-Light from Purgatory-
Tapping his foot with unwavering impatience, the ruler of the dead stared with anticipation at the group before him, awaiting a response.
"Seriously, you just gonna stand there forever? Come on, I've got places to be, things to do."
Finally, Jake stepped forward.
"Uh, what are you doing here, dude?"
Death groaned.
"You deaf, bro? There's an astral disagreement going on here with those things."
He pointed up, causing the group to follow his indication into the sky. They were stunned by what they saw. Six luminous orbs were gracefully floating in midair, gradually orbiting each other and giving off a peaceful aura. Jake frowned.
"What are they?"
Death held out his hand, beckoning the orbs to hover down in an orderly fashion and begin circling around his skeletal body.
"They're souls, ones that can't cross over. Now, explain to me why."
The Ooocians thought for a moment, then glanced over at Elodeus. The evil wizard was weakly glaring back at them, still not a threat to anyone at the present time. Jake pointed to him.
"Because of that guy."
The ruler of the dead hummed thoughtfully as he studied Elodeus, who looked back at him without fear.
"A petty deity of death? Ha! How insignificant."
Death growled.
"This guy's a major jerk. Why isn't he dead yet?"
Jake rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well, he's immortal."
At that sentence, the horse-headed being flinched.
"Dude! Don't use the 'I' word, it makes me feel sick."
The magical dog apologized, then redirected his attention to the floating souls, particularly the blue one.
"Hey, is that... Finn?"
Death held up a bony hand and grabbed the orb.
"Oh yeah. How about that. A shame really, he was a good kid."
This was rather upsetting to the group.
"You mean, you won't bring him back?" Marcy asked with sadness.
Death scoffed.
"Of course not. Memories and flowers are one thing, but I'm not handing over the soul of a distinguished hero and endangered species."
Peebles gave the skeleton a glare.
"You support extinction?!"
The deity suddenly waved his hand in front of him with a nervous expression.
"Wh-what? No! No! No way, I'm not like that. It's just... ok fine, but you don't get the little runt back for free."
They figured as much, considering the complexity of dealing with death.
"You've gotta give me something valuable enough to trade, so cough it up or you don't get the pip-squeak."
Everyone gloomily patted their pockets and looked around, hoping to find an item or such they could use as a bargaining chip. Jake's vision suddenly halted, stopping as he came up with a brilliant idea.
"I've got it!"
The others turned anxiously to the dog, gathering up near him.
"What is it, Jake?" FP asked with barely contained tension.
The yellow canine gestured over to Elodeus while grinning at Death.
"You can take him."
The wizard's eyes widened.
"What!? You can't do that!"
Death shrugged.
"Well, they did beat your buns to a pulp. If you weren't immortal you would've definitely died."
He looked to the gang.
"Alright, deal."
He rattled his head, which let out sounds as if there was something shaking around inside. A moment later, a demonic portal appeared out of nowhere, emitting a feeling of untold horrors from beyond. Elodeus' expression grew into fear, seeing as the rift was facing him directly. Dark and spike-studded tentacles emerged from the unholy tear in reality, closing in on the wizard, who began crawling backwards to try escaping the vile appendages.
"No! No! Aaahhh! Stay away! This isn't fair!"
He did his best to pick up the pace, but was unable to due to the extent of his injuries. One of the tentacles grabbed onto his leg, stopping any further attempts at running away. Elodeus dug his nails into the ground as he was helplessly drawn towards the portal.
"Noooo! Aaaaaaahhhh! Stop! Stop! Stop! It's not my time! I still have to kill this planet!"
He was effortlessly pulled in, able to do nothing but blast pointless sparks of his remaining power at the tentacle, which was unaffected.
"I am forever! I am fate! I am-"
One of the demonic appendages wrapped itself around his mouth, cancelling out his ravings. More tentacles constricted his body, wrapping him up entirely as he mumbled with absolute terror through his bindings. Eventually, the rift drew him in completely, then vanished with one last frightful scream from the evil entity.
Death sighed and shook his head.
"Drama queen. One less immortal in the world and one more pain lifted from my shoulders. Anyway..."
He faced the Ooocians, then tossed the blue orb at them. Flame Princess caught it and examined the luminous object. It glowed brighter by the second, causing the girl to lose sight of her hands and turn away from the intensity of the light. In her struggle, she stumbled back, caught only by Marcy.
Soon enough, the light began to subside, shrinking down to the size of a person and eventually taking the shape of one. All eyes were wide and in awe, watching the soul reanimate its physical shell. Finally, the brightness vanished entirely, leaving behind only the unconscious figure of a young human on the ground.
"Finn!" everyone shouted, quickly by the young hero's side.
FP gathered him up in her arms, giving his face a few slaps to wake the boy. Gradually, Finn's lids lifted themselves, revealing his ocean blue eyes to the world once more. He also let out a groan.
"Aw man..."
His sight wandered, darting around and trying to figure out where he was. He stopped at Flame Princess, grinning dizzily as he gazed dreamily at the fire elemental.
"Oh wow, this has got to be Glob World."
The fiery girl blushed a little, but quickly hid it by bringing the human into her arms, nearly squeezing the breath out of him. She sniffled as she spoke.
"Actually, you're right where you belong, you dummy."
Finn's smile didn't change much, figuring that it didn't matter either way. However, something was... off. He began smelling a fairly unpleasant aroma, and could swear he was losing feeling in his chest and back. Then, it hit him.
"Uh, I'm smoking!"
Flame Princess was snapped out of her joyful embrace and pulled away, examining Finn's singed form. The disappointment certainly killed some of the mood. Suddenly though, the remaining five orbs left Death's presence.
"Hey!" the skeleton shouted with irritation.
The five lights stopped in front of Finn and Flame Princess, then slowly morphed from formless spheres into humanoids. The Ooo gang watched in amazement, now staring back at phantasmal images of the other Arcs. The team of humans were smiling gently, appearing quite happy to say the least.
Finn asked FP to help him stand, at which point the young hero gazed solemnly at his former assembly.
"Guys, you made it!"
Dup shook her head slowly.
"Not exactly, Finn."
She briefly looked back at Death, who had his arms crossed and was tapping his foot again.
"Unlike you, we will be departing shortly."
The others were shocked by this.
"What? But, but, you're all here. Why can't you just bring yourselves back like Finn did?" Marcy asked desperately.
V chuckled a bit.
"Well actually, Finn was brought back by skull dork over there."
"Hey!"
"We can only stay as ghosts right now, but soon we'll have to go with him, down to the dead worlds."
Hex stepped up to Susan, who was looking at him with both sadness and conflict.
"Brother..."
The man smiled, holding his arm out and placing it where it would normally rest on the woman's shoulder, were he tangible.
"We came to say goodbye, Susie."
Susan bit her lip, trying hard not to let out any tears. Her sibling held his grin.
"Don't be sad, sis. After all, we did spend some time together. Sure it was fighting, but hey, we did that a lot as toddlers anyway."
He bellowed a laugh, causing Susan to do that same. Meanwhile, Quad was talking to Ice King, giving him pointers on attracting attention and working a crowd, likely related to the wizard's habit of kidnapping princesses and attempting to impress them. V was telling Marcy about how she used to play guitar, asking about certain chords and such.
Peebles was in deep discussion with Duo. The pair of scientists had fallen into a debate on afterlife mechanics and couldn't be stopped by any outside conversations. Flame Princess walked up to Tres, giving the girl a smile.
"Thank you," she said simply.
The human chuckled with a smile of her own.
"It was the least I could do."
FP then frowned.
"But..."
She reached out to Finn, who took her hand, but instantly grinded his teeth as his skin began to char. They pulled away, looking quite disappointed. Tres took a moment to think, then grinned and looked to her fellow Arcs.
"Everyone, I think there's one last thing we can do."
The phantasmal humans thought for a moment, then realized what their friend meant, nodding. The five of them slowly gathered around Finn, who stayed glued to the spot, curious. Tres began, holding out her palm to the young man. The rest followed the act, causing their circles to reappear on their chests.
These corresponded to those on the Ooocians, who watched with wonder as a heavenly aura drifted off of the Arcs and onto Finn. The effect lasted a good minute or so, before the soft light finally faded, leaving behind no noticeable difference. The hero gazed with confusion at his fellow people.
"So, what happened?"
Suddenly, the circles on the gang dissipated, as did those on the Arcs. As they did, Finn felt a strange sensation course through his body, as if his blood had been energized. Gradually however, the feeling ceased, leaving him as he was. He looked back at the Arcs, who were all smiling hopefully.
"It may have been Elodeus' power, but the skills they enhanced were ours to begin with. Seeing as we won't be needing them..."
Tres brought her hands together in front of her.
"We figured we'd augment yours."
Finn's eyes went wide as he took in the words. Slowly, he turned around, seeing Flame Princess still standing there, as if waiting for him to do something. With hesitation, the human reached up, aiming to grasp the fiery girl's glowing hand with his own. She did the same, spreading out her fingers to match Finn's. Under great tension, the two teens at last interlocked their digits, closing their fingers along the back of the other's hand.
They waited. Nothing happened.
FP's eyes were trembling as she shifted her gaze from the joining to the boy's face. He was returning the same expression. Then, ever so carefully, they leaned their heads forward, letting their mouths fall open and tilting their open lips. Closing their eyes, the pair allowed only their sense of touch to reveal that what the Arcs did had worked. Heat was felt not just from Flame princess's expanding fire, but deep within the teens' hearts.
Softly, they pulled away from one another, opening their gaze and staring at one another once more. There was no burn on Finn's lips, and his hand wasn't even turning red. The moment was interrupted when Tres coughed to get their attention.
"Just... don't go jumping in lava or something. You don't have near the endurance that was accessible as an Arc."
Finn nodded slowly, then let go of FP's hand and took a step forward, smiling at the line of humans.
"Thank you, so much, you guys."
The group all grinned back at him.
"You deserve it, Finn," Duo replied.
Nearby, Death was stamping his foot.
"Hurry it up people, I've got to be at the nursing home in five minutes."
The Arcs backed away, giving the Ooocians one final wave as their ghostly forms began to disappear. They waved back, sad that the humans had to depart, but also thankful for the experience that they had provided them. Once the last wisps of the Arcs had left the material world, Death let out a breath.
"Finally. You people are way too sentimental."
With that, the ruler of the dead turned and walked up a short flight of invisible stairs, before sitting down in a non-existent chair. He pressed down on the space in front of him, letting out a deep honk. Everyone waved as he drove the death bus into the distance, leaving behind only a trail of dust. All eyes simply stared after the bony deity, until something forced them to shield their eyes.
Sunlight.
Gazing in awe, the group watched as the dark overcast was punched through by the golden rays of the sun, bathing the planet in its warmth once more. Elodeus' shroud slowly deteriorated, revealing a glorious sunset on the horizon. Such a beautiful scene it was, that no one bothered to take their eyes off of it. Well, except Marcy, who put on her sunhat and turned away. Still, even she was glad to have the star's light again.
Eventually, Jake's ears began to twitch, signalling that he'd heard something in the distance. Scanning the skies, his eyes grew huge as Lady Rainicorn's flying figure emerged into view.
"Lady!"
The magical dog ran for his girl, stretching out his noodle-like arms so that she could be in his embrace that much faster. The two collided quite harshly, but ignored it and just commenced making out. Finn, with what little Korean he knew, heard lady both saying how worried she was and how angry she was with the yellow dog for going off on such a dangerous trip. He couldn't help but laugh.
This was interrupted as Flame Princess threw herself into him, briefly knocking him off balance but eventually regaining his footing and hugging her back. The fire elemental looked up at him, showing off those amber eyes he admired so dearly. His smile just couldn't help growing bigger as he brought her as close as possible. Fittingly, he could feel the girl's heartbeat. However, something about it seemed off. It was tense, as if she were expecting something to happen.
It took a minute, but Finn figured out what that was.
"FP, I..."
He held her tighter.
"I love you."
Flame Princess's lips curved into a thankful grin.
"I love you too, Finn."
She motioned for him to let her back away a bit but still stay in his arms.
"Thanks for finally saying it. Well, to my face anyway."
The hero laughed, causing her to do so as well. The rest looked upon the couple, enjoying their amusing conversation.
Having recovered from their injuries, Goliad and Stormo had offered their services to help clean up the grasslands, as well as fix the gumball guardians, who definitely added some much needed extra muscle. The gang said they would help too, but had to get some much needed rest first. No one blamed them, waving goodbye as Jake's fifty foot form stomped towards the tree fort to drop off himself and his brother.
Along the way however, Finn asked for himself to be dropped off by the cliffside river. FP joined him. The the two bid their companions adieu and turned to face the pile of ashes serving as a memorial to the fire elemental's old home. The young hero walked up to the edge, instantly noticing the silver flower imbedded in the black powder.
"What's that doing here?" he asked the young ruler.
FP got down on her knees, inclining Finn to do the same.
"Aaros planted it here. I'm not really sure why."
Absentmindedly, the two reached forward to gently rub the delicate plant. however, as soon as they both came into contact with it, its petals began to glow. They retracted their hands in a hurry, worried as to what was happening. The flower began expanding, forcing the teens to get to their feet and back away, stunned by the unnatural activity. The flower kept it up, growing to the size of an adult tree.
Eventually, the growth ceased, revealing a quite different structure altogether. before Finn and Flame Princess now stood a strong and stunning cherry blossom tree, complete with pink petals that gleamed with a hint of silver. The trunk itself was a dark amber, mixed in with its own dash of silver as well. A gentle wind was blowing, pulling handfuls of the blossoms off their branch and having them spin around the couple as if they were dancing.
FP took hold of Finn's hand, not taking her eyes off the gorgeous display.
"This... this is our very own true light."
She turned her head to face the boy, who had done the same. They shared another smile, before the hero led his princess into the ash pile, setting himself down on the powdery substance and leaning his back on the tree. FP curled up next to him, leaning into his chest while his arm stretched around her shoulders.
There they remained for a good amount of time, their love on display for all of Ooo to see.
A/N: Bad news is, I missed Tuesday's usual update. Good news is, since next is the last chapter you won't have to worry about that anymore. Also, I will be dropping a bombshell on you guys.
DJ Rodriguez: Hope the surprise was worth it.
Fiery Crusader: Haha, an artillery plane, that would've been crazy.
TheMentalAdventurer: THAT HAPPENS!
I am The7: Eh, I'd bet they'd get bored eventually.