Chapter 36:
The fallout was epic.
The Wiz Guards were stirred up, giving everybody the third, fourth, and fifth degree. Betty was a hysterical mess, and Simone was gone, so there was nobody in charge of the city to rein them in. Finn had been forced to stop them from zapping half a dozen different people, including a few who were obviously wounded. He had been delighted to find that Nadia's people had managed to save quite a few of the guests with their forcefield biz or the body-count would have been higher. As it was, the Warrior-Kingdom delegation was decimated, with only their leader and a handful of his closest guards having survived. Several of their wives and family members had been slain by vines. The Lich had frozen twenty people in one shot, killing the envoy from the Grey Forest and her companions too.
It was bad every way you looked at it, and there seemed nobody but Finn even trying to do anything about it. Padding through the makeshift hospital with Dr. Princess at his side, Finn found Bonnie standing over Sarah, staring at the android girl in a state of shock. "She saved me," murmured Bonnie. "She saved a bunch of us..." Finn rushed up to find that his girl had a chunk of vine stuck deep into her middle. A shock of terror and rage welled up inside him. Before he could say a word, though, the android girl's face turned to his, looking battered and ravaged with half the right side missing, revealing the steel skeleton underneath. She was trying to smile. She was actually trying to smile. Reaching out with her good arm, she scratched some words in the dust. "I'm ok," she told him. "Take care of business."
Dr. Princess was very interested in the innards and organs hanging out of her middle. "Are those," she burbled? Her fascination with the android-woman was tangible. "I can fix her," sighed Bonnie. "I... I will fix her. Finn, get going. I need you to keep things moving until Betty's ready to take charge." Grimly, the big man moved on. Behind him, he could hear Bonnie telling Sarah, "I'm gonna' have to shut your primary systems down to preserve your power supply until we can get you home. I can grow you some new organs." There was a brief pause, then he heard Bonnie giggle, "yes, you'll probably dream."
Making himself focus on the job, Finn walked over to the chief of the Wiz Guard, who was talking to Nadia. "Captain," muttered the sullen wizard. "Status," asked Finn? The wizard bristled, but Finn shut him down. "The Grand Master's cabinet is wrecked. Until one of them's able to take charge, you'll answer to me," said the big man. The wizard went to raise his staff, but Finn feinted at his eyes and disarmed him when he went to protect himself. Snatching up the staff he'd dropped, the big man actually use his own weapon against him. Raising his voice so that everyone nearby could see, Finn said, "anybody else want to argue? No? Wiz Guards, fan out. I need to know who brought the Ice Tiara here. All able bodied soldiers are on patrol. No exceptions..."
Baron Elftmann shouted, "you don't have the right...!" Finn hefted the stick that had been the head Wiz Cop and replied, "who wants to argue?" There turned out to be no takers. Not even the Baron himself wanted to risk becoming a stick. Shoving the head Wizard Cop into his belt, Finn told Nadia, "post your dudes at the entries. Block them. It'll take him a while to get through the outer walls." He didn't wait for her answer. Moving on to Breezy, he said, "need one of your dudes to track my buddy. From a safe distance. No heroics. Find out which way he's going." That brought him to Billy. "After you get your dudes on patrol, find out who stood to gain from Simon's death," said Finn. This wasn't the first attempt on Simon's life, and Finn had never liked the answers he'd gotten last time. As the stunned dignitaries looked on, their bodyguards hopped to it, obeying Finn the Human's commands as if he was their master.
Meanwhile, down in Death's rock quarry, Marceline, the former Vampire Queen, had come to a decision. This one had been centuries in the making, and she'd mostly refuse to even acknowledge it when the subject came up. Now, she was out of time. The Peppermint asshole had come by to tell her that Death's plan was in motion. He was moving against Finn, Bonnie, and Simon. Especially Simon. His hatred for that old man was pathological. She had to do something. For that, she had to get out of here, but she wasn't planning on being Death's hound–murdering people for his profit.
But she had other options.
Brianna sat opposite her, chewing her way through a breakfast of stale cereal and spoiled bug-milk. She'd explained the significance once and refused to discuss it ever again. Much like Marceline's own issues with her father, that meal signified the issues that Brianna had–the very ones that had sent her spiraling into the life she'd been leading before her death. The dark-haired beauty turned and stared off across the quarry to the losers that sat there. She hadn't lost any of her spirit, and she'd been looking for a way out of this place since day one. Honestly, Marcy wasn't sure why she hadn't just insisted on moving on to the Night-O-Sphere. Better to rule in hell and all that.
Marceline herself had been considering that very topic. She'd been working every angle of the problem since she'd arrived. There was no way that Death was letting her out of here–not without a signed contract. Having pissed on his parade, she could expect that he would put the screws to her the very next time they chatted. It would be all out, no quarter, and it wouldn't be a measly hundred souls. Quite likely she would be forced to do the unthinkable, which would merely replace one undead scourge with another. After a lot of soul-searching, she had come to the conclusion that there was no escape from fate.
Reaching out, she snatched the carton of bug-milk from Brianna's grasp. As the mobster shouted and cussed at her, Marceline calmly got up and began pouring it out on the ground. As she did so, she whispered a dreadful incantation, one she hadn't used in ten years. Her father still watched over her. She was still the anti-Glob, after all. She was his prize. She was supposed to submerge the world in darkness and rule over the Night-O-Sphere for eternity and all that. Unfortunately Marceline had sort of stopped talking to him. Now, as Brianna tried to take the milk from her hands, Marceline completed the incantation to summon the Great Dark Lord of Hell.
"What the fuck'd you do that for," howled Brianna?! She didn't exactly like munching on clotted-up milk, but it beat starving! After starving herself for days, she needed something to keep her going in her quest to escape. Calmly, Marceline said, "I'm getting us out of here." She hoped she was. This was still Death's Domain–the world in between life and eternity. Did her father have sway here? He had some power over Death. He didn't seem to fear Hunson Abadeer, but he also didn't seem to want to be on his bad side.
As the two bickered, a portal formed, black as a night in the Night-O-Sphere and scintillating with all sorts of strange colors. Marceline calmly stepped back, shoving Brie behind her as the portal grew and grew, finally disgorging a titanic figure, a hundred feet tall with an ugly bulbous head, translucent jowls, and tentacles sticking out of his neck. A terrified Brianna pissed herself on the spot as the Lord of Darkness strode out into the quarry wearing an ugly cardigan sweater over uglier golf-shorts. "Souls," howled the evil being! "Fresh ones!" He scarcely heard Marceline as she shouted for his attention. Instead, he went stomping across the landscape towards the others. Better head that off, thought the former Vampire Queen, as she raced, on foot, after her evil daddy.
Hunson Abadeer rarely got the freshest of souls. Usually they had been dead a long, long while before falling out with Theo and ending up taking that last walk. It was rare these days that somebody was dumb enough to sell their soul to him directly. Those were the freshest of all. These souls before him were a little stale, but much fresher than what he usually got. As he strode forward, looking around him, he found himself in a strangely familiar place. He'd passed this spot on his way to play a few rounds with Theo. Am I in Theo's place, thought the Dark Lord? He was due to play golf with Theo in a few hours, but Theo had never dared do something so silly as to summon him. What the fuck?
Stopping before the huddling, terrified masses, Hunson fought down his hunger for a moment as he puzzled over how he'd gotten here. Yeah, this was Theo's place. These were the schmucks he was always hoarding and keeping from Hunson's grasp. It was tempting to gobble a few up just to spite the old fucker. Just then Theo came out of the foreman's shack, shouting at Hunson. "What're you doing here," demanded Death, as he shed the shape he took on to monitor his toys? The zoot-suited entity that was the avatar of Mortality came running down the slope, cussing and fuming.
"Was hoping you could tell me," replied Hunson, as he shrank down to his more manageable size. As Theo skidded to a halt in front of him, the Dark Lord said, "somebody summoned me." "But there's no bug-mil...," howled Theo, stopping in mid-sentence as he realized that he'd been tormenting one of his pets with that very substance for weeks now. It was a short leap from there to just who had summoned Hunson. "Daddy," puffed Marceline, as she stopped in front of her father.
Brianna gawped at her! The Devil was her father?! "Punkin," stammered Hunson?! "W-what're you doin' here?" Marceline was too busy huffing-and-puffing to answer. She hadn't had to run anywhere in a long, long while. The Prince of Darkness turned to his oldest pal and howled, "Theo?! What the fuck're you doin' t'my kid?! We had a deal!" "Uh...," stammered Death. Hunson wrapped a protective arm around his child. Death sighed heavily and said, "my job's to keep mortality movin', Hunson. Fucking Finn the Human and that loser, Simon, have been in my way. I needed an edge. She's one of mine. She's a vampire." "Was," retorted Marceline. "You took my powers." Turning to her father, she said, "daddy, he's been keeping me here against my will."
Hunson turned back to his friend and demanded, "is this true?" A defiant Theo replied, "yeah. She's supposed to work for me. That's part of the deal. No workie, no powers." "Ok," said Marceline. "Keep your fucking powers. I'm going home with daddy." Hunson spun about to face his child. "Honey," he murmured. "I-is this true?" "Yeah," said Marceline. "I... It's time, dad." Frowning, he said, "you know what this means, Marcy?" Flushing, the half-demon murmured, "I'm... not ready to go full time, daddy, but I'm willing to spell you..." Hunson thought about that for a while. It was the same deal his dad had given him. "Well," said Hunson. "I guess we can work it out, sweetie-pie." Dry chuckle and he said, "means more time for golf!" "Ugh," howled Marceline. The Prince of Darkness reminded her, "it beats doin' standup like your gramps." Marceline groaned as she thought of the one time she'd listened to her grandfather's routine. That old man could tell some groaners!
"W-what about me," howled Death?! "You're lucky I still want to play," muttered Hunson. "I'll see you in an hour. C'mon, punkin. Let's get home." "One last thing, daddy," said Marceline. She was going to need a henchman–somebody she understood and could trust. Turning to the former Mafia Princess, the new Princess of Darkness said, "you want a job, Brie? It's not nice, but it beats chasing rocks." "Sure, girlie," said the deceased mobster. "Let's go." She gave Death the Italian-salute as she followed her new boss towards the distant portal.
Late that first day, while her father was playing a few rounds with a barely repentant Theo, Marceline stepped out onto the surface of Ooo under the late afternoon sun. It felt a little strange to feel the sun on her face without being burned by it, and she couldn't seem to help running her tongue over her canines. No more fangs. "So what now," asked Brie? "You go answer calls," replied Marceline. "I'm... I got some unfinished business." "Sure," said Brie. "Do I get to punish anybody?" With a shrug, Marceline replied, "if any idiots from the Soul Pits come whining about something, do whatever comes to mind..." With that, Marceline set out–walking–towards the distant site of Wizard City.
Ahead of her, Finn the Human was sitting down with his kids to go over what they'd found. The news was a little grim. "He killed a fair number of wizards on his way out the door, dad," sighed Star. "People with the might to stop him," sighed Finn. Billy had more dire news. "The Tiara was delivered by a broom-messenger," he said. "Came from a shop in the shady part of town. I tracked him there and... had a few words with him." Fionna, who'd gone with him, cut right to the chase. "Your fucking girlfriend did this, dad," she shouted! "She sicced that fucking fiend on moms!" The pretty blonde took a swing at Finn, and it was only by a miracle that she missed. Grabbing her arm and holding her back, Billy reminded her, "you do realize your bones are hard as diamond, sis? I know you're mad at him, but do you really want to kill our father?"
It took a great deal of diplomacy and a lot of soothing words to talk Fionna down from pummeling their father. When they had her calm again, Billy told their anxious dad, "he's mobbed-up, dad. That whole shop is controlled by gangsters. Wiz Cops know it as a hotbed of criminal activity. Smuggling potions. Cursed artifacts. The whole biz." Unlike his sister, he wasn't sure if it was Cherry or not, but it didn't look good at the moment. "Alright," said Finn. "Hold down the fort. I'm'a go find out the truth." Rising, he headed for the door. "W-what do we do in the mean-time," asked Star? "Get the Princesses back to Bonnie's place," said Finn. "We can protect them better there." They would have the Gumball Guardians among other things, and Bonnie would probably want to hold a meeting as soon as she could get enough princesses there.
Finn went out, got in his truck, and began the long drive to the Mafia Princess's palace. As he drove, he found himself reflecting on some hard truths that he was going to have to deal with. He was a man who did his best for the people he loved, respected, and cared for. If he cared about a person, he would always go to the mat for that person, even when they were clearly in the wrong. It was a defining part of who he was, and it had stood him in good stead over the decades of his life. Bonnie frequently marveled at him and the way he managed not to lose himself in the constant fights with monsters and other assorted evil-doers over the years. On several occasions she'd even threatened to take him apart to see what made him tick. She'd only been half joking because Finn knew that Peebles was, in a lot of ways, as damaged as he was pure.
The ugly world she'd come to life in had colored the way Bonnibel Bubblegum looked on the world. Finn was uncomfortably aware sometimes of just how deeply the world had colored Peebles. She'd lost Marceline a time or two when the Vampire Queen went feral on her. She'd seen people betray her. Ironically, Finn had betrayed her in a previous incarnation as Shoko. Thinking of that made him chuckle. Peebles had subtly named their daughter after him. If he'd been at all thinking about it, he might have questioned that. Still, in short, the ugly tide of betrayal and treachery needed to remain in control of the Candy Kingdom and to protect it from all comers had changed the princess. Now Finn saw that he was going to have to change too.
They're gone, he thought. The Lich never left anyone alive. He'd killed Billy and wore him like a coat. He had to reconcile it in his mind. He had to internalize it and make himself live with it. There wasn't going to be a second chance. He wasn't going to have a chance to fix things with the girls. The Lich had taken them from him. If he failed to heed the lessons of the past, he would lose this war, and the people of Ooo would suffer the consequences. He had to let them go. Even if it meant he never loved anyone again.
Rolling up on the towering Vaults, the big man exited his truck, strode straight up to the security cordon around the place, and announced himself. The Deputy Sheriff there allowed him past. He wasn't sure what he would find inside. Honestly, he halfway wished that Cherry would be gone. That would tell him what he needed to know without the confrontation. He didn't really want to know that she'd betrayed him. At least he didn't want to hear the words from her lips. He would much have preferred to simply hunt her down and kill her from a distance.
The place was still heavily patrolled by guards, though rumor held that many of the crime bosses who kept their dirty secrets here had slipped in and moved their shit out. Finn's keen mind filed away the locations of all the guards and all the defenses as he made his way up to his evil girlfriend's quarters. The receptionist had indicated that she was holding forth from the south side of the tower in an apartment there, and Finn went straight there.
Her old butler was there to meet him at the door when he arrived. "Good day, sir," said he. "I need to see her," muttered Finn without preamble. "She's expecting you, sir," said the butler. That was ominous. She knew he was coming. What did that say about how this was going to go? Finn motioned for the butler to lead on. Striding through the place, he could see that she was starting to move in. Like she owned the place. That was at once just like her and, at the same time, at odds with the situation. He wasn't quite sure now what to make of that.
They found the little beauty pouring over documents in her office with the sun streaming in behind her. The brilliant sunlight made her pale hair glow and gave a rich, reddish cast to her strange skin. "Afternoon, honey," she said. "Jeeves? Finn's come a long way. Will you go and get him something to eat?" "At once, madam," crowed the butler. He spun on his heel and headed out, leaving Finn alone with the woman he loved/hated.
As Finn approached, he got a good look at what she was looking at. The books were ancient and looked to have been purloined from Turtle Prince's library. She had the power to do that. The entirety of the underworld obeyed her. As he stared at the documents on the table, he saw pictures and drawings of terrible creatures made of nothing but ooze. "They're called the Dipped," said the petite hottie, as she slid one of the pictures across to him. "Nasty creatures..." Finn didn't touch the picture. Instead he was focused on her. She already knew what had brought him. She'd been expecting him.
"For the record," said she. "I had no need or desire to see them dead, Finn." She continued to thumb through the book in front of her. "Don't you," he murmured? "This all points at you... You've... You're neck-deep in this!" Shaking her head, she said, "the person who did this... The person who would have conspired with the Lich isn't a gangster who wants to extort Ooo and rid herself of a few rivals, Finn. Only a fool could even think they could control the Lich..." Finn paused. That was absolutely true. Shaking her head, she said, "only someone who wants the destruction of all of creation could want this, Finn, and, in spite of my losses, that does not describe me."
Looking up at him for the first time, she studied him carefully, her dark eyes burning into his. He found longing there. "I have a beautiful son," she sighed, "and a wonderful man who still loves me in spite of all I've done and all that lies between us..." The big man flushed to his hair, because he knew that was true. Shaking her head, she said, "only someone who has suffered a horrific loss would want this, Finn–someone who's had everything she loved taken from her..." A gasp left his lips as he filled in the blank at last, "Penny..."
Nodding, Cherry said, "she's been working at it almost since the first, honey. The man who'd paid her to deliver your precious daughter to him in Oceanside? He was her first victim. She let herself be captured, then paid off the guards with every last penny she had to leave her with one dagger." She'd killed her would-be captor with that dagger. She'd killed off his two most important lieutenants, leaving Penny as secret ruler of Oceanside. "From there she started looking," said Cherry. Gesturing to indicate the documents before her, "Thor got these. It cost most of his team their lives, but he brought this back to me. She stole this from the Great Library." Finn sat down. He had a great need to sit down and think right now. Penny had freed the Lich. Penny was using the Lich to get revenge on the world. His mind screamed, and he wished he could just curl up somewhere, go to sleep, and pretend this day never happened.
Elsewhere, a massive caravan came tearing down the road from Wizard City. It was comprised of dozens of conveyances ranging from the ordinary to the fantastical. Around that caravan rode or flew hundreds of heavily armed and paranoid soldiers. At its head, riding in the armored limousine she'd inherited from Cherry Cream Soda, sat Bonnibel Bubblegum. She was in a state of turmoil right now. She was going to have to tell Phoebe what had happened to Simone–at great risk to Phoebe's child, and she wasn't looking forward to it. She was reasonably certain she could protect the palace and its surroundings from the elemental's rage, but she wasn't so sure she could protect the child. She'd been worrying over it since the ugly event had happened.
As she was pondering what to do, the convoy came screeching to a halt. She heard angry voices outside, and the sounds of someone running past the limousine. A chill of fear went through her. Was this an attack? Momentarily, she heard the door to her limousine be torn open and then a girlish scream. "Marceline," burbled the candy-princess. Opening the limo's passenger-side door, Bonnie stepped out to find Marceline the Vampire Queen standing next to the rear door, staring in. "It's P-Bot," said Bonnie. "She got smashed up protecting me." The vampire woman rushed towards her, threw her arms around the pink princess, and tried to hug the stuffing out of her.
To the shock of everybody there–Bonnibel included–Marceline kissed her old friend thoroughly. The Candy Monarch's face was crimson when the vampire let her go. "W-what," stammered Bonnie? "I thought he fucking killed you," muttered Marceline. Her eyes went to the battered android, and she only now saw the alloy bones and polymer muscles visible under P-Bot's shredded flesh. "She's sleeping," said Bonnie. "Conserving power until I can get her home and patch her up." Moving on, the Princess shut the door and motioned for Marceline to accompany her to the front of the car.
"Where have you been," Bonnie demanded? "Finn's been looking for you... calling you for ages." Billy the Human Boy was standing there looking irritated and rather like he wanted the answer to that himself. "Death was holding me prisoner," Marceline murmured. With a sheepish look, she admitted, "you were right, Bonnie. I... should have listened." Shaking that off, the raven-haired beauty, asked, "where's Finn? Where's Simon? Death's trying to stir Cherry into releasing the Lich." "Dad went to confront her," said Billy. "If you're coming, we need to move. I need to get all these people into Bonnie's palace for their protection." Marceline squeezed into the front seat of the limo with Bonnie and the driver, and they set out once again.
As the car covered the miles to the Candy Kingdom, Bonnie filled a horrified Marceline in on what had been going on. The former Vampire Queen was close to tearing her hair out when she got done. She was shocked to learn of what had happened to Simon and horrified at the fate of Finn's wives. The only way it could have been any worse was to have seen it happen. "No," said Bonnie. "Worse comes when we tell Phoebe." Marceline's head whipped around. Staring straight ahead, Bonnie told her best friend, "she's pregnant with Finn's child, Marceline. We don't know if it's the pregnancy or something else, but the medicine she's been taking to control her moods isn't working right now. I'm afraid of how her reaction to the news will affect the child."
Marceline wasn't sure what shocked her more–the fact that flame-butt was in a family way or the fact that Finn had been getting busy with her. "You started it," muttered Bonnie. There was a little irritation in her voice. When the vampire turned to face her, Bonnie said, "she overheard you with Finn in his office that night we got trapped by the knife-storm..." Marceline flushed. That was supposed to be a secret. "You're going to help me explain this to her," said the Princess.
Phoebe was crawling the walls of her little home in Bonnie's dungeon when the pair came through the door. The beautiful elemental girl didn't look preggers, but it had only been a month. She did look radically different from the way Marceline remembered her. For one, she didn't look like a candle about to burn up all on its own. As the pair approached, Bonnie said, "I brought you a cup of tea." "I'm good," sat Phoebe. "Peppermint Butler already brought me a cup this morning." She was in pretty good spirits, all told. Part of that was the outfit that lay on the table in the corner. She'd tried it on twice now, and Bonnie was growing confident in its ability to help her. That had the Flame King considering going home soon. Bonnie had made her wait though. She had to wait until the Candy Monarch returned hom from the coronation in Wizard City to do one last test.
As the tall candy person passed the console, she casually adjusted the damping field, winding it up stronger than it had ever been before. She did it as carefully as she could, but there was no way that Phoebe wouldn't notice. "W-what...," gasped the younger woman? Much to Marceline's shock, flame butt fell to her knees. "W-why're...," wheezed Phoebe? "Why're you doin' this...?" "Because I have some very bad news to tell you, Phoebe," Bonnie replied. It was her best clinical tone–painfully antiseptic. "If your child is to survive, I have to do this," she said, as she wound the field up even stronger than before. "It's...," gasped the Flame King. "Y-you're..." The elemental's skin was turning an ugly shade of pale brown, fading to an ashen gray in places. It was clear she wasn't doing very well at all, and Marceline came close to pushing Bonnie away from the controls.
"Simone is dead," murmured Bonnie. "The Lich killed her this morning."
It took barely an instant for those words to register. And then a blast of molten fire burst from the Flame King's eyes, melting the containment cell door. Bonnie dialed up the containment field to its strongest level, as she tried to tell her colleague about how her best friend had met her fate. Wisps of flame shot up and down Phoebe's arms as the machinery strained against the power that was flowing out of her. "Help me," whined Phoebe! "Glob, please help me!" Marceline stepped forward and grabbed her by the arms. As Bonnie screamed in horror, the Princess of Darkness drew the Flame King into her embrace, smothering the flames in their entirety. When she drew back, she wasn't even singed.
"H-how did you do that," burbled Phoebe? Bonnie wanted to know too. Rushing forward, she completely forgot about the risk to herself. With a shrug, Marceline said, "later. Important thing is that we're over the crisis. Phoebes? You good?" "Y-yeah," stammered the stunned elemental. Phoebe stepped out of the containment vessel and walked straight over to her new outfit. Without so much as a word, she stripped off the dressing gown she'd been wearing since she had gotten sick at home. "Well, I see how you got knocked up," Marceline flippantly opined. The girl was built like a brick shit house.
Phoebe was blushing to her hair when she finished sealing herself into the suit. It went from her crotch to her neck, covering everything but her arms and legs. Now she bent and retrieved the dressing gown. As the other two Royals watched, she refashioned it with a burst of flame, fashioning a dress in a sinister, inky black. It fit. They were in mourning now. In spite of the travails and the disagreements, Bonnie mourned Simon and his daughter. He'd been a constant in her life, and now he was gone. Phoebe said, "is the Council here? Let's go meet them." Someone was going to pay for this.