The Human and the Shadow Part 16

Hey people :) This chapter is shorter than usual but not by much, It's answering a few questions and If you don't understand anything I will explain it just P.M me or leave a review.

The Trial of Simon and Bubba – Depression and Sorrow

"Bubba Gumball of the Candy Kingdom, Trial Complete"

"Simon Petrikov of the Ice Kingdom, Trial In-Complete"

"Simon are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Asked a concerned Bubba as a pink light began to consume him.

"You know it is, I need to find out the rest but someone has to take on what we've learnt so far. Now, overcome your sorrow and go forth Bubba… tell my Betty I love her and remember Faith is the key"

"Simon Petrikov, it has been an honour knowing you and I hope that your plan succeeds"

"Bubba Gumball, likewise an honour, I will do what I can our fates now rest in the hands of our friends… goodbye". The pink light vanished taking with it the Prince of the Candy Kingdom, leaving the Ice Prince alone. He turned and faced the wreckage of Lumen's old home. He heard a familiar growl and watched as it rose. The Cadaver broke free of the rubble and gazed out looking for the two royalty, it grabbed its head and put it back in place, relocating its jaw it spoke to Simon.

"You fool; you should have left when you had the chance. The end has been and all that is left is dead. The cold of death is far beyond the cold of Ice and Snow. You know too much and for that… your death is nigh"...

...

The Trial of Cake and Benny – Testing and Reconstruction

"I agree" a voice from behind the two Aaavians said. Benny and Cake turned round quickly to see a hooded figure staring at them. They quickly went into defensive position with Benny grabbing his dagger and Cake shaping her hand into a giant fist.

"Whoa strangers I mean you no harm, I came wondering why two people would be heading to the Temple of the Rising Night and where these people come from" The hooded figure replied quickly, not wanting to get attacked or beat to a pulp.

"Who are you sugar and where are we? And what's that temple? Y'all better start speaking or yo gonna get a large slice of Cake and pain" the feline threatened.

The hooded stranger was startled and frankly quite scared as Cake grew double his size, he took off his hood and cloak allowing his true appearance to be shown. He had spikey green hair, green marks over his pale white skin. He wore a green sweater with black jeans and green knee length boots. He also had what appeared to be a green sword that was oddly similar to Finn and Fionna's Demon Blood Sword.

"My name is Prince Rose Ivy, Not the most masculine of names but I like it, I am a survivor on this forgotten world and lead what remnant's there are left. You are currently standing on Qqq which is the 17th world or the 15th fallen world. Finally the temple of Rising Night was built to show our faith and obedience to our dark ruler." The green prince explained with a smile. "Now what world are you from? And would you require any assistance in your trial?"

Benny and Cake stared at the pair unsure of really what they wanted to say. "For a prince of a dead world he is awfully cheerful".

"Silence is getting us nowhere so I'll take charge, my name is Benny and this is Cake the Cat. We come from the land of Aaa however we started this trial from the land of Ooo, Who is your dark ruler? And assistance?" Benny replied growing tired of this dead world and just keeping it short and sweet in hopes of getting answers sooner. The moment he mentioned Aaa and Ooo the Prince's face lit up.

"You're from Aaa? You're actually from the first world of creation and the last of destruction… and Ooo… The prophecy is true after all" Prince Ivy stated to tear up. "It's true… it means it's not over yet…" He was beginning to shake and cry Cake had to support him to stop him falling over. He looked up to the confused faces of the Aaavians so tried to explain.

"You must come with me to the Temple, there I shall show you all the answers to your questions and explain everything to you" Ivy grabbed their hands and began to lead them to the temple, Cake got bored of it taking so long so shifted big taking the two men with her till they arrived at the edge of a moat that surrounded the temple.

"Well sugar now how on Aaa are we going to get over there, I will tell youse now that I am not getting this fur wet" Cake purred at the others showing off her furry tail.

"This is one of the first issues, the secrets our people need are in that temple but the moat here stops us and swimming isn't exactly an option." Ivy walked over to a dried up tree easily breaking off a branch he then threw it into the water and the trio watched as the branch burst into black flames and sunk into the water seemingly disappearing.

"Then how are we meant to get across Rose" Benny asked slightly glad that they had bumped into the Prince all of a sudden.

"Well this is your trial I suppose how we do it is down to you?" He replied in a tone that made it seem like he had just said something obvious.

"Don't you take that tone with me plant boy how do you know about all this trial business anyway?" Cake snapped back.

"I meant you no offense lady cat, I just assumed since you were taking part in the trials you know the full extent of what they are and why you're here? You are not the first to come here after all" Ivy held his hands up trying to protest his innocence.

"We weren't the first here? And please explain the trials to me, Cake can you please go look around for a way in while I get the information" Cake nodded and started looking for an entrance.

"Now Prince Ivy I want the truth and the whole of it, what are the trails and what happened to the people who came before us?" Benny's voice was suddenly a serious and flat tone.

"Our world was the 15th to fall, between Ooo and mine there has been 9 worlds that have fallen. Once the darkness came it destroyed all of our existence, we were spared due to a sacrifice we were forced to make…"

"Sacrifice…?" Benny questioned.

"Look at this sword, does it seem familiar to you" He held up the green sword.

"Yes in our world a heroic girl named Fionna use to wield a red one, her male counterpart in Ooo also use to use one. It was made of the Demon Blood Sword" Benny was a bit confused by the significance of the sword.

"…Fionna… yes it must be one and the same, in our world there was a girl named Fiolee, a part Vampire part human girl who wielded this sword, the Mutant Blood Sword. She was an amazing hero and protected us from all of harm… but the darkness was different… it sent her on her own trial and she came back beaten, afraid and weak but alive. That was our hope and we fought back against the darkness but it was never enough… finally one day Fiolee disappear… and then we heard a scream… and she was dead. She left a note saying she was going to bargain her hero soul for the lives of the remaining people alive on Qqq. The darkness had accepted this not caring much for us as it's the pure soul of hero's and the good within them that he feeds off, he tortured us for a few years turning the land into dust and death but not allowing us to die. He forced us to build a temple to worship him and then… we started to have visitors." Benny stood horrified as he realised fully what had happened to this world but he kept quiet listening to the story continue.

"In total four worlds' inhabitants have arrived here, the first were an odd aquatic creature that died before we could find it, it died of dehydration in the desert, and we buried its body and didn't really understand it. The second were these two large Viking sorcerers from the Bbb world; they were too confident and refused to listen to our advice and just tried to swim through the waters… that's when we learnt of its curse. We had never drunk it due to the fact the darkness put it there for us. The third inhabitants were a little nicer; they were two demons from this world where someone had ripped a chunk of their world away in order to protect who they could. They were only demon by name as they were lovely… they knew at least one of them had to get to the temple in order to succeed so the male… he held his wife above his head as he walked through the moat of black fire… he got to the other side just before he died. The woman went in the temple; she was there for what seemed like hours before re-appearing. She constructed a grave stone for her fallen mate and then this light consumed her and she left. I recognised it. It was the same light Fiolee had returned with after her trial so I assumed she had completed what she set out to. The last, before you, that came was a young boy; he was wearing a crown that seemingly drove him insane but granted magic of ice and snow. He walked around with snow dogs that were awfully cute; I think he called them Jake. He also had this metal arm which was new I guess he must have had it hard on his world. He froze the lake and walked over to it; gained the knowledge he needed to and came back. From him I truly learnt the horrors of these trials."

"Wait… a crown of Ice and Snow? Do you know this boy's name or what he called himself" Betty was confused by everything. This world had been left for dead but the people living through the sacrifice of their hero. They have watched countless 'champions of good' die or leave but could never do anything he had to know what these trials were.

"He said his name was Finn Mertens, or that it was before he put on the crown. He said he had become 'the Ice Prince'. He was a boy lost in his own mind having glimpses of sanity. When he came back he told me that the trails are based on grief and he never was able to overcome he's so he stayed here." The Prince admitted glumly.

"Wait… this Ice Prince? He's still here?" Benny said confused.

"Yeah he's back at the camp; I will take you to him after we are done with the temple if you wish" Ivy replied, he's face showed he was still stuck on thoughts of Ice Prince.

Cake came running to the boys gasping for air. "Sweet babies I found a way across" she managed to spit out.

Benny stood reflecting on what he had just learnt. So much needs to be addressed but all he could think of is that in one world Finn was the one to put on the crown and become an Ice Wizard. Benny looked down at the necklace Lumen had given him and felt its warm, he needed to get back to save Simone from her own Tiara and maybe just maybe they'd save this version of Finn too.

The Trial of Jake – Acceptance

"How many years…" Jake asked struggling to take in everything that Lumen was saying.

"15 Years Jake the Dog… 15 years since the day the trial started and the road to hate began." Lumen and Jake looked up to see the King of the Flame Kingdom standing before them. He wore a dark red top with black jeans and his long golden hair was braided and tucked under the crown on his head. He stood there holding his Angel Wing Sword with one hand and… and he held his Demon Blood Sword in his robotic arm. Finn the Human King looked at the two and ran at Jake.

Jake froze as this older Finn ran at him, he remembered the day that his parents had brought Finn home, he remembered growing up with Finn, giving up his life of crime for Finn, moving into the tree house, meeting their friends; Bonnie, BMO, Marceline, Simon and of course Lady… he thought of Lady… he, well future him, had killed Lady… with that thought in mind Jake relaxed and let him body become limp… Finn deserved this… to get his revenge and Jake deserved to die, if he never came back he wouldn't be there to hurt the people he loved. He waited for the pain… but it never came.

A sound of metal crashing to the ground followed by the sobs of the human king as he held tightly onto the dog crying his eyes out. Jake was paralyzed with confusion, instincts soon kicked in and Jake wrapped his arms around him comforting him.

"Jake… it's you… the past you… before everything… my Jake" cried the future Finn, he still hadn't let go of Jake as he continued to sob. Up close Jake looked at him his hair was as golden as ever and sort of made the crown look less amazing. His red top bore the insignia of the fire kingdom as well as a sword logo that Finn had adopted as his symbol around when he was 16. His face and arms were covered in scars and Jake could feel bumps on his back where he had deep scars.

"Finn… I'm sorry… Lumen told me what I did-" Jake started to say.

"No Jake, that wasn't you… it wasn't you… it was the evil in you that changed you… I had to hurt Lady and I'm sorry I didn't know but… that you… you were no longer you… But this you is you… you're my bro… and now… I can have my bro back" Finn's sobs began to slow down as he released Jake, up close it was clear to see he had continued to grow taller as he was now much taller than the dog. Finn walked over to Lumen and hugged him, the two looked at each other for a while clearly passing silent words between them but Jake didn't mind.

"So Finn… what do you mean you can have your bro back?" Jake was confused by the comment.

"The you that… that went bad and did those things was the first to go to the future and come back. That you while in the last future came across the evil that the greater evil released as his future was one that we had lost. That Jake changed the past in order to allow us to win against the evil but at a cost of Lady and himself… you… I swore the moment Lumen told me about your trial that I'd wait for the day you came and then I would help you save her, yourself and everyone now we have work to do Jake."

"Finn what do you mean? What have you been planning?" It was Lumen's turn to be confused.

Finn smiled the same goofy grin he always had when he knew something someone didn't; he went into his red bag and pulled out a crystal that was in there. It was bright gold and smooth, he tightened his hand around it and gold dust started to fall to the floor.

"Hero's, Heroine's and Champions of good, the time has come for us all to gather again, we beat evil but evil still robbed us of people we loved, the time has come for us to get back the ones we love and the future we should have had." Finn finished his speech and watched as the gold dust spread out in different directions opening portals.

Marceline and Hope were the first two to step out, wearing a variety of weapons on them and looking serious. Bubba, Bonnie and Belle stepped out next; Belle was sitting on her father's shoulders seemingly happy to be part of this adventure. Marshall and Fionna stepped out next, it was clear to see that Fionna too had aged when steam and a towel wasn't covering her face. It seemed she had let her feminine side get the better of her and was wearing a beautiful white dress but still had her sword over her shoulder. Cake, Simon, Betty, Simone, Benny, and Phoenix all followed their friends into the gathering forming a circle. The last golden portal gave way to a group of three, the oldest being a beautiful flame royal wearing a familiar dress… Phoebe, stood with her were two children, a boy in his early teens with bright red flaming hair, bright blue eyes and pink skin, he clearly took more after his father than his mother but his flaming hair showed his mother's side. The other child was a girl probably a year younger than the boy, probably around 11. She had her father's long golden hair that as she was more like her mother flowed in the light breeze as her flaming body was decorated with a cute dress similar to her mothers.

"Jake, I'd like you to meet your nephew and niece" Finn indicated to the children.

"Lily sweetie and Light, come meet your uncle Jake" Finn picked up his two children and took them to meet Jake; Jake stretched out his arms and took the two children who hugged him. Jake closed his eyes, for the first time since he'd been here he thought something new "Maybe the future's not all that bad".

Yeah I'm sorry this took longer than usual I was just debating on how to follow the last chapter so updatesss:

Group Status -

Finn and Phoebe - Water World - Phoebe Complete
Marceline, Marshall, Fionna and Lumen - Music Box - Fionna and Lumen Severely Injured
Bonnie and Phoenix - Enchanted Maze - Phoenix unconscious
Ice Queen and Betty - Snow Forest - Trial Complete
Simon and Bubba - The Last World - Bubba Trial Complete - Simon Trial Incomplete
Cake and Benny - The Wastelands
Jake - The Future World

Simon and Bubba's trial shall be explained later on but for now it will remain a mystery, following the trial there will be a shake up of the characters and who will stay as a main character or the 'Champions of Good' will change too.

Please review :) I want to know how everyone is finding the trials?