Disclaimer: I don't own AT, dammit… I'm losing interest in this series
Chapter 38: Dark Thoughts
It had been only a day since the fall of Mo Co. and already word of its fall had spread all across OOO, horrifying every Kingdom across the land. For all knew it was the most advanced place in OOO and hearing of Lucians conquest of it was ill news. Combine that with the fall of the Fire Kingdom and Nightosphere, two of most feared and powerful Kingdoms in OOO and the future for OOOs people looked bleak.
Even with the information that was passed to Finn thanks to a surprise visit from BMO who held wonderful technological blueprints on different wonders of technology that could help them against Lucian along with a nice blueprint that told of the layout of Mo Co.
The future extinction of OOOs people still looked all but assured. Even in the eyes of one so stubborn as Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum.
Because of such a dark outlook at what the future looked to be, Princess Bubblegum sat quietly in her lab all alone. Solaris having left to talk to Finn, who's news of his awakening moments ago did nothing to stir the fires of hope within her. Instead, she continued to stare blankly at her desk with her head held up in her hands. She stayed like this for what could have been all from 1 second to an eternity, but to her in this moment. Any passage of time would have felt like an eternity.
Thankfully though, she was not one to stay in such a stupor like that forever. Once she regained enough of herself to think once more, she took up a simple pen and a piece of paper. Where she then proceeded to write to each of the respective Kingdoms of OOO, telling them that if they wanted any hope of living through this and to see tomorrow here in OOO rather than see it in the 37th Dead World of the Land of the Dead that Death ruled. Then it was time to come together and form a united army of all of OOOs inhabitants in order to defeat Lucian.
Yet as she was writing her letters to the different Kingdoms of OOO, her hands began to shake. Because convincing the leaders and much less their people of the respective Kingdoms of OOO to pretty much abandoning their homelands in order to converge upon the Candy Kingdom and form this united army would be nigh impossible. No matter what species you were, whether that be Human, Candy People, Fire Elemental, or anything else. Everyone has a sense of Patriotism.
So convincing entire Kingdoms to abandon that loyalty to their homelands and to meet upon the Candy Kingdom would be no easy feat. And even then there was still dealing with the issues currently being displayed within the walls of the CK by the Fire Elementals, Candy People, and Humans.
That was getting people to work together and trust one another. Even with the obvious threat of Lucian and his terrifying army looming over their heads, there were still many ill begotten feelings between many of OOOs Kingdoms and also some new ones between them and humanity.
After all, many of OOOs respective leaders hadn't forgotten things like the hilarious but still unpleasant incident that happened at the Princess Day convention in the Breakfast Kingdom a few years back. The incident that involved bashing Lumpy Space Princess, her retaliation with Marceline joining in that caused quite a bit of damage to the Kingdom along with hurting some of its guards and then ending it all with Breakfast Princess getting run over by LSP and Marceline, to where they proceed to throw her in the trunk of the car and then abandon her out in the desert as they drove off.
Add in the unpleasant feelings that many leaders held for Bubblegum herself in general do to the many Machiavellian decisions she had made in her time like spying on everyone, just added in to the levels of mistrust and sour feeling that OOOs leaders held for each other.
Yet to top it all off, complete it with all the newly raw feelings such as the hatred and pain that many of OOOs people felt towards humanity, that unfortunately even spilled over to the good humans like Solaris. Then at that point you would be just begging to find some way, anyway to make things work between everyone.
So because of this grim realization, Bubblegum's hand began to shake uncontrollably. Replacing the readable words she was formally writing with, with horror derived scribbles. As she become increasingly more aware of how bad the overall situation was with this, her mind desperately searched for some way to solve all this. Yet she was coming up blank.
She couldn't think of anything to solve the relationship problems between the leaders of OOO. Glob dammit, she couldn't even think of anything to solve the problems happening within her very own Kingdom.
How was she supposed to get the Fire Elementals to let go of their far too long held grudge against her so that they could work with her to save both their species from extinction. Cause frustratingly, her hopes of achieving that once Phoebe woke turned out to be misplaced.
For too many of her people showed that they were unwilling to listen to her because they still held on to their grudge against her for making the total honesty and no secrets law. They weren't even willing to listen to Flame King who showed up to the CK with Don John like Lucian was hot on their tails. The only two people they were willing to listen to were the missing Ignis and Phoebus. Of course they were both nowhere to be found.
"What can I do to fix this," she yelled out while slamming her fists onto the table, making the utensils shake.
That was when her mind started to enter a dark familiar place existing within her mind. A dark place where she got the ideas to do things like spy on Finn, Phoebe, her own people, everyone and to put GPS chips on all her Candy People along with Finn in the name of "safety".
It was here, in this dark corner of her mind that she started coming up with more disturbing solutions to her problems. Solutions like convincing Don John to use his special abilities to "Coerce" any troublesome Fire Elementals into a more easy to talk to state of mind. And that would be just the first of many other dark solutions to the problems she faced.
And while just a few moments ago her conscience would have gotten in the way of her agreeing to any kind of dark solutions to the problems she faced. She bypassed that line of defense by quoting the old saying "Desperate times call for desperate measures." Now with any form of conscience out of the way thanks to that justification, Bubblegum got up to start enacting her solution of how she was going to deal with the Fire Elementals.
After killing Moe and destroying any remaining robots in the factory, Lucian immediately set to repurposing this place into its original purpose. A machine of War.
So as Lucian from atop one of the observation bridges of this factory overlooked the arriving groups of followers he had called upon to repurpose this place, he couldn't help but smile. Especially when he saw the dormant Fire Giant being brought in it to fulfill its destined purpose of war.
He could easily imagine the countless numbers of his enemies that would fall at the end of this very machine once it was mass produced into an army. Yes, he could see his chances of coming out alive from all this as being practically guaranteed. And once Finn was made to see the "light", then mankind's utter dominance of this world and even beyond would be assured.
Yet, upon seeing what arrived next to the factory. His hands gripped the railing of the bridge tightly and his smile did fade a little as he silently observed his still comatose group of followers being brought in next. Those same followers who had so easily fallen to their own pathetic emotional weakness at the hands of Cosmic Owl. Upon seeing them again and being reminded by their still emotionally wracked faces of what caused them to fall into this aggravating state of being. Lucian started to have second thoughts about what he originally intended to do with them.
His plan of repurposing apart of this factory into a medical area where they could be hooked up to feeding tubes until they awakened from their nightmares on their own or with Lilith's help started to bring a distaste to Lucians mouth.
Instead, his original plan was slowly being replaced with more horrifying thoughts. A part of him wanted to instead leave them to rot and die should they fail to wake up on their own before their natural biological clock ticked to death. Instead of extending that clock with feeding tubes so that those emotional weakling could be awoken by aid. After all, what was preventing those weaklings from falling into that comatose state again at the hands of Cosmic Owl?
And don't even say that once Lilith helped them to overcome whatever was keeping them in that state would solve the problem. Cause people like that always have more than one thing that could be taken advantage of again to put them back into their coma, thus starting the whole process over again. So unless they could prove that they can overcome their own emotional turmoil's, Lucian didn't see much gain over loss in wasting time dealing with them over using that space of the factory to make more machines.
"What the hell is wrong with me?" he said in self-disgust. For once Lucian was finished was those dark thoughts, he quickly smacked them away in self-horror. Horrified and disgusted at himself for even considering such things. Because people like that were power mad individuals who cared only for themselves and were thus a scourge upon their own kind. They were the type of people who became those who humanity reminded themselves never to become less they start the process of needlessly shedding their own kinds blood in the name of perfection.
"I'm better than to even consider such things," he reminded himself. Because he didn't want to become some perfect being nor did he want his species to become utterly devoid of flaw either. For flaw was what made people stronger despite the common held belief that it prevented people from reaching their full potential. For without those flaws and the desire to improve oneself that came from them, no one would ever seek to become stronger in life. They would instead be contempt with remaining as they were and that was weak. For no one becomes strong without hard work and the desire to improve oneself, not even those who were born with great power like Finn.
After reminding himself of those very things, Lucian shook whatever lingering thoughts he had in his mind of killing his comatose followers away. Not wanting to think of such things ever again.
Right after, he left his observation of the factory to find the one who could put his mind to rest regarding the matter of the dream attacker. Teleporting himself back to his base near the tree house, Lucian entered the makeshift home of where Lilith was supposed to be, yet of course as luck would have it, she wasn't there.
Fortunately though, something else was there in her place. It was a holographic message.
"What have you to tell," he commented picking up the device and activating it.
From the device popped up a holographic image of Lilith, which began to recount her encounter with Cosmic Owl. The image told of the close battle with the OOO deity and how it ended with him escaping.
Hearing that briefly caused Lucians dark thoughts to resurface before he quickly buried them once more. Just in time to hear some good news for a change. The news being about what she learned from looking into COs mind regarding what he did to Finn. As he listened to each new word that passed through his ears regarding that last part that sounded like angelic words to him.
He had to grab ahold of himself to prevent himself from falling down as his body began to shake uncontrollably from bursting into a hysterical fit of laughter brought about by pure ecstatic joy.
As Fionna and Phoebus completed their teleportation, Phoebus immediate reaction was to bend over and start hurling. Turns out he didn't have a strong enough stomach to handle the temporary side-effects of teleportation.
As Fionna watched him puke out lava and small pieces of undigested coal, she couldn't resist laughing at his unfortunate situation.
Still recovering from the nausea effects of teleportation sickness, he could only respond at first with an unhappy glare before he finally regained the ability to speak.
"Glad to see you're having a good laugh," he groaned out, obviously being sarcastic.
"Yeah I am, that was just funny." She replied, ignoring his sarcasm.
Growling, he continued with the conversation. "Why is this so funny to you?"
"Because, I've never seen anyone react like you before from teleportation. Such affects became extinct amongst my people and the people I have teleported with who weren't human have never reacted like this either. You were the first I have ever seen get like this, so it's pretty hilarious."
"Uhg," he groaned as he lifted himself up and forced himself to stand straight in a display of strength, only to relapse and fall onto a nearby tree. Causing Fionna to burst into another fit of laughter.
This time though, Fionna didn't just laugh. She also decided to help him by putting her right arm around him for support as she helped him up. He did try to resist at first do to his pride as the proud military commander of the Fire Kingdom, not wanting to lower himself even further by accepting help in order to achieve the basic everyday act of walking. Eventually though, he just accepted her help.
As she helped him and with nothing important being on his mind at the moment, he instinctively began to take in her appearance from having her so close to himself.
The first thing he took in from having a militaristic kind of mind like his was that he noticed that she wasn't showing any kind of strain from helping to hold up his heavy figure. Instead, she looked to be perfectly fine, as if this was nothing to her. Which slightly surprised him when he began to take in more base things. Things like her slender appearance that he hadn't paid any attention to before now.
Such a slender figure left him wondering how she had the strength to support his added weight, yet he didn't dwell on that thought as he started to take in other things. He next took notice of her long wavy golden hair. Such hair looked beautiful on its own with its golden streaks and the lavender scent that could be picked up from it up close, but combine that that with her goddess of a face and you-
"What am I thinking?" he shouted to himself, stopping his train of thought and causing Fionna to almost drop him from the sudden shock of his outburst.
"What were you thinking?" she asked, wanting to know why he suddenly reacted like that.
"Uhm," he said as he looked around for something to change the subject with, not wanting to answer that question. Fortunately for him, he found something to change the subject with instantly.
"Hey, how come we're not in the Candy Kingdom? Didn't you say you were taking us there?" he hastily asked after taking a quick look at his surroundings and seeing that they were indeed not in the CK. They were in fact several outskirts away from it.
"Yeah, about that," she said, taking in his question and Phoebus letting out a quick sigh of relief at having successfully changed the subject and having avoided answering her previous question.
"I just discovered that I can't teleport us into the CK?"
"Whys that?" he intentionally asked to further drive the current conversation away from the previous one.
"It's because my father it turns out just recently put up a barrier like the one back home that prevents people from teleporting in. Keeps people from launching a surprise invasion.
Ooookaayy," he responded slowly, not understanding the majority of what she said other than that something was done to prevent an invasion of the hated Candy Kingdom.
"Yeah, so we'll just have to walk the rest of the way there since this was the closest I could get us. I'm sure you don't need me to do that right?" said asked him in reference to Phoebus still unknowingly holding on to her. Seeing this, Phoebus quickly jumped off and stood up on his own now that he had recovered from his teleportation sickness. Causing Fionna to chuckle again at his funny reaction to things.
"Now that you have recovered and that I have successfully answered all your questions. Mind returning the favors by telling me what you were thinking of a little bit ago?" she smiled deviously, hinting that she already knew what it was.
Her reply was him surging for the gates of the Candy Kingdom with herself right on his tail.
"I'm glad you're awake Finn. You too Flame Princess," said Solaris.
"Phoebe," she corrected. "You can call me Phoebe."
"Phoebe," he repeated, remembering the name. "Such a nice name."
"As I was saying," returning the conversation to what he was original going to say. "I'm glad you're both awake. I was worried the two of you would never wake up."
"You didn't need to worry Solaris. There's nothing me and Phoebe can't do when we're together," said Finn.
"You're probably right Finn," he commented, seeing an exact younger version of himself and his wife in Finn and Phoebe. And believing his words because of it.
"I know I am," assured Finn.
"Hmph," Solaris chuckled. ""You are truly an amazing person Finn. The people of OO are lucky to have you to help protect them," Solaris reminded Finn.
"Luck has nothing to do with it. I do this because OOO is my home and it's also the home of many of those important to me like Phoebe," he said, causing her to give a light blush in response as she leaned her head against his shoulder.
"It's reassuring to hear that," he replied, giving a slightly forced smile with it. "Let's hope that never changes."
Finn didn't directly respond that time, instead he and Phoebe both silently wondered why Solaris was acting like this. Cause it definitely didn't sit well with either of them seeing him act so worried.
"What's wrong Solaris," asked a concerned Phoebe.
"It's just the common fear of not knowing what will happen in the future is all," he answered looking out the hospital window and not at them for some unknown reason. "It's nothing to worry about you two," he assured them in a calming voice, but that they didn't truly take to heart. They both knew something bigger was wrong despite what he was saying, they just didn't know what. Nonetheless, they both accepted the answer he gave them as they quietly left to give him some time alone while they went on to deal with other problems.
Even after they left, Solaris continued looking out at the hospital window and thinking about the dark events that would happen in the future concerning long held secrets and the negative consequences that would come from them.
For he knew that Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum was lying when she said she wasn't keep any other secrets and even though he didn't know what those secrets were himself. He knew that they obviously weren't something like some super awesome surprise birthday party or anything good like that.
So when those secrets eventual revealed themselves and believe it. Secrets always do one way or another. That they weren't going to be very well received by many people and Solaris feared how badly Finn would react to them.
Cause if he reacted badly enough, he knew Finn could get like he did when he was building that tower to space and how his unstable emotionally fueled TK levels of power risked destroying the entire world. Solaris worried what Finn would do after going into that state of mind a second time and feared even more how Lucian would take advantage of Finn in such a vulnerable state of mind.
"Glob save us," he said to OOOs central figure of worship as he saw a certain star covered bird appear outside the window and looking like he was going to crash land into the Candy Kingdom.
I know I know, you all waited patiently for so long for a good chapter and I didn't give you that. I instead gave you a short chapter compared to previous ones with a lot of buildup but no pay off in the end of the chapter. I am sorry for that and I'm also sorry that I'm just losing interest in this series. I realize now why I was feeling like I was last time I made a chapter. I am just losing in interest in this dam series. With it being over a year since any Flinn moments in AT, I have just begun to care less about what happens with this series anymore. Flinn was the whole reason I started watching AT and I know it's a dump reason and there still so much more this series has to offer, but it was my reason and the one that mattered to me the most. So without it and receiving barely anything other than the dam "Mountain" episode as a possible hint that Flinn will return. It's hard for me to stay interested in Adventure Time. Sorry my readers, I really feel like I'm letting you all down because of this.
Ventus Uzumaki: Yeah, you can definitely say that.
Trystrike: Technically, he isn't really getting that much stronger when you consider these robots are to replace his comatose humans and that robots have no TK powers or even the ability to think like humans.
gamelover41592: Thanks man. Oh I wouldn't say that, you know what they say about a scorned woman.
Rolirit: Thanks man, but sadly while life is improving. My inspiration towards this series isn't and thus it affects my inspiration towards this fanfiction. Sorry man.
Attackme: Thanks, I'll do that.
Fiery Crusader: Yeah that was smart, guess I should have put that last part in there some way. Like Moe never set up such a self-destruct mechanism or was too late in activating it, but oh well. Let's just say he never thought he would need such a thing and so never put one in place. Great to see her indeed and I wonder if we will learn anything from CO next episode in "Hoots".
dfinkel70: Oh I will, isn't is obvious. As for how he will react to Finn and his sister, he might be too distracted by his own feelings to take any notice of them.
OMAC001: Thanks and I think I'm done with AAA characters.
PhoebeHDA: Sorry you feel that way, if you ever decide to give this story another chance. I hope you like what I make in the future.
Legionary Prime: Yeah he was, but people change. Thanks, I always like Flame Prince.
Ooobserver: I always said Lucain was the one to fear, even when he was working more behind the scenes. Thanks man, I hope you're doing well.
felipe666: Indeed so many questions, but it's the basic writing strategy of any writer, it's what helps to keep the reader's attention.
Well, despite it short length and withheld climaxes. I hope you still enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next chapter. Like always, please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter.