Author's notes: Here's another chapter brought to you by yours truly. I got a few things to say but first I want to start off by stating the disclaimer. I own nothing having to do with Adventure Time or The Legend of Zelda franchise.
Chapter 7: Deciding the Decided
Nighttime took over the land of Ooo, gracing it with its natural nocturnal bliss. Outside the Dungeon of the Crystal Eye's main entrance the royalty of the Fire and Candy Kingdom sat up groggy on the green earth, well black earth for Flame Princess.
"Hey, Flame Princess! Are you awake?"
She groaned and rubbed her eyes seeing the bright golden fairy fly before her. "T-Tobi?"
"Oh thank goddess you're awake. I thought you might've passed out when you got nabbed by that Wallmaster. It's a good thing you didn't otherwise I would have some problems dragging you and whoever that is somewhere safe."
Flame Princess turned her head seeing the pink princess on her knees, looking around her surroundings. "Princess Bubblegum!"
"Huh?" She seemed a little startled when she heard her name being called out, especially when she was right outside a dungeon that wasn't supposed to be entered. She turned her head towards the voice, and the obvious light, and saw the flame royalty with a fairy floating by her side. "Oh Flame Princess. Wait, what are you doing here?" She asked being polite as she always is.
"Oh, I came here with-" She was cut off by the shouts of a boy wearing green who was thrown out of the dungeon like last weeks garbage. He got up and wiped the grass off his tunic grumbling something about a Wallmaster. "Link!"
Link turned and saw the two companions he's been traveling with so far. "Flame Princess! Tobi! When did you guys get out?"
"Some Wallmaster came and grabbed us. Same thing goes for this sugary lady." Tobi flew over to Princess Bubblegum who was staring at Link. He approached her, extending his hand for her to shake but she must have mistaken it for something else because she shrieked, "It's you again!" and punched him square in the jaw.
This surprised both Flame Princess and Tobi, well more Flame Princess, making them gasp.
"Wow Link, what did you do to her?" Tobi asked.
"I didn't do anything and you know that, Tobi! I don't even know her!" Link shouted extending his hand to point out the princess that punched him.
"Don't pretend like you don't remember what you did!" She shouted. "You attacked my kingdom and then brought me here! Hey, wait a minute... Where's your black fairy?"
"Black fairy?" Link thought for a moment and eventually made sense of what the princess was saying. "That shadow is really being a pain!" He grumbled under his breath. He sat back up and bowed before the pink princess who seemed a bit confused. "Please forgive me for any harm and trouble that has been caused to you and your kingdom."
"Link, shouldn't she be the one to apologize for punching you in the face?" Tobi questioned.
Link stood back up and turned his head at the fairy. "Not really, I have to apologize to her for what the shadow did. I mean, she wouldn't have punched me if it wasn't because of him in the first place." He turned his attention to the princess and said, "Again, sorry for any inconveniences that the shadow may have caused."
"What is your name?" She said looking at him still confused.
"The name's Link and you're not going to punch me again 'cause that really hurt." He asked rubbing his bruised cheek.
She giggled a little. "No I won't be doing that. I thought you were someone else."
"Oh thank the giants." Link said sighing in relief before he sat back down on the grass. A loud yawn was then heard and all eyes turned towards the fiery girl who blushed a little out of embarrassment.
"Sorry, just tired I guess."
"Alright." He stood back up and proceeded to walk towards the near by forest. "Let's start a camp there and in the morning we can take the princess back to her kingdom."
...
The camp fire radiated light that filled the area that the two princesses, hero and fairy decided to reside for the night. Link leaned on a tree while he explained to Princess Bubblegum about how he met Flame Princess and the shadows intentions.
"Wait," Tobi said. "how do you know if the shadow intends on using the Triforce to unleash chaos?"
"I took a little guess from this..." Link pulled out a bottle that had a floating black shard inside it.
Flame Princess looked at Link curiously and asked, "Where did you pull that bottle out from?"
"Uhhhhh... How about I just play a song to help us all sleep?" He laughed nervously before having the nod of approval from both princess. He proceeded to take out his ocarina from wherever he keeps his stuff. He brought the ocarina to his lips and softly blow into playing a series of melodic notes. It seemed as though the song was designed to gently lull anything to sleep. The songs spell was in effect as Princess Bubblegum's eyes slowly closed allowing her to enter the peaceful dream world.
Flame Princess laid on the grass near the fire, unable to ignore the peaceful song that Link played on his ocarina. She let out a yawn and cupped her hands together to use as a pillow of sorts. She sighed quietly and began to close her eyes letting the song take her to peaceful slumber. "That's...a nice...song..." Her voice gradually faded with every word until she was asleep and lightly snoring. Link stopped playing and sighed as he looked at the fire.
A loud yawn was perceived by his left ear curtsy of Tobi. "Man Link, you put them to sleep and you almost put me to sleep." Link stared at him with a smirk on his face as he laid back on the tree. "So Link, I need to talk to you about something."
"Sure Tobi. What is it?" Tobi flew around Link's head before deciding on staying on his head.
"Well... You know how you said we're going to go find the other shards of the Triforce so we can stop the shadow?"
"Yeaaah...?"
"Well we're going to be sidetracked doing something else."
"What do you mean?"
"We need to help Flame Princess."
"Is she okay? Did something happen to her in the dungeon?" The concern in his voice was clear as his eyes lingered over towards the sleeping princess.
"No nothing happened in the dungeon. It's a problem she told me about that she's had for who knows how long."
"Well, what is it?"
"She's unstable."
Link took another quick glance at the princess and showed Tobi his confused expression. "Unstable? She seems perfectly normal."
"No. Not in the sense that she's crazy, by the way don't make her mad. She's unstable in the sense of an explosion kinda, thing."
"What do you mean?"
"She told me herself. If she kisses her boyfriend then this entire planet could blow up or something like that. The point is I, told her we'd help her with it so..."
"Tobi, you know if we don't stop the shadow not only this but all the dimensions will be in trouble..." Link looked back that the sleeping princess then sighed. "But she's are friend. So, we'll help her with the instability thing."
"Really Link?"
"Yeah, she is our friend. Plus, it would go against my principles if I didn't a least try. I'll do everything I can to help her."
Never once has Tobi seen anyone more serious about anything, not even the Great Fairy Queen. "Wow Link, you really are serious about this about this. You don't happen to have any feelings for her, do you?"
Link face flushed as he was taken back by Tobi's comment. "W-w-what! No! She has a boyfriend!" The two girls stirred in their sleep from Link shouting at Tobi but they did not awaken. "Never say that again." He said pointing at him.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. One guy makes a comment about another guys morals and now look. At least I didn't comment about if your girlfriend knows about you having friends who happen to be girls."
An awkward silence crept in as Tobi looked at Link's flushed face who eventually turned away. "Just go to sleep, Tobi."
"What, what'd I say?"
...
During this time the native heros, Finn and Jake, were resting in their tree-house after spending an entire day in the Dungeon of the Crystal Eye.
"Here's your tea, Finn." Jake handed Finn a white cup however Finn did not notice, he was in deep thought. "Yo Finn, everything okay?"
"Huh?" Finn blinked his eyes a few times before realizing Jake was handing him some tea. "Oh. Thanks Jake." Finn grabbed the cup and placed it on the table wanting to think a bit more.
"Come on Finn what's wrong? You can tell me."
"Well it's just- you remember that shadow guy we fought?"
"Yeah, the same one who busted our buns." Jake cringed remembering just how badly they were beaten.
"Yeah him. In the dungeon I saw him and then he ran and I saw him again only he said he wasn't the shadow."
"What? Man, you're confusing me. Why don't you tell me what happened when you were in the dungeon." Jake sat across from Finn. He took a sip of his tea, ready to listen to Finn's experience.
"Alright." Finn took a deep breath then exhaled. "So after I beat the cat..."
Finn dropped his sword and fell to his knees completely exhausted and out of breath. A few seconds later he saw pink sparkles fall from the corner of his eyes and he felt full of energy once more. He looked up and saw the fairy boy in green and jumped back, retrieving blade in the process.
"I'm not surprised that your on edge about me." He approached his sword and with ease he pulled it out. "You know, you could at least thank me for healing you."
"How exactly did you do that?"
"Some fairies just have healing properties. How lucky for you I happened to have grabbed one." He put away his sword and extended his hand out to Finn. "The name's Link."
Finn sheathed his sword within his backpack and shook the fairy boy's hand. He opened his mouth to speak but words never came out for the both were nabbed by Wallmasters...
"...And that's how I met you back at the secret entrance."
"Hmm," Jake thought for a moment and sipped his tea while he thought. "It sounds like this guy is nice but that shadow guy might be his evil twin or something."
"I don't know Jake. That seems a little too coincidental to be right."
"Well think about it. Remember what that ninja guy said?"
"Oh yeah! Didn't he say something about 'time's hero' and something about 'a boy of shadow?'"
"I think. Which means this Link guy is actually two different people." Jake concluded.
"You sure Jake, if you saw that Link guy you'd probably take back what you said. I mean, they look like they're the same person! Oh wait- did you find Pb?"
"I thought you found her..."
Silence briefly filled the room until the sound of palms connecting with foreheads cut the silence and replaced it with groans.
"How could we not find her?" Finn groaned. "Wasn't that the reason we went to the dungeon in the first place?"
"How are we going to explain this to the candy citizens? They'll explode if we tell them we couldn't find Bubblegum!" Finn leaned over to Jake and covered his mouth with his hand.
"Shhh! They won't find out because we're going back to the dungeon, tomorrow morning, to find her!"
...
The morning sun rose, slowly lighting the gray sky into its morning blue. Princess Bubblegum opened her eyes to be greeted by the blue sky and thick smoke that rose from the north. "Wait a minute..." The princess's sense of direction led her to believe that the smoke was from a forest fire, of course she would think that if it wasn't for the scent of the smoke. "Is that... GLAZE!?"
Her eyes widened in horror; realizing that the smoke came too far for it to be a forest fire. She ran over to Link and shook him vigorously. "Link! Link! Link, wake up!" She continued to shake him only to hear his mutters. "Sorry about this." She backed away from the boy and with a quick motion she slapped him making him fall to the ground. His eyes shot open and he began panicking.
"AH! What's going on!?" Link looked up and met the panicked Bubblegum. "Oh, hey princess. What's going on?"
"My kingdom's in trouble! That's what is going on!"
"Ooooh-loy goddesses!" He kicked himself off the ground and grabbed his ocarina. "Quick, wake up Flame Princess!" She grabbed one of the sticks from the campfire and used it to poke Flame Princess' arm, calling out her name before the stick lit on fire and was put out.
She let out a groan before lifting her head to greet her friends. "Hey guys, what's going on?"
"We're leaving," Princess Bubblegum said. "the Candy Kingdom's in trouble!"
"Really!? What happened?"
Bubblegum opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Link who played some type of calling song.
"Link! Is now really the time to be playing that!?"
"Just give it a minute."
The nigh of a horse was heard and soon enough a horse itself came into the clearing and presented herself before Link. "It's good to see you too girl." He hopped on Epona and turned his head to Bubblegum. "Hop on. Epona can get us to your kingdom in no time. Just lead the way."
She nodded her head and got on behind Epona. "Alright, just tell me where to go and hold on tight." She wrapped her arms around the boy's body and leaned her head on his back. "Alright girl, let's go!" Finn kicked his feet against the horse's sides to signal her to go. She briefly stood on her hind hooves and let out a loud nigh before jolting through the forest followed by Flame Princess.
"Say princess," Link said. "why does my cheek hurt?"
"Umm... a pine cone fell and hit your cheek." She lied.
"...Oh."
...
The travel to the kingdom of candy seemed like one of an eternity. Upon arrival to the kingdom a look of dread and confusion fell upon the three. On the ride there, Bubblegum said that the Candy Kingdom was a joyous, respectful, and proper kingdom. But from the looks of things it seemed to be the exact opposite of what she described. Fires covered the roofs of every building, minus the castle and the citizens ran wild like a bunch of savage animals.
Gumdrop lads and lasses ran around smashing things to bits with hammers and metal poles and anything else they could find. Marshmallows that were engulfed in fire ran about creating fire trails with every jump and dash.
The other candy citizens weren't acting any better; jumping out of buildings, beating up each other and themselves, spray painting property and others and some lunatic glazed cinnamon roll was running around shouting something about not knowing how to use a spoon and was hitting people with a metal spoon.
The teens' eyes turned towards the sugary princess whose jaw dropped seeing the current state of her kingdom with her absences of two days. A loud yawn broke the silence between the three and out came a fairy from Link's hat. "Hey guys. Say, where are we and-" He turned his head and saw what carnage the candy citizens were creating. "holy goddesses it's a mad house in here!"
An explosion was heard in the distance and following it came the ever closing screams of someone flying through the air. The screams stopped when a white and red peppermint candy dressed in a blue suit crashed on the floor before Epona. The group stared at the peppermint candy who was slowly getting up with loud groans.
"Who knew Chet knew where the candy cannon was?"
"Peppermint Butler!?"
"Eh?" The striped man turned his attention to the horse behind him, ignoring the green elf looking child, and saw the kingdom's princess, gasping in relief. "Princess! Thank Glob that you've returned safely!"
"What's happened here, Peppermint Butler?"
"It was ever since that shadow attacked the kingdom. An hour after your presence was missing the entire kingdom went into a frenzy! I tried to mend it the best I could but I got shot out of a cannon."
"How did these fires start?" The princess asked.
"Well, eh, the Marshmallow kids thought it would be a good idea to start a bonfire and then they jumped in it and... yeah."
"Flame Princess, you think you can absorb those flames?" Bubblegum asked.
"Yeah, all I need to do is-"
"No, no, no!" Link interjected. "I got this but you should take cover."
"Why's that? I'm not useless! I can help too!" Flame Princess protested.
"I know. But the forecast calls for rain." He turns around to face Princess Bubblegum after getting off his horse. "Are there any gigantic yellow or pink flowers?"
"No. At least I don't think so."
"Alright, just see if you can roundup everyone in one area. Oh and Flame Princess," He pointed to the top of the castle saying, "when you see me up there head for cover." He then put on the Bunny Hood and dashed off towards the castle.
"Alright guys," Bubblegum said clapping her hands. "let's help Link as much as possible with whatever his plan is."
Damn that shadow! Who knows what he's doing now? Probably out to ruin my name.
...
"Okay Boss Man, what exactly are we doing here?"
The place the fairy was referring to was the kingdom they were currently in, that being the Goblin Kingdom.
"I thought I made myself clear when we were exiting the dungeon. We are here to search for the shards to the Triforce of Chaos. Of course it won't be easy which is why I'll be using the Hero of Time's name in case we find ourselves in some sort of situation."
"So basically we'll be wreaking the crap out of everything in our way and Link's going to take the blame for it?" The fairy summed up.
"That's pretty much it. Now, get in my hat! You're a dead giveaway to anyone who sees me."
"So says the shadow boy with red eyes."
"Do not worry. The people of this dimension are complete idiots. They may seem smart but they cannot truly fathom intelligence." In the distance the shadow could see a young goblin girl skipping along the road. "Watch, this kingdom will be burned down in a day."
The shadow ruffled up his clothes to make himself look like he was mugged or like he's been living on the streets for a few years. He then threw himself against one of the building walls and slid down to give his appearance that finishing touch. The little girl continued her skipping along the stone road until she heard the violent coughing from the shadow; she approached him with curiosity.
"Hey mister, are you okay?"
"Oh, hello goblin child." He faked the sweetness of his voice as well as the warm smile he gave the girl when he lifted his gaze at the girl.
"What happened to you?"
"I've been traveling. My home was destroyed by a bunch of bandits and my family was killed so I really have no choice but to live like this."
"Oh... hey mister you should come with me, you can stay the night with my family. They say it's going to be really cold tonight."
"You are a very nice child" He said patting her on the head. "and please call me Link."
She smiled. "Okay, Link."
...
"Princess! Everyone is assembled at the fountain!"
"Okay, try to hold them there for as long a possible. Link hasn't made it to the top yet."
The area where the kingdom fountain could be found was a mad house. Despite Princess Bubblegum's presence, the candy citizens were warped into a frenzy that was thankfully being contained by Banana Guards, who knew they could actually be useful?
"Okay Link just a few more steps! Whatever you do, don't lose your balance and fall back down the steps."
"Tobi! Don't say things like thaaaaat!"
Link stepped on the edge of one of the steps he was climbing in the spiral staircase and ultimately lost his balance and fell down the stairs. Of course that would have happened if it wasn't the presence of a certain apprentice to The Great Fairies pushing up back on the step.
"You see? You would have fallen all the way back down if it wasn't for me!"
"I wouldn't have lost my balance if it wasn't you!"
"Hey, hey, let's not label whose fault is who's. Just do whatever your plan is. There's a bunch of candy guys out there and they're ready to wreak stuff up!"
"Alright then, let's hurry!" Link ran up the remaining steps and saw the light from outside soon enough he appeared on the roof of the castle. Link looked around and saw the candy citizens by a fountain. It looked as though the Banana Guards were going to give way at any second.
"Flame Princess!" Link's voice echoed down the castle roof being heard by everyone down there. "Get under a roof it's about to get wet!" She looked up and nodded and dashed away leaving a trail of flames. "Well here goes nothing."
Link pulled out his ocarina and played a song that would remind many of the open seas. As he continued to play the song he was wrapped in a light cyclone of sorts and thunder clouds where soon over the kingdom. The song carried on and the storm clouds created rain that lightly fell upon the kingdom. The scenery combined with the music managed to calm the rousing citizens as they all titled their heads side to side in sync with the music. The music stopped and Link had everyone's attention. He gestured down below where everyone saw a very steamed Princess Bubblegum.
"What is a matter with all of you!?" Her shouts might have made even the bravest of heros wet their pants. "Have you all gone insane!? I am gone for two days and when I finally come back I see the kingdom in this state!? This is unacceptable! I might be your leader but all of you are what truly make this kingdom! Now stop standing around and clean up this mess you've all made!" The citizens remained motionless and gave that thousand yard stare.
"CLEAN UP THIS PLACE, NOW!" Her voice practically shook the very foundation of the kingdom, one could say Bubblegum set off the very first earthquake created by voice. The citizens ran about rushing to pickup, clean and or fix anything they could find. Princess Bubblegum exhaled heavily and turned her attention to what was left of her castle after the shadow attacked. What a fine mess this is. She turned her attention towards the roof seeing Link talking with Tobi. "Hey Link!" She shouted so that her voice could be heard, not that it all ready was. "You think you can help with castle repairs?"
"Yeah sure! Who knew she could be so scary?" The last part he whispered to Tobi so that Bubblegum wouldn't hear.
"Girls can be scary in general. Just don't get on their bad side and you'll live to see another day."
"I'll have to remind myself from here on out."
...
"Jake, this isn't good at all!" The two boys returned to the surface having entered the Dungeon of the Crystal Eye that afternoon, of course empty-handed. With them not finding Princess Bubblegum, Finn began shouting incoherent words making his voice crack.
"Finn, Finn, calm down! You're speaking way too fast."
"Forallweknowshecouldbedeadandifthecandycitizensfindoutthey'llexplodeandit'llbeallourfault!" Finn breathed heavily after his major rant about not finding Princess Bubblegum. "WhatarewegoingtodoJake?! IfBubblegumgoesmissingeveryonewillknowandthenandthenandthenandthenandthen-!" Finn's repetition stopped when Jake began to slap his cheeks repetitively which eventually led to Finn calming down.
"Buddy, listen to yourself. You're going crazy over nothing."
"Over nothing!?" His eyes widened and his breathing began to pick up speed but reverted back to normal after a few slaps from Jake, playful slaps that is.
"Calm your breathing then talk."
He inhaled and exhaled a few times before heavily exhaling one last time and saying, "Okay." He he took a deep breath and said what he needed, calmly. "She's a princess, of a kingdom, the Candy Kingdom, Jake. If they find out that she's missing they'll freak out and eventually explode! Which means they'll all be dead! I-I can't have that, I'm a hero! What kind of hero kills people instead of saving them!?"
"Well technically you're not killing them."
"Don't give me technicalities, Jake! They'll die because of me!"
"No one's going to die."
"But what if they do? I'll have to go rogue, maybe wear my hat so that my hair is showing. Probably roll up my sleeves just to look cool." Finn contemplated the idea of this new look.
"You're not gonna do any of that biz, at least not with you being a hero. Look, I couldn't get her scent when we were in there which means someone must have got her out."
"You mean that Link guy?"
"Maybe, I don't know. Maybe we should just hang posters of her and label them 'Missing Princess' and give whoever finds her five carrots."
"No Jake, we are not doing that. We should go to the Candy Kingdom to see if she's there."
"Alright." Jake grew in size and grabbed Finn placing him on his head. "Let's go!"
...
"Alright guys that's good!"
"Cool." Link turned around to face the sugary princess after having completed his task of helping rebuilding the castle. Of course it was quite easy with the assistance from Flame Princess combined with the freezing abilities of the ice arrows.
"Say princess, you're into smarts and science and stuff like that, right?"
"Why yes I am, Link." She said proudly.
"Then can you check this for me?" Link pulled out the bottle that contains the shard of Triforce. "I want to know more about this shard and how it works. Think you can find out for me?"
"Sure Link. But I have a task for you."
"Sure, what is it?"
"Well, in the west there's a place called the City of Thieves. I need you to see if there's anything suspicious going on there."
"Why's that?"
"Well, rumors are that the city's king is back. He's supposed to be dead."
"Ooh. That's not... disturbing. But sure we'll check it out for ya."
"Ya know something Link? You remind me a lot of Finn. Have you ever met him?"
"I'm not sure. But if I do meet him I'm sure we could get along, easily."
"I'm sure you two would." Bubblegum's eyes looked past Link seeing Cinnamon Bun trying to fix a house with a spoon. "I gotta go and I'll be sure to take a look at this shard." Link handed the princess the bottle and she walked off towards the pastry telling him something about spoons or something to that matter.
As you can see this was a long chapter, for my standards anyway. More chapter will be like this.
