girl held onto the hilt, Jesus' body and all, with little to no reverence. She only took a fighting stance, seeing the embrace Inficere was in not as a friendly hug, but as a binding hold. "Let him go, Ice Queen!" Fionna hissed.

Inficere tried and failed to fix things, "Wa-wa-wa-wa-wait, now. It's-"

"Shut it, Tomboy! This one actually wants to be around me!"

The brunet, once again, tried to put his two cents in, "She's right, Fi-"

Fionna didn't let him speak, "Yeah, right, icicle!"

She swung her sword towards the monarch, only to have the older woman dodge it, saying, "Icicles? What an excellent idea!"

Frosty wind danced along Ice Queen's fingers and formed icicles that shot out at Fionna. The blonde blocked the ice with her sword, while Inficere was growing increasingly irritated. After a minute or two of fighting and failed interjections, he'd had enough. He yelled in a monstrous, gurgling voice, "That's... enough!"

Tendrils of the black, gold, and crimson flickered across his arms in a dance that morphed both of his arms. They felt like they were both tingling and going momentarily limp before he felt the muscles (or whatever he used now) come to life once again. He could feel his fingers elongating and thinning even more, actually feeling one of his digits disappear. All of this happened in seconds and afterward, he stood before both women with crude, but incredibly deadly looking, claws. Each hand had three claws and a thumb-claw and both his arms were black with the same golden-red glow coming from within the tendril-like constructs that were his arms.

By now, both Fionna and Ice Queen had frozen in place (Hmph, where's Cake been all this time?), with looks of awe plastered on their faces. Inficere slowly straightened up and looked at his "hands", still quite aggravated at the other two. His frown faded away into a slight smirk, then into a full-on grin. He started to laugh joyously, saying, "Wow! I didn't even have to consume a Hunter?! That's awesome! Let's see PG try to take me alive now! I'll slice anything that tries to bits!"

But a small voice in his head whispered, "Would you really~...?"

That made him freeze.

Was he really willing to cut down someone like Gumball? Would he honestly have the guts to do that? But, most important question that shoved its way into the front of his mind was: when the time came, would he even be able to kill another being?

Well, he'd just have to find out, now wouldn't he?

A/N: Sorry for the shorter than usual chapter, peoples. Like I said, Italy-plus-new stories-equals shorter chapter and later update. Soooo sorry about that. Anyway, for any questions on chapter mysteries:

*- I figured that if everyone was the opposite, "Demons' Blood" would become "Angels' Blood"

So, if you guys have any questions at all (that don't have spoilers involved) shoot a review and I'll PM you about it. See y'all next chapter!