Jake the dog, the brother of Finn, the one most devastated about the disappearance, the one most hopeful and trusting of his brother's return, the one most cleaning his stuff up, much to his annoyance. "Where is everyone else?!" He yells, scooping up more of their shared belongings from the destroyed tree house and placing it in a massive cloth bag. "I know everyone else has got kingdoms and stuff, but is it too much to spare some small amount of time to help protect Finn's stuff? I mean he's protected all their stuff, their lives included." The farther of five grumbles like a old man as he places more destroyed belongings into the bag, filling it to the top, causing Jake to stop his work and tie the bag close before hefting it over his shoulder and stretching into a giant. He walks over to the damaged Candy Kingdom and shrinks back to size through a window, then carries the bag further down the corridors until he eventually reaches a massive, open vault that has gold piled high that glistened in the castles candle light, with jewels scattered around. And a massive pile of dirty broken objects resting at the entrance. Sighing, Jake stretches him self a little bit taller before tipping and emptying the bag's content, causing a racket as it all smashes into the pile bellow it, flicking up dirt and dust. As the last few trinkets trickle out, Jake grips the bag in only one hand and leaves the castle again to continue his chore.
In a couple rooms over, Bubblegum and Marceline stood over a table that held both a map of OOO that several red crosses on it, and house designs with: pencils, rulers, protractors, erasers, sharpeners and tea strewn around them. Said tea was sipped by the candy ruler to calm herself down as her latest design was turned down by the undead Queen next to her. All the designs were under one title: Finn's home, the design being hand made by the ruler of candy, who has built every candy house and her castle herself, all witch have survived years of abuse. And Marceline was in charge of giving it a cool factor. "Look Bonnie, this is for Finn, of course I'm going to be picky about what the kid gets. I gotta make it up to him for kicking him out of the tree house. Twice. So of course I'm going to make it cool!" She shouts, floating behind the Princess.
"I know you want it to be cool Marceline, I do too. BUUUUT I also want it to be functional, something that you seem to be entirely against."
"Have you tried designing one that is not made out candy? I'm pretty sure Finn would accidentally nibble away something important..."
"Well candy is all I know!" Bubblegum shouts, causing Marceline to freeze in the air behind her, before sighing, "Sorry, it's just that this has got me frustrated." What only gets her scooped up by Marceline,
"Relax, drink your tea..." She reaches down and gives it to the Princess in her arms, "... if anyone can do this, it's you." Bubblegum follows her advice, relaxing into her arms as the float in the air and sips the tea in her hands.
"I'm better, put me down."
"I don't know, I'm pretty comfy here..." Marceline teases, strengthening her grip on the Princess in her arm.
"... C'mon, I need to do this... Then we can cuddle..." She leans up to Marceline's ear, "... on the bed." Immediately she is dropped before the table. She starts brainstorming ideas, when a interesting idea comes to her mind. "Hmm... I wonder..." Suddenly the room's door swings open, and a banana guard walks in, in his hand a thick pile of papers.
"Erh... Some guy asked us to hand these to you..." Causing Bubblegum to sigh and point at the end of the table. "Place them there, I'll read them in a minute." The banana guard walks across the room, before tripping and face planting on the floor, causing the girls to cringe 'That reminds me, I still need to un-dumb Peppermint Butler... I'll add that to this list of things I already got to do'. Walking over to the guard she is glad to see that it was alright, and the papers had a string tied around it that kept them all in a neat pile. Helping the fallen guard up, she sends him away then grabs the paper off the floor and starts flicking through them.
"Anything important?" Marceline asks, hovering behind her.
"... crime has risen at the moment of the announcement of Finn's disappearance..."
"Scumbags were too afraid of Finn to do anything, but now that's he gone they think they can just get away with it? Boy are they in for a surprise, both when they get a personal visit from me and when Finn returns." Marceline says, punching her palm.
"Also, it seems that with Huntress Wizard's disappearance the beasts of the wild are also exploiting it, there have been multiple reports of wild creatures leaving the forests and attacking people, villages, and travellers. Not to mention the now raging forest fire to the east, set of accidentally by campers who were resting on their way home." She groans and collapses on the table, Marceline immediately by her side trying to comfort her,
"Hey, we've gotten this far... and after everything we've lived through, this is nothing, it'll be over in a blink of a eye." Bubblegum sighs, and stands back up, a smile on her face.
"Yeah, this is nothing... Thanks Marcy." She says, earning a grin from her fellow immortal.
"No prob P-bub." She looks away from the Princess and out into OOO from a window. "Still... You never realise how much we've relied on Finn until he's gone."
"Yeah, it's actually kind of a wake up call." Bubblegum joins in at looking at OOO 'Please Finn, please return quickly, I'm afraid things might spiral out of control...'. "... Now lets see how we can sort these messes out before Finn returns, nothing is worse than coming home to a dirty, destroyed place." Bubblegum says, marking on the map the locations of the dangers and the fire using the reports, with Marceline to remind her that she does need to sleep.
Huntress Wizard, Fionna, and Cake just stared at the sight in front of them. "I mean all the other rooms had bosses, what's this?!" Cake shouts, annoyed that there isn't another gigantic deadly beast charging to rip her to shreds. Suddenly Huntress dashes forward and into the sphere that was preventing the deadly icicles from harming them.
"Quickly! Get in!" She shouts, grabbing the floating ball and tucking it under her arms. Wasting no time for a explanation the sisters quickly sprint into the sphere of protection, and immediately the walls around them seem to shift, and seconds later the movement around them reveal themselves to actually be creatures that were now closing in on the group. Their forms were too hard to distinguish in the thick and deadly ice storm, but once they enter the shield the creature's shroud is removed, revealing spiders that are the size of cats and made of ice. After a moment of shock, Fionna and Cake immediately go smashing the gigantic nightmares. Fionna swings her sword down, bisecting one in clean half, before booting one that went to bite her legs. Cake stretches her hand into a mace and smashes one going for Huntress, its green blood splattering over them both, causing Cake to look at goo covered hand with disgust.
"So what did you say earlier? Don't rush in?" Fionna says, childishly mocking the Huntress who made her clear out the entire door way herself.
"Fionna, I have a reason to. This sphere's magic isn't infinite, it will run out. And I want us to be on the other side before it does so we don't get shredded by this ice storm around us." Huntress says to the hero, squinting at the girl as she turns and impales a spider. Huntress spots one coming from the right, unnoticed by the sisters and launches a arrow to deal with it. If the arrow doesn't immediately get blown away by the wind. The arrow flies behind the group and smashes into the wall, leaving the spider unharmed. Focusing on the arrow intensely, she drags it back into the bubble before launching a beam of pure magic at the spider. It's highly inefficient but just like in the wizard battles it comes in handy when you have no weapon, and it makes quick work of the spider. It convulses under it before it stops, magically fried. Nodding at her work, she starts to walk forward while carrying the ball that projected their protective shield, shouting to the girls, "Stick close, we're moving forward. Heads up, my arrows don't work outside the bubble." Huntress warns, the sisters moving within hugging distance of each other. Slowly they trudge forward, the spiders swarming in.
"Ugh, why spiders?" Fionna complains, slicing one in half as it jumps by her.
"Because it's Ice Queen and no one likes her, so it makes sense that she would use spiders to reflect her social skills." Cake jokes, grabbing a spider and cutting it to shreds with enlarged claws. Suddenly, a giant female ice golem charges them with a roar, both hands raised high. The moment it enters the shield it goes to slam Huntress who barely dodges due to the lack of space with being so close to the sisters. Fionna charges at it and cuts at its wrist, severing its hands. The golem, stumbles back out of the shield in pain and the group quickly moves on by it, the spiders swarming in.
Finn and Ice Queen were moving towards the room that Ice Queen apparently made for them to fight in. However, a grumble from Finn's stomach quickly halts. "We most probably should have breakfast first, huh?" Ice Queen remarks to the blushing Finn.
"Probably..." He says, 'When does this date end?'
"Any preference?" She asks, preparing a mental note on what he likes for when he becomes hers.
"Toast. No offense, but it's cold here, I would like something warm." He sheepishly replies, hoping not to offend her.
"None at all, it's only a breakfast preference." She says, leading them back to the large table.
A few minutes later the both of them were sitting at the giant table, eating their breakfasts in awkward silence. "So... What's with the robot arm?" She asks, pointing at it. The answer delayed due to Finn having to swallow his food.
"I got this... after a event happened. It has multiple but limited things it can do, but it's mainly just there to replace the one I lost." Finn answers, rubbing the mechanical device he calls a arm. Ice Queen gently grabs it and gives it a look over. "Princess Bubblegum made it for me as a friend and as thanks for saving her so many times." Ice Queen only nod, staring at the microphone.
"Is that a microphone?" She asks, pointing at it.
"Yeah, it how I access its cool modes." Finn explains, tapping the input device twice, triggering the arm to shoot up a holographic screen displaying all its different modes. After a second of staring at the options in awe she starts to scroll through them and three features immediately catch her attention 'Massage mode... We'll definitely try this out later' She thinks with a blush before shaking her head, 'But those other two: Drill and weed whacker...'
"Those two modes, you could of escaped me." She states plainly, lacking emotion.
"But what would that of succeed? So I escape, you would follow me and we would end up in the endless kidnapping situation again. Can't kill you, that's... not the right thing to do. I learnt a while ago that violence is not the answer to every problem, and should only be a last resort." Finn says, closing the functions menu. "The only way to sort this out would be to persuade you to stop." What gets him a annoyed expression 'I don't want anyone else now, stop trying to pawn me off!' At the expression Finn hurriedly changes the topic. "C'mon lets go to this room you made for us." He says, standing from the table and after a second the Ice Queen sighs and rises as well. She grabs his hand gently and pulls him along, leading towards the giant room once more. Going deeper into the ice super fortress.
Soon they turn a corner and enter a long diamond shaped corridor, tall corridor that could easily fit three Ice Queens on top of each other. At the end were two doors that just as tall as the corridor, everything still the same blue as the rest of the Queen's home. Still pulling him along, it takes them roughly ten seconds to traverse the corridor it was so long. Now standing before the door IQ lets go of Finn's hand and pushes the doors open that split apart to reveal a gigantic room that was easily as large as a football field, the room lit by several gigantic ice chandeliers fuelled by magic. Taking three steps inside Finn looks around in awe, prompting Ice Queen to ask with a large smile "Like it?"
"Yeah... Glob how tall is this room?" He exclaims, 'Its got to be as tall as the Candy Kingdom's walls!'
"Well, Its got to be tall enough for me to fly around in, and for giant monsters to fight." She says, flying into the air with her eyebrows. "Besides, if a meeting or anything happens here I need a room big enough to host everyone."
"Where did you get the time to make this?" He asks, wondering around the room.
"I didn't sleep. Last night was the first time in three days." She shrugs, earning a look of concern from the hero 'She's acting just like PB'
"That's not a good thing."
"Eh, the tiara keeps me powered." She says, pointing a finger at it. "Now lets kick some monster butt!" She shouts in the air, and launches several beams of ice at the other end of the room, and immediately two snow golems sprout from the ground. The look up at the duo and just stare at them, to the confusion of Finn. "Oh right, they won't attack their allies and master unless ordered to." She coughs to clear her throat, "Attack us!" And immediately they start running forward, slightly shaking the floors with their size.
"You don't have any swords I can use, do you?" Finn asks, dropping the hint that he doesn't have a weapon 'At worst I cans use the weed whacker mode but I would... like to avoid that...' Finn thinks with a frown, remembering Fern and his fate. Ice Queen smiles down at him and forms the ice sword from before once more in her hand before launching it at the ground, the blade impaling the floor with a screech. Leaping at it, Finn pulls the ice sword from the floor, just as one of the golems reaches him. It lifts both arms to squish him, before slamming them down, Finn dodging backwards to evade the attack. With its arms on the ground Finn rushes forward and actually runs up them to impale the golem in the face. The sword goes straight through its head, the force of his attack making the body fall backwards, Finn riding all the way down. He looks at IQ to see her smirking, looking down at the golem fruitlessly trying to grab her flying form. Flying backwards the golem goes to follow, only for Ice Queen to launch a ice ball at it. It collides with its head, completely encasing its head in ice making it flop over dead, the ice smashing when it hits the ground, destroying the head with it.
"That was starting off simple Finn, just wanted to make sure you know how to fight." 'And if I could save you'.
"I'm most probably the best fighter here, Ice Queen." He jokingly boasts, earning a smile from the Queen.
"Then prove it!" She shouts, launching a continuous beam of ice magic at the end of the room and sweeping it across the floor, creating a swarm of golems, "Attack us." She simply orders, causing them to charge forward again. She floats to the floor, "You said you would defend me Finn." She says, standing on the floor arm crossed 'Defend me my knight...' She dreamily thinks. Finn realises that she is not going to do anything and thinks of the best way to defend her. And decides a strong offence is a good defence. He charges forward, and quickly clashes with the snow golems. He impales the front one in the stomach, causing a domino effect as five more collide with the body that suddenly stopped. While three more stopped to deal with Finn, another six continue to run by him and towards IQ.
"Oh no you don't." Finn mutters, dodging the golems that went for him with ease. He sprints after the running golems and catches up to the slowest one and swings his blade up its body, cutting it clean in half. The other five however do not halt and continue their charge to Ice Queen. Charging forward, his years of experience of running and fighting allow him to speed ahead of the golems. Just as the one at the lead foes to punch Ice Queen Finn suddenly shoulder charges it, sending it sprawling across the floor. Leaping to the royal, he swoops her up bridal style, and leaps them away from the golems. 'My knight is-! Knights really do sweep up royals!' Ice Queen thinks with amazement at how apparently fairy tales were true, clutching to Finn. Landing Finn lets go off her, though it takes her a second to do so reluctantly, and aims his sword at the incoming threat. Three golems charge at him in a semi circle, so in response Finn twists his body to the right. At the last second he does a sweep with his sword to the left, cutting them all in half at their wrist with a war cry. Their bodies collapse into a pile of snow around him, blinding him momentarily in the light blizzard. When it all settles, the other two golems are right in front of him. Thinking fast, he uses his position from his previous attack, he swings diagonally upward, cutting the one on the left while throwing himself in that direction, avoiding the other golems attack. Sliding to a stop he leaps at the other golem, impaling through its head.
Taking a moment, he counts the remaining golems: One he shoulder charged that's got back up, the three he evaded, and the five that stumbled on the body. Nine, he had to deal with nine more. Dealing with the lone one he shoulder charged earlier, he simply runs at it and jumps to cut its head off, riding its body down. Then he focuses on the three he ignore earlier. They were now going for Ice Queen while Finn was distracted by the other lone golem. Finn rushes them, and swiftly cuts the front ones legs off, causing him to fall and the others to trip on it. They look up to see Finn's sword coming down, killing them all in one chop. Last five. He looks as they come closer, all in a straight line. Grinning, he does one final charge, blade close to his chest. The front golem rears its right arm back to punch Finn, making him dodge to its left side and stick his sword out to the left. And run through them. His blade goes through their bodies, not long enough to completely cut them in half, but close enough. He sprints down the line until he passes them, then looks back as they fall into a pile of snow. He looks at the grinning Ice Queen, "Good show Finn, could use some more of you touching me but oh well, I'll take what I get." She says, starting to hover. "Now, you ready for more?" She asks, as ice magic charges in her hand.
"You bet I am!" Finn shouts, losing himself in the rush of combat. Ice Queen uses both hands and goes crazy, summoning an entire horde of foes, all of them varying in size, body structure, and weapons.
"Now my knight, lets show them what we are together." She says proudly, wanting to both impress Finn and show him that they were better together 'Better than that forest nymph anyway...' And immediately the room delves into chaos, as at least a hundred ice creatures and warriors charge at them. Finn runs at them, when a massive ball of ice flies over his head and into the horde. It obliterates everything in its path before exploding like a gigantic fragmentation grenade. Finn raises his arms in a pathetic attempt to protect himself and closes his eyes. But nothing happened. Opening his eyes, he sees a massive wall of ice protecting him. With a surprised expression, he looks up at Ice Queen who was smirking down at him, behind a massive tower shield attached to her arm. Her little show of power done, she launches the shield away from her and slam it into a still standing snowman, the ice fragments embedded in it quickly impale and kill it.
"Holy cow!" Finn exclaims, looking around his ice wall at the devastated army. So focused on the utter decimation, he fails to notice the panting Queen who lowers herself to the ground. 'That... took a lot. But I just need a breather...' She thinks before kneeling and placing both her hands on the floor, and uses it to adsorb a bunch of ice remains and repairs the room. It was true, that was not going to put her out, but she still needed a second, like a recharge. She stands back up, catching her breath back. Finn turns to look at her, and sees her standing there proud 'She's not worn out? Well, Ice king did chill the fire kingdom for a long time, so I guess there isn't really a limit to them' Finn thinks. "That... was insane." He says, genuinely impressed.
"Yeah, that is one of my stronger attacks." She shrugs off. "Now, lets so that again without my super attack." Immediately she starts summoning more creatures, however Finn looks up at her.
"That move doesn't have a name?" He asks, shocked at her deadly spell didn't have a name 'Don't most wizards name their spells?'
"Did you think it would?" She asks with raised eyebrows, the army patiently waiting for them to finish.
"I mean, don't most spells have names like... I don't know... 'Dragons breath' or 'Cataclysm'?" He asks, genuinely confused.
"Most do, but anyone who names one is a giant nerd." She mocks, floating above them and analysing the army to see if it would be challenging or not. With a nod, she simply says, "Attack us." They charge themselves forward once more, as several arrows and spells fly forth. Finn uses his sword to actually split an incoming arrow before slamming into the horde, sending them all wheeling back. He then spins in a circle, holding his sword out. The move either forces them back, or cuts anyone who doesn't, giving him space to move. Looking at the ice creatures as they surround him, he suddenly does a one-eighty and cuts a spirit in half that was going to attack his exposed back. Then chops to his right, cutting a skeleton made of ice, its bones shattering. Finn just constantly cuts, only doing a spin to push his foes away from him if they get too close. A wizard lifts his staff to blast him with some spell, but Finn cuts his arm off, then his head. A woman with a spear charges him causing a crowd to split to give her a clear path. Finn spins to himself some room, then uses its momentum to do another, side stepping the spear girl and cutting her head off from behind. Finn slowly backs out the small army, preferring not to be surrounded. Above him two neon blue beams of ice cut through the horde, Ice Queen laughing as her hands destroy creature after creature that were her creations. She continues for a bit, before stopping to look at her work and smiles as her initials being spelt into them. She suddenly erects a tall shield as a ice arrow goes to slam into her, before promptly getting stuck in the thick ice. With a smile she fragments her shield into icicles and harshly launches them into the horde, impaling several foes in the head, ending them in a deadly shotgun blast. She laughs some more, madness brought on by the tiara as the price for more power. She flies above the horde, releasing a unrelenting beam of ice as she does, what freezes foes solid and cover them in deadly ice spikes, just waiting for someone to trip or be pushed on them. Releasing another crackle she watches her knight as he exits the horde of foes, doing large arcs with his sword to defeat the forces that were tactlessly closing in on him. One runs at Finn with a sword raised high that he side steps before raising his arm, cutting the arm off, before removing the soldiers head. Too focused on her knight's fight she fails to see a fire spell rise from the group bellow her, smashing into her. With a scream of pain she is knocked out the sky and out of the army, landing harshly on the solid ice ground. Finn looks away from his fight at the downed Ice Queen with fear, he turns back to his foe and impales the leading enemy, a female snow golem, and boots her off his blade and into the swarm, stumbling them. Using the moment he escapes, and sprints over to the Ice Queen recovering on the ground. "You alright?!" He asks worried, as he stands in front of her to protect her from the incoming horde of attackers.
"I'm fine, Fionna's given worse... So had the fire prince when I went for him." She shivers at the memory, before examining the army again.
"Can you still fight?" He asks, the approaching forces getting close. In reply, Ice Queen touches the floor with both hands, and a wall appears in front of Finn. The horde slams into it and before they could move around it spikes form on it, impaling anyone on it, it suddenly pushes through the horde in a straight line. Whenever it hit someone, they would fade: Snow beings into a puff of snow, ice creatures shatter, and spirits dissipate, what keeps the spikes clear and ready to kill someone else. Eventually they slam into the wall and shatter, leaving a clean line through the army before they fill the gap once more.
"Yep." She says, when she suddenly forms massive ice claws and starts viscously cutting into things. Finn raises a eye brow at that, but then remembers the ice saws Ice King summoned when they accidentally went to find Saint P. He also notes that she is not using any moves or skill, just swing randomly. 'Huh, so instead of ice fridjitsu, IQ knows how to summon ice and snow creatures then. Instead of saws, she has claws... What else is different?' Shaking his head clear of thoughts he focuses back on the army DIRECTLY INFRONT OF HIM!
With a surprised expression, he leaps back to avoid a volley of attackers. IQ, however, noticed Finn was staring at her a second ago. 'Was he checking me out?!' "Hey, were you checking me out?" She asks hopefully, Finn replies after countering a sword by making his sword clash with the other, stumbling his foe before cutting his head off.
"No! I was just wondering something that's all." He says, cutting another foe down. Ice Queen slashes out another throat.
"Wondering what I looked like without my dress on?" She asks posing in the large dress of hers. Finn blushes before shaking his head.
"No!" And cuts a wizard down. A spearman goes to impale him, Finn grabs his spear's head and brakes it off, then uses it as a makeshift dagger and stab the spearman in the face. Ice Queen just looks confused by his response,
"You sure? We can always stop this and-" She gets cut off by her getting tackled by a snow golem. It raises its arms to smash the stunned Queen, but Finn cuts its head and arms off in one swoop, and boots the body off as it turns into a snow pile. He helps Ice Queen up.
"How about we deal with these guys first." He says, wanting her to forget the topic.
"Right." She replies, already fully recovered due to her history with Fionna. Finn crouched, letting Ice Queen have a clear view to unleash another deadly Ice beam with her hands. She sweeps across the attackers, freezing the ones at the front solid. However a problem with the Ice beam is that it doesn't go through enemies. The ones behind them simply push over their dead allies and continue forward. Regrowing her ice claws, Finn and Ice Queen stand side by side and just start swinging when ever something gets too close to them. Ice Queen slices downward on a soldier who lifts his sword to stop her claws. They simply go through the weapon and then soldier, cutting them both into pieces. Finn cuts a snowman's stomach, making it drop its mace in pain before cutting its head off.
After several long minutes the duo stand victorious in a now empty room. Both panting they search the area for survivors, but nothing moves to attack them. Sighing, Finn impales the ice blade into a bile on snow before looking at Ice Queen. She was panting, not use to doing such fights but was still standing proud. "I've got to ask this... have you been training?" He asks, his voiced laced with fatigue. Ice Queen takes a few seconds to respond but she does,
"A... little." She says between breaths, still recovering. Finn stands and puts a hand on her back to steady her.
"When did you fit that in with everything else?" He was genuinely confused how she did all this in a few days.
"I... started after I was defeated last time... when I kidnapped Gumball." She crouches and places her hands on the ground, absorbing back any snow and ice warrior remains to gain back her energy. "I thought... about how easily Fionna kept on beating me... So I first made the mountain bigger, that only took an hour... Then hollowed out a path to here, at the very bottom is our home. The top is the old castle that is meant to be a distraction, but also a emergency home if something happens. The 'bosses' I made took quite a lot of energy, and I required a few hours of energy to recover, so that's a day gone. Then for the final day I got food, and made this place." She says gesturing to the environment 'the home I made for us...' she then looks back at him. "I trained on the bosses after I made them to check if they worked, but some of those spells I've been making before I even met you, I just never used them because they were either too destructive or I was unsure what would happen." She shrugs, "I've still got more spells to test out, but they'll have to wait till another time."
"Wait, so how many rooms are there in the path down, you know, bosses and stuff?" Finn asks, afraid for what his friends and girlfriend is facing above him.
"There are five bosses in total, but only four rooms. And one of the rooms is actually just a long corridor that goes half way down the mountain with a deadly blizzard and swarms of enemies. It's near impossible to survive. Now lets go get something to eat, I can repair the damage to this place later." She says, turning to leave the room. Finn waits a second, sends a prayer of hope that the others make it, and follows quickly behind, hungry from the fighting making instincts rule over thinking how to help, and continues the date with Ice Queen to buy them more time.
Huntress walks forward, fear covering her face. She could feel it. The ball was running out of energy. She looks to Fionna and Cake who were dragging themselves, tired of fighting the endless horde of spiders. Their joking gone, as expected when you've been fighting for OVER TWO HOURS. Huntress at this point was wondering if the tunnel had a end, and if it was actually a portal sending them in a endless loop. Suddenly the shield flickers. Her eyes widen in fear, realising that the shield was about to go. Thinking fast she starts funnelling her own magic into the ball to sustain it. "Huntress... why did the shield... just flicker?" Fionna asks tiredly, barley lifting her blade to cut a spider leaping at her.
"It just ran out of juice... but I'm using my magic to keep it going." Huntress explains to the young teen. Fionna does not reply too tired to. Another golem charges at them, but Cake sluggishly claws it in the face, killing it, adding it to the hundreds they've already dealt with. As much as Huntress hates to admit it, this might be too much of them. It seems that each room is a challenge. The first was intelligence, working out to defeat it. The dragon was meant to be might. This must be endurance. She hates to admit it but while she is above most she is not that high endured. She usually ends her fight very quickly, endurance was not that important but she does have some. The sisters definitely have high stamina, but obviously not enough, not really challenging themselves to improve, gaining everything in the fires of combat. They don't fight prolonged battles often, just like her. Sure minutes, maybe a half an hour, but a full hour? No. 'I wonder how much stamina Finn has?...' She thinks, finding light in the situation. Another spider leaps at her, and she promptly boots it, its form flying back out the shield. Continuing along she come across it recovering, and stomps on it harshly, killing it with a sickening crunch 'It can't be that much further now, right?'
Finn and Ice Queen were back at the main table, this time only small snacks were lying around due to them both being too tired to actually make anything. "So... do you know what happened to the humans?" She asks out of nowhere, trying to make conversation that would get Finn's attention. 'Fionna is well known as the last human, and she apparently always gets lost in thought whenever it is brought up. Is Finn the same?' "Did those humans I save escape? Was there a boat? I mean, how else were you and Fionna born?"
"I... yeah the humans did escape, but what happened to them... I can't tell you, encase you tell Fionna and she goes before she is ready." Finn answer, unsure on what to say.
"C'mon! I won't say anything, royal promise." Ice Queen replies putting her hand up and closing her eyes. Finn sighs and is silent for a few seconds, debating if he should tell her not.
"... Fine, but remember: things might be different from this timeline and mine. In my timeline, the boat was there and thanks to Marceline were able to able to escape from the vampires hunting them. Eventually, they were able to find some islands. They had a... rough start but eventually they were able to settle down and create founder's island. It was defended by a giant robot that attacked any thing that got too close, but it also attacked anyone that tried to leave. Not that anyone mind, they were... happy, and were too scared of the unknown to venture back out to OOO."
"What about family?"
"I... do have parents... no siblings... but I'm not comfortable on giving out more information, it's personal and I don't want Fionna rushing off to find answers."
"You can't leave me with a tease!" Ice Queen desperately demands.
"Sorry, nope. Besides I always hate it when someone spoils a story." Finn says smiling, finding the pleading expression on Ice Queen's face funny, until she drops it suddenly with a sigh.
"Well I can't force it out... still, human civilization? That is... something. What's it like?"
"Futuristic." Ice Queen releases another sigh and gives up the conversation knowing that Finn is not going to tell her more. Suddenly she perks up.
"Oh yeah! I've got something to show you.'" She suddenly rises from the chair, and Finn rises confused, but follows nether the less.
Fionna collapses to her knees, fatigue getting to the girl. They've been walking for three hours now non-stop, and the glob-damn spiders still haven't given up! Gritting her teeth she uses her sword to push herself up, and staggers to Huntress. "Any idea how much further?" She slurs out to the wizard. It takes Huntress a second, but she eventually recognises the question and turns to the heroine.
"No..." She whispers out. The sphere was truly draining her energy like crazy now, and the end was still not in sight. They continue on, their speed reduce to the point that even a snail could rival them. Another spider scampers over the uneven ground, fangs ready to bite them. Until Cake flops on top of it, having turned herself into a cube shape to crush it. It was all the energy she had left in her. Groaning she accepts the help of being picked up by her sister.
Suddenly the dreary blue walls and ceiling disappear, leaving them on a bridge over a massive, massive, MASSIVE chasm. With shocked awe they look over the edge at the millions of spikes of varying sizes that made the floor. "What the-! Did she hollow out the mountain!" Cake shouts, rage giving her the energy to throw her arms up in disbelief. It was then that Huntress realises that they can see a very, far distance. There was no blizzard hinder their sight. Experimentally, she drops the shield for a second. Nothing. She throws the sphere over the edge, glad to be rid of the energy parasite. Looking backwards, she sees that the blizzard stopped being a threat the moment the walls stopped. And it really puts in the scope on how big the chasm was. Cake mustn't be far off, the mountain really did seem hollow with how big it was. Looking around she spots thousands of large pillars supporting the mountain behind them, most probably keeping the mountain from collapsing under its own weight. And she spots a massive building with a garden bellow them.
Ice Queen leads Finn to a massive double door and pushes them open. And reveals a massive white garden. Have you ever seen a forest during the winter? Where everything is covered in a thick layer of white? That was what Finn was seeing in front of him. After a stunned, awed moment Ice Queen nudges him back to his senses, causing him to silently exit the building behind him. A stone path, from what must be ground level, clear of snow twists and bends a path deeper into the forest, weaving around the evergreen trees that dotted the environment. He looks at the ceiling, noticing that it was made off ice, and they are indeed inside the mountain. Looking back down at the plant life he sees bunches of white flowers doting the environment and berry bushes here and there. "Holy cow..." Was his star struck response. He watches as a butterfly made of ice flies in front of him and raises his finger for it to land on, what it shockingly does. Bringing it closer to look at it, he sees that its wings were so thin that they were see through, except the slight light blue tint.
"You like it?" She asks innocently with her hand cupped in front of her, already knowing the answer, just wanting to hear it.
"This is... wow." He says, still in awe of the view. 'Could Ice King do this?' He watches a polar bear on top of some ice in a pond drink the water. '... Most probably not, especially if he was so focused on kidnapping or trying to seem cool'.
"I did this to show off the beauty of winter, it's a sight most do not see, only scary ice hazards and hypothermia. I wanted to show you the wonders of my powers, what I can make." She says, wondering the winter wonderland. Finn looks up, and notices a massive bridge above him.
"What's the bridge for?" He asks, pointing at it. Ice Queen looks up at it, and gives a monotone reply,
"That's how our people and visitors get in Finn. If you look it leads to that security room, then its a magic lift down to the entrance of our castle." She explains her finger tracing the path as she explains it, semi-lying about the security room. What it actually was the final boss room, so while it did defend them, it was not in the way Finn was thinking. "If you want, we can have lunch out here, I've got us a table by the pond." She says, grabbing his arm and pulling him deeper into the forest before he could reply.
Huntress looks away from the castle beneath them, and was about to tell the sisters to move on when a screech steals her attention. Snapping her head to the blizzard corridor once more, she spots several spiders swarming towards them. "Fionna! Cake! Let's move!" She shouts as they all still slowly move further down the path, still not recovered from the three hour ordeal they just suffered. Shuffling along Huntress turns to shoot a arrow at a spider, but the sphere has drained her so much of magic that all she does is make a arrow shiver in her quiver. "Damn it!" She mutters, however looking down the path she spots the door that was wide open, as if greeting them with open arms. It's all it takes to get the group to shuffle even faster, nearly approaching a walk. Fionna slows down, and Huntress turns to watch her sluggishly deal with spiders that were catching up to them. "Go ahead, Cake will pull me inside." She says, stomping on a spider, running completely on adrenaline at this point. Nodding, Huntress charges forward slowly. As they approach the door four large female snow golems decked out in spikey ice gear exits the door, all holding a different weapon: a sword, bow, mace- "Get out of the way!" Cake shouts stretching her arms and swatting them all of the bridge, dooming them to the spikes below. Collapsing through the door way, Cake spins around and shoots her paw out. Fionna was started to get swarmed by the small ice monstrosities, when a claw plucks and yanks her away from the horde gathering at her feet, the spider reaching up viciously for their missing prey. She gets pulled through the massive ice door, before Huntress pushes them shut and rest against them. A second later the sound of hundreds of spider legs scrapping against the door, shaking it a little, however, the door is to heavy for them to move, especially when Huntress was leaning against it. After a minute the sounds end, the spiders giving up and returning to their homes awaiting for more prey to come by.
The girls raise their arms in celebration, releasing whoops at their victory over the test of endurance. Before promptly face planting on the ground unconscious, fatigue catching up to them as the lack of combat makes the adrenaline stopped being pumped through their bodies. And right in front of them is the last room. And three bosses wanting their blood.
Ice Queen was sitting in front of Finn, enjoying some sandwiches. Not Jake's perfect sandwich, just normal sandwiches. Due to the tables position, Ice Queen's back was towards the bridge and Finn was facing towards it. "So... how long will this date go on anyway?"
"Until you accept me as your girlfriend or wife, either one." She says after swallowing a mouth full of food, "So hurry up and decide already, you said it yourself: You can't run or we'll end up in a endless loop." Causing Finn to sigh. However, something catches his eyes. Four glistening objects falling from the bridge. 'There were four, what is more than Fionna, Cake, and Huntress... They were also too large to be them...' Finn smiles, 'Those were guards, they're nearly here.'
"... Right, I just... don't want to rush this, after all I have a girlfriend. Can't just make a decision like this without thought." He excuses, trying to buy the others time.
"Take as long as you like my knight, as long as you'll be with me." She says, finishing her sandwich. '... But she does have a point, if I do escape, she'll just do this again... I've got to think of a solution...'
Bubblegum was standing before a group of very nervous royals, a hand to her face. Most of the royals came to reign while Finn's heroics was in full swing, and if anything threatened them, their people, life itself, or were only inconvenienced by something, Finn was the person they always called on. And those that were smart enough not to rely on one person, like Flame Princess, were still incompetent in handling large threats. Like when she... cooled the Fire Kingdom, Flame Princess knew what was wrong: It was getting too cold for the flame people to live. But she did not know how to solve it, she didn't even search for what was causing it, immediately calling on PB for aid. And just like then, the royals have called PB for aid. She has ruled her kingdom long before Finn was around, back when the world was a desolate wasteland. She would know how to handle their problems, right? "Guys, I'm spread out thin enough trying to repair my kingdom after a God of chaos tore through it, I can't also manage your kingdoms too." Immediately worried murrs and whispers fill the room, before developing into straight out panic. 'Have they really never solved a problem?... No Finn always has, hasn't he?' "Alright, calm down!" She shouts, the voices slowly lower. "Look I know you're scared, Finn isn't here, and problems having been sprouting up like crazy in his absence, I know, I've read the reports. So right now we need to focus on the problems, Finn isn't here, okay? So we need to pick up the slack in his steed. Right now, I see the biggest problems being the forest fire and bandits, they need our immediate attention. Anyone denying this?" She asks, no one spoke out, trusting the leader with hundreds of years of experience to lead them true. 'No pressure' Bubblegum thinks, noticing that Flame Princess did not speak up, despite the forest fire being no threat to her, and having little bandit problems due to most being unable to attack the Flame Kingdom. 'They are just blindly following me...' "Right, Water Princess?"
"Y-yeah?"
"I need you..." She then points a finger at JP "... and Jungle Princess to do everything in your power to deal with that raging forest fire, do anything, just get it out or stop it from spreading."
"W-what about our kingdoms?" Jungle Princess asks scared, a emotion that was rare to see on the woman.
"Flame Princess." Flame Princess, who was alone trusting Cinnamon Bun to rule as she searches to receive and give aid, looks up at the candy monarch that nearly destroyed her kingdom and removed her childhood. "How many soldiers can you spare?"
"... A few hundred, where you need them?"
"I need some taking the fight to the bandits, and some need to go to Water and Jungle Princess's kingdoms to protect them as they do their bits." Water Princess and Flame Princess share a look, neither kingdoms were on the best of terms due to their... differences... but it was bearable, especially in these situations.
"I might have a problem with hunting those bandits... They've always seem to sneak by our armies, and always escape when we attack their bases." FP warns, worry in her voice.
"Noted, but just try." She gets a nod, so PB turns to the crowd again, "Next problem?" Already knowing what's coming. Immediately a barrage of questions and pleas fill the air, assaulting the Princess's ears. She sighs in reply 'I could use your help Finn... At least we've got Jake...'
Finn was following Ice Queen as they return back to the grand room in which they fought the small army in. Shoving the doors open she leads the way inside the still damaged room, "I've seen you fight threats, squads, an army... all I want to see you do now is fight a boss." She explains, touching the walls to open a massive hole in the floor for the remains of the defeated army to fall inside, and out of sight. Removing her hands from the wall she then uses both to crazily shoot at the holes and craters in the room, filling them in.
"So what am I fighting?" Finn asks, holding his hand out as she gives him the ice sword once more. She does not reply, instead deciding to simply walk down the large room. Finn goes to follow but she signals for him to stay, much to his confusion but follows her order. She continues her silent walk to the other side of the room, and upon reaching it, turns to Finn. And starts flying in the air, ice powers glowing in her hand, a crazy smile planted on her face.
"Me!" She shouts, shooting a beam at Finn, he dodges to the side, and looks up at her with shock and fear.
"What the heck!" He shouts, dodging a shotgun blast of icicles. Ice Queen stops her attacks for a second, and puts a hand on her hip,
"Finn you're fighting me, you are to beat me, and no this is not to the death, my spells will just encase you in ice like how I freeze the Princes. Think of this as a... friendly bout." She clarifies 'Fionna always liked fighting me... would Finn?' Finn meanwhile releases a sigh of relief.
"You sure?" He asks worried for he, most know its wiser to not challenge Finn, it's usually not good for their health and to be honest... he would rather not hurt Ice Queen if could. She's a good friend, like Ice King. She nods in reply, 'He didn't immediately jump at the opportunity to attack me, so he's not itching to fight me... He's better than Fionna!' "Alright, lets do this!" Finn shouts, holding his sword out in front of him defensively. Ice Queen does her crazy crackle and unleashes another of beam of ice at him. Finn actually sprints at it, he twists his blade sideways, and the blunt end clashes with the beam, blocking it from hitting him. The force of the beam pushes him back a foot, but he starts pushing against the beam as it starts enveloping the sword in ice. Slowly he makes progress towards Ice Queen, and realising this she stops her beam, switching plans. And raises her right hand.
Finn lowers his sword when the beam stops, his sword looking more like a mace than a sword at this point. And leaps to his left as a massive icicle blasts into a pile of ice behind him. Ice Queen smiles and raises her other hand, going for a dual hand barrage of icicles. Her hands act like a metronome, firing left, right, left, right, causing the deadly icicles to rapidly slam around Finn as he does a curved charge at her. His sprinting form is surrounded by massive ice explosions as Ice Queen barely misses him, Finn occasionally having to leap to the side to dodge ones that got too close. As he gets closer, however, he has less time to react to the attacks, and the more precise Ice Queen gets. Instead of continuing his blind charge to get frozen he needs a plan 'I need her to stop firing... and a way to reach her...' He smashes his sword on the ground, breaking of the weak ice meant to not harm him yet preserving the ice meant to rival the toughest metals. He squints at the flying royal, flips his sword so he is holding it like a massive dagger. Brings his arm up and back, stretches out his other arm as a guide. And lobs his sword like a javelin, having to jump into the air to dodge another icicle. The sword flies through the air towards IQ. Her eyes widen in shock, as she spins her body to dodge it, watching it fly by just where she was. It impales the wall behind her, vibrating from unspent energy. She snaps her head to Finn, "What was tha-!" She cuts herself upon seeing a Finn flying toward her. Wide eyed she props a ice shield in front of her to block whatever he was going to do. However, Finn just grabs the top of the shield, and leaps over it. Confused, IQ turns to see where he went, and spots him perched on the sword using it as a platform. Her confusion at his actions lets her guard down. And Finn uses this to leap at her, tackling her out of the sky.
With a grunt, the wind gets knocked out of her and they slam into the floor. They slide on the slippery ice before coming to a halt. Finn immediately grips her arms, and points them away from him. Her stunned body recovers and realises what situation she is in. "I think I wi-" Finn goes to say, Ice Queen points her right hands finger at Finn and shoots a ice spell at him, freezing his left arm. In shock he stops focusing on her, allowing her to get her legs underneath him and push him off. Finn uses this to his advantage, and goes with it to push him a safe distance away from her. She quickly rises and blasts more ice at him, causing him to turn tail and run, zigzagging, ducking and jumping to evade her attacks. She notices his path 'He is going for his sword!' She adjusts her aim, ready to blast the sword in a massive block of ice. Finn notices the break of fire, and a glance at the Ice Queen explains why to him, 'I have got to distract... How?'
He suddenly spins around, and runs back to her, startling her and causing her to panic shoot a spell at Finn. He does a easy side step dodge and continues his charge. He quickly approaches since he is no longer zigzagging like crazy, only dodging when necessary. Ice Queen tries to rise into the air coming to the realisation that was her only salvation. She was not quick enough. Finn grabs her and easily yanks her out of the sky, slamming her in the ground. However, she was use to this with her fights with Fionna. The startlement lasts only a second before she pushes against Finn, preparing a ice spell. Finn could feel the temperature drop 'I need to stop her now!' So he lifts her. She goes to push away from him, however he has strength and grip to flip a two ton monster. She wasn't escaping. He simply lobs her at a wall, shock making her unfocused, cancelling the ice spell. She shakes her head, and sees a Finn charging her. Wide eyes she scrambles to a rise while moving away, preparing to counter Finn. As she turns to focus on Finn. She sees he's not going for her and jumps at the wall. Confused, she watches his crazy actions. And watches him grab his sword handle. Realisation dawning on her, she flips her arm and shoots a beam at him. Finn, however, is able to free his sword in time, and falls to the ground escaping the deadly beam. It starts tracing his path however. Leaping up and away, he sprints at her once more. As the beam is about to hit him, he slides, the beam flying over his head. He arrives at the bottom of her dress, and swings his sword up. For it to do a horrible screech as they clash with ice claws. Wide eyes, he pushes against her 'This is a bad spot to be!' His might slides her a foot or two back before she stops it. But that is all he needs, just some space. He suddenly retracts his blade arm, making her stumble as she continues to push against the now non-existent force. Using it to his advantage he rushes to his feet. The moment he is standing he is forced to block a icicle with his sword, covering it and a part of his arm. He leaps away from Ice Queen to get some room between them and allow him to better assess the situation. "Had enough my knight?" She taunts him, lobbing another icicle at him. Finn dodges to the right while pushing forward, swinging his sword. Ice Queen actually ducks under the blade despite the huge dress she has on.
"Nope." Was Finn's reply, promptly followed by him actually lunging on her! They tussle on the ground, however as Finn starts to overpower her, she shoots another ice spell from her finger. It envelopes Finn's other arm in ice, causing him to go wide eyed at his predicament. Ice Queen smiles,
"Just give in Finn." She orders her knight 'Bow to your Queen...'
"Never!" He yells definitely, he pushes himself away from her. Once clear, he smashes his frozen arms together, making the ice shatter into thousands of pieces, fragments going everywhere. Ice Queen hovers once more, sighing as she does so,
"Fionna is also stubborn... Oh well, dominance can be fun in the bed." She says, confusing Finn for a second before he focuses back on the fight. 'I can't do anything is she still has her magic... My only choice is to knock of the tiara, or wear her out'. He concludes in his head. Leaping at her again, he zigzags, sword ready to counter whatever attack she throws. Ice Queen unleashes her ice beam, Finn however continues his evasive attack. Raised ice traces behind him as her beam fails it in its attempt to entrap Finn, he keeps his head down low to keep his form as small as possible. Approaching fast Finn jumps, sword swinging for her tiara. And its gets covered in ice. His sword cuts a chunk off the ice, but the crown remains on her head. Suddenly Ice envelopes his chest, the queen's hand resting against it.
"Sorry Finn, I learnt from my fights with Fionna. She removed my tiara too many times for me not to learn." She says, smiling, before closing her eyes and leaning closer to Finn's face. Panicked, Finn frantically pushes with his unfrozen arms and legs. Not expecting him to resist her advances, Ice Queen looses grip on him and falls. Due to them hovering a meter in the air, the short falls cracks the ice cocoon around him, and weakens it enough for him to break out, leaving him out spread out on the floor. Ice Queen huffs, 'That would of been really romantic...' "Oh well, I'm not afraid to work for my rewards." She shoots a icicle down at Finn with a plan of just freezing him 'perfect position for the bed later'. Finn rolls away and scrambles to his feet. He evades another attack, getting no mercy from her. Bracing, he plans on how to defeat her. He looks at the tiara, and how it is completely surrounded in a thick tiara shape block of ice, attaching it to her head. 'So I can no longer knock it off... So I've got to wear her out'. Finn charges at her once more, as Ice Queen flies up, ice magic dripping from her hands. The knight vs the Queen, and Finn's forgotten that as he had mentioned earlier: the ice crown/tiara don't seem to have a limit for stamina.
Alright, thanks to anonymous user on AO3 for a great review, I always like to hear what people like, dislike, opinions, and what they are confused about, it helps me create a better story for you guys and allows me to clear up any confusion. Check it out if you want a explanation on why the PG and Marsh are acting so dickish.
Please, do review guys as hearing feedback actually keeps me motivated and writing. Like, it actually gets me writing when I 'take a break'. It doesn't matter if you're a guest, or how big it is, or what website, I always love hearing them!