Chapter 10: Making Plans

A few hours had passed since Pagos had consumed the jewels from the crown and tiara of Marshall and Marceline. Now he was just watching their concert, listening to the heavy metal music they were playing. He was just keeping to himself, sighing while listening to it. "I must admit, the boy has a lot of odd friends…" Pagos told himself referring to Finn since he possessed his body. He just watched the heroic boy's memories out of boredom, disliking how he had been treated so far.

Once the concert was over, Pagos saw most of the audience of demons and monsters leave while he just kept to himself and now had his focus on how to get out. "Hey man, how'd ya like the concert?" he looked over and saw Marshall and Marceline standing there. He sighed, turning around to face them. "Well, it didn't put me to sleep, so decent," Pagos responded with a grin. Marceline just scratched her head, having a bad feeling about what they thought was Finn anyway. "Now I have a question for you. I need to find the one known as Flame Prince. Do you know where he is?" the ice prince asked wanting to leave the Night-o-Sphere as fast as possible even after meeting an old friend.

"No one really knows. He kind of became a traveler, some sort of self-discovery thing," Marshall explained but then Marceline butted in. "But Flame Princess has a house in Ooaa. If you need to see flame prince so bad, she might be able to help," she claimed.

Marceline was thinking about telling Bubblegum since she was having bad vibes around Pagos. The ice prince nodded in agreement. "Care to lead the way?" he asked. Marshall just glared at her and sighed. "Sure, but only to her house. I haven't liked her since she lit my hair on fire once," he agreed reluctantly before leading Pagos to take him to Flame Princess's home, knowing when Finn had a disastrous break up with her. He just hoped that it wouldn't go poorly while Marceline went to go talk to Bubblegum.

Pagos was relieved to be out of the Night-o-Sphere as he just found himself back at under the tree where he first met Marshall. The sun was starting to go down and the sky was darkening before him. "What do you need to see Flame Prince and Princess about anyway?" the vampire boy asked while relieved to see the sunset since he couldn't walk around in daylight. Pagos scratched his head trying to think of a lie, but then he had a sudden idea. "I need to forewarn them of this jewel thief. Let's face it. I'm going to wind up helping all these idiotic princesses and princes with this problem anyway. I may as well make sure the only one I like is safe," he responded with a smirk creeping across his face.

Marshall was surprised to hear this since he never really heard Finn express his frustrations before, but he knew that it had to be a pain to run around and help multiple people at once. He just continued to lead him along.

Meanwhile, Finn was still sitting in the eternal darkness. He was starting to question his sanity since then. He was painstakingly lonely, knowing that his friends were endangered as long as he was stuck in there. "I go from fighting the Ice King and Ice Queen one day, and to practical death the next day," he mumbled irritably just talking to himself continuously until he came to one point with a sigh. "If I get my body back for even one second, I'll kill myself, if it means he dies too," Finn planned to do this, now showing a sheer dislike for the ice prince. He felt like a fool for allowing the alter ego to take over.

Back in the Land of Ooaa, Pagos was following Marshall through the darkness of night as he saw a bright blaze in the nearby distance and saw an ignited house, even though it was normal. "Well man, that's her house. I'll see ya around," Marshall told him before floating away. Pagos just looked at the blazing house and sighed. "Let's see if I can keep chill here…" he said, walking over to it and freezing his fist before knocking on the door. Finn helped out on building the home beforehand to make it as homey as possible.

Pagos waited until he saw the door open. He saw a girl in a blaze red dress. Her hair was blazing brightly, and she felt surprised to see him. "Hello, Flame Princess," Pagos greeted her. It felt odd to be talking to a living being of fire but he didn't think of anything against it. "Finn, what are you doing here?" Flame Princess asked still confused by him being here. His pale skin color and white hair made it even odder. "I came to talk," he claimed, seeing the jewel on her forehead and having an idea.

"Alright… about what?" Flame Princess responded while the blaze of her house was still burning brightly. "You've heard of the jewel stealing incident, haven't you?" Pagos asked with a sigh. Being near the fire was making him nervous but he just tried to keep calm since he was in Finn's body. The Flame Princess nodded. "Yeah it's gotten me paranoid lately," she claimed. Pagos just smiled while taking her hand in hers. She was surprised to see him hurting himself like this. "I came to relieve that fear. Allow me to take your jewel to protect it," he offered her to take the jewel from her as a lie to take it without resistance since she posed as a threat to him.

Flame Princess took a moment to think about it and nodded. "Alright, Finn. I know it'll be safe with you at least," she said as she reached for her forehead, removing the jewel from it. She didn't have a tiara for it, so she instead kept it on her forehead. She handed it to Pagos, but when it touched his hand, it burned. He just looked at it, gripping it tightly in his hand having a slight bit of guilt over it. But he just brushed it off, presuming it was because he was in Finn's body.

"Thank you for still trusting me. Do you know where I can find Flame Prince?" Pagos questioned. Flame Princess nodded thinking he wanted to protect Flame Prince too. "Yeah no, sorry, he went on some self-discovery journey a while back," she explained.

Pagos nodded just glad to have Finn's body. He was able to get every jewel so easily. The princes and princesses all trusted Finn, especially what they thought was the heroic boy, but in reality it was just the lying ice prince himself, happily using them all for his own desires. "Now to hunt the prince…" he thought while walking away from the blazing house, eating the blazing jewel when he was well far away from the house.

End of Chapter 10