The Greater Evil

Thanks to those that reviewed and left comments :) You'll be glad to know that there is a bit more to the plot in this one. If you haven't already google the Adventure Time Map it helps understand the story more. I try to use the Adventure Time Wiki and the actual show itself for facts and try to keep it as correct as i can. I'm going to be adding a new character to the story soon but I'm stuck as to what species i should make them. If you have any suggestions just leave them with the review. Thanks again!

Author Note: (On an adventure time map Ice kingdom is to the far north and Fire kingdom to the south. Betty was previously on an island far to the south just outside of Ooo looking for leads, she is currently nearing the fire kingdom in terms of location).

Lumen reached the southern border of the kingdom of fire before he even realised he had been walking for so long. He stared across the boiling river to the Isle of steam and started thinking to himself.
"Is it right for me to ask Finn to move onto the next Kingdom? I mean he was just reunited with his true love… will he even want to come with me?" The prince started to skim stones onto the steaming river watching as they disappeared into the steam before even stopping and sinking to the bottom.

"How can I expect him to come with me when the next place I want to visit is… her home? I mean I can't exactly go 'come on Finn you've seen your girl enough lets go see mine- wait what- She's not my girl! Stupid brain she doesn't even know me and I'm already imaging her being with me… What the actual junk you doofus!"

Lumen decided to fly around the sky for a little bit, Leaden had always taught him not to over use his powers and try to depend on his own body as much as he could but Lumen had always loved the feeling of the wind in his hair as he raced through the sky. He 'stood' still in mid-air looking further up as something had caught his eye it looked like a falling carpet. "Is that normal here? Does it rain carpets?" Almost to answer his next question he heard a scream as followed by the carpet was a person. Lumen raced down to catch the individual before they fell into the flow of burning water.

"Just a little further…" Lumen thought as he stretched to reach the person. His hand brushed against theirs before finally he wrapped his hand around theirs and lifted them away. He looked back just in time to see the sinking carpet burst into flames and disappear. "Yikes"

Once back at shore Lumen laid the person down. She appeared to be an adult woman whose skin was pinkish is its hue. She wore a cloak that seemed to be torn revealing her green turtle neck and trousers. She wore stylish oval glasses and had auburn hair. It was around this point Lumen noticed she seemed to be sweating a lot and her skin was turning redder. He quickly cast Shadow shield on her and was glad to see it had worked. He reached into his bag and got the bandages and medicine Phoebe had given him earlier. (Finn turned out to have a vial of Cyclops tears still so just cured himself quickly of his injuries) He started to tend to the wounds the woman had over her body, she was covered in cuts, scars and seemed to have been through great trauma. He found a cave nearby and decided to take her inside to let her rest.

Hours later

"Si… Sim… Simo… Simon where are you?" Betty yelled out as she awoke from her unconsciousness to find a strange looking person giving her a weird look.

"Who are you and why am I here" she immediately said before reaching in her pocket for her knife.

"Whoa calm down lady I just caught you when you fell from the sky, I was hoping you had some answers. You called out for a Simon, the only Simon I've met is the Ice King are you a friend of-"

"You've met Simon? As in normal not a penguin loving crazy Ice King Simon?"

"Well yeah I have now let's try and explain who we are, my name is Lumen and I'm the prince of Shades"

"Lumen… You're Lumen? The one that Finn said helped cure Simon?"

"Wait… are you Betty? Betty Grof? You're Si's Fiance?"

"Yes that's me; I was on an island to the south when I got Finn's call about Simon being him again. I immediately hopped on my flying carpet and headed back. The wind was a bit painful on my face going over the ocean but it started to get worse. I started to get cuts and I realised I was being attacked by a wind elemental. I couldn't fight it as all I had was my knife. I had to run, I flew as fast as I could when all of a sudden I was swept off my carpet and held mid-air. I saw the elemental start to materialise into a humanoid so when he was laughing at me I kicked him in the stomach, he didn't like that very much and hit me in the face and let me go. I started to lose consciousness and woke up here with you"

"I see Betty well that explains why you were falling through the air"

"Yes now Lumen I need you to explain to me how you fixed my fiancé it's important to me to know how you did it"

Lumen started to explain to Betty about his Holy light power, the origins of it from the shade kingdom, he also told her about himself and all of his origins and his adventures till this point.

"So wait your Human?" Betty questioned.

"Basically, I'm sort of a Human hybrid but I'm near enough human."

"Well looks like the human population just keeps growing for Ooo then"

"What do you mean Betty?"

"Well at first there was just Finn, he told me about a girl who lived underground named Susan Strong, he said something about her being a cyborg but he didn't go into a lot of detail. Then there was me and Simon, we're also both humans although from what you've said he is now more wizard than human. And finally there is you. So there are now a handful of humans in Ooo"

"YOU'RE HUMAN?"

"Well yeah… can't you tell?"

"Well not really I didn't really notice Finn was human when I met him either, after all you two are the only humans I've ever met"

"Well yeah I'm human anyway I'd hate to be a pain to you but I was wondering if you would know where I was and how I can get to the Ice Kingdom"

"Oh yeah sorry, you're in the fire kingdom and if yo-"

"WHAT!? How can I be in the fire kingdom and not be a pile of ash? And while I'm asking how comes you aren't either?"

Lumen explains shadow shield and its ability to protect the individual from the elements such as hot and cold. He also explained the incident with Phoebe's inner matrix.

"Whoa aren't you just a firecracker of tricks"

"Aha yeah being the Prince of the Shade kingdom has it's perks I guess but in regards to the Ice Kingdom why don't you just come with me and Finn? We're heading back in that direction tomorrow anyway so we'll take you there?"

"I'd like that very much Lumen"

The two went to leave the cave but all of a sudden a flaming knife storm started outside.

"You got any tricks to stop that?"

"I wish"

The two humans decided to set up camp in the cave, fortunately Lumen had been carrying his supplies from the night before and from Phoebe so they started a fire and began to cook the food that they had. After dinner the two decided to get some sleep and started to settle down. Lumen dropped straight off but Betty was still awake "Tomorrow my love, we will be reunited…" She was about to drop off when she noticed Lumen roll out from his covers, she got up and tucked him in so he was comfortable. She heard him mumble something in his sleep.

"Thanks mum, I love you"… Betty smiled at the cute remark before climbing back in her sleeping bag and drifting off to sleep.

Finn stared out through the balcony at the flaming knifes falling from the sky. Since everything in the Kingdom of fire is made out of either fire or was rebuilt by the best builders in the rock kingdom the knives didn't do any damage but he couldn't stop worrying about Lumen.

"Finn I'm sure he'll be alright, my sources told me that he was heading towards the southern border hours ago I'm sure he just stopped off somewhere to avoid the storm"

"Yeah I know Phoebe but I can't help but worry, he's like the only human family I got. Not just that look how much he's done for us, he saved Simon, reunited us, cured you and let me be able to touch you. I'm sure he's done even more than that and he hasn't asked for anything in return. I can't lose him"

Phoebe wrapped her arms around her distraught prince and comforted him.

"How about as soon as the storm stops you and me go see if we can't find him? Knowing the pervert he probably won't be far".

"Thanks FP, I'd like that… and seriously why do you keep calling him a pervert" Phoebe just giggled at his comment.

Leaden opened his eyes; he took a little while to readjust to the flickering light in the room. He looked around; he was in a room with one door. In the middle of the room was a well filled with a weird green liquid. It seemed this was the only thing in the room other than himself. He tried to study the room more but found himself losing consciousness.

Leaden awoke for the second time and looked around again, nothing had changed, and he closed his eyes and started to think… how had he ended up like this?

"I was at the castle filling in the report on how there shall be a party when the Prince returns and how the people were very hopeful the palace would allow it and then… and then the Lich turned up"

His eyes flew open and met with the hollowed out glare staring back at him. He was terrified, even more than when he met Lumen for the first time thinking the kid would hate him but if Lumen had taught him anything it's to always face your fears and think positively.

"Lich, what is it you want of me?"

"OF YOU? I want nothing of you; you are just vermin and a means to an end" the Lich spat out in disgust. What did this mortal think he was doing questioning the bringer of death himself? The Lich went back to the well and began drawing power from it. He had somehow been split from his main power source and woke up into this well after the events of the Citadel. In time the Lich had learnt that there was a horrid baby born from his corpse when the blood of a fallen guardian had touched him. He being a necromancer naturally hopped to his next corpse but it seemed that the child had kept a lot of his powers rendering him not much of a threat to even the smallest life form. Obviously Leaden didn't know this.

"A means to what end Lich King? Why do you want my prince?"

"YOU DARE SPEAK TO ME FILTH? YOU QUESTION ME? I SHOULD TEAR YOUR VERY SOUL FROM YOUR CORPSE AND LET YOU EXPERIENCE A LIFETIME OF TORTURE FOR JUST BEING ALIVE" Rising right to the face of the shadow elder.

"Yeah about that, why am I alive? Isn't your deal like extermination or have you changed jobs and just gone for creepy kidnapping?" Leaden know he was pushing his luck but since the evil being hadn't killed him yet he figured he had a role to play. It's not like he was ever leaving here alive again anyway.

"Are you not going to shut up and be threatened by me?"

"Nope…"

"Fine" The Lich then did something that left Leaden more speechless than anything ever could. The Lich let him down from the chains and then went and sat back at the well.

"Erm… Are you okay? I'm pretty sure this is the part where you usually kill people? You are evil you know?"

"If death is what you want just wait it will come but not at my hand. You asked me something what was it vermin? Speak now?"

"You said I'm a means to an end? What end? And how does it involve the Shade Prince"

The Lich sighed deeply and lowered his head. Leaden found himself questioning all those stories he had heard about the King of evil.

"I need you to get to your Prince"

"What do you want with him?"

"It's not what I want with him; it's what he needs from me."

"From you? He doesn't need anything from you! You're just a creep, a vile twisted murdere…" Leaden's insult was cut short as the Lich pinned him against the wall by his throat.

"DO NOT PUSH ME SCUM! YOU ASK A QUESTION AND GET AN ANSWER FROM ME AND THEN REJECT IT! DO NOT TRY MY PATIENCE YOU ARE BUT THE FASTEST ROUTE TO THE HUMAN YOU ARE NOT INDISPOSABLE. REMEMBER THAT VERMIN" The Lich let Leaden drop down to the ground coughing for air, he remembered why people feared him now.

"You all call me a murderer and a killer. You all claim that I am evil and you are good but there is no good and there is no evil there is only nothing. I am going to ensure that nothing comes to pass and then the great evil shall stop"

"So you're gonna reduce everything to nothing then stop? What exactly does my prince need from you?"

"Oh vermin how you misunderstand, I am not the great evil. I am evil yes but everything was created, I was created by something far worse than I am. I am nothing more than a bi-product off this evil I, as well as a few other things scattered in Ooo, are relics from that evil from a different time and a different world. Much like your human."

"Wait… you come from a different world? Is it the same as-"

"No. It is not the same as the Human. The one we came from no longer exists; we escaped that world and many others in hopes of escaping the Evil that came before. The one's of us I know survived are a darkened flame full of evil that enjoys breaking hearts, an essence of pure insanity which last I saw of it, it had possessed a Gem of power that was attached to a wishing crown. I believe Ice King now wears that crown."

"Wait so you're running from something? Why would you want to turn Ooo to nothing if you are running?"

"Because we are at the second last world, this is the last chance to stop the inevitable. If we do not stop the greater evil here then all of time and creation will be lost to pure evil. I plan to reduce this world to nothing, then this universe so when the evil gets here there is nothing to feast on and it will slowly die unable to escape to the final world."

Leaden was left shocked at this conversation, a conversation he was having with THE LICH. From what the being claimed he was trying to save a whole world, well the whole of creation from this evil.

"If you want to save this other world then why kill off ours? Surely there must be another way and what has it got to do with our prince."

"I would kill yours for the others because it is necessary; I have found no other way. I also have realised that I cannot kill of your world, especially now I am weakened. I have to find your Prince, a being from the last world and give him the knowledge and power to save the next."

"MY PRINCE WOULD NEVER KILL OUR WORLD"

"Calm vermin while I still have the patience for you, I know your prince would not. I just mean to give him the knowledge and the power to kill the greater evil. He is blessed with the holy light, one of the only good to ever escape the previous worlds. With this light he may have a chance to stop the greater evil."

"So… what is it you want the prince to do exactly?"

"I need the prince… to kill me."

Lumen woke up to the smell of food, it was a lovely smell and he decided to follow it. He opened his eyes and saw Betty chuckling at him as he drooled and dragged himself across the floor.

"Morning Prince, that's a lovely look you got going on there" she said laughing out loud as the Prince blushed.

"Yeah… sorry… so what's for breakfast?" he replied quickly trying to change the subject.

"A fire carp I caught in the river of steam, odd I was worried at first to get too close but I put my hand in and it was just kinda warm so I went for a swim."

"YOU DID WHAT? Betty that could be dangerous, even I do not know the full extend to the shadow shields powers and we shouldn't be pushing it"

"Calm down I know what I was doing now eat up"

Lumen sat down and grabbed some food before digging into it; he started to mumbled something to himself when Betty made him jump.

"Don't mumble things to yourself like that it's very rude and stop speaking with your mouthful, gosh in all the royalty I've met on my travels over Ooo you are far lacking the most manners and I once had dinner with LSP".

Lumen blushed once again embarrassed by the scolding he got from the adult woman. He apologised and began to eat the food. He finished and felt very full indeed.

"Thank you Betty that food was delightful" he said with a smile.

"See you do have manners after all but look at you, you have food all over your face". All of a sudden she got out a napkin and wet it then started to wipe the food and dirt of Lumens face. He sat there silently as the women mothered over him.

"Erm… thank you" was all he could say when she had finished. She smiled at him before packing up the rest of their supplies and suggested they head back to the fire kingdom.

"One more drop and then I'm there… Just one more small drop and I have the cure… Slow and steady…" Suddenly the door to the room burst open making PB just and drop the solution.

"JAKE, WHAT THE JUNK! DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO KNOCK?" Bonnibel screamed at the startled magic dog.

"Whoa take a nap Peebles, I was just looking for Finn he never came back to the tree house after meeting with shadow boy." He tried to explain.

"Jake if you hadn't gone running off you would have known that Lumen appointed Finn as next in line to his throne, Finn is now the Human Prince. You'd also have known that they went on a diplomatic mission to build good relationships with the Shade Kingdom." She stated trying to hold back the frustration in her voice.

"Now Jake if you don't mind I was just about to finish a very important experiment before you burst in and ruined things. If you don't mind please leave."

"Ahhh come on Princess let me help; Finn would never let it go if he found out that I had ruined something for you. What can I do to help?"

"Urgh fine Jake, I need some sort of high concentrate sugar solution but I just used my last one in that try, you happen to know of anything that would do the job?"

Jake thought for a minute and then realised "What about the Baker's Shard?"

"That's a great idea but if you remember YOU stole it?"

"Yeah yeah don't blow your crown off give me a few hours." Jake left the room and when he was out of earshot he pulled out his phone and dialled up a number on his phone.

"I knew you would eventually call Jake the Dog,
I knew that it would go back to you and me,
I knew it as if predicted by the almighty Glob,
It is time for the return of Tiffany".

"Tiffany I need a favour and if you do what I'm asking I'll hang out with you tomorrow how's that sound?"

"Whatever you need my friend".

A few hours later

"Hey Bubblegum I got the shard for you" Jake called out to the princess. She appeared hidden under some books wearing her lab goggles and coat.

"Wonderful Jake here hand it over" Bonnie said with a smile.

"Whoa not yet princess"

"What? Why not?"

"I just want to make sure that when I give you this you clear the 'debt' that I and Jake Jr owe you?"

"Oh Jake I was never going to hold you to that anyway, yours and Finn's heroic deeds outweigh even 100 Baker's Shards worth." The Princess smiled at the dog before taking the shard and adding a fraction of it to her solution she then got ready to add the last drop again and this time without interruption she added it turning the solution from a murky green to a bright gold.

"Whoa what's that PB?"

"This… this is an elixir of life; it can create, preserve and also save life. I invented it so I could help protect the candy people from exploding, illness and age. It's taken almost me almost centuries to create this and finally its complete" She said with a tone of pride in her voice.

"So it's like an immortality potion" Jake queried.

"Yes exactly that…" PB lifted the potion to her lips and drank some; she suddenly was covered with a golden aura before it settled down and left her smiling.

"WAIT PB? Did you just make yourself immortal?"

"Yes Jake, now I look after the Candy Kingdom forever and don't have to worry about much. Trust me Jake this will be a necessary action. My science brain is telling me that something's coming. Something we may all not survive."

Lumen tried to hold onto Betty tightly as he continued to fly through the field of geysers as they shot burning hot steam into the air. She started to slip so he had to hoist her back up before he kept flying. He had to get her back to the fire kingdom it was the only hope to stop her bleeding to death. Why had this happened?

An Hour Earlier

Betty and Lumen left the cave they had slept in and began to walk back towards the fire kingdom; it would take them about two hours if they walked slowly. The two enjoyed talking about their different adventures and the things they had seen. Betty, having travelled all of Ooo, knew particularly a lot of interesting things. Lumen listened to her stories and smiled, Betty had been through so much for the person she loved and was stronger for it. The two were so interested in each-others stories that they didn't notice that they were being followed.

The humans carried on and after just under an hour into their journey they heard a noise. All of a sudden something jumped at Betty and bit her arm. She yelled in pain as blood started to pour from her wounds. Lumen materialized a light sword and began to try and fight off the unknown foe. He heard more growls from behind him and he knew what was attacking them… Fire Wolves.

He managed to fight off as many as he could while defending Betty, he was doing well injuring them so they retreated while trying to minimise the damage he got from their teeth and claws. He suddenly noticed them retreating and began to relax… it was then the Alpha wolf pounced right at him, it lowered its jaw ready to take out the prince in one attack and it would have been successful if Betty hadn't stood in the way letting the Alpha's teeth sink deeply into her shoulder. Lumen wasted no time in attacking the Alpha, it yelped in pain and retreated following its fallen pack.

Lumen ran over to his fallen friend and started to put pressure on her wound, it would slow the bleeding but not stop it. He needed to get her to Finn, he had the Cyclops tears, they wouldn't heal her completely but they may stop her from dying. He bandaged her as best he could before through putting her on his back and beginning to fly towards the kingdom of flames. A thought came into his mind "I won't lose another mother." Was all it said, while continuing the fly he became confused? He lost his mother? How? Was Ivel more alive him inside him than he thought? He didn't have time for this he pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind and flew faster to the kingdom.

Finn packed the rest of his red bag with all the supplies he could, he shoved it on his back before grabbing his angel blade and let it become his wings. Phoebe stood beside him as they both flew out of the balcony heading south. "He better be okay… I can't be alone again". The two reached the border of the kingdom in an hour and were about to decide what to do when something flew past them going at amazing speed. Finn turned enough to see Lumen and Betty? He raced after the Prince trying to stop find out what had happened.

Lumen was nearly there, at this speed I should be there soon, Finn will be there and she will be okay. It was around this time that Lumen realised that although he had been cautious he did take some rather serious injuries from the wolves and found himself begin to lose consciousness, he fired a beam of light into the sky and wrapped Betty in his arms as he started to crash through the kingdom, he shielded her from most of the pain and the two ended up skidding to the edge of a lava lake before Lumen lost all consciousness.

Finn was close enough to see all of this and rushed to the two fallen people. He came across Betty first. "What happened to them? She looks like she's been to the Nightosphere and back" He reached into his bag and grabbed the vial of Cyclops tears… He only had enough for one person. He had used up so much when Lumen fell off the cliff and now he had to choose… Lumen or Betty? His hero heart took over as he poured the tears over the worst of her injuries. It didn't heal her completely but he knew she'd be okay. He looked up and saw Phoebe starting to treat Lumen's wounds. Finn did first aid on Betty's remaining wounds and the two carried their fallen friends back to the palace.

Lumen once again stood in the middle of a street, the familiar feeling guided him to the home he always went to. He walked into the front room and sat next to the people. Something was different… He couldn't see them completely but he could see a bit more of their facial features. One stood and walked over to him, she lent close and hugged him affectionately.

"Welcome home Ivel"

"We've missed you" said the voice of the other individual in the room.

This was usually when he'd wake up, the people never said anything more or anything less but this time was different.

"Ivel I Love you with all my heart, be strong and keep fighting. We will meet again soon."

Lumen was stunned, this… that was new… he almost didn't know what to say but then it came to him as if his lips had longed to say it since the moment he arrived.

"I love you too Mum, don't worry I'll be back soon".

The world around him faded till he woke up on a familiar bed, he sat up and materialised a sword he needed to protect Betty.

"Whoa dude chill… Your safe now" Lumen turned to the voice and was happy to see a relieved looking Finn and a started Flame Princess. He looked on the other side of the bed and saw Betty smiling back at him. She still had bandages over her body but she didn't look like she was in pain. Lumen just lies back down and let out a deep breath… He had done it.

"Lumen I know you're tired but I wanted to thank you, it's the second time you've saved my life in too days. I really need to stop falling from the sky" Betty chuckled to herself.

"No Betty, You've got that wrong you're the one that saved me, if it wasn't for you I really would have ended up being wolf bait. I guess I should really see if I can be taken off their main course menu". The whole group laughed remembering Lumen's story about almost being eaten by wolves on his way to the Candy Kingdom.

Finn, Betty and Phoebe left Lumen to get some more rest and healed up. It apparently wouldn't take him too long due as his injuries weren't as bad as first thought. Betty and Finn had a massive catch up while Phoebe was introduced to the female human. The two instantly hit it off and walked around the palace preparing for their adventures to come. Phoebe had decided to join Finn on his travels; she had said it was to also improve her kingdoms reputation although she just didn't want to let him out of her sight. He didn't disprove and was greatly happy with the news.

Finn went back to Lumen's room and watched over the Prince as he slept, he decided to have a nap himself and drifted off again into dreamless sleep thinking about what will happen when they both wake up.

Well there we go Chapter 7 :) I just want to clarify a few points, Leaden is basically like Lumen's adopted father and He sees Betty as a mother figure. The Lich is still Uuuberr EVIL but he is trying to protect the other world for a reason i will not reveal yet. Any idea what the other world is? ;) Jake hasn't had much part in the story yet as he is going to have a whole chapter to himself later on, it's part of the story i'm building just to clarify for any Jake Fans.