Chapter 13:
"I can't do this," Nadia rumbled.
He hadn't seen that much distress in her eyes since he'd forced the Grid-Face People to take their Matrix offline. It had hurt to see her hurting back then, and it still hurt to remember that moment today. Finn sighed heavily. He'd been on top of the world when they got back from Muscle Kingdom. He had the unaffiliated toeing the line. He had the civilized kingdoms protected adequately for the first time in forever, and it had looked rather like he would get his way about the money situation. Now this. What good did it do him to raise the money to expand the army if he couldn't build the weapons to do it? He wasn't smart enough to do it himself, and he had Shoko hard at work on something just as important.
As he was pondering the fix he was in, Breakfast knocked on the door and entered, announcing, "you've got a couple of visitors..." Finn glanced to his lady. He needed a moment to think about this. In wheedling tones, he asked, "can you wait in the garden a moment, babe?" That startled the cyborg girl. After a moment, she said, "alright. Only a moment. We need to talk this through." She knew he was stalling. Finn promised he'd get right back to their conversation. The cyborg-hottie stepped out into the garden, leaving Finn alone in his office.
Breakfast returned moments later with Riley and Teri–two faces that he would hardly have been expecting to see. After his last visit to their bar, he'd been head-down, doing his thing. Outside of pity-parties, he had no real reason to be down at their place, and he had sworn off losing himself in self-pity. Now, he welcomed the pair into his office with more than a little puzzlement. What did they need from him? He'd gotten the rogue Banana Guard arrested after all.
Both women were dressed to the nines, with Riley wearing a brown dress that covered most of her body but still managed to show off those amazing, gravity-defying knockers of hers. Teri came in a yellowish-green dress that emphasized the curves of her delicious little hips. He imagined they'd come to meet formally with a King instead of an old friend, though he didn't mind it in the least. Staring around her at the heavy desk and furnishings, the former Hug-Wolf opined, "I guess it's good to be King..." Finn blushed. It wasn't as good as she thought, but he kept his mouth shut about that.
Motioning for them to sit, Finn sat himself opposite the pair. Smoothing their skirts in unison, the two unlikely lovers sat down before him, looking prim and proper to say they were strippers. "Sooo...," Finn began. "What can I help you with? Bonnie tells me I should give money to the performing arts, but I'm not really sure you're what she had in mind." Teri tittered, and Riley rolled her eyes at that. Neither was really a fan of the Candy Monarch.
Laying a slim hand on the desk, Riley told him, "you kind of missed the wedding, babe..." Finn blushed. He'd suspected that Riley and Teri were a thing. In point of fact, he'd come to understand what that meant from conversations with Sarah and Marceline about just what the nature of Marcy's thing with Bonnie was. He didn't have hang-ups about it, and honestly he was a little sad he'd missed them getting hitched. Teri let him off the hook, saying, "what she means is that usually you give the bride a present..." Finn chuckled. He'd forgotten. He'd meant to look into getting them something and promptly forgot all about it when it came time to get on the train to go to Muscle Kingdom.
"Well," said Riley. "We're here now. How about a favor, babe?" Impulsively, Finn replied, "sure. Name it." "Well," said Riley. "Teri and I want babies. We want you to get us both pregnant." Finn's jaw came open. In a teasing voice, Teri said, "you lit out of the bar so fast with that other girl that we never got a chance to ask..." The big man caught himself as he was about to groan in disgust. That wasn't nice, and he didn't want to make them feel bad. At the same time, he was married! "C'mon," said Riley. "I mean... you kind of already have one with that fish-bitch." Finn flushed. He'd had that announced because he felt like he didn't have a choice. He now feared that decision was going to be a pain in his ass. First Pearl and now these two.
The big man put them off with 'Lemme' think about it', and had Breakfast hustle them out. When they'd gone, he went out to the garden to find his wife–number ten–sitting there looking prim and proper in a deep red-orange number with their daughter and son. The dresses did things to him. He liked them better than the slutty, skin-tight jumpsuits, though her people thought she was scandalous for exposing so much skin.
As he sat down, she said, "you should help them... You owe them. We all do." Finn flushed. Riley and Teri had hidden him when he was in exile and on the run from all the people who wanted control of the War-Machine. They'd made sure the anniversary presents got delivered, the babies got the recordings of daddy's voice, and the wives' letters got back to him. They'd made his life bearable when he'd been pretty much down in the gutter.
He didn't really want to talk about that right now. He was in an unhappy place with the woman who'd literally saved him from Death's clutches. "Look at me," he murmured. Nadia looked up, her uncanny cybernetic eyes focusing on his. There were people who found her gaze terrifying. For Finn, she was just Nadia. "I won't ever ask that of you again," Finn told her. "I just want you to understand... I... Need this. I don't want to do this. I... like things... the way they were..." Flushing a little she reflexively muttered something in Russian before remembering he could understand her. Nodding, she said, "I don't like this place that we're in, but I accept that it's the place we're in. I can't help you with this. I can't find it in myself..." "And you won't have to," Finn replied. "I'll... I'll find another way. Thanks, baby. Thanks for understanding."
Sniffing back tears, she said, "it's me who should be thanking you for understanding. You could compel me, but you don't..." "Wouldn't be worthy of your love or anybody else's," he replied, as he stood up. "I'll see you later, babe," he said. Nodding, she said, "think about it, Finn. We owe them." Nadia stood, and the pair embraced fiercely. Then the tall princess gathered up their kids and headed off across the garden, bound for the office/lab space she now shared with Sarah. There were still things she could do to help their cause.
Finn buried himself in work, pushing aside the worries in spite of his shrink's suggestion that it wasn't healthy. Trouble was the worry-tank wasn't just full, it was overflowing. He worried about his kids. He worried about his ladies. He even worried about his brother and his brother's family, even when he knew there was nothing he could do. And now Teri and Riley were putting themselves in the mix. And what was he going to do? He couldn't protect them all! Someone was going to get bold and hurt someone he loved again. All he'd have left after that was vengeance.
As that unhappy thought crossed his mind, he had an epiphany. The dark, ugly piece of him that had acted out all his hate and rage on his dad was urging him to go with that emotion. Except he was king. He should never act in anger. Frowning down at the paper in his hands, the King of Ooo called out to his secretary. "Mrs. Mertens, come here please," he said. A puzzled Breakfast stepped into the room. "Draft a decree, please," he commanded. As a clearly worried Breakfast took notes, Finn dictated a terrifying edict.
Meanwhile, Bonnibel Mertens strode into her daughter's lab in the heart of the Fire-Kingdom. It felt decidedly odd coming here. If it wasn't wearing a hazard suit, it was the obvious fact of her daughter's condition. She knew a lot of her unhappiness was her unhealthy desire to control her child's fate–to steer it where she thought it should go. That knowledge did little to help her cope with the sight of pregnant Shoko. Still, swallowing her angst, the bubblegum-princess glided forward to collect a hug from her middle child. Shoko gave her mother an awkward hug–between her belly and the containment suit, there was a lot of bulk in the way–and greeted the candy-monarch with, "mom..."
Stepping back, Shoko asked, "what brings you?" Her parents had been here for the wedding, but nothing since, though Shoko had spoken with her father. Bonnie was busy looking around her in a state of bemused shock at all the equipment her daughter owned. Randy had bought a lot of it. Shoko had built a lot more. She was her mother's daughter. Bonnie's eyes settled on 'the thing' as Phoebe called it. Shoko's machine had allowed several elementals to leave the Kingdom permanently, making it the center of a growing controversy. It had also allowed a form of immigration with would-be elementals flocking here. So what now was an elemental? Many of Phoebe's most ardent detractors were asking the question.
Turning to face her daughter, Bonnie said, "your father's been told to lay off of being a work-aholic..." Which Shoko already knew. She'd been there virtually when he got the smack-down from Dr. P. Giving her child a smile, Bonnie said, "I'm kind of picking up some of the slack... Sooo... I'm kind of here to ask a favor..." That news raised Shoko's hackles. "What kind of favor," she asked? Taking a deep breath, Bonnie said, "I kind of have to swear you to secrecy..." "Go on," Shoko replied. She had a suspicion that she was already working on a piece of the scheme, and her mother had no clue. Of course, Bonnibel Bubblegum was a self-proclaimed diplomat and scientist. Weapons–and their use–were far beyond her typical workspace. Finn had none of the hang-ups his wife had. If you told him to protect Ooo from aliens he would do just that, finding weapons along the way if he needed them.
Bonnie began with a rather esoteric explanation of war, sounding very much like someone who'd read, then memorized a treatise on military history. Shoko listened patiently as Finn's hyper-intelligent wife tried feebly to explain what he'd likely figured out just from intuition. Shoko fought the urge to roll her eyes. Her mother was often too smart for her own good. It amazed her that Bonnie made the leap finally to accept what Finn had been trying so hard to give her across his youth. Finally the elder woman rattled to the end of her long-winded request. "I need your help designing these flying weapons, Shoko," she explained. She didn't have the time to do it herself.
Bonnie squared up and waited on her daughter's reaction. Would she be as horrified as her mother? With a heavy-hearted sigh, Shoko replied, "I'm sorry, mother. I can't... I'm..." A semi-relieved Bonnie replied, "I understand, Shoko. Designing weapons is an ugly business..." Shaking her head, Shoko retorted, "no, momma. You don't understand. I'm already working on a piece of dad's plan. I don't have time to work on a second..." Bonnie goggled at her. Glancing away, Shoko replied, "I can't talk about it, mom. I... Dad wanted it kept secret..." "I... see...," Bonnie burbled.
Shoko could see what her mother was thinking. And wasn't that why Finn was keeping his cards close to the chest? Bonnie Bubblegum could go squeamish fast when pushed out of her comfort zone. The older woman glanced around her, and Shoko imagined her searching out weapons–or pieces of weapons–in the laboratory. "You're not going to tell me what you're working on, are you," asked the candy-monarch? "Can't, mom," Shoko replied, "Royal Promise." Shaking her head and muttering curses, Bonnie turned and headed for the door. Shoko sighed heavily. That went well.
As a troubled Bonnie headed for the gates of the Fire Kingdom, Drew interrupted Finn's work with a frantic phone call. The King of Ooo had just dispatched Breakfast to work on his new decree. Picking up his phone, Finn announced, "go..." The next words out of his lovely doctor's lips made his blood run cold. Maja was in labor. And she was having complications. Lots of them. Rising, Finn strode to the door of his office, finding a troubled Breakfast staring at what he'd ordered her to write. "Maja's giving birth," Finn announced. And then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
Finn found a frantic Drew cradling a weak and listless Maja. Her dress was soaked, and it was clear she was bleeding. He'd never seen Drew in a state quite like this. He'd never understood her rule about relationships with patients until that moment. The King of Ooo took Maja from Drew's arms. Injecting calm into his voice, he said, "follow me as quick as you can..." And then he was gone, leaving Drew in tears. The last thing she would have asked of him was to risk reviving the Quicksilver Curse.
Curse or no, she had a baby to get delivered and a life to save. The pretty doctor rushed down to the palace's little surgery ward. On the way, she called in all the specialists she'd put on call for this moment. Arriving in the surgery, she was pleased to find Finn had things well in hand. He had Maja stripped. He'd gotten her in a hospital gown and laid out on the table. He'd even started getting the instruments together. When his wife arrived, he quickly moved to get out of the way. "I can see you've been learning some things," Drew murmured. Finn blushed. It was the nanobots. Again. Still. He was having a lot easier time remembering things he saw. They weren't making him smarter, but he did tend to think a lot more clearly now.
Promising herself to get to the bottom of that, the tall doctor moved in, got herself scrubbed up, and got down to work. As she washed the patient, shaved her nether regions, and got ready for an emergency C-section–just in case–the rest of the staff began arriving. As promised, saving both Maja and her baby ended up taking every ounce of skill the beautiful doctor possessed. The business went hours, with Maja getting increasingly incoherent with every passing moment. The witch ultimately went to sleep.
Maja's baby is born, and Finn is up to something. Wonder what he's planning?