"Simon!" Betty yelled as she ran towards him. As she got close enough, she kneeled over to him and then rolled him on his back saying, "Look at me, you're alright!"

The ice wizard nodded upon hearing her words, but groaned in agony as pain coursed through everywhere in his body. Upon closer observation however, Betty noticed his right leg was broken and that his body was tattered with a crude mixture of snow, dirt and blood. She had no idea how serious his wounds were, but either way he needed immediate medical attention. IK was already starting to pale after a few seconds and Betty knew she had to act fast. Not wasting anytime, she began to pick up the wizard slowly with care until his body rested on both her shoulders, with his stomach facing down. The woman heaved as she tried to set up a good grip and then moved at a brisk pace into the line of fire. It was a hopeless scenario to survive the killzone at the rate everything was going, but staying put was not an option either.


Five minutes ago, Ice King and Betty briefly watched in horror as the swarm of drones attacked the Fire Army. One portion of the fleet was seen performing routine strafing runs with bullets and missiles, while another group flew themselves into the elementals directly with an explosive impact. Although the mobile artillery units were able to fend off the drones with anti-air targeting, most of them ended up being destroyed from being completely overwhelmed. And with the main force being weakened already from the gumball guardian, the remaining elementals had no chance of survival. Anyone who was caught outside in the field during the swarm was bound to have a 30 second life expectancy.

The glacier mountain giant was attacked shortly after as the drones identified Ice King and Betty. As they acquired their targets, a volley of missiles traveled towards them until the giant waved its arms outward summoning a frost-like barrier in midair. The defense crumbled immediately after the first ordinance was struck, but luckily it caused the others to detonate prematurely from a chain of explosions. Still though, the giant sustained heavy fire as it was constantly attacked from the sides and back seconds later. Chunks of rock and ice flew right off as the giant diminished in size, but Ice King and Betty remained focused to fight.

"Betty," the ice wizard called. "You need to go while you still can!"

"No, not without you!" The woman protested. Moments later, the interior rumbled with bits of ice dropping from the ceiling. No one was hurt as it fell to the ground, but both of them knew that the mountain would give out soon if the threat wasn't dealt with quickly. Ice King had tried taking defensive measures earlier by swatting the drones and by shooting beams of ice frantically but none of them proved effective. It was then at that moment his crown started to glow suddenly as a defensive mechanism and an idea surfaced.

"Take the reins and cover me," IK instructed to Betty as he casted a spell to allow the giant to follow her movements.

"I'll try, but you better hurry!"

While Betty made the effort to block using the giant's forearms from incoming projectiles, the ice wizard channeled more of his energy until his hands began to glow a bright blue color. Moments later, bolts of electricity could be seen running through his arms until he flung them forward to shoot out a massive chain of lightning through his fingertips. A multitude of drones were immediately wiped out upon the attack, but their vast numbers made it seem like the loss was negligible. Even so, the glacier couple repeated their tactics seeing as it gradually lowered the amount of incoming fire. There were some instances when Betty would have to stop the giant momentarily and use her own powers to repair the interior with an ice blast, but overall the two were making progress with neither of them losing their composure.

Unfortunately, while the glacier couple and Fire Army made a joint effort to combat the hostile skies, a third portion of the drone fleet with blue strobe lights discreetly made its way towards the disabled gumball guardian. As they slowed their descent to land onto the giant directly, several sparks of energy began to take place like fireflies in the night. With hundreds of ordinance going off around the whole area, no one was able to notice the mechanized giant being repaired at a steady pace. Slowly but surely, Princess Bubblegum nodded grimly in satisfaction as she watched the giant's status reach back to full health. Once she was able to restart the controls, she immediately powered the guardian to climb back on its feet until its gaze settled on the opposing giant. The massive rumbling it made with each step confused everybody until they heard the familiar but dreadful noise of laser beams going off.

The glacier giant dropped to a knee as it lost one of its legs from the blast, while throwing its occupants off balance. As Betty tried to stand back on her feet, she immediately fell back onto her hands and knees when the giant was struck with another beam that pierced through the center mass below. Even when it seemed like a hopeless scenario, the woman made the glacier giant shield itself with one arm to the side no matter who futile it seemed. Another beam followed shortly after and the woman felt frozen with fear as the ceiling and floor around her began to give out. If that wasn't enough to make it worse for her, she watched the gumball guardian tower over her with a fierce gaze as it slowly charged a pair of explosive bolts straight from its eyes.

"I'm sorry Marcy," Betty whispered to herself in anguish. She had high hopes that she would have succeeded in ending the war against the vampire's wishes, but looked down in resignation when another thought came to mind: Marceline was going to be alone again without parental figures.

But somehow, it didn't come to that. Instead, Betty found herself being picked up momentarily before flying right out the nearest window. Ice King followed after her a split second later just when the bolts fired and the two found themselves free falling hundreds of feet away. A scorching trail of fire pursued them for a fleeting moment, but it quickly dissipated just before it could burn them. As they continued to head closer to the ground, the mountain began to crumble violently like a skyscraper from an earthquake. Large chunks of rock and snow could be seen falling around them and Betty held her breath in anticipation as the ground zoomed closer in view.

Ice King once again reacted quickly in the nick of time as his crown gave off a sudden flash. The next second later, he began to flail his arms upwards rapidly as he created a slide made of ice. Both he and Betty managed to save themselves from a fatal fall in that instant, and their bodies tumbled into a thick blanket of snow to soften the landing even further. However, the mountain kept on collapsing above them and it is was inevitable that the two were about to be buried alive under a makeshift avalanche. Both of their eyes were closed as the debris came closer in view, and before they knew it their ears rang from the thunderous roar of the rocks smashing the earth. After a quick while, everything around them faded to black.

Betty opened her eyes slowly as she recovered sometime later. Her vision was blurry at first and then it cleared when she discovered she was by herself in a twisted cavern network forged from the crumbling mountain. A small puff of warm air escaped her lips as she took her surroundings and she quickly gave herself a pat-down to check for broken bones. So far there were only cuts and bruises all over her body, but none of them seemed serious enough to stop her from moving. She couldn't believe she managed to survive something so unlikely, and yet here she was against those odds. Those feelings were then replaced moments later as her mind became concerned with Ice King's well-being.

Distant explosions could be heard beyond the rocky interior as the woman searched for her loved one. As she navigated aimlessly through the passageways, she would call his name repeatedly until she heard a response. It was vague, but loud enough for her to follow until it lead to the source. When she tried to approach him moments later as he waved weakly with a broken smile, a high pitched whine could be heard rushing towards the pair until a flash of light blinded their vision. Rocks and ice ricocheted past them like shrapnel and the two were flung a few feet into the air until they landed back onto the ground. Betty's ears rang obnoxiously as she tried to recover and her senses were dull temporarily until another thought came to mind: the two were suddenly outside now, which meant the drones could zero in on them at any moment. Her eyes darted for Ice King and before she knew it, she found herself being filled with adrenaline as she was able to run up to him within seconds.

"Simon!" She called as he lied grunting in pain. "Look at me, you're alright!"

It was a lie based on his war-torn appearance, but Betty managed to convince herself that him being alive regardless was all that mattered.

"My leg.." IK gasped as he felt a jolt of pain. "I think it's all jacked up.. Oh dear Neptune!"

"We gotta go, come on!" Betty urged as she proceeded to carry him. A series of explosions continued to rage across the Grasslands and the first thing that came to mind was to find shelter and stay out of sight. The trenches the elementals occupied from earlier was a great place to start, but unfortunately her vision was obscured from the surrounding dust cloud that surfaced after the mountain's collapse. Bullets and ordinance rained aimlessly from the skies as she blindly ran straight ahead and she prayed to herself that she would make it to safety with her fiancé.

Suddenly, a trail of gunfire chased after the pair as Betty spotted an elemental waving to them simultaneously. It was a race against time as the obscuring clouds subsided in turn and it became a matter of will to see what outcome would happen first. The two could either be gunned down for not moving fast enough, or they could survive miraculously yet again from another close call. Fortunately enough, Betty was able to jump inside the trenchline thanks to the supporting elemental but it was not without a price. Before she made herself inside the dug in bunker with relief, she heard a quick gasp escape from IK's lips. She didn't think it was significant at first until she realized he was shot in the back as she settled him down against the nearby wall. With Ice King sustaining enough life-threatening injuries already, Betty knew his time would be short if he wasn't treated with urgency. But since the battlegrounds was too hot from the ongoing chaos wrought from Bubblegum's giant and drone fleet, they had no chance of going anywhere.

"Betty," Ice King rasped after he was set against the wall. "Listen to me.. I need you to use your powers to freeze my whole body."

"What?!" Betty was astounded. "That's insane! I need to get you to a hospital asap!"

IK chuckled briefly before breaking into a coughing fit, "Honey, the closest one's miles away from here.. There's no flippin' way I'll be able to make it... Only way for me to survive now is if I slow the bleeding, while you go get help."

The woman mentally face-palmed herself as she considered his reasoning. Most of the time, she would be the one to make the decisions. But when she saw her fiancé critically wounded at that moment, she immediately lost her composure and began to panic. She was able to regain her bearings now that she considered IK's suggestion, but was still reluctant at freezing him regardless.

"I'm the king of ice and snow, remember?" IK reminded breaking her thoughts. "I can't die from my own powers."

"You're.. right," Betty hesitantly admitted. "I just don't like the idea of shooting you."

The ice wizard mustered a broken smile, "Trust me, it'll be fine..."

Her hands trembled as she conjured her ice powers and before she knew it, the deed was done. Ice King was now cryogenically frozen to slow down his heart rate, which Betty hoped would be long enough between now and later. Her nerves simmered to some extent knowing that IK had a chance, but they quickly spiked up again when she realized she was being spectated by a large group of fire elementals. Some were seen with sympathetic expressions after witnessing the exchange between the glacier couple, while the majority appeared to be glaring at them with hostility. Betty wasn't sure if staying outside would have been better at that moment, and the only thing she could do was stare with uncertainty until one of them would break the silence.