Disclaimer: I don't own AT, if I did something like would have happened in the series.

Chapter 12: Lending a Hand

Finn POV

They were gone. Their wasn't even a single Goo Monster here or some new mysterious hero or what not to claim it was he or she who caused them to disappear. Just what was going on here?

"I don't understand. They could have killed us, so why did they leave all of a sudden? Can someone please give me an idea of just what this all about?"

No one answered me. All I got was a bunch of confused expressions that told me everyone else was just as clueless as I was about this. At that I needed to go for a walk to clear my head of everything that had just happened. I left Simon in charge while I went out to gather my thoughts. As I was walking in the nearby forest I kept going back to thinking about what I was thinking of in what I thought was to be my last moments. No matter how many times I tried to deny them or bury them, I couldn't get rid of my feelings for Flame Princess. My thought to be last thoughts were of my dreams of about her. I always imagined that she and I were to be together forever. I always dreamed that we would get married and have little adventurous kids. Heck I always imagined my wedding with her would be one of the most funniest and craziest moments of my life. But they were dreams for a reason, they would never come true.

"Gahh, why can't I just get a break for once in my life?" I said while punching a nearby tree. "Why are things always so dam complicated? Was I spared from death just so I could live an everlasting torment of messed up feelings?"

Simon POV

Why The Goo Monsters had chosen to let us live was even beyond my comprehension. Nor had they ever possessed such abilities and intelligence as they do now. Back when I was first fighting them years ago with little Marceline, they would never have done such things as this. Either someone was controlling them or they had evolved to being much more dangerous than they had originally been.

It was then I heard the tower guard call out that Finn had returned. At first I was glad to hear he was back, until I saw that the walk had not only been useless, it just made him come back even angrier. Whatever he had been thinking about did not calm him down as I thought it would.

"Simon I need to talk with you," he said as he spotted me. Quickly I ran over to see what he wanted to talk about.

"What is it you want to talk about Finn?"

"I want you to help set up more barricades, towers, traps, whatever we can in order to have a better defense for when they return. I can only guess that they decided to spare us because they are enjoying toying with us if they can even feel such things. We must be better prepared for their next attack."

While I thought those were indeed good decisions, I was hoping he would say that we need help from the other Kingdoms to defend ourselves. I decided to bring up the topic then. "Finn can you also consider asking the other Kingdoms for help? We really can't keep doing this alone."

That got me an angry glare from him. "I would sooner enslave the whole Nightosphere and force them to help us rather than ask any of them to lend us a hand. Knowing them, they won't be doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, but rather to see what they can gain from helping us. No Simon, we will not be forced to go and beg to them for aid. We can handle ourselves like we have always been. Never speak of such a thing again."

Inwardly sighing, I could only say yes. There had to be a way to make Finn accept the aid of another Kingdom. I decided to retreat to my room and talk to Betty about all this and see what she had to say.

Betty POV

When I heard the door open and saw Simon enter I was so happy to see him. "Simon it's great that you have finally returned. How did things go after the recent attack with Finn? I'm sure he was pretty upset about what's been going on."

"It was horrible Betty. He won't consider going to the other Kingdoms for aid. He says he won't be made to go and beg to them for help. He won't see that unless we get help, we won't have any chance of surviving this."

"I see," I said while pondering the situation, but then I got an idea. "That doesn't mean that you can't make the decision for him right?"

"What do you mean Betty?"

"I mean, why don't you ask the other Kingdoms for aid in a way that would make it look like it was their choice to come and help. I would start with the one that he is most likely to be the least hostile to of course."

"And what Kingdom would that be Betty."

"Why the Fire Kingdom of course you dumdum."

At that he looked at me as if I had gone crazy. "The Fire Kingdom, are you serious? Don't you now that is the Kingdom of Finns ex-lover Flame Princess."

"I do, and that's exactly why he would be most accepting of that Kingdoms aid than any other."

"Don't you mean the one he would be the most unaccepting to besides the Candy Kingdom."

"Use your heart a little Simon, rather than just your head. You know that he still has feelings for her right. Despite all the things and what that he says about her, you should know that he couldn't really turn down her. He still loves her too much to do that."

"I understand Betty; I will get to it right away."

"Glad I could help you my beloved husband." At that he left while trying to hide a blush.

Back to Simon

What Betty said was true. Finn would accept Flame Princesses aid above anyone else. It was just another matter of her being able to keep a secret. For what I have planned to work, I need her to keep what I have written in this letter for her a secret. It could only work if she was willing to see that this was a time where secrets helped people, rather than hurt them. Glob help us if this fails.

Flame Princess POV

Yet again another day tending to my peoples complaints while I had Finn on my mind. Our last encounter at the wedding didn't go too well sadly enough. He left before I could tell him that things weren't as he thought they were. I wasn't going out with Cinnamon Bun as he seems to think. And now I doubt I'll ever get another chance to speak with him and try to clear some of the awkwardness between us.

"I might just have to go over there and tie him to a chair so that he can't run away from me anymore when I'm trying to talk to him," I thought. "I just want him to understand that I'm sorry for everything that happened between us."

"Flame Princess," yelled Cinnamon Bun. "I have a letter to you from Finn's Kingdom."

That got my attention immediately. Quickly grabbed it to see what it said.

Flame Princess it's me Simon. I need you to promise that you will keep what is written on this letter a secret. Nobody, especially Finn, can know about this.

The fact that it wasn't from Finn was bad enough, but that I had to keep what was written here a secret made it even worse. Better to see what this is all about before I decided what to do.

Recently our Kingdom has come under attack from creatures known as Goo Monsters. They are like zombies in that anyone they bite will become one of them. They even original behaved like them until recently. Now they have become horrifyingly intelligent.

Hearing that Finn was in danger was more than enough to make me want to go over there and help him. I couldn't imagine what I would go through if I lost him again. I needed to know more so I continued reading.

We need your help to defend our Kingdom. Yet sadly Finn doesn't want you or anyone else's help in defending his Kingdom. He thinks all of you would only help him in order to get something out of it.

Hearing that Finn thought that about even me hurt. I didn't want him thinking that I would only help him out of selfishness. He needed to know that I wouldn't do anything like that to him anymore. He needed to know how sorry I was for not considering his feelings about asking him for help so soon after our break up.

If you are willing to help us, then you will most likely need to do certain things that you aren't comfortable with like lying. Most likely Finn will ask you what you are doing here and how you obtained this information. You need to lie about ever having received this letter so that Finn doesn't think that you are here because someone convinced you to help us. He needs to think that you found out about all of this on your own. He needs to think that you aren't here to try and gain something out of it. Please understand that this isn't a situation where lies are being told for selfish reasons and secrets are being kept to hide some dirty secret. This is to help people and save lives for Globs sake. If you don't want to help us then at least destroy this letter and don't tell anybody about it. Please think this entire thing over.

I didn't need any convincing or to think things over for this. I immediately knew that I was going to help Finn. Even if I didn't get the chance to explain things to him, I still wanted to help him so that he would be alright. I didn't want him to die. I will help him even if he never speaks to me again afterwards.

"Cinnamon Bun," I yelled.

"Yes," he answered.

"I need you to prepare for a visit to Finns Kingdom."

"Right away Flame Princess."

As he ran off, I knew that things were going to be very difficult in convincing Finn to accept my help. I just hope that he could look past his past experiences and see that this time things were going to be different.

Another one for you all. This will lead to some nice confrontations again. Tell me how you would like this to play out and what you thought of this chapter like always. See you all next chapter.