Finn fell out of the portal, hitting the ground hard. Fionna fell on top of him, groaning. Behind them, the portal closed, the instability becoming too much for it. Finn quickly stood back up, panicking. "He shot us! He actually shot us!"
PB looked at them, sadly. "He used the laser to push you all out of the portal. I told you these suits were durable. Heh…" She forced a laugh, but it fell short. Jake shook himself from PB's grip. "What are we standing around here for? We need to go after him!"
"No. He was right. He's the only one who can stop the cube. If we go in now, we'll be absorbed by it."
"I don't care about that junk! He's our friend! Let me back in!" Finn yelled. Before PB could respond, the machine began to whir and hum. The earth began to shake vigorously as electricity began to surround the machine. The air itself felt unstable! Chaos reigned for a brief moment.
Then it stopped.
The world was once again at peace. The machine spat out a few more spark before smoke began rising from it. PB ran to it. "No! No! Come on, you hunk of metal!" She pressed several buttons on it, but to no avail. She put her head in her arms. "The machine is broken. Whatever happened in there, it fried the machine. It's going to take days to get this working again! We can't go back in!" The group looked at her in horror, realizing that their friend may not be coming home.
Tony felt numb. The pain he had gone through was beyond anything he'd felt in his life. Eventually his body gave out, as did his mind. He passed out, ready for what was happening next. However, he was surprised to find that he heard a familiar voice through the darkness. "... on't… ere…" He tried to open his eyes, but found even that to be painful.
"You… ong… ere…" He tried to focus on the voice through the ringing in his ears.
"You… don… belo… he.."
Tony opened his eyes. "W-what?"
In front of him, a colossal owl loomed over him, looking annoyed. Tony recognized him as the owl from his dreams. The golden being screeched. "You don't belong here! You're in the guacamole bowl!" Tony winced as he looked down to find that he was, in fact, in a giant bowl of guacamole. Another familiar voice chuckled. "Yeah, sorry about that. I read that guacamole is good for the skin!" Prismo said.
"Where did you read that?"
"Online, duh. Now hold up." He levitated the human to the center of the room and snapped his fingers. Almost immediately, Tony began to feel his numbness subside and his pain alleviate. He knelt down, still exhausted and with a multitude of questions flowing around his mind. "How.. where... "
Prismo put his hand up. "Chill, man. You just barely escaped an extremely painful implosion, so, y'know, take it easy."
"How did I survive? I thought I was going to die with the cube?"
"That was me. I pulled you out of there as fast as I could! After you destroyed the beast, I could access the timestream a bit more easily. You are, like, extremely lucky! You were literally moments away from being wiped from existence. You're welcome." Prismo said, pridefully.
"What about the cube! Where is it! What-" Tony suddenly realized he was holding something. He looked down to find his hands clutching the very same cube that had caused so much trouble. He loosened his grip on it when he saw his white knuckles. He sighed. "Thank you, Prismo. I…" He fell on his back, letting exhaustion kick in. "It's over… it's finally over…" He chuckled at first, then began laughing. Cosmic Owl munched on some snacks, looking at Prismo in confusion. The shadow shrugged. Tony stood and held the cube. "So, what now?"
Prismo levitated the cube in front of him. "Well, I'll just take care of this." He snapped his fingers, making a bubble around the cube. He blinked, causing the cube to explode within the bubble. Tony had to shield his eyes from the flash of the explosion, but when he looked back, the dreaded object was nothing but ash. Prismo looked at the human. "So, ready to go back? PB should be starting the exodus soon."
"Exodus?"
"Yeah, she's sending the refugees back to their own dimensions, remember? With the cube gone, we don't have to worry about them being dragged away from their homes."
Tony smiled. "That's great! Everything can finally be back to normal. All of the refugees can… go... " He suddenly remembered someone. "Fionna will want to return home, too, huh?"
Prismo frowned. "Yeah, man. She had a whole life there! I mean, I know her and Finn are kind of a thing now, but you gotta put yourself in her shoes." Tony remembered how he felt when he was taken from his home. Lost. Alone. It wasn't until he made friends that he truly got used to the world. He knew Fionna was used to it, too, but she actually has the choice to go back now. Tony's musings were interrupted when Prismo spoke again. "You know, dude, you didn't make a wish earlier."
"What?"
"Well, as a cosmic being of near-infinite power, it's sort of my deal to give people wishes when they come here." He grinned. "I think I know just what you'll do."
Tony put a hand to his chin. 'A wish… a wish for anything at all… that means…' His mind flashed to visions of his family, of people he once knew. His mind flashed to his professor, now a skeleton at the bottom of the sea. For a moment he was certain of what he wanted.
Then he saw other people. Finn, Jake, Bubblegum.
Breakfast Princess. He saw the times he shared with them, times he cherished with his new family. Tony sighed. "Prismo… I wish…"
Princess Bubblegum read the readings on her wrist and gasped. "He… he did it! Tony stopped the cube!"
"Awesome! So then… where is he?" Finn asked, looking around.
PB sighed. "He… he knew the risk, Finn." Her words hung in the air around the comrades. They didn't want to accept it, but they knew there was no other way. Tony was…
Suddenly, a portal opened up above the group, spitting Tony out onto the ground. He fell with a groan as the group stood, flabbergasted. Tony stood and dusted himself off. He looked at his friends in joy. "Guys! You're okay!" As if on cue, the group rushed the human with a barrage of hugs. He was surprised at first, but returned the affection. Fionna looked at him. "We thought you were dead, dude!"
"So did I, but Prismo pulled me out of there just in time. He also destroyed the cube."
Jake jumped for joy. "Yes! My man!"
The group continued their reunion for a few more minutes. PB suddenly looked serious. "Okay. We've solved our main problem, but now we have the task of getting all of the refugees back home. Unfortunately, whatever energy was given off in thee portal has short-circuited the machine. It should only take a few days to fix. Let's get this hunk of junk back into the lab."
The trek back to the Candy Kingdom was uneventful until they reached the kingdom gates. There, the citizens of the Candy Kingdom and the refugees waited. A wave of murmurs went through the crowd when they saw the group approach on a giant Jake. PB stood, arms raised to call for silence. When the crowd hushed she closed her eyes and smiled. "We did it."
The crowd burst into cheers.
After getting the machine back into the lab, the group went back out into the crowd of joyous candy citizens. PB stepped away to answer questions from the refugees. Meanwhile, Finn, Jake, and Fionna began partying with the candy citizens. Tony smiled at them before pulling his cellphone out. He had someone to call before any partying could be done. However, as if the universe itself had read his mind, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked, only to be met with a tight hug from the person he had in mind. Breakfast Princess stopped hugging him and punched him in the shoulder. "Don't you dare scare me like that again!"
Tony chuckled, nervously. "Sorry, BP-" He didn't finish as a kiss suddenly adorned his lips. Breakfast Princess hugged him tightly. He returned the affection with a smile. Behind them, someone cleared their throats. Tony was a bit surprised to see "Flame Princess! I hope I didn't worry you too much, too." He joked.
The fiery princess smirked. "Of course you did! BP and I rushed over when the weather went back to normal. I'm glad you're alright." She gave him a thumbs up, knowing a hug might do more harm than good. The trio looked out into the crowd of celebrating citizens with smiles. Breakfast Princess looked at the human. "What happens now?"
"I guess everything goes back to normal. PB will send everyone back home and, after that, I'm not sure…"
"Back to normal, huh? I don't know…"
"What do you mean?"
"Well… I've kind of gotten used to having you at my castle." She blushed as she laid her head on his chest. "Maybe you can, I don't know, stay there? With me?" Tony's face became red, causing the princess to get flustered. "Oh, never mind. That was too forward. You probably have to recover from this whole- mph!" She was surprised when Tony kissed her, but gladly accepted.
"I'd love to." He said, holding her ever closer. She was stunned for a moment, but laughed as she returned the affection. Jake watched the scenario from afar, nodding in approval. "That's my boy! Smoochin' it up!" Suddenly, he was plucked off of the ground as kisses adorned his head. Lady Rainicorn had picked him up, happy to see her love."키스, 어?" She said, winking at Jake. The dog's eyes widened. "Woohoo!" He exclaimed before kissing the rainicorn.
The celebration would last well into the night, the threat to the world now becoming nothing more than a memory...
