Chapter Text
Simon felt his very being ripple , and Shermy’s little body shivered with it when the epiphany finally hit him. It sent cascading waves of emotion through his very soul. Then, GOLBetty was ripping him from this strange body, sending him back to his own human one.
What a strange experience, having a supreme being of chaos send him to another universe just to teach him a lesson. And fuck, what an important lesson it had been. Now returned to his own body, Simon lowered the crown from its aloft position.
“Oh, Betty. ” He spoke. “Is that what it was like? I stood by and allowed you to sacrifice yourself for me… Even though part of me should have known better.”
She stared down at him, her blue eyes whispering judgements upon his whole existence. She seemed to acknowledge his words in her own strange way. Simon felt terrified, his hands shook and his head brimmed with emotion. He had no idea how much of Betty was in control, and how much of GOLB was in control. At any moment, Simon could be folded into another strange Tetris shape, receiving the same fated death as the Lich. But…
Something told him that she wasn’t going to do that. Instead, When he blinked again he found himself back at the bus stop, looking Betty in her human eyes. Her warm smile spoke volumes of understanding, of forgiveness, of love. Oh, how he wished he could relive this moment forever.
“... But wait. This… isn’t how it happened.”
“No. We made our choices. We could’ve made better ones, but… I don’t have any regrets.”
His breath caught in his chest. She squeezed his hand, that wonderful and intoxicating warmth infused every nerve.
“You were a wonderful experience,” Betty said, taking her suitcase.
Simon’s mind flitted through a thousand responses. Don’t leave me, I love you, I’m sorry, please don’t go, let me come with you, I can fix things, I-- “You were… everything. ” Simon replied. It was the only thing he could force himself to say.
Then, she was gone. GOLBetty sat in front of him, all knowing eyes picking apart every atom of his body. You are worthy of life, She seemed to say, though her mouth did not move.
“I think… I only offered to become Ice King because I felt my life didn’t matter. But… I’m really no less worthy of life than Fionna or Cake!” Simon exclaimed, staring down at his own hand. The very same hand that he could have sworn that Betty had held just moments before. A glance up at GOLBetty revealed her eyes twinkling brightly. Before he could continue, a vibration in his suit jacket briefly startled him. With the click of a button, he and Fionna were miraculously connected once more through the power of technology.
“Simon!” Fionna exclaimed, voice sounding relieved yet out of breath.
“Fionna!” Simon smiled.
“What happened? Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” Simon explained. “I accidentally got the ritual to work.” Coming through on his side of the line, he could hear chaos in the background. People screaming, rock crumbling, fire raging. Something was horribly wrong. Nevertheless, he needed to fill her in. “I’m with GOLBetty.”
“Hey, that’s great! Did you talk?” A blast of energy incinerated a hole in the ground next to Fionna’s foot, and she stumbled.
“Mostly I talked.” Simon chuckled nervously.
“Listen, the Scarab is here” She replied, sensing that the distraction from this conversation was putting her in more danger.
There was no time to waste, no hesitation to be had. Fionna and Cake were in danger. He whipped up the crown, holding it tight in his sweaty palms. “Oh no! Hang on, I’ll put on the crown. Maybe you can fight better with magic!” Simon declared. Fionna-world was going to end without Simon’s help.
“Don’t!” Fionna shouted back.
It was too late. The crown slipped from between his fingers and came to rest atop his head. GOLBetty’s eyes widened.
Putting on the crown felt like stepping out into frigid, subzero temperatures after spending all day in a sauna. It stole all of the breath from his lungs; felt like the crown had just stolen both lungs entirely. All of the frantic, buzzing emotions in his head ceased and his vision briefly clouded. Whispers from undetermined origins began to zip past his ears, and no matter how he tried to listen to them, he couldn’t figure out what was being said.
“Don’t change anything! This is-” The phone slipped from its resting spot between his shoulder and his ear. The earth beneath Fionna’s feet shifted, rumbling ominously. She heard the clatter of the cellphone as it hit something hard, but the call miraculously wasn’t cut off.
“Simon?” She called to him, desperately attempting to listen to his side of the line.
“Fionna let’s go!” She heard Marshall Lee call out.
Simon!” She called again as she ran. Her whole world was falling apart at the seams, a white web of nothingness washing over the place she called home.
There was stark, horrifying static on the other side of the line punctuated only by short and heavy breaths. What was going on? Had GOLBetty experienced a change of heart? Had… had Simon put on the crown?
The ground shook again and pavement cracked beneath her feet. Fuck, this was the end, wasn’t it? Her foot caught on something, sending her sprawling on the ground. Cake was launched off of her shoulder, and the two of them slid across the concrete.
With a groan, she picked herself up and hissed quietly as blood began to trickle from the numerous scrapes across her skin. Cake muttered profanities from where she lay. Gary’s cellphone was nowhere to be seen. But… The more she looked around, the more Fionna realized that something strange was happening. The rubble of a building next to her was starting to glitch and change. Pavement beneath her rippled, flashing with strange color.
Then, with a frightening and strange noise, one of the still-standing buildings near her blipped, transforming into… Candy.
Simon put on the crown. Simon put on the crown. Simon put on the crown.
“Ugh… What-” Cake gritted out as she lifted her head. “Damn! What happened to that building?” She cried out as her eyes finally caught onto the same thing that Fionna was gawking at. Around them, more things began to shift, ripple, blip, and change. Magic was coming back to their world, the magical spark reintroduced to the gas. The crown’s power was back, refueling their world with power.
“No… Simon… ” Fionna mumbled. If only she could find that phone and see if she could somehow still stop this. Part of her knew that it was too late.
Simon could hardly breathe. The crown sat atop his head, the gems so innocently glittering in the darkness of GOLBetty’s dimension. He fought against its current, but found himself quickly being pulled away from the sanity he had come to know. The cold… The ice… The snow… He knew their secrets again, wanted so desperately to allow the crown’s power to consume him.
The embodiment of chaos herself was seething with emotion, and every particle rippled with her. What could she do? The love of her life, the one that she had given her mind, body, and sanity to, was now trapped back in the throes of insanity.
That fucking crown was back on his head, even after everything. She wrapped a mighty, clawed hand around his fragile human body.
Squeeze. Put him out of his misery, GOLB urged her. But the part of Betty that still lived within pushed back violently. She couldn’t. She still loved him, and still devoted herself to protecting him. She had given him everything, and he had only just come to realize his worthiness. Now, that crown - that fucking crown - had just taken everything away.