*Checks pockets* Nope! Still poor and own nothing! Enjoy!

Seven-Fire and Light

A soft hiss escaped Finn's mouth as he returned to the world of the living, when he opened his tired eyes he realized he was in a very odd situation. For starters he was now in this crazy looking laboratory-it reminded him of Princess Bubblegum's-next he noticed he was now strapped to a large metal- and highly uncomfortable- slab via manacles.

He could see his backpack, sword and spelled pendant sitting on a worktable not too far away. The third and final thing he noticed was the most bizarre and it took him a while to fully register it. Not too far away he could see the jerk who had crashed into FP's home arguing with said princess herself, that in turn wasn't too crazy but the thing that really caught Finn's attention was that FP was currently arguing from the clear stomach of some giant snake beast thing made of glass and gold.

If he could have Finn would have rubbed his eyes, as he continued to stare his ears decided it was time to work and he could finally hear what it was they were fighting about.

"For the last time I have no interest in you or in taking over the world! I love my boyfriend and my boyfriend is FINN THE HUMAN!"

As she yelled, Flame Princess' body flared up, but this didn't seem to faze the beast she was inside one bit.

"I don't care what my father promised you, I'm not under his power and can make my own decisions. And I choose not to marry you! Now release me before I really start to get angry." She fumed.

"Why will you not drop the act my lovely?! My dear Ignacia; you are safe here with me, as I have already explained. You no longer need to cling to that pathetic fool for protection against your father."

Was he using Flame Princess' real name?

'Uh-oh' thought Finn as he cringed; FP had a sore spot about her name. She didn't even like it when Finn said it when they were alone together, something about it not feeling right or whatever. And as he expected, she blew up.

"Don't you dare call me by that name! And I don't need the likes of you protecting me; I can handle my father all on my own! Now release me!"

She had practically filled up the belly of the beast she was trapped in with her flames, but it didn't seem to mind at all, it didn't even shift a little.

Jarlath gave a great sigh of exasperation, "My dear, you know I have to take you to your father soon so we don't have a lot of time, and you being quite adamant about your acting so until you settle down I'm afraid I can't release you."

"Hey dingus, has it occurred to you that she might not be faking? Or that she really doesn't like you?!"

Both turned in surprise to Finn who had had enough of this argument. The older man growled at Finn, "You stay out of this hero boy! Unless you want me to give you another bump on the head?"

This didn't faze the hero a bit, "Go ahead and try!" He yelled as he strained against the manacles, despite his bravado Finn kind of wished he had Jake or Beth with him right now for back up. Having "adventure time" solo had its downsides.

The alchemist sneered and then turned back to FP, "This guy can't be serious; he actually thinks you like him!"

The girl growled in frustration, "That's because I do! Listen you idiot I don't know where you got the idea that I like you, I mean you and I never even had a nice conversation! Any and every time we talked I couldn't wait for you to leave! You are the creepiest, dullest guy I have ever had the misfortune to meet. And if I were ever to become ruler of the Fire Kingdom the man I would have be my king would be Finn! Because he is mine! Not you, him!

Also. what makes you think my father would honor his promise anyway?! He is Evil! He probably only offered you me so that when the time came he could use you to help him to control me in taking over Ooo!"

She paused a moment, realization flitted across her face…

"My father IS Evil", she thought. It was all so clear.

Finn stared, his mouth hung a little open. He had kind of ignored the first time FP had said she loved him but…the whole make him her king thing. His mouth went a little dry; he could feel his heart hammering in his chest in actual elation.

Was he blushing?

Yup, he was blushing.

'Okay Finn focus!' Finn mentally slapped himself to get back in the game; it seemed Flame Princess' words had finally gotten to the man. For he stood still, his face turned towards her, a deep frown set in his face.

"Say it again." He demanded, "Say who you would make your king again, but choose your words wisely my dear firebird. The wrong ones could have dire consequences…"

He trailed off, a sick look on his face. As he spoke he had made his way over to the work table with Finn's belongings on it. He had grabbed a Bunsen burner and turned it on; then he had pulled a long serrated blade from somewhere on his person and put the blade to flame.

The princess of fire and heat narrowed her eyes, "What do you plan to do with that?" She asked, her voice sounded dark.

"That all depends on what you tell me." Came his equally dark reply, "Now answer me! Who would you really rather have?! This damn, perfect little hero boy? Or me, the man that could help you takeover this land?! With me you could set flame to the very earth and rocks this land is made of! Now choose!"

With back straight and head held high the princess of the Fire Kingdom declared in a loud and steady voice, "I would choose Finn the Human as my King, and you I would sentence to death by flame for you are nothing but an evil wizard who made a deal with an evil king and I don't like evil things."

She sounded like and looked like a true queen then, Finn felt his heart thump in his chest even more rapidly.

Jarlath gave a large snarl, "So sayeth the princess!"

He bellowed as he took the red hot knife off of the fire and practically flew towards Finn, in one swift and breathless moment he grabbed Finn's right arm in his free hand and the other he used to plunge the knife deep into the juncture of where arm and shoulder met. He did not stop until the entire arm was cut off.

It was not a short time.

Finn screeched in pain and writhed, trying to get away but he could not. The pain was excruciating, he knew pain was just the universe giving you some love but this was too much love for his liking.

Flame Princess screamed as she saw this happening and immediately set herself aflame, she grew hotter and hotter but it was still doing nothing to the beast that held her. She looked over and saw Jarlath unshackle the now dismembered limb and actually wave it around as he walked across the room. His wicked laughter filled the space as he threw the now whimpering hero's arm into a roaring furnace which had been set up in the corner of the room, destroying any chance of reattaching it.

She got even hotter; she looked like nothing but a large flower of enraged hot flames now.

His face a mask of hard ugly delight Jarlath walked over to Finn once again and holding the still hot weapon over the poor guy's left leg he turned toward the whirl-wind of fire and rage, totally ignoring how his snake creature was now actually showing signs of distress, "Now tell me, who would you rather have be king?"

His threat was clear as day.

That was the final straw, with a final furious burst Flame Princess shot herself out of the magical creature's infernal intestines and shot herself at the alchemist. The man laughed as he was slammed into the wall, his rock-like skin turning pitch black and starting to come off. But he did not care, for he finally had his princess's attention, he continued to laugh as a fiery hand found his throat; Flame Princess formed herself into a goddess of fire and fury and light.

Her skin blazed with white fire and her hair and dress were crackling blue flames.

"Now Burn." She boomed at him as she burned his flesh away; but he did not scream. He simply laughed, long and loud until there was nothing left for him to laugh with. But she kept burning, she burned until even his grinning skull was nothing but a pile of ash, and then she set fire to the whole lab, blue and white flames licked up everything except for the tiny area where Finn and that work table of his stuff resided.

All who saw it marveled at the precision and uniformity of the inferno, and almost all feared it. Finn woozily looked up and marveled at the colors and destruction with no fear in his heart. He watched as Flame Princess began to calm down and her flames cooled to their standard red and orange, everything was destroyed.

He watched as FP slowly made her way over and grabbed the fire shield pendant from his stuff, she then slipped the item over his neck. It was only when it was assured he was fire proof that she burned his restraints and cuddled him on the floor where they fell in a heap. Small trails of fiery tears fell down her face as she cried, "Finn I'm so sorry! I can't believe this happened."

"It's okay FP…I love you too."

She looked up into his face and for a moment just took in his weakly smiling face and the small tears of pain that fell from his eyes. It always amazed her how much pain Finn could take…and this time he took quite a bit just for her. Without a moment's worth of hesitation Flame Princess brought her face to Finn's and kissed him. At first the hero was shocked still by the contact but quickly put as much fervor as he could manage into the smooch.

Both pulled apart when a voice rang out, "OOOOOHHH BOY, Look who is finally enjoying tier two!"

"Jake?!" The dog smiled at the mention of his name, beside him stood Marceline and… Huntress Wizard? It seemed his friends had had their own adventures during his and FP's little drama.

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Cold. It was so cold. She opened her eyes and saw that she was practically hip deep in snow, wind blew all around her. She was surrounded by bleak, blue and white landscape; any and all details were obscured by the frost bitten winds and snow. She saw that there was a long trail of her movements behind her, reaching far out past the field of her vision.

She shivered, where was she? As a matter of fact, where was she going? How long had she been here?

It felt like an Age.

Crazed maniacal laughter could be heard in the distance but she couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. She turned and saw….a man? He looked young and wore what looked like a tattered tweed suit. He was trying to make his miserable way through the snow and hadn't noticed her. She tried to call out to him and at first her voice was swallowed by the winds, but she kept trying and slowly made her way forward. She managed to get his attention and he turned toward her; he lifted a hand and called out, "Wenk!"

'Wenk?'

Beth opened her eyes and stared into a pair of large soulless eyes, the creature of evil backed up and she saw it was a little black and white bird.

"A penguin?" Her voice sounded so hoarse.

"Wenk!"

The thing waved its arms and she realized it was standing on top of her-which really hurt. She pushed the thing off and looked around herself, and saw nothing but curtains. Pale peach colored hospital curtains to be exact. The penguin dusted itself off from where it had landed on the multi-checkered floor and after giving Beth a sour look-which she returned- it waddled off, going under the curtains as it did so Beth couldn't catch a glimpse of what was around her.

She tried to sit up but quickly gave up when she experienced quite a bit of pain, she looked down at herself and saw the clothes on her upper body were gone; they were instead piled in a chair next to the bed. In their place she saw that she was bandaged from collarbone to mid-belly in thick gauze. Looking underneath the blanket that rested at her hips she saw that she only had on the tight black shorts she liked to wear under her pants in case something happened to them so she could still be decent. Lifting a hand to her slightly achy head and she found bandages there as well.

After another moment she realized there was an IV in her hand, she looked over to her side and saw that it was connected to an empty plastic bag hanging from a …candy cane stand? Well, that explained the super sweet smell coming from everything-she was back in the Candy Kingdom.

After staring at her IV for a while she realized the symbols on the label meant the bag was supposed to have painkiller.

'That explains why it hurts to be alive right now.' She thought.

She had run out of boo-boo medicine.

'Damn, what happened?'

Oh right, now she remembered.

They had been trudging through the woods, Beth slowing them down due to some sort of internal injury and her brains being knocked around her skull. She had just begun to cough up some blood when they had heard someone grunting as they made their way over. Huntress had placed herself between Beth and the perceived threat and demanded whoever it was to show themselves.

The "threat" turned out to be Ice King and…a penguin. All four of them had stared at one another in silence for a few moments but then Beth hadn't been able to help herself from coughing up some more blood.

This happened to be a rather savage cough and some blood managed to drip down from her mouth and on to her chin. Both Ice King and Huntress had asked if she was alright at that and this resulted in a confrontation between her and the old man, during which the enraged sorceress had knocked the man's crown to the ground with a vicious slap. Huntress blamed Ice King for Beth's current state and the fact that WC police were after them. As if the mere mention had power, sounds of said law enforcement could suddenly be heard coming through the trees.

Beth, woozy and weak had looked up at the annoying old fart and asked in a slightly garbled and too pitiful for her tastes voice, "Can you help us?"

He had looked at her then, surprise and indecision on his face before it set into determination. Without a word he replaced his crown on his head and after picking her up with surprising gentleness took off, a cursing Huntress Wizard running after them. Last she remembered was the feel of Ice King's beard and that penguin cuddling up to her. For a moment it had felt like she was with her grandfather again, he had always had the loveliest and most comfortable white beard.

How long had she been unconscious?

Just as she was about to try getting up again she heard someone coming into the room, "I'm telling you, I put Gunter there to look over her and tell us when she woke up, he wouldn't have woken me or bothered you otherwise."

'Ice King?'

"Right, well it's about time we checked on her anyway, but if you would can you wait over there? She's not exactly decent and you're kind of an old man."

'Princess Bubblegum?'

"Bonnie be nice, he's cool. But she is right Simon you should wait over there, I know you want to see if she's okay but you can't see her unless she has a shirt on."

She didn't recognize this third voice, but those names...Finn had filled Beth in on Ice King's deal so the third voice must be this Marceline he told her about. It explained why the woman talked to Ice King kind of like he was a child.

"What-mon? Look, Marceline we've known each other a while now. I don't see why you keep calling me that."

"Just stand over there Ice King." Here she heard the third voice – Marceline- give a sigh. She heard an accompanying sigh from Princess Bubblegum.

"Marceline can you do me the favor of opening the curtain? Nurse Poundcake can you get the supplies, I'm sure it's about time for a new IV."

Beth blinked at the voices and lifted a hand to block out the light as the curtain was pulled back; she stared at the people in front of her as they stared at her in turn.

Beth looked at the gray skinned woman who was actually floating off the ground and something clicked, "You were the face I saw… in the window."

Her voice sounded horrible to her ears. The woman smirked and raised a brow, she turned to the pink monarch next to her and said," Well I guess we don't have to worry about any memory loss or anything. She seems just fine to me, besides that voice. I think she needs some water."

Beth nodded her head in affirmation of that and after her bed was raised to allow her to be in a sitting position a cup was being pressed to her lips by this small female who looked like a cake in a nurse outfit.

Princess Bubblegum nodded, "None the less we have to be sure of her mental faculties. Beth, how are you feeling? Do you know who I am and where you are?" The cup was taken from her lips but the little woman didn't go away, she just stood to the side holding the cup.

Beth couldn't help the smirk that flitted across her face at the questions.

"Hello Princess….everything hurts and… my heads feels a little like its' full of cotton. I'm in a Candy Kingdom hospital?"

She couldn't be as articulate as she wished to be but at least her throat and voice were better.

PB nodded her head and seemed to read her mind for she said, "Don't worry, your speaking abilities are just a little disused. You've kinda been out of it for a while now. And you're actually in the Royal Infirmary in the castle. Nurse Poundcake would you please replace the IV?"

As the little candy woman went to do as she was bid Beth couldn't help but raise a brow.

"How long have I been…out? How did I…get here? Was in the… forest with Huntress…and the old guy."

"Hi."

Everyone turned to Ice King, who was suddenly standing on the other side of the bed next to Marceline, who had floated over there while PB and Beth were talking. He had his hands over his eyes, respecting the whole "decency" thing. Beth blinked as Bubblegum yelled his name and told him to get out of there, "Why is your crown…tied in your beard?"

"I don't really feel like wearing it right now. You okay? All that blood…and you've kinda been in a coma ever since the surgery so..."

"Surgery?! Coma?!"

She had managed to sit up completely during her outburst but quickly flopped back on the bed as she had a major coughing fit.

"Marceline get him out of here!" Yelled an annoyed PB, as the Vampire Queen lead the old man out of the curtained area Nurse Poundcake finally set about inputting new painkiller. Beth felt a slight tingle when it was finally connected and looked to Bubblegum and she brought out a stethoscope. "If you calm down and let me examine you I'll explain everything."

She nodded her head and sat back up as instructed, as she took slightly painful deep breaths Bubblegum explained what had gone down.

Apparently when Beth had been tackled to the ground by that WC cop it had not only given her a bloody concussion but also had managed to break two ribs and caused the tip of one of them to go and puncture her lung, causing said organ to partially fill with blood and not expand properly.

Ice King- having an odd moment of empathy which seemed yet to have ended-had actually taken her here. Or at least tried to, he got halfway here before running into PB, Marceline, Pep and Jake who were making their own way to the castle. Needless to say it was a big old mess of confusion as the two groups tried to deal with one another. The crazy only escalated when everyone assumed Ice King was kidnapping an unconscious and bloody Beth this time instead of some poor princess, that situation only paused when Huntress had caught up to the group and shot an arrow into the middle of it to shut everyone up.

Beth giggled at that, Huntress was never really one to tolerate hysterics or the like. PB wasn't as amused, then or now. As she switched to checking some charts coming out of a machine in the wall next to the bed she continued.

Turned out PB, Marceline and Pep had found out where her father's grave was –Beth sighed sadly at that-from talking to a source PB wasn't too eager to explain about and had been told to check up on the siblings. Well a quick call to a then sleeping Jake-who was equally worried about both missing siblings not being back yet when he checked- the four had converged and made their way to the castle, after Huntress explained what had happened and Ice King interjected saying he knew PB would be able to help Beth the entire group continued on together.

This had all happened about four days ago.

"Where is…Huntress now?"

Beth couldn't help interrupting Princess Bubblegum's explanation; she needed to know how her friend was. But the monarch didn't seem annoyed at all, as she checked the flow of the bag of pain killer she said, "She's resting in the bed next to you right now. She hadn't slept the majority of the last few days. Both she and Ice King made quite the sight sitting together awkwardly as they worried over you. I had to give them both a sedative so they would get some rest, and although Ice King is up I suggest we wait before waking your wizard friend. She's got some nasty burns and it would be better if her body recharges as much as possible."

And she also didn't want another wizard running around her castle just yet, but she kept that to herself.

Beth furrowed her brows, "Why was Ice King…worried about me?"

She got a shrug in response, "My guess is that when he saw you in the woods you reminded him of someone he cared about or something. The dude's all messed in the head; it's kinda hard to tell."

Beth frowned a little at PB's somewhat indifferent tone but didn't comment on it; instead she asked why they had been on their way to the castle before meeting up with her and the wizards.

To her credit Princess Bubblegum was at least sheepish in admitting she had placed a tracking device on Finn and that they were headed to her castle so she could use her equipment to pinpoint his location, but Beth couldn't even blame her after hearing what happened to her poor brother.

While Beth had been placed under the knife to fix her ribs and lung Finn and Flame Princess had been kidnapped by the sorcerer who had sent those golems after FP, he had wanted to try to make the poor girl rule the world with him and had taken Finn's arm when she refused.

He had already been outfitted with a temporary claw arm-thankfully the jerk used a heated knife on Finn so his wound was cauterized as it happened and thus there was not too much blood loss-plans were already in the works to get him a proper artificial limb. Beth felt the chill go down her spine as she remembered her dream from her first night on Finn's couch; she knew what his new arm would look like.

She took dark delight in hearing how FP had handled the creep Jarlath. She then raised both brows almost to her hairline as she listened to the conspiracy of the Fire King purposefully trying to make his daughter a ticking time bomb…and the fact that she wasn't even really his daughter.

The night when the current Fire King had taken the throne by murdering his brother the then good king Aurelius Sula-an event that really no one outside the Fire Kingdom knew about- his wife Zandra had gone into labor and after birthing a baby girl, had died from the strain. The new ruler already had his first son at the time but had decided to adopt the girl and claim her and present her as his own and told his citizens that his brother's child had died with the mother.

"How do…you know all this?" She could barely believe her ears. She looked at the pink woman before her who was now sitting on the edge of the bed facing her, her examination now done.

"Seems Finn managed to make a friend of another member of the Fire Kingdom, to the point of being an informant for him. He –Flambo is his name- had come in yesterday as everyone was healing and regrouping and went on about how he had found out the King's secrets and had barely escaped with his life…poor little guy was about to collapse. He told us everything, it was quite the shock."

"So where are my brother and… the flame princess?" And Jake and this Flambo guy for that matter.

"Well…"

Beth frowned at the monarch's tone.

As the human and sugary monarch had talked Marceline had moved Ice King far enough away that they couldn't hear the two women speaking. At first the two had just stood there, sharing an odd yet companionable silence for a little while.

"You know you really shouldn't have walked into the curtained area." said Marceline, a laugh in her voice.

The old man at her side gave a small chuckle and said, "Yes I suppose so, but I wanted to see if she was okay. I guess I didn't really think about what was appropriate or not."

The Vampire Queen blinked at the man to her side, she watched as he picked up his penguin like he would a child and noticed his skin looked a little less blue; his looks had been very subtly changing the last few days. A fragile bit of hope fluttered in her chest as she looked at him.

"I…I still have Hambo."

Never mind that length of time that stupid sky-witch had it. The blank look she got made her heart sink a little but then the ghost of a smile appeared on the man's face, he looked over at the "young" woman at his side and said, "I don't know why but I'm glad you do, whatever a Hambo is."

Marceline gave a small smile, it wasn't much recognition but it was a start, casting a quick glance to the crown still tied in the man's beard she wondered if he would just keep the thing on him but not put it on would he start to remember? She was brought out of her musings when Beth gave a large, painful sounding shout that sent even the comatose Huntress Wizard into sudden wakefulness.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN JAKE, THAT FLAMBO GUY AND MY NOW ONE-ARMED BROTHER WENT WITH HER TO CONFRONT THE FIRE KING?!"