Hello once more and thanks for your patience.

This chapter is a little longer than I would have liked, so sorry for the long read, I try to keep the below 5000 words due to it becoming very cumbersome to read it all in one go, also makes it more difficult to go over multiple times for spelling and grammar mistakes - but anyway here it is at last.

(Read/Review and as always enjoy.)

Chapter Fourteen: The End Times.

They arrived at the castle hours ago. Citizens flocked to the street, eager to see and greet their princess and hero's return back home, even so late at night, just as everyone was getting ready to sleep. Banana guards stood in formation being the barrier between the crowds and the arrivals, leaving them a clear path straight from the city gates to the castle entrance. At first the crowd cheered both sides of the path, it soon fell to muttering and silence amongst themselves. It was tattooed on all three of their faces, impossible to miss that they'd seen the devil and there was no victory won – nothing to celebrate.

The people dispersed, not knowing what else to do as the three made their way inside the castle. That night they took a well deserved rest, though even with the enticement of Bubblegum's formula to help aid them to doze-off, they mostly still struggled to find solace. Jake was knocked-out after the miles of walking it took to get here along with taking Bubblegum's mixture.

Bubblegum sought solitary in her quarters next-door. One thing she had in common with Marceline: she hated showing her feelings deep down in front of others. Finn could hear her weeping through the walls in the night, cursing to herself in that language which was alien to him, yelling through her muffled cries into a pillow as to why her formula was yet to work.

Finn found himself in a similar state, though he wept more quietly. Curled up on the bed he kept closing his eyes wishing when he opened them next Marceline would be there beside him. He couldn't stop thinking of all the loopholes, all the things he could have done to make everything different. And how could he sleep when he didn't the definitive answer to his question: was she still alive? He wanted to believe, making up so many scenarios as to how she could have gotten away. She's a survivor; if anyone could do it, it is her.

Still, there was the underlying fact that she wasn't right next to him right now that plagued and tormented his mind. Without evidence, dead or alive he'd never be at peace. These unanswered thoughts took him into the early hours of the morning, tossing and turning in cold sweats and heartache, a fire burning in his stomach, keeping him awake, telling him he needed to get up now and go find her. It was a rough night till his brain gave in to the fatigue, allowing him to drift to sleep.

They slept in till nine. Finn only got to sleep at five, a respectable yet lacking four hours. None of them wanted to waken. Knowing Bubblegum she adhered to her duties being the most prudent. She wanted sleep as much as they did; the extra hours wouldn't be worth it in the long run. They had a task at hand that couldn't be ignored or pushed aside till later notice.

She yawned stepping into their given room for the night next door to hers. They were still sound asleep but there was work to be done. "...Up guys – c'mon..." She wasn't very enthusiastic, though who could blame her; her kingdom and home threatened, the loss of a dear friend. She opened up the curtains letting the sunlight breach in, though she forgot in her tired manner as Finn hissed and moaned in discomfort as he fell off the bed cocooning himself in covers. Shutting the curtains she rushed to a light switch, flicking it on, then to him. "Glob, Finn you okay? Sorry it just slipped my mind."

Jake had just got up only due to the commotion. He rubbed his eyes awake, "Hey, everything all right?"

Finn hushed both their concerns, "I'm good – I'm good, it just burns a little. Are the curtains closed yet?" Speaking through his teeth as it still lightly singed the exposed skin.

"Yeah I already got them closed, you can come out whenever you feel better." He popped his head out at her word to make absolute sure, once he saw it was only artificial light he unravelled himself from the covers.

He felt like crap, but what else was there to do, "Shall we get going to you lab then Peebles?" Jake hopped out of bed stretching himself out behind them as Finn spoke.

"Yeah, guess we better get to it bright and early." She let out a unenthusiastic chuckle. The princess usually couldn't wait to get down to her lab a begin working on some intricate or insane science project. This time it was all different to the point were she didn't want to go down there at all, but was obligated to. Now it felt like a chore more than a hobby.

One: she had no idea what she needed to do and hated that. She hated it because the universe is filled with infinite possibility and potential to create; when she doesn't have an idea, a plan, or project in mind it just feels like her brain is meddling with her, wasting her time and potential.

Two: it was the reason she had to go to the lab. It wasn't out leisure or desire to create, to let her mind run wild and her hands play with the deadly tools. She was going there because she had no choice. Her mind was her best weapon to use against that monster. She was doing this to protect her people, save her friends, and what worried her was the most important factor – revenge.

Arriving at the lab, the place was still a wreck from when they ventured to the Night-O-Sphere. The nostalgic thoughts struck her guts, it made her want Marceline back more. The boys stood behind her, awaiting their orders. She could only think of petty tasks to give them as she herself didn't know were to start.

"Jake go dig through that pile over there, if something looks useful throw it on that desk and I'll look at it later." She went back to standing around looking puzzled while Jake partook in his task.

"...And me Peebles?" Finn asked waiting patiently, veins flowing full with the desire for payback, and these were the first steps to getting it; unlike Bubblegum however he was more keen and open to them seeing this, he wanted them to see it.

"Oh-yes... um... Finn you can help me brainstorm ideas." It was all she could think of doing to get her mind into gear. Finn was a creative young man, maybe he could be a major asset to her thought process.

Finn on the other hand wasn't as on board with that idea, he was more along the thought process of, "...Uh-yeah... um – brainstorming's good and all but I was thinking more along the lines of what I can use for a weapon, you know, with my sword missing..." He tried letting her down politely, oddly enough that was just what she needed, a task to branch from. 'First I'll furbish Finn with a knew weapon then I'll go from there.'

"Yes Finn of course, you need to be able to defend yourself with a tool you are familiar with. I don't think I'll have too much to your liking in here, I'll get Peppermint to bring in some stockpiled weaponry."

He nodded, walking around inspecting the room in his wait. Bubblegum rang Peppermint Butler (The castle was so large it would be counter-productive to do otherwise.) and informed him of the materials needed.

The gears in her head were now turning, she drifted to a clear desk, pulling up a seat with her notepad out on the table. On went the oval glasses, pen at the ready she begun the hypothesise on how to improve their combat effectiveness based on the encounter in the Badlands.

For starters was protection. Even with strength in numbers on their side, the Lich is still stronger than all three of them combined, they are no match for him in that playing field.

The key to victory is endurance, to drag out and tire the Lich; use his cocky, hot-headed attitude against him, make him do all the fighting.

His preferable form to fight is with his fireballs, though he is still a formidable opponent up close. Fire retardant or heat absorbent padding would allow them to soak up his hits if they were to come in contact; come to think of it, she did have plans and schematics somewhere for a portable kinetic shield generator. In theory it should be able to withstand the explosive force comparative to two kilograms of dynamite and heat above seven-hundred Celsius.

Keeping the Lich stunned was a secondary priority. It will allow them to converge on him at the same time or fall back and regroup to assess their situation. The stun grenades she haphazardly made in her quarters before worked perfectly, she was also willing to try out making a mark two variant of the Discomblabual-rifle; overall she'd just over-clock its energy input regulators and triple the frequency it emitted, a bigger battery pack would be needed.

The problem she faced was the decision:

To kill the Lich murdering Hunson in the process, if any of him was left.

Or to incapacitate and hold him prisoner until they find a way to remove the Lich from Hunson.

Both were brought their own set of problems. The immorality of killing Hunson in the crossfire. Being able to keep the Lich suppressed until detained in a chamber. Could she even kill him? Nothing was factually clear. This remained undecided for the time being.

Conveniently enough there was three knocks on the door, Peppermint let himself in with a rectangular crate filled with several unique swords was all he could manage carrying. He dropped down the crate, "A assortment of the finest weaponry I could muster under such short notice master Finn." He presented to the boy.

"Thanks Pep-Butt." The rock candy butler disapproved of that nickname, Finn would call him PB but that would only get confusing.

Peppermint walked over to the princesses desk, attending to her notes she didn't recognise he was there. He caught her attention standing right up beside the desk. "Do you have any further request princess?" He asked humbly.

"Oh-uh no thank you. That will be all for now." She smiled as she dismissed him.

"Righty-oh then. Call me if you need me, I'll stand at the ready." He respectfully bowed before taking a step back and out of the room.

Finn acquainted himself with sword-after-sword left in the crate. All ranging in the different varieties, colours, shapes, sizes. He sighed, none felt right. They were all either too heavy for swift motions or too light and flimsy to do any deep piercing cuts. The Demon Blood Sword was perfect – it was supposed to be wielded with two hands on the grip, however from the moment he picked it up he became accustomed to its weight. It was heavy being a two-handed weapon but not top heavy, the weight was centred at the cross above the hilt, still making it manoeuvrable. Plus it was more than that, the weapon simply felt perfect in his hand, the firm leather grip felt like skin, the whole weapon felt like an extension of himself.

In the end he had to pick something, there was no getting his sword back. One did stick out amongst the rest, a (almost) standard steel longsword, a bit clumsy but had more pros than cons. It was one of the sharpest blades from the bunch, one of its sides had ten or so serrated teeth towards the blades point, certainly wasn't a weapon you could blunt or dent easily.

Bubblegums mind was running dry again, propping her head up off the desk with her hand, tapping the side of her temple with four fingers, watching Jake dig through old projects of hers, walking back and fourth to place what looked useful or even working on another desk. Gazing idly, something did catch her eye on that desk, it had been sitting there the entire time, completely forgotten that she ever made it.

On the desk remained the reactor, coil and battery – the junk she toyed around with due to an abundance of spare time waiting for Marceline before they arrived in the Night-O-Sphere. At the time of making it, finding out what it could do, she paid little attention to its capabilities. It was able to draw in other sources of electricity around it, demonstrated by its involuntary victims, the dangling ceiling lights, absorbing their electrons.

Birthing the idea: if she could modify such a device, or a similar one to absorb more than just electrons and, say, the Lich's energy, it could be a perfect weapon to deprive him of his powers. Though she hadn't a clue on what source of energy the Lich stimulated himself on. She devoted any further time into researching this.

The Lich, waiting on the word of this informant his servant spoke of, passed the hours stood on a balcony, overlooking the realm, reconstructing the Night-O-sphere into his own ideal image. It was slow work, he wasn't completely in tune with Hunsons god-like gifts, yet. The more he practised, the more in tune he became. Slowly rivers of flowing lava became toxic waste, geysers erupted shooting up acids, creating clouds of noxious chemicals into the air already full of ash, the land of brimstone and obsidian terraformed into brittle dusted grey stone. Any population of stray demons, wildlife or anything sentient for that matter close to the fortress fled or died trying; he created a no-man's land.

His servant, only still alive due to remaining inside, poked his head through the door, holding his breath, the air on its own irritated his skin. He quickly spoke to shorten his exposure. "Master, sorry to bother you, may I speak with you inside..." Expelling his lungs to word that sentence, he whipped his head back inside to take in another lungful of air.

The Lich grunted at the bother, enjoying his work, almost like he was orchestrating nature in front of him, he gratified to the servants request. Walking inside. "Why is it you bother me?" The Lich continued to familiarise himself with Hunson's abilities, levitating the demon against his will to bring them eye level so he needn't look down.

"You asked me to fetch information from our informant..." He quaked out.

He paused, tilting his eyes towards his brow in thought, before he recollected, "Ah yes, so I did. Doesn't time fly – and?"

"...a-uh... oh, he-um, didn't have anything to report..." The Lich let him hear a deep growl of disappointment, drawing their faces closer.

"-y-yet!" He stuttered out, "He d-doesn't have anything to report yet. But he will, I'm sure of it!" His eyes were stitched shut momentarily remembering to breath through his teeth to sway against passing out; fearing what his master planned on doing to him next. He unexpectedly felt his feet plant on the ground, weak at the knees he fell back with a gasp full of relief.

"For your sake, you better hope he tells us something soon..." The Lich left at that, going back through the door to the balcony. The servant's body shook, he always feared Hunson rightfully so, but never was he this aggressive towards him. The impish demon knew something was wrong with this behaviour, though he wouldn't dare question it. He preyed the informant would have something useful to tell him.

A good hour went into Bubblegums studies on the Lich and his potential power source. Only one answer kept brushing up. As suspected it before she believed she had found it – radiation. His body had fully adapted to thriving on heavily dosed radioactive materials, not too surprising considering if the history is correct he was comprised from the impact of a specialised nuclear bomb. Finn and Jake sat around with nothing further to contribute after Jake finished up digging through the scraps and Finn gave a few practise swings around the room to get a feel for the sword while Bubblegum studied.

They stood alert again once Bubblegum finally risen from her seat. "So you finally figured out that idea?" Jake asked, noticing her get up for the first time since she sat at the desk.

"I believe so, I may have a way to deprive the Lich of his powers while also making him weak enough for us to capture him." She had their attention; walking over to the device. "If I could modify this contraption which currently seeks to draw in external sources of electrons to draw in alpha radiation particles instead, it should rip them out of his body before he can make use of their energy. He not only uses radioactive matter for his abilities, he uses it to fuel his lifespan. Deprived from a radiation source his life will dwindle the longer he is separated from it thus making him weaker." The two appeared dumbfounded, in need of a simplified explanation.

She huffed in disappointment to their lack of knowledge or even understanding and tried breaking it down into something more basic, "Imagine he's a nuclear reactor-"

"What's nuclear?" Finn interjected before she continued.

Pinching her eyebrows she pushed on, "Just imagine he's a reactor, okay? A reactor needs a fuel to run efficiently at optimal levels, if that fuel is taken away before it can be used up the reactor's power will slowly run dry and shut down, or in his case – die." She noticed his expression hadn't changed much from before, she gave up trying to explain how it worked, "To sum it up, it's an Anti-Lich-Device; he comes close to it he'll be powerless." Finn finally nodded in approval.

"Sweet idea." Jake praised, she nodded back in appreciation. "But can you get it to work?"

"Shouldn't be too difficult, however it's gonna take some time and field testing to be at it's best." About to work, she noticed them hanging around, "Are you both done?"

"I sorted through the junk and stuff, Finn found a sword. We've kinda been done for some time now. Anything else you need us to do?"

She looked around the room to encourage some idea, there wasn't really any further suitable tasks for them, "I-uh think I've got things from here, how about you two visit home seeing as it's been awhile. Check back here tomorrow, I should have it ready to test this by then."

"Sure thing Peebles, we'll drop by the fort then. See you tomorrow." She waved them off before getting back to work. Peppermint Butler escorted them out.

By the time they left it was midday. Finn had to wear a tightly buttoned-up hooded cloak, (which looked like and ominous raincoat to an outsider unaware of its purpose) to travel safely in daylight hours. It shared similarities to the old tattered one riddled with sand collected in its threading he travelled with throughout the Badlands. The current replacement thankfully was made of a less coarse material, almost like he was wrapped up in thick brisk bedsheets; also was dyed a pleasant light blue to refract the suns rays. (Or so he was told by Bubblegum.)

Instead of sheathed on his back Finn thought it would be best to carry the sword in hand along their journey to become more acquainted with its size and weight; it still had a holster placed over it so any passers by wouldn't feel intimidated or think of him as some sort of wild bandit. Every new weapon a person wields always feels far more clunky and cumbersome than the last, regardless of the size difference or even type; Finn was no exception to this. The Demon Blood Sword was the only one he could say felt right the moment he took it in hand, like all the practice and experience he had with all his previous bladed companions bound into one weapon.

"Hey, so Finn... how you holding up buddy?" Jake broke the mutual silence to ask, seeing no better time to get him alone.

"Sigh. Okay, what's bringing this up?" Finn was behaving rather defensive to such a innocuous question.

In truth Jake did ask out of other reasoning than brotherly concern. He was sceptical of how Finn was acting. He was so tame about this whole mess; Bubblegum at least had her reasoning, she is in charge and controls her emotions in time of crisis. He knew Finn wasn't like that at all, he took control of his emotions by expressing them, not caging them up.

Jake didn't want to let him on to his suspicions, he tried to mislead him, "You know what's bringing this up. Your just a bit quite, you-know? Its weird to not hear you say anything about what happened. Look I just want to make sure you are doing good, if you wanna talk then I'm listening."

Finn remained straight faced, "...I appreciate that Jake, but I've got nothing to say. We got a task to see through and that's that. We're going to find her. We're going to find Marceline and cut up that bastard who put us through all this."

Finn had a glare in his eye, what Jake worried about in the first place, Finn was to caught up in the idea of vengeance that nothing else mattered so long as he achieved it. And the way he talked about Marceline, like she was undoubtedly alive. What would he do if she really was gone; he was dangerously obsessed. He didn't want to call him out on it, at least not now. Another time after they rest, but he had to get Finn seeing straight again or he could get himself killed.

Jake kept quite and left it at that, he heard all he needed to hear.

Entering the shade cast from the ancient willow tree itself, Finn lowered his hood only to be wearing his bear hat regardless. The two stood underneath their home at the front door, they thought they'd never see this place again after all they been through; it hadn't changed much really, that made them happy in some homesick sense.

Opening the door, light shining in, the air was visibly filled with traces of dust unsettled by the fresh air convecting inside the inhabitance. Jake stepped in first whispering rather loudly, defeating the purpose, "Beemo? Beemo you here? It's us Finn and Jake." There was a subtle echo in the very bottom treasure room of the house due to it being the tallest room. Listening, they could hear small tapping against the floorboards above them coupled with another sound growing in strength as it got closer. A dim neon-blue light presented from the open hatch atop of the ladder, like the noise the light grew as it came closer.

It sounded like a extended 'aaaaaay' with some jolliness put into. Now it was at full audio as the tapping stopped and the light shined down from the hatch like a box shaped torch. His prolonged 'Yay' came to a stop as he poked his head (technically half his body) down to see them. He shouted down as excitedly as his emotional replicators could crank out through the speakers at full volume, "Finn! Jake! I'm so happy to see you back!"

"Beemo! We're so glad to see you too! Sorry we were gone for so long." Jake responded up to the console. He didn't explain much as to why he left in the first place, he only mentioned he was going out to find Finn and bring him home. Jake still thought it would be best to leave Beemo out on some of the details, and Finn followed his lead on this.

They both climbed the ladder to accompany their robotic companion in the lower lounge. If Beemo's legs had the power to jump high enough, he'd leap at the hero with open arms, instead he had to settle with hugging his shin. And then the curious questions started, "Finn I missed you! Where did you go for so long? What were you doing? And why are you so pale?"

Jake stepped in to save Finn from the moment, "Beemo I know you're excited but let Finn at least settle down first, it's been a long walk." That'll at least buy Finn some time to consider some excuses.

"Oh, okay then" Beemo emoted a glum expression on his screen.

"Sorry Beemo, I missed you too, and it's good to see you again. Its just I'm a bit tired as all." He apologised. Beemo nodded as understanding.

In truth he was tired, with his body clock topsy-turvy and barely getting any sleep last night. He released the clasp on the shoulder of his cloak, letting it glide off and down his back as he walked towards the couch to take the weight of his feet, resting the sword up against the arm of the couch. Jake took Beemo's attention away from Finn, asking him if anything happened while they where gone. Left to his own thoughts, blocking out the sounds outside his head, he could only think of her. The good times, the terrible times. Mixtures of anger, sadness and happiness, he couldn't decide which to settle on. Overall it drove him mad not knowing how or where she is, part of him having self-doubts treating her like she was dead, he just wanted her back. He would do anything; nothing else mattered so long as he had her back.

"...Finn"

The call of his name brought him back to his senses. He felt tired still, but woke up sharp, he must have dozed of momentarily there.

Jake was beside him,"Yo, Finn, Bubblegum called she said to come to the Candy Kingdom immediately, she finished up on that power-drainer-thingy and wants us to be there when she tests it." He explained.

Finn got up to stretch. "That was quick, its only been like what - an hour since we left her."

"Six actually, you fell asleep dude." He corrected.

"Oh dang, I only closed my eyes for a second." Finn was surprised, though then again not really, he now certainly found it easier to sleep in daylight hours, that being first nature to him.

"It's no worries, lets go see what she's got and you can rest up some more after we get back." He proposed.

"Yeah, sure." Finn Picked up his cloak, reattaching it over his shoulders – and sword he now placed on his back not bothering to burden his arm again on the return trip.

"See you soon Beemo, we'll be back shortly." Jake announced before climbing down the ladder.

"Yeah see ya Beemo. I promise we'll talk some more when I get back." Finn said before following Jake.

"Bye Finn. Bye Jake. Have a safe trip!" Beemo replied before the door slammed shut downstairs.

The sun was dim, he could hardly feel or notice its presence, however Finn was getting used to this whole cloak routine and still wore it buttoned-up and covered as if it was early afternoon. Their return took them as long as the previous trip leaving, slightly faster as Finn rested up his energy earlier. Jake on the other hand forced himself to keep up with the revitalised hero as he himself had to drag out the day awake, not given the luxury of further sleep.

Once the two entered the castle for the second time this day, Peppermint Butler awaited their return behind the castle doors ready to escort them to Bubblegums whereabouts – it being inside her testing chamber. Neither Finn or Jake could recall if they have ever seen this 'testing chamber' or even if the princess had mentioned it at some point. Arriving at the basement floors where the labs and workshops were located, where they hung around earlier this morning, this testing chamber was just one of the many doors along the wall, they even walked past it when coming down here with PB.

The first door Peppermint opened was just a guise appearing as any other, behind it was a narrow rectangular room with a second blast door which looked far before its time. He hopped up on a conveniently left stool for him to stand upon in order to input a four-digit code into the keypad on the wall, the reinforced door unlatched and slowly swung open, its hinges creaked uncomfortably holding up its enormous weight. Stepping inside they found themselves in a completely different world. The architecture no longer belonged to the Candy Kingdom, this place pre-dated it vastly and looked nothing alike the rest of the city, biggest clue: it wasn't constructed from hardened candy.

The walls of the hallways were rounded into arch shapes; staring down to the end of the hall it looked like they were in an oval tube. The concrete walls accompanied inch thick cables running up and along their curvature (some of which also hung from the ceiling) and olive green steel beams bended to fit in and support their shape. The place was dead silent with the exception of footsteps; following Peppermint they kept passing more blast doors sealed shut with large yellow numbers boldly painted above them till they arrived to where Bubblegum was situated. The old mint opened yet another blast door announcing their arrival to the princess, "As you requested, here they are princess." before he tuned and left them to business.

Bubblegum, with a pen and notepad in hand, turned to greet them. "Thanks Peppermint. Hey guys, I think I got it to work in a functional state, though I'm only sixty-three percent sure about that... So I brought it in here to save the risk of creating a giant crater one third the size of my castle and kingdom." Her light-hearted laugh wasn't exactly settling. "How's the cloak Finn?"

"It's fine thanks Peebles, very comfortable. Uh.. where exactly is here?" Finn curiously asked, gazing up and around the room as he walked inward with Jake. The room was fairly large, it had allot of old rusted-dusted up tech and equipment, mostly computer screens. fixed in hardware with panels full of important looking buttons and switches and lights and dials; it had a fair share of old and new wiring crossing around to the still operable gizmo's. It looked like some sort of control room; most notable thing was the huge pane of glass opposite the door, built in at a angle looking down on a circular pit. At the centre of that pit was PB's device sat alone on a table with a wire hooked up to it leading out of the chamber.

"Oh this place? It's a pre-war bunker I built the kingdom on top of. Thought it be useful in case our civilizations became technologically superior once more and came to the same demise as the last. Though I only use it to test out seriously dangerous or unpredictable creations of mine, down there in what was a missile silo." She pointed out with her pen.

Finn took a step towards the glass in order to see all the way from the bottom to the top of the silo, they where averagely four stories high from the base, "Whoa, they kept missiles in these rooms? They must have been huge."

"So-uh, you said this is where you test the dangerously-unpredictable stuff, are we just gonna stand in here while it does its, you-know, thing?" Jake was uncertain about this predicament.

Bubblegum nodded with a- "Mmm-hmm." not really giving him back much assurance.

"-and you're sure the glass window looking directly at it is enough to keep us safe?"

"Well safe... no-but wouldn't you agree its more reassuring having it there than not? Besides the statistics are on our side, have a little faith in me." Bubblegum seemed content with her work, though she had to be with all the crazy stuff she made.

"Faith... right..." Jake still wasn't as convince as she, he stood behind Finn for comfort.

"Well lets get this done, the sooner the better. Finn step back from the glass, you can watch through the monitor." She pointed up at the only working CCTV monitor on the ceiling, it had a feed directly into the silo, though wasn't clear of static.

Nerves ran through them like a current for contradicting reasons, the excitement yet fear of the unknowing, this is what Bubblegum must feel almost everyday. She positioned herself at the waist high control panel, flipping two switches which gave the device power. "Okay. So far so good. Now to initiate primary functions..." Cranking up a lever, pushing down a button and suddenly the seemingly peaceful mechanism jolted in its spot, violently vibrating on its surface, "...No... no-no-no..." Bubblegum quickly gauged down the power input in hope to level out the performance - not a difference, she resorted in cutting of its power. Still nothing. "Guys get away from the glass!" She yelled running back to the other side of the room.

The device hit its peek, unable to contain its pent up energy any longer discharging it outwards in all directions, shattering the glass pane in the room.

Not much severe damage was done, it being placed down in an old missile silo, though it did overload many of the electrics inside the control room and amongst itself. After everything settled Bubblegum got up to look down from the window to see her device in smokes.

"Is it okay?" Jake thought to ask.

She observed down the pit. "Thankfully its not as bad as I thought, at least as far as I can tell from here. Just looks like most of the wiring melted and needs replacing along with a few other components, but it should be good. I'll have to rework majority of it anyway so its not all bad. Hey, could have been allot worse, right?" The two stood their with little to respond,

"Anyway, my plan was to see if this worked and if it did, we'd make another plan to assault the Night-O-Sphere. As you can see both those plans will have to wait till I'm done with this first, probably be set back a couple more days. Sorry for wasting your time coming here guys, you can stay for the night if you wish."

"Nah I think we're good getting back. Besides Beemo just got excited seeing us again, I don't think he'll be too happy if we were gone another night." Jake explained.

"Okay then. I'll give you a call again when its done, for real this time." Giving an apologetic shrug.

"Sure thing."

"S-s-sire?"

A meek voice called from behind his throne. "Hmm?" Was all he grunted out in response, too busy, or more like hypnotised, staring into his ignited palm with the green glowing well as backdrop to this trance he induced upon himself.

The impish demon came to the Lich's side, curious to get a better sight on what he was doing hunched over like that. Unsure of what he was witnessing he got on with the message. "The informant has contacted me."

His absent, dead eyes suddenly lit up with with a green flicker again; snuffing out the flame by scrunching up a fist till it was smoke. Life and emotion reappeared back to his face with a grin. "Go on..."

The demon wasted no time getting to the point. "Oh-um he said they are constructing some sort of weapon, he isn't certain on details, only that it will drain you of your powers."

This information didn't seem to phase him much. He dissected his words, "You say 'constructing', is it not yet finished?"

"It was meant to be, however they ran into some problems."

He lifted from his seat, with a new task to fulfil today. "They're acting smarter than I anticipated, planning to weaken me instead of a simple direct attack. Maybe I was wrong to underestimate them... Oh well, looks like I'll have to amp up my schedule." Two paces back and fourth between the room of him monologuing with an audience, he stopped at the moment he came to a conclusion of thought, he knew what had to be done. Retreating from his quarters with haste, he called back to the servant, "Keep me in the loop with the informant, I want to know their progress on this little toy they expect to beat me with."

"Yes master... uh-where are you going now?" He asked before the Lich removed himself from the room.

"I have preparations of my own that need attending..."

Its all coming to an end...