Chapter 6
A Wish

Prismo's blue eyes analyzed the four new guests who had just entered his Time Room. His smile faltered slightly as he saw the panicked look on Jake's face, but he tried to maintain his happy exterior. "I see you've brought company," he stated.

The new guests seemed to be here in… unideal circumstances. Bonnibel Bubblegum, scientist Princess of the Candy Kingdom, was frantically looking around the room that was painted yellow from the ceiling to the floor. After gathering her bearings, she finally glanced up at Prismo's face, narrowing her eyes. "Who are you?" she immediately asked, gingerly stepping away from the mysterious shadow. "What are you? What is this place?!"

"Hey, hey! It's alright! I don't mean no harm," Prismo said calmly, holding his arms up in defense.

"Yeah, Prismo's a pretty chill dude," Jake the Dog agreed. He smiled at the Princess, who still looked rather tense. Jake himself was tense as well - Prismo could tell - but was trying his best to cover it up to ease the Princess.

The Princess herself looked over at Finn the Human, seemingly to confirm the truth in Jake's words, and the young human nodded back, giving a thumbs up.

Beside Finn stood a slightly older human - the reason why they were all transported here. The anomaly, Martin Mertens. He stared at Prismo with his brow furrowed, his eyes cautiously scanning the shadow being. "Prismo?" he questioned with a confused inflection.

"That would be me!" Prismo responded happily, trying his best to ease the strained atmosphere.

"So, Prismo, what are you?" Bonnibel asked, her arms crossed. She sounded less alarmed, more curious than anything, but she still stood behind an authoritative tone.

"Oh, I'm a wish master. I grant anyone who comes in my Time Room one wish," he explained with a smile. Bonnibel hummed skeptically, seemingly not convinced; however, Martin wasn't so suspicious.

"Hey, really? So I can wish for anything?" the human asked. His eyes lit up like an excited child's.

"Yeah, man, but you only have one," Prismo responded.

Jake stretched his torso so his upper body was between Martin and Prismo. "You also gotta be seriously specific! Otherwise there's some mad crazy twist," he said matter-of-factly, regurgitating the information that Prismo had told him when he was making his own wish. Finn's eyes widened in realization (likely because of something with his own wish reality), though he ultimately kept to himself.

"That's something I can't control, man. It's just how my magic juices roll," Prismo responded, wiggling his fingers, which were now on the same wall as his face.

Bonnibel rolled her eyes, arms still firmly crossed. "Jake, why are we here?" she asked, sounding slightly exasperated.

"Oh, right! Prismo, we have a situation!" Jake said with a sudden sense urgency, panic returning to his features. He twisted on top of himself so he was facing the wish master. "Finn's dad came here through a time portal, and now he knows a lot about the future! Isn't that going to screw over our timeline?!"

Prismo nodded at Jake's statement. He watched as fear overtook the awkward atmosphere, causing his guests to grow slightly panicked. It made him nervous to continue. "It actually goes a bit deeper than that," Prismo eventually said. "Depending on how this turns out, multiple universes could be totally screwed over," he explained gravely, not exactly hiding his own fears very well.

"Okay, what's the deal here?" Martin demanded, looking both stressed and confused.

Prismo moved closer to his TV wall, causing Martin to nearly trip over himself as the silhouette passed beneath his feet. Prismo pressed a button on his stray remote, which triggered a small visual of the multiverse on the TV wall. "The multiverse is made up of all these different timelines, and in these timelines are smaller alternative timelines, whether they are wish-made or naturally occurring," he started. The visual zoomed in on one of the blue universal blobs, showing a lot of smaller universal blobs within it.

"Oh, so like when your pant-pockets have smaller pockets inside them?" Finn asked, pulling the pockets out of his shorts.

"Yeah, but like, an infinite number of smaller pockets," Prismo clarified. "Finn, your dad is obviously not from here. He's from the past of your timeline, but he came here through a wormhole caused by disturbances an alternate timeline in your universal pocket. That timeline technically wasn't even supposed to happen, but I think the interference you guys had in Finn's alternate wish reality caused it to come into existence. Usually these timelines go away on their own, but this one didn't."

He tapped his remote again, causing a small video of Martin falling off the Guardian to play. Just as In-video Martin slammed into the violent waters, Prismo paused it. Martin cringed.

"Is this really necessary to show?" Martin asked sheepishly, pointedly turning his head from the TV wall. It appeared to emulate his story very closely, how he failed Finn.

"Sorry man, I couldn't fast forward it any closer," Prismo answered with a small shrug. He unpaused the video. In-video Martin slowly went underwater, but as he sank, a blue light began to illuminate the dark ocean. It eventually showed to be a bright, spiralling portal that Martin slowly descended into.

Prismo continued, "See there? After Martin went underwater, the temporary wormhole appeared and connected your times, ipso facto, he ended up here. However, his continued existence in the time you guys came can mess up the future of your timeline. Depending on Martin's actions, Finn may not come to Ooo, and his entire influence across the multiverse may be entirely erased! Ergo, our current problem.

"Luckily, there's a simple solution to this. Martin just has to wish his way back into his rightful place in the timeline and destroy the rogue one that caused the wormhole in the first place. In the right way, of course," Prismo said. "It will reset the events that have happened here, but the multiverse will be much safer as a whole. I would do it myself, but I think if I mess with that donked up timeline directly it's gonna fall apart anyways, which wouldn't help you guys at all." The TV wall changed back the the multiverse visual, showing a small blob harmlessly exploding.

"Wouldn't destroying a timeline in that manner cause the same effect that would mess up the multiverse?" Bonnibel asked, again studying the current visual on the wall with her hand held to her chin.

"Destroying timelines with wish magic instead of the timeline imploding on itself is the difference between collapsing a pillow fort and collapsing a star. Besides, my wishes create and destroy timelines all the time, so it's fine," Prismo nonchalantly explained.

Martin too was staring at the visual on the wall. His head felt like it was spinning right off his body. All he wanted was a second chance, and seemed like he was finally going to get that after these crazy, horrid events. But now he was the one who had to "wish" everyone out of this mess?

He just couldn't catch a break with this stuff, could he?

He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Finn, his son, his sweet baby son who he knew he would have to leave. The teenager gave him a somber smile, as if to say, "you got this" without uttering a word. Beside Finn was his adoptive brother, Jake, the probably-mutated stretching dog. "Remember to be really specific," he reminded, dragging out the last two words for emphasis.

Martin furrowed his brow, exhaling loudly. Right, right, he thought. That wish. He began to nervously tap his foot, messing with the strings on his sweatshirt as he looked straight ahead. He had one wish that could change the course of reality as they knew it. He had to wish everything back to normal, back to its mundane, awful ending where he abandoned his son and treated him like dirt… the crippling reality where Minnie probably hated him, where his life had fallen apart…

...Did he really have to go back?

"This is a lot of pressure to put on one guy's shoulders, you know," he blurted, restlessly pushing his hair back.

The others in the room gave the poor man sympathetic, even empathetic looks. Finn licked his lips nervously. Slowly, he approached Martin, putting a hand on his shoulder again. "Hey, if you need some space, we can leave for a bit. There's some sweet asteroids outside we can chill on," he said, pointing to the door above his head.

Without really waiting for a response, Jake grabbed Finn and Bonnie and stretched to the door, leaving the Time Room with only two occupants: Martin and Prismo.

Martin shoved his hands in his jacket pockets, glaring down at the floor. A war was going on in his mind, selfish and selfless desires attempting to win the ultimate decision. From what he could tell, Finn was far more important to this reality than he was letting on. If even the slightest possibility of erasing his impact lead them here, then it had to be big.

But at the same time, Finn was just a kid. He didn't deserve to have the weight of the universe on his shoulders. And it's not like Martin was exactly ecstatic about his own fate, either. His life was totally ruined. He would do anything for another chance. He would do anything to give his son a break, a normal life, a good father.

A mother.

God, was there a way for him to be happy without screwing over the universe?

Martin sighed. He needed to stall in some way, to buy him time to mull this over a bit. "Hey, just out of curiosity, are there any universes where my life doesn't fall apart?" he asked, cringing internally afterwards. His tone sounded a little too pitiful for his liking.

"Of course, man. There's an infinite number of alternate universes, and there's more than plenty of you living happily with your family." Almost immediately after the explanation, Prismo's face fell, quite literally, as he moved closer to Martin. "You want that back, don't you?" he asked gently.

"How'dya guess?" Martin said, his voice dripping with melancholy. He practically refused to look up, refused to look at Prismo. His gaze seemed forever fixed on the floor. "But I suppose second chances are hard to come by 'round here, huh?"

Prismo scrunched up his face in thought, a conflicted spark gleaming in his eyes (not that Martin would know - he was busy checking out the floor). After many moments, the cosmic entity let out a deep sigh. He said, "Well, between you and me… the only reason I'm here is because I was given a second chance."

This caught Martin's attention. He look up with confusion spread across his tired features.

Prismo looked at the ceiling thoughtfully, saying, "I don't think I've ever told anyone this before…" before returning his eyes to Martin. He wasted no time shedding light on the situation.

"A lot of cosmic beings nowadays used to be mortals. The only reason I'm here right now as a wish master is because my mortal self is in an eternal sleep. I'm simply the manifestation of the ongoing dream of an old man. I wasn't even that much of a good guy when I was a mortal, so if the universe didn't allow me to live on like this, I would just be unconscious forever, and what's the fun in that?" A smile crept its way onto Prismo's face. "Does that make sense?"

"Not at all."

"Good." Martin's face just grew more bewildered, so Prismo continued, "What I guess I'm trying to say is… I didn't really deserve a second chance, but look where I am now. Sometimes that second chance is all you need. So, if you want… we don't exactly have to do the wish exactly as planned."

"What d'ya mean?" Martin asked, an bushy eyebrow raising.

"I think there's a way that you can get a second chance while still keeping everything else the same."

After what seemed like hours, Finn, Jake, and Bonnie all returned to Prismo's Time Room. The wish master was pensively humming to himself with his eyes turned towards the ceiling. However, once he heard footsteps, his attention turned to the doorway. "Hey, guys!" he welcomed.

The group murmured their greetings as they all looking around for one person, one human that was now missing. "Hey, Prismo, where's Martin?" Finn asked, his tone sounding apprehensive.

"A better reality," Prismo mused with a smile on his face.

Jake's eyes almost immediately widened. "Woah, man! I know Martin's a pretty crummy dude in the future, but he doesn't deserve death!" he bellowed, the reprimand echoing in the small, confined, very yellow room. Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest, while Finn simply knitted his eyebrows together.

"I don't think that's what he meant," the princess noted dryly. "Prismo, did you send Martin to an alternate wish reality?"

The wish master simply nodded.

"Isn't that the exact opposite of what we came here to do?" Bonnie pressed, trying to act as if she were physically confronting him, but that was rather hard to do considering his entire being was merely a shadow on the wall.

Even under the pressure of passive (and not so passive) aggressive accusations, Prismo's smile still remained. "Trust me, everything's under control. That rogue timeline's gone, and there's an exact copy of Martin in the past of your timeline that's going to grow into the Martin you all know. However, the Martin you brought here is currently enjoying a second chance."

There was silence for a brief moment, only to broken by the sound of a teenage boy.

"So he just left without saying goodbye?" Finn suddenly asked, his voice wry with a hint of sadness. Upon a brief examination, the others in the room could tell his face definitely showed sorrow, but not surprise. The elephant was in the room: he was used to this behavior.

Prismo's smile faded as he gave a nod. "If you want, we can watch his alternate wish reality. It should be pretty interesting. Plus, he phrased his wish perfectly, so there shouldn't be any weird biz," he said awkwardly, trying to find a way to cheer up the emotionally distraught Finn.

Bonnibel and Jake both turned their heads to the lone human in the room. It wasn't their place to make such a decision; it was his. Finn stood silently as he mused over the offer for a moment, only to give a neutral, "Why not?" as his response.

With that, the three guests sat down as the wish master brought up the aforementioned video feed on his TV wall. He pressed a button on his remote, and Martin's alternate wish reality began to play.

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry this is literally two months overdue, but usually October-December are pretty busy for me, so I didn't really have the time or energy to complete this story. But now I do! I already have the last chapter completed, so be expecting that within the next week!

Thanks for waiting! :D

~Emily Believes xoxo