Hello everyone and welcome back! Real quick, some of you may be wondering if Jake is gonna move in with Finn at some point in the story. Well here's the thing, my version of Finn is gonna be more independent. He's been sheltered his entire life and now that he's free from his mother's watchful eye, he's enjoying his time on his own. So no, I don't plan on having Finn and Jake living together. But they will continue to bond.

Enjoy the chapter, and I do not own 'Adventure Time'.

Chapter 19

True Strength

None of the princesses made any moves, they just stared at the purple wearing, strange lady anxiously. Even Bubblegum was silent for a while, she stared at the hologram of Finn trying to form a plan as quickly as possible. Whoever this woman was, she looked quite capable. And with the ships guns still locked on her, PB decided it was best to approach this calmly and diplomatically. Bubblegum put her smile back on and addressed the stranger. "Finn is-"

"Not going anywhere, ya lumping tranch!"

'Oh dear glob, no.'

Yup, Lumpy Space Princess came floating toward the big and buff lady in purple. The stranger tensed up as LSP floated closer, as if the princess was some kind of wild animal she had never seen before. "You can't just waltz in here in your lumping death ship and take Finn! How many times do I have to tell you lumping harpies that I. Called. DIBS!"

The stranger raised an eyebrow and put away her hologram device.

"So listen up cat lady!"

"LSP, maybe you should leave the talking to-"

"Can it Bubblegum! I'm gonna give this lumping troll a piece of my mind!" LSP floated up to the stranger's face. "Get back in your spaceship, and get out! You ain't takin' Finn lumping nowhe-"

The stranger uppercutted LSP with one swift, fluid motion of her arm, sending her flying through the air screaming until she landed about a mile out into the woods.

"Oh no. Poor LSP. Man we should really do something. She's probably hurt. Oh no." Raggedy Princess commented quite flatly.

The rest of the royals stared at the big lady with newfound fear. Muscle Princess however, stepped up in front of the group of princesses. "So it's a contest of strength you want huh? Well I am more than happy to oblige!" MP rushed the stranger, she leapt into the air and brought her elbow down on the purple lady. The purple lady in return sidestepped out of the way and swung a fist at MP's head. MP managed to catch the fist in her hand, the stranger sent another fist as MP's face but she managed to catch her by the wrist. The two muscle bound ladies strained against each other's strength, teeth gritting and muscles bulging.

"Hnnnnrgh! You got some serious muscle, I gotta give ya that." Muscle Princess said. "If this were any other day, I would totally be down to pump some iron with you. You are hecka strong!"

"I'm not hecka strong."

The stranger headbutted Muscle Princess, sending her flying back a couple yards. Muscle Princess landed in the sand and moaned, she didn't get back up.

"I'm Kara Strong."

The lady in purple turned to Bubblegum, who stared in shock at the strong woman. PB's forehead began to sweat and she gulped nervously.

"Now let's try that again, with no interruptions this time." Kara, as she called herself, pulled the circular device back out and the image of Finn reappeared above it. "Where. Is. He?"

Bubblegum stood defiant however. "What do you want with Finn?" she demanded.

"And is your name really Kara?" Ice King asked. "You look more like aaaaa… like a Susan. Susan Strong. it even has a better ring to it, don't you think?"

The lady named Kara ignored Ice King and kept her gaze on Bubblegum. "I am here to take him home, away from this mutant infested place."

PB crossed her arms. "Well first off, fick dich. Second, I'm afraid he may not want to leave."

Kara narrowed her eyes at the princess. "What are you talking about?"

"Finn's pretty popular in these parts." Ice King told her. "A total ice ninja badass, a hit with the ladies, I taught him everything he knows of course."

Kara stared at Ice King in confusion, then shook her head and turned her attention back to Bubblegum. "Just tell me where he is or I swear to the Founders I'll burst your head open like a big, pink pimple!"

Bubblegum paled a bit, but managed to keep her cool. "I'll do you one better, I'll just call him up and ask him to come here. That sound good?"

Kara stared at PB suspiciously, then nodded her head in agreement.

"Thank you." Bubblegum pulled out her phone and tapped the screen a few times before bringing it up to her ear. It rang for a few seconds.

"...Hey Finn, how's it going?... Oh really?... Cool, cool. Say listen, I need you to come back to the beach… Yeah like, right now… Well, there's someone here who really wants to talk to you… No no, not like that. There's this really buff chick here who says her name is Kara, she came flying towards the beach in a high tech hovercraft. A pretty impressive work of machinery I have to say, you weren't kidding when you said you Humans have some impressive technology… Hello?... Finn? You still there?"

Ice King looked over at the forest. "I wonder if someone should go check on LSP… nah, I'm sure she's fine."

Finn rode his new motorcycle across Ooo feeling downright shell shocked, he tried to focus on how nice his new bike was to calm himself down. Shoko wasn't much help though, she sat behind him with her arm around Finn's waist and basically just stated the obvious during the ride.

"Well this was an unexpected development, huh?" Shoko asked. Finn could hear her loud and clear over the sound of the motorcycle's engine, her being in his head and all.

Finn ignored her and continued towards the beach.

"And just when you decided you didn't want to go back. Man, the timing could not have been worse. So… what are you gonna tell her?"

Finn remained silent.

"So you don't really know where to begin with explaining everything and you don't really care right now, you're just stoked to see your sister figure again. I get it, but you know just as well as I do that you're gonna have to explain what that skull-pommeled sword is doing on your back."

Finn gave no answer.

"Kara loves you Finn, you know that. Even if she doesn't accept your choice, you have to keep in mind that it's your choice. She'll either respect that, or go back to Founder's Island with empty hands and a broken heart."

"Kara will understand my decision." Finn finally responded. "...She has to."

"And if she doesn't?" Shoko asked.

Finn resumed his silence.

Shoko sighed dramatically. "Don't you just love a good 'ol family reunion?"

"So… you're telling me your magic?" Kara asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm a top-notch magician." replied Ice King, he lit his hands up with magic ice energy for show. "I'm the blizzard wizard who's down like a lizard."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"I don't know, lizards are down aren't they? Crawling on the ground… because they're down… like a clown… who's in town… Man I'm pretty good at this, I oughta take up free-style rapping. I'm sure no psychotic princesses who came incredibly close to killing me are also doing that."

Kara gave Ice King another weird look, then she turned to Bubblegum. "Is Finn on his way?"

"He should be here soon, yes." Bubblegum said politely. 'That's like, the fourth time you've asked that.'

Kara was about to ask something else, but the sound of a motorcycle engine interrupted her. Everyone on the beach turned their heads towards the sound to see Finn emerge from the forest on a red motorcycle, he stopped the bike at the forest edge so he could park it out of the sand. Finn killed the engine and put up the kickstand before hopping off the bike and making his way to Kara.

"Woah, nice bike." Ice King commented.

Kara stared wide eyed at Finn as he walked up to her. Tears began to form in the big Seeker's eyes. Finn smiled at his big and buff guardian, he was overjoyed to see her but at the same time, he was scared of what he would have to tell her.

"Hey Kara." Finn started. "It's good to-"

Kara scooped Finn up and bearhugged him so tightly his eyes nearly bulged out of his skull.

"You're okay!" Kara cried. "Oh thank Two Bread Tom you're okay!"

Finn would've gladly returned the hug, but he was having a hard time breathing at the moment. "Kara." he wheezed. "I missed you too, but you're kinda crushing the life out of me."

"Oh, sorry." Kara put Finn down and he breathed air back into his lungs. Bubblegum gave a small smile at the display but the rest of the princesses beheld the sight with uncertainty.

"Kara, how the heck do you find me?" Finn asked once he recovered from the hug.

Kara rubbed her temples. "Finn, you would not believe what I had to go through to get here. First I had to go to the other three islands, only to find a bunch of zoned out zombies living in an augmented reality and a weird old lady who lived on an island with crazy, jacked up weather. Then after I brought the old lady back to the safety of Founder's Island, I traveled over the nightmarish oceans filled with monsters, pirates, an annoying water snake thing, and more monsters. Then, I traveled even farther out until I came across the one other place you might possibly be, our old homeland, to find you living among a bunch of freaky mutants!"

The princesses all glared at Kara.

"Come on Kara, that's a little uncalled for don't you think?" Finn asked.

"That one over there is a baby in an embryo!"

Finn put his hands up in a calming manner. "Easy Kara, these are the princesses of Ooo. This is Ooo by the way, that's what they call this place."

"If you think these chicks are whack, you oughta see the Flame Princess." Ice King said. "She's literally made of fire and can turn into an inferno if you get her mad enough. Trust me I know, I still have nightmares about it."

"Not helping Ice King." said Finn. "That's Ice King by the way, Kara."

Kara took a deep breath. "Know what? Doesn't matter anymore. Let's just go home and we can forget about this place, you can take that sword if you want but I'm not sure your mom will let you keep it."

'Alright, here we go.' "Actually Kara, I was wondering." Finn rubbed his arm nervously. "Maybe uhhhh… maybe we could hang out in Ooo for a little bit. I could show you around, this place is actually pretty awesome."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "Absolutely not. I need to get you home."

"Kara-"

A loud groan interrupted them. Everyone looked over at Jake, who was slowly getting back on his feet.

"Jake! Nae salanghaneun sinchugseong-issneun gae!" Lady shouted in joy, she helped Jake stand up straight.

"Jake!" Finn hadn't even realized he was unconscious. He started towards his canine friend but Kara grabbed his shoulder.

"Finn, what are you doing? That thing is dangerous!"

Finn pulled away from Kara. "That thing is my best friend!" he shouted before running over to Jake. Kara watched him go with a baffled look on her face.

Finn knelt down and placed a hand on Jake's back. "Jake, are you okay?!"

Jake rubbed his head. "Ooooooh… dang… I feel like I was… microwaved or something." he muttered.

"What happened?" Finn asked.

"Jeogiissneun dangsin-ui geodaehan chinguege mul-eoboseyo!" Lady shouted angrily. "Bil-eo meog-eul heolkeu agassi!"

Finn blinked. "...Huh?"

"The metal manta ray had a bunch of babies that I guess were part electric eel or something because they covered my body and zapped me into unconsciousness." Jake said.

"...Say again?"

"Your friend Kara did it." Bubblegum said.

"What?!" Finn shouted. He turned to the Seeker. "Kara!"

"He was a gigantic dog about to smash my ship, how was I supposed to know he was your friend?" Kara asked. "The ship did most of the work anyway."

Finn sighed. "Forget it. Look Kara, I've been here in Ooo for a while now and I can tell you straight up that it's actually pretty amazing. It's not some barren wasteland filled with monsters, it's a land of wonder and adventure… filled with monsters."

Kara lips formed a thin line. "Finn, I'm glad you had fun, but we need to go home now. Everyone is worried sick about you. Your mom especially."

"Kara, I can't just up and leave like that." Finn said. "I've got fans."

Kara's brow furrowed in confusion. "Fans?"

"Indeed Miss Kara, he's become quite the samaritan during his time here." PB spoke up. "He's bested monsters and saved the lives of several of the princesses here."

"He stopped a war between two kingdoms." Jake added. "And he kept an ancient evil from breaking out of his cage."

"And he discovered that he's the reincarnation of an ancient glob or something after he was stabbed through the guts with a fire sword and put on life support." Ice King threw in.

"WHAT?!" cried Kara.

"Ice King!" Finn, Jake and PB shouted.

"What? That happened didn't it? He got stabbed during the Fire Festival, the doctors all thought he was as good as dead, his spirit met the cosmic owl and the wishmaster, none of you guys remember that?"

Finn pinched the bridge of his nose. "Glob dammit Ice King."

"Well, I think I've heard enough." said Kara. "Come on Finn, time to go home."

Finn gulped. "Uhhhh… well I… don't want to leave."

Kara looked at Finn strangely. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean…" Finn rubbed the back of his head. "There's… still so much I want to show you. Ooo is awesome Kara. ya gotta see it."

Kara's gaze softened. "Look Finn, if what these people say is true then I couldn't be more proud of you. You became one heck of a Helper and that's incredible man, it really is. I get that you're gonna miss this place but we need to leave now, your home and family is waiting."

'Kara, I don't want to go back. I want to stay here in Ooo.' Finn wanted to say it so badly, but couldn't bring himself to do it. Finn took a deep breath and looked into Kara's warm eyes.

"One day." Finn said. "Give me one day to show you Ooo. It's getting late, so we can stay at my treehouse tonight and in the morning I can give you the grand Ooo tour."

Kara gave Finn an uncertain look. "Finn-"

"Kara, please." Finn begged. "All I'm asking is one day to show you Ooo. Founder's Island can wait one more day can't it? Please, just give me one more day."

Kara looked like she wanted to argue with Finn, but as she stared into the pleading eyes of the boy she had watched grow up, the boy she loved like a little brother. Her resolve shattered like glass.

Kara sighed. "Okay Finn, we can stay here for another day. You can have a little more fun and say your goodbyes, then we'll leave tomorrow night."

Finn smiled. "Thank you, Kara."

Kara returned the smile. "So you live in a treehouse?" she asked.

"Oh it's a lot nicer than you think. Get in your ship and you can follow me back."

Kara nodded and walked back to her ship, once she was gone Finn let his mask fall and the guilt and worry on his face became clear as day.

Jake, PB and Ice King walked up to him. "Yo man, you made it sound like you're leaving." said Jake.

"Yeah, you should have told Susan off." Ice King said.

"Her name is Kara." Finn told him.

"Yeah I know, but I still think Susan sounds way better."

"Finn, I understand that you don't want to hurt Kara. But, if you're deciding you want to stay for good then you need to tell her." PB said.

"I know princess and I'm going to, I just want to show her how awesome Ooo is before I do. Maybe she'll even support my decision." Finn explained.

"And if she doesn't?"

Finn groaned. "You and Shoko." he muttered under his breath.

"I'm sorry?"

"Never mind."

"Well in any case, if you're planning to show Kara a fun time in Ooo then me and the other princesses can help you with that." PB offered.

Finn perked up. "Really?"

"Sure. Let me run it by the others and I'll call you with the details later."

Finn smiled. "Thank's PB."

Kara's hovership rose into the air. "Commencing pursuit of subject Finnegan Campbell." the ship said.

"Well that's my cue. Later guys." Finn said before running back to his motorcycle. He started up the engine and took off, with Kara following behind him in the ship.

Jake gave a worried grunt. "Anyone else have a bad feeling about this?"

"I have a question." said Ice King. "Is that buff lady Finn's sister? 'Cause if the muscles are hereditary then you princesses are sure in for a treat. Lucky son of a bleep blop."

"It'll be fine, Jake." Bubblegum said. "Finn will tell Kara about his decision tomorrow after a day of fun in Ooo." PB turned to the other princesses. "Alright everyone, Finn isn't going anywhere and we need to make sure of it!"

The princesses cheered in agreement.

"Now gather round everyone! I've got a gameplan!"

LSP suddenly floated out of the forest, her face was horribly swollen from Kara's fist. "Wow. None of you came to see if I was okay. Lumping. None of you. Wow. You guys. Suck ass."

Finn parked his bike in front of the treehouse and threw the tarp over it. 'I really oughta build a lean-to for this thing.' Kara came in and landed the ship in front of the house as well, she hopped out of the craft and looked up at the house. "Dang, so this is where you've been living all this time? Not bad."

"Well during my first two nights in Ooo, I slept on the beach and in the woods. Then my vampire friend let me stay here."

"Your vampire friend?!"

Finn mentally slapped himself. "Well yeah, her name's Marceline. Don't get the wrong idea, she's super cool."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "Marceline? Like, the vampire slayer?"

Finn grinned. "Exactly like that, yeah. I'll introduce you to her if we get the chance tomorrow."

Finn opened the door to his house for Kara to walk through, once inside her jaw hit the ground. "Woah! That is a LOT of treasure!" she exclaimed at the sight of loot.

Finn walked inside and closed the door. "Pretty cool huh? Me and Jake found it in a dungeon. It was crazy."

"Did you find that sword in the dungeon too?" Kara asked.

Finn adjusted Nothung on his back. "Uh yeah, found this old thing in the dungeon too." He lied. "Come on, I'll introduce you to BMO."

"What's a BMO?"

Finn climbed the ladder upstairs and Kara followed him to the kitchen area, BMO ran up to greet Finn but was startled by the sight of Kara. "Hello Fi-AHHHH!" BMO cried out. "Finn! Why have you let a monster in the treehouse?!"

"BMO, that's rude!" Finn scolded. "This is Kara, she's from Founder's Island like me."

This managed to calm BMO down. "So this is Kara?" the robot walked up closer to the Seeker and smiled. "Hello Kara, I am BMO. I apologize for shouting at your incredibly large physique, you are quite intimidating is all."

Kara smiled and picked BMO up. "Oh my gosh, this little guy is adorable."

BMO blushed. "Yeah, I know."

Kara laughed. "Man, my friend Frieda would absolutely love you. She's really into tech stuff."

Finn's eyes widened. "Frieda?"

Kara blushed. "Oh… yeah, well… I might have… went to see her before I left to find you."

Finn gave Kara a joyful smile. "Kara, you really went to see her? That's fantastic! I'm guessing it went pretty well?"

Kara smiled bashfully. "Yeah, we uh… we planned to hang out some more when I get back."

"Good for you Kara, glad to hear it." Finn said supportively. "You hungry? I could cook us up something to eat if you want."

Kara put BMO down. "Sounds good."

"And voila. Meat loaf a la Jake."

Finn presented the plate of meat loaf to Kara and sat down to eat his own.

"Your dog friend taught you how to make this?" Kara asked as she stared at the dish in front of her.

"Well, I actually got the recipe from BMO. Whatever you do, don't tell Jake."

BMO hopped onto the table to his small portion of meatloaf. "I see all, and know all." the robot said dramatically before smashing his meatloaf onto his screen.

"Does he know he's not actually eating it?" asked Kara.

Finn swallowed a bite of meatloaf and shrugged. "BMO's pretty imaginative for a robot, just let him do his thing and I'll clean him up later."

Kara looked back down at the meatloaf, she picked up her fork and tried a bite. Her eyes lit up like spotlights and she devoured the rest of the food.

Finn smiled. "I take it you liked it?"

Kara liked her plate clean. "By the Guardian, that was good."

Finn laughed. "You should try some of Jake's homemade meatloaf, I still can't make it like he does. If you think mine was good then Jake's will knock your socks off."

"So you've learned to cook during your time in this place, what else have you learned?" Kara asked.

Finn grinned, he held his hand out and summoned an ice knife. "This."

Kara gasped and she bent the fork in her hand in a U shape. "How the heck did you do that?!"

"You remember Ice King? The guy in the blue robe?" Finn asked.

"The fat guy with the long nose who froze my ship in a block of ice? Yeah."

"Well he gave me a book about ice ninja's and I've been getting pretty good at it." Finn summoned a ninja star in his other hand. "Pretty cool, huh? No pun intended."

Kara blinked. "So… is it really magic? Or do I have to worry about you having these cryokinetic abilities due to some kind of radiation exposure?" She asked worriedly.

Finn dismissed his icy weapons. "Well, if you were to ask someone like Princess Bubblegum, they would tell you magic is just science mixed with flashy showmanship to look cool. But the truth is, magic is real and it's crazy. If there's one thing I learned during my stay in Ooo, it's that anything's possible. I've seen a guy barf on a boulder and the boulder came to life. Not everything here can be explained with logic, there is a ton of illogical junk out there."

Kara just stared at Finn, mouth slightly agape, until she cleared her throat awkwardly. "Wow. That uh… you're gonna have one heck of a story to tell when we get back to Founder's Island."

BMO stopped 'eating' his meatloaf and stared at Finn in shock. "What?! Finn, are you leaving?!"

Finn tensed up and looked back and forth at Kara and BMO. "Uh - I - well - you see -"

"You're ditching us?!" BMO cried. "How could you?!" BMO jumped off of the table and ran to the bathroom crying, Finn flinched at the sound of the slamming door.

Kara grimaced in embarrassment. "Man, I am so sorry Finn. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine Kara." Finn assured. "BMO tends to overreact to things. I'll have a talk with him later." Finn quickly finished his meatloaf and stood from the table. "Come on, let's find you a place to sleep for the night. You're nearly seven feet and I've only got the one bed."

Finn dropped the spare blankets and pillows onto the floor in the west wing of the treehouse. Finn figured Kara would appreciate having the whole room to herself, plus it lowered the chance of her attempting to watch Finn while he slept or something. Once a protector, always a protector.

"Sorry about the lack of furniture, I don't ever use this room."

Kara looked around. "It's fine Finn. I gotta say, it's pretty cool you have this whole place to yourself."

Finn smiled. "Well I mean, I'm probably gonna have to start paying a weekly rent soon or something. Marceline's been wanting to have the rent talk but I've managed to avoid it so far."

"It's a good thing we're leaving tomorrow then, right? Although I'm not sure how much of that treasure will fit in the ship if you want to bring it home with us."

Finn's smile dropped, he took a breath before looking up at the Seeker. "Listen Kara, I've made a lot of friends here. These people look up to me. It seems kind of a dick move to just leave them like that, doesn't it?"

Kara frowned. "Finn, I get that you're gonna miss this place. But think about everyone back on the island, Mr. Willow, Sarah, your mom. They miss you more than these mutants will."

"They're not mutants, Kara. Okay, maybe scientifically they are but they're people just like you and me." Finn said. "People I've… come to care about."

"People that can grow into giants and freeze a ship in a block of ice. You also mentioned a vampire earlier I believe."

"Yeah, so?"

"So? Finn, this place is dangerous! These people are dangerous!" Kara exclaimed. "Sure it was fun, and I'm glad you managed to make some friends. But it's time to go home, back to the island where it's safe. Back to your family, Finn."

'Back to my family.' Finn wanted to argue further but couldn't bring himself to do it. "Kara… goodnight." he said before walking out of the room.

Kara watched Finn leave with a worried look on her face.

Finn walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed, he suddenly remembered that this was where BMO ran to during dinner when he saw the little robot sitting on the toilet glaring at him.

BMO looked away and huffed. "I assume you are packing your things." He commented bitterly.

Finn walked over and knelt to the robot's eye level. "BMO, I'm not going anywhere."

BMO looked back at Finn. "You're not?"

"Of course not BMO, I'm just having a hard time telling Kara that."

"Do you want me to assassinate her? Because I will do it for free." BMO narrowed his eyes. "We can throw the body down the well… assuming it will fit."

"Okay first off, I'm taking you to Bubblegum so you can get robo-therapy, end of discussion. Second, I'm just gonna show her all the awesome stuff in Ooo so when I do tell her, maybe she'll understand why."

BMO blinked. "It sounds like you are merely delaying the inevitable, you should tell her immediately so she will leave and make no attempt to take you away."

Finn sighed. "Don't worry, I'll tell her tomorrow. I promise."

BMO crossed his arms. "You better, I do not want you to leave." BMO threw his hands in the air. "No one does!"

Finn gave the adorable little robot a smile. "I'm not leaving, I just need to show Kara why I'm staying."

Finn's phone rang in his pocket, he took it out and brought it up to his ear. "Yello, Campbell speaking."

"Hey Finn, It's PB."

"Hey PB, what's up?"

"Listen Finn, the other princesses agreed to help you show Kara a good time in Ooo. However, we all expect you to tell her you're staying by the end of the day tomorrow."

Finn rubbed his arm. "It's not the easy Bubblegum. Kara's like a sister to me, the last thing I want to do is break her heart."

Bubblegum was silent for a minute before responding. "Leave or stay, it'll be your choice Finn, and I promise we'll respect it. But, if you don't break Kara's heart… then I can also promise that you'll break our hearts."

Finn gulped down his anxiety. "I… I… Bubblegum-"

"I'm not trying to guilt trip you Finn, I'm sorry if it came off like that. I just…" Finn heard her sigh. "Just remember that we all care about you… I care about you."

Finn looked down at BMO, who looked up at him with sad, digital eyes.

Finn picked up BMO and sat down on the toilet, placing BMO on his lap. "Alright PB, what's the plan?"

Stay tuned.