Fionna

Uuuugh, glob! Why does my head hurt? And why… why can't I move my hands? How am I moving? Is that—is that the ground I'm seeing move under me?

I struggled and squirmed, but something grasped me hard, keeping me still. I looked around frantically, trying to recollect what had happened. It was obvious I was bound and I was being carried, but where was I? How did I get here? I lifted my head up to see something besides the floor and the sweaty back of whoever was carrying me, and saw Ember and Marshall's defeated faces, their eyes glued to the floor.

That's right… they knocked out Lilly, and then they knocked me out…

Both of their faces were beaten and bloody, and they were bound with chains and collars, being led by someone who was in front of the person carrying me.

"Stop your wrigglin', human," a gruff voice said, vibrating through both our bodies.

Marshall looked up and made eye contact with me. One of his eyes was swelling just a little underneath, and his lip had been bleeding pretty badly. How long was I out?

With all my might, I swung my legs up, then sent them crashing into the torso of the demon carrying me. He hurdled me forward, hunching over and gripping his stomach. I landed on the floor, sliding and hitting against a wall. I only had a moment to take everything in; that succubus leading Ember and Marshall, the identical demon to the one carrying me holding Lilly in his arms, still knocked out, the way everyone was bound up tight, and the small army of demons following after us. I didn't have my sword, or my dagger. I felt naked, and for a moment I felt helpless.

That feeling was kicked out of me when a shiny, high-heeled boot smashed into my face. I spat blood as I fell over, hoping I didn't lose any teeth. Again I struggled to sit up, to look at the woman who nearly snapped my neck with the sheer force of her kick.

"Don't be a bad girl, human. Or else the next person to get a kick to the face won't be you." The succubus, Sal, nodded her head to the guard carrying Lilly. He walked over to her, bending down slightly so Lilly, still passed out, was at just the right height to get the wrath of her boot.

"You hurt my daughters and I'll make you eat those heels," I sneered, spitting out another mouthful of blood.

"Oh, how feisty!" she squealed, like my threat excited her. She yanked on one of the chains she held, forcing Marshall to fly forward and fall to his knees next to her. "And what would you do to me if I were to do something… less painful… to your loved ones?"

In a sickeningly sexual gesture, she bent down and grabbed Marshall's chin, holding him still, and ran her purple forked tongue up his cheek. He forced his face away from her, and I could almost see the chill go up his spine.

"Sal…" that gruff voice of my guard said in a low tone, subtly trying to get her attention.

"Don't correct me, maggot! Hannah can say all she wants, but I will have the king as my plaything!"

Marshall chuckled, sarcastic and un-amused. "I wouldn't have you as my pet, I wouldn't take you as my master, so what makes you think I'll be your plaything?"

Sal hissed, her fury actually changing the air flow around her, causing her long, shiny black hair to fly wildly around her. "You are in no position to make assumptions, Fallen King!" she screeched. In a flash of speed and power, she slammed her heel into Marshall's face, forcing him to the floor and pinning his head between her foot and the tile. I screamed for him, and Ember tried to lunge, but was caught in mid-air by the chains that bound her and thrown to the ground.

"Release him, Sal," a serious, ominous voice echoed through the hall. Slowly, almost unnoticeably, the shadows began to pool in front of her, rising up to create some sort of pseudo-demon figure with red glowing eyes. Just like the shadow soldiers.

Immediately she removed her heel from Marshall's face and stood up straight and proper, bowing slightly to the shadow with one arm across her chest and the other firmly at her side. "I apologize, Your Highness, but the king—"

"Should be brought to me immediately. You've had your warning, succubus. I'll not warn you again." Hannah's voice almost boomed through the shadow, casting a menacing feel into the air around us.

Sal bowed again and whispered, "Understood," before she bent to lift Marshall from the floor and set him on his feet. The shadow watched as she did, staring her down with disgust and malice. I guess I wasn't the only one who found Sal to be beyond obnoxious. With a strong yank, she had Ember up from the floor as well, both hers and Marshall's chains in her stiff, unyielding claws. The same guard from before came over and gently scooped me into his arms, holding me the way his twin held Lilly. From the outside it probably looked like a sweet gesture, but tactically, I had almost no way to wriggle away from him.

The shadow figure turned with exactness and precision, wisps of the darkened air falling behind it. Slowly it began to glide down the hall, leading us to wherever it was we were supposed to go. I tried to look past the guard carrying me to see Marshall and Ember, but all I got was glimpses of their downcast faces and their black-as-night hair. Then I tried to get a look at Lilly, but I was faced with the same problem: only glimpses.

Everyone was quiet as we walked, even that infuriating succubus. The shadow had a forlorn feel to it, like the shadow itself could take us all out if it felt irritated enough. We all knew it was Hannah animating a shadow to do her dirty work and the thing probably couldn't do more than move back and forth, but still, it was close to terrifying.

Soon enough we arrived at a set of massive black wooden doors. The shadow stopped in front of them, then turned sharply again to face us. "Send in the human, first," it said, then fell into a puddle once more on the floor.

The guard dug his fingers into my bindings, being able to hold me up in midair with one hand. Sal opened the doors for him to drop me in, dissatisfaction and frustration on her face, but her eyes never meeting mine. With a plop, the guard dropped me into what looked sort of like an office. It had a desk with a chair on either side, and what looked to be an old-world computer with a glowing screen on top of it.

The chair behind the desk was turned around, facing an opened window that looked out over the Nightosphere. Slowly, it creaked and turned, revealing Hannah sitting in it and a look on her face that was less than reassuring.

"Tell me, human girl, what is it that you wish to do here?" Her voice was calm, collected, like she was talking to a business partner or like she'd been planning this for a long time.

"I bet you can guess, Hannah. You've known we were here the whole time," I retorted, pushing myself up against a wall so I didn't look so pathetic lying on the floor.

She smiled, a small, insignificant gesture, and stood up from her chair. She crossed her fingers in front of her and glided around the desk, leaning up against it as if she was actually relaxing. "You want to take Marshall back to the Upperworld. That much was obvious. What I'm interested in is finding out how you plan to do such a thing."

I bit my lip and scowled at her, not letting her get through to my thoughts. Honestly, I had no idea what I was going to do. I wanted to destroy the amulet, like I destroyed those relics so long ago, but it can't be destroyed. I thought about killing Hannah, but what good would that do? This whole mess… it made me so unsure of myself. "I won't tell you. You don't deserve to know."

Hannah raised one slender, clean finger to her lips, looking me up and down like she was judging my worth. "So I see. You have no plan. You just forced your way in here and hoped things would work out, like they always have. Your reputation as a lucky woman precedes you, Fionna the Human, but make no mistake; it was all luck. And in the Nightosphere, luck does not exist."

"You're wrong! I will save him from this place! I will bring my family back!"

Like air, she appeared in front of me, her furious glare boring into my face. "Stupid cur! You should have taken my offer. Would not your memories be so much easier to handle, had Marshall not been in them? Wouldn't you have been able to live your life in peace and prosperity, had you forgotten about my son? Why would a wretched thing like you bother with something you cannot possibly hope to understand?"

"Because a life without Marshall is no life at all! He is a part of us! And no matter how much we do and do not remember about him, without him, a piece of our family would always be missing," I cried out, hanging my head and letting my hair fall loosely around my face.

She was silent for a moment, looking me over again. I could feel her eyes on me, questioning me and my motives. "After all these years, you're still a love-sick child. It sickens me."

I didn't answer her. I couldn't. What she said didn't matter to me. I didn't care what she thought of me because she never had my respect to begin with. What flooded my mind was what she'd done. "How could you? How could you sacrifice your own child to this curse? What kind of mother would leave her son to take her burdens?" I whispered to the floor, letting the words come out strained but strong.

"And what would you know of my burdens, girl? What would you know about the dealings of demons?" she spat. I looked up at her, my eyes peering at her through my lashes, to see her arms crossed and her face angered.

"I don't care what burden it is or what creature you are, NO mother should ever make their children a sacrifice. Mothers don't do that, Hannah! Mothers protect their children! Mothers make the sacrifices! Not the other way around! It's what we do!" I screamed it at her and waited for her reply. She just glared down at me, a sneer breaking the composure of her perfect and still face. "So answer me, Hannah Abadeer. Answer my question. How could you?"

"My motives are none of your concern—"

"You made it my concern when you took my children's father from them, Hannah! Now answer my question!"

"Fine, you insolent rat! You want an answer? Here it is: I never wanted a child. Ever. And I never expected to have one. When my mother handed the amulet down to me, I swore I would wear it until my last breath. Believe it or not, human, at one time my heart wasn't rotted to the core. I didn't want to pass that amulet down. The power was indescribable, but the pain, the constant drain on my immortality—I didn't want anyone else to have to endure it. But then the years went by, and century after century I could feel myself grow weaker, grow feeble. It was not at all how I imagined it to be. The strain of running the Nightosphere coupled with the weight of the amulet turned my flesh and blood heart to stone. I lost my ability to care about others. All I had left was the drive to rule them. The power had consumed me, corrupted me. And so, when the opportunity came to create a being to take my burdens, I had no questions in my mind. It was a necessary step, a business venture, something to protect my well-being. It didn't matter what it was or how I acquired it, so long as someday I could be released from this imprisonment the amulet placed on me." She reached for her neck, the place where the amulet would have been if she was wearing it. Her carefully plastered face was beginning to crack.

"But… Marshall is half vampire. And you said his father had to bite him… if you really just wanted someone to help you make an object to take your burdens, why didn't you choose another demon?" I asked, feeling so absorbed in her truth that I forgot what I was here for.

"I was still naïve. That is the only explanation. I sought out… I looked for a being that could show my… vessel… compassion, so that maybe, when the time came, my child could take the sacrifice I couldn't. Marshall's father was a human. A stupid, love-sick human, like you. He dreamed of a family, of a loving wife and happy child. I suppose, at some skewed point in time, I wanted that, too. But I was the Queen of the Shadows, Ruler of the Nightosphere. I realized that quickly and remembered my purpose. My heart went cold long ago, so there was no point in warming it now." She sighed heavily, then slowly walked to the chair in front of the desk, sitting down in a proper position. "Marshall was born mortal. He had the gifts and talents of a demon, and he had Abadeer blood, but the amulet would only take to an immortal to feed on. So, I abandoned him. He was a failed project, nothing more. I decided I would try again at some other time, but for now, I would leave him with his human father and let him die in the Mushroom wars."

My heart sank into my churning, nauseous stomach. She was worse than I thought.

"Marshall's father was… not willing to let me leave him behind. He said, 'If you can't love me, at least love our son!' That's when the idiot left Marshall behind to go in search of a way to make him immortal."

"And that must have been when Marshall met Sam," I interrupted, connecting the dots.

"Yes, the Ice Queen. I was contented to leave Marshall with her. She seemed to make him happy, and for whatever reason, he was able to hold her sanity for far longer than was expected. But that idiot of a man, his father… he came back when Marshall was 19. He'd searched the world for the secret to immortality, but all he found was that grotesque disease of vampirism. He bit Marshall, letting the virus sweep through him. Marshall only had a very slim chance of survival. Vampires and demons don't mix well to begin with. But, for whatever reason, his human side absorbed the vampire disease, and he gained what I thought he could not. His immortality." Hannah leaned back in the chair, her neat, perfect bun pressing unnaturally against the leather. "His father begged me to take him back, to make him the prince he was. Out of a lack of will to make another child, I accepted. The amulet took to him well enough, and he had the will to rule the Nightosphere. I looked at my options and realized that he was my best one."

I stared at her in disbelief, searching her rock-hard face with my tear-filled eyes. I didn't know what to think of it. I couldn't make sense of it. "So—so if you left him during the wars because he wasn't immortal, then why did you threaten to take my daughters?"

"I never intended to take your mutt daughters here. They would have been no use. They're not immortal, and I knew that. Marshall knew that, too," she said, finding the energy to glance my way.

"Wait, if Marshall knew, then why—"

"He is not as empty-headed as he would have you believe. He played along with my plan that night because he knew that the only way to keep you all safe was to give up. He knew what lengths I would have gone to to free myself from the burden of the amulet."

"You're sick," I whispered, contained rage and sadness infecting my voice. "You're just—just horrible!"

She chuckled at me, laughing almost, and sat up straight in the chair again. This time her cold, lifeless eyes gleamed at me, a wicked smile curling onto her lips. "I hope you didn't just figure this out, dear Fionna."

I turned my head away, not letting her see my face. I heard her stand up, her heels clinking on the floor as she walked towards me. "You asked for an answer, and I gave you the truth. Now that you have your answer, here is my question to you…"

She bent down in front of me, forcing her face into my view so I couldn't look away.

"How do you plan on saving him this time, Fionna the Human?"