Hello! This is gonna be a short chapter, quick heads up. It's really just a warm up for the next chapter.

Enjoy! And thank you for following my fanfic.

I do not own 'Adventure Time.'

Chapter 15

Into the Mind

"Man there are all of these gift baskets." Jake complained. "I think you might've gotten a little too popular Finn."

Finn picked up another gift basket. "What can I say?, I'm a likable guy."

Jake came over to the treehouse to help out Finn with all of the get well-gifts he had gotten while he was in the hospital, for the past hour Finn, Jake and BMO had been sorting out all of the gifts that Kim Kil Whan had zapped into the house. Princess Bubblegum had given Finn a strict recovery regimen before letting him leave the hospital, but Finn paid no mind to it. He was feeling as healthy as a horse, although he was still a little messed up from his encounter with Prismo and the Cosmic Owl.

Finn pushed aside that thought and opened the basket. "This one's from Turtle Princess." The basket contained a few thick books as well as a bright blue bookmark with a golden chord and a bag of chips. Finn took a look at the card she sent with it.

Dear Finn

These are some old novels from before the Mushroom War. You might be in the hospital for a while so I figured there's no better way to pass the time than with a good book. You seem like someone who's into the intense, so I picked a few books written by a Human author named Steven King. I hope you like them!

Yours truly

TP

P.S.

Those are the only copies I have so please don't let anything happen to them.

"She sent you some books? That's pretty lame." Jake commented.

Finn shrugged. "It's the thought that counts. And besides, I just might read them. Turtle Princess said in her note that they were intense."

"Meh, how intense of a writer can a guy named Steven King be?"

BMO picked up a basket that was a little larger than the others. "This one is from Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig." he announced.

Jake took a whiff and his eyes widened. "I smell some pie!" he shouted before snatching the basket out of BMO's hands. The greedy bulldog tore off the paper wrapping and sure enough, the basket was filled with a couple of pie containers. "Ah yeah."

As soon as Jake touched the top pie container though, a bear trap sprung shut on his hand. "YYYOOOOOOOOW!" The unlucky dog pulled his hand away, taking the bear trap with it.

Assuming it was now safe, Finn reached over and took the pies out of the basket. There was a note at the bottom. Finn picked it up and read it.

Finn

I had a feeling that doggone dog would try to take the pies, those pies are for you sweetheart, and only you. You're a tough customer Finn, I know you'll be fit as a fiddle in no time.

With Love

Tree Trunks

Finn smiled. "Awwww, that's so sweet."

Jake managed to pry the trap off of his hand. "Yeah that's TT for you, sweet as can be." he muttered bitterly.

Finn laughed, he then handed Jake one of the pies. "Waddya say we take a pie break?"

Jake took the pie eagerly. "Sounds good to me."

Finn and Jake sat at the kitchen table eating the apple pie Tree Trunks baked while BMO continued to sort out the gifts, seemingly finding joy in the task. Jake licked his pie container clean. "Damn that's good."

Finn was taking little bites out of his pie, his mind seemed to be somewhere else. "Mmm-hmm."

Jake looked at Finn with concern. "Alright dude, what is it?"

Finn looked up at his canine friend. "What's what?"

"Ever since you woke up from your stab coma, you've been a little out of it." said Jake. "Ice King said something about your spirit going AWOL while you were asleep, is that what's bugging you?"

Finn looked away, he had elected not telling any of his friends about Prismo and the Cosmic Owl or what they had told him. They were already freaking out over his near-death experience and miraculous recovery, he didn't want to scare them any further with talk of evil comets and magic elementals. Finn had dragged Ice King out of earshot to ask him for a favor, but was still vague on the details.

"I just… figured out a little bit about myself."

Jake raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

There was a knock on the door.

Finn jumped out of his seat. "I'll get it!" he shouted before rushing to the door.

Finn reached the door and opened it, revealing Ice King on the other side. "Ice King, hey!"

"Finn! What's shaking my man?" IK said.

Jake and BMO came down to see who it was. "Ice King? What're you doing here?" Jake asked.

"Oh, I'm here for Finn. He wanted me to help him out with-"

"Terrific, let's go." said Finn, he pulled his ruby necklace out of his pocket and put it on. "No time like the present IK, off to the Ice Kingdom."

Before either of them could move though, Jake wrapped them both up with his stretchy hands. "No one's going anywhere until I get some flippin' answers!" he shouted.

"Reveal onto us the truth!" BMO cried.

"Jake come on, let us go!" Finn demanded.

"No complaints over here dog." Ice King said. "It's actually kinda comfy."

Jake released Ice King, much to the wizard's disappointment, then turned his attention to the human. "Finn, I don't know what's going on but I do know it's not cool to keep your friends in the dark like this. Whatever the deal is, you can tell me man."

Finn looked at Jake for a while, then sighed in defeat. "Alright look, while I was in that stab coma, I figured out that I'm the reincarnation of… something else."

Jake raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"

Finn blinked. "Well I mean, Flame Princess, Slime Princess and Princess Bubblegum are all in that same boat." he said, intentionally keeping the Lich out of the conversion. "I guess I was expecting a more surprised reaction."

Jake shrugged. "Learning you're a reincarnation of someone while you were in a dream isn't that far fetched. I sometimes dream that I'm an alcoholic robot who works for an intergalactic delivery company, and more recently a sadistic supervillain who dresses like a clown and beats people to death with a crowbar… I'm starting to think I should see a therapist."

"Oh yeah, I have those dreams too!" IK said. "I once dreamt that I was a sea sponge who works in a burger joint and annoys the hell out of his grumpy neighbor, and there was this other dream where I was an overweight park ranger with a mustache who treated his employees like garbage and is just a horrible person in general. Which is actually pretty surprising, since the two are so different."

Finn cleared his throat. "Well uh… I also met a guy named Prismo and the Cosmic Owl while I was-"

"The Cosmic Owl!" Jake immediately let go of Finn. "You saw the Cosmic Owl?! Dude, next time lead with that!" he shouted.

Finn gave Jake a confused look. "What do you-"

"Nope! Don't tell me anything else! You do what you need to do man!" Jake picked up BMO. "Me and BMO will be sorting through the gift baskets. Good luck Finn!" He said before quickly heading back inside, BMO managed to say "Bye Finn!" before Jake closed the door.

Finn stared at the door. "Well that was… weird."

"Yeah, Jake is a firm believer in the Cosmic Owl and his whole premonition biz." said Ice King. "You didn't say anything about him or Prismo though when you asked me to help you out."

"You know about Prismo?" Finn asked.

"Sure, every hokus worth his pokus knows about the Wishmaster. Did he grant you a wish?"

"No, I wasn't physically there to make a wish."

"Oh, that makes sense. Kind of a let down though."

Finn was growing impatient. "Can we go now?"

"Okay, sure." IK grabbed Finn's arm. "Ice King and Finn, AWAY!" he shouted as he flapped his beard and took off into the sky.

They when arrived at the Ice Kingdom, Finn realized he couldn't feel the cold. It felt more like an autumn breeze with his enchanted necklace on. The two of them flew right into IK's crib. "Alright, let's get started!" Ice King decreed. "Abracadaniel?! Life Giving Magus?! You guys in here?"

A couple of strange looking guys emerged from the kitchen area, one of them was even more hairy than the Ice King. He wore a purple robe over his brown furry body and a pair of oven mitts over his hands. His hairy face had a forked beard and his big eyes had red slit pupils. A pretty yellow flower grew out of the top of his head.

The other guy looked rather unimpressive, his pear shaped head with navy blue hair had a rainbow sweatband around it. He wore a white one-piece with long sleeves and balled shorts over his pink skin, a green circle covered his chest and a blue fanny pack was attached to his waist.

"Waddup warden!" shouted the hairy guy in a high pitched voice.

"We got your text!" said the other guy in a wimpy voice.

Finn looked at Ice King. "Who are these guys?" he asked, a little frustrated that the ice wizard had invited over some company.

"These are my friends; Life Giving Magus," He gestured to the hairy guy. "and Abracadaniel." He gestured to the wimpy guy. "Some wizard bros I asked to help out with finding your past selves."

"Oh, cool." He raised a hand in greeting to the two wizards. "Nice to meet you guys."

"Same." said hairy guy.

"The pleasure is mine." said wimpy guy.

"So you guys are wizards?"

"We sure are!" exclaimed LGM. "Check this out!" He took off one of his oven mitts, revealing a hairy hand with long fingernails, and touched a nearby table lamp. The lamp suddenly lit up with a faint light and in a matter of seconds, it grew two eyes and a mouth. "Hello everyone." said the lamp. "It's nice to meet you all."

Finn stared wide-eyed at the lamp. "Woah."

Ice King looked at the lamp in distaste. "Magus, ya mind turning my lamp back to normal?"

"No prob." LGM touched the lamp again.

"Ice King wears a thong sometimes." were the lamps last words.

IK began to sweat. "Wha-... I don-... you see… Abracadaniel! Show Finn some of your stuff!"

"Alrighty then." Abracadaniel pulled out a stick with a forked end. "Watch this." the wizard slowly waved the stick over his head and a rainbow formed above him. It seemed to take a lot of effort though, he looked like he was lifting a weight too big for him. The rainbow ended up sputtering out of existence with a sad pop. "...Ta-da." Abracadaniel said shyly.

Finn smiled supportively. "I thought that was pretty cool." he said.

Abracadaniel's face really lit up. "Oh, well, thank you Presto!"

Finn titled his head. "Presto?"

"Yeah, you're Presto the Ice Ninja right?" asked Life Giving Magus.

Finn snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah, you wizards like to call me that."

"Could you show us some of your moves Presto?" asked Abracadaniel.

Finn shrugged, then he held out his hands and with a quick gesture summoned his twin sai.

"Oooooooo." LGM and Abracadaniel exclaimed.

Finn dismissed his sai and brought his hands together, with a chant and a hand sign he disappeared in a burst of snow.

The two low-grade magicians gasped. "Where'd he go?" asked LGM.

"I'm right behind you."

They both whirled around and saw Finn standing behind them, a little bit of snow covered his shoulders.

"Woah!" LGM and Abracadaniel exclaimed in unison. They gave Finn a little applause.

"Thanks guys. Now, can we start with the past life search?" Finn asked.

"Sure, come over here and sit down in my easy chair Finn." Ice King instructed.

Finn walked over to Ice King's chair, he was hesitant to sit in the smelly chair but he sat down nonetheless. Ice King, Life Giving Magus and Abracadaniel stood in a triangle formation around Finn.

"Okay Presto, you ready to begin?" LGM asked him.

Finn nodded.

"Okay then. Oh and by the by IK, there's a creepy looking snail in your kitchen. It was waving and smiling at me with those green, menacing-"

"It's just a snail, it can wait." Ice King interrupted. "Alright Finn, listen up. Memory magic is normally pretty simple; rooting through the mindscape until we find the right memories."

"But if we're looking for the memories of a past life, then that's a little trickier." LGM picked up. "We'll have to search pretty deep into the depths of your mind to find them. How many lives have you lived now?"

"The Cosmic Owl said this was my fifth life."

"Hoo boy, it's going to take some digging to find them all." Abracadaniel commented. "We need to start by finding your most previous incarnation."

"Alright men, commence the spell!" said Ice King.

The three wizards closed their eyes, raised their hands towards Finn and began to chant, as they chanted their hands began to glow with a bright light and Finn began to feel tired. He closed his eyes but did not sleep, he sort of hung on the balance of asleep and awake. Memories began to play in his head, he saw his mom beating the crap out of his dad, he saw Kara giving him a piggy-back ride, he saw Sarah giving him the golden coin for his birthday the day he was sent away from Founder's Island.

"Hold on, I think I've got something." Abracadaniel said. His brow furrowed in concentration. "I see… I see a green girl riding a white tiger; she only has one arm, poor thing. I see a pink glob of… something. I see a blue butterfly, pretty."

Finn could see them too, or he could see as them rather. Finn saw through the girl's eyes and he could feel the girls feeling; the fear, the pain, the sorrow, and the joy. The joy was small though, the greatest source of her joy seemed to come from someone; someone familiar to both Finn and the girl.

"That's four lives, including Finn's." Abracadaniel stated. "Now to unveil your original incarnation." The wizard pressed on, increasing his concentration. But after a while, his concentration turned into frustration. "Crammit, I can't get to it."

"What, you mean you can't find it?" Ice King asked.

"You gotta follow the mental pattern." LGM said.

"I followed the pattern, after I found the girl it was easy to find the rest." Abracadaniel stated.

"Shoko." Finn muttered sleepily. "My name… was Shoko."

"I mean I can't get to it. There's some kind of mental block on his original incarnation. I can't tell if it's from trauma or grief or what, but it's strong and slippery." Abracadaniel explained.

"Here let me take a whack at it." Ice King offered.

"Alright, you have the memory?"

"No but if you've already found it then the location of the memory should be fairly easier to find now, just put a mental bookmark on it."

"Okay." Abracadaniel shook his hands about. "All yours IK."

"Alright here we go. I can see Finn's island, pretty nice place. Oh look, a seafood restaurant, I really oughta try seafood more often but good seafood is so expensive nowadays."

"Woah momma, check out the hot cyborg-lady!" Life Giving Magus exclaimed. "Man, she is rocking the shorts and tank top."

"Forget the cyborg, have you seen this blonde babe?" Ice King asked. "Humuna humuna!"

"That's my mom you dick." Finn muttered in sleepy anger.

"Well your mom is smokin', get over it. Alright, let's see here… aha!, found Shoko. Now I see the pink stuff, there's the butterfly, aaaaaaand…" IK's face contorted into one intense concentration. "Woof, I found the block and it's a tough one. Come on, come on." Ice King looked like he was trying to push a boulder. "Almost… there."

Finn suddenly felt like his brain was on fire, in his mind he could see the earth moving towards him. Or was he moving towards the earth? Finn let out a scream and the wizards dropped to the ground.

Ice King, who seemed to have taken the brunt of the blow, stood up on shaky legs. He looked like someone sucker punched him in the stomach after he ate too much. "Ugh, I feel like someone sucker punched me in the stomach after I ate too much." See? Told ya. "Also my head hurts."

LGM and Abracadaniel got up and rubbed their heads. "Man, what was that?" Abracadaniel asked.

Finn opened his eyes and got out of the chair, his head no longer felt like it was on fire. In fact, he felt re-energized; like Ice King had let in a little something to give him a boost.

"Whatever it was, it was something strong." LGM stated. "What are you, some kind of glob reincarnate?"

Finn shrugged. "I have no idea, Prismo and the Cosmic Owl wouldn't tell me."

Ice King groaned. "Alright, plan B." he pulled a small satchel from his beard.

Finn eyed the bag warily. "What's that?"

"Witchcraft. I'm no warlock, but this kind of magic is easy to perform." IK explained.

"We're gonna have you relive the lives of your past selves." LGM said. "Starting with your most previous and familiar past life: Shoko."

Finn raised an eyebrow. "How long will that take?"

"For us?, maybe an hour. For you?, a lot longer than an hour." LGM responded.

Finn sighed and got back in the chair. Ice King walked over and poured some of the satchel's contents into his hands. It was some kind of dust, like golden sand almost. "Alright Finn, I need you to concentrate on Shoko. Remember everything you can about her, I need you to be Shoko."

Finn closed his eyes and concentrated, he could see exactly what Shoko had looked like- what he had looked like. Her black hair and intense, yellow eyes. Her lime green skin, grey dress and teal scarf. This was the person he once was.

"I'm ready." Finn muttered.

Ice King blew the dust into Finn's face and the boy slumped in the chair, passed out cold. The three wizards stared at Finn's sleeping form.

"What do you guys wanna do while we wait?" IK asked.

"We could watch his memories." Abracadaniel suggested, he reached into his fanny pack and pulled out a pink crystal hanging from a string. "I have a cranial crystal here to let us view his thoughts."

"Oh, good idea!" said Ice King. "Gunter, go make us some popcorn and bring us some sodas!"

As Gunter waddled to the kitchen, Abracadaniel wrapped the string around Finn's head and placed the crystal on his forehead. Abracadaniel backed away and an image shot out from the crystal, it was currently just static though. "Give it a minute."

Ice King, Life Giving Magus and Abracadaniel gathered in front of the video feed to witness the sad tale of Shoko.

Next chapter, the life and times of Shoko. Until then!