Author's Notes: Happy New Year to everyone, hope you had a good whatever you done for the occasion ^_^.
Apparently on the 7th, the episode "Jake the Dad" will come out, and the name pretty much hints his puppies will be born! Can't wait :3!
Some people have been questioning the time-line in the flashbacks, just saying it'll all be explained soon enough.
Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time t(-_-t).
~ Fiery Embrace ~
- Truth, Chapter 9 -
Flame Princess pulled away from Finn's body reluctantly and noticed once again the blue shroud covering him.
"Why are you blue?" she asked confused.
He looked at her with a confused look on his face, as if he didn't know what she was talking about for a second, then exclaimed with a light giggle when he realized that he was still blue.
"A little flambit cast Flame Shield on me, it turns me blue." he explained
She suddenly remembered what her father had told her those years ago, how outsiders needed Flame Shield to enter their kingdom. She had almost forgotten about it.
She looked down to the diary in her hands; it had a black cover made out of thin black rock, and a gem embedded in the middle, the symbol of their royal family. Her mother had written it in a hurry, as if she was in danger. What had made her mother so sure of her demise? How did she know that her own daughter would kill her unknowingly?
The thought of it brought tears to her eyes, she couldn't handle the memory, she had pushed it away her entire life. It was the single scar in her memory that made her label herself a monster as many others had done.
Finn walked up to her, and placed his hand on her cheek. He moved his forehead onto hers, and looked at her face to face.
"I'm still immune to fire for a bit." he said with a smile on his face.
She returned his smile, she felt safe now that Finn was here.
Suddenly a thundering crash tore the two apart; rock and debris flew everywhere, tearing apart the cliff side overlooking the Fire Kingdom. Smoke littered their view, as a fiery figure loomed over the top of the haze.
Finn smashed against the wall and fell to the ground. His head rattled against the thick rock, his vision blurred and his head felt like splitting in two. He struggled to raise himself off the ground, and looked at the looming figure high above him.
"Buffoon! You will pay for this!" a voice roared as a fiery figure flew up, clearing the smoke to reveal a very, very mad Flame King.
"Flame King! Leave us alone!" Finn struggled to yell as his head ached horribly, he stumbled to the side and leaned on a nearby rock.
Finn could barely see the Flame King raise his arm, conjuring a massive fireball in his palms. The heat radiating off it made him flinch back and raise his hand above his face.
Heat.
Finn looked at his hand; it was no longer shaded blue, the flame shield had run out. He closed his eyes and readied for the intense wave of fire that was about to wash over him, finishing his fragile body off.
He flinched for a second, and opened his eyes. Flame Princess was standing in front of him; specks of flames littered the ground around them as they quickly dispersed with nothing to burn.
"I'll handle this Finn." she said confidently.
He looked at her from behind; she smiled at him and looked back towards her father. What was she going to do?
"Stand aside daughter, your punishment for this treason will come in due time." the Flame King growled, visibly annoyed.
Flame Princess replied by simply looking at him, a confident look in her eyes. She raised the diary in front of her, showing it to him. The Flame King exclaimed in shock as he noticed what it was.
"W-where did you get that?" he stammered.
"What really happened to my mother?" Flame Princess said with command in her voice.
It must have struck a nerve in the Flame King, who stumbled back from the question. A discerning look fell onto his face.
"What do you mean?" he said, trying to compose himself.
Flame Princess began to walk over to him, her head faced down. The world seemed to go silent, her slow footsteps pacing the ground being the only sound they could hear. The Flame King seemed to stand still as she approached him and looked up towards his face.
"Tell me what happened to my mother!" she commanded.
"I told y-" he began.
"I don't want to hear your lies!" she yelled as her face exploded into fire for split second, before she composed herself into her normal form.
She took a deep breath, than sighed. She wanted to test her father's reactions to confirm her suspicions, and she was successful. Her father had told her as a little girl what happened to her mother; that she was killed by her own daughter during a tantrum. He had lied to the entire kingdom, to her.
"What happened." she ended as a tear fell down her face.
The Flame King looked at her, and sighed. The slightest bit of emotion showed off the stern fire elemental, before he regained his posture and looked at her.
"If you must know, you are not the reason for her demise." he said flatly.
She breathed an exclamation of shock, happiness and sadness swelled up in her eyes at the same time, she had been miserable her whole life because of his lie. She had doubted herself so much, called herself a monster, "And for what!?" she thought, her expression changing to anger.
"What did you do to my mother!?" she yelled as she ran over to him, her anger flaring around her.
Suddenly she groaned in pain and clutched at the gem on her forehead. She dropped to her knees as the pain intensified. She tried to morph into fire, but screamed in pain as the gem subdued her to the ground.
"That's enough." the Flame King said, his palm outstretched towards Flame Princess.
He began to move towards Finn who was down on his knees, still dazed and half-conscious from the impact. He walked past the curled up Flame Princess, moving towards Finn. He stumbled around as he tried to move away from the Flame King.
He grabbed Finn by the throat, and smashed his body against the wall. His neck sizzled against the flaming grip of the Flame King, who exclaimed in triumph as he moved his other hand forward, conjuring a ball of fire directly in Finn's face.
"It's over fool." the Flame King said sternly.
Flame Princess grabbed at the edge of the gem, and began pulling at its foundations. She pulled with all her strength, the gem began to release and she tore it apart from her forehead, her hair fell down to her waist and red sparks of fire flew in all directions.
She heated up drastically as she looked angrily at her father, who exclaimed in shock as a massive body of fire sent him flying against the cave wall. He smashed against it and his copper armor disintegrated as he ascended into his pure fire form. He looked to see his daughter free from the binds of the gem. Her body swirled towards her father in a vortex of flames. She swirled around his pure fire form, sending him into a swirl as she screamed angrily, consumed by anger. He exclaimed in shock as her fires consumed his completely.
~ ... ~
Deep in her consciousness the voices had begun mocking her again, jeering at her as anger continued to build.
"He betrayed us..." "He deserves it..." "Kill him..." "Kill!" they mocked.
She curled up into a ball amidst her swirling vortex of rage, the consciousness had taken over again; it was going to hurt everyone like it hurt Finn last time, it had almost killed everyone. But this time she was going to kill her own people, she couldn't resist it; the rage had completely consumed her and there was no stopping it.
"Stop..." she pleaded.
Cackles and laughter could be heard every time she pleaded, only followed by more breaths of mockery, whispering horrible things into her ears.
~ ... ~
Finn's mind cleared, as the stinging pain around his throat made him clench it in pain. He breathed rapidly, trying to get a grasp of his surroundings. He felt an intense heat fly past him and he stumbled back to see the Flame Princess' fiery mass swirling around the Flame King's own, subduing his flames. She intended to suck the oxygen away from him, to end his life. As long as she kept swirling around him he would die.
Finn ran behind a large rock for cover. He noticed the small pellets falling from the ceiling, and felt rumbling underneath him. He exclaimed in shock as a massive chunk of rock fell from the ceiling, almost smashing on top of him before he could jump out of the way. The whole inner part of the cave was shaking and rocks started falling from the ceiling.
He looked towards Flame Princess, who was still raging around her father. He ran over to her desperately.
"Flame Princess! You have to stop this now!" he yelled, receiving no reply.
"Flame Princess?" he exclaimed confused.
He looked into her eyes, they weren't normal, something was wrong. She wasn't herself. He thought back to the event at the river, where Flame Princess grew completely out of control all of a sudden, that look she had in her eyes. Her eyes were glinting that same dark red like before; she was going to explode if she didn't stop!
He ran over to her and desperately grabbed her hand amidst the swirling vortex of fire, tugging at her. The flames swirled around his body and sizzled against his skin. His burns didn't help as he cringed in pain. He pulled her back with all his strength. As she gave way he fell back with shock, and pulled her back onto him.
"Flame Princess?" he said, looking into her eyes, which were completely interlocked between each other.
He received an angry snarl in reply, as she pulled away from him. Her body ignited the area around her and made him fall back. He struggled to breathe as the flames circled around him, the raging form of Flame Princess swirling around him.
He grabbed her hand even tighter this time.
"Flame Princess, please! This isn't you!" he said as the flames burnt against his skin.
Her body stopped tensing, and she looked back into his eyes, the vortex ceasing.
"Finn..." she breathed as the red began to fade from her eyes. Tears swelled up in them as she fell onto him.
"I'm sorry..." she mumbled, her head leaning on his shoulder.
He lifted her off him, and then looked into her eyes. She smiled at him, before falling back into thought, she was still dazed.
He nodded at her, smiling intently. "We have to get out of here, the whole place is coming down!" he explained.
She stared at him blankly for a second, than shook her head rapidly.
"Come on!" he yelled tugging at her arm.
"Sorry, let's go." she said, still dazed by the experience.
She looked back for a second towards her father, who lay on the ground dazed and wounded. His body was a light-blue and he seemed smaller than usual. A faint laugh could be heard from him.
"Go to the Princess of the Candy Kingdom if you want answers, my daughter." he said the last part sternly, than fell into unconsciousness.
She exclaimed in shock at his sentence, Princess Bubblegum was keeping more secrets?
Finn gave Flame Princess' arm one last pull, and she reluctantly followed him.
Finn ran through the falling rocks, holding tight onto her hand no matter how much pain it caused him. Nothing was going to separate them again, whether it be an angry father or a bunch of falling rocks, he wasn't letting them drift apart again. Rocks and debris fell from the ceiling; they sidestepped, jumped and dodged the falling rocks as they hurried towards the exit. Light could be seen flowing from the outside as they got closer to the end of the cave.
Finn heard a loud crash, followed by a massive tumbling sound. He turned around to see a massive avalanche of rocks rushing through the cave, heading towards them at extreme speeds.
"We have to hurry!" Finn yelled, trying to be louder than the massive rumbling sound.
He tugged at her hand, and they sprinted as fast as they could to the exit. The light was really close now, and they could see the outside. The tumbling rocks were only a foot behind them, gaining speed and losing the small distance between them. Finn gave himself one last mighty push off the ground as he launched out of the cave, still holding Flame Princess' hand as they shot out into the opening, tumbling down the slope of the hill outside.
A massive crash could be heard as the cave's entrance caved in. Finn and Flame Princess landed down the bottom of the hill, sliding down out under the thick shades of the trees.
After a minute of lying down exhausted, struggling for breath, Finn raised himself off the ground. He exclaimed in shock for a second as he looked around rapidly and sighed with relief when he seen Flame Princess lying down, her eyes open looking into the sky.
She was told her entire life that she was a monster for what she had done; only to learn it was a lie. Finn couldn't comprehend the amount of turmoil she was feeling right now. She needed reassurance, he thought for a second.
He leaned over to her, and whispered in her ear.
"You're not a monster." he whispered.
She turned to him, shocked by the sudden sentence. She was confused for a second, and understood his meaning. He knew what she was thinking, just by looking at her. She looked at him, an almost angry expression on her face.
"How do you know? Just look at what I did back there Finn, I almost killed you! How can you tell me I'm not a monster after what I've done! All I do is hurt people!" she yelled.
He looked at her reassuringly, and then stumbled to speak.
"Because I..." he stammered.
"Because what?!" she yelled.
"Because..." he couldn't find it in himself to say the next words.
She paused for a moment, what was he trying to say? He didn't continue and she let out a 'hmph!'
"That's what I thought." she said before getting up and walking away.
She thought he was going to stop her, reassure her, but he just stayed silent! He didn't say anything! She walked away from him aimlessly, before she felt his hand pulling her own, pulling her into him.
She fell into his arms, as her chin rested against his shoulder. She slowly melted into his embrace.
"Because I love you." he whispered.
- End of Chapter 9 -
Author's Notes: Wooo! I finally got him to say it x)! Felt good to write that.
As always, did you enjoy the chapter? What should I improve? What would you like to see in the story? Leave it in your review! I'll see everyone on next chapter!
