The End Chapter 6 Rough Draft

Days Until Genocide: 333

The storms had finally blown over region. However, with no rain to halt the destroyer's progress, there was rise in towns going up in flames. Princess Bubblegum looked over a map, which marked which towns were destroyed and in what order. The first few towns that were hit were wiped off the earth from west to east, with around half being in her own territory. She followed the trail, seeing that the attacker skipped the capital of her kingdom in favor of a small, defenseless village to the east. She was both puzzled and thankful about the fact that the threat didn't go for her home. However, not seeing the enemy for herself would deprive her of the knowledge needed to beat this thing. She looked further east along the map; several villages and landmarks littered the area, leading up to the Fire Kingdom. No doubt, their military would no longer be held back by the weather.

She left the map and entered another room down the hall. Once opening the door, she was greeted with the sight of wounded villagers. Many had burn marks, others had bandages to heal the cuts, and several more had entire limbs torn off. Happiness was void within this small, bluish-gray room of refugees. Bubblegum tried to talk to a few of them, but some were still trying to recover from shock. One even fell to ground, shaking and whimpering, with images of death still fresh in his mind. The one who was most fit to speak was crying her eyes out, which the princess responded with a tight hug.

"There there," she said, "You're safe now." She patted the woman on her back a few times.

Ten minutes of comforting followed. Being the only surviving group, the best comfort they could have would be to have their leader, their princess, their symbol of peace and tranquility, tend to her subjects with great care and compassion. Bubblegum looked at the woman again, seeing that she was holding a small binky with no one young enough to use it. The princess almost shed a tear.

Bubblegum eventually got the woman to speak. Finally, she could get some information from them about the threat. That was the moment Finn had entered the room. Seeing the human, roughly half of them scrambled their way to the wall farthest from him. Naturally, Finn didn't know why they were doing that. "Demon!" one shrieked. "Demon! Get him away! Away!" Another was trying their best to break the window and jump out of the castle, even though they were three stories up. Finn ran out of the room, understanding that he wasn't welcome, without knowing why. Bubblegum tried to get them to speak clearly, but the state they were in prevented all rational thought. She gave another hug some of the refugees and told them she'll return shortly. She went after Finn, who was on a seat in the hallway.

"I should be getting on more information on the enemy soon," she said. "It'll take a little longer now, though." She was tempted to cross her arms. "So, what was it that you wanted to show me? It better be important."

Finn had a VHS tape in his hand. "You're going to wanna see this," Finn said rather bluntly and gave the princess the tape. Judging from the scratch marks and leftover bits of dust, this thing had clearly seen better days. She compared the tape to ones that she owned, noting that, despite the ancient condition of the outdated technology, she was still able to keep such things in mint condition. The two found the VHS player that the princess had owned and began to watch it.

Two faces appeared on the screen, one familiar and one unfamiliar. To the right was Skully, hiding a smile behind his mask. Next to him, was Red, who was trying his best to look polite, with his hands placed behind his back like a butler. This attempt didn't do anything to make the situation calming, since his apparel was that of a hobo, with various stitched together rags used to form a baggy outfit.

"Hello there, people of this world," Red said. "Me and my partner here know of the massacres that plagued the various kingdom's these past few weeks." His words sounded distinctively scripted, as if they were rehearsing lines for this tape. "We sincerely apologize for the delay, but we would like to clear something up." He picked up a sword. "Do any of you recognize this sword?" He flaunted it, showing off the ruby engraved in the hilt and the carvings beside it. Finn's heart raced when he saw that "Human" was the word engraved in Red's belonging. Finn drew his sword, needing to make sure that his sword was parallel to Red's. After confirming this truth, he swallowed the astonishment and fear he had to pay attention to what his adversary had to say.

"To all the kings and princesses who receive a copy of this," Red continued, "I'm sure that your soldiers recognize this weapon. I hope that it is has struck fear in the hearts of whoever survived this, but I digress." He put his sword down. "I'm saddened to say that we couldn't introduce ourselves earlier." Red glanced towards Skully. "However, I received… numerous requests to not do so until I tested my strength." He returned his gaze towards the camera. "I have a plan for this world, and to enact that plan, I need a certain item." He pulled out a map of Fire Kingdom, showing its overhead geography and subterraneous features. "Deep underneath this Kingdom is another sword, one that's even stronger than this one." He put the map behind him. "If the Fire Kingdom wishes to stay intact and receive no casualties, then I expect to see all civilians and soldiers evacuated. Of course, if anyone wishes to attempt to capture me while I retrieve it, then I'll retaliate with all my might." Skully began to laugh.

"I will arrive at the kingdom in five days. If you need help deciding what to do, just remember the recent destruction." Red moved towards the camera, and the tape stopped.

It didn't take long for the rulers to rush towards Bubblegum's castle. * Finn was pacing himself outside of the meeting room; he was too angry to listen. He remembered the first fight he had with that treacherous person; he only had himself to blame for that failure to finish him. The fact that Finn put up a better fight than, approximately, twenty villages never dawned on the fighter. He used a nearby wall as punching bag, trying to vent his emotions through physical force. Those paranoid townsfolk, especially the woman the Princess talked to, remained a symbol of failure within his mind.

After making various noises, the warrior king came out of the room, stealing the expression of anger from Finn's face, and engulfed him with his palm. It didn't help Finn that this hand was covered in sweat and dirt. Before Finn could react, he found himself tossed fifty meters to far end of the hallway. Over his own scream, he could hear the king yell, "Keep it down!" at the top of his lungs. Finn, judging from the non-lethal impact he felt at landing, could tell that the other was going rather easy with the throw. He went downstairs after getting up, figuring that there was nothing useful upstairs for the time being. Finn shoved a few people out the way as he made his way to training grounds for the guards. Walking through the hay-covered floor, he found a spare training dummy and started hacking away at it. Several guards observed Finn's actions, mostly because they rarely see him here with such rage.

Finn thought to himself as he laid the smack down on the dummy. Too many people were need, and, for many others, it was too late to help them with their problem. Finn slowed down his slashes. Something about that last thought was eerily familiar to him. His memory was fully formed when he thought of who threw him in the first place. The king that tossed him was the new ruler of the Marauders; his exact name slipped his mind, however. What he did remember, was his recent brawl against some of his men, as well as other friendly fights in years past. In fact, he also remembered fights with beings just as big as the king. He looked at his fist, the puniness of his fist just made him feel smaller. Finn, in a heightened state of anger from Red, put his sword down, and waited for the opportune moment for a rematch. After all, since he faced off against the recent destroyer, he believed he could compensate for his size in a fair fight. *

Finn's patience was rewarded with sight of the lumbering giant. Whereas other royalty around consisted of the traditional upper-class attire and demeanor, the king was towered over them, having a hard time even fitting in the castle. Even for a marauder, he was an outlier, having bright red skin and having three times the muscle mass of the tribe he ruled over. Fortunately for Finn, when the marauder king looked over at Finn's raised fists and forward brow, he was more than happy to provide a rematch. Everyone else in the room, including Bubblegum, found this confrontation to be nothing but pointless.

The next thing Finn knew, he was hurtled across the room again. "The name's Krieger, by the way," said the king. He chuckled as he went out the door. "I'm the new king of the marauders for a reason." He then disappeared from Finn's sight.

Finn didn't pay attention to anything until he got back home. At least the treehouse has been untouched by this madness. It was already nightfall, with BMO and Jake just trailing off to slumber. The human wasn't really in the mood to sleep. Although he was unlucky back at the castle, a tiny bit of luck was still available at home. Being 8:30, Finn could still get a proper amount of sleep, so he snuck to the basement, where a plethora of seemingly useless junk was available. Finn proved this wrong almost instantly. With a bit of duct tape, old microwaves, stray metal, and baby shoes, makeshift weights were born. After testing them out with standard bicep curls, he proceeded to perform other weightlifting tactics, like bench-pressing and squats.

Finn's starting weight with the barbells was around 250 pounds. More than 30 reps were done, but Finn remained unsatisfied. He then put another fifty pounds on but remained unsatisfied. This happened three more times, giving Finn a total of 500 pounds to lift. Of course, he then learned the consequences of not having a spotting partner.

Jake heard a loud metal thud from below him. He faced Finn's bed, only to find that his adoptive brother wasn't there. The dog grabbed a lantern, and lit it with the stove top fire. The only thing that impeded him were the ladders leading downward and loose piece of glass from their recently broken mirror. Jake stepped on it, with the piece almost piercing his flesh. He quickly brushed it of his fur and threw it out the window, complaining to himself about the sudden shatter of house's bathroom mirror. He peeked through the little trap door leading to the basement, thinking that some criminals were there. If there were criminals, Jake thought he could use his current position to catch them by surprise. Jake then saw Finn, who had a visible bruise on his left cheek. Jake immediately rushed toward his brother.

"Finn!" he shouted. He stood beside Finn, enlarging his fist. "Where are they?" Jake punched various piles of junk, thinking thieves were in them.

"Easy, Jake!" Finn shouted back. "There's no one else here!"

Jake's fist shrunk back to normal. After a sigh a relief, Jake took a closer look at his brother's wound. * "What happened to you?" Jake asked. His right arm stretched all the way back to the kitchen and opened the freezer so he could retrieve an ice pack.

"Eh," Finn said, "the barbell was bit too heavy for me, so I tossed it away."

Jake looked at the clumsy ironing board Finn used to hold himself up. Clearly, part of the heavy object hit Finn as he tossed it. The dog looked back at the wound and its owner, Finn. The latter stood back up and tried to go back to lifting, but Jake stopped him in his tracks. "I think you should probably hit the hay." Jake pointed in the direction upstairs with his thumb. Finn ignored this statement and started doing pushups. Jake payed attention to Finn's expression; the sight of a forward brow and slightly clenched teeth was not the sight of happy brother. "Hey, Finn," Jake said, "is it me, or have you been acting a bit different lately." Finn stopped mid-pushup. The human's eyes darted to Jake upon hearing that sentence. * Instead of getting up normally, Finn used his hands to jump out of the pushup, allowing him to perform an aerial backflip with the added momentum. Once Finn's feet reached their peak height, they kicked a sandbag. Finn, now standing up properly, felt the released sand directly on his head. Finn remained stoic for a moment, waiting for the bag to fully empty its contents. "I need to spar," he said.

Jake didn't know what to make of this situation, so he figured that the best thing to do would be to comply with Finn's request. They went outside, under the light of the waning gibbous moon. They stood roughly fifteen feet from each other. Finn had built a sword made of cardboard and loose pieces of rags so he wouldn't inflict injuries. After a few test swings, Finn determined that it was stable and weighed the same as a normal sword. Unlike Finn, Jake only needed his fists thanks to his magical body.

"Alright," Finn said, "we fight until one of us says 'uncle.'" A cool breeze shook the fields around them. The leaves attached to their home flowed at the same rhythm as the grass. Jake was nearly too distracted by this sight to fight, but Finn's battle cry snapped the dog out of his little trance.

With only the tall grass standing between them, both fighters began to duke it out. Finn's eagerness had given him the opportunity to go on the offensive. Jake created a massive shield out his hand to stand up against Finn's attacks. While the sword didn't cut anything, Jake could still feel the impact of it through every forceful slash. Finn knew that his slashes were doing little aside from some bruise-worthy pain. Since the shield was too big for a direct attack, Finn knew that Jake would have to circumvent the shield in some way. *

BMO, awoken from the ruckus that the two were causing, peeped out the window. The first thing within BMO's sight were the actions that Finn successfully predicted. The human grabbed the stretched-out limb from overhead and jumped over the shield. Jake was hit but undeterred; he grabbed his brother's sword and threw it. The sword spun around in the air with though striking power, and its momentum allowed it to travel a far distance. Finn jumped out of its path, but Jake punched him right as he landed. Following this attack was a body slam performed by an enlarged Jake. Finn was unable to lift Jake off him, rendering the human unable to move away. Jake thought he won the fight, but he didn't count on Finn biting him. Jake yelped and reverted to normal size, allowing Finn to finally push him.

BMO watched as the two fighters continued to spar. The level of speed from the two were unlike what BMO had seen from them. The robot couldn't figure out why this would happen, but then a memory had returned. For the past few nights, BMO remembered seeing Finn head to the basements. BMO looked at the bookshelf in the living room, also remembering that Finn's been reading a bit more. Luckily for the robot, Finn had kept the books he'd been reading on the bottom shelf. BMO pulled out one of them, which was titled "How to Enhance Your Swordsmanship." Another was titled "A Marauder's guide to Mixed Martial Arts." BMO kept cycling through these books, finding that all of them share a similar them. After lamenting about how it should've known that Finn would read this, BMO simply put the books back where they once were and continued to watch the brawl unfold. *

"Finn!" Jake shouted as he deflected attacks. "You know, this is precisely what I was talking about earlier."

"What are you talking about?" Finn didn't relent on his attacks while speaking.

Jake growled under his breath. "You weren't even paying attention to what I was saying?" Jake jumped in the air and used another attack with a stretched fist. It simultaneously acted as both a tool for attacking and increasing distance.

Finn found himself surrounded by a large group of thin, makeshift limbs. "I've just had more important things to worry about!" He tried to punch the arms, but Jake had already begun a barrage of jabs.

"Like what!?" Jake's voice was loud enough to wake up the less active Shelby and Neptr. Seeing Finn do various flips to dodge got his blood boiling. He could only think of one way to end this fight quickly.

Finn's only response to the question was an earth-shaking battle cry, preventing anyone nearby from resting. With great haste, he charged at Jake.

"Not talking, huh?" Jake morphed his forearm and hand into a sword and slashed off the top quarter of Finn's cardboard blade. Moving certain bones from the unused arm gave the fleshy sword superior density over its opposition. *

The shock Finn experienced distracted him long enough to put Jake on the offensive. All Finn could do was parry Jake's slashes. With each successive hit, Finn lost some his grip on the weapon. Jake then smacked the sword out of Finn's hand, caught it, and crushed it. Finn, defenseless, was knocked into the side of treehouse by Jake. Finn growled as he crawled away from the wall. He tried to move, but a torrent of sharp pain flooded his body. Finn could only take a few more steps before collapsing.

"Are you going to say it now?" Jake asked. He walked over to Finn, whose face was as red as a tomato.

"I REFUSE!" Finn's voice cracked. He stood up and tried to punch Jake one last time.

Jake dodged the attack with minimal effort, and Finn stumbled into the grass. Seeing his brother helpless, he spoke up. "Uncle," he said.

A long silence filled the area. Jake picked up his squirming brother, bridal style, and went back into their bedroom. Jake laid his brother flat on the bed and inspected for injuries. Finn had ceased all willful movement. Seeing that Finn had closed his eyes, Jake hopped into his own bed, thinking that his brother fallen asleep from exhaustion. Jake rested his eyes for a good ten minutes. Just as soon as he was about to enter a dream, he heard Finn laugh. Jake's head darted up as if he was never sleepy to begin with.

"It happened in reverse," Finn said in the middle of laughing. "It's the one who is weak that's supposed to say, 'Uncle.'" Finn looked at Jake, who was visibly perplexed at the human's mannerisms.

"Huh?" was all Jake could say.

"I thought you knew the rules to this." * Finn's face lit up, * and his laughter grew louder.

Jake eventually drowned out this nonsensical laughter and fall asleep.

Finn had a perfect view of the sunrise. The sand below him was surprisingly comfy. The human sat there, watching the sunlight glisten on the water. The rhythmic waves were all that he could hear. Although he wasn't interested in touching the water, he did admire how calming it could be. With the ocean, he had nothing crowding his vision, except for air and water. Finn looked at his outfit, liking the fact that some of nature's most peaceful sights had the same color scheme as his clothes. Dark blue was on the bottom, and a sky blue was up top. Finn, following the logic of the metaphor, considered his hat to be cloud. * He kicked the sand for a while, and paid no attention to the forest behind him.

Finn looked to his right and saw the Candy Kingdom. Despite it being a few miles away, the princess's palace stood tall over the nearby trees. It was rare that he could see the palace coated with the morning light. For once, it had a nice, greenish-blue tint to it. Having served the princess for over seven years, Finn grew familiar with all the other ways the palace could be seen.

Finn chuckled at memory. The night sky was looming over the kingdom every time an invasion hit. Twice, the kingdom had to deal with undead. To make a long story short, the kingdom survived, despite almost falling to infection. Another time, the invaders looked like they were human. Of course, when Finn had saw what was under their headgear, he was proven otherwise. The only exception was this one girl, Susan. Finn had never figured out if she was human, mainly due to the her never taking of hear hat. Finn put his hand inside his hat, giving him a chance to rub his plain, blonde hair. He was content that he was human. However, such a thing reminded him that he could very well be the last of his kind.

Finn could tell that negative memories were starting to cloud his mind, so he turned to his left, seeing a sight that wasn't in the realm of memory. While it was walking distance, the sight remained very faint. Finn felt blessed by the lack of distraction around him. Otherwise, the sight would have been obscured by distractions, rendering it undiscoverable. At first glance, it looked like a mere pile of rocks under a short cliff. But then, his expectations of this discovery were surpassed when he was only a few steps away. The morning light illuminated the interior of the cave.

Finn had been to this beach for years, yet he had never seen this area before. He smiled upon this discovery and went inside. Seeing unfamiliar objects littered throughout the cave simply increased his anticipation. Since the cave was small, he could check out all the objects in the area sooner. The first thing he inspected was rusty suit of armor. After his knuckles got sore from punching it a few times, Finn knew that it still had a few good years left in it. Seeing that many of the other items were just as rusted and dusty, he figured that nobody was around to object him for trying it on. While it felt heavy, the chest plate didn't do much to slow Finn down. He was eager to see more, but then he heard a voice.

"Finn!" Jake shouted. Being outside of the cave, he couldn't find Finn. Finn, much to his annoyance, stepped out of the cave and waved his hands to get his brother's attention. * Jake walked up to his brother. "There you are," Jake said. "I should've figured you'd sneak out like this, given how weird you've been acting." The new armor and previously unseen cave caught Jake's attention. "Is this what's making you act weird?" Jake walked into the cave.

"Actually, no." Finn followed his brother. "I just found it."

Jake snooped around, finding various rusted weapons and armor. He turned around, showing himself adorned with a flail and a helmet. Seeing that no one lived here and various duplicates of the armor existed, Finn realized it was safe to test run the discovered treasure.

"Hey, Jake," said Finn. The new smile on the Finn's face did not go unnoticed. Because of that, Jake listened with open ears. "I want to see what happens when you try to punch this armor."

The duo, silently agreeing to test the armor, went out of the cave. They stood roughly fifteen feet from each other. While the sentiment of challenge was present, none of the tension from last night was present. There smiles were half-joyful and half-cocky. Jake flung his enlarged fist across the beach. Finn stood his ground, showing no fear, and was hit by the fierce impact of the punch. As usual, he was sent flying, but not as far.

"Doesn't look like the armor helps much," Finn said, not really caring that it failed. But after Finn got up, his jaw dropped slightly.

Jake was clenching his teeth, and his fist was throbbing. Thankfully, there was no blood. "Oh glob," he said. His words were tainted with meekness. The hand retracted back to its owner and was embraced by the other hand. "That armor got me good," he said. "Uncle." He did several motions with hands to make sure his joints were still functional. "I actually mean it this time." He fell to the sand, laughing as if he was in a stupor.

At that point, the brothers forgot that they were simply testing the armor, leaving them to consider this a continuation of last night's fight. Finn felt a little guilty for using some random armor instead of his own strength, but a win was still a win. Finn laid down next to Jake, and they stared at the clouds.

"Jake."

"Yeah, buddy."

"Do you think I'm falling behind?"

"Huh?" Jake was just as puzzled as he was last night.

Finn tapped the sand around him and his face returned to the furious expression of last night. "Haven't you noticed it by now? Lately, I've been effortlessly tossed around by other fighters. Did you hear what happened yesterday? I tried fighting the marauder king."

"I'm guessing that didn't go well."

Finn scoffed. "Of course, it didn't."

"Why do care about your strength now? Before you fought that one wierdo a week back, you didn't care."

"By 'wierdo', you mean Red, right?" Finn's increase in anger was evident by his growl. "Those innocent people are dead because I wasn't able to finish him when I had the chance."

Jake stood up. "Come on, Finn. Cheer up, I know things look terrible now, but we've faced worse." Jake looked at the forest, and the pupils in his eyes shrunk with fear.

"Really?" Finn's doubt in Jake was apparent. "Then what are looking at?"

Finn turned around, and saw another of Red's smoke clouds. He considered it a blessing that it wasn't from the kingdom, but that did little to prevent his feeling of urgency. Finn bolted in the direction of the smoke, only for Jake to stop him.

"Let me go!" Finn squirmed in Jake's grasp.

"Look at how far that cloud is. We'll never make it in time."

Finn, forced to remain still, took a better look at his target. Jake was right, since the destroyed town was at least double the distance of the princess's castle. Feeling defeated, Finn released the tension present in his body. Finn sat down once more. Despite not having fought, he felt as though he was defeated again. Jake pat him on the back. The gesture wasn't much, but it did cushion the emotional blow. Before they knew it, Jake was sparring with Finn again. This time, rather than trying to prove one's strength, they sought to improve.