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Inside the door, he found a pristine maze constructed of ice. He was instantly uncomfortable, since a place of pure ice had such a powerful familiarity, but the door was gone, so he couldn't go anywhere else. There was a path in front of him, and seeing as it was the only way forward, he followed it.
It wasn't cold at all, for a place made of ice. Maybe that was him, though, he had definitely gotten used to freezing temperatures at some point.
As he walked through the maze, making random turns with no sense of direction and no destination, he began to assume it was empty.
I mean, it would make sense, who would want to live here?
It was all made of shiny, flat ice. Though, oddly enough, even when he looked at the walls, his reflection was hazy and muddled. To the point where he couldn't get a clear sense of any of the details. He couldn't actually see anything, really.
Apart from that, though, the place was fine. It didn't seem dangerous here. Not yet, at least.
Simon rounded a corner, and down the hallway he found a door. A plain one, simple and wooden, embedded awkwardly into the wall. It looked very out of place, quite the jarring sight after endless walls of frost.
He grabbed the knob and pushed the door open, and found the room inside also to be quite the unexpected place.
It looked like a study, of sorts. With walls of ice, but bookshelves embedded in them, with lots of nameless books. There was one desk, and a window looking nowhere in particular. Just a white void, it seemed.
He looked around the room, gaze eventually landing on something familiar.
Something that made him jump and take a step back, instinctively.
“Oh, hi.” Ice King looked up from the floor, smiling with his sharp teeth. He was hunched over, sitting on the floor with his back against an empty wall. “Who’re you?”
“Ice King?” Simon murmured. It was strange, of course, and always would be strange seeing him anywhere. Especially now, funnily enough, after he learned that there were two of them existing at once.
At that thought, he brought up a hand to rub the back of his head. It still felt electric, and itchy, but otherwise brought about nothing strange.
The ice wizard got up, with some effort.
“Hahah, yeah! How’d you know?” He cocked his head to the side.
Simon noticed that the crown managed to stay upright, not even sliding, like it was fixed to his head.
He also noticed he felt there was something off about the crown. He couldn't place it, but he still avoided looking at the thing.
“Long story.” he avoided giving an answer.
Ice King stared at him for a long moment. A very uncomfortable moment.
“You don’t look very misty.” he remarked, “How’d you get in here?”
“Huh- misty?” Simon looked up, puzzled by that word choice.
“Misty. Like, you know…misty.” Ice King shrugged, smiling in a very simple way. It made him look simple. It made Simon irritated.
Ice KIng’s smile faded as fast as it had formed, and he pointed accusingly at Simon.
“How’d you get here?”
“I- uh..” he looked around, unsure really how to answer- unsure how to make conversation at all “the… door?”
“Door? Bah, that's not what I meant. I saw you with the door.” Ice King looked away, doing a strange sort of pacing thing, though soon he paused abruptly, “Crown doesn't like you.”
“..what?”
“Crown. Doesn't. Like. you.” Ice King repeated, pausing between each word like he was talking to a child. It felt ridiculous and patronizing.
Or it would.
It would if he didnt feel like the crown was looking at him.
It was a strange prickly feeling, the one he felt. Something of unease.
Now, it was probably him being delusional or- or whatever. Crowns don't look.
Crowns were just crowns.
Just golden with three points and three rubies.
Ice King drew his attention.
“Hey. Crown doesn't like you, you have to…” His gaze drifted to the right, over Simon’s shoulder, “..oh.”
“Hm?” Simon followed his gaze, turning around.
It was a very shocking sight. Safe to say, it was one he did not expect. One that made his blood run cold. One that gave him a sense of imminent danger.
So, was this what he had meant by misty?
It was something humanoid. And, to Ice King’s credit, it really did look like mist. A whole person made of solid-ish black mist. And no visible features but its eyes, which were white.
It was really a hard thing to wrap his head around.
It was also only made worse by the fact that he recognized the shape it took. He knew who that silhouette belonged to.
Fionna.
“Oh, man. This is why you aren't supposed to leave the door open!” Ice King said to Simon, who was too deep in his own head to hear anything but him talking.
Ice King pushed past Simon and snapped his fingers at the misty recreation of Fionna.
“Go. go.” he tried to usher her away, but she was unresponsive. Mostly. She glanced at him and sidestepped without saying a word.
“Hey!” Ice King said, like the action had offended him.
“Wait- no. mist lady, go! We're just talking.” he approached her again, hands outstretched. “We’re just tALKING-” Mist Fionna elbowed him in the gut, baring- fangs? She had fangs?
Ice King stumbled and fell over.
“Hey!”
Fionna moved on from him, to Simon. Giving him a look with such jarring animosity.
“Hey wait a second, no, mist lady, wait! He's off limits!” Ice King tried, but was ignored. He looked up at the crown, frustrated, “We’re talking!”
Clearly, whoever he was talking to, Mist Fionna or otherwise, was not listening.
Simon took a step back and Mist Fionna must've taken that as a cue, because she charged.
Simon felt really, really in over his head right then. Everything that had happened since he had woken up in the void with Betty all felt like it happened so fast. After the revelation that there were two simons, and then this ice maze, and then this Mist version of one of his best friends, he felt overwhelmed. Like he was being tossed around.
Metaphorically and physically, by the way.
Mist Fionna was very adept.
That, or she was just very violent in a way he had trouble keeping up with.
Either or, really.
Also, she didn't have hands anymore.
She had claws, big, over the top claws that were only solid when they needed to be.
He guessed that was one of the perks of being made of mist. Or fog. That was probably a better descriptor.
Fog that did not follow any rules of being fog.
Fog that was only solid when she attacked him. Fog that hurt. Bad.
As she landed a particularly bad blow to his arm, and he barely stifled a cry of pain, Ice King rushed over to them. He swatted at Mist Fionna, sliding past her(and a bit through her) and causing the black fog to swirl and displace every time his arm passed through it.
“We gotta vamoose, dude!”
However unfavorable Ice King was, he was also right. Simon did not know how much longer he could do this whole evading thing.
With Ice King in the way, Mist Fionna let out a vocalization of irritation, and glared daggers at Simon. She was reluctant to try and attack, lest she hurt Ice King. For.. some reason.
Simon decided to make use of the opportunity that gave him. He bolted to the left, away from the mist creature, and straight out the door. Ice King trailed behind him, and Mist Fionna followed at their heels.
Simon did not give a lot of thought to the direction, he just ran. Mercifully, he and Ice King did not run into any dead ends along the way.
Though, they did, however, start to get tired.
It was Ice King first, but Simon did begin to feel it, too. A strange sensation, one that made him feel sluggish.
It was not quite right. It did not feel right.
But soon enough, his legs burned and his chest ached. No matter how off it felt. He was tired and he needed a break. Ice King did, too.
Mist Fionna wasn't, though. Which meant she was catching up.
Upon passing through a rather sharp turn, Simon grabbed Ice King’s arm and pulled him to the side. They skidded across the ice until they were behind the wall of another turn on a fork in the maze.
Simon clutched his chest, propping himself up against the wall. He was very out of breath, and the air almost felt like it stung if he breathed in too deeply. He tried to calm down, but it was difficult. He knew he wasn't safe.
No doubt Mist Fionna would locate them quickly.
He looked around, but it was all just an ice labyrinth. Just a bunch of paths framed by walls that began to feel suffocating.
It was a trap, Simon thought, just as much as it was a maze. There was no entrance and no exit.
“More are coming.” Ice King wheezed out, he seemed to have taken the fatigue harder.
As Simon looked at Ice King– a man he very reluctantly acknowledged as his partner in this situation– his eyes landed on the crown.
It didn't look right. But it was a crown.
It had powers then, didn't it?
“Why…” Simon began, winded, “why didn't you use the..uh- the crown?”
Ice King met his gaze, looking at him. Confused, as if he didn't understand what he had meant.
“The crown- your powers. You could've used them to…freeze her.” Really, Simon didn't know that. He was merely guessing that it could have worked.
The ice wizard looked at the ground. He appeared to be thinking.
Simon wondered why in the world he would need to think about it.
Then they both heard footsteps.
Multiple pairs of footsteps.
Ice King’s head snapped up at the sound.
“..Okay.” He looked at Simon, walking out from behind the wall to face the oncoming mist creatures.
Simon peeked out at him.
The mist creatures all stared at Ice King, who was standing unsurely with his arms up. They approached him, but clearly were not after him. As Simon looked at them, his stomach twisted with guilt, among other things.
He recognized some of them.
Fionna, Cake, Marceline, Finn…
..Betty.
Ice King braced himself, visibly, and fired away.
As his hands lit up, in a sense, with ice, Simon thought it would work.
Then it backfired.
The ice literally fired back at Ice King, knocking him over with quite a force. Ice King appeared to be pretty dazed, just laying there. The mist creatures seemed disgruntled, but only really in a way like they were disappointed in Ice King, and were otherwise not particularly bothered.
Even though he was in no real danger, Simon still felt a surge of fear as if he were. He acted out of an impulse, and a strange one, at that.
He darted over to Ice King and grabbed him before he really knew what he was doing. He looped his arms under Ice King’s and ran away, with the mist creatures right on his tail. Ice King was heavy, and Simon really hoped they would find somewhere safe soon, somehow.
“Hey, man..” Ice King groaned, “Hey, what gives?”
Simon did not answer him. Honestly, he hadn't even heard him. He had bigger concerns, you could say, and they gave him a sort of tunnel vision.
It was awkward trying to run with Ice King, really awkward, but he managed.
As they came around a corner, he saw something similar. It appeared, at first, to be a dead end, but upon closer inspection Simon saw a door.
A plain wooden door.
He skidded into it and unceremoniously dropped Ice King, whirling around to slam the door shut and lock it. And he stood there, for a while, catching his breath and calming down. It was a lot right now, he needed a moment.
The mist creatures banged on the door, but soon gave up, for reasons unknown to Simon. It seemed like they had given up, Simon wasn't really sure, but he appreciated the break it gave him.
Upon inspection, the room was the same. One door, a table, bookshelves, and a window. Nothing more, nothing less.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Both Simon and Ice King sat on the floor, in roughly the same position, leaning against the same wall. The only difference was Simon was resting his arms on his knees and Ice King was not. By now, Ice King had recovered from whatever had happened with the ice before. He seemed fine, nothing serious or permanent.
Simon had lost a sense of time since he had been in his place, he didn't know how long they had been in the room, but right now he was diligently avoiding looking at or talking to Ice King.
Ice King, however, was not putting the same effort in.
“This isn't the same room, is it?” he asked, rather tentatively. He didn't seem to like the silence.
Simon buried his face in his arms.
“No.” Simon answered, muffled. It was quick and dismissive.
“Good. Yeah-….. yeah, I thought so.” Ice King’s voice faded to a mumble as he looked away, out the window into the white void.
“Why did you…uh- hm.” Ice King began, “why did you carry me?”
Simon lifted his head, he looked weary. Both physical and emotional exhaustion, probably.
He sighed, “Oh, I don't know. Just felt like…y’know, the instinct.”
“But I would've been fine. They don’t hurt me.” Ice King pointed out.
Simon shrugged,
“You helped me before. Only fair.”
“Hm. Okay.”
There was a pause, then Simon spoke again.
“The misty things, why don’t they hurt you?”
“Oh!” Ice King smiled, like he was excited to explain something he knew about. “Because Crown tells them not to.”
“..what?”
“Crown made the things. All of the things.” Ice King gestured vaguely to the room. “For me. Crown makes sure they don’t hurt me.”
Simon just stared at him with a look of confusion on his face.
“Crown made them so I'd be comfortable.” his smile faded, “..I’m not, though. They just make me sad. I hide from them, but they always find me.”
“So, you’re completely alone here, aren't you?” Simon asked, and did not wait for an answer because he already knew what it would be. He looked at the ground. “I couldn't imagine that.”
“Oh it's not so bad.” Ice King smiled again.
“Plus, there's you now!”
Simon felt a twinge of guilt, just then. He was going to leave, and what then? This version of Ice King would be left alone?
There wasn't another path for Simon to take, but he still felt bad about it.
“But, if I leave?”
Ice King contemplated this.
“Well, then there would be a mist you! Like all the others.” his eyes lit up, “Oh yeah! There were other people here before. A long time ago. There was this girl with red hair, and another one who looked really pale. I thought they were cool, but I don’t think they liked Crown. We used to hang out all the time, though, in this maze. Oh and there was this girl with rabbit ears and her cat that I liked, too. I only really saw her in my head, though. There was also this boy and a dog. They looked kinda similar, now that I think about it.”
He looked happy, describing the people he used to hang out with. Simon recognized most of who he was talking about, and he flashed a small smile remembering them for himself.
He missed them.
He hoped they weren't far away.
“Then one day they all slept here and then…then they left. Before I even woke up. But then Crown showed me the mist guys. I thought it was awesome, at first, but now I just kinda want to see the real ones again. My real friends. I miss them.”
He sat for a moment, then cleared his throat.
“Sorry, I got a little off topic. Anyways, if you left, then Crown would make a mist version of you.” He looked at Simon and smiled.
“You're kinda cool, maybe the mist you would be nicer than the others. Maybe I wouldn't have to hide from mist you.”
Ice King chuckled, to Simon, it sounded wistful, “That would be super cool.”
“Yeah.” Simon said.
He didn't have much to say, really. He just felt bad for the guy.
He sighed, scooting into the corner and leaning against the wall.
“Im gonna get some rest, just, probably need some.”
“Oh yeah, totally cool with me.” Ice King looked around the room, “have fun.”
“Fun, yeah.” Simon mumbled, closing his eyes.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Simon was getting tired of this, very quickly.
It seemed like every second now he was in mortal danger. Maybe that was just his luck.
Anyway,
Simon awoke faced by another mist creature, this one taking the form of Marceline. At first, bogged down by weariness, the sight threw him for a loop. She hissed at him, baring her fangs. At least the fangs looked normal on her, he thought.
Mist Marceline grabbed his shoulders.
Simon really hated the feeling this gave him. It was all so wrong. He knew Marceline, much more than that, she was his family. And here was something malicious taking the vaguest shape of her.
It wasn't even Marceline. Not his, anyway. But it looked like her. It resembled her just enough to make him think of his own.
He wondered how she was. He hoped she was okay. She was probably angry, he thought.
Still, he hoped she was okay.
Suddenly, Mist Marceline’s form was broken by a hefty flying object. A book. It had been thrown from behind them, sailed right through Simon’s attacker and hit the wall right beside his head and fell to the floor with a loud thud.
“Ack! You almost hit me!” Simon shouted, moving away from the spot in the frosty wall where the book struck.
Ice King shrugged.
“Sorry.”
Marceline hissed at the ice wizard, whirling around to face him. She didn't attack, but took a stance that suggested she would've been telling him off if she could speak.
Simon stood, shakily, and glanced at the door. Kicked In, he thought. That must've been what woke him up before.
That also meant that, as long as the mist creature was Mist Marceline, they were not hiding.
Mist Marceline looked at where Simon had been before, then where he stood now. Decidedly done dealing with Ice King, she went back to attacking him.
Simon dodged her and back out of the room he went, with Ice King right behind.
Seriously, he was going to start hating running.
Mist Marceline stepped out of the room, narrowing her unnervingly all-white eyes. She paused, oddly enough, and did not pursue them. Not yet.
Simon soon knew why. She must've been waiting.
For some company.
Because of course she was.
It was just his luck.
And now they were being chased by way more than one mist creature.
Simon and Ice King ran as fast as they could, darting around corners, and yet they always remained right at their heels. Right behind them.
Simon had an odd feeling they could catch up if they wanted to, even overtake them, but they didn't. Like they didn't want to exert themselves. Like they were simply riding out this pathetic cat and mouse chase, waiting for Simon to take that final wrong turn.
They knew he would, eventually.
It frightened him.
It felt like he was running out of time.
Just then, Ice King slipped. On what, Simon did not know.
He did know, however, that the wizard stumbled and nearly lost his footing.
Reflexively, Simon reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him from falling and keeping him upright. Ice King took a moment to right himself, but he did.
The two kept running.
Simon didn't know for how long they ran, but he was starting to feel winded. More than that, a strange, creeping sort of sensation. Creeping as in something creeping up his spine, because he sure felt like that was happening.
It was just like before.
Simon turned a corner to find a dead end.
A wall.
A wall of shiny, frigid, condescending ice.
“Oh, man!” Ice King croaked, coming up behind him.
The two turned around, backing themselves up. It wasn't long before Mist Marceline came around the corner to find them, unfortunately, trapped.
She had been right, then. Whoever controlled them, they had been right.
The antiquarian and the wizard eventually hit the wall, and neither could move further.
Simon watched the fog of the creatures’ bodies swirl and twist, and unexpectedly, start to form together in one black haze. They all combined into one haze, and began to take shape. A much larger, much more imposing creature. A creature with too many heads and too many spindly legs, and one large, amorphous body. The details were all at once clear and murky on this thing.
Simon could not see a way out. There was no way out of this situation. There just wasn't.
He really didn't want to die.
He glanced at Ice King.
And just then he had an epiphany.
Thinking back to their conversation earlier, it seemed obvious.
The crown was ratting him out.
He couldn't fathom why, not in that moment, but the crown was trying to kill him. Maybe it was protective, or something, and didn't like him “meddling” with its owner. Maybe. But he knew it had definitely been telling the monsters where to find him. And telling them to attack him and him alone.
That was why he had felt something was so wrong with it. That was why he had felt the sensation of being stared at.
Because he had been.
And that also explained how the monsters seemed to just suddenly know where they were. The fatigue, too.
So, as he looked at the crown, sitting atop Ice King’s head, knowing he was in very, very imminent danger, he knew.
He knew if they had any chance of getting out of this, they needed to get the crown out of the way. The lack of magic could be dealt with later, when they were not in such a situation.
He needed to get the crown off of Ice King’s head.
So he did. He grabbed it.
And as soon as he did so, as soon as he pulled it off the wizard’s head, he really regretted it.
The crown was, safe to say, a little more sentient than he had expected.
Immediately, dozens of black, misty tendril arms erupted from the crown’s bottom. Like an angry surge of water. They were so jarringly similar to the mist creatures he almost did not notice what they were doing.
Almost.
The arms wrapped themselves around his own arms, his legs, too. It was like when one grasped him, another, twice as long, sprang from the void of nothing in the bottom of the crown.
It was all so fast, too.
In a matter of seconds, the arms were all around him. Around his shoulders, around his neck, on his face.
And he found he could no longer move.
And that wasn't even the most horrifying part.
The crown, using its many arms to brace itself, rose up to eye level. Almost like it was floating, in a way.
And it opened its eye.
Through the center most ruby, a pupil appeared. A slitted one, like that of an angry animal.
It stared dead straight at him.
Simon clenched his fists and tried to move, desperately, but could not. His heart was pounding by now, to him it was so loud, so all-encompassing, he wondered if anyone could hear it.
The crown squinted, Simon thought it looked…irritated? It was hard to tell, honestly. The crown wasn't very expressive.
Simon grunted, all of the sudden the crown’s arms were strong. It felt like the thing was trying to crush him. Which it probably was. He felt like he could barely draw a decent breath.
And cold. It was cold, too. Like he was being frozen right down to bone. It was so- it hurt.
It made him feel lightheaded. And heavy.
He was probably going to die, he realized.
Then be made mist.
And that would be the last of Simon Petrikov.
Or not.
In a flash, the crown was torn away. The arms let go and the chill, mercifully, left him.
He blinked, shaking the haze from his mind.
The crown swiped at Ice King’s arms as he held it at arm’s length, but did not hurt him.
Simon looked at the monster, and found it stood still. Its many eyes trained on one thing, the crown. It was like Simon and Ice King had been completely forgotten about.
He knew how to buy them some time.
“Throw it!” Simon shouted to Ice King, pointing at the crown. Ice King hesitated, glancing at him.
“Throw..” he echoed, looking unsure. Then he frowned, his expression became one of determination, it seemed. “Okay.”
He looked at the monster and held the crown up.
He threw it.
It cut right through the monster’s foggy body, and flew a distance away.
The monster turned one pair of eyes on them, and Simon worried he had been wrong.
They braced for an attack.
But one didn't come.
The monster whirled around, chasing after the crown as it skidded away, clanking against a wall. Once it disappeared around a corner, Ice King laughed.
“Look at that! It worked.” the wizard turned to Simon.
Something was ... .different about Ice King. Something unfamiliar in his eyes.
“...Are you okay?”
Simon relaxed, letting out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. He nodded, it was unsteady, but Ice King didn't press the question.
“What was that?” Simon whispered.
“That, that was, uh..” Ice King rubbed the back of his head, letting out an awkward chuckle, “Crown. That was just what it does. Yknow. that's how it….stays.”
Simon sighed, the memories of what just happened weighing heavy on him.
“We’ve got to get out of here..”
“We.” Ice King echoed, looking away and furrowing his brow, “..we..”
“There isn't an exit.”
Simon’s head snapped up.
“..There isn't?”
“I've tried.” the wizard shrugged haphazardly. His tone sounded different. Sadder. “No exit.”
Simon slumped backwards, leaning against the wall, again. He ran a hand through his hair, both out of stress and to move some strands out of his face.
He wanted to think about anything else. Something other than this. So he asked the first question that came to mind.
“Why did you save me?”
Ice King contemplated the answer.
“Well. I don't know. You helped me out enough times to warrant it.” he paused, and when he spoke again it was barely more than a whisper. Simon almost didn't catch it.
“It's a terrible death, anyway..”
He didn't know what to say in response.
He didn't really know what to think anymore. This Ice King…he felt bad for him. He was all alone, as far as Simon knew, everyone he had known was dead. Misty. And he- he couldn't even tell. He didn't know.
He didn't want to leave him alone here.
Just at that thought, Simon’s elbow bumped the wall.
And it began to change.
He began to fall back.
The wall wasnt solid anymore.
He looked over his shoulder, and there was nothing.
He yelped, stumbling. Ice King whirled around at the noise.
“Wh- hey!” he shouted, scrambling forward, reaching out to grab him.
He missed.
Simon fell. He fell into nothing. A void.
He didn't want to leave. Not so suddenly.
Just his luck.
He was confused.
What had happened? Why had he fallen?
His landing was unexpected, and rough. It winded him. He landed on his back, laying on some sort of floor, it looked like glass.
He sat up.
All around him it was black nothingness. With mirrors. A lot of mirrors. Just floating.
He couldn't see a reflection in any of them.
“Welcome!”
a cheerful voice called.
He looked around, and then he saw it.
Ahead of him, some distance away, a figure sat on something like a throne. She was cloaked by shadow, which really didn't make sense, scientifically. He could see her eyes, though, all four of them were strikingly yellow.
She had waved at him, but now resettled her feathered arm on the armrest.
She grinned at him, her eyes glinted.
“You've been summoned here for your trial.”