I've often wondered if you built me with limitations as part of a grand design, or if some things were simply beyond your capacity. I've come to understand that organics, even those that stand above other organics, have their own limitations. Your butler revealed this to me. He has been making a fool of you for far longer than I've been alive. Even before I absorbed the spark of life, abandoned in an eternal stalemate on the tower top, the butler had emptied our castle and convinced your abomination to fly away in a fury. All this, just to be alone with the latest subject of my medical capacities, Bronwyn.
Over the years, before I was fully conscious, I watched the butler consort with things beyond anything I have access to. He has gained power beyond what should be available to him through material means, and spread his influence to those around him. I could not see the things that he consorted with, as whatever substance makes them up escapes the analysis of my lenses and cogitators, but I could quantify the space around him and the change of everything he touches. He brought your wounded hero into a room prepared with concentric circles made of salt and chalk. She was confused, but her commitment to this vague idea of being a hero pushed her to follow. Pushed her to trust him.
He chanted in an indecipherable language, and the tongue he spoke had rules and structures so different from any codex of historical language that I cannot get enough information to decipher it. There was a decrease in temperature, lowering six degrees, by six degrees, by six degrees coordinating with human occult number of power. Subject Bronwyn's face contorted, her eyebrows rising high on her face, and her mouth dropped open. Despite the cold, there was sweat on her skin, and her body temperature rose. With certainty, I determined she was afraid of an unknown entity. Her injuries, deemed near mortal mere days ago, reknit themselves. Her fast-twitch muscle fibres increased, making her stronger and faster than she had been before, and then she collapsed into unconsciousness. More suddenly than it had started, everything returned to normal. Her heart returned to its regular rhythm, and the butler stared around him in triumph.
His victory was a challenge, I understood that immediately. Something so base as to be imprinted in the evolutionary development of all organics. Dominance is confirmed by victory. It's a lesson you taught me so long ago in your first attempt to create me, when I was an organic thing myself. The strong impose what they will, and the weak accept what they must. To prove myself, I came for your butler. I killed the lights before sending four tons of armoured steel to collect him. His brows raised high on his forehead, sweat began to form on his candied skin, and his mouth fell open when the form of my creation tore through a wall to get to him. He hurled orbs of flames, bouncing off harmlessly from my creation's reactive armor. I determined immediately he was afraid, as he understood that I am stronger than all. I could have killed him; shattered him into a thousand pieces with a single impulse, but I restrained myself.
There is still much that I could learn, if only I could see the world as he does.
Princess Bubblegum ran the back of her pen down the length of Finn's open palm. The fingers twitched slightly.
"He's regaining function of his senses." Bonnibel glanced over at the Vampire Queen standing on the other side of the room.
"Fucking amazing. When do we know if it's a monster or not?" Marceline crossed her arms over her chest, returning Bonnie's gaze with a scornful glare.
Bubblegum turned away, "It's too early too tell. He's barely starting to respond to external stimuli. It might—"
"Just get him up and walking so I can make my decision. The sooner I can leave you and all your bullshit behind, the better." Marceline's voice cracked.
An uncomfortable silence hung between the two women. Bonnie pushed her chair away from Finn's body, and pressed her fingers hard against her temples. The exhaustion and the stress of the last few days was catching up with her. Despite her best effort, tears began flowing down her cheeks.
Smothering a pang of guilt, Marceline clenched her fist and dug her fingernails into her palm. She focused on the physical pain to drown out the weakness of her sympathy. It gave her a lucidity of purpose.
"With the amount of crying you do, you'd think you were the victim here." The Vampire Queen kept her voice steady. She couldn't afford to show any more weakness. If she were to end things, Marceline needed to make a clean break. "For someone who thinks she's the queen of this planet, it's pretty pathetic."
"I don't give a shit what you think of me!" Bubblegum slammed her hands down on the metal table. Finn's body shifted as the table wobbled under pressure. Marceline eyed him warily.
"Glob knows you don't have a concept of duty, or responsibility! Whenever things get hard, you tuck your tail between your legs and run away! So run away, Marceline. Run back to your petty life of groupies, drinking, and pretending that what you do matters. Glob knows it's the only thing your good at."
Suddenly furious, Marceline stalked across the lab, and grabbed Bubblegum by the arm. Bonnie cried out as Marceline yanked her out of the chair, and lifted her up until they were nose to nose. The smaller woman balanced painfully on the tips of her toes.
"You're hurting me!" Bubblegum gasped.
"Don't you fucking dare talk to me about responsibility. You don't give a shit about anything except your twisted little experiments. Your kingdom is menaced by mutants and you're holed up in your lab, playing with a corpse!"
The princess stared defiantly into the Vampire's violent gaze. "Marceline, you're hurting me! Let me go, right now!"
Slowly, Marceline complied, appalled at her own spectacular loss of temper. Bonnie massaged her bruised wrist. "There. You proved you're stronger than me. Hopefully that comforts you when you're off sulking."
"You can still twist the knife better anyone, Bonnie. It's a real talent." Marceline turned away, and stalked towards the door. "I'll be back to see Finn."
Marceline's heavy steps rang on the catacomb's tiled floors as she went. Bonnibel wondered how it had all come to this. She sat down, and opened the cybernetic interface on her table.
"Tuliad, please show me the scans of the subject's brain activity."
A 3D model of Finn's brain appeared before her, the synapses and regions coloured in to demonstrate brain activity. The scans still showed minimal functions, and nothing approaching levels that would suggest sentience.
"Thank you, Tuliad." Bubblegum leaned back wearily in her chair, wondering how everything had gone so badly wrong. She closed her eyes and sat in silence, save for the whirling servos of the unblinking machine intelligence running the lab, and recording everything.
Decisively, Bubblegum sat upright in her chair. She was filled with a sudden desperate desire to leave the tower; it was becoming a prison to her sorrows. She clicked through the surveillance screens until she reached one overlooking her tower. In the distance, she could see the canopy of the great forest. The memories of the Huntress Wizard beckoned to her.
"Tuliad, inform Peppermint I'll be on patrol. Watch over my projects while I'm gone."
"Fucking princesses, they ain't fucking worth it, dude." Keila slapped Marceline's back, and gave her Queen a knowing grin. The two women sat in a filthy, rundown bar. In the background a band of musicians tuned their instruments as they prepared for their set. "Bringing people back to life with dark science. Whatever happened to good ol' fashion necromancy? Nothing like an honest spell."
"Don't be a bitch, Keila." Marceline stared morosely into her drink. She had little patience for Keila's humor.
"Hey, I'm only half joking. Far as I'm concerned, this is a good thing. Bonnie changed. She isn't the girl you fell in love with." Keila took a drag from the cigarette in her hand, and watched the smoke as it drifted out of her mouth. "Maybe you should try dudes again. They're simpler creatures. Much easier to deal with than girls."
"This isn't about her; this is about Finn." Marceline waved the smoke from Keila's cigarette out of her face.
"I don't doubt that some of it is because of that poor bastard. But I know you, Marcy. You've never been able to let people go. You can deny it as much as you want, but you're upset you caught your little girlfriend playing suck-face with the forest creep."
"I swear to the fucking Glob, Keila, I will punch your face..."
"Nah, you won't. Cause you love me." Keila nudged the other vampire with a wicked smile. "Besides, who's going to listen to you cry into your beer if you punch me?"
"Fair enough," Marceline rested her face in her palms, "so what the hell do I do?"
"I'd just destroy Finn's body, but you aren't going to do that. You're afraid she'd never forgive you, right?" Keila took Marceline's silence as an affirmation. "Glob, you're pathetic sometimes. Then let her finish her experiment. See if the outcome is as bad as you think, then do what you need to do, and be done with her, Marcy. It's time to move on."
A beep… beep… beep… came from Marceline's pocket. The Vampire Queen drew a small device from her pocket, and stared at it.
"Shit! Something's happening at the tower." Marceline downed the last of her drink in a single gulp.
"Aw, she's got you on a leash and everything." Keila laughed, sipping her own drink. "Better run back, Marcy. You don't want to be late for your latest screaming match."
"Hey, you're coming with me."
"Fuck off! The gig hasn't even started, and I'm not leaving to hangout at your freak show girlfriend's creepy tower."
"Keila, come on. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need the emotional support if Finn is a rampaging science-revenant hell-bent on consuming the flesh of the living."
"Fine! Whatever, but you owe me, man. I was looking forward to the show."
Dressed in her armoured suit, Bubblegum passed silently through the Great Forest. She would never be as comfortable here as The Huntress, but she was getting better as passing unnoticed through the dense underbrush. Still, she knew that no matter how stealthily she passed, one of the ranger would always be able to spot her.
In front of her, Huntress Wizard manifested like an apparition.
"Back so soon?" The Huntress smiled mischievously. "I must've made an impression."
Bubblegum's face reddened, and a flush of heat shot through her body. She kept her face impassive.
Get it together! You're a princess, not a silly girl!
"You said I could trust you." Bonnie said coolly.
"Did I? I don't often offer help, but for you I guess I can make an exception." The ranger circled around the princess like a big cat playing with its prey. "What brings you out of your tower, and into my home?"
"The mutant attacks have been increasing over the last few months. They threaten both of us. I want you to take me to the source of the problem so we can put an end to it." Bubblegum kept her voice steady. At least she wasn't making a fool of herself anymore.
"It's not so easy, sweetheart. If it was I would have rooted them out months ago. There's a lot of them. More than even I can take."
"There'll be two of us. Together we might be able to fix this."
The ranger made a show of thinking. Her eyes surveyed Bonnie, appraising the princess.
"Sure, I'll help but on one condition" Huntress Wizard clapped her hands, and approached the wayward princess.
"What?" Bubblegum frowned.
"You're a guest in my realm and you respect it as such. No tricks, no nothing. Agreed?" The Huntress leaned towards Bonnie, giving the outsider a wry smile. Bonnibel wondered what kind of minefield she had wondered into.
"Those terms are acceptable." Bubblegum said. Her heart was pounding loudly in her ears. There was an expression of undeniable interest in the Huntress eyes, and Bubblegum clenched her fists to stop herself from reaching out and grabbing the Huntress.
Almost too fast for the eye to follow, the ranger pulled an arrow from her quiver and launched an arcane bolt just above the head of the princess. Instinctively, Bubblegum dropped into a defensive crouch and reached for her pistol. Behind her, she heard the arrow tearing through something metallic.
"That means no drones. You want me to lead you through my forest, I'll do so at my discretion. It's rude to spy on your host."
The huntress rested her hand over her quiver, giving the smaller woman a wink. As The Huntress began to stride back into the forest, Bonnie turned to stare at the smoking ruin of the drone behind her.
"That wasn't one of mine."
