All of the shadow creatures went completely still, stopping dead in their tracks. Even the birds fell to the ground from lack of movement. What the lump was happening?

Simultaneously, we all turned to face the portal. There was no time to get into position now. No time for a plan. We were tired and bloodied and bruised, and the Lich hadn't even come out yet. Finn limped over to me and laid a heavy hand on my shoulder, leaning on me slightly.

"Fionna, are you ready for this?" he asked, his eyes glued to the portal.

"No," I answered honestly, gliding my sword blade along my jeans to clean it off. I, nor anyone else, was in any way prepared for this. We weren't expecting an army of shadow minions to invade first. We really didn't know what to expect. It's been 8 years since anyone has seen or heard from the Lich, and 8 years was more than enough time to soften up.

"Me either," he said, shooting me a side-long grin.

"He's coming out!" Marshall shouted from the sky. He was right. At the edges of the portal, five massive, boney fingers reached out of either side of the portal, gripping the edges. Slowly, the points of the horns on his crown emerged, each horn looking to be the size of one of us. We all watched, dazed and terrified, as piece by piece the Lich emerged into our world. The mist grew so thick and dense that it was hard to breathe, and the stench of his rotting flesh overwhelmed my senses. It was enough to break me of my horrified trance.

"Gumball! Bubblegum! Now! Aim for the eyes!" I shouted behind me, darting to the other side of the portal. We couldn't attack the way we wanted to, but we could at least try.

I heard 5 simultaneous explosions to the left of me as I ran to the back of the portal. I turned, just for a moment, to see what was happening. Nothing. Not a single shot hit him. The explosions went off right in front of his glowing, skeletal eyes, but they didn't even leave a scratch. He lumbered his massive body through the portal, his whole head fully out, his shoulders and legs and torso following close behind. I knew he wasn't always this big. It had to have been some kind of magic. He was Billy's size 8 years ago, but now… now he could barely fit through the massive portal.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my whole plan thrown off balance. I needed time to think, but I didn't have it. No one was in any position to attack or defend. Marshall was hanging in the air, one arm wrapped around his damaged torso. Gumball was running out of bombs, but more importantly, he had never been in a battle like this before. He didn't know how to handle pain, and it was starting to get to him. He was sweating heavily in the cold snow, the blood on his arm thickening in the cold air. Bubblegum and Marcy nursed their wounds, just for a few moments, trying to get their bearings and hold an attack position. Cake wobbled as she stood, but Jake came to help her up, and together, they faced the Lich like they were the very last line of defense. And Finn… Finn never faltered. He had a fire in him that could torch any evil and bring confidence to any ally. He stood strong, with both swords in his hands, ready to attack.

I sheathed my sword quietly behind my back, hoping the Lich wouldn't hear me and would be too focused on them. They had no strength left to be fighting as distractions, so I had to make this quick. I pulled the Grimoire Dagger from my belt, gripping its charged and hardened hilt tightly in my hand.

The moment the blade of the dagger hit the darkness swarming in the air, he turned his massive head towards me, his eyes piercing into my soul.

"Fiooonnaaa, where did you get something like that? It doesn't belong to you," he chanted, his voice low and threatening, but still sing-song, patronizing. His jaws never moved, but still his voice echoed in my head.

"It doesn't matter where I got it! All that matters is what I'm going to do with it!" I screamed, sprinting right at him, ready to lunge onto him.

I was hit with a massive force in my side. It was so fast and so hard that it knocked the wind right out of me. I choked and struggled to breathe, and as my breath came back, I suddenly came to the realization of what had happened. His rotted, skeletal hand had swooped me up from the ground, clenching tightly around my body, and holding me in front of his terrifying face.

"Such a wretch that child was. A first and last creation, and so weak. She served her purpose well, but I see she's betrayed me. Stupid child." He squeezed around me tighter as I struggled. I could hear the cries of my friends as they tried to come after me, but it was no use. No one could touch him. "It is of no matter, now. Not even you can touch me, Daughter of Billy. That dagger should never have been entrusted to such a weak soul like yours if anyone ever expected to defeat me." His cackling laughter rang out in my head, loud and consuming, to the point where I could hardly think.

I may have been weak. I may have been exhausted. I may have been hurt, and bleeding, and sore, and tired, but I would not let him win. He had far too much to answer for. I reached my arms up, arching them behind me to pull out my sword again. Just as my fingers touched it, everything changed.

Everything.

I wasn't in the Lich's hand anymore. I wasn't in the black wheat field, or in the snow, or near my friends. I was in a house. It was warm, and cozy, and there was this wonderful smell of rabbit stew on the stove. And that sound… what was that? Humming? I walked slowly, carefully, through the small house, following the sound of the humming. It was beautiful, and mystifying, and… familiar.

The humming was coming from a room in the back. I peeked my head through the doorway to see where it was coming from and who was doing it, and what I saw shocked me. There, in a rocking chair, was a beautiful woman, a beautiful human woman, with blonde hair and blue eyes and cream colored skin. And in her arms was a baby, with blonde hair and blue eyes just like hers, and as she rocked and hummed to the baby, the baby just smiled up at her.

She was my mother. And the baby… that was me.

Tears welled in my eyes and quickly flooded my cheeks as I took a step through the door. "Mom?" I asked, reaching a hand out to her. She didn't respond, but maybe she didn't hear me. "Mom! It's me, Fionna! I'm all grown up and—" I reached for her, and my arm went right through her shoulder. I was invisible, like a ghost, or a visitor from the outside looking in. She couldn't hear me or see me. She just hummed and rocked the baby in her arms.

The front door slammed hard, and the beautiful woman's face twisted into confusion and fear. "Billy? Billy, is that you?"

"Katherine…" a deep, familiar voice growled. The footsteps grew heavier and the air grew thick with terror. What the—

Billy burst through the door, his body and face looking young and radiant, but his eyes looking piercing with bloodlust. No, this couldn't be Billy. Billy would never have that look…

"Billy, what's wrong?" Katherine asked, standing straight up and holding the baby close to her. He didn't answer her. He stomped right through me, shaking the walls, and grabbed her by the throat. Her eyes were overflowing with tears as she gasped and screamed for mercy. He just clutched her tighter, lifting her into the air by her neck. The fear in her eyes! The terror! I tried to jump on him, to pull him off of her, but it was no use. All I could do was watch.

She held onto that baby with every ounce of strength she had, kicking her feet beneath her desperately for some leverage. I heard the bones and cartilage in her throat begin to snap as her airway collapsed. She was dying—no, she was being killed—right in front of me. I was watching my own mothers death.

I screamed and begged him to stop, to let her go, but nothing worked. He couldn't hear me, or see me, or feel me. This wasn't right. This wasn't right! Billy would never do this! The Lich did this! Right? Right?!

This was so wrong!

I fell to my knees and sobbed, still pleading for him to let her go. Just as her arms gave out under the baby, Billy reached over and grabbed the child by the blanket it was wrapped in. He dropped the lifeless woman onto the floor and held the baby up to his face. As the baby cried and screamed, he sneered at it. "Pitiful," he said, tossing it into the crib.

Something pulsed in my hand, but I was too absorbed in the tragedy unfolding in front of me. It pulsed again, harder, and this time, I looked down. Was that… was that a dagger? I don't remember a dagger—

This isn't real, Fionna!

What… was that?

This isn't real! See with the eye!

Who was that voice talking to me? What eye? I looked down at the dark, exotic dagger, confused and feeling tortured. The longer I stared at it, the more familiar it became. I knew this dagger, but from where?

Just then, an eye-shaped, red hole appeared in the mystical dagger. It seemed to be looking right at me, but bidding me to look through it at the same time.

Yes! That's right! Look through the eye!

I held the dagger up to my tear streaked face, closing one eye and using the other one to look through. Instantly, everything changed.

My mother, though dead, did not look anything close to being a simple house wife. She wore leather armor and had a sword, bloodied and covered in debris, gripped in one hand. Her throat was still crushed, but her lip and eye were swollen and there was blood trickling from her lip. She was no helpless woman. She was a warrior. We weren't in a house, either. We were in a castle, one I had never seen before. Was this where Billy and Katherine lived before… before this?

The dagger drew my eye to the man who crushed my mother's throat. With the eye of the dagger guiding me, I could see right past the illusion. It wasn't Billy, not at all. It was the Lich, just as The Seeress said. His blood had stained my mother's blade and, as he weakly tossed me into a crib, I could see his life force draining. He may have been strong, but my mother was enough to seriously wound him. He gripped his bleeding stomach with one arm and set a fire in the palm of his other hand. With the last of his strength, he lit the sheets of the bed on fire.

"Clever girl, seeing right past my pretty pictures that I made just for you. Did you enjoy them? What was it like seeing your mother for the first time? Tell me… what was it like… watching her die?" His sultry, patronizing voice rang through my head as the scene around me twisted and whirled, to the point where nothing was solid anymore.

I knew where I really was. I knew I still had the dagger in my hand, and my body was still wrapped up in his decrepit fingers. I screamed out my frustration, held the dagger above my head, and plunged it down into the area right in front of me.

My reality snapped back to where it should have been; in the battlefield, in front of the Lich. He screamed out in agony and released my body, so that I was only hanging there by the hilt of the dagger. I saw his other hand coming for me, so quickly I put all my weight onto the dagger, sliding it down his rotting flesh like butter. I managed to tear a hole in his arm going from his hand to his elbow. There was no blood, no muscle in that gash. Steam just crept out of it, and all I saw was black mist hovering inside his arm. Just like the monsters around the old-world relics.

Except this time, the mist didn't heal him.

I felt excited, recharged. I could do this! The dagger actually worked! He couldn't heal, or regenerate, or even patch himself up when he was cut like this. I used all my strength to climb up onto his elbow, his arm still extended as he tried to sooth the pain of the dagger.

"You will pay for this, human girl!" he roared. His good hand came flying at me, so with as much speed as I could muster, I pierced the dagger into his arm again and hung down from it, using his flesh to shield me. As his massive fingers came around, trying to catch me, his nail took a chunk out of my arm. I screamed in pain and let go of the dagger, hanging by one hand, the other one feeling numb with the blood I was losing. I could still move my arm and fingers, but the pain was nearly unbearable, and the numbness was quickly spreading across my skin. I bit my tongue hard and threw my arm back up to the dagger, forcing myself to pull me up again. This time, before he could move his hand away, I stabbed him right in the center of it, causing him to roar out in pain and tear his hand back.

He did just what I needed. As he pulled his hand up to his face, I tore the dagger out of his skin, and, with a running start, leaped off of his finger, and hurdled towards his chest.

So close! I was so close to ending it all! Just a little more—

THWACK!

Once more, I was hit with a blinding force. I felt ribs crack and skin break, and then I felt the cold, icy air fly past me. No… no! No! I was right there! Right there! How could he have possibly—

I was caught, mid-air, by a set of familiar arms. As I looked up, I saw Marshall's bruised, worried face looking down at me. He held me in the air, hooking his arms under mine, both of us biting back the pain.

"Fionna! Are you alright?!" he cried, changing our direction.

I gulped hard and nodded. "I—I think so. I need to get back over to him! The dagger, if I can get it into his heart—"

Marshall faltered, dropping our altitude slightly. He couldn't hold me much longer, and I wouldn't be able to reach the Lich's heart just by being dropped onto him. I had another plan.

"Marshall! Throw me to Marcy!" I yelled, hoping she could hear me. He gritted his teeth and gathered his strength, and before I knew it, I was hurdling through the air again. Marceline caught me under the arms, turning us away from the Lich and towards Bubblegum. Perfect. "Marcy, I'm going to need you to drop me when I give the signal, okay?"

"Whatever you say, Fi!" she called down to me, focusing on her flying. A loud whistling shot through the air, and Marcy jerked hard to the right. A giant ball of green, fiery energy flew right past us, almost skinning our legs and sides. The Lich was firing at us.

"Bubblegum! I need you to aim for his heart!" I screamed down to her, reaching behind me for my crystal sword. She looked right at me, her face set with determination, and aimed her cannon straight to his heart. "Ready Marcy… and… now!" I yelled, looking straight down. She dropped me instantly, and I was falling fast. "Fire!" I screamed as I fell, being at least 5 stories in the air.

I tucked my sword under my feet, crouching on it like a surf board and hoping to glob that this worked. I closed my eyes tight, bracing myself for either the ground, the blast, or the success of my plan.

It hit. Just where I wanted it to. The blast from her cannon hit my sword under my feet, and in no time I was flying through the air, the energy shot leading me straight for his heart. He had his hands in the air above his head, collecting so much power that the earth started to rip and tear beneath him. I poised the dagger right in front of me, letting go of the sword and using both hands to position it.

I needed to reach him before he let go of that power. I needed to hit him before he hit us.

Not even a full second had passed, but it felt like an eternity. The blast hit his barrier, stopping there, but had enough strength and velocity to shoot me right through his protection. I pushed off my sword as hard as I could, the only thing keeping me in the air now being sheer will and physics.

Dagger poised.

Body ready.

Mind focused.

The power in his hands began to overflow. In the final moment, he raised the ball of force, getting ready to throw it.

3…

2…

1…

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