Before the Mushroom War
A New Day...
"Duuuuuuuuuude, this place is so freaking boooooooring! Let's just bail out already!"
"C'mon Jake, Haven't you ever been curious on what's inside these freaking old buildings before? For all we know, there could be some mathematical treasure here or maybe a secret dungeon that could awesomely blow our minds!" The young boy encouraged his yellow-colored bulldog brother with such excited fervor as they continued to traverse deeper into the empty hallways of a nearly destroyed building. "I'll tell you what's inside this place, Finn!" Jake simply responded by enlarging one of his fists and immediately punched down a nearby rusted door revealing a small room with four charred skeletal bodies of various sizes surrounding some kind of burnt remains on a metallic platter. Now if it was a normal and perfectly average person, the grisly scene would most likely unnerve and horrify them. But the two brothers are brave adventurers that are far from perfectly average...
"Dust! Lots and lots of dust and all kinds of wonderful dirt everywhere! There's butt all in here, Finn boy! The only kinda cool thing here is the massive lake at the side of the freaking building! There couldn't possibly be any mind-blowing secret dungeons here, man!" The bulldog known as Jake exclaimed loudly whilst waving his skinny arms around as he proceeded to walk into the middle of the room. Finn didn't respond at all to his brother as the young boy simply stood there in the middle of the broken hallway basking in his silent contemplation when he couldn't help but gaze outside the broken and dusty windows, the lush and green vines were apparently growing all around the sides of the ruined building.
If he had squinted his eyes and looked into the distance hard enough, maybe he could just see the Candy Kingdom over at the horizon of the wide grassy fields laid out before the ancient building. Finn couldn't help but wonder how Princess Bubblegum is and what she is currently doing at this fine hour of the day... Probably some more random science junk that the young boy couldn't even understand... Speaking of which, the thought of Princess Bubblegum immediately made him remember about his upcoming date with the Flame Princess later this evening... Well, at least there's something to look forward to this evening, eh Finn?
"Yo, dude! Check this out!" Jake's sudden voice echoed from inside the dusty room. Finn promptly turned around and saw Jake holding up the four different charred skeletons from before into an upright standing position using four of his own arms. Two of those were actually just stretched out from his own skin. "What in Glob's name are you doing, man?" Finn raised his eyebrows in befuddlement at Jake's curious and kind of creepy behaviour with the remnants of the charred skeletons. 'It's my new band mates, man! It's the Skeleton Brothers! We're going to play all kinds of free form jazz!" Jake exclaimed happily as he immediately started to make all four of the skeletons to dance nonsensically.
"See, man? Aren't they awesomely rocking? Jazz will never be the same!" Jake excitedly exclaimed as he made the skeletons do all kinds of tricks whilst dancing which includes impossible somersaults and creepy but hilarious barrel rolls. Finn chuckled for a while at the oddly hilarious sight as Jake continued to make them dance like they were marionette puppets... But after a long moment of witnessing dancing bone people, the young boy finally said, "Okay, Jake! That's enough with the skeletons, man. We have to finish exploring this place, dude..." But Jake was simply too busy playing around with the skeletons to even listen to Finn as he, for some reason, strangely began to choreographed the four skeletons into more complicated manoeuvres which admittedly is giving all the dancing a bit more of a creepy and dark flair around it. It was incredibly disturbing...
"Jake, Jake, Jake, bro... Let's go already." The young boy called out to him once again as he furrowed his eyebrows in confused disappointment. Really, Jake? You're just going to play around with the first thing you find? "Hmm... Wha- What? Oh! Oh yeah, I'm- uh... I'm kinda busy here, Finn... So go on ahead and I'll be right behind you, bro!" Jake hastily replied without even taking his glance away from the hypnotic dancing of the skeletons. "Now if only I could make them play instruments, I could start my own Mariachi Jazz band or something... A fusion of genres..." It was like he already got side-tracked and was in his own little world or something as he simply continued to mutter to himself in a hushed tone... Well, typical Jake... What else can you expect from him, really? Finn simply rolled his eyes in bewilderment and let out a tiring sigh of his brother's behaviour before he just shrugged it off and finally decided to continue wandering into the deserted hallways all by himself...
But truth be told, Finn actually had his very own reasons in coming to this nearly destroyed and ruined building. This ancient building that's almost reduced to nothing but simple rubble as it struggles to even stand... It is because for some unknown reason, some unexplained reason that the young boy just could not make sense of. It's because every single time, every brief moment that he passed by the remnants of this particular building on one of his many adventures, he felt strangely drawn towards it... It felt more like a bad but empty feeling somewhere deep in his guts or something. It's just that he couldn't even properly describe this strange particular feeling and he doesn't understand why in Glob's name would he feel such a thing... It was really messing up with his head for who knows how long so he decided to finally check out this place one day with his beloved brother for the sole reason in finding out why, once and for all...
As Finn walked through the many empty hallways of the broken building which is littered with nothing but broken glass shards and the various encroaching vines from outside, he began to notice there was many other rooms with some kind of strange metallic platter right in the middle of it. These strange metallic platters were mainly occupied by their very own charred skeletons with the occasional accompanying skeleton at the side of the platter. He couldn't help but wonder about the true significance of this place. What was this building mostly for before the Mushroom War? Was it used to be some kind of fancy inn or something? Or was it some kind of place for worship? Whatever it is, the young boy knows that there's almost no chance of him actually finding out...
When he finally reached the end of a certain dilapidated hallway, the young boy found a wide open doorway as he saw what was probably used to be the two metal doors lying on the ground nearby, crumpled into an odd shape like it was nothing but simple paper and were already covered entirely by various vines and foliage. For some reason, this particular room seemed completely different than the rest... Finn slowly walked through the open doorway, skipping over the many glass shards scattered all over the ground as he carefully enters the room. But alas, he was immediately disappointed when he realized that he was just in a completely empty room. There was nothing interesting at all... "Crud cakes..." Finn simply muttered to himself out of disappointment before he shrugged it off as just another dead end.
The young boy was just about to leave the incredibly dusty and boring room before he suddenly noticed something at the corner of his clear blue eyes... To his pleasant surprise, there was a completely different door at the corner of the empty room. Thinking it could be actually something different, Finn quickly approached the door with such excitement and immediately tried to push open the door. His excitement was quickly replaced with sheer annoyance thought as he discovered that the door simply wouldn't budge. "Nuh uh! No way, door... Don't you dare be a dummy and block my way! You can't stop me now!" Finn exclaimed bravely as he reared his right leg backwards into the air before he finally kicked the door wide open, slightly grinning at how easy it was to open the door.
As he stood outside the gaping maw of the doorway, Finn carefully peered inside, revealing a small bedroom of some sort. Finn slowly crept through the door and the first thing he he could see was a small scarred bed in the middle of the room and an overturned melted object right next to it. And yet again, glass shards were almost everywhere on the ground. This place is really messed up... And the young boy doesn't want to stay here any longer than he should. It keeps reminding him of what came before and unintentionally causes him to be all 'soul-searchy'...
Finn noticed there was something different lying on the bed as he, for some strange reason, slowly approached closer and closer to it. It- It was just another skeleton, resting neatly and peacefully on the bed... It seemed just like any of the many other skeletons in this place but- But there was just something... Something so different about it... Why, he wondered? Why does it feel different? First of all, the skeleton's bones wasn't charred at all like the various others they had found in this rotting place. And... Why, oh, why in the name of Glob does this room feels different? WHY does Finn feel a strange sense of familiarity with this place... This one particular room... It was like he had been in this place before, which is completely ridiculous as soon as the thought crossed his head... Finn's head was incredibly confused at this point as the overwhelming feeling inside him kept gnawing at his guts... The young boy felt strangely disheartened when he simply stands in the middle of this ruined room as he tries his very best to make sense in all of it. "I don't feel so good..."
"Yo, Finn! Are you alright, man? I heard a loud crashing sound, dude! Did you find your secret dungeon or something?! Did you fight a giant dungeon troll?" Jake's excited voice could be heard in the distance and it was quickly getting louder and louder. Within seconds, Jake suddenly burst out of the open doorway, his four hands still holding onto his esteemed 'band of skeletal brothers' as he simply dragged them along right behind him. As soon as he heard his brother's voice, Finn quickly shook his head clear of this strange thoughts and turned around to his excited brother, smiling meekly. "I'm- I'm fine, Jake... I'm just peachy... I was just giving the door a good beat down, thinking that there was a treasure or something behind it... But it turns out there's actually butt all in here and it's just another boring dead end..." Finn nervously explained as he simply chuckled this strange feeling away. "Ha! I told you this place was croaked up, man!" Jake exclaimed pridefully as he crossed his arms and broadly grinned to show off the bloated victory over his brother.
As Jake was defiantly shaking his head and wallowing in his tiny victory, he couldn't help but notice the clean skeletal body lying peacefully on the nearby bed. "Hey! Another member for my new Mariachi Jazz band!" He exclaimed happily as a fifth arm immediately stretched outwards from his own body and reached towards the skeleton with the clear intention of picking it up and maybe make it dance and do some creepy tricks- "JAAAAAKKKKEEEE! NOOOOOOOO!" Finn suddenly cried out loudly, his face full of shock and despair. Jake immediately pulled back his outstretched hand, out of sheer shock, and quickly dropped the rest of the skeletons onto the ground. "Whoa, man... uh... Are- Are you okay, Finn buddy?" Jake asked the young boy in a soft tone but with a scared and clearly worried look on his face. What's wrong with his brother, the dog wondered... "It's- It's nothing, Jake... It's nothing..." Finn muttered solemnly as he tightly clasped onto his forehead, for some reason, a sudden headache just came out of nowhere and flooded his mind with a certain numbing pain. Why- Why did he just do that? He simply could not understand it, no matter how hard he tried... Everything just doesn't make any sense in this Math-ed up place... He didn't know why but it felt like a distant spark from out of nowhere suddenly erupted inside his head, causing him to unknowingly scream at his confused brother... If that makes any sense to the young hero...
"Are you sure you're okay, bro?" Jake gently placed his hand on Finn's shoulder and smiled comfortingly, a hopeful and calming glint in his eyes. "I'm pretty sure, bro... I'm feeling just mathematical, really... I think I just need some rest, that's all. Let's- Let's just go back to the Treehouse, okay?" Finn tried to reassure his brother as he put on his best 'okay' grin at Jake, hoping that it could convince his brother. Jake seemed thoughtful for a while before he finally grinned at his brother and slowly nodded in an agreeing manner. "Whatever you say, bro... Whatever you say. Okay, so let's bail!" Jake softly smiled at the young boy before he slowly walked out of the small room, leaving his dear brother behind. Finn, for some inexplicable reason, turned back towards the skeleton resting peacefully on the bed, this strange feeling of familiarity still gnawing inside his heart and guts... What does it all mean, he still wonders?
"C'mon, Finn! We're burning precious sunlight over here!" Jake excitedly called out to him from the outside, his gruff voice echoing throughput the empty and lifeless hallways. I guess it's a question to be answered some other time... For now, Finn decided to keep it inside the Vault of his own head. A future adventure for another time, perhaps? Maybe... But in the end, the young hero simply take one final deep breath and just shrugged off all of the strange feelings inside him before finally making his way out of the bedroom, closing the broken door firmly behind him... The door though, immediately creaked back open and remained only slightly ajar as the brothers were already long gone by now...
"Hey! Wait for me, Jake!"
"First one back to the Treehouse get first dibs on B-MO!"
"You are so ON, bro!"
"Ha ha! You think you can actually beat me, Finn?"
"Hey, wait! Jake! That's cheating, Jake!"
Unbeknownst to Finn and Jake, the skeleton resting peacefully on the bed had another part to her that they simply did not notice. Some might argue it was the poor lighting in the dusty ruined room or maybe it was Jake's rambunctious skeleton show that prevented them from noticing it... But in one of the skeleton's hands, there was actually another hand holding onto her, for who knows how long? The other hand that originally came from another body entirely... But sadly though, there was nothing left but just the hand's skeletal remains...
And to this very day, after all these centuries and generations, it was still holding onto her as tightly as he possibly could...
Still desperately clutching onto her hand...
Still fulfilling the promise he had made to her...
The one who had saved him...
The love of his life...
To always be by her side...
To never let go of her...
To never leave her alone ever again...
Never...
The End
Ending Song - The Gambler by fun. or After the Storm by Mumford and Sons
Hey, everybody! It's ParagonFlynn here!
I hope all of you enjoyed reading my very first fanfiction as much as I enjoyed writing it. I just wanted to thank all of you for accompanying me on this wonderful journey of mine and I hope you will look forward to my upcoming stories. Honestly, I never expected that people would actually like my story so it was quite a big surprise actually. Considering it was something different and doesn't include the main characters of the show, I was afraid some people would actually despise it. But I'm so happy with how this story had turned out in the end! Thanks again for taking the time to read my story out of so many others and I'm deeply sorry if you were inconvenienced in any way because of the abrupt rewrite. If you have any questions or if you want more details and hints about my future stories, feel free to Private Message me and I will get back at you as soon as humanly possible... Just don't expect me to give out the ending... Have a very good day, folks!
P.S. If you have the free time, why don't you check out my newly formed community, 'Heart of Adventure'. The first thing you might find is a variety of stories written by better and more devoted authors than me. These people spent a lot of time crafting unique stories in the vast and wonderful world of Adventure Time and I would very much appreciate it if you would take the time to read all of the different stories in the slowly but surely growing list of the community.
Love,
ParagonFlynn