Chapter 8

A plan is Hatched

Only a few minutes after his return and Simon was already making Marceline feel like a heel for what she did. He didn't want to. He wanted to grab her and give her the biggest hug of her life, but what she did was unacceptable. " I wasn't just trapped in the Ice Crown, I also greatly limited it's power. Without me, ice and snow may soon cover the entire planet."

"I know Simon, but it's been 1000 years almost. I just wanted to see you again." Marceline looked very contrite, but she refused to back off.

"I understand what you're saying but if this other me gets his way, we'll both be dead inside a week anyway." He had to try to make her understand that sometimes the price was too high.

"This is getting us nowhere." Bubblegum said motioning them into a semicircle. "We have to find a way to stop him now that he has the power to destroy oOo."

Simon looked guilty for a second but quickly hid it. Fiona, who had been studying him saw it and asked "Mr Petrikov, do you know a way we can stop him?"

Simon sighed, then looked at the others and said "I may know one way,but it is far too dangerous." Looking around at all the anxious faces, Simon knew he had no choice but to tell them. "In this land there exists only one thing that can match the power of the Ice Crown, It's twin the Ice Tiara."

Everyone looked stunned, especially Fionna and Cake. They knew of the Ice Tiara, they had fought its wielder all of their lives. "Do you mean the Ice Tiara is here? The Ice Queen used it to send us to this dimension to hunt down Dubyah. The Ice Queen would never give it up."

Simon knew that he had to tell them. It was the most painful experience of his life but the time had come to finally share it. "In the time before what you call the Mushroom Wars, I was a famous antiquarian. I and my sister Simone, who was also famous but as an archaeologist went on a trip to Scandinavia. There we met a dock worker who sold to us two items he found while exploring a frozen cave. They were oval shaped and caked in rust. When we cleaned off the rust what we found were a shining golden crown and tiara. Of course at that time we knew nothing of their true power and both of us decided to take one to study. You saw the video of what happened to me and Simone's story was much the same except when the fighting finally came to us we chose different paths. I chose to run and hide from the responsibility and terror of the crown while Simone used her power to nullify most of the damage the "Mushrooms" produced. I truly believe without her aid the world would never have supported life again. The power came with a cost, she mutated into the greatest evil the land of oOo will hopefully ever know,the Lich."

Finn and Fionna were shocked by this confession having heard nothing about this before. The others looked toward Finn, Cake towards Fionna, as if worried that Simon had said too much. "Get to the point Simon." Marceline said hoping to derail any questions Finn might ask him.

"Because it was bound to my sister, the Ice Tiara would not work for the creature so it discarded it. I found it and hid it. If we can get to the Tiara, we could theoretically nullify the crown's power long enough for it to be removed. The only problem is..."

"That the Tiara twists the mind of the wearer the same as the crown does." Cake said, interrupting Simon mid sentence.

"So," Marceline said, "the question is, who will wear it." Finn looked at Fionna and Bubblegum, Jake studied Cake and Simon stared at Marceline. Who would wear the tiara?