-A Promise Broken-

Once Flame Princess had learned that the illusionary clones of Finn would simply fade into the wind upon elimination, it made it somewhat easier to deal with them all. However, the fact that they kept uttering statements that only the real Finn would know caused excessive stress to the fire elemental. In between telling herself that they were fakes, she had to wonder how on earth Fourth Arc had such information.

The human illusionist was back in the goblin throne, casually watching FP fight as if it were an action movie. Every so often, he would even compliment or warn her of an incoming strike from one of the fakes' swords.

The young ruler at first though why bother dodging a nonexistent weapon, but found out the hard way that her foes could inflict quite real damage, as evidenced by the cut on her arm. She didn't have time to argue about how it was possible though, there were too many blades aimed at her neck.

Left and right, Flame Princess sliced the clones in half, causing them to dissipate into the air. Even more heart-wrenching, every time she did so, the dying illusion would do its best to tear apart her mind.

As another 'Finn' fell, it gazed at FP with pleading eyes that stung in her chest.

"FP, why?"

The voice was so pained, so agonized, that the fiery ruler was beginning to tremble. On the opposite end of the spectrum, those that were still fighting her wore cheerful and friendly smiles, as if they truly were the great hero of Ooo himself. Flame Princess was thankful that she'd run out of tears earlier, for she was sure her vision would be blurred by the lava spilling out of her eyes.

The fire elemental missed one of the clones, allowing it to bash her in the head with the hilt of its sword. She cried out in pain and stumbled back a few feet, giving the remaining illusions time to surround her and barricade any chance of escape with a wall of blades. FP darted her eyes from Finn to Finn, trying to find some way to get away. Sadly, with the amount of humble smiles and good-natured grins they were sending her way, she was too broken up to even move.

Flame Princess managed to spy Fourth Arc through the crowd. Surprisingly, he wasn't gloating or even grinning. He was holding his head up with his arm, frowning and looking at the floor. He seemed to be in pain. In that same moment, the illusions stalled, freezing in place. FP took advantage, slicing through them all until not a single one remained.

The human noticed his quarry's actions and shook his head, attempting to remove whatever was bothering him.

"Ngh. I'm not done."

Flame Princess was about to run up and smash the jerk in the face, but was suddenly surprised by a new line of 'Finns'. She shook her head, trying desperately to remind herself that they weren't the real hero. As Fourth Arc's defense fell, he seemed to start panicking.

"No way, I won't lose to a-"

He stuttered; not because someone interrupted him, but because something interrupted him. FP gazed in shock at the sword now impaling the man, whose eyes were wide with astonishment. Fourth Arc made no noise as his body fell to the floor. He went limp, apparently instantly expunged of life.

Flame Princess turned towards the source of the weapon's flight, becoming stunned when she saw a familiar face leaning into the window.

"Finn!"

The young hero was panting, obviously tired. Before he could answer, his foot slipped from the edge of the sill and he plummeted to the floor with a thud.

"Oh my Glob! Are you ok?"

FP ran up to the boy and gathered him up. He still had a large wrapping around his head. Regardless, he managed to push through a small grin.

"I'll live. I guess."

He chuckled, rubbing his head gently.

"Man, that guy was bananas."

Flame Princess looked over at the fallen Fourth Arc.

"Yeah. But, I don't understand, why would you just kill him? That's not like you."

Finn gave the girl a serious look.

"FP, he was threatening your life, I'm not going to risk a guy wasting you just cuz I'm curious."

It made sense, but still, such an act, against his own race. Before she could think any further, Finn pulled her into a hug, instantly causing him to start burning up.

"Finn! You can't!"

The human pulled away, frowning slightly.

"Sorry, it's just…I was worried."

Flame Princess stared into his blue eyes. They were sincere, which made her feel better. A smile finally emerged on her features as she offered to help the boy up. He gladly accepted and soon the two were upright, slightly adjusting their aching parts. FP had one knot that she just couldn't reach.

"Um, Finn. Could you pop my back? It's about halfway down."

She turned to face away from the hero.

"Sure."

Instead of helping her out however, the fire elemental suddenly felt the human's arms wrap around her neck, rather violently.

"Finn, what the heck?!"

He didn't answer. She tried to look behind her, but the hold he had her in was too strong. Her attention was suddenly drawn by a laugh, which echoed throughout the room. A few moments later, Gummy emerged from one of the corridors. He had a wicked smile upon his face.

"Heh, heh, you're starting to get it, right?"

The goblin stopped in front of the fallen form of Fourth Arc.

"I was never the king. He has already been removed. It was his loyal chief of staff, the one who 'interprets' his majesty's every command, that I snatched up. These fools, listening to such a crazy task as stacking metal in the center of the city."

Gummy's form flickered, before dissolving into static, replaced by the fur-coated Fourth Arc. Flame Princess's eyes widened as she realized the truth. The supposedly dead human had vanished, along with the sword, meaning…

"You're not Finn!"

The one holding her back snickered, tightening his grip on the fiery girl. Without warning however her anger spiked, causing her flames to increase and the illusion restraining her to panic.

"Oh man!"

He let go, trying desperately to put out his clothes. He never had the chance. Flame Princess produced her flame sword, slashing the imposter in half and instantly turning him to dust in the wind. FP swung around to face Fourth Arc, who was once again holding his head.

"Darn, not now."

He groaned, stumbling back a bit. Flame Princess didn't care, she charged, intent on dicing the human out of sheer rage. At, first, she kicked the man several feet back, landing him painfully on the floor. He managed to string up more illusions to surround him, but this only angered the fire elemental more.

"Finn can't be human! Humans are vile, deceitful, and heartless!"

Fourth Arc was only half paying attention, still holding his head. He looked close to passing out. His squad of imposters formed up around him, prepared to slow the fire elemental. She just growled.

"I'm going to hunt down and strike you all down on sight!"

Suddenly, the doors to the throne room burst open, garnering the attention of everyone inside. FP's blazing eyes briefly softened, but quickly regained their heat. There stood Finn, breathing heavily as if he were just running, with the head injury still wrapped up. His sword was tucked behind him. When the boy spotted the fiery girl, his expression was one of shock and concern.

"Flame Princess! Are you-"

The fire elemental had fire dashed over to him, immediately slashing him across the chest with her scorching blade. Her eyes were full of fury, murderous intent even. As Finn fell, he did not exhibit pain, only astonishment. His mouth hung open, his eyes unblinking. FP just glared at him. Once the human fell to the floor with a thud, Flame Princess gazed down upon the form, waiting for it to dissipate like the other.

It didn't.

She waited. And waited. Longer still. Nothing happened. The wound had gone deep, having singed a good portion of the skin and tearing open the shirt while its edges remained charred and shredded. The more Flame Princess stood there, the quicker her anger vanished. Finally, she had lost all drive altogether, staring down with a blank look upon the fallen human.

"That's not…one of…"

Fourth Arc was stuttering heavily, eyes as wide as FP's as she gazed upon what she thought was another sick attempt to trick her. Flame Princess's wish at that moment was mercifully granted, as fresh streams of lava rolled down her face. Her lips trembled, her eyes shuddered, her hands struggled to move.

"F-Finn…"

She fell to her knees, dragged to the floor by the weight of her action. Fourth Arc dissipated all of his illusions, then slowly got up and made his way to the two teens. His pace was fast, his expression; horrified. FP was so struck that she didn't register as the man knelt down and quickly pulled a small box from his belt. He frantically opened it up, pulling out a large strip that resembled a bandage.

Sure enough, he quickly placed it over Finn's wound, then ran his fingers in an intricate pattern along its surface. Strange lights were drawn at his touch, forming a complicated sequence that instantly activated the apparently high-tech adhesive.

A slight hissing was heard from beneath the bandage. A moment later, Finn let out a grasping breath, as if he were just shocked back to life. He coughed intently for a few seconds, wherein which Fourth Arc carefully stood up, still gazing with concern at the hero. He then looked to Flame Princess, who had completely ignored the treatment to the boy's chest and was still sobbing painfully.

The man turned away, hanging his head.

"I…I'm so sorry."

With that, he dashed away, down one of the dark corridors and out of sight. FP didn't notice his words, as far as anyone could tell. She finally reached forward, attempting to perhaps grasp Finn's form to comfort him. However, every time she tried, her hands retracted, as if her body refused to make contact with the human.

In the meantime, Finn had regained some of his consciousness, taking a brief look at the bandage Fourth Arc had left him before shifting his eyes to the fire elemental.

"Flame…Princess…"

The young ruler was still letting out tears in near bottle-fulls. Finn reached out a hand, trying to grasp hers. She pulled away.

"No…" she whispered.

The hero eyed her with confusion and concern.

"FP, you can't…you didn't know…you couldn't have."

He tried to reach once more, but this time the princess jumped up and took several steps back, shaking her head.

"No! Look at what I did! Look at what my anger did!"

Her shouting was painful to Finn's ears. Not because of the sound itself, but because of the pain he could sense in it.

"Flame Princess, no…stop."

The fiery girl backed away more as the human struggled to get up.

"You're not…what you're thinking. You're calm and controlled."

The more steps he took toward her, the further back FP went.

"It was always true. I'm a monster!"

Finn outright dashed forward, catching Flame Princess so off guard that she didn't have the reaction speed to avoid it. As the burning commenced, Finn whispered carefully into her ear.

"Don't you ever say that, or I swear, I'll cling to you until even my bones turn black. If I have to die to prove it to you, I won't hesitate to do so."

FP was about to protest, but was cut off as the human placed a finger over her mouth, which of course started turning red from the heat.

"You know what hurts a million times more than the feel of your fire? Not feeling it at all."

He hugged the girl tighter.

"Call me stupid, call me an idiot, I don't care which one you or anyone else chooses. I only care about what I know for a fact. And that is, you are a beautiful girl who can control a beautifully misunderstood force of nature."

His hold loosened, his arms fell, his body slumped down, caught before it reached the floor by the hands of Flame Princess. His eyes closed, and he was out, unconscious from the level of burning going around his body. His last act was to pull a large bottle from his pack, which he shakily held up as if beckoning FP to take it.

She took hold of it, instantly knowing it was cyclops tears. Flame Princess used her shaking hands to the best of her ability to uncork the bottle, but found it useless. She smashed the glass against Finn's chest instead, luckily not cutting him with any of the shards. As the magical tears soaked in, the human's condition gradually improved, although not entirely.

Silence had been prominent for the past minute, but was eventually broken as FP's tears began to slow and she opened her mouth to speak.

"You…human."

Why she said it, she did not know. But it was her last act before falling to the floor, utterly drained of all energy.

Drips from the surrounding sewers were all that was heard in the empty bowels of the royal dungeon. A single figure was quietly thinking, analyzing the situation and seeing if all was according to plan. However, before she could ponder much longer, she detected the wispy sound of fast traveling feet. Turning around, the woman saw a blur heading towards her.

"V? What are you doing here?"

The speeding object slowed, revealed to be the very girl mentioned. Instead of answering though, she simply looked up at Duo with concerned eyes. The form of a man lay across her hunched back, causing the woman to nearly gasp.

"Lay him on the table," she stated urgently.

V did as asked and placed Quad down on the elevated stone structure. Duo quickly pulled out a stethoscope and listened to the man's heart. Soon, she lowered the device and reached into one of her mysterious pockets, pulling out an orange bottle and kneeling to get closer to him.

"Quad? Quad? Wake up."

Duo shook him, receiving only a slight moan. She did it again, this time with more vigor.

"Quad! Wake up!"

The man finally stirred, first gasping, then darting his eyes all over the surroundings. He stopped when he met the woman's gaze."

"Duo. It…it happened again."

The woman scowled.

"Of course it did! You did not take them!"

She waved the bottle in front of his face, making it rattle. The bedridden man frowned, ashamed.

"I messed up. I'm sorry."

The female sighed with disappointment, shaking her head.

"You cannot afford to keep doing this. You need the medicine. Or would you prefer losing control more often?"

Quad instantly perked up, shaking his own head violently.

"No! Never! Today…I…I…I did, something."

Duo frowned as well.

"What happened?"

The man partially scrunched up his face, looking towards the ceiling while recalling the previous events.

"The fire girl; I hurt her, so badly."

Duo and V leaned in a bit.

"How?" the older female asked.

Quad felt a tear run down the side of his head.

"I broke her down, from the inside. And because of me, she almost killed that human boy."

The ladies gasped, shocked by the news.

"Quad…you…"

The man looked despairingly at Duo.

"I promise. I promise I'll remember to take them. I don't want to hurt anyone. That's not our goal."

Duo shook her head.

"That is right. It is not."

She handed the bottle to the man, who carefully accepted it and unscrewed the lid. After popping several orange pills into his mouth, he held the container tightly to his chest. Duo turned to V.

"Come. We must let him rest."

The two ladies left the man alone, allowing him to fall asleep soundly, still sniffling occasionally. Now out of range of being heard, V asked her burning question.

"What's wrong with him? I just thought he was insane."

Duo shook her head.

"No. It is much more awful than that. Quad suffers from a dual-personality disorder."

V's eyes widened.

"One day, he is an eccentric showman who enjoys harmlessly messing with people. The next, he's a psychotic manipulator who finds amusement in his foe's confusion and mental collapse."

Duo stared sadly over at the snoozing Quad.

"Even with all my research, I still have not found a cure."

She sighed.

"It seems our race was never able to make it past treatment, so many diseases went unstopped, only able to be delayed or weakened."

The woman turned to V.

"Go. Make sure those two are alive and well."

The younger girl nodded, quickly speeding out of the cavern and up the spiraling stone staircase. Duo returned to her friend's side, waiting for him to awaken.

V sped along the streets of the Candy Kingdom, moving fast enough so that no one noticed her blurred image. Not that candy people were too bright in the first place. Upon reaching the castle, she bounded through the corridors, careful to avoid crashing into any servants. Eventually, the girl made it to the hospital rooms, leaning against the door to hear if anyone was inside.

Absolute silence. V sighed with relief, slowly opening the door to peek inside. Immediately, she panicked and ducked back out. There was in fact someone inside, just standing there. A few seconds after moving back out, V swore she recognized them. She edged her way back in, being extra careful so as to not disturb the individual within.

Once the one in question was in full view, the girl controlled her gasp.

"Tres?"

The being slightly turned her head, not quite revealing her face.

"Duo sent you to check on them?"

The young girl dashed over to the other's side in a second.

"Yeah. Why are you here?"

The older girl, somewhere in her twenties by the looks of it, just kept looking at the bandaged and sleeping Finn and Flame Princess.

"I suppose I came to do the same."

V looked over the two beaten and exhausted teenagers.

"How did they get here anyway?"

Tres still wasn't taking her solemn eyes off of the pair.

"The vampire known as Marceline found them on the floor of the goblin throne room. She flew them both here as fast as possible. Luckily, Princess Bubblegum was able to treat their injuries with relative ease. However…"

V watched as her companion raised her hand, holding it over the two teens. Progressively, a strange aura enveloped the bedridden pair. As the seconds passed by, their wounds began to fade away, leaving perfectly good skin behind. The dried tear trails on FP's cheeks vanished as well. Soon, both of the Ooocians appeared in pristine health, not even a scratch or bruise on either of them.

As Tres lowered her arm, her companion shook her head.

"Your power doesn't make any sense."

V eyed her friend skeptically.

"Last time, it let you telekinetically knock over a tree, just so that a family of wolves could cross a river. On another occasion, it let you push aside a twenty ton boulder and save a trapped bear cub. And then, that time Hex stepped on an ant hill, it let you reverse time itself to repair it."

The eldest girl stepped forward, reaching into Finn's backpack and pulling out his tinfoil. She carefully tore off and wrapped the silver material around the hero's hand. Next, she gently placed both his and Flame Princess's hands on the nightstand separating their beds. Tres placed the fire elemental's in Finn's, then closed his fingers around the girl's. After stepping back, she took one last look at the two.

"Love and compassion don't have to make sense."

With that, Tres turned and walked toward the doors to the hall, reactivating her hologram disguise in the process. V just stared after her ally, pondering her words. Eventually, Fifth Arc sped out of the room, leaving the two young hearts to enjoy their rest, while their hands unconsciously increased their grip on each other.

A/N: Wow, such a nice amount of reviews. They definitely help. So yeah, every Tuesday and Friday will have an update. That seems pretty stable in my schedule.

OMAC001: Thanks. I was hoping they'd be interesting.

I am The7: I know, right? I'd hate to go through something like that.