Disclaimer: I do not own Prototype or Adventure Time. Sorry that this came out so late. I've been having computer problems since 1/5. Honestly, this chapter was supposed to be part of LAST chapter, but it ran a bit long so I decided to split it into two chapters. I'd really like to get some feedback on this chapter in particular. Enjoy.


Chapter 11

"One who fights monsters should take care, lest he become one himself.

And if one gazes long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Finn's POV

Finn held his new blade in his hand, preparing for the next wave of invaders. He'd just claimed this new weapons from a man called Rupert, who'd dubbed it Wyrm's Bane. The white metal of the blade shone with the radiance of a small star, and Finn couldn't help but feel more at ease with it in his hand.

As he scanned the battlefield, he noticed that the fighting had begun to die out. There were still a few minor skirmishes here and there, but overall the banana guards seemed to be gaining the upper hand. Just now Finn could see a large group of enemy soldiers surrendering. Things were looking up.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!

An explosion of seismic proportions shock the foundations of the Kingdom. Finn spun around to see smoke rising from the castle as the civilians rushed to evacuate in a huge tidal wave of pushing and shoving. Finn sheathed his sword and ran into the building, Jake racing behind him.

Smoke filled the air as Finn made his way towards its source. The trail of smoke les him downstairs, into the dungeon. It wasn't long before he recognized the hallways. The smoke came from the secret lab.


Two Hours Ago

Rot's POV

Rot stood outside the palace walls. Smith and One-Arm stood behind him, both carrying large rucksacks. Rot placed his hand on the wall, and the stone began to crack at his touch. Soon, they had a small tunnel leading into the bowls of the castle dungeon. Rot waved for the others to follow, and they slowly crept down into the bowls of the candy palace.

Leading purely by memory, Rot lead the two mercenaries deep into the dungeon, which was completely unguarded. All of the guards were out fighting his army. Everything was going to plan.

Finally, Rot stopped in front of a large door, completely covered in signs that declared the room to contain biohazards, dangerous chemicals, and other nasty thing, all superseded by a very large, red sign that simply said: "KEEP OUT"

Smith stopped in his tracks, holding out a hand to One-Arm signaling for him to do the same.

"This is NOT a treasure room." He stated bluntly "You've been lying to us."

Rot grinned slyly.

"Did I?" he asked ominously. "I told you, this treasure is powerful enough to reshape the entire world! It is no gold or gemstones, but something far more rare and valuable."

He placed his hand upon the lock, causing it to rust away. Then he motioned for them to follow.

Smith reluctantly entered the room after him, with One-Arm trailing behind. Inside Rot examined the room, which held many scientific wonders who's significance was entirely lost upon the two mercenaries. Finally, he found a door.

He opened it, and stood in slight awe at the sight before him. Inside a large, freeze-like room, the Princess had somehow managed to produce several hundred gallons of the same black fluid she had extracted from Alex. Fortunately, they head the rucksacks.

Rot called the Mercenaries over.

"Behold gentlemen, our prize!"

They seemed impressed by the sheer size of the freezer, but still didn't understand what he meant.

"What's so great about a bunch of black goop?" Smith demanded.

Rot sighed in frustration.

"Just open the rucksacks."


One Hour Ago

Smith's POV

Inside the rucksacks were several remote charges, the kind that could be detonated by a remote switch. Rot probably had that. Smith and One-Arm emptied that bombs onto the floor.

"Place them around the room." Rot directed him.

Smith suspected that Rot was hiding something, but considering the fact that he A: was paying them, and B: could kill them with a flick of the wrist, Smith decided it would be better to do what he said... for now.

Once the bombs were well distributed, Rot began filling the rucksacks with vials of the black gunk inside the freezer room. He wore a pair of rotted leather gloves, which allowed him to pick things up without them rotting. He noticed they were done.

"Go watch for guards, I'll fill these rucksacks."

As Smith stood at the door with One-Arm, he realized that whatever they were stealing must be valuable if Rot wasn't even willing to let them handle the stuff. This merited further investigation.

Rot soon called them back, wordlessly handed them the rucksacks, then left. They followed him through the dungeons, and out through the tunnel. Once in the sunlight, Rot pulled a small remote with a red button, and a slip of paper from some secret pocket of his cloak. As he walked away from the tunnel entrance, he let the paper fall from his grasp, and as it settled on the pavement, he pushed the button.


Alex's POV

Alex stood before the wrecked remains of the lab. The door had been blown open, left in a smoking pile at the entrance to the room. Marceline floated behind him, the disbelief clearly shown upon her face. How someone could have gotten inside the castle, Alex did not know. But whoever they were, they'd left destruction in their wake.

Finn, Jake, and the Princess were already searching through the ashes of the burned room when he and Marceline had arrived. So far, there seemed to be very little indication of who'd been here, and why they'd blown the place up.

Alex soon found the vault where the biomass had been stored, and quickly absorbed what wasn't incinerated. He turned to the Princess.

"So, you didn't have any more of my cells huh?" He asked sarcastically.

The Princess said nothing, she just stared guiltily at the floor. Alex surveyed the scene. In the entire fridge, there were only four canisters left.

"We will have words about this when I get back, but right now the biggest issue is finding the one who did this."

Alex closed his eyes and focused. Using his minor psychic ability, he was able to search for a minor mental resonance within the room. When he finally picked one up, he felt a small ping within the Hive Mind. Then he saw it.

It was as if a tiny hole had been torn in the fabric of the Hive Mind. It kind of small thing that you couldn't detect unless you knew exactly what you were looking for, and roughly where to find it. Nevertheless, this was a problem.

The virus had mutated.

Alex reached out with the Hive Mind, and found someone. Or at least... something.

"I got them." He stated, then he ran out of the room, leaving a room full of baffled people in his wake.


Rot's POV

Rot dashed out of the breach in the wall, the two mercenaries close behind. Though they'd tried to leave quietly, the sheer volume of guards around the breach had made that impossible. Now they were running across the candy field, dodging arrows as they made their way to the relative safety of the candy forest (and now that he thought about it, why did everything have to have the word candy, or something of the like, in its name).

Suddenly, a sharp pain flashed through his head, as if someone had reach into his mind and stuck a fishing hook in it. He faltered a bit, and two arrows plunged into his back. Surprisingly though, he felt no pain. He kept running, reaching back to pull the arrows from his back and fling them to the side.

Suddenly, a thunderous crash shook the field, causing the very ground to shake. Rot stumbled once again, as three more arrows stabbed into him. He yanked them from his back and turned to see what had caused such a crash.

A cloud of dust rose in the air as some kind of... thing, race for them.

"Get to the forest!" Rot shouted to Smith and One-Arm. "I'll take care of this."

The dust cloud grew closer, and at the head of it, Rot could see a man, running towards him at unbelievable speeds. Rot could move fast, but this guy was a whirlwind. There was only one person Rot knew of who could move like that.

Alex Mercer.

Rot removed his gloves and flexed his talon-like fingers, preparing for a fight.

His enemy Dashed forward, claws flashing. Rot moved to block him, but found one claw buried in his stomach. Out of instinct, he grabbed Alex's arm, more out of sheer desperation than from any sort of plan. Where he touched, black ooze dripped like pus from Alex's skin. Alex gritted his teeth, and swung his other claw.

Rot felt a sharp stab of pain as his left arm separated from his body. The stump burned like fire, but did not bleed. Rot stared at it in disbelief, then felt a rolling wave of nausea at the sight of his arm falling to the ground. Alex's hand shot out and grabbed it, assimilating the arm in seconds.

Alex grinned darkly for a few seconds, then his expression changed. He looked strained all of a sudden, like he'd eaten some bad seafood. He pulled his claw out of Rot's chest and held his head, his hands shifting back into their normal form. He fell to his knees and began to scream.

Biomass ran down his face, his arms, his entire body. It oozed from every pore, dripping from his eyes, his ears, his nose. He even began to vomit the stuff. Rot had no idea what had caused this, he knew this was the only opening he'd get. He jabbed the fingers of his remaining hand into Alex's throat. Then, with all the force he could muster, he pulled up.

He spun around and dashed for the forest, leaving Alex headless, and melting behind him.


Smith's POV

Smith dashed past Rot, One-Arm following. Arrows continued to fall around them, the fact that they were unhurt a testament to their sheer amount of luck. They made it half-way to the forest before that luck ran out.

One-Arm fell to his knees as an arrow pierced his back, the sound of shattering glass the only indication of his injury. Smith picked him up, hoisting his second-in-command over his shoulder and dashing to the forest.

He ran, ran until he could no longer see the castle, until he could no longer hear the sound of combat, until he stumble, unable to run any farther. Once he'd stopped, he set One-Arm down and inspected his injuries. The arrow had gone through his rucksack, shattering one of the vials. Smith didn't know much about wounds, but he knew that they shouldn't be leaking black ooze.

He inspected the broken vial, to pass the time if nothing else. A bit of... whatever was inside it, still pooled in one of the shattered ends. He picked it up and reached inside to inspect the black fluid.

Suddenly, the ooze lunged at his right hand, wrapping around it like a cast. His arm burned like fire, as he felt it twist and warp within the dark cocoon that had encased it. He fell to the ground, and passed out.


Finn's POV

After Alex left, PB went back to going through the rubble, mumbling under her breath about his "impertinence". Finn didn't know what that meant, but he knew it wasn't a good thing. He had a feeling that their next conversation could get nasty.

Eventually, the Princess got tired of sifting through the wreckage and the four of them went to go calm down the citizens before they started freaking out. Well, freaking out more.

As they left the castle (Marceline grabbing an umbrella), the battle was finally starting to wind down. The banana guards had managed to capture what enemy troops hadn't either run away, or died. They had them held in the square, Root Beer Guy overseeing, while the non-combatants were starting to clean up. As they entered the square, Finn actually managed to get a good look at the "prisoners".

Though during the fight it seemed that most of them had been cold-blooded killers, these people looked completely different. The group was made up of all kinds of people, men and women, ranging from barely past into their teen years, to so old they barely looked fit to lit a shovel, and all were almost painfully thin. They looked more like farmers than fighters. The princess approached them.

"Who is your leader?" she shouted to the mob.

An ancient man stepped from the crowd a younger man, who looked to be in his late teens to early twenties, following him. The two were arguing about something, but Finn couldn't hear them. Finally the younger man backed down, and the old man faced the Princess.

"I am called Wolf, and I am the leader of these people Princess." he said in a frail voice.

The Princess frowned.

"What did you hope to gain by attacking my people?" She demanded.

The old man smiled wryly, sitting on the ground, to the Princess's obvious distaste.

"Your people." Wolf muttered with a grim chuckle. "We ARE your people."

"What?" PB exclaimed.

"While the man who led us, and many who follow him, are indeed criminals, my people and I hail from several villages on the edge of your kingdom. Where we come from, there is so little food to go around that people collapsing on the street from hunger is almost a daily occurrence. So yes, we joined this army. We joined because it was the only way we could think of to put a steady supply of food in our stomachs, and if you can fault us for that, then I weep for the future of Ooo."

The Princess looked shocked. Finn had no idea that such a thing was happening within the borders of the Candy Kingdom, and it looked like PB didn't either.

"I am truly sorry for your suffering," she began, "but I cannot overlook treason against the Kingdom. Crimes of such nature cannot simply go unpunished."

Wolf frowned, but did not hesitate in his answer.

"Joining the rebellion was MY idea," he shouted, his voice almost pleading, "punish ME, but let these good people leave in peace."

The Princess mulled this over, then began to speak.

"Alright, your people can go, but you must go in the dun-"

"GRANDFATHER, NO!" a loud voice cried from the crowd.

The young man that Wolf had argued with stepped forth.

"I'm NOT going to let you take the blame for this. YOU may have led us to this fight, but WE are the ones who decided to follow."

"Garan," Wolf began, "don't cause more trouble."

Garan knelt to the pavement and picked up a rock.

"It not fair to punish an old man for our mistakes." He shouted, "and I'm not going to stand for it."

He threw the rock at the Princess. It sailed through the air and struck her on the cheek. She held her hand to stanch the flow of blood trickling from the open wound. Garan picked up another rock, and more people joined him. Stones, garbage, and clumps of dirt flew towards the her, giving her several other small injuries, and a black eye.

The banana guards moved in, throwing several spears to quell the small riot that had so suddenly flared to life. More than one scream of agony accompanied the falling of the spears.

The Princess's eyes grew cold, an almost unhinged anger flaring behind her pupils.

"I've changed my mind," she announced coldly, "All of you are going into the dungeon. Forever."

Finn couldn't believe what he was hearing. Princess Bubblegum wasn't that cruel. Why was she acting crazy all of a sudden.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one who felt this way.

"What are you saying Princess?" Jake shouted.

"Yeah, what the heck?" Finn chimed in.

"Bonnie," Marceline began, "You can't just put all these people in the dungeon. It's... it's messed up."

PB's eyes still had that cold fire burning in them.

"Of course I can," she said, her voice dangerously quiet, "my dungeon has plenty of room. The three of you should remember that."

Then she simply walked away.


Alex's POV

Alex slowly opened his eyes. It was at least noon by the position of the sun. He looked around.

He was laying in a puddle of biomass, which he could tell was decayed beyond assimilation. This was bad, the virus inside of this guy must have mutated to the point of being incompatible with the Blacklight virus. He would have to think this over soon, but right now he had to get back to the kingdom.

He spotted a bloodied arrow lying on the ground. Walking over to it, he could see a speck of black blood on the head of the arrow. He found about five total, not that it was easy with all the other arrows around.

Alex quickly ran back to the tunnel entrance, where he found another clue. A small square of paper had been left on the ground. He picked it up, read it, and headed back into the castle.

The dungeon seemed, fuller than when he last came through here. He walked past the crowded cells and into the ruined lab.

As he'd expected, the Princess was inside, sitting on a burnt stone, staring glumly at the remaining bottles of biomass while holding an ice pack to her eye.

"You're not that smart for a genius are you." he called to her.

The second she heard him, the Princess's face became impassive, but Alex could sense her fear. She turned to him, removing the ice pack, her black eye in full view.

"What do you want?" she demanded impudently.

He dropped the arrows on to the table.

"Just a gift." he replied sarcastically, "I caught up to the guy who did this. It was the same one who took down the walls. I fought him but, he got away."

"Sounds like your losing your touch." she shot back smugly.

"Well, if his heart wasn't pumping my biomass through his veins he'd be paste."

The Princess said nothing, she just went back to holding ice to her eye. Alex continued.

"I also found this note outside the tunnel he used to get in. Let me read it for you." He pulled the paper from his pocket and read it aloud.

"Kyle sends his regards."

"Who would Kyle be?" he asked with mock-innocence, "An old boyfriend? Or maybe somebody else who's cells you stole?"

She grimaced.

"I don't have to answer to you." she growled, trying to sound brave.

"What about those new addition to the dungeon? Do you answer to them?"

"They committed treason and are serving just punishment." she replied.

"What treason?" Alex asked, his voice still dripping with sarcasm. "They look more like farmers than criminals. Do you honestly expect me to believe that they led the attack on the kingdom? Or did you find a rotten carrot in your soup and decide to start throwing peasants in the dungeon? Will you perform the execution by boiling them? Or are you going to roll out the headsman's axe? Hangings always an option too I suppose."

The more Alex went on with this, the more the Princess's face betrayed her anger. Anger, mixed with sadness.

"Get out." she whispered, her voice barely audible.

"Is that an order?" Alex asked.

"GET OUT!" the Princess screamed, hurling her ice pack at Alex.

Alex squinted in distaste, and walked towards the door, calling back one last parting sentence.

"If her so tyrannical majesty doth decree."

As he left, he could hear her sobbing faintly, yet he could find no sympathy for her.

Walking past the cells in the dungeon, he saw the people within looking defeated, dejected, and he paused. He shifted his arm into its muscle mass form and approached the cage.


Smith's POV

Smith woke up in the candy forest, moonlight shining through the trees. Sitting up, he saw Rot leaning against a dead tree.

"YOU!" he screamed.

He charged at Rot, swinging his axe like a man possessed. Rot easily caught the axe in his hand, his left hand.

"It wouldn't do any good anyway." Rot intoned "Apparently, I can regenerate lost limbs. Nice hand by the way."

Smith was confused. It must have shown on his face, because Rot pulled his axe down from the air above his head and shoved it in Smith's face, for him to see.

The axe was growing out of his wrist.

Smith stumbled back, blinking, trying to banish the nightmarish vision. But to his dismay, nothing changed.

Where his hand should be, the head of a double-bladed axe sprouted from his wrist.

"What happened?" he asked fearfully.

"When your buddy got shot, the arrow must have pierced one of the vials, which you then obviously proceeded to mess with, leading to, well," Rot motioned at his new hand, "that."

Smith stared at it, shivers rolling down his spine.

"If it's any consolation," Rot spoke up, "Yours isn't the strangest mutation we have."

Rot pointed over Smith's head. Sitting behind him, One-Arm was staring with his arms crossed.

Arms?

Instead of a stump on his left hand, One-Arm had grown some kind of, crossbow, made entirely of bone, sinew, and a strange black rock-like substance. It was loaded with a strange, bone-like spike. One-Arm just shrugged obviously as bewildered as he was.

"Well, this has been fun," Smith began nervously, "but we'd better get going. don't want the men getting worried."

Rot looked him in the eye.

"They're dead."

"WHAT!" Smith shouted.

"You heard me. They died in the fighting."

Smith felt light-headed, this was a lot to take in right now.

"Not that you could go back to them anyway. They'd freak when they saw that arm of yours."

Smith glared at Rot.

"Then what are we supposed to do?" he demanded angrily.

Rot smiled sinisterly.

"I've got an idea."


There it is, Chapter 11. Let me know what you think. I really want to hear some opinions on this one.