Tales of the Alternate Universe

Final Chapter: Prismo

Clutching his knees onto his chest, the prince sunk himself into the depths of his desperate mind. When everything was going just perfect for him and his princess a new nuisance appeared, it was like if universe just wanted to tear them apart and he needed to know why. Why couldn't they just be united if they loved each other so deeply? What kind of sick game were the deities playing with them?

The Ice Prince knew that he wanted to keep Flame Princess by his side forever; he hated the idea of sending her with the other fire elementals, they were such a despicable race and his princess wasn't like them at all. She was different, that's why he didn't mind to deal with her flames. Besides, what was that Flame King going to do with her? If she was such a threat to the world with her unstable emotions, then the most obvious thing to do was for him to lock her away from the rest of the world. It didn't matter if Princess Bubblegum or Joshua tried to allege something different, the Ice Prince was sure as hell that Flame Princess was going to suffer a great deal in that horrible blazing kingdom.

On the other hand, that golden dog said that he was putting Flame Princess' life in danger by keeping her with him. Why was that? They could perfectly take care of each other; all they had to do was to avoid physical contact and emotional bursts between each other, which was pretty much the same as not having her by his side…

The silver-haired sorcerer sighed sorrowfully; the cold and horrendous truth was that neither one of those two options could bring them happiness. The demon spirit was right, he had risked too much only to lose it all in the end… Her words echoed in his mind: "Careful icy prince, you're playing with fire here… a rebirthing spell has many implications; that's too much rules to break, too much fates to change and too much tears to shed…"

"This wasn't meant to happen…" the Ice Prince sobbed silently "I shouldn't have brought her back to life, she doesn't have a place in this world… The only thing I've earned from this was to condemn her to a new life of pain and misery… I-I'm the only one who's responsible for this mess! If only I hadn't been so selfish! This was a mistake! Everything I've done in my worthless life is a mistake!"

Now there wasn't anything that he could do to mend his errors, thinking it over, Flame Princess would live better in the Fire Kingdom, even if that meant a lifetime of sadness for her. If she stayed with him there was no way for him to assure that she was going to be safe, he loved her way too much and that could kill her. It was as cruel as it sounds; the world was never fair with him… never…

The prince stepped outside and glanced at the flickering bonfire before him, his decision was made. He'd sent Flame Princess to the Fire Kingdom; it was the best he could do for her, he didn't want to see her die.

Some silent flames swirled out of the burning wood without the Ice Prince noticing them; they morphed back into the fiery princess' humanoid figure, then she slowly walked to his side and asked in curiosity…

"Can't sleep?"

Her voice ringed in his ears causing him to reel back in surprise, the Ice Prince glanced at her while a wild turmoil of contradictory emotions raged inside him. On one side, he felt really irritated; she was last person he wanted to see in that moment, wasn't she supposed to be sleeping? Why did she always have to be so unsubordinated?! Geez, sometimes she was worse than Jake…! But on the other side, the prince had found some relief upon seeing her smile and shine as bright as she always did. He admired her carefree features as a sensation similar to that of being awakened from a nightmare and finding out that the world wasn't such a scary place, struck his chest.

"What are you doing awake? I told you to go to sleep…!" the wizard reproached faking anger.

The Princess stared down at the ground while her hands played nervously with her long orange skirt "Well it's just that… Jake used to waddle around my house the whole night, and since you sent him to the castle I was feeling…kinda lonely…" she stared back at him, her amber eyes full of hope "Can I stay with you tonight? I-it'll only be for one night…"

The Ice Prince blinked in astonishment; of all the things that Flame Princess could have asked him that night, why did she have to come up with such a request? That was exactly why he had chosen to send her away from him; he couldn't deny her anything. What he was about to do was perfectly reckless and he knew it well. But it was so damn easy to fall into temptation… it was so easy for him to be seduced by her innocence… it was so easy to forget that his feelings for her could destroy the world…

With a soft smile, the prince reached out for his princess' hand and held it up, gesturing an imaginary kiss "It would be an honor to share a night with you, my love…"

"Thank you, Ice Prince…" Flame Princess' cheeks displayed a light blush as she glanced at the metal "hand" holding hers, she was somewhat tired of imaginary kisses and wondered what would happen if she did something about it "You know, I… I wouldn't mind to…feel a little bit of pain from time to time…"

"Me neither…" the Ice Prince replied as he abandoned his grip on her hand.

The fiery girl was slightly startled when she felt the prince's mechanic hand on her cheek. She had only suggested him to kiss her hand, but he was going for something else. His hand was slowly pulling her face towards his. Defeated by her own cravings, the princess closed her eyes and let herself drift into her prince's frozen lips. The icy monarch did the same, after all, how could something that felt so right be so wrong? Why should he believe in what that dog said? Since when had he started to care about others or the world itself? He was the Ice Prince, nothing could impede him from getting what he wanted, and right there, right at that moment, he wanted one single thing… He wanted her…

But what if he loses the only person he truly loves? The idea of watching Flame Princess explode and the drag the entire world with her scared him to death; his fear of losing her was so powerful that it even managed to stop their lips from meeting. No matter how much he wanted to merge with her that night, letting her fiery passion melt his body down, in the end his desires were nothing more than selfish wishes… they were nothing more than mistakes.

"No… this is wrong…" the Ice Prince gasped pulling away from the flaring princess "It's a mistake…"

Flame Princess stared at his grieving features feeling a mixture of fear and confusion "Why…? What's a mistake…?" she attempted to reach out for his hand, but her prince moved away from her touch.

The bluish lad tensed his jaw as his whole body trembled in angst "You… You are my greatest mistake…"

He didn't give her time to react, cry or feel betrayed by his cold revelation. A quick strike from his flesh hand diminished her body's temperature just enough to make her lose her consciousness, but not to kill her. Flame Princess collapsed in his arms letting the prince capture her in a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry…" he whispered in her ear as his tears soaked his cheeks "It's not your fault… You never asked for this, I did…"

x+x+x+x+x

Princess Bubblegum climbed the staircase leading to her bedroom and reached the edge of her bed with an exhausted sigh. It had been a long day for her, chasing runaway cats and cleaning Cinnamon Bun's disasters with the help of Peppermint Butler, but thankfully the day had finally come to an end and she was planning to enjoy those last hours of darkness with a well-deserved rest.

It wasn't going to be easy, though. The candy monarch had too many things in her mind to worry about, for example Joshua's patience and passiveness with the 'Ice Prince problem'. The golden bulldog had left her castle a few hours ago after explaining her the latest news concerning to the mysterious and unstable fire elemental, who had appeared from out of nowhere and for some reason was emotionally attached to the lunatic ice wielder.

Bubblegum wiped some sweat from her forehead as she struggled to keep herself from freaking out; the fate of the entire planet was at stake and Joshua didn't seem to be taking it seriously, why was he trying to appeal to the Ice Prince's common sense? If it depended on her, she would have already taken the girl to the Fire Kingdom without the prince's consent. Everyone's life was in danger for Grod's sake!

"Do my issues disturb your sleep, Princess?" a faint voice hissed outside her window.

The ruler of the Candy Kingdom snapped out of her blankets, recognizing the voice immediately and opened her window ready to face the icy prince with her firmest commands.

"Listen Ice Prince, it's too late and I'm too tired to deal with your weird creepy games, leave now or else I–!" the candy princess cut her words off when she met the slightly shorter figure of the Ice Prince floating before her with an unconscious girl in his arms.

"Don't worry… I promise that you won't ever see me again after this night ends…" the crowned boy said, "I just came to entrust you my princess…"

Princess Bubblegum gave him an astonished glance, was he going to surrender so easily? No fighting, no threats, no snowstorms during summer? It was hard for her to believe what she was seeing and listening, but a frosted trail of tears on the prince's cheeks motivated her to step aside and let him in.

The silver-haired lad walked towards the surprised princess and handed her his precious burden with great care "Please don't… don't be harsh on her…" he pleaded after letting go of the red-haired girl "She's only three weeks old and she's not very fond of following rules, but she ain't evil like you say I am… she doesn't even know that she's unstable and all that…"

"Ice Prince…" a dumbfounded Bubblegum replied, "Who is she?"

The young prince smiled weakly "She's the fairest maiden of the land, my Flame Princess…" he turned away from the sugary monarch and headed towards the open window "Please, promise me that you'll make sure she doesn't feel lonely when you take her to the Fire kingdom… She hates to be alone…"

Princess Bubblegum stared at the weary fire elemental in her arms and then glanced back at the wizard, granting him a reassuring grin "I will."

With that, the Ice Prince jumped out of the pink bedroom and vanished in the horizon as he flew towards the Ice Kingdom. Bubblegum never got to see him again ever since…

x+x+x+x+x

A furious blizzard blew from within the bowels of the Ice Kingdom that night, after its ruler locked himself inside his crystal palace, never willing to show his face to the world ever again. The silver-haired boy curled himself up in a corner, crying tears of disdain that split in sharp frozen shatters when they crashed against the cold floor. Amidst the shadows of the room, and the lonesome cries of the gusts outside his castle, the Ice Prince began to develop an intense hatred towards himself and his childish beliefs. How could he have thought that a spell could save him from his loneliness? Nothing and no one could save him, not even now.

The prince had realized that he didn't have a past or a future to conquer; fate had never been on his side, not even from the very start. The only thing he truly possessed was his golden crown, the source of his strength and his mastery of ice and snow. What a useless object it was…

"Damn you, stupid crown!" the Ice Prince yelled taking it off his head and slamming it against the closest wall "You promised me power and an eternal life, yet what use does those gifts have if they can't keep my princess safe?! They can't keep her close to me…"

He raised his sight and spotted the crown lying not very far from him, the impact had caused its scarlet gems to bounce away from their place on its front, but its owner didn't seem to care about it.

"I can listen to your whispers…" the prince said as he picked up his crown from the frozen ground "You want me to get those gems back and use your powers to avenge my misery…to make the world pay for everything it has forced me to suffer, heh… But I won't. I won't listen to you anymore, worthless piece of junk!"

He tossed the crown even further and collapsed onto his knees, letting his tears flow again "I've got nothing else to give or take… I'm done, it's over…"

"You're wrong…" a familiar female voice echoed nearby "You still have something to give."

The Ice Prince soon distinguished the dark cloaked figure of the wandering demon standing before him and chuckled wearily "Do I…?"

"I warned you, didn't I? Now you see the consequences of toying with life and fate itself…" she extended her hand forward and demanded firmly "We had a deal, this was way too much for you to bear, now give me the gems and I shall make it all better…"

"If that means that you're gonna disappear from my sight and leave me alone, then yeah, you can take the stupid gems…!" the prince cried as he crumbled to his knees once again "Now leave me…please…"

The ghostly figure snatched the three gems and vanished from the castle whispering "The time has come to put an end to this madness…" The Ice Prince ignored her, though. He was lost in the labyrinth of his mind, caught between his guilt for abandoning Flame Princess to her luck and his happiness for having gotten the chance to see her smile once more, even if it was for a short period of three weeks…

"Don't get me wrong, my princess…" he whispered "You were not a mistake…you were a miracle…."

"Oh, Flanna… that was your true name…"

"Wasn't it?"

x+x+x+x+x

She heard the voices of the deities discussing which board game should they play next, as the only half of her body that managed to endure the cruelness of death drifted through a dark blue space of dispersed rocks. Her foot traveled with swiftness, stepping momentarily on each different sized floating stone that would lead her to the gigantic cube-like chamber before her.

The mystic voices became louder after she used her only hand to lean on the high level entrance of the Time Room, her exhausted panting being drowned by their loud laughter. She wondered if those board games they were talking about were the deities' way of looking down upon the mortals' life, and if she ever was one of the many pawns that were thrown out of the board, never managing to hit a well-played checkmate.

With the last of her strength, she threw her incomplete body through the Time Room's entrance and landed with much difficulty using her right upper and lower limps to perform a graceful arrival. Leaning on her only arm, the strange girl got back on her only foot and stood before the astonished gods defiantly.

"Who dares to interrupt the Cosmic Owl's Friday Game Night?!" A golden bird cried indignantly.

Her red-colored eye stared silently at him and his other fellow god-like entities; a human with a brown beard framing his face and dressed with an 1800's elegant suit, a four-faced being and a pink-flat-shadow man.

She raised her hand to point the giant shadow man who was occupying most of the chamber's space, and ignoring the Cosmic Owl's demand she said, "I came for my wish…"

"Humph! What a disrespectful creature. We pity you." The four voices of the strange Martian entity replied "Don't you think the same, King of Mars?"

The human adjusted his coat in silence curving a smile on his lips "Careful my dear friends, we cannot judge this poor girl just for her precarious condition or the harshness of her words. It wouldn't be fair."

The golden owl sighed in defeat and guided his other two partners outside, leaving the flat man alone with his visitor in order for him to fulfill his duty as the Almighty Prismo.

"Hmmm…before I grant you your wish," began Prismo with a friendly tone "May I ask who are you and why is only the right half of your body visible?"

"I've never been a full being…not even when I was alive…" the girl answered stoically. She was young, probably eighteen or nineteen-years old. Her skin was pale as the moon and she had long ebony hair. A glimmering fang showed itself from her upper lip as she smirked "I'm half demon, half immortal and I'm half alive… My name, as far as I can remember, is Marceline."

"Marceline?!" the pink shadow shouted in disbelief "Don't tell me you're the old woman from the screen! I was looking at you and your other friends through it after that human boy and his dog stepped inside here! It's because of that boy's wish that everything in your world went nuts, and then his dog friend just came with the bright idea of asking for a sandwich instead of helping him!"

"Look, I don't know what are you talking about, all I want is to get my wish!" Marceline demanded in annoyance.

"Okay, fine…fine…! There's no need to get mad, hehe!" Somehow Prismo found the half demon girl's impatient personality amusing and decided to give her a little tip. Perhaps this time he'd get the chance of granting a well-thought wish instead of a sandwich like the last time. "Just be careful with your words, you won't get what you want if you're not extremely specific, okay? You can take your time to think about it if you want."

"I've had enough time to think about it, a thousand years to be exact… I know what I want."

"Oh! Very well…umm…if you're so sure, then go for it!"

Marceline eyed the screen on the wall beside her and saw the paused image of the icy prince and his fiery princess trying to conceive their love despite the natural pain that it caused them "I wish Finn would've followed the red-haired girl home the night before the bomb was set off."

Prismo stared at her wide-eyed and confused "Why would you ask for that? That would certainly prevent the bomb from exploding, but it won't really change your fate… You'll stay in that stinky cave as an old woman for the rest of your life!"

"I wasn't really trying to change my fate…" Marceline pulled out a large stone brick that morphed itself into a book titled "Enchiridion" as soon as it touched the Time Room's floor and a bag filled with magic jewels of all sorts.

"W-where did you get those?!" the omnipotent being asked in surprise.

"Never underestimate the knowledge of an antiquarian…" the half demon girl smirked "I've been traveling for centuries, waiting until the land of Ooo appeared in the maps just to gather these gems from each one of its monarchs as a wandering spirit. Then, I just followed the instructions that my beloved friend, Simon, left in the back of this book... I guess he wanted me to open the portal into the Multiuniverse so that I could meet you…"

"Meet me?"

"Yeah, I'm just fulfilling his last wishes…" Marceline displayed a nostalgic smile "He wanted to give humanity a second chance… That's why asked you to make that Finn guy follow the girl. He will defend her from those vandals and therefore, she'll never run into me, and fall from that cliff… She'll be back in the morning to meet Finn for their date. I know that together, they'll find a way to defeat the Destiny Gang for good, thus they will never need the crown…"

"Whoa! You did take the time to think about your wish…!" Prismo grinned with satisfaction "Okay, I'll grant your wish, even though it pains me to know that you'll spend the rest of your life as the crown's forgotten guardian…"

"That's okay…" the incomplete girl chuckled "I'm the best friend of a forgotten hero…and I'm glad to know that our sacrifices won't be in vain…"

"Right… you two have given humanity a second chance… Let's just hope they don't waste it…"

"I trust they won't…" Marceline said as the other half of her body vanished as well "I want to believe that evil can sometimes be redeemed…"

Author's Notes:

Well, that was it. I hope it was good enough for the final chapter, if not maybe the epilogue will take care of that.

I don't have much to say, thanks for all your support, it really means a lot to me!

Well, see you in the epilogue, I hope you enjoy this story's finale! =D