Well, it's been a while. Not nearly as long as I took on the last story :D Either way, let's see what I've got~
She was going to be disappointed. She knew she would. There were countless numbers of tapes in the world, countless science labs, where people performed ethical, non-malicious experiments. Why should this one be any different? Why should it be any different than the last few labs and buildings she had been brought to, brimming with excitement, only to be crushed when she was brought to an apartment building or high school?
What's more, this so-called-science-lab was several thousand miles from the last lab. Whereas the previous lab was hidden away, deep under the ice and snow of the frozen north, this one was to be found in the warm, swampy southeast of the continent, where the Rainicorns made their homes outside of the Crystal Dimension.
Either way, at least it got her out of the castle. She'd forgotten how bright the sun was. And how warm it was. It was hot that day, a very humid, sticky heat that one could only bear if they were swimming or indoors. Unfortunately enough, PB was neither of these things. Instead, she was in a pink caravan, grudging along the thick, muddy road as she sweat, trying to focus on her reading.
After an hour spent on the same paragraph, she gave up, closing her copy of The Wonders of the Invisible World, slumping in her seat. She wished she'd brought someone with her. Misery enjoys company, after all. Finn would have come up with some sort of game or joke by now. Marceline would have teased her and sparked an argument. PB realized she missed her friends.
After about an hour or so of boredom, sweat, and insects, the caravan stopped. She stepped out, getting a good look at the laboratory. It was very simple building, architecturally. Simply a large concrete cube, only one story in height, covered in mud and graffiti. One wall had begun crumbling, revealing the walls to be several feet thick.
As she was lead inside, she realized that most of the building was dedicated to a single room, split down the center by a thick glass wall. Somehow, the electric lights in the room still worked, and as she turned them on, she found a cluttered mess. Pieces of bizarre machinery, rusted farming equipment, pages from books torn from their binding, and deteriorating architecture littered the floor. PB could appreciate the mess, being a supporter of organized chaos herself.
Just as she was about to further investigate the papers scattered along the desks and floor, out of the corner of her eye she discovered a backroom, the door barely noticeable, as it was painted the same dull pale yellow as the walls. She entered the room, only to find three wooden framed cots, each with blankets tossed over them sloppily. Each cot was facing a small television set with a VCR underneath it and a set of tapes to its right.
She paused before investigating further. A thousand what-ifs and could-bes floated through her head all at once. Even still, she found herself moving forward subconsciously, then leafing through the tapes, then reading their titles.
Hercules. The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The Little Mermaid. The Breakfast Club. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Cinderella.
Finally she came to one with a title, hand-written.
FIX THIS
Her fingertips tingled as she fought herself to pick up the tape. To put it into the VCR. To press Play.
She was met by that same face, those same icey-blue eyes that she saw every time she closed her eyes. Behind him were the same children, the girl nursing her child, the boy watching a cartoon involving sarcastic woodland animals. But the part that confirmed her fear and spiked her scientific curiousity the most, was that same deep, disarming, matter-of-fact-voice.
"I have made a grave mistake."