CHAPTER 25
Flambo reaches the throne room and enters. Finn and Flame Princess notice Flambo looking distressed. "What's wrong, Flambo?" Flame Princess asks. Flambo hesitates for a second and tells them what happened and what he has heard. Finn and Phoebe are at first stunned by the revelation. Flame Princess knows that Flambo has always been truthful to her. Then she gets angry about her father's deception.
"MY FATHER SAID WHAT?!" Flame Princess said angrily before she calmed herself down. "I'm sorry, Flambo. I just can't believe that my father would do this to me. I guess I shouldn't have been that eager to accept his apology. I just wanted to believe he was a changed man, especially what was going on then. But if he was willing to frame all the princesses and make me believe they were all against me, then that means-"
"That Water Princess and Jungle Princess never attacked us, and we never attacked the Water Kingdom." Finn says.
"What are we going to do?" Flame Princess asks.
"First, we need to get the word out to someone who can help us. Then we take in Theron and Kilt and get them to confess, and then imprison your father for the war crimes he has committed. After that, make a peace treaty with the Water and Jungle Kingdoms and apologize and make amends to them for the pain and suffering we have caused."
"Who should we ask?" Flame Princess asks.
"The only one I can think of." Finn says. He turns to Flambo and says "Flambo, hurry as fast as you can to Princess Bubblegum and tell her what has happened. Ask her to tell the other princesses and give them our apologies."
Flambo bows and hurries off. Flame Princess tells her guards to arrest Theron, Kilt, and her father on sight.
"Yes, your Majesty." They say as they hurry off.
Kilt was the first one that was apprehended. He got caught during a training exercise with the troops. During the exercise, Flame Princess' guards came in and whispered to the soldiers what has happened. The troops angrily rush at a surprised Kilt who began running, thinking Flame King was trying to kill him.
They drag him to a darkened room and toss him in. The lights turn on, and he sees Flame Princess and Finn looking at him in disappointment and anger.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" Flame Princess asks.
"About what, your Majesty?" Kilt asks, stunned and surprised by all of this.
"Don't play dumb with me. I know."
Kilt looks her in the eye. He knows by the way she is looking at him, she's not bluffing. He begins to sweat as panic overtakes him. Then he confesses to her about everything.
How her father used water dragons to attack her and the Fire Kingdom, and how he used a phoenix to attack the Water Kingdom.
How he got the other princesses to begin preparations for war against one another.
The bombs.
The plot to get her to use them.
Then, about the coup.
"WHAT?! HE WAS PLANNING TO OVERTHROW ME?!" Flame Princess yells.
Kilt covers his mouth after mentioning the coup. He couldn't believe she didn't know about that. But she did now, and he fears for his life more than ever.
"General Kilt, you are hereby stripped of your military ranking and are dishonorably discharged. You are also now under arrest for treason and sedition. Take him away and throw him in the dungeon."
Flame Princess' guards grab Kilt and drag him away.
"One down, two to go." Flame Princess says.
Word quickly passed throughout the kingdom what has happened. Upon hearing about it, Flame King takes one of the bombs and hurries out of town, managing to escape detection. Theron, however, was unaware of what has transpired.
While leaving a cabinet meeting, he notices a lot more royal guards than usual. One of the guards spots him and orders him to halt. Theron runs and manages to escape. He goes to the one place he can think of, the cave where him, Kilt and Flame King planned their plot.
He arrives at the cave and enters. Flame King is already there.
"What happened?" Theron asks.
"Somehow my daughter caught wind of our plan. Kilt was captured and he confessed to everything."
"How?"
"I think the answer's quite obvious." Flame King says, as he secretly pulls out a sword and turns around. "You told them."
"I DIDN'T TELL THEM!" Theron says angrily.
"Right. If that were true, you'd be in the stockade alongside Kilt."
Theron pulls out his sword.
"Enough with this. I was going to wait until after the war was over to kill you, but why wait? If I kill you, I can claim self-defense or hope for a reduced sentence for my part in this."
"Do it, if you can."
They fight. Theron is no match for Flame King. He is quickly overpowered and cut in half. Theron falls into two piles, dead.
Flame King spits on Theron's corpse. He then looks out the cave entrance to await the final confrontation with his daughter and son-in-law.