The TARDIS Book: THE TIME IS NOW (Part 7)

Book Four: TO NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS

Chapter 10: Introduction to the Nightosphere

"The Nighto-what?" A confused Finn asked.

"It's the Nightosphere. It's basically the Underworld, like from Greek Mythology?" Marceline asked him, hoping he would understand the reference. In response he shook his head, not knowing what she was talking about.

She scoffed and said, "Nevermind, just think of my dad as an evil, immortal creature that you can't kill and will probably eat your soul. So don't go trying to fight him."

"Oh, so what is it like?"

"The Nightosphere? To be honest, it's not really safe... You and your dog might want to consider staying here in the TARDIS."

"His name is Jake, and as long as we all stay together, we'll be fine."

Marceline sighed as she said, "The Princess can only do so much, kid."

"Finn, why don't you go check on Jake, make sure he's alright?" suggested the Princess.

"Okay." Finn left the console room and headed for the bedroom where his best friend rested from a very long day.

When he found the room, Jake was lying awake in bed.

"Jake, how are you?"

"I'm okay, I guess. I'm sorry I yelled at you, I just hate what went down. I know not everything is the Princess's fault... I'm just mad at the world and I guess I needed someone to blame," Jake dejectedly confessed. Finn put his hand on Jake's head because he knew it soothed Jake whenever he felt distressed.

"I'm sorry for yelling back. But, just because we lost Mom and Dad, doesn't mean anyone's going to come around and take you away from me, or vice versa; it's us against them. Look, having the Princess just means that we have an extra defense on our side. It makes me feel safe to know she's around. She may be a frantic girl with a flying box, but she's still a genius."

"I know you're right... You've always been right. I guess it's hard for me to adjust. I just-"

"I know, I know."

"I love you buddy, and you know that I'd follow you anywhere."

"I trust that you would. Jake, you have no idea how I felt when the Ice King kidnapped you."

"Of course I do. I felt the same way whenever you were around that Princess."

"I have to admit-I just can't believe that she's letting the Ice King on the ship with us! She said it herself, he's a 'psychopath'! I mean, I get that he's subdued and everything, but there's no way that he's normal."

"Look Finn, all I care about is what you think. Do you think we can trust him? Do you think it's safe enough to be around him?"

"I don't trust him but like I said, I trust the Princess. If she believes he's being handled properly, then I believe her."

Jake sighed. "Us against them," Jake reminded him. Finn removed his hand when Jake sat up in the bed. "Time to see what's going on with everybody."

Luckily Jake didn't struggle as he got up. He followed Finn to the console room.

When they got there, Finn sensed that the room had once again grown extremely tense.

"What's going on?" The Princess seemed to ignore him, not bothering to even look at him. Her face was hardened, even more so than when they had their confrontation in Ice King's chamber room.

"Where's Marceline?"

Ice King apathetically responded, "She left."

"To where?" asked Finn.

"To talk to her dad."

"What's with the Princess?"

"I don't know," Ice King replied, still in a flat tone. Finn walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder, this time with wariness instead of anger.

"Princess, what is going on?"

He waited. For a moment she remained pensive and still-so still that it seemed like both of her hearts had stopped. After a minute, she blinked, straightened her face and turned to him. With a plastered expression, she responded with, "Nothing important, let's go." Finn figured that he could get it out of her later, so he complied at the moment. The group silently shuffled out of the TARDIS.

They stopped as the Princess handed out silver rings to each of them. "So this is the Nightosphere. Now, I have designed these rings to contain perception filters on the inner linings so that it'll make it nearly impossible for the demonic creatures to observe us. They should get us through the crowd until we get a ride to the headquarters of Hudson Abadeer," the Princess explained. She walked ahead of everyone else, making Finn feel like a baby duckling following its mother. "Oh, before I forget to mention it, Hudson Abadeer is also known as the 'Lord of Evil', so please be on your best behavior and be sure to regard him with your utmost respect." So this was where the demon girl was from. Finn scanned the environment. In stark contrast to the Ice Kingdom, everything was bright and red, like fire. In fact, there were actually fire lakes and lava pools flaring up in the surrounding area.

"Princess, what if we need to talk our way through something, in case something happens? We don't even speak the same language, do we?" asked Finn.

"The TARDIS has a language translator, so we hear them speak English, while they hear us speak their native tongue-or whatever it is they speak now," the Princess rushed to explain. "Now, I want everyone to link arms because we're going on a high, narrow path and there will be a lot of demons so I don't want to lose any of you. Please do your best as not to even make eye contact with any of them-they're not really a friendly folk. Don't even look at each other. Eye contact is not a common practice between these creatures. Remember: blend in and stick together, got it?"

Jake groaned in response but they all followed her instructions. Ice King linked arms with the Princess on her left side, while Finn was on her right. Jake hooked his arm through Finn's and they awkwardly walked forward into a crowd of Nightosphere demons. Finn felt utterly nauseous.

"Ugh, Finn look at that one! He's squirting out yellow bananyals! Bananyals!" Jake whispered loudly. To Finn's dismay, he checked to see what Jake was talking about and his description was confirmed. A demon with one pointy spike sticking out of the top of his head had pulled his left eyelid open to squeeze out a bananyal. The demon rubbed his eye after he was finished and continued to drudge among his fellow freaks. It honestly seemed more fitting to call the demon creature an "it" instead of "he".

As they weaved through the disgusting array of accursed abominations, Finn noticed how they didn't look at them. The Princess's perception filters really did work.

"Wait, if we're all wearing perception filters, how can we see each other?"

"Well, I would say that it is a mixture of possible factors-part of it might be because I told you ahead of time, so you've been concentrating intensely on that fact. Another possibility is that you need me for self-preservation, so it might also override the filter. But most importantly," she stopped walking as she paused to say, "You have the power of the TARDIS within you, so you can see past it better than other creature, because your perception is stronger and your vision is clearer than theirs."

The Princess looked up and pulled a whistle out of her cleavage. Jake cowered and he fell as his knees wobbled. "Princess!" Finn shouted in shock as she used her sonic flashlight on each ring, the infinite crowd of demons parted in the middle as a large creature, with half of its inside anatomy showing, landed.

"Don't worry, we're safe. Our ride has arrived."

"Are you sure?" Finn asked.

The large creature spoke, "I am here on behalf of Marceline Abadeer. You're her rag-tag gang of buddies, aren't you?"the creature asked in a surprisingly warm Southern drawl.

"Yes, we are," confirmed the Princess without hesitation. "I believe you will be taking us directly to the Supreme Ruler's headquarters?"

"Yes, ma'am. Hop onto my tongue and crawl into my innerds. According to my mistress, her orders were for me to fly you up to his main chamber as fast as ya please." He lowered his jaw to the ground and unraveled his tongue.

As disgusting as it was to hear, it was also comforting to know that they didn't have to walk a moment longer amongst the damned.

As they all crawled into the warm and moist insides of the mysteriously friendly creature, Jake sharply addressed the Princess, "What was that? Have you had that this whole time?"

As the creature rolled up his tongue and took off, she replied,"It's a whistle I designed to resonate with a common brain wave that all four-legged creatures. I have many settings. I apologize, Jake, fore I had no clue that you shared the same brain wave with a glongador."

"I'm guessing glongadors don't originate from the Nightosphere?"

"Well some do, though this guy, I'm pretty sure isn't from around here, is he? What a good glongador, yes he is!" She scratched the inner wall of the glongador's gut with affection. The surrounding walls shook as the glongador laughed. Gross.

"Might be a glitch in my engineering, again I apologize, Jake," continued the Princess. Jake remained quiet, probably holding in a very angry retort. They sat in silence for the rest of the ride until they reached the Abadeer tower.

As they arrived, the glongador's tongue unraveled onto the door of the main chambers, where Marceline waited.

"Thanks, Steve. You're the best Nighto-ride I know!"

He rolled up his tongue again and shouted to make sure the whole group heard, "Summon me when your rag-tag gang of buddies need a ride back across!"

"Ahh, so I see we're your 'rag-tag gang of buddies'," the Princess smiled smugly as she walked up to Marceline.

"Don't-He got excited because he thinks you guys are my friends. I just told him that I needed him to keep you creeps from getting killed out there," she attempted to justify, looking flustered. "Anyways, I talked to my dad and he said it's okay for all of us to stay here for awhile... I haven't told him what happened... I need you to help me explain, Bonnibel." For the first time, Finn could tell Marceline was frightened.

"Take me to him," ordered the Princess, looking stoic.

...

The Princess interjected with, "Don't worry, We-" She stopped talking as soon as static from her screen cut through.

A distorted voice filled the console room.

"Hello, Bonnibel."

"Who are you?"

"Look at me. Don't you remember the face of your brother, Achilles?"

"You- But I.. I-I thought you had perished in the Lich War! Are you alright?"

"Achilles, it's me, Marceline! Do you remember me?"

He ignored her. "Bonnibel, you need not worry about me."

"Are the Candy people safe? Are you ruling over them?"

"Not quite- they won't be for alive for much longer. Once I regain my full power, I will use it to exterminate every candy person on this planet."

"I don't understand, why would you destroy your own people, Achilles?"

"Oh dear Bubblegum, I am not who you think I am. I have merely taken over this body. My temporary vessel may be this Gumball prince, but in true form I am the Lich King. I know you will try to stop me, but your death is inevitable, Bonnibel. It is time for me to take the throne. And in my world, I will only tolerate creatures of pure evil, the undead corpses of my people. There will be no one who can prevent me from claiming absolute sovereignty over the Candy Kingdom, not even you." The transmission ended.