Chapter 8: The Wandering Prince

Fionna and Princess Bubblegum had spent the next few hours treating Pagos' injuries. Neither knew that he was just using Finn's body. "Where were you? Your skin's turned blue now, and why is your hair white?" Bubblegum asked curiously since she wasn't there when the past couple of days happened. "I was in the Ice Kingdom. Just a small curse," Pagos lied with a grin, looking at her tiara's jewel that was the size and shape of a marble. "I told you not to move! I would have dealt with the ice jerks for you," Fionna claimed still upset over him having gone to fight with that kind of injury.

"Hehe, I know you would've. That's why I had to," Pagos responded while looking up at the ceiling before starting to fall asleep. He couldn't move while they were treating him, so he figured that he would fall asleep before they used anything to try and clean his wounds that could cause pain.

As for Finn, he was still sitting in the eternal darkness. "How has being left alone for so long been?" Pagos was stepping out of the shadows. Finn stood up. "It felt awful. I'm guessing this is what you put up with while trapped in that jewel?" he asked. He couldn't fight his mental captor right now. Pagos had a sword while Finn himself didn't. "I'm glad you understand my pain," the Ice Prince declared while walking around the heroic boy mockingly.

"Once I get the royal jewels, I won't need your body anymore," Pagos claimed with a grin making Finn raise an eyebrow and wonder what he meant. "Because, I'll be able to reanimate mine," he said before vanishing and leaving Finn back alone in the pitch black void. The boy just sat back down, starting to question his sanity. "I have no way to warn them…" he began repeating himself. All of his friends were endangered, and even then he wasn't in control of his own body anymore.

Pagos had woken up. He looked over to see Jake and Cake talking with Fionna and Bubblegum. The snow from yesterday had gotten Jake trapped at Lady Rainicorn's home for one more day, which summed up what took him so long to return. Cake had been stuck at the hospital to get her cast removed from her arm. They all were still thinking that the Ice Prince was Finn. Pagos sat up and yawned. "What did I miss?" he asked while in his unconsciousness.

"Finn! Bro, I am so sorry for bailing on ya like that the other day," Jake apologized blaming himself for the injuries he received from the Ice Queen, but Pagos just shoved him away and stood up with his sword on his side, beginning to walk out the door. "Where are you going? You need to rest!" Bubblegum told him, but they noticed a grin creep across his face. "I don't need it, for you see, I have to figure out something myself. Goodbye," he told them before walking out the door. He was pretending to be Finn long enough, so he acted like he was going on some self-discovery quest.

"Dude!" Jake yelled but had no response, seeing his figure vanish from him and the others. "Should we stop him?" Cake offered, but Fionna shook her head. "Nah, I've seen him like this before," she claimed. The group went back to doing what they were doing, trying not to worry about their friend, or what they thought was him anyway.

During the rest of the day, Pagos went to multiple kingdoms, stealing the jewels of the princesses' tiaras and princes' crowns, showing no mercy in slaughtering anything that posed a threat to him. It only took about most of the day to steal every jewel he could find, and eat them all, no matter what shapes and sizes they were. He was questioning something though while going over a list. "Hmm… that's all the jewels except for the Flame Prince's and the Flame Princess'," Pagos told himself, wondering if he should even attempt to go into the Fire Kingdom. He was sitting under a tree by himself while throwing the list away. He just tried to relax and get some rest since he was taking over each kingdom with every jewel he ate, making him more powerful from time to time.

"Yo, dude! I didn't expect you here," he suddenly heard. Pagos looked up seeing a familiar figure sitting in the tree branch above him. He had pale skin, almost looking deceased with black hair and a plaid shirt and jeans. He also had a mark on his neck that looked like a bite mark. "And who are you supposed to be?" Pagos responded looking at him, seeing him dangle upside down from the tree branch his face in front of his.

"You hit your head or something, Finn? It's me, Marshall Lee," Marshall responded. He was a friend of his and a guitar player. Pagos just stared at him. "Yes, I have received a heavy blow to the head recently," he lied, since Finn's friends would recognize him as the heroic boy and not the deadly Ice Prince he was meant to be. Marshall looked up at his white hair, seeing the crown on his head and chuckled. "Nice crown, dude. So are you here to check out all the complaints?" he asked making him confused.

"What complaints? I don't have time for every problem they have," Pagos responded. He remembered all of Finn's memories because of how he shared his body, and he disliked how he saw Finn get used by every princess, and get a lack of rewards for it. Hearing this surprised Marshall, since he never heard him have such a bitter attitude. "Well, you wanna come hang in the Night-o-sphere? Marceline and I are having our first concert there," he invited him. Pagos scratched his head, but he knew that Marshall and Marceline were the vampire king and queen.

Pagos knew that neither had crowns, but he needed to start taking over the bigger areas if he wanted to make his presence known. "Fine, I'll come. Lead the way, dear friend," he agreed, Marshall giving out a thumbs up. "Alright man," he said before pulling out a marker. He drew an odd face onto the tree and threw a carton of milk on it apparently they were objects he carried on hand usually, before beginning to chant some odd words that opened up the portal.

Pagos saw the Night-o-sphere, the fiery environment with a population of demons and monsters, as well as a hellish setting. This just made Pagos cringe since he didn't like the fire, but he knew that it wasn't entirely made of it. He jumped into the portal, Marshall Lee floating in right behind him before the portal closed behind him.

End of Chapter 8