Nope, not over yet :D Hope I didn't leave you waiting to long.

(Read/Review and as always, enjoy)

Chapter Nine: The Where's, The Whys and Hows?

The desert was silent, only the wind that breathed through the narrows of sandstone valleys and rocks carrying whirlwinds of sand and dust were to be heard. Many hours passed on by since Finn travelled on through, sacrificing himself for his friends and Ooo. The area was left in a battle-scarred ruin, burnt and shattered rock scattered all around in small rubble piles, a large chunk of the earth torn up and smouldered by an explosion, the area in which the portal opened was swept clean of close-by and loose dust and rocks as a result of them being sucked along in.

Over the whistles of wind finding its way through the canyons, exhaling moans layered over natures ambience. Bubblegum unpleasantly came back to consciousness, breaking the deserts natural dead hush, letting out long ill moans, still woozy from the explosive shock wave that caused her unconsciousness. She quivered from the sensitivity of her cut palms contacting the earth, as she pushed down on them, lifting her upper body from the floor. She was astounded she was still alive. 'Could Marceline or maybe Jake brought down the Lich while I was knocked out.' Was the only logical reasoning she could come up with to answer why she was still breathing. Nothing else came to mind; the Lich certainly wasn't a creature of mercy. If they did somehow find a way to defeat him, then where were they?

That was quickly answered as Bubblegum got to her feet and fully took in her surroundings giving her clothes a quick brush off any clinging debris. Jake was seen laying under a few collapsed rocks, and Marceline out cold with her back against the wall. She went to help out Jake first seeing as he was closer and had heavy rocks crushing him, though couldn't perform her task with any form of haste. Everything was still a daze and the earth swerved in her steps like she was on a rocking boat. She almost tipped to her side trying to rush, but quickly recovered her balance. As she reached Jake she used up what was left of her energy to pushing aside the smaller rocks and then to a momentary breather before she put all her weight into shunting the larger boulder off his doughy torso.

Exhausted, her effort was rewarded as the boulder rolled off him. She collapsed beside Jake, looking up in air, the heat was unbearable even as she was shaded. It felt as if she could melt; that actually didn't seem half bad to her, it sounded better than remaining in her current solid and sticky form. She hung her tongue out to the corner of her mouth, as a dog would panting, speaking of which. Jake began to reel back to reality, groaning from his aching chest, letting free a trio of weak coughs due to the kicked up dust.

"Guuawah.. huh, ah-princess what happened? Whe-cough-where's Marceline an-and Finn?" Bubblegum didn't answer, she just lifted and flopped her arm in the average direction of where she saw Marceline.

"Uh-ahh – ahwowow-" Jake slowly brought himself up to stand, clutching his waist. "-they're over there?" The princess rocked her head up and down against the floor ever so slightly to confirm half of Jakes question, not bothering to even lift it; too much effort.

"Okay, I'm going to check on them. You good?" She mimicked the same gesture, before closing her eye's and resting.

He walked around the stone curvature and broken rock which separated them from view into the open where most of the fighting ensued. Marceline was still out, up against the wall. Jake tried his best to hurry over in his condition to check if she was okay. He placed two fingers on her neck in order to see her pulse, he panicked for a second after feeling nothing, shaking her side-to-side with her head slung left and right, shouting her name in hope she'd wake up. "Marceline! Come on you can't be, not now, wake up! Marceline!" To his amazement she started slurring a dribble of words out between the shakes, "Ahhh-ohhh-hhhh-stop-shak-ing-meee-eeee!" He stopped, then the thought came to mind that it was probably a stupid idea to check an undead persons pulse.

She would have liked to point out the fact and embarrass him somehow, crying out her name while shaking her to wake up, but now was not the time, she was far too out of it to bother, and there was more important questions she'd rather invest her energy and words on. "...Gaaah-my ass is numb..." She tilted her head back to look up at him and also rest it up against the stone wall she was sat along, extending one of her arms up at him, "so you gonna help me up or what?"

"Oh right." Jake lent his hand out for her to grab and pulled her up, she was heavier than he expected.

"What happened? You two couldn't have seriously brought him down. Did you?" She asked observing the aftermath, without Finn in sight, or Bubblegum for that matter, she was quite thrilled to hear some good news, hoping this was all over.

"Uh-no." Jake said scratching the scruff of his neck, he thought to explain, "We're just as lost as you are, I haven't seen Finn anywhere."

She was more than disheartened to hear what he had to say, but it wasn't out of expectation. "Okay.. so where is Bonnie?" She questioned, with small concern in her tone, knowing fully well something could have happened to her.

"She just resting around the corner." Jake indicated behind him.

Relieved, without showing it of course, she cared to ask. "Is she alright?"

"Yeah-naw, she's just tired. I guess we should just leave her to some quiet rest until she's-"

"Arrghhhah!" Bubblegum cried out.

"-Um." Jake looked over his shoulder in with goosebumps crawling all over him.

"Jake I thought you said she was fine!" Marceline shouted as she rushed past to check on the princess.

"She seemed to be when I left her!" He yelled back, chasing from behind.

Marceline sprinted around the corner with Jake following close behind, only to find Bubblegum throwing a rampaging fit over her Discomblabual-rifle. "Stupid, dysfunctional piece of junk!" She shouted out, jumping up and down on the device. "You had one job!"

"Whoa, false alarm, she seems a bit ticked off." Jake whispered to Marceline to be certain Bubblegum wouldn't hear.

"I think I noticed." Marceline mumbled back down at him through the ajar opening in her lips.

"Ich werde dich vernichten, biegen sie in schrott, schmelzen sie sich und machen sie in Kanalisation Roste! Arrahagh!" She picked up the now dented and bent rifle, spin half around tossing it at the wall of sandstone behind her, breaking it in two as if it was plastic.

"Jeesh, I think we should give her a minuet to cool off." He continued whispering while also starting to back away.

A couple of minuets later.

The racket of smashing and shouting soon tempered down while Jake was snooping around. Marceline sat over in the corner which provided the most shade minding her own business. She found her sun hat and put it back on, tilting it down to cover her face more, trying to block out the noise Bubblegum was making, thinking about what she could have done better to save Finn, more importantly, where he went. The princess re-emerged around the corner to join Jake and Marceline.

"Right, where the plop did Finn and the Lich go?" The question still had her a bit on edge.

Jake decided to answer, Marceline wasn't paying attention, lost in her thoughts, though she was thinking the same thing. "I don't know Peebles, I've been sniffing around all over the place. No footprints leaving the or anything. He seemed to have just vanished."

"Well to my knowledge the Lich, nor Finn can't simply vanish. So keep looking Jake." She got all ordering when she was ticked off.

"Yes boss." He continued to sniff around, even though he had already done so, but Bubblegum was in one of those moods, best to stay on her good side.

Bubblegum walked over to Marceline, almost looked as if she was meditating. "Marceline." She yapped, breaking into Marcelines deep thoughts.

"Gah!" Marcelines jumped out of her skin, eyes shot open, her pupils were dilated. "W-what do you want, can't you see I'm busy?" She said in a grouchy manner.

She looked down and around Marceline before saying, "No actually, I can't, you look like you were lazing about. Any thoughts about where Finn went?"

"Grrh. That's what I was trying to do, I was recollecting what happened. Everything's fuzzy unless I really focus on it. And you- Gah!" She got up pointing at the Princess holding back the feeling to wring her hands around her neck. "-you disturbed me right in the middle of it! Just let me get back to it before I forget where I was at, then I'll have to start all over." She slumped back into her corner, taking a deep breath, trying to find her zen.

"Jeeze. Jake, anything?" Crossing her, arm's walking over to him.

"Sorry Peebs, still nadda." He said, walking back to her, meeting halfway in the middle.

Bubblegum bit her lip, looking around for any clues, her answers lied right below her feet, she examined around where they stood, "Hmm."

"What is it?"

"You see the marks on the stone here." Pointing at the edges of the marking they stood upon, the surface had what appeared to be bolts of electricity scarred into the ground.

"Yeah, what's important about it. It just looks like something exploded." He shrugged his shoulders, lost unto why she was so interested in the marks.

"You're right, but if something did explode leaving this big of a mark on the surface beneath it, well lets just say it would have left more than a mark. No... Ah! of course! I think this is a collapse."

"A collapse?" He was now even more lost.

"Yes, these markings were made from energy diffusion, and there must have been allot'a energy. The only thing that can do that in such a remote location is a portal." Marcelines eyes edged open at Bubblegums accusation, clearly sparking something her head. "When a portal is shut on one side, or 'collapses', all the energy left behind, that got shut out on this side diffuses into the earth so forcefully it tends to leave these marks or scars. It makes sense to how he got out of here without a trace, well other than this, but then again doesn't make any sense at all. How did he open a portal? If the Lich could do that, he'd be everywhere. Also why? He already beat us."

Marceline scurried over to her bag searching around inside, tipping it upside down emptying all the junk out onto the floor.

"Uh-Marcie, you okay?" Jake called out, curious to her strange behaviour.

Sieving her hands through all the miscellaneous objects, she panicked inaudible mumbles, spreading them out. She stopped. "...I know where Finn is..." She said staring down, vacantly, at all the junk in her bag, noticing the missing bug milk and chalk. She didn't know what to make of this news, what it mean't.

"Fill us in, where's he at?" Jake didn't take a second to conceive the thought of how she all of a sudden knew Finns whereabouts, he was easy-going like that.

"Um-hold on a second, how do you know?" Bubblegum however wasn't so easy. She spoke before Marceline could, throwing more questions her way. "There is no possible way of knowing where he went."

"There is when you know what kind of portal it is." She stood up to approach them both. "Sigh, look, he's in the Night-O-sphere. I don't know why, but he is." She said with the utmost certainty; by the look on her face, she was doing a bad job hiding the fact she was holding out on some big details.

"And how do yo-" Bubblegum repeated, responding quickly to add. Marceline cracked open before the question even came to a finish.

"Because!..." Her yell paused Bubblegum mid-question. "Because.. I had my own plan..." She said much more sheepishly.

"I'm sorry, I'm a little lost to what you are talking about?" She prodded even further, determined to get to the bottom of whatever it was she had kept from them all this time.

"I thought.. I – my dad... I thought I could bring Finn to him; you-know? His job practically is sucking out souls.. so he could suck out the Lich.. maybe?" She hung her head, unwilling to look at either of them as she explained her intentions, sounding sorry. Her plan didn't sound very convincing, even to herself.

"You are not even sure!? Marceline why didn't you tell us about all this?" Bubblegum was quite agitated Marceline went out of her way to devise her own plan; worst, she didn't sound sure it would even work.

"I needed to help him, myself. And you wouldn't allow that! You were set on your brilliant plan to save him together!... I needed to save him on my own." Marceline tried explaining, only to become defensive and started to point the finger.

"But why? Why was it so important to do yourself? Either way we'd help him." Bubblegum tried to understand, she wanted to, but was still unable to see why this was so important to do alone.

"B-because.. I... already failed him once. I need to fix it, I can't let it happen again." Marceline fell down, crossed legged to the ground, with her head resting in her hands, keeping her tears at bay, and all the other lingering emotions that wanted to be heard.

Bubblegum went to ask on, but managed retained her questions, at least for the time being, seeing the state she was in. She could tell it disturbed Marceline to even mention or think about whatever it was, so she held off. For a second there was silence, Marceline hung her head down in regret, waiting for Bubblegum to scold her some more, to tell her this was all her fault.

On the contrary, the princess was understanding to a certain degree, in fact as she was thinking of how to act next, she knew how Marceline could be invaluable. "Marceline." She didn't respond in any way, waiting for Bubblegum to shout at her or something. "You know what portal this is, right?" Marceline looked up at Bubblegum in the corners of her eyes, not expecting the casual questioning. "So you know how to open it, right?" Feeling a slight sensation of redemption, she happily nodded, but quickly stopped, "Wait but-" she didn't want to get her hopes up, "I-I can't just open one out of thin air." She waited for Bubblegums inevitable disappointment again.

"Pffft, silly, I know that. If you could I'd be amazed.. and kinda scared at the same time. We're going to get back to the kingdom, I can count on you to collect the materials needed, yes?" Marceline eagerly nodded once more, lifting herself off the floor to stand amongst them. "Great I'll clear a space in my lab, you go get the materials and bring them back to me. We're going in after him."

Bubblegum went to go and collect her things, as did Jake to move out back to the kingdom, Marceline quickly protested in confusion, "Hold on, wait. When we go through, what's the plan?"

Bubblegum threw her duffle bag over her shoulder, then turned to answer, "You said it yourself, your fathers job is to suck out souls, I'm sure he'll help out his only daughter and her friends. Besides I've heard about your father, Hunson. The history I've been told between himself and the Lich has been quite sour. C'mon gather up your stuff and lets go, I can't stand this desert much longer."

Marceline quickly scooped and the useful bits back into her turned over bag and tagged in behind Jake and Bubblegum in their venture back to the Candy kingdom.

"Sooo how is your father, Marceline?"

"How'd you mean?"

"Well I've heard stories and legends; but they're stories and legends. You're his family, what better person to know him than you."

"He is uh, his.. different... Look all those stories you've heard about him are probably true no matter how weird or fictional they sound..."

"Wait so he likes jazz? Huh.. interesting."

"Um-yeah sure, lets not get into that one..."

As the walked off back into the open expanse of the desert, crossing sand dune after sand dune, the echo of their conversation soon swallowed into the atmosphere.

"Gaaargh!...We could have had it all. All the power in Ooo - in the multi-verse!..." A yell pulsated out that was unheard to every living creature but one.

"So you keep saying..." In the midst of smoking stacks of molten stone pillars, rivers of fire and lava, ruins of fortresses, demonic castles and ritualistic totems. In the crumbling halls of some forgotten structure, Finn sat on the brimstone floor with his back rested to the wall, tossing rocks along the flat surface, trying to make them bounce along it before stopping, like he would do at a pond or lake. He tried anything to occupy himself, ignoring the Lich frantically preaching end times back and fourth in his head.

"...Now you have banished us both to - to this cesspit." He continued. "Once he finds out we are, and oh boy he will find out fast, he'll devour your soul for a tormenting eternity. You thought I was bad? ohhoho, I'm generous compared to him. And me I don't know what he has planned for me..."

"Good." Finn blunted out between the Lich's pause, before he continued the rambling for another five minuets. Only to send him spiralling down a fury filled lecture to point out the facts of how he made Finn the ultimate being. Or so he sees it.

"Good? Good! I made you into a demi-god and this is the attitude I get? Before he does whatever he has in store for me and rips out your soul, I will make a personal request to pump fire through your veins and explode your arteries from the inside out before he does! Why do you think he sits in this dismal realm, alone with his dimwitted creatures, hmm? You think he likes it here? After more than a millennium of seeing the same sights and courting brainless demon after demon. He would have enslaved Ooo years ago. And the reason he didn't, the reason he will not – is because of me. Immortal he is yes, but he knows that when he leaves this.. Night-O-sphere, he losses a source of his power, he knows what I can do to him when he is in the vulnerability of Ooo..." The lecture soon turned into the Lich thinking out loud his power fantasies.

"Look at you now, why you so scared Lich? What happened to being a tough guy, to being the harbinger of the apocalypse?" Finn questioned, insulting his purpose and abilities.

"Are you mocking me!? Have you not been listening? I am eternal in Ooo, I am unmatched, unstoppable! I am alpha and omega! This isn't Ooo, this is Hunson's realm! In this verse he is at his seat of power. He can bend this place to his will. He cannot be beaten, overthrown or killed unless he allows it to be! He forged a perfect paradise where he is a god. I cannot destroy him here! No mortal or immortal can..."

"I'm still not seeing how any of your sob story is a bad thing. You think his daughter would let him simply take Ooo? You're acting as if you are saving us from him."

The constant questionings and retaliations to his every word inevitably shorted his fuse. His voice broke rampant. "Gah! I'll melt you inside out with your own stomach acid! You short sighted..."

"You keep making threats like that, they are getting old. I know you need me alive, if I die you go with me." Finn asserted himself over the Lich's death threats, making it clear he knew where they both stood in this binding.

The Lich for once didn't retaliate with a comeback, he fell quiet. This wasn't news to him, he knew this entire time. Finn saying out loud just diminished him in some way, like this whole time he was relying on Finn to survive, it didn't make him feel very god-like.

"... Sigh, lets go Finn. Lets go pay Hunson a visit... Lets get this over with." He said quite fatally, after so long the Lich felt he was about to meet an end he never planned on meeting.