Chapter 1:
The sky was an ugly shade of gray when the airship dropped out of the clouds on a Monday morning. It fit the mood in the little salon a the front of the ship. Finn was in a brittle mood. Jake could sense it. The big man had been slowly withdrawing since the airship had taken off from Sonbong. Efforts to find Jay and Melinda had gone for nought. It was as though the two had disappeared. Really, though, Jake knew that if Jay didn't want to be found, they weren't going to find him. After all, if Bonnie could literally encompass an entire army in her strange pocket universe, Jay could do the same with himself and Melinda. Finn had to know it, which was why the angst was so worrying.
The airship circled the field, taking its turn at coming down for a landing. The pilot deftly put the machine on the ground with only a small bobble. And almost before the great machine had slowed down, Finn was unbuckling himself. The crew got the machine over to the secure section of the airfield and got the engines shut down. Finn was waiting there at the door. Jake was at his side, though Bonnie was taking her time. The once happy-go-lucky woman was now nursing her own burden of sadness.
As soon as the door was open and the stairs in place, Jake stepped in front of Finn, preceding him down the stairs to the ground. There were a couple of limos there, waiting on them, but what surprised Jake Jr. was that Simone wasn't there. The Ice Queen was nowhere in sight. In her place stood Jay and Bonnie's momma, and Jake found her own unease growing. Roselinen had done a great deal of harm to Finn's family and peace. It wasn't anywhere near the scale of Jake's own misdeeds, but it was there all the same. Why was she here and not Simone?
Easy, Jake, thought the shapechanger. Jay's her son. Her son's missing. Finn had taken Rosie's son off to a war with him, and he was coming back by himself. Granted, Jay had basically jumped on the plane, but that might not matter. Work, Jake, the dog-icorn told herself. There was still work to be done here.
Striding across the ground, the shapechanger scented the air, sniffing for things that were out of place. There were no hidden people around, and she didn't smell anything odd coming from either of the cars. Her keen sight picked up nothing out of the ordinary–nothing other than Roselinen herself. There was the usual cascade of strange energies crackling off the strange woman, just like her kids. Now, she motioned for Finn to come forward.
The King of Ooo walked up to his wife–his first wife–wearing a hang-dog look. Stepping forward, the plump woman reached up and embraced him. "I'm sorry," Finn offered. His voice was close to breaking, and he repeated those words over and over. "Stop blaming yourself," Rosie interrupted. Finn's face whipped around. Nodding, the plump woman said, "Jay is a man, Finn. His mistakes are his own. Stop blaming yourself. You didn't make him get on that ship, and you didn't make him run off like this..." Finn's mouth shut with a click.
Nodding, Rosie rumbled, "I'm mad... I'm mad, Finn, but not at you. I'm mad at my idiot son, who's been sneaking around doing stupid things, when we've all been trying to help him." "We should be out of here," Jake interrupted. The King didn't get to stand in an open field airing his dirty laundry like the normies. Taking her husband by the hand, Roselinen turned for one of the cars. As she stepped off, she announced, "I should like to talk to my husband alone, Jacob. You and Bonnie can ride in the other machine. You understand?" Jake nodded.
"Come along, Jake," Bonnie murmured. There was no point in arguing. She knew her parents were about to discuss something heavy, and so she went and got into the other car. Jake was a beat late. She waited to be sure the Royal Couple were in the other car before joining their daughter. Moments later, the cavalcade of cars was rolling down the road, bound for the highway. As the limo left the airfield, Rosie announced, "Simone would have been here, but she was called to Wizard City." The plush pillow shuddered. A city full of madness, where even the people running the asylum were insane. She scarcely understood how Simone and Betty coped.
Finn grimaced. "No take-backs," Rosie murmured, just as Simone would have said it. They weren't going to wallow in regrets. Simone was stuck with her responsibilities to the city she now led. Rosie was going to be picking up the slack. Somebody had to. Moving on, the curvy woman said, "you're going to finish your vacation." Finn's head whipped around. Nodding, the curvy woman said, "Bill's doing well, and Bonnie can help him. She's learning all the threads, so she can help Bill, and he can get some time off too. You're going back on vacation, Finn."
Finn sighed heavily. He didn't really feel like taking time off. He felt like a failure. Jay had disappeared, and he had no idea where his son was or if he was ok. Charlie had disappeared. He'd gone back to the restaurant in Sonbong and found his former niece had quit. She'd sold her home–or what was left of it–and disappeared. He'd won in the east, but it didn't feel like he'd won.
"Are people eating, honey," Rosie asked? It was the strangest question, and it took a moment to understand what she was getting at. Laying her head on his shoulder, she said, "people are eating. People are back in their homes. Remember what you said when you went down to Nit when the levee collapsed? You were gone down there for three weeks straight, you and Jay, but when you came back, you told me it was all worth it because people were eating again." Finn flushed, but he slipped his arms around his first wife and held her. Kissing her cheek, the big man whispered, "they're doing much better, yes. We got Sakura's kids back. She's back on her throne. The farmers are bringing in what they can of the harvest, and the fisherman are back in their boats." Roselinen nodded. That was enough for her.
On the far side of the ocean, Hurletta walked down the ramp of an airship, dragging a suitcase. The air around her was strangely wet. She could feel the moisture. It was a far cry from the homeland of her people, where the air was dry and acrid, and she wondered how her sister was faring. Blargetha had been here for months. More to the point, she'd been here before this, spending time with Finn as they tried to get to the bottom of what Bandit Princess had been doing here.
Waiting there at the edge of the clearing, just past the safety fence, was a rusted, rickety car that appeared to have been dragged out of the jungle, and beside that stood her sister. Hurletta was a little surprised at her sister's appearance. Blargetha was wearing a native dress consisting of a long, floral-print skirt and a bikini top tied in place behind her neck to support her heavy endowment of titty-flesh. What truly shocked the older sister was the tattoo-sleeve that ran from Blargetha's left wrist all the way up to her shoulder. "'Letta," Blargetha greeted her.
Without another word, she took Hurletta's suitcase and put it in the back of the jeep. Climbing behind the wheel, she gestured for the older sister to climb aboard. It appeared this was going to be a very interesting trip. Taking a breath, Hurletta climbed into the passenger seat, and Blargetha threw the thing in gear and set out.
There was little in the way of conversation as the jeep bounced and rocked over the muddy, battered road through the jungle. Finally, Hurletta was basically required to comment. "I thought we were putting in a road," she announced. She'd signed off on the draft of funds. "We did," Blargetha replied. "Most of my materials are going on that road. I didn't think you'd like dodging around fully-loaded trucks." Hurletta hadn't been a friend of the 'car', when it made it's grand return in Bonnie's kingdom years back. She'd professed the things terrified her. A lot of that was almost getting squished by a loaded truck on the road near the Candy Palace.
"We bring people into that landing site," Blargetha explained. "It keeps the main site free for transfers of machinery." Pulling off the road, the younger sister drove through the woods and up onto a rocky promontory. What Hurletta saw there took her breath. Blargetha put the jeep in neutral and set the brake before climbing out. She went right up to the edge, but she had always been the braver of the pair. Steeling herself, Hurletta climbed out and went around the jeep to where her sister was standing.
"Can I cook, or what," asked the younger sister? Hurletta's jaw was hanging open. All this, in just a few months. Blargetha shrugged. She'd been working on the problem almost from the moment she stepped off the airship with Finn the previous year. She'd been running figures in her head and sketching out what would need to get done for months before getting the approval–and money–to go forward. All she'd really needed was warm bodies to do the work.
Hurletta's face whipped around to find her sister smiling archly. Nodding, Hurletta reached out and hugged her younger sister, startling Blargetha and wiping the smile off her face. "We'll have to see what a rocket-base is worth," said Hurletta as she turned to get back into the car. "I mean, if a robot army is worth a few privileges..." Blargetha flushed to her 'hair'.
Blargetha was silent as she turned them back onto the road, and it was Hurletta who was talking now. She talked of what was going on back in their homeland. She told of what was going on with the humans and what had gone down with Finn's campaign in the east. Blargetha muttered curses and complaints at various points when Finn was doing things a King clearly ought not to be doing. Her comments only made Hurletta smile.
Rolling down into the main camp, they found the place bustling, with creatures of all stripes moving around, as they engaged in various bits of the enterprise. Blargetha steered her way through the chaos, and, just as she'd said, there was a plethora of conveyances on the road, set to crush the unwary. A half-dozen heavy construction machines past them before Hurletta quit worrying about it. Her eyes flicked to her sister, who was focused as she'd ever been, but relaxed all the same.
Rolling off the main drag, the plump slime-person drove up to a row of shacks. "This is the VIP section," Blargetha announced. "My shack's over there. This one's yours, while you're here. The dudes from InterFone are having a meeting with the Coca-peeps tomorrow." Blanca was fucking up again. She was trying to insert herself into the business as a way of saving face and recapturing the moral authority she used to hold. Hurletta frowned over at her sister. That was ominous news. "Looks like I got here just in time," she murmured. Relaxing a little, Blargetha nodded. "It's a big deal, 'Letta," she admitted. "She's been trying to sway a couple of chiefs to her side. The witch-doctors have shut her down twice, but she hasn't stopped trying."
Climbing out of the jeep, Hurletta said, "leave her to me, sister. This is too important to have that idiot wreck things. We need those satellites, and we need this place to launch them. That's before we even get into... the other business." Blargetha grimaced. The Ark was still out there, drifting out of control through a void filled with clouds of debris for it to crash into. They were running out of time to get that sorted. "I... I may need to head north or go back to the Candy Kingdom," Blargetha murmured. "I've... I have the cargo rockets mostly designed. We've had seven successful firings on the test stand in a row..."
Hurletta nodded. She'd seen the videos. The Council was delighted with the news. It had been good news for William to share to get the princesses off his back. Clearly, there was another shoe to drop. "The cargo rockets only need to survive a one-way trip, 'Letta," Blargetha replied. "A ship for a humanoid has to survive the trip up and then back down again... I need access to a computer and some specialists to make that happen." Much as she hated to admit it, she wanted to see Sarah. She needed the android's help. "We'll work it," Hurletta agreed, as she took her suitcase from the jeep. "When's lunch?" "Lunch's served in the chow hall in about an hour," Blargetha replied. She nodded towards the large structure that sat to the north. Nodding, Hurletta said, "I'll be expecting you, then." With that, she turned and went into her shack.
On the far side of the world, Akari Maeda walked out of her ancestral home and into the darkness outside. There was a hydrofoil leaving within the hour for the mainland, and she needed to be on it. She was now a felon. More to the point, she was committing high-treason. The act of stepping out of this house tonight with a bag on her back and a ticket in her pocket was high-treason.
Princess Sakura had accepted the elder Maeda's groveling apology for his actions in assisting the traitor, Nagumo. She'd agreed to let Akari take over the Civil Affairs Ministry, but she'd made it very clear that Akari was on very thin ice. She was going to be watched and her actions weighed. The newly-reinstated monarch wasn't going to chance another coup. Not that it all mattered to Akari.
The young woman was still feeling the shock and pain of losing all her friends. She didn't want to be leader of Civil Affairs. She wanted vengeance. Even without that ugly desires, she felt like a fish out of water, just now. She'd handled a weapon. She'd actually harmed others. How was she to lead a ministry devoted to peace, when she'd shed the blood of others? Akari couldn't stay here in this place, when she saw burned bodies and blood whenever she shut her eyes.
"So, what's the plan," announced Haruko? The words came in a conversational tone, though they had Akari on immediate alert, her face snapping back and forth, as she searched for the men who would arrest her. "Nobody's here," Haruko snorted. "I decoyed them away with a dragon sighting..." Akari's jaw came open. That was highly illegal! Falsely reporting a dragon sighting would get you ten years, dungeon!
Haruko's eyes said it. She was committing treason. What did a false report matter? "They won't be gone forever, Maeda Akari," the older woman rumbled. "What's the plan? You have one, right?" Through clenched teeth, the now-former Civil-Affairs Minister said, "I intend to hunt down the man who murdered my friends. I'm going to kill him." "And then," asked Haruko? "I don't know, and I don't really care," Akari retorted. "I have to get that face out of my head, and I can't pretend to be a pacifist anymore when I've shed others' blood."
She turned and stepped off the stairs and began jogging into the darkness. Moments later, Haruko was at her side, jogging along. "Go home," Akari muttered. "You're no longer my master," Haruko retorted. Moments later, she added, "you think you're the only person having trouble going back to the old ways?"
Akari said nothing to that. Minutes later, they came jogging up to the train-station. Checking her watch, the younger woman prayed they were in time. Up ahead, she could hear the operators doing the checks before pulling out of the station. She went fumbling for her pass, but Haruko merely leaped the turnstile. They were guilty of treason! Who the fuck cared about a misdemeanor fare violation?! The two women came jogging up to the doors, just as the conductor would have shut them. Cycling the doors shut after them, the irritated conductor went through the safety checks again, before signaling the driver that it was time to leave.
The train rolled through the night, with only the two women on board. Akari wouldn't look at her shadow. She didn't understand why Haruko was doing this. Was it some misguided loyalty to her father? "My father...," Akari started to say. "...isn't here," Haruko interrupted. "I don't take orders from him anymore. He's in jail, remember?" Akari glared at her. Her mother had been inconsolable. She'd seen her son wander off one day and disappear in the ugly wilderness around their home. Her husband was now jailed for life, and now her daughter would be gone. Akari scarcely needed the reminder of where her family was just now. "I didn't bring any extra equipment," Akari muttered. "I'll be fine," Haruko retorted.
The train clattered down the track, gathering speed, as it rushed through the night. They'd be entering the first tunnel soon enough. The tunnels kept the trains clear of the various rogue-beasties that roamed the night in the haunted wastelands of Truth Kingdom. At least that was the fiction the Ministry put out. The reality? It was easier to patrol tunnels and detect the monsters that might jump the train if the tracks were covered. If the trains ran in the open, you wouldn't be able to see the monsters until they were on you.
It was an ugly epiphany for Akari. She'd followed along when her father said that they were preventing public panic. It was a lie, but they were preventing the public from being needlessly concerned. The truth–the real truth–wasn't that important. What mattered was the larger truth–the trains were safe to ride in between towns. Akari gave vent to a bitter chuckle. No, she couldn't go back. She couldn't live in a kingdom that espoused truths, when it was built on lies.
There were no monsters in the tunnels today. The train cruised through smoothly, rolling out of the tunnels at the seaport. Time was short. Akari was up and waiting at the door when the train finally rolled to a stop at the station. Haruko was right beside her as she stepped off the train. A dozen dock-workers walked onto the train as Akari was leaving. They were happy. The Kingdom was getting back to normal. The strangeness of the last few months was ending. Akari harumphed. Their lives were back to normal. The fallen policewoman broke into a jog. The ship would be leaving soon.
Back in the jungle of Coca Kingdom, Hurletta finished up lunch and slid the tray away. Her sister had spent the last thirty minutes or so filling the air with chatter about all that had gone on these last few months. It was an awkward moment, and 'Letta knew it. Fortunately, there was business waiting on them both. Rising, she interrupted her sister's ramblings, announcing, "we should take that tour."
Putting aside her own tray, Blargetha got up and headed for the door. Dusting off her dress, the older sister quickly joined her. "Did Finn talk to you," Blargetha murmured. At Hurletta's frown of puzzlement, the younger sister offered, "it rains here a lot, 'Letta." Nodding at the sky, she said, "we're... It won't hurt us anymore, but it's disconcerting. I wasn't sure if Finn talked to you about it..." "We'll be fine," Hurletta responded. Gesturing at the door, she suggested, "lead on..."
The younger sister drove them all over the site, bouncing across rough, muddy tracks and dodging massive machines hauling heavy equipment. As they drove around the place, Blargetha pointed out all that they'd managed to build here. Hurletta was fascinated. Honestly, she'd been just as guilty as their mother of not understanding her sister and the things that made the younger woman tick. To say that all of this had been in Blargetha's mind... She was gob-smacked.
Two giant structures meant to support the rockets while they were fueled and readied for flight stood at the far end of the facility. Nearer to hand stood a vast building hall to construct the terrifying flying machines, and a railway had been laid across the valley between the two sites to haul the completed rockets. It was as impressive as anything Bonnie had done across her life.
And, much like the Candy Kingdom, this place was shockingly cosmopolitan, with humans rubbing elbows with imported candy-people, who jostled Coca-peeps. Those last could be seen people-watching as much as participating. Blargetha explained the deal that she'd worked out with the witch-doctors. Standing on one of the massive launching pads, the plump woman told her sister, "the majority of the work-force is the Coca-peeps. I could have gotten it done faster, if I could get more machines..." Hurletta frowned at her. She'd offered more money. The Privy Council was excited to contribute if it meant better access to phones. Those bitches loved to be on the phone.
"It makes them feel part of things, 'Letta," Blargetha replied. "It's not a bunch of invaders taking over their holiest site. We're helping them rebuild their Temple of the Sky." It was a polite, but very necessary fiction. "Somebody's stirring Blanca and the chiefs up," the plump woman muttered. "They've been holding back some of my work-force." "What do they want," Hurletta asked? "I don't know," Blargetha sighed, and it was the unknown that ernestly terrified her.
Hurletta could see it in her eyes. She feared failure. She had a terror of failure. Hadn't Finn said it–in open council no less–Blargetha was a tool. She made ugly things for him. What happened if she failed him? "Let's go in and eat, sister," Hurletta burbled. It was deucedly hot here, and she wanted to get out of the sun, drink something, and fill her stomach. They could talk about what to do with Blanca later.
Taking Blargetha's hand, the older sister set out, clambering back down through the maze of stairs and walkways to reach the ground once more. Blargetha separated at the car, climbing back into the driver's seat before reaching over to unlatch the passenger door. As soon as Hurletta had settled herself, the plump beauty took off.
The workers were also starting to come off their shifts. The Coca-people were heading back into the jungle to their villages and camps, while the humans and candy-people were heading to the shacks and shanties. Hurletta watched in bemusement as her sister wove her way in and out of the long columns and lines of people snaking their way through the camp.
In short order, they were back inside the littler village the newcomers lived in and parked in front of Blargetha's shack. Setting the parking brake, the younger sister climbed out of the jeep, and, moments later, Hurletta joined her. She could smell the scents of food coming from the cook-shack, and the pair joined the line snaking through the camp for their bit of the slop of the day. There were any number of complaints to be heard. The humans ran the gamut, with some professing they were being starved or poisoned, while others were clearly delighted not to be freezing. There were a couple who would have brought their families down here.
Collecting their dinner, the two sisters headed back to Hurletta's shack to eat and talk about what they were going to do about Blanca and her cronies. Padding along in her sister's boot-tracks, the older sister was struck by the changes. Blargetha had become a sensual creature. She'd taken to their new existence. 'Letta felt stuffy by comparison. So was it any wonder Finn had been banging her?
The older sister found her eyes drawn to the array of black and red tattoos going up her sister's arm, and she wondered what Finn would make of that. Rumblings she'd heard suggested that Marceline had little bits of metal stuck into risque portions of her anatomy like jewelry. The notion was shocking, but seeing Blargetha had her pondering the possibilities herself.
"So, when did you have that done," Hurletta asked? Puzzled, Blargetha glanced over her shoulder to find her sister staring at her arm. The younger sister flushed. Hurletta wasn't the only one wondering what Finn was going to think.
Glancing over her shoulder, Blargetha explained, "you have to be at least a member of one of the tribes to touch the sacred site. If you're going to be doing anything... significant, you have to be apprenticed to a witch-doctor." They'd split the difference just to get work done here. Blargetha and all the principals had gotten initiated, earning tribal tattoos and given names. She was now Mocking Bird. That made Hurletta laugh. They'd named her aptly. Blargetha had always been a sarcastic little bitch.
Blargetha chuckled herself. "It was... interesting working all the details of who had to be apprenticed," she explained. Bonnie had assumed that the humans who'd been sent down to work would balk. "They took to it like ducks to water," the younger sister said. Tattoos had been a pretty common thing among Finn's peeps. Bonnie's own peeps had been the problem. They'd become rather independent and not very interested in pain.
That last had the older sister curious. Coming up alongside Blargetha, 'Letta reached out and touched the strange symbols on her sister's arm. The texture was definitely different. "Did it hurt," she asked? "A little," Blargetha admitted. It wasn't easy to tattoo a slime person, as in at all. The witch doctors had used magic, and the tattoos had burned for days.
The pair settled in at 'Letta's table and dug into supper. For a fair bit, there was only the sound of their silverware against the tin trays used for meals in these parts. Still, Hurletta's lively mind was active, taking in bits of this and that about her sister. Blargetha's eyes seemed to dance, constantly moving, going from place to place in the shack. At first the older sister thought she was restless–or maybe she was thinking of some piece of the project that needed doing. As the silence dragged on, Hurletta began to think there was something else afoot. It was a lot like the way Finn used to behave around her.
"I looked in on Heaviana," Hurletta murmured. "She's doing well." Blargetha's face snapped up, her face going hot. "Thanks," she mumbled. She hadn't seen her child in months. Drew and Lollipop had been looking after the little girl, and Blargetha couldn't help an honest fear that Drew was experimenting. "Oh, she's experimenting," Hurletta chuckled. "Ralph gets a good poking and prodding each time I see her." How often did you see a human/slime-person hybrid? Drew was taking notes.
It was meant as a joke, but Blargetha wasn't laughing. The younger sister was staring at her plate. "Ok," said Hurletta. "What's bothering you? I don't think anybody would complain about what you've managed to build here... certainly not Finn." Far from being convinced, the curvy woman got up and went to the door. Disturbed and worried, Hurletta got up to follow. This wasn't like her sarcastic and nasty sister.
It was raining outside, and Hurletta found herself fighting the urge to shout at Blargetha to come away from the door. Just as promised, the rain was coming down fairly hard. Swallowing her terror, Hurletta stood alongside her sister, listening to the beating of their new-minted hearts. "I want to apologize," Blargetha sniffed, "but I don't know how I could..." There weren't enough sorries in the world to cover what she'd done.
They were at the crux of things. There was an ugly piece of Hurletta Mertens that wanted to crow. She wanted to rub her sister's face in all the awful things she'd done over the years. Turning to face Blargetha, the older sister stood there studying her little sister a moment. "I want to behave like an innocent victim," Hurletta murmured. "I want to act as though I didn't exile my sister and have her imprisoned by my neighbor so I didn't get my hands dirty. My sister ate garbage when I forgot to pay the bill for her upkeep." "I don't understand," Blargetha murmured. It was plaintive. There was anguish in her voice. "It's the past," Hurletta replied. "We were reborn, Blargetha. Both of us. Let's start over." The older sister hugged the younger, gently stroking her back, as Blargetha gave vent to a lifetime of pain.
The King returns victorious to his home. Too bad he doesn't feel very kingly or victorious at the moment. The slime-sisters reconcile just in time to deal with conspiracies in the jungles of Coca Kingdom, and Jay's admirer sets off to pursue him until the ends of the earth.