So sorry for the...very VERY late update. Life is so busy! Anyway, I'll be trying to update as much as I can from now on. So hope you enjoy!
Chapter 12
Everyone in the audience gasped at what has happened.
There, in the arena that is protectively protecting the prisoner, was the Prince of Flames. Flame Prince, full of rage, glared at both his mother and Prince Gumball. "That is ENOUGH mother! Deal or no deal, I will not let you kill Fionna," said Flame Prince. Fire Queen sneered at her son, "and what makes her so special that you would even go as far as to protect her?! She isn't even worth protecting, let alone to be with her your entire life!"
Turning to pick Fionna up from the ground and into his arms, Flame Prince glared at his mother once more, "it's because I love her, mother. She is different from everyone else. Especially you! You who have such a cold heart and will even go as far as try and kill her." Gumball stepped up this time and spoke, "if you love her that much, then why didn't you try to save her earlier? Why didn't you try to stop the battle?" Turning his glare from his mother to Gumball, he answered with honest, "it's because I know that Fionna would try anything to prove. To prove to you and everyone else here that she would do anything to let us be together, even as far as she is almost dead."
There were some murmurings among the crowds, creating some tensions on Fire Queen. Glaring at her only son, she harshly pointed at him, "I have heard enough of this nonsense. Guards! Seize my son and the prisoner!"
Fire guards all suddenly came out of nowhere, jumping off from the audience seats, and all started to engage towards Flame Prince and Fionna, who was still unconscious in his arms. At his boiling point, Flame Prince yelled, "GET BACK!" Using his power, he created a wall of flames around him and Fionna. The guards instantly backed away, not wanting to touch the Prince's flames for they will get hurt.
Then suddenly out of nowhere, a clap was heard. Everyone turned their attention on whomever was clapping, even Flame Prince. Looking at the person, they all saw that it was Prince Gumball, who is clapping. He was clapping with a smile before stopping and faced Fire Queen, "I think our charade is over. Don't you think so your highness?" Sighing, she whined, "but I was having so much fun."
Their talk suddenly made Flame Prince confused, making his wall of fire died down. "What do you mean by charade? Fun? What is going on here?!" Looking at Fire Queen, Gumball gestured, "You better explain. I only became a part of it because I showed you that soul mate thing from my machine." Whining once more, Fire Queen exhaled sharply, "oh alright. This whole entire time, everything was a set up."
He let the words sink in. When it finally sunk in, he exclaimed, "a set up?!" She nodded, "yes, a set up. Everyone in the flame kingdom all knew the plan also and they all went with it." "You have got to be joking! You're joking right?! This entire time it was a setup?!" Gumball whispered to Fire Queen's ear, "I told you he'll explode." She shrugged, "oh well. He has to learn it the hard way. Hard way is always better then easy way anyway." Gumball sighed before announcing to the crowd, "I thank you all for coming and being a part of this act. We will all gather once more until Flame Prince has cooled down a bit and know the real reason."
The Fire Kingdom people all cheered and started leaving, leaving Flame Prince, Fionna, who was still unconscious in his arms, Cake, Marshall Lee, Gumball, and Fire Queen in the arena. They all gathered around on the battle ground. Gumball spoke first, "I know that you are very confused right now-," he was cut off when Flame Prince yelled, "VERY confused! What the heck did you mean by everything was a setup? Were these two also part of it?" He said, gesturing to both Cake and Marshall Lee. Cake glared at Flame Prince, "don't you be pointing at me. I didn't even know that this was a setup until now." Marshall Lee shrugged and raised both of his hands, "I knew about it, but thought that the battle was actually fun to watch so I didn't say anything about it."
Sighing, Gumball tried to explain once again, "as I was saying, no Cake did not know about the setup because I knew that either way her reaction would still be the same and yes, Marshall knew because apparently he was there when I was messing with my new machine which could find you your soul mate." Gumball quickly raised his hand to stop Flame Prince to say anything else, "before you speak, I will explain everything."
~Flashback~
Gumball twisted one final knob to his machine, "there that should do it." Backing away to admire his work of art, he smiled. The machine had the appearance of a cloud with some pink tints around at the edges. "Now, to test it out to see if it works," said Gumball. Just when he was about to pull the lever down, Marshall suddenly came rushing in. "Hey Candy Prince, are you- ooh, what's that? What are you doing?" He flew near the machine, looking at it from every view.
Gumball sighed in frustration, "Would you stop giving me stupid nicknames?" Marshall answered, not looking at him since he was busy looking at the machine, "N~ope. So, you going to tell me what this is or not?"
Sighing, Gumball decided to push the nickname aside and started to explain what his new invention is, "this my friend, is a machine that can read one's soul and find its energy to connect to another to find its other energy that is the same as his or her." Marshall boredly looked at Gumball while trying to clean his ear with his pinky, "uh, try to say that in stupidity please?"
Slapping his forehead, Gumball exasperatedly sighed and explained once more, in a more simple way, "it's to find one's soul mate." Finally understood, Marshall flew above Gumball, "Oh~hoho, well why didn't you say that in the first place?" Looking at Marshall with annoyance, he mumbled, "I did." Laughing, Marshall landed and stood in front of him, "you expect me to get whatever you just said in mumbo jumbo?"
Decided to ignore him, Gumball focused his attention back to the machine and pulled the lever down. The sound of clinking and beeping were heard from the machine, but it soon died down. Confused, Gumball went to the front of the machine and started to examine the machine, "hmm, it should have work. I wonder why not?" Opening the machine up from behind, he started to search on whatever was wrong with his machine.
Flying boredly again, Marshall floated around the machine and Gumball, waiting for the Sugar Prince to hurry up and find the problem so he could see it in action. Floating in front of the machine, a certain button caught his attention. Looking closely at it, he saw that the button had a picture of two people and a heart between them. "Hmm, there doesn't seem to be any problem. According to my calculation, everything should be good. What I can't figure out is why-WAA!" said Gumball, suddenly got blown away from the machine.
"Oops," said Marshall, who still has his finger pressed on the button. Flying towards Gumball, he laughed, "dude, you should see how you look right now. You look hilarious!" Getting up from the ground, Gumball patted the debris of smoke off of him, "ha ha very funny. Anyway, what did you press to make it start up?" Showing him, Marshall floated back to the front of the machine and pointed at the button, "I pressed that."
Looking closely at the button, Gumball slapped his forehead, "of course! Why did I forget that I put that there?" Marshall snickered, "guess you're not all that smart." Gumball glared at him before turning his attention back to the machine, "anyway, thanks for putting it on. Now, let's see the results." Pulling the lever once again, a huge hologram screen popped up from above it, "well, who should we see first?"
"Oh, try me! I want to see who I'm with," said Marshall. Pulling the lever, a weird purple smoke covered the screen until it revealed Marshall, a heart in the middle, and Gumball. "Wait what?!" said Marshall. Gumball, too, was confused at the result that it has revealed, "Dude, I think your machine is broken. Because I am so not gay," said Marshall. Pushing and pulling the lever up and down, Gumball tried to find the problem, "hmm, well this is quite odd. The results shouldn't have come out like that. I wonder if some of my calculations are wrong."
"Uh yeah, you think?"
Looking back at his papers of calculation on a table next to his machine, he tried to find the solution on where he went wrong. When he couldn't find any, he exasperatedly threw the papers in the air, "I can't find where I went wrong?!" Just then, a bolt of light and heat exploded into the room, making a huge hole and melted wall of sugar. Facing to see who it is Gumball saw that it was Fire Queen from the Fire Kingdom.
"Well hello Fire Queen, what may I help you with?" asked Gumball, walking towards her and standing next to Marshall. Patting away to make sure she doesn't have any more sugar on her, she greeted, "hello Prince Gumball, I would like a word with you." Wondering if this is serious, he gestured for Marshall to leave. Marshall grumbles and crossed his arms in front of him, "no way am I leaving. I'm also curious so I'm staying and listening in on whatever this is." Sighing, Gumball knew he couldn't get rid of him so he faced the Fire Queen once again, "what is it that her majesty need?"
Fire Queen started to pace back and forth in the room, looking at the ground when she spoke, "it's about my son." This confused the Sugar Prince, "what about Flame Prince?" Facing him with a serious look, she answered, "I want to find him a girlfriend, or a girl that can rule by his side and truly take care of him. But you know how my kingdom citizens are and the less of princesses. They will not do since I know how obviously they are from their personality. Especially there is no way I am letting my son anywhere near that Ice Queen."
Thinking, Gumball tried to sink in on what the Fire Queen just said, "So what you're asking is that, you want to find a girl that is suitable for him?" She nodded. Thinking once more, Gumball snapped his fingers, "why don't we try using my machine?"
"Use your machine? Dude, we just tried that and it's completely useless," said Marshall. This confused Fire Queen, "machine? Useless? What do you mean?" Gumball sighed, "I made a machine that will search one's energy and find it to locate the one that is similar to theirs but unfortunately, it seems my calculation is wrong somewhere."
Fire Queen's mind went blank until Marshall explained, "he means that his machine can search whoever's soul mate you want to know." Finally understanding, Fire Queen confusedly look at Gumball, "well, why didn't you say that in the first place?" Marshall chuckled when Gumball annoyingly grumbled his same answer, "I did." Ignoring him, Fire Queen turned her attention back to the machine, "so what you're saying is that this machine can find soul mates?" Agreeing, Gumball went to pick up all of his papers that are scattered on the ground, "yes, that is correct. But unfortunately, there seem to be something wrong with my calculation for the machine says that both I and Marshall are soul mates."
Looking up at the screen, Fire Queen tilted her head, tapping her chin, "what if it's not wrong and its right? What if you two really are soul mates?" Marshall flew next to Gumball, "you're kidding me right? I don't like guys. I mean, sure I like to hang with pink face here sometimes, but that doesn't mean that I like guys." Fire Queen raised her hands in defense or surrender, "I am only saying. Besides, one will not know until the time is right." Marshall scoffed at her before turning to fly lazily back up into the air. Gumball grumbled at Marshall's lack of respect and turned to the queen, "I apologize for his rude behavior." She waved her hand at him, "don't worry about it. I'm used to getting the same attitude from my son." He nodded at her before turning back to the machine. "Well, we could try to use the machine," Gumball suggested. Marshall quickly flew in front of him, "what? You're really going to try it? The results didn't even come out right." Gumball stared at him, "that may be true. But it might have been just your own denial." Marshall blushed at what he said before grumbling and floated behind him. Crossing his arms, he looked over his shoulder at the both of them, "fine, but this still doesn't mean that I am supposed to be with you pink face."
Rolling his eyes, he turned his attention back to the queen, "shall we?" She nodded. Putting his hand on the lever, he pulled it down. The image of both Marshall and Gumball started to disappear and showed Flame Prince with a plus and Fionna. Both Gumball and Marshall's eyes widen at the result. "No way, you've got to be kidding me," said Marshall. Fire Queen stared at the picture, tilting her head a bit, "what is so wrong? And may I ask, who is she?" Scratching the back of his head, Gumball answered, "nothing is wrong, really. It's just that, the outcome kind of shock us both." Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she looked at him, "okay, but that didn't answer my other question." Taking a deep breath before sighing, he spoke, "the girl's name is Fionna, she's the same age as the prince, and helps out those she can with her sister Cake, who is a cat." Registering the information of the girl, Flame Queen asked one more question, "does she think, highly, of herself?" Shaking his head, Gumball was about to answer the queen's question until Marshall busted out laughing, taking both Gumball and Fire Queen's attention to him. When he noticed that their attention was on him, he chuckled, "sorry but, Fionna never thinks about herself, she always thinks about others first." Contemplating on what he said, she nodded her head in approval, "alright. I'm going to do a test on her to see if she is worthy of my son or not."
Both Gumball and Marshall, confused, looked at her and said in unison, "what?" She thought for a moment to see if she should explain it to them or not. But, she soon shrugged and decided to tell them, "in my royal family, generation to generation, we have always given tests to those who want to spend the rest of their life with us or us with them." Understanding, Gumball asked, "so what is this test that you were talking about?" Smiling, she told him, "it is a test to test the both of them to see if they are actually meant to be together or not. The both of them has to have the same feelings towards each other. Not just one sided. Also, in desperate situation, they both have to show their loyalty and love to one another when one of them are in danger or close to dieing." Nodding, understanding on where this is going, Gumball spoke, "how exactly are you going to do this?" Thinking, she shrugged, "don't know. Was pretty much wondering to see if you may help me."
Sighing, he knew she didn't have a plan to begin with. So, seeing how he is a scientist and a great planner, he decided to help her, "alright I'll help. But we're going to have to plan on how we're even going to make the both of them meet each other seeing how Flame Prince is stuck inside that lantern that you putted him in." She scoffed, "I did not put him in there, I had no choice. Seeing my son stuck in that latern always break my heart every time I see him in there." Marshall spoke, "it is still your fault since you did put him in there." Hearing what Marshall said must've struck a nerve because Fire Queen instantly flared up, slowly melting the sugary room around them, "you think I had any choice?! If it was not for Prince Gumball's warning of my son's powers, he would already be free now and who knows what would have already happened. "
Marshall quickly hid behind Gumball when he felt the heat accelerate while Gumball was flailing his arms up and down at his sides, "Wah! Decrease the heat! Decrease the heat! I'm melting! I'm melting your majesty!" Hearing the prince cry, she quickly cooled down. Getting out from behind the sugar prince, Marshall looked at the now melted room and whistled, "man, how are you going to fix this Pinky? Everything is nearly melted." Grumbling, Gumball tried to shake off the melted stickiness of sugar off of him, though it was no use since he was made of sugar. Fire Queen quickly apologized, "I'm so sorry for what I did." Waving it off, Gumball mumbled, "it's fine. The damage can be fixed. So for now, we'll focus on your problem. And this time, no remarks." He glared at Marshall when he said that. Nodding their heads, they all focused back to Fire Queen, "so, what is the first step to get the both of them together?" asked Gumball. The queen put a finger on her chin, thinking, "what we need to do first is to try and somehow get them to meet each other." Both Gumball and Marshall also started thinking but they also came out nothing. "Oh well, guess we're out of luck," said Marshall. He took out a black cloak out of nowhere from inside his shirt and wrapped it around himself. Flying to the open hole, he waved at them, "well, since I'm getting more bored over here, I'll see you two later. Contact me when you guys start to do something fun." With that said, he flew out of the castle and back to his cave. Scratching his head, Prince Gumball turned to the queen, "do you have any ideas?" Fire Queen sighed, shaking her head, "no I don't. Do you mind if we go back to my place and think more about this? I don't think me being here will help me think." Gumball tilted his head in confusion. She sighed, gesturing at the melted sugar floor that is surrounding her feet. Understanding, he nodded, "right, I guess it is best if we went to your place to try and think of an idea."
I hope you like it! Please RxR~
I'm hoping to update another chapter either tomorrow or Monday. So please look forward to it! Thank You!