A/N: Yay! Another chapter!11oneoneone

Chapter 13

Arriving at the Candy Kingdom yielded a different feeling than Decker expected. At first, he almost dreaded seeing Bubblegum, afraid she would try something. A bad trait he'd picked up from Alex: paranoia. Now, it wasn't quite up to Alex's standards, but he was warier than he should be around certain people of status. Anyone who had a political power or high position set his senses against him.

Only when both he and Finn had gotten off Jake did he realize that he was shaking. Jake took off in the direction of Lady Rainicorn's home, leaving the two alone. "Are you alright?" Finn asked.

Decker's gaze snapped to lock with Finn's, eyes a bit wide. "Yeah," he said, "I guess it's just a bit of nerves before meeting the princess, y'know?"

"Don't worry, Deck. PB's great. Takes a little getting used to at first, but she's cool. I take it you already know what she's like?"

Decker tried to ease himself with the conversation as the both of them strolled the halls, "Yup. I admit, she's gotten better."

Finn replied, fondness evident in his voice, "She has. It's great that Bubblegum's finally learning to loosen up."

The taller boy chuckled, "After what happened with Gumball, it's hard for me to trust Bubblegum. But, I'll give it a shot."

It was funny how the lines between Ooo's reality and the canon were blurring. Finn had never lost his arm or his grass sword, but the minor events of the past couple seasons of the show had already happened. Somewhere around Ooo, Betty had to be flying around. He wanted to help them all so much, but there was so little time between things to do anything. Finally, they arrived in a room that resembled something out of a mad scientist's laboratory.

Beakers and test tubes, both equally filled with strange liquids and vapors, lined the tables. Scrap papers were strewed about the tables, too, scribbles of different formulae and theorems inscribed on them. "Finn!" a cheery voice sounded behind them.

Decker locked up, ready to pounce. He felt Finn pat his back and loosened up. "Hey, Peebs. What'd you need?"

Princess Bubblegum was, in Decker's opinion, one of the prettiest women he'd seen. Not as pretty as Ice Queen... but, up there. Her hair, like it was in the show, was a rich, glossy pink color that was styled to be a low hanging ponytail. She had on a light dress with a labcoat over top and frameless reading glasses rested on her nose. Her skin was the paler shade of pink he recognized from the show and she stood directly at his height.

"There's a- oh. Who's this, Finn?" she seemed more curious, as opposed to Gumball's default to experimentation, "He looks... human."

"I-I..." Decker swallowed thickly, "Yeah. I'm Decker and I'm a human... er, from another dimension. There, you, Finn, all of Ooo; you guys are just a program on television. I know damn near everything about you guys."

Bubblegum's glimmering magenta eyes lit up with wonder, "Really? Did you intend to come here?"

"Not at first," Decker began elaborating, "Okay, firstly, I woke up in an alternated version of Ooo, called Aaa, where I met, yours, Finn's, and Jake's conterparts, Fionna, Cake and Prince Gumball."

He paused. The rage and betrayal he felt showed in his expression. The princess' gaze softened, "You don't have to continue if it's traumatic-"

Decker cut her off, "N-No. I'm fine. Gumball ended up injecting me with a non-airborne virus. It's called BLACKLIGHT. I'm sure you guys have your own version. Anyway, now, I'm susceptible to these rages that I refer to as a fugue state of sorts. In these, I can't recall what I do, but I've been told by my mentor that my only sense was to destroy."

"Really...?" Bubblegum was becoming increasingly worried, but tried giving the boy the benefit of the doubt.

Decker seemed increasingly downtrodden and he hugged himself, "It's scary. I can't remember anything and something takes my body for a joyride? I try controlling it, but I can't help getting angry. I can't help feeling."

A hand laid on his shoulder. Bonnibel looked him in the eyes, "It's okay. Everyone has demons; you have yet to figure your own out. Even people like Finn and I have things we aren't ready to face."

"I want to help you with those."

Bubblegum looked at him like he'd grown a second head, "Pardon?"

"Those demons? I want to help you, I wanna help Finn, I want to help everyone with their problems!" Decker clenched a fist near his heart, "Ooo needs more than just one hero, and Finn can't handle it all, no matter how hard he tries."

"... But, why? You don't know us-"

"That's where you're wrong, Princess," he was smiling widely, "All of you have helped me, even if you don't know it. I want to make up for any horrible things I do, even if those things save my friends."

"What horrible things, Decker?"

Decker tensed up, "I... I'd rather Finn be the one to explain that..."

Finn looked down, "I'll tell you later. It was... disturbing."

"Okay," Bubblegum cleared her throat, "Well. I do have something for the both of you to do. Reports from the Banana Guards have come in of a weird dungeon southeast of the Kingdom have some of the citizens in quite the tizzy. I'd like you two to clear it out for me. Is that fine?"

Finn smiled, "You got it."

"No prob," Decker answered.

Back in the Treefort, Alex sat rigidly on the couch. "Decker's doing well," he suddenly spoke, "No outbursts. He's on edge, but that's doable."

Larkspur looked up from a book, "That's a relief."

Fionna smiled at Cake, "See? There's absolutely nothing to worry about."

"Fionna?"

"Yes, my kitty?" Fionna lounged back in the chair.

"Where's Ice Queen?"

"Oh, sh-"

"-Scheiß!" Decker hopped on one foot, cradling the other.

He'd stepped into the coffee table, instead of around it. There was a stream of profanity whispered under his breath, "Damn coffee table, shit powers don't help guard worth shit against this, now does it? Hell!"

Mostly, it was babble, but he did that when he was angry. Decker had picked up a little of Alex's mouth, too. For the most part, Finn was ignorant to what the curse words were, having grown up around a quite different vocabulary. Holding back a chuckle, he addressed the cursing teen, "You okay, bro?"

A heavy sigh escaped Decker, "Yup. Yeah. Let's just go."

The two humans walked out into the candy streets once again, being met by both joyful and suspicious looks. When they made it to the gate, both Finn and Decker felt an arm wrap around one of their shoulders. It was Ice Queen, "How's it goin', guys?"

The brunet turned around, a gasp sounded, "Simone? The hell?!"

He gently pulled her to the ground from her flight by her upper arms. BLACKLIGHT's pigment covered her and when it retracted, she looked completely different. She had dark brown, short hair, green eyes, and olive pigmented skin and was dressed in fairly casual clothing. Decker looked around, searching for witnesses, "Ice monarchs are a major taboo here. Why are you here?"

Ice Queen answered matter-of-factly, "I was bored. Nobody was doing anything."

Decker rolled his eyes and sighed, then turned away,seeming to concentrate. There was a system that he and Alex used to communicate over long distances, where they sent out their virus' sonars in Morse code, which they both could sense. Decker had been unaware at the moment that Ice Queen had been trying to speak with him. When he was through, he turned back to her, "What was that?"

"I said," she started, "What did you do to me?"

"Oh that? I coated you a microscopically thin layer of my biomass that acts an appearance morpher. It's also pretty good armor. When we're away from the Kingdom, I'll remove it," he explained.

"Oh," she looked incredibly confused; Decker thought it was cute, "Okay."

"C'mon," Finn piped up, "Dungeon's this way."

Fionna mumbled insults at the non-present ice monarch as she was heading toward the door. Alex had gotten up, too, if only to follow the crowd. That is, until he began receiving code from Decker, "Ice Queen With Me Stop Do Not Let Them Leave Stop Decker"

He gripped Fionna's shoulder, "She's with Decker. We need to stay here."

There was a pause all around. Fionna turned her head and locked defiant eyes with Alex's, finality evident. She sighed.

No one argued with Alex Mercer.

The dungeon was, for lack of a better term, unimpressive looking. Basically, the trio was looking down a hole in the dirt. But, if the Princess said it needed taking care of, it had to be pretty bad. Ice Queen, whose disguise had been removed by then, looked to Decker, "We're... not going down there,are we?"

Decker's simple reply was, "Yup," he directed his attention to Finn, "Took a peek. The place is crawling with badies."

Finn smirked, "Just the way I want it to be. You ready?"

"Always."

"Y'know, guys, I think I'll sit this one out, I mean-"

"Nope!" Decker grabbed her hand and leapt down the hole, feet first.

Her yelp and his laughing echoed off the walls. Finn chuckled and followed shortly. The brunet and his unwilling companion landed harshly on his feet, her in his arms bridal style. The stone beneath his had cracked and splintered. Where they had landed was empty, but Decker could feel life all around them.

Not very nice life, either. Ice Queen screeched at him, "Are you crazy?! That could've killed me-"

Decker made rough hushing noises and nearly tackled her to cover her mouth. He did his best to shove down the blush at the feeling of Ice Queen's soft skin on his hand and looked over to Finn, "Surrounded."

The grass blade unwound from his arm and he crouched into a stance. "You ready?" he asked.

Decker replied, "If you are."

"I wonder if I can just fly out," Ice Queen mused.

"Nope," the brunet smirked playfully.

It was gonna be a long day.

"What is your mission?"

A flat voice reply, "Kill Decker."

"And...?"

The voice growled, "Annihilate Alex Mercer!"

The Lich grinned maliciously, "Good. You'll do nicely, James Heller."

A cackle echoed throughout the area. Around him, cages filled with innocent people and infected were guarded by Blackwatch soldiers. Heller turned and made to exit the facility. "Sir," an officer addressed the Lich, "The forces we lost at the facility will need to be replenished before we even think about going after Codenames Zeus and Jupiter."

"And how long will that be, dear child?"

"With the number of losses, we could be looking at two to three weeks before the next unit arrives," the officer replied.

The Lich turned to face the opposite direction, "Very well. In the meantime, Mr. Heller will continue his search for them."

The man saluted, "Yessir."

"Soon, my child. Soon," he paused, "And, Lieutenant?"

He turned, "Yes, sir?"

"Look for a Phoebe of the Fire Kingdom. She's their Queen. Perhaps something can be... arranged."

"Yessir."

Okay! Here it is, another chapter for my pretties! So, I thought it about time I heated things up with a little dungeon. The two week delay on Blackwatch was so that I can work with the Finn and Flame Princess romance a little. I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long. I've been so busy with other stories and stuff.