Jungle Princess walked calmly to the center of the alley then stood firm, her back to the building upon which Slime Princess sat. Despite the smeared paint and dim lighting, her determination was unmistakable. She lifted her hands out flat with her palms up. Another vine, long and tapered like a bullwhip, grew from beneath the concrete floor and laid itself in her grip.

The other princesses inched forward. Emerald Princess and Slime Princess poised themselves to jump down onto her. Wildberry Princess and Purple Princess took slow, measured steps to close the gap. Then, all at once, they pounced. Emerald and Slime dropped, the full force of their falls battering her. Wildberry and Purple ran with their arms swinging, fists flying. Jungle Princess was immediately overwhelmed.

She jabbed them repeatedly with her elbows and knees, intent on gaining some leverage. All the while, she gritted her teeth and absorbed the myriad of blows, showing no sign of surrender. Finally having secured an opening, she lunged forward, dropping Emerald to the ground with ease. A swift kick sent Slime flying down the alleyway. A well timed punch knocked Purple to her knees. And finally, she swiped Wildberry across the chest with her forearm, pushing her onto her back.

"Try it again," the warrior growled.

Her adversaries stood shakily. Jungle Princess thrust her whip through the air and a deafening CRACK echoed through the city streets.

It seemed to do the trick. All four pursuers were too intimidated to move, and the moment dragged on well past its welcome, with no one willing to budge. Nervous feet shifted but never left the ground. Hands hovered, unwilling to curl back into fists. Jungle Princess' eyes darted between them, watching intently for their next moves—for the slightest hint of aggression.

Purple took a single step forward. The whip hurtled toward her and licked her cheek.

CRACK!

At first, she assumed JP had missed. Then came the pain. It was as though her skin had gone up in flames. The princess shrieked into the cool night air. Her trembling fingers grazed the wound and immediately recoiled. A single drop of black blood ran down her face like a tear. She took two steps back and stared, stunned, at her allies. And the other three stared back, just as shocked as she.

Jungle Princess, still focused on the fresh damage she had inflicted, only heard Wildberry's next step—and wrongfully assumed it was in approach. She thrust the whip again.

Wildberry Princess employed her natural defense, forcefully ejecting her extraneous berries. The one which met the end of the whip burst into a fine mist, dousing the little red monarch in her own juice. She spat the juice onto the ground and clawed at her face, gasping for air, utterly consumed by the horror of having lost a piece of herself—and having been drenched in what was left of it.

"Stop!" shouted Emerald Princess. "We surrender." She raised her hands in defeat.

Jungle Princess swung the whip at her. The vine curled neatly around her right wrist. With a grunt, the warrior dragged her vine overhead, carrying her prey along with it. Emerald Princess was thrown to the end of the alleyway, and slammed into the ground hard.

Jungle Princess snarled. "Leave. Now." She cracked the whip once more for good measure.

Emerald stumbled to her feet and ran with Slime in quick pursuit. Wildberry was still in shock, now staring blankly into empty space. Purple grabbed her stem in passing, and dragged her in tow as she fled the alley.

Once again, Finn was left alone with Jungle Princess.

Finn stared at the princess, slack-jawed.

Jungle Princess sighed and dropped her vine, then turned to face the hero with a fresh smile. She had instantly resumed her affectionate mien.

"Now...where were we?"

Finn stammered. "JP...you just...you...you—"

She put a finger to his lips and shushed him. "You know what they would've done to you." She ran her lips along his neck teasingly, then whispered in his ear. "I defended you." She stuck her tongue in his ear.

Finn moaned softly, feeling strangely aroused by what he had just witnessed, yet disturbed all the same.

"We have to leave now," she said.

A dozen vines broke through the candy concrete and wound around the human, binding him tightly and covering his mouth. She pulled him over her should and sauntered out of the alley and onto the main street. Her astute eyes bounced across the skyline then the city surrounding them.

She huffed. "Where the hell is she?"

Finn attempted to speak through the gag. Though his response was muffled, the princess understood his meaning.

"The demon. She would've heard that commotion a mile away..."

Author's Note:

So... I'm sorry for being AWOL for almost three years. To be honest, I forgot I never finished this story. I was watching Fionna & Cake and this fanfic popped back into my head. If you've seen it, you'll know why. I checked my computer and I found this ~800 word chapter just sitting there, waiting to be published. And here it is.

I'm going to try and finish this story up. Closure. But, you know, I haven't written anything in a while, so that could go really badly or really well. Maybe I'll end up getting hooked again and write another twenty chapters. At the very least, I will tie up loose ends. We'll just have to see how it goes.

If you're reading this now, you must have really liked the story back when I was active. And if that's the case, I'd like to apologize again. I hope you like this chapter. It was written back then, so it should feel similar in tone to the rest of the story.

I have no idea what my plans were going forward, so I'm in the dark here just as much as you guys. As always, if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.

Thanks for reading!