Tales of the Alternate Universe
Chapter Nineteen: The Crown
Even though there was cold all around her, she could still feel the burning stings of her wounds and bruises. No one would have expected her to survive, not even herself. Yet, if she could still hear the sound of worried voices gathering around her numb body, and the comforting hum of the stream that had carried her out of the woods, then that must mean something… Right?
Drown within a world of darkness, waiting for a stroke of reality to bring her back to life, the girl felt that she wasn't alone anymore. She was being held in a gentle and tender embrace. It made her feel safe and think of a long lost loved one, a woman with russet hair just like hers…
"Mom…?" Flanna found herself whispering in a barely audible voice.
As her vision sharpened, Hacksworth realized that the woman before her wasn't her mother. It wasn't hard for her to match that gentle lady's blonde hair with Finn's. The one who was holding her, was Mrs. Mertens.
"I'm sorry…I thought…" the red-haired girl apologized wearily with an embarrassed blush, which gave some color to her pale cheeks.
"Hush, it's okay…" Finn's mother smiled. "I don't really mind to be called like that. You were lucky we found you at the river bank… Your body was injured pretty badly, but we managed to take care of the worst wounds. Thankfully, none of your bones were broken and it was easy for us to bring you here, to safety. The cold would've killed you if our mule hadn't perceived your scent, Miss Hacksworth."
Flanna switched into a sit up position, causing Mrs. Mertens to stop embracing her. Every single muscle in her body pulsed painfully at the action, being her back, ribcage, and right leg the most torturing spots to cope with. But even though her wounds seemed bad enough, nothing could be compared to the horrors before her. The girl rubbed her green eyes as she stared with fear and bewilderment at the once peaceful blue skies of Junktown. Dark greyish clouds blinded the sun, towers of black smoke were still rising from the market, which was now nothing but ashes, and a green spectral explosion of howling ghouls stood menacingly in the horizon.
Were they living some kind of nightmare?
The red-haired girl lowered her gaze and studied her surroundings, fearing that probably everyone she had once known was already dead. Thankfully, her presentiment was wrong. She saw Choose Bruce, Mr. Mertens and Mr. Gibb sitting by a small fire, which they were using to keep themselves warm from the odd midsummer winter that was slowly raining upon the burnt town. Miss Tea Hanks wasn't very far from them, she was sitting near the fire while she rocked Finn's little sibling in her arms.
Flanna noticed with surprise that in a distant corner, resting against the debris of a fruit stall, were the four men that had caused her nothing but pain and sorrow since she first met them two years ago. Tromo, Trami, Trumo and Tremi were covering their shivering bodies with old torn blankets as their teeth chattered unstoppably and their running noses sneezed crazily every now and then. Archie and Mr. Trupp Blake were watching over them, holding their rifles in a firm position, just in case they'd need them.
"Please… call me Flanna." The girl replied humbly.
Mrs. Mertens nodded with a soft grin. "Very well."
"Flanna!" Miss Bonnibel arrived in a hurry, holding a bucket with water in her hands. The young teacher left the water aside and knelt to hug Flanna, who was still too confused to understand what was going on. "Flanna, dear! Thank goodness you're alive! I don't know what would I've—"
"Miss Bonnie what…what happened here?"
Bonnibel pulled away from the girl in her arms with a look of concern. "Flanna… Last night when you didn't show up, I began to believe that something bad had happened to you… I thought of the worst with the Destiny Gang wandering around, so I called Archie and Mr. Blake to help me search for you…"
"We couldn't find you…" Mr. Trupp Blake replied in the distance, "So the next morning, Miss Bonnibel went to…" he looked away in distress, "She went straight towards…"
"Towards us." Mrs. Mertens finished sternly. "She found my husband and asked him about you… He told her that we believed that you had arrived safely to her place, but since you didn't, my husband immediately returned home to alert Finn… There, he was ambushed by the Destiny Gang… I called Finn and asked him to sell the mule, so that we could pay to those thugs," the blonde woman continued, sending a glare to the four sneezing men in the corner. "But then…"
"But then that freak came into the market with a golden crown!" Tromo explained in an attempt to defend himself from everyone's hatred. "I just asked him to handle it to me politely, man, all I wanted was to see if it was my style…"
"And that's why you tossed it to Big-D?!" Tremi interjected, "You guys pissed Big-D off!" he yelled, pointing Tromo and Trami with his index finger. "And then the boss pissed the One-arm weirdo off as well! You guys are responsible for this mess!"
"Say that again, idiot!" Tromo replied, raising his fist.
"You guys pissed the whole world off!"
"That's it! Now you've done it!" Trami shouted as he leaped over his teammates, causing the four of them to start punching each other.
Mr. Trupp Blake gave Archie a puzzled look. "Shouldn't we…ummm…stop them?"
"Nah…!" the old grave keeper replied, "With enough luck, they might end up killing each other!" he chuckled.
Seeing that she wasn't going to get more information from the distracted townspeople, Flanna turned to Mrs. Mertens in search of more answers, but the poor woman's mind wasn't focused on their current situation either. She was just sitting on the ground with her tired watery eyes locked in the horizon.
"The D-Gang set it all on fire…" Choose Bruce's saddened voice echoed in response to the red-haired girl's silent distress. "And Finn confronted them, even if it was like walking on a high wire…"
"They…they set Junktown on fire?" Flanna mumbled, not being able to believe in the crying merchant.
"Yes, did they that and more…" Mrs. Mertens stared back at Flanna with a dreadful look in her eyes. "They trapped us inside our own house and let the fire run wild… The flames consumed everything we had, even our hopes in the future… As I listened to my baby cry, I noticed Finn coming on his mule in company of a weird old lady and his dog…"
"Finn… Where is Finn?" Hacksworth inquired with angst in her voice. "What happened to him…?"
"I-I don't know, I just remember… a golden crown…" Finn's mother reached out for her temple as she forced her memories to come afloat. "He put it on…and everything he used to be just…disappeared. The look in his eyes became so cold, it was an insane icy stare that will haunt me forever…!"
"W-what on earth did this?!"
"I did this..!" Finn claimed with pride.
"No, that's not possible… I raised you better than that!"
"I-it's true!" the boy replied, letting out a series of delirious guffaws.
"Haha…haha… hahaha!"
"Finn… Oh my Finn…" Mrs. Mertens sobbed, covering her face with her hands. "I can barely remember anything… First we were trapped in the fire and then Finn struck us with… an ice blast? Everything went dark and then the world was utterly destroyed… We noticed greenish flames, flickering in the grey wasteland that used to be our home… Our life…"
"How come something like this could have happened?" Miss Bonnibel muttered, clenching her teeth. "What destroyed the land?!"
"Finn said…" the farm boy's mother whispered. "Something about him…setting off a bomb…"
Flanna was barely conscious, but after listening to those words she instantly struggled to stand up, and stumble towards the deserted fields if she had to. She never imagined that something like this could happen, it was real. Everything about the crown was real…and the bomb. A bomb had just exploded. It was a miracle that the few villagers around her were still alive.
"F-Flanna, what'd you think you're doing?!" her ex-school teacher shrieked in desperation. "You're not in the proper condition to walk, you still need to rest!"
"No…" the girl whispered. "You don't understand… Everything is true…the crown… I must get to Finn's side before it consumes his soul! I gotta save him!"
"Flanna Hacksworth, sit down in this instant!" Bonnibel cried. "Can't you see it's too dangerous?!"
"Bartram…" Flanna said as her hand caressed the mule's nose gently, a piece of orange fabric was being held between his teeth. "That's from my dress… heh, so that's how you found me…"
"Right! I saw that mule climbing a tree while were leaving towards the market, did you see it Trumo?" the spiky-haired man chuckled as he lied on the ground, beaten up by his other thug fellows.
"Shut up, Tremi…" he muttered in exhaustion.
"It won't be hard for you to find him, right?" the russet-haired girl smiled and climbed over Bartram's back with a small hop. "Hurry, take me to Finn! He needs us!"
"Flanna…!" her teacher shouted in one last attempt to keep her safe.
"Let her go…" Mrs. Mertens whispered, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Finn reacted to his brother's crying…at least for a moment… Perhaps Flanna might be able to bring him back…"
"Bring him back?" Bonnibel asked intrigued, "Back from where…?"
"From 'Weirdo-Land'!" Tromo yelled, remembering his last encounter with the Mertens kid.
"Yeah man, I lost my shoe there…!" Trami added, as if anyone cared, "Oh and we left the boss behind too…"
"Mrs. Mertens, what's going on?" Miss Bonnibel demanded sternly.
"I believe it has something to do with…with that crown…"
x+x+x+x+x
Flanna raced through the dark wasteland with the help of the brown mule. She could clearly remember the written words in the back pages of the Enchiridion. It wasn't just mere casualty that she had ended up meeting that insane old woman, Marceline. Fate must have had something to do with their situation, perhaps she was meant to save Finn just like he had saved her in the past. Flanna could only hope...
The crown…the crown is evil, and its evil has now corrupted my very soul…
You must never wear it, Marceline… You must never let anyone wear it…
Bartram released a powerful bray after the girl on his back kicked his sides in an attempt to raise his running speed up. Finding Finn as soon as she could was now everything for her. Even if she felt like fainting in any second, even if her open wounds and bones hurt like hell, even if the cold was driving her mad. Finn would do the same for her… Flanna would never doubt about it.
"Whoa! Hold it there, you!" a nearby voice shouted, causing Flanna to pull Bartram's ears and force him to stop his running abruptly.
The mule fell onto the frozen ground along with his rider. The red-haired girl shivered and moaned with anger as she struggled to get up once again.
"Who said that?!" she screamed furiously, "Why did you stop us?!"
"I was just trying to save your life… Firefly…"
Encased within an ice mound, with his legs and hands completely immobilized, lied the leader of the Destiny Gang. He grinned cockily despite of his poor condition, but he didn't speak with the same energy and brute strength that his words always used to carry whenever he confronted his victims.
"You…" Flanna hissed with hatred. Her shaky hand got a hold of a rock, which she wasn't going to hesitate to use on him. "This is all YOUR fault!" she yelled as she loomed over him.
"Heh….yeah… Come to Big Destiny while he's defenseless... Kill me now and get your revenge. Heal the wounds I've caused you, Firefly… What are you waiting for?"
Hacksworth raised the rock over his head menacingly. "You and your gang ruined this town! You ruined my father, and drove him to evil! It was because of you that I almost died last night!" Angry tears leaked out of her exhausted eyes. "Because of you, Finn was forced to get that dammed crown! Because of you Finn is in grave danger! I-I should just kill ya now!"
Big Destiny was right, why was she waiting? She could make him pay for her pain, satisfy her thirst for justice with a single blow. But would it be justice after all? Killing a man... Was she seeking for revenge? Wouldn't that level her with Big Destiny or her evil family? No. She had made a decision. Flanna tightened her grip on the rock and struck it with all her might against the hopeless man. However, the rock didn't hit his head as the stylish thug had expected. It just hit the ice encasing his frozen body, breaking it apart and setting him free.
"W-why…?" Big-D stammered after landing on the ground.
"Because… I'm sick of being surrounded by evil all the time…" Flanna replied dully, "I don't wanna become a part of it…"
She tossed the rock away and continued her way towards the threatening column of green mutagen gases, emerging before her in the form of doomed crying ghosts.
"Hold on, Firefly!" Big Destiny cried, "There's a Big Ugly Monster! You go there, you die! It-it's not worth the crown!"
Flanna stopped her limping pace and turned around to face him, still leaning weakly on Bartram's side. "I don't care about the stupid crown…! I'm going after someone I really care about… It's something someone like you would never understand, I want to save Finn… I need him…"
"You mean that…you are like in love with that weird one-armed fella…?" the orange-haired man chuckled in amusement. "Humph... Then I'm coming with ya."
"Why?" the girl asked harshly. Big Destiny couldn't be up to any good.
"Because when an even worse enemy appears, we bad guys must rise against it and taste the flavor of the heroic side…!" Big-D crossed his arms and turned his gaze away, "It's just an instinct of survival, okay?! We need to unite forces if we wanna get out of this one alive! Then, I'll get my revenge against One-arm and you!"
An odd compassionate smile was drawn on Flanna's face after listening to Big Destiny's proud words. "Call it whatever you want… I'm still glad to fight with somebody by my side, even if it's you…"
"Humph! Yeah, whatever!" Big Destiny grinned.
Update: Grammar checked and corrected.