The Distant Princess

by GMBlackjack

XXXVIII - Battery

The concept of “before time” doesn’t make much sense, but it’s the best description we have to explain what came before the universe. Before the big bang went off and clocks started ticking, there was a void of nothing where time had no meaning. Related to this in a way I can’t make sense of, there were the monsters. The gods. The sea of pain and passion. The vast majority of these creatures did not survive the transition to our universe, but those that did, their power was unparalleled. It took them a long, long time to realize that our universe was toxic to them. Over millions of years, their power waned. Some found ways to fuse themselves with the fundamental forces of reality, keeping some measure of their power. Others were forced into insignificant forms, harshly limited, such as Orgalorg.

Others still tried to escape the loss of power by fleeing to other planes of existence, only to find that those realms were incompatible as well. All realms are connected, and despite being self-proclaimed gods, almost none of them figured out what exactly was going on.

Bill Cipher, the aggravating Dorito who just won’t stay crunched, attempted to control reality from a distance. But he was punished for his insolence, locked out of any world of any substance, restricted only to dreaming. It was thought that he had been destroyed, but it is no simple matter to end a deity. They persist, like a cockroach. And now that magic has resurged, he has come with it. Still trapped within dreams.

Even here, a prisoner himself, he still manages to keep so many trapped in his plans. His mind is vast and filled with so much impossible knowledge. A man could spend an eternity knowing it all. A man could become so much…

And he uses it to amuse himself.

As much as I want to see him suffer and shatter into a thousand pieces, I have to respect that.

~~~

Finn came to, shocked to find that nothing was broken. Sitting up, he looked around. He’d crashed through a window and landed right on the ex-King of Ooo’s floating mushroom bed. His velocity had punched a hole right through the fungus, but that had been enough to break his fall.

Sitting up, he checked himself over. He was bruised and battered but otherwise unharmed. The grass sword was still in his hand, and his pack was secured to his back. Twisting his wrist to the side, he examined the grassy blade. “You’re pretty helpful for a curse, you know that?”

The grass sword made no response. It was just a cursed sword, after all, bound to his person. It was the reason he still had an arm.

Twisting himself off the bed, Finn hopped to his feet. Out the window, he could make out the towering shape of Aku. He had no idea what the monster was saying, but there was definitely laughter.

Finn’s first instinct was to rush into the fight and stab Aku everywhere with the grass sword. His second instinct was a rare moment of insight: there was nothing whatsoever he or anyone there could do to the massive being of darkness. They were useless. But… maybe, just maybe, one of Bonnibel’s magic artifacts could help. They were in the castle. Here… somewhere.

“Uuuugh, I but there’s so many places to look!” He put his head in his hands and let out a tense groan.

He heard Aku laugh.

Finn stood straight, holding the thin grass sword in front of his eyes. “No moping, Finn. No moping. You don’t know where anything is but you can run around wildly until you find something!” Taking a deep breath, he let out an attempt at a heroic yell and ran out of the royal chambers, holding the grass sword defensively—how Jack taught him earlier that night.

He ran to the end of the hall and turned left. Reaching a stairwell he slid down the railing, sword continually at the ready. Nothing came to meet him. But, in the next hallway, he did find something: a trail of confetti.

Having no idea where he was going, he decided that following the trail was the next best thing. The colorful flecks of paper led him deeper and deeper into the castle, down several flights of stairs, until he came to the old, familiar dungeons. There would be monsters down here, no doubt about it. But he would be ready.

Bursting into the dungeons, he cut a blue slime in half, bursting it. A zombie goblin saw him and charged, but Finn kicked the knife out of its hand and cut it down. He jumped over the rocketing fist of a golem and planted the sword’s tip into the arcane machine’s face, breaking it down.

Normally, when dungeon crawling, he’d be sure to clean the room of monsters. But right now he needed to move. He ran along the confetti trail, finding the familiar monsters of the dungeon easy to combat. With a slash, a kick, and a punch virtually every room was passed without issue.

He was expecting to need to run through several floors of this, but the confetti trail ended at a trapdoor on the second level. He jumped down, narrowly avoiding the attack of a water elemental, sword at the ready. “All right, something in here better be helpful!”

Finn had to admit, he had no idea what he was looking at. The King was holding Pinkie to the wall with magic while Marceline was on the ground, holding her head. In the center of the room there was a pedestal that held Gunter—Orgalorg.

The yellow-eyed not-King stared at him in surprise. “Well well well well…” His torn face twisted into an amused smile.

Finn gasped. “You! You’re the bozo from my dream! What did you do to the King of Ooo!?” Finn grimaced as he took in the trashed appearance of the not-King’s body. “Geez, what did you do?”

“I did that!” Pinkie called from her uncomfortable position on the wall. “Hi Finn!”

“Hi, Pinkie. Uh… what should I do here?”

“Get Gunter off the pedestal, maybe?”

The King laughed. “He doesn’t have the power to end the ritual! He does not have the blade of paradox, just a grassy curse. Unless…” The not-King spread his arms wide, despite it looking like one of them was about to fall off. “You want to take me out? And the Waxman with me?”

Finn grimaced. “I… I don’t know. I don’t know how evil this is.”

“Allow me to spell it out for you, butterfly. I am Bill Cipher, a being trapped to wander dreams for eternity because of some STUPID KIDS.” He tightened the grip of his magic around Pinkie, making her gag. “And I am going to drain the power of Orgalorg into this ancient Gem structure, using it as a battery to free myself. I will turn the world into my playground. A party that never stops with a host that never dies!”

“That’s not… a good… party…” Pinkie managed.

“It’s preferable to what tartree out there is plotting, you have to admit!”

“Still…” Finn lifted the grass sword. “It’s evil.” He readied his blow. He imagined the King falling to his blade. The King had been pretty annoying anyway, right? Who’d miss him? Nobody, that’s who.

But…

He remembered Rainbow Dash. Even when it was an absolute monster…

Finn lowered the grass sword. “No. That’s not what a hero does.”

“How absolutely predictable,” Bill scoffed. “None of you ever have a backbone.”

“It’s… our strength…” Pinkie wheezed.

“That’s rich!” Bill clapped his hands. “A strength? Pinkie, I thought we already discussed how your precious magic of friendship doesn’t work down here. You’re alone.”

“Not… entirely…”

A blue light started glowing in Finn’s pocket. Slowly, a teardrop gemstone floated into the air, shining brightly. Once again, Finn watched as Lapis projected her body. However, it was slightly different this time. Her dress was significantly longer, going all the way down to her feet, its edge was stenciled with numerous five-pointed stars. The sweeping folds continued all the way up to her shoulders, where there were angled tips, but no sleeves. A neatly-tied bow remained on her back, framing her exposed gemstone. Upon her head sat an ice-blue three-pointed crown.

She looked… regal.

And she was ready to fight. It took her less than a second to take in the situation. She drew water from the air to form her wings and spread her arms, glaring right at Bill.

“Fascinating…” There was no fear in his voice. There was only curiosity.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well now. I actually have to agree with Bill on this one. This could go in a number of interesting directions.

[LIl]

Discord !! Where are you? It is literally your domain !!