Well, here it is. The beginning of a collection of back-story/side-story one-shots that I hope turn out well.

It's mostly for writing practice but I also like dwelling as deep as possible into a story.

It may not be very efficient, figuring that it's hard to understand without first reading COT, but oh well. Enjoy.

Fate of the Flame Queen

Flame Princess slowly brushed her fiery hair, staring into the frown that was reflected onto her mirror. It had been a tiring day, it had been a stressful day, it had even been a magical day, but most of all, it had been an emotional day. All of this and more ran through her mind as she kept hearing the banging of hammers vibrating in the walls as the construction crews rebuilt her beloved palace.

Finn had left for the day, returning to his tree fort to prepare for the hazardous journey to the Citadel of Truth, and hopefully also give a final farewell to Jake and the rest of his friends. This would be a challenge, no doubt was left there.

Secretly though, FP was disappointed to have her hero leave the Fire Kingdom. She could have really used his presence to lighten the mood, especially when she dealt with the various ambassadors and envoys from neighboring kingdoms, wanting one thing or another. But she also understood the importance of his departure. Family, after all, did come first.

Family.

All Finn had left was his loyal canine bro-ham. His adoptive parents passed on, his true parents utterly unknown. Even the whereabouts of Jermaine, Jake's blood brother, were shady at best. The young queen thought about her own family. Both her parents had been lost, but she still had the support of her three brothers, all of which also supported Finn. This fact always brought a smile to the fiery girl's face. She stopped to think deeper for a moment. The next day, before setting off on a perilous quest, she would finally ask Finn what he thought about staying with her, and eventually, joining her to watch over the kingdom.

FP brought her hands to her chest, picturing an image of the young man standing next to her in the mirror, a gentle hand on the princess's shoulder and a joyful smile upon his features. No one but her would have ever considered what she was planning, but in this day and age, when even the citizens below her cheered for a leader like the human, the young ruler knew that everyone was behind her a hundred percent.

Her mind began to shift the image in the glass, producing a blurry vision of what the girl was thinking, two figures wearing royal garb, holding each other's hands. It was not clear because it was an event that had not happened, or she hoped, not yet.

Both of our families have suffered great loss, no parents to guide and care for us after the youngest part of our lives.

FP leaned over the table that held the mirror, holding her head in her hands as her elbows rested on the stone. She had slipped into a topic that wasn't very commonplace in her mind.

Parents should always be there. I know for certain that when I have my own family, I will do whatever it takes to never leave my kids to go it alone.

Somewhere along her string of thoughts, Flame Princess drew the image of Finn in her head. Unknowingly, a light blush had come to her face as she imagined what the future might hold if she and the human were to be truly together.

This induced daydreaming was interrupted by a loud crash outside, startling the girl. She quickly got up and walked to her door, opening and peeking outside to see what had happened. A large pile of support beams had been dropped by the workers. One of them rubbed his neck as he approached FP.

"Sorry about that your highness, those things are really heavy."

Flame Princess held up her hand.

"It's alright, no harm done, just don't hurt yourselves."

The workman bowed and returned to his team, who looked like they were playing a giant game of pick-up sticks. The princess just shook her head with an amused grin and closed the door.

Back inside, she walked over to her balcony and gazed over lands. There was still a fair portion of the day left, but official business had already concluded, mostly due to the other kingdoms arming themselves in fear of a similar disaster that hers had experienced. It was understandable and frankly the fire elemental was enjoying her little day off.

However, she was also extremely bored. Normally Finn would take her out to explore or just talk but obviously that was out of the question. Letting out a sigh, FP sat down on the floor and crossed her legs, bringing her hands together in her lap and closing her eyes. A few deep breaths later, she was in a peaceful state, ready to dwell on whatever events came to mind.

For a while, there was nothing, but out of the blue, Flame Princess remembered her father's last words.

After I'm gone, if you want to know the truth, ask the Flame.

What had he meant by that? They were his last words. He had spoken of truth, proving that in his final moments, the old king had respected his daughter's ideals. Ask the Flame? What could a sentient fire tell her, most of all about her mother? Tired of just contemplating it in her head, FP let out another breath and focused on the Flame within her, attempting to meld with the ancient force and establish a link.

Please, show me what my father meant.

For a brief moment, there was nothing. Suddenly however, a bright flash filled her mind. FP tried to open her eyes but was too late, being mysteriously thrown into a trance that left her feeling as if she were slipping out of her own body and literally fusing with the Ancestral Flame. After another moment, the flash dissipated, leaving only darkness.

Forcing open her eyelids, Flame Princess found herself in a different room, one that was entirely not in the castle. In fact, the young queen didn't recognize it at all. There appeared to be multiple beds, each one had a curtain of fireproof cloth surrounding it. Near each bed was a table full of what appeared to be medical supplies. With the observations, FP began to realize she was in a hospital. This however, was not the Fire Kingdom hospital she knew, and there was only one in the whole land.

A sound from behind raised her attention. It was a giggle, a very childish one at that. No, it was definitely a baby. Flame Princess turned around to a shocking sight. There before her, on a bed a mere few feet away, lay her mother, the Queen of the Fire Kingdom, holding a tiny fire elemental in her arms. Beside the woman stood Flame King, a mixed look of concern and deep thinking upon his burning face.

The queen however, was smiling bright as the sun, gazing into the laughing face of her daughter, tucked safely in her arms. Flame Princess finally found the focus to step forward.

"Mom?"

There was no reaction. After a few moments, the fiery girl understood.

This is a memory.

Legend stated that when a fire elemental's body burned out, its heart and memories were absorbed into the Ancestral Flame, keeping it alive with the spirit of the people it had created. FP looked at her clothes to see that she was wearing her normal royal dress, proof that the she was within the Flame itself. Looking back at the scene before her with newly-born attention, the young ruler watched closely.

A nurse suddenly walked into the room, carrying a clipboard. She stopped before the royal pair and bowed.

"You're majesties, I have news on your two boys."

Two boys?

Flame King faced the lady.

"What have you to say?"

The female elemental stood straight and began reading off of her board.

"We were correct that they had little chance of surviving, but hope found its way into the situation. My husband is a skilled alchemist. When word reached him of the babies' instability, he came over as fast as he could. With great care, he was able to save them, but, there is a cost."

FK narrowed his eyes.

"Which is?"

The nurse frowned.

"He had to place them in a temporary stasis. By the time they are released from the energizing hold of the transmutation, their bodies will be able to grow normally without further problems."

The king thought for a moment before asking his final question.

"How long will they remain in this state?"

The lady looked nervous but replied.

"Nearly a decade, your majesty."

Both parents were shocked. They looked at each other with concern, then returned their attention to the young woman. The fiery queen spoke.

"Regardless of the consequences, please thank him for saving our little boys. I know he did the best he could."

The nurse humbly smiled.

"Thank you my queen. He is a parent himself, he knows the importance of one's children, and our little Ferrum can be quite the handful sometimes."

Flame Queen also smiled.

"I'm sure he will grow up to be a great alchemist just like his father."

The nurse gave one final bow then turned to leave. Flame King turned back to his wife.

"Ten years, they'll be well behind their sister for taking the throne."

The queen just grinned at the tiny FP in her arms.

"Well, at least they will have an older sibling to watch over them. Odds are our eldest will run off to the military."

She chuckled, but Flame King just continued to stare at the infant princess.

"What if, she grows up and just, kicks me out you know? Take's over the kingdom and throws me to the streets."

The queen sighed a bit, stripping away her smile as she turned to look at her husband.

"Dear, I know that it's in your nature to worry about losing power but please, this is your daughter for Grod's sake."

She placed a hand on the man's armor.

"Why must you be so cold and calculating?"

The king drew a look of shock.

"Why? How could you not understand why? Because, I am evil, just like every other fire elemental."

His statement contained pride, something that the queen shook her head at and sighed once more.

"Oh my king, you treat evil as if it's a definition of strength and might. In reality though, good and evil are only different matters of perspective, on one side you have those who help others and treat them as equals, on the other you have those who are in it for themselves."

She gave the fiery man a longing look with her golden eyes.

"Do you care for me dear?"

Flame King was startled by the question, quickly facing his mate.

"Of course I do! You are the love of my life and I would do anything to protect you."

He took the woman's hand in his own with a gentle grip. Flame Queen just smiled.

"Then you are not fully evil my king."

The towering fire elemental was touched by her words. FP beamed with pride, never knowing what a wise person her mother had been. The king was in deep thought, until he finally turned to walk away. Before getting far, a hand gripped his arm, stopping his leave. He turned to see his queen with a hopeful smile. Then, she gently lifted baby FP to him.

"Why don't you spend some time with our daughter while I rest dear?"

The king begrudgingly accepted the tiny elemental, who giggled and poked at the massive red jewel imbedded in the ruler's armor. The man let out a sigh but looked back at his beloved.

"Of course honey, get some sleep."

He quickly leaned across and gave her a kiss on the forehead. It was the greatest display of affection FP had ever seen from him. Afterward, Flame King turned to leave, while his queen peacefully laid further down in bed to drift off into her dreams. Flame Princess approached the bed, having never remembered her mother's appearance.

She looked nearly identical to the young girl, with the addition of a more mature face and a wise expression that lasted even as her eyes were closed.

Wow mom, you're beautiful.

She leaned over to place her own kiss on the queen's head, only to discover she phased right through her. Disappointed, FP took one last look at the wise ruler as the memory destabilized.

The next scene depicted her father carrying baby Flame Princess toward the palace. As he approached the fairly primitive structure, she saw him hand the girl off to a servant.

"Take my daughter to the fire sages, have them proclaim what she will be capable of."

The servant bowed than accepted the smiling little princess. He then briskly walked off. FP watched as her dad climbed the steps of the diminutive palace and stand atop it, waiting for an answer. She shook her head.

What a paranoid jerk.

For the next few hours, the fiery girl waiting for the news on her fate, entertaining herself with thoughts of how happy she could have been if her mother had interfered with her imprisonment. Why hadn't she? Before continuing her thinking, the sounds of approaching footsteps broke her out of the thoughts.

"The word! The word!"

A messenger came running, clearly out of breath as he stopped near the palace. Flame King turned around and looked at the man.

"What's the word?"

After taking a moment to recover, the messenger faced his ruler.

"The word is your newborn baby will have greater powers than you'll ever dream of."

The king looked stoic, then responded.

"Um…have my baby sent into the wilderness of the outside world to perish."

You're a real idiot, dad.

"Ok," the messenger responded, and then ran off.

That servile fire elemental was the second person to ever show kindness to FP, the first being her dear mother. The man had decided against letting her die and even tried to find a home for her.

Quite a while later, another familiar scene came up. A being in a bulbous suit carrying the baby FP walked up to the palace. Princess Bubblegum shouted at the king.

"Flame King?"

The ruler didn't even bother to face her.

"What do you want, princess of the Gum World?"

PB held up the small fire elemental in her hands.

"I found your lost daughter."

The nervous look Flame King produced sickened Flame Princess.

"I-I don't remember losing anything," he stated as nonchalantly as he could.

Bubblegum let out an irritated sound, calling his bluff.

"Ok you got me. I had her sent to wander in the woods. I was in fear of being usurped. Come on."

He turned around and held up his arms in a defensive shrug.

The candy monarch was undeterred.

"That's your problem, but you can't just let her run around the woods. She's too dangerous."

The pink girl pointed to the fiery king.

"Find a way to contain her power or I will."

FP looked down at her hands. What if PB was the one who found a way? Would her life have been better? On the other hand, would she have ever met Finn?

"Pssh, fine," Flame King answered with irritation.

He quickly dematerialized his flames while his armor reformed next to Princess Bubblegum,. After the infant had been taken from her arms, PB bowed.

"Thank you for listening to reason Flame King. I'm glad you understand that responsibility demands sacrifice."

Those words, they made Flame Princess sigh sadly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," the towering flame ruler replied, rolling his eyes.

As PB walked off, Flame King held out his daughter and studied her carefully.

"Hm, if I can't just get rid of you I'll have to find some place to keep you."

He turned and walked into the palace itself, which hadn't been updated compared to FP's own timeline. Inside was the throne, and hanging above it was the infamous and dreaded lantern that held Flame Princess for 14 years. In place of her was a massive candle that illuminated the room. She shuddered.

Flame King scratched his chin, staring at the glass object.

"Servant, come here!"

A lowly fire elemental approached quickly and kneeled down.

"Yes your majesty?"

The king pointed to the lantern.

"Shove the candle out of that lamp and put my daughter in it."

He held out the girl.

The servant acknowledged and accepted the baby, scurrying off to take care of the request without an objection.

Flame King put his hands on his hips, grinning triumphantly.

"Well, that was easy."

FP's flames grew higher.

I'd just love to give you a nice sock in the face you jerk.

Several more palace servants had joined to help in the request. They lowered the lantern and pulled out the large tower of wax within. A second gently placed baby FP inside, who had a look of utter confusion on her little face. After the door was closed and the lamp raised, it took an additional few minutes before the infant fire elemental's eyes watered and her mouth grew wide.

She began bawling loudly, causing all the servants to look upon the girl with pity. Flame King however, just pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Ugh, this is gonna take a while to get used to."

At that point the teenager princess stomped up and aimed her leg for her dad's crotch, forgetting she'd phase right through and falling on her back. She groaned, frustrated, before leaning back up on her elbows.

Well, that didn't offer much, I already knew all this junk. At least I saw mom though.

Flame Princess smiled, remembering her mother's kind face. Before she could contemplate further though, screams were heard from outside, causing Flame King to spin around and phase out the palace entrance. FP followed.

Out in the open, Flame King's eyes widened as he saw a sight that would terrify any fire elemental, no matter how ruthless or strong: a water dragon. The beast was blasting every street with its hydro-filled breath, causing massive steam clouds to rise into the air along with screeches of pain. Flame Princess was shocked, not only because of the attack but because in all her studies of her kingdom's history, she had never read of a water dragon on this date.

The king regained his composure and blasted himself toward the monster. As he grew closer, he formed an enormous fire ball in his hands and fired it straight into the dragon's face. The creature cried out from pain as its body was evaporated but quickly recovered and charged at the fire elemental.

Below him, troops were firing lava balls and flaming arrows in a desperate attempt to halt the deadly elemental lizard. It was having little effect besides enraging the beast further, which used its tail to smash the infantry and artillery away. Flame King took the opportunity to throw a massive stream of fire at the dragon's back, forcing it to let out another roar of agony.

It reset its sights on the ruler and flew at him with incredible speed. The fire elemental didn't have time to dodge and voted to grab the creature's gapping mouth with his hands, which began to sting from the material they were touching. Even with the sharp pain, FK refused to give in, using all his energy to rocket himself in the opposite direction the monster was pushing him.

Finally, he managed to overpower the beast and launched it into the ground, creating a colossal impact of magma, rocks, and water. Exhausted from the effort, Flame King floated back down to the ground and took a knee, panting heavily. FP walked over to him, oddly concerned for the ruler's well-being. Maybe it was the ferocity with which he was defending the kingdom. Maybe she was just too good now thanks to Finn

The king struggled, but managed to stand back up, staring into the dust filled crater where the dragon had fallen. Before he could react, a liquefied claw reached out and grasped FK's copper-plated body. He grunted as a vile hissing filled the air. The beast's next move comprised of pulling back its gapping maw before unleashing a lethal torrent of water from within its throat.

Flame King closed his eyes, conceding that he shall now perish. However, the only sound that came was a piercing hiss. The man opened his eyes, both he and the observing princess below were astonished to see Flame Queen, hovering in front of her husband, brandishing a massive shield of scorching flames. With one fluid movement, she produced a blade of fire the size of a ship and slashed the dragon across the face.

The monster screamed heavily before dropping its hold on the fire elemental in its clutches and covering the damaged face. Taking advantage of the moment of retreat, FQ turned to Flame King, who had regained his own stability in the air.

"Is our daughter safe?"

Her tone was hopeful, her expression pleading. FK was touched, somewhere in his evil heart.

"Yes," he answered without any weakness.

Flame Queen smiled and took her partner's hand.

"Then stop doing things on your own dummy, let's finish this."

Dummy? I am my mom's daughter!

The armored man grew a smile of confidence, nodding at his wife before they both turned to face the recovering dragon. The creature eyed them with hatred then hastily charged them both. Big mistake. With an elegance that left FP speechless, the couple flew at the beast themselves, quickly beginning to twirl and form two strands of molten rock behind them. Without sufficient maneuverability, the water dragon found itself surrounded by the coils of lava.

In a sudden change of trajectory, the flame rulers back-tracked over their creation, quickly separating and using their elemental mastery to tighten the magma ropes that begun binding the helpless dragon. The creature began rapidly evaporating into the atmosphere, screaming a roar of agony.

Before long, it lost its support in the sky and fell violently to the ground, defeated. The flame monarchs landed beside the monster's head, once more holding hands. Flame Queen turned to her king with a smile.

"You see what we can accomplish, when we work together?"

FK took a moment but nevertheless gave a hopeful grin in return.

"You consider yourself evil, I personally say I'm good. You see dear, there is little difference when a common need to protect arises."

She embraced the man, who returned the gesture, closing his eyes with a true shine of happiness on his face.

"Perhaps you're right, my love."

Flame Princess stood nearby, amazed by the level of serenity her father had displayed. However, the moment was violently interrupted as the still mobile dragon fired its open jaws at the couple. Flame King reacted immediately, holding back the bite with his powerful arms. He was visibly struggling nonetheless.

The beast was slowly pushing him back before FK noticed a terrifying sight. Within the dragon's throat, a wellspring of water was gathering. His eyes grew wide as he looked behind him to see the force of the monster's attack had knocked his queen to the ground, showing that she had not fully recovered from the strain of childbirth.

The king was unmoved. He would die protecting his love from the blast that was fast approaching. However, as the stream of water began to rise in the beast's mouth, the man felt his heart's temperature increase greatly. Confused, he looked behind him once more to see his wife weakly holding her hand to her own heart while chanting an incantation.

Recognizing the spell, FK's eyes widened.

"No! Don't do it!"

Flame Queen just smiled with what little strength she had left.

"I could never run a kingdom on my own. Better for you to go on, my king. Just promise me, to look after our children."

With those final words, the fiery woman finished the spell, forming a spinning disk of flames around herself and Flame King. In a sudden burst of fire, the two instantly switched places. The king uselessly attempted to grab his wife as the dragon's hydro based attack slammed full force into the queen, blocking the majority of the damage that would've been dealt to Flame King.

As Flame Princess covered her mouth in horror, the memory destabilized.

The young princess found herself back on her floor. The Ancestral Flame retreated into her body, leaving the room dead silent save for the whispers of the girl's own natural fire. All she could think of was the scene depicting her father shielding the queen with his body, determined to protect her no matter what.

That's what changed him, he saw how Finn protected me from the crystal dragon, and it brought back the memory of that awful day.

The girl shed a few tears for her late mother, wishing she had had the time to get to know the wise queen. True, her memories were buried deep within the Flame, but never would she experience the tutelage or kindness of her deceased parent. Never would she embrace the loving mentor she never had.

Then she thought back to Flame King, the neglectful father whose last act was to prevent the very tragedy that befell his own love.

"Oh dad," she whispered sadly.

"If only…if only you'd listened to mom."

More tears fell as FP slumped further to the floor. Her father had no doubt been filled with evil, but what was the true nature evil? She remembered the story of Marceline's dad, the Lord of Evil. Supposedly, the most vile and merciless being in existence, but even he loved his daughter enough to show it. The philosophic words or Flame Princess's mother drifted into thought.

Good and evil. Is it really that black and white?

There it is. I don't know how it was, one-shots aren't really familiar to me.

But if you guys do want another entry please let me know. Later.