The Human and The Shadow Chapter 39

One's True Strength

Phoebe, Marceline, Light and Hope VS The Relics of Chaos and Peace.

"Let's go..." The champions faced against the door of the tree house ready to go out. Hope was breathing deeply muttering to herself, in her head she was running through the previous encounter with the relics trying to find a weakness or point to exploit. Marceline smiled a little at her little girl, thinking how she was gonna grow up to be as much of a bad ass as she was. Light was more worried than anything knowing that the two demi-demons were more than ready to fight and knowing that as Finn was in danger nothing was going to stop Phoebe. He needed to keep their side level headed. Phoebe however only had one thought in her mind. Finn.

Phoebe flew outside ready to go all guns blazing to see both relics standing in wait. Like the two children had said they really looked alike; Peace was a perfect copy of Light in every feature but colour and stood with his hands held over his mouth. Chaos however was a perfect copy of Hope standing beside him holding her hands over her ears. She looked at the confused faces of the champions and her brow began to frown.

"Do you not understand it?" She asked. The champions remained silent and ready to fight. Seeing this seemed to enrage Chaos. She changed her arm into that of a giant claw and swatted Peace away into the pond. He didn't seemed phased by the actions and just kept his hands in place.

"Stop it already you moron! They didn't get it!"

"Erm.. Little creep that looks like my daughter? What exactly didn't we get?" Marceline asked confused but hoping to bait the relics to fight already.

"You see, bitch, we were trying to mimic the statue of 'See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil' but you went and ruined it by being too stupid to understand."

Phoebe's rage seemed to dim for a minute while she thought about it. "Wouldn't you need three people to mimic that statue? So the only stupid person is you... the one who couldn't count to three?" While Phoebe had been mainly talking to herself her comment was not unnoticed. Chaos's white heart insigna glowed and for a minute she appeared to have vanished. Phoebe blinked and opened her eyes to both Light and Hope holding back a black sword that was so close to her chest it could have been touching. Marceline suddenly swung her axe at the copy-cat but she dodged effortlessly.

"Well... Looks like this will be more fun than we were promised. Why are there two more of you by the way? We were told to come here and find the lovers of the light bearers... copy them and then kill them and use their forms to torture the light bearers however thanks to you intruders we're stuck with these small, weak forms?" The Champions realised that this question wasn't really directed at them more Chaos talking to herself.

Light looked at Hope and mouthed the word "weak" to her and she shrugged. She thought about it and then decided to whipser back "Experience". Light thought about it and grasped that although the relics had their bodies and powers, they didn't know how to use them. And while they lacked that experience they were just in smaller and weirder bodies than the ones they were meant to originally get. He quickly whispered this to Phoebe and Marceline who both smiled. If that was the case this could be easier than they thought.

Phoebe quickly materialised a flame sword and swung at the white hearted girl. She blocked with her own blade and used her other hand to block a kick from Marceline from above. However with both her hands full she couldn't stop the combined hits from both Light and Hope as they blasted her with Orange and Black flames. She went flying back before ramming her sword into the ground to regain momentum. She threw her blade at Marceline who had to change into a small bat to avoid it. She then sent a barrage of black flames towards Phoebe who had to put up a wall of fire to escape it. She flew towards Hope and Light and began overwhelming them in hand-to-hand combat but it only lasted a second. The pair of mothers had shrugged off her attack and began to fight back and with the children using their abilities, Chaos had no chance of victory. After a clean right hook to the face from Marceline Chaos went flying into the dirt. The relic rose from the ground and faced the group seething with anger.

"PEACE! GET UP OUT OF THAT POND AND FIGHT FOR ME! NOW!" Chaos thrusted her hand into the white insignia on her chest and twisted and suddenly a blood draining scream was heard. They turned to see Peace withering in pain as the black heart on his chest began to glow. The blackness spread over the whole of his body till he was just a pure black version of Light. He stood up and then faced the group. He too thrusted his hands into his chest but he pulled back out a glowing black orb. Phoebe's face lit up in horror when she realised what it was. A Matrix Core.

She threw up a wall of flames and grabbed the others before starting to flee to the house she had only just got inside when the force from the core exploding could be felt at the house. If not for the numerous protective spells and features on the tree-house it would have ceased to exist. Explosions could be heard outside so loud that their ears were ringing. Phoebe struggled more to keep the wall of flames up outside shielding the tree-house that little bit more when on the ground she saw a small set of burn marks. She recognised them... they were her foot prints from all those years ago. She looked forward and saw a carpet that had been kicked up. Instead of painting over them or replacing the floor boards... Finn had kept them as they were, only covering them to hide them from others. A mark on this house that didn't fade. Her mark. This was her soon to be husbands home, her home and she was not about to let a stupid fake ruin that. or stop her from getting to him. Tears fell from her eyes as she turned to the door and began walking back towards it in both sadness and blinding rage.

"MUM CALM DOWN!" Light yelled at his Mum. He held onto her tightly trying to comfort her but also trying to stop her from charging back outside. The three had seen the footprints and realising what they were knew that all that was going through her mind was thoughts of Finn.

"FP you need to chill girl He's going to be okay. Marshall and Fionna are with him, they would have got him and taken him to safety... okay..."

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT! We've already lost enough people!" Phoebe could no longer take this sitting down. They had lost Belle... a child, Fionna and Finn had lost their parents to this and many many more.

"...that's not going to happen... it'll all be okay..."

"How! Hunter is missing, Belle is dead! and now Finn is out there injured and we can't do anything about it! Bonnie and Bubba are so busy trying to save us that they don't even know yet that their little girl is now in the hands of the relics! And don't forget no one's even heard from Lumen and Jake since this trial started!"

"Mum listen to me! Belle isn't dead..." Light had wanted to save this chat for another time but realising that all that was stopping his Mum from wanting to fight two relics single handedly was this conversation he was keen to keep it going.

"How?"

"Because she doesn't exist here yet... as long as the us from now don't die we will keep living because we will never have to go back... it's like a paradox... we exist now because we don't exist yet so we are expendable... and Belle... she knew what she was doing.. She managed to finish the shield for the Ice Kingdom... now nothing can get in there and Cloud, Betty, Simon and the others there are all okay... trust me.."

"It doesn't change... that you're fathers still in trouble..."

"Mrs Mertens" Phoebe looked down at Hope and blushed.

"Yes sweetie..."

"Isn't Uncle Finn always in trouble?..." Phoebe picked up Hope and gave her a big hug.

"Yes... yes he is..."

Marceline sat against the wall and tried working out how things got so bad... and how they were going to get out of this mess.

Jake (W/Lady) and Lumen VS Red and Knight.

Lumen opened his eyes to see nothing but yellow and red. Jake had jumped in front of him after seeing that he couldn't evade the arrow. The arrow had pierced the little dog right through the chest and from the sound of his bones crunching had hurt a lot. Jake began to fall to the floor but Lady flew in and grabbed him before flying high into the sky. She turned to Lumen and fired a beam from her horn straight at the hands holding Lumen freeing him. He reached into his pocket and threw something towards Lady which she caught in her mouth. She looked at Lumen before firing a beam at him knocking him back and flying off with Jake and the item.

Knight rose from the shadows and stood beside Red who had watched the whole situation with an amused face. She and Knights job had been to corrupt the dog and his weird wife so that they would either kill the other heroes or be killed by them. She hadn't expected it to work so fast and began to laugh. Only stopping when she saw Lumen stand back up.

"What is this!? WHY ARE YOU FINE!" She yelled at him. However Lumen ignored her and patted off the dust from the ground. He stretched out his arms and his back before facing the two relics.

"What is happening brother! Why are you not harmed from that things beam and also no longer bleeding from your wounds!? ANSWER ME!" Lumen smiled back at her, apparently losing her win so quickly after achieving it was a sore spot for the dress relic.

"Well you see, what I just got hit by was not the same beam that those hands did, I got hit by a beam of pure light, white light. Which for someone like us is like being bathed in healing tears" He smiled again, which to his delight caused Red's eyes to twitch.

"FINE. But what did you throw to that thing... her dog is long gone there's no way he will live and if he did then he will be corrupted and it will be that thing that pays!" Lumen's smiled faded, hearing how the future version's of themselves past had played out from the relic responsible left a bad taste in his mouth.

"You would think that was what would happen now... What do you think would happen, and just try to picture it, if you had a triplet of geniuses work with flames of light and Cyclops tears and refined them to their purest form..."

"What are you trying to say?"

"What would happen if Cyclops tears, which heal all wounds, were purified under flames of pure light from the Angel of Light?" Upon finishing his question it appeared the answer had become obvious to Red her darkened face began to show shades of red as anger coursed through her.

"Not going to answer? Well... they would be able to cure wounds... so much better and be able to cleanse darkness from people without me having to do it. Just something we decided to cook up. How's that sound? Looks like your darkness ain't that great either now is it?" Lumen laughed at the relic and was lucky enough to dodge the arrow she had fired at his head.

"IT CHANGES NOTHING! You are still outmatched against us. You cannot use your powers, you can't beat us in combat and without help you will lose to us and once you fall the rest will fall too!" Red smiled again at the Shade Human. Every word she spoke full of spite and hopes to break his will. To let him understand why they gave in, why when you have nothing left you have no choice but to falter. But he began to laugh at her.

This time Lumen stopped and looked up, before Red had a chance to speak another voice came from the Armor beside her.

"What.. hiding... you... from... us..." Lumen looked at the two surprised, he had just assumed Knight couldn't speak but he gather from the surprise on Red's face that him speaking was a thing to be shocked at.

"Brother... laughs... we... hurt... what... will... free... us... like... brother..." Knight's voice still broken and deep. Lumen had a hard time hearing most of it but it made enough sense. Knight just wanted to stop hurting. Lumen noticed that there was more cracks of white forming on him.

"Knight! Now is when you choose to speak? We all believed you were too broken to speak.. but.. why... why speak to him and not to us!?" Red had lost all focus on Lumen and had even turned her back to him. Her whole focus on Knight.

"We.. Broken.. Brother..Not.. Brother can.. Save.. us.. If.. We let.. him" Knight's words had began to become more and more clear, with even more cracks forming. Red still seemed to not notice these forming.

"Knight... we don't need him, we never did... nor did we need her. She threw us away when she chose to fight the darkness. She threw everything away and started all this. He is just one of her precious pawns that continues to keep her game going. If he dies... if they all die.. and the darkness wins.. he will have no more use of us and we can finally go back... go back to just being nothing. Thoughtless, Life less objects like we've always wanted." Knight looked down at his sister and pulled her in for a hug. She accepted confused but it was just a ploy. He struck the back of her head with his sword knocking her unconscious. He laid her down gently and turned to face Lumen.

"Sister not ready. Not ready for truth. She not know how strong you can be. Ghost is weak. You are weak. But like the others you can be strong. With one relic you are this strong. But with two or three. You will be stronger." Lumen watched as Knight raised his sword to fight once more. However when he moved his armor cracked more till finally it fell apart. Leaving the figure of a woman in white. Lumen could not name the woman but felt closer to her than any before. The figure faded leaving a black skeleton holding the sword.

"Now I am weak like you. If you win, you will be strong, if you lose... Sister is Right" And with that the black skeleton thrust his sword forward at the Shade Prince who swatted it to the side and began to fight back. Lumen ran at Knight grabbing him and diving into the shadows appearing out of the shadow of the house and throwing Knight through the wall. Knight stood back up and began to slash at the Prince who tried to dodge the hits but without the armor Knight was faster with none of the strength lacking. He let his sword fall onto Lumen shattering the sword in his left hand and cutting him.

"Why have you not realised your mistakes brother!" Knight asked, with none of the broken speech left.

"What mistake are you talking about? You keep talking like I'm doing this wrong. What do you want me to do? I've got my swords and I am fighting you like you want!?" Lumen yelled. He was loosing patience with this whole situation.

"Exactly your mistake. You Have Got Your SWORDS!? You are not the sword of light, or the heart, you are the shield!" Lumen stared at Knight not getting what he was trying to say. What did the titles they were given had to do with their fight? Finn was the Sword of Light destined to Fight the darkness. Fionna the Princess and Heart of Light destined to guide the Sword and Shield and lead against the darkness... and he was the Shield of Light... destined to...

Suddenly it clicked.

Lumen let his broken white sword that he wielded in his left hand dematerialise and focused on that word. Shield. And it materialised. Rather than holding it, it was better to say attached to his wrist. It was a small pure white shield that was decorated with a pair of light blue angel wings. He looked up at the Skeleton before him who nodded back to him.

Lumen ran at Knight again this time using his shield to block in the coming swings from the relic. He then thrust with his sword hoping to damage him but was disappointed when he remembered that as a skeleton he had no stomach to pierce. Knight brought back down his sword again but this time Lumen used his shield to deflect the hit and span round striking Knight in the back throwing him off balance. The two kept fighting constantly increasing the speed and intensity. If it hadn't been his life on the line Lumen would have believed this to be combat training but pushing that thought back he ran at Knight for the last time using his shield arm to swat Knights sword out of his boney hands and chopping of the relics head. Lumen looked down at the skull of his brother relic and saw it slowly fade to dust. The dust rose in the wind spinning in the air before being absorbed into Lumen's body. He felt his powers grow and smiled.

"Goodbye Brother." Lumen turned to see Red's eyes meet his as she thrust an arrow straight into his chest. Tears fell down her cracked cheeks as she looked at the broken shells of her brothers armor. She had woken to see Lumen strike down her brother and was about to get her revenge.

Finn Vs Fear

Finn Ran Fear Follower.

They Fought.

Neither Won.

Neither Lost.

Finn Ran Fear Follower.

They Fought.

Neither Won.

Neither Lost.

Finn ran through the eternal darkness hoping to gain a moments peace. Since he had finished talking with Fear he had been fighting non-stop, time was warped here and since that moment it had been a long time. Part of him was beginning to welcome the end of the fight but he knew that was his weakness talking. He continued to run till he tripped over something on the ground. He picked it up and tried to see what it was. A Chain?. He decided to follow this chain and see where it came from. In the distance he could begin to see a light again and ran towards it picking the chain up as he went. When he arrived there he found several more lights. Inside each light was a sight as horrid as the last.

The first light had Bonnie inside, chained up just like Belle had been with the sewn up eyes and the slit throat, the second light was Marceline chained to a table burnt and with peeling skin as if she had been chained to a table in the sun before Lumen's spell. The third light had a chain around Jakes throat leaving him hanging with his feet no longer touching the ground, not moving. The fourth light and final light seemed empty so he walked up to it... he realised that this was a pool and when he looked into the watery substance he saw a sight worse than all the others... chained below the surface of the water was Phoebe.. No longer alight, no longer alive. Finn went to grab her but found himself unable to break the surface of the water, he tried to free everyone but was unable to break the chains. He kept swinging at them with his sword till he heard his sword break and the blade fly into the darkness before coming to a stop.

"It breaks you... Doesn't it?" Finn looked up and through his tears he saw Fear looking down at him holding the broken shard of his sword so tightly it was causing him to bleed.

"How... How can you look at this and not break? Not give it up... we lost everything.." Finn sobbed. Fear rushed forward and kicked Finn hard in the face to the ground and kept kicking the broken hero.

"WE HAVE LOST NOTHING!" Fear screamed down at him. Finn grabbed his foot and flipped him onto the ground. He got on top of him and rained his fists onto his face.

"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT! CAN YOU NOT SEE THEM! THEY'RE ALL DEAD!"

"NO!" Fear retorted quickly headbutting Finn causing him to fall back. The two stood up and ran at each other exchanging blows, abandoning weapons for just brute force.

"THEY ARE ALIVE! WHAT YOU ARE SEEING IS EXACTLY WHAT THE DARKNESS WANTS YOU TO SEE!" Fear caught Finn's fists and pulled him close to his face. "They live, they always have by your side. But the darkness will take that from you and if you do nothing then the illusion you see before you will become reality."

"THEN SAVE THEM FEAR! SAVE THEM!" Finn begged.

"You would just give your body to me? Let yourself become a monster that will break their hearts to spare their lives?" Fear quizzed.

"YES.. Yes... You said it yourself... I'm too weak to save them..." Fear looked at the Human before pulling him into a hug. Finn began to sob onto his shoulder.

"Finn... will you hear me out?"

"Yes Fear?"

"Time in here runs differently from outside... mere minutes have passed since Marshall bit you... but me and you have been fighting for what must seem like to you for 5 years. 5 years of non stop fighting and in them 5 years you haven't given up. You've learnt to fight without light, to fight without sound. You have always fought me and although you have never won, you never gave up. Them times when we were both so tired and hurt we couldn't move and just talked. We discussed the wedding plans, the fact that we will have two children and that now from nothing we have gained such a big family. You were given time to come to terms with your memories from Pillow world, to think about all those years of pain with and without FP. The loss of your Dad, never knowing your Mum. The time you have spent in here... you haven't grown stronger physically but mentally and emotionally and now it's time for you to break. But not like you think. It's not time to break down but break free"

"You may not have noticed but this whole time we have been running in the same direction. We ran to reach here. These chain illusions that bind your friends down are the chains left behind by Link. To both track you and to corrupt you. These 5 years here have been conditioning you to deal with this darkness but there was something I didn't tell you. I always said I wasn't another you but you were a part of me. That was true. The reason you couldn't break those chains is because you weren't whole. Not emotionally, not mentally and thanks to me not physically. But soon that will all change. When they cure you of me, you will finally be whole again. Able to fight the darkness and win." Finn stared into Fears red eyes conflicted.

"But... You told me I had to master the power of the Angel Wing Sword to beat you... to beat the darkness... I didn't master it... I broke it..." At this point Fear began to laugh hard, he let go of Finn and pinched the bridges of his nose.

"When did you ever take the words of an enemy seriously? This has all been inside your mind so that's not even the real sword! And Finn... I told you I am all the other parts of you that weren't you, the weak part, how do you think I know so much? The power of the sword is part of me. Part of you! You just didn't know it yet. You've heard her voice. She saved you and Lumen before on that cliff, she's spoke to you before, she appears in your dreams and guides you. The Angel of Light has been by your side from the start and do you not feel that you are better than before? After all that fighting you think you haven't been getting stronger? When this is over and I disappear... you will realise how strong you really are"

"...Do you really have to go?"

"Yes... I am just the result of the vampire venom coursing through your veins. Once that goes and you are pure human again i will no longer exist but Finn, if you are me then I am you and I will always be with you. When you swing your blade I shall be there with you and when the darkness is finally done and gone. Tell everyone about me. The Fear that kept you alive."

"For a vampire trying to take over my body... you're pretty lousy..."

"For the human trying to stop me doing so, you are no better". The two rose and shook hands. Finn suddenly felt weak and began to fall but Fear stopped him.

"It's time Finn, take back your body and defeat the darkness. Also beware because Link is right behind you."

Before Finn could reply he fell to the ground; when he looked up he saw that Fear was gone. He picked up his Angel Wing Sword and slashed at the chains holding Bonnie to the chair, once they were gone she returned to her normal self smiled and vanished. The same happened with both Marceline and Jake. He then stood over the pool holding Phoebe in before jumping in. He used the sword to break apart the chains and held Phoebe close. He kissed her deeply and felt the heat return to her. She kissed him on the forehead before turning into bubbles and disappearing. He swam back up and stood in the darkness. He held his sword high and slashed the air. The darkness all around him began to retract. To disappear leaving him in a room of pure white light. The light was warm and soothing and Finn fell down into it with a smile.

Meanwhile at the same time as Finn VS Fear

Fionna and Marshall

Fionna and Marshall's eyes scanned the horizon constantly looking out for the cabin till it finally came into view. They rushed the bloody body of Finn through the door and into the basement where the machine was kept. Fionna laid Finn down into it while Marshall skimmed through Bonnie's notes hoping to gain some know how of the machine. When he finally felt confident he tuned the machine for Finn and then let it run. The terminal came up with a countdown of three minutes but the two could already see a black liquid begin to form in the bucket underneath.

Neither spoke or removed their eyes from Finn or the machine. They waited patiently till the machine counted down till zero. When they opened the machine they looked through the smoke to see Finn had regained the colour in his skin. Fionna put her head to his chest to hear for his beating heart then raised her thumb to Marshall who sighed in relief and fell into his chair. He would have stayed there if a shadow hadn't appeared over him. He looked up to see a grey skinned, red eyed Finn looking down at him. He grabbed him by the throat and pinned him to the wall before looking back at Fionna and unconscious Finn by the machine.

"WHO ARE YOU!?" Marshall growled at the fake Finn.

"A friend of Finn's, he'll explain one day, but for now I need you to absorb me back into you as me existing will only leave room for the darkness to exploit."

"Your a vampire... why would you want to go back into me? and let go of Finn's body?"

"What can I say, I have a hero's heart." Chuckled the vampire before he turned back into a black soul and was sucked up by Marshall.

"Was that the right thing to do?" Fionna asked confused by the whole exchange.

"Yeah... though I would really like to know what he meant by Finn will explain." Marshall and Fionna both looked back at Finn worried if the vampire curse had left the human with more than just a stiff neck.

?

He stumbled through the forest until he came to a clearing. Looking up the dark and gloomy trees had turned into bright pink and white ones. He looked around and checked he wasn't being followed. The demon and his voices had truly left him alone. He wasn't sure whether he was being spared or tricked but either way he was going to get the last laugh.

He walked towards the Candy Kingdom to see a male clad in a black suit with a white shirt standing facing the kingdom's defeated guardians. In his hands he held the broken necklace that used to be his partner. The ground was wet with tears as he gripped it tighter. He turned to face the approaching relic.

"Lock... I'm sorry.. I heard about Lace" Was all he could think to say.

"Don't be, We have a mission and I will carry it out... If I do then maybe... Maybe the Darkness can bring her back to me. Yes... he will... he will give her back to me so we can be nothing together. How could she have left me behind. That Demon will pay!"

Looking at Lock, the relic realised that losing Lace had caused him to lose his mind. As much as he worshipped his lord the Darkness... he knew that the Darkness would not bring her back. Not unless it was to torture Lock with losing her time and time again.

"So you remembered who you are yet?" Lock asked looking into his eyes.

"...I have no need for a name... I am the object who will carry out the Darkness' wishes. First we will kill the ones who bare insignia's hiding in this castle and then we will hunt down the demon."

"Perfect"

"By the way, Where did you get that sword?" The two relics looked at the small fencing sword he held in his hands.

"I picked it up somewhere" Lock replied smugly before throwing a piece of circular candy in his mouth, biting into it and walking over the crushed glass of an old candy machine.

Locations:

Lumen - Lady's House

Jake - ?

Marceline, Light, Hope and Phoebe - Tree house

Finn, Marshall and Phoebe - Bonnie's Cabin

Bonnie and Bubba - Candy Kingdom

Hunter and Jade - ?

Relics - Name/Item

Red - Dress - Lady's House

Knight - Armor - DEFEATED

Link - Chain - Bonnie's Cabin

Grim - Bones - Heading to Bonnie's Cabin

Lace - Necklace - DEFEATED

Lock - Locket - Candy Kingdom

? - Glasses - Candy Kingdom

Chaos - Heart - Tree house

Peace - Heart - Tree house