Story Note: This is an AU Bubbline story, in which Bonnibel is a relatively normal woman in her early twenties and ultimately ends up selling her soul to the Vampire Queen. Rated T for language and suggestive themes later on.
Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time or its characters, and as this story is for entertainment only, I make no profit. The song Collide and its lyrics belong to Breathe Carolina respectively.
i'll keep you safe when worlds collide
Chapter One - a deal's a deal
by. xxBurningxx
The kingdom is burnin' down.
The moments flash by in a blur. She's driving the back way home because it seems safer given the state of mind she's in; the past four hours had been spent babysitting her friends at the local club, making sure they didn't get into any trouble. She is exhausted beyond words and the idea of being reunited with her bed so she can finally get some rest sounds more than delightful. Radio blaring loudly in an attempt to keep her alert enough to drive in a straight line, things swirl out of control, and quick. She sees a pair if headlights in the distance and doesn't think anything of it. It isn't until the last minute that Bonnibel remembers through her hazy mind that this is a one-way road; that there shouldn't be any cars driving towards her at all. In that second she realizes that the other vehicle is in her lane, swerving a little, but most definitely making no move to either pull off the road or at least get out of the way. She attempts to steer her own car off the road and avoid collision but it's too late, and the cars slam together.
Bonnie vaguely remembers screaming as the sound of glass shattering fills her ears. The seat belt digs into her skin painfully as she is flung forwards, holding her back. Something makes contact with her stomach but she doesn't see what it is, nor is she really concerned about it because things are happening at such a swift pace. Despite the adrenaline coursing through her veins, her eyes almost seem to glaze over; her mind feels the same way, as though a veil has been placed over it, clouding any rational thoughts she might have. Noticing that for some reason the airbags aren't present, she knows her brain isn't functioning properly because instead of panicking about being in a car crash, her thoughts quietly start making a list of reasons as to why the airbags might not have deployed. Not long after that she feels the edges if her vision begin to go black; somewhere deep in the back of her head is the knowledge that her dress feels strangely wet. A hysterical fit of giggles weakly escape her because why would she be wet? She's not swimming! Silly me, she thinks. Then a strong wave if fatigue sweeps over her, urging her to take a nap. Yes, a little sleep sounds lovely. Seconds later, Bonnie's eyelids slip shut, succumbing to unconsciousness.
Not for long.
Suddenly she is jostled awake by an unknown force. Her emerald green eyes snap open, fully coherent and alert, mind whirring unlike it had been only moments ago. Something is different; off. She knows that there was a wreck, a head-on collision, but she's still in her car behind the wheel, and there isn't any pain. Why isn't there pain? Looking out through the broken windshield, she finally notices what is wrong. In the the cracked side-mirror are the flashing lights of an ambulance, except they aren't flashing. The truck doesn't seem to be getting any closer, and there is a lack of sirens screaming through the night. Bonnie blinks as she somehow realizes that time has stopped. That, or it is moving at such an extremely slow pace her eyes can't visibly tell the difference.
Then the same thing that had awoken her shakes her shoulder again, except this time it is accompanied by a voice. "Yo," it says.
Bonnie nearly jumps out of her skin at the sudden contact and sound; in the short amount of time she'd been awake, there hadn't been any noises. Looking in the direction of the voice, her eyes widen slightly as she sees a woman sitting, rather casually, in the passenger seat with her legs crossed and propped up against the crumpled dashboard. Through the bright light offered from the moon, Bonnie can just make out the features of the girl. She almost looks about her own age, with a long black mane of hair cascading down her head and shoulders. Adorned in a dark hoodie and a pair of jeans, the pink-haired girl doesn't know what to make of her. She doesn't really know what to make of anything that's just happened, really.
"H-hi," Bonnibel chokes out, staring at her passenger, still caught in a state of shock. "W-who are you, a-and why are you in my...my car?" No longer stuck in the foggy haze from before, she can feel the full effects of the adrenaline, causing her hands to shake and voice become wobbly. Between that and the sudden appearance of the girl, speaking isn't as easy as it should be.
The woman smirks, presumably at her stuttered words. "I'm Marceline, the Vampire Queen. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Bonnie blinks at the way the girl says it, as though claiming she was the "Vampire Queen" was about as normal as saying she was the manager at the grocery store down the street. She's about to open her mouth and say something, but the dark-haired girl, Marceline as she calls herself apparently, interrupts her before she can.
"Why I'm here? Well, to make a long story short, Daddy kicked me out of the Nightosphere because I was causing to many problems for him and his work, so he told me to go entertain myself elsewhere and I figured the mortal world would be the best place to have some fun."
Bonnie's jaw falls open a little; this girl can't do anything but spew complete and utter nonsense, it seems.
"But here's the catch," she continues, smiling devilishly. Are those fangs? Bonnie tells herself it must be the lack of proper lighting playing tricks on her. "Daddy hates it when people intervene with the mortals that are about to die. He says it throws his list off and stuff, and then he gets bitched out by Death. So, I'm going to prove to him that he can't escape me no matter where he sends me." This time her smile changes into something a little more triumphant, reminding Bonnie of a small child almost.
But then her mind latches onto one of the things Marceline had said. "W-wait," she mumbles. "What was that about mortals about to die?"
The girl quirks an eyebrow at her. "Face it, Princess," she says, glancing down at her outfit. "You aren't exactly in the greatest health conditions at the moment. You're dying; I can feel your life slipping away as we speak because of my super-cool demon powers. And even if I couldn't, it isn't exactly hard to figure out just from looking at you."
"My name's not Princess," she mutters. But then Bonnie goes silent for a moment. That strange feeling of wetness around her mid-section is suddenly brought to the front of her thoughts, and slowly she looks down, a strange feeling of dread boiling in her chest. Despite not having enough light at her disposal, she can still make out the horrifying picture right below her. That warm liquid spreading across her abdomen, that damp and wet feeling from earlier, she should have figured it out sooner. Blood. A lot of it. That isn't the most gruesome part, either. A piece of the windshield had, apparently, decided to lodge itself smack in the middle of her stomach during the impact. Bonnie stares at it for a few moments, almost captivated by how abnormal the lack of pain was in this strange time-devoid space. Or maybe the simple fact that there's a foreign object plugged into her gut plays into that as well.
Then reality gets up and punches Bonnie in the face because suddenly the fact that she is on the verge of death becomes clear. She's only being kept alive because of whatever the "Vampire Queen" has done, or at least she assumes that this stopped time thing is because of her. It's the only logical conclusion in this very, very illogical scenario. Her brain has basically fried itself to a crisp at this point, trying to find out how this could possibly be real. Finally snapping out of her trance, she looks at Marceline and then mumbles, "Oh my God, I'm dying."
At this, the Vampire Queen's small smirk turns into a toothy grin, and now Bonnie is definitely sure that those are fangs, no doubt about it. "Bingo! So here's where I propose an offer to you, dearest—wait," she stops and an almost confused expression flashes across her face. "I don't even know your name! Okay, okay, tell me your name, mortal," she demands, the words falling out almost a little hastily.
For a reason that Bonnie can't define, her stubbornness pokes her in the ribs at this moment. Now, of all times, she really isn't sure. Something about the other girl's tone, perhaps. "What if I don't want to tell you my name?"
Marceline's eyebrows shoot up almost completely out of shock. That was the last response she was expecting, from a human, no less. A strange feeling shoots through her, almost akin to satisfaction, like maybe she's picked the right dying mortal to pick on after all (the pink hair had kind of thrown her off). Plus, there had been plenty of people dying at that exact moment to choose from; she'd picked one completely at random. She gets the feeling that maybe this princess won't be so bad, or at the very least, fun to mess with. "I have two reasons why, Princess," she pauses. "Actually, make that three. First, I'm the reason why you haven't bled to death yet. Second, I already told you my own name, and in case your forgot, I'm also the Vampire Queen. I'm pretty sure you don't understand the significance behind that right now, but in time you will, trust me," Marceline says with a coy wink.
Bonnie nods slowly. "The first point is actually very valid. I'm not sold on the second one. What's the last reason?"
"I'll just continue to call you Princess from now on and that will be that," she says, a smug smile tugging on her lips.
"Fair enough," Bonnie replies, eyes darting down to the protruding glass once more, then back up to Marceline. "I'm Bonnibel Bauermeister. Now I'm curious though. Why do you keep making it sound like I'm not going to die after you leave?"
Marceline smiles in a way that almost makes Bonnie uneasy. "Okay, then, dearest Bonnibel, that brings us back to what I was going to start with. An offer. In exchange for allowing you to live after this—"
"Wait, this is starting to sound really cliché," Bonnie says, stopping Marceline short and causing the girl to blink, because no one interrupts the Vampire Queen if they value their lives. But for some reason, the usual spark of rage that should ensue like it usually does is no where to be found, just a small trickle of annoyance in its place. Albeit a little tempted to say something, Marceline let's the mortal continue nonetheless. "Let me guess, you're going to let me live but in return I must sell my soul to you, or have to be at your mercy for the rest of my life, or something along those lines?" Bonnie, at this point, has somewhere in the back of her flurry of thoughts decided that this was all one huge hallucination caused by the blood loss her body was undergoing. She's positive that this is her brain's way of making her body cope until the medics can arrive at the scene. With that theory in mind, Bonnie decides to play along with her mind's little games.
"Wow...that's surprisingly spot-on. Way to go, Princess," Marceline says as she removes her feet from the dashboard, clapping her hands in mock applause. "But yeah, that's just about right. I'll basically be taking the deed to your soul, and your life will no longer be yours, but rather mine. Forever in my debt, you know? So, you're in, right?" Marceline smiles crookedly at the end, like a salesman at the close of his advertising pitch, about to reel the customer in.
"Again," Bonnie says, wondering what her brain's made-up character will have to say in response to this, "what if I say no?"
Marceline blinks at the question. Even though she's sure the pink-haired girl is bluffing, she's still a little shocked she's actually bothered to ask what happens if she denies. "Well, I'll leave, you'll die slowly and bleed to death before the ambulance can get you to the ER, and you'll be forced to leave behind everyone you care about. And, as a special touch just for you, I'll make sure it's arranged that you rot in the Nightosphere with my dad."
"How can you possible know that I'll die otherwise? And the Nightosphere, what's that?"
"Full of questions, aren't we Princess?"
Marceline finds it odd because instead of simply getting entirely pissed like normal and letting the mortal die because she's already crossed so many of the boundaries she has in the Nightosphere, the vampire finds her mouth curling into a smirk despite everything. "Like I said, demon-powers. I can tell when someone's about to die. And the Nightosphere...well, I guess it's what you humans refer to as Hell, although I'm not sure how you idiots got that name stuck in your tiny little brains."
Bonnie is silent for almost an entire minute. What a complex person her head has cooked up...then again she doesn't think she's ever been injured this bad before, so who knows what a blood-deprived body will do? In fact, she figures the real cause of the hallucination is the sudden lack of oxygenated blood cells being delivered to her brain. She can't be for sure though because she doesn't know the exact amount of the vital fluid she's lost. The medics should be getting there soon however, at least she hopes so. "Okay then, Marceline the Vampire Queen...I guess I accept your offer."
The grin that is thrown at her is eerie in a kind of way that sends a ripple of uncertainty throughout her limbs. "Awesome," Marceline whispers, the word coming out close to a hiss. She thrusts one of her hands towards Bonnie, and then states in a more formal tone, "Bonnibel Bauermeister, do you hereby agree to the terms that in exchange for the chance to remain alive, you relinquish the rights of your soul to I, Marceline the Vampire Queen?"
"Yes. It's a deal," Bonnie says as she grips the hand extended to her. She's shocked at how cold Marceline's skin is. Not ice-cold, no, but more like she's stuck her hand in front of a running air conditioning unit for a few minutes. After that thought has rolled through her head, something in the atmosphere rumbles as their hands slip apart. A universal confirmation that the agreement is now official.
"Alright, time to fix you up," Marceline says, reaching out towards to the glass shard still poking out from Bonnie's stomach.
"Woah, w-wait what are you—?" Bonnie stammers as she observes where Marceline's hand is reaching. The vampire pays her no mind as she grabs the end of the glass and gives it a tug. Bonnie tenses right as she does it, expecting some kind of agonizing pain to assault her during its removal. There is none. Just a slight tingling where the object used to be, but that's all. Marceline holds it up with a small smile; the end of it reflects the moonlight slightly, making the blood on the second half look even more pronounced. Then she tosses it to the floorboard and proceeds to lean over and place both of her hands over Bonnie's stomach.
The girl recoils slightly at the touch, but watches in amazement as the vampire's hands light up ever so slightly, giving off a soft glow. Then a cool sensation runs through the wound as Marceline mutters a few things under her breath. "I can't heal it completely because then the stupid mortal doctors will get all suspicious-like, and that's always pretty annoying. I have to leave you in relatively bad shape still, but this is just so you don't bleed out and die."
Bonnie remains silent and simply watches the hands still slightly pressed against her belly. Then Marceline backs up a little and says, "Cool, that one's good now. It was the biggest concern. Now just let me get this one up on your neck."
Marceline watches the way the princess blinks in momentary confusion, so she adds, "Looks like a piece of glass flew back and grazed it."
Even though she's expecting the touch this time, it doesn't stop the sharp shiver that runs down Bonnie's spine as Marceline places her hands over the right side of her neck. Between the chilliness of her hands and the foreign contact in general, it was enough to justify the involuntary action. After Marceline finishes sealing the gash somewhat, she retreats her hands and says, "All set now, Bonnie."
"Bonnie?" she inquires. Yes, that's the nickname most of her friends use for her, but it's strange hearing it from the alleged vampire.
The girl in turn shrugs. "I get to call you whatever I want, whether you like it or not, Princess," she drawls with a slight smirk. "Okay, it's time for me to book it out of here. Be expecting my company soon, dearest Bonnibel." With that the Vampire Queen winks at her, and then appears to simply disappear; gone into thin air.
A few seconds after that, everything stops being still and the universe seems to return to normal speed. The sudden change jolts Bonnie fiercely, like a second dose of whiplash to add salt to her wounds from the already strange enough evening. Then the immense surge of pain rips through her gut and she gasps for air, clutching the steering wheel with one hand. Blackness consumes her vision once again, as it had right before Marceline showed up, and then there is nothing but silence.
Somewhere in the Nightosphere, Hunson Abadeer is casually scrolling through the list of mortals about to enter his realm. This is something he likes to do in his spare time; watching the list grow longer and longer as names pop up fills him with a strange kind of joy. He runs a cold finger over the piece of magical parchment, smiling to himself a little, when a name towards the top of the list glows for a while before eventually dissipating into the paper.
He scowls as this happens. It isn't too abnormal that mortals sometimes bounce back from the precipice of death; especially since the invention of those damn defibrillators. But something about the way this particular name disappears is different from those, however. He knows this because they take on a dull blue color upon slipping off the list. This one had been a bright and burning red. A dark feeling gurgles in his chest and suddenly he knows what has happened. He knows this feeling well, even though it's only happened a few times before. A mortal soul has been stolen from him, no longer his to take upon their death.
The ruler of the Nightosphere grits his teeth. Still burning bright in his mind is the name that is no longer belongs to him. "Bonnibel Bauermeister," he all but growls under his breath. Fury clinging to his shoulders angrily, he orders a few of his best minions to his lair.
"Find out who's taken Bonnibel Bauermeister's soul. Bring back this information immediately, or I'll make sure you suffer for using up my valuable time."
The two demons nod in obedience. "Yes, sir!"
When Bonnibel wakes up her eyes are greeted with white walls and dim lighting surrounding her. It takes her a moment to gather her thoughts and realize that she currently resides in a hospital room, although it's not hard to figure out. She attempts to sit up a little to get a better look of what's around her, but a sharp pain makes itself present throughout her entire body as she does so, making her gasp a little at the onslaught she wasn't been expecting. Her neck aches and she feels as though every muscle in her body has been stretched like taffy. Feebly, she reaches for the bed controls to her left and presses the button in the shape of an upward-facing arrow. The bed slowly bends up so that she's closer to a sitting position than before.
As her brain slowly begins to come back into focus, memories begin to drown out everything as they come rushing at her. The exhaustion trying to get home, the car wreck, and then—her eyes widen suddenly—Marceline! Fleeting images of the girl flicker in Bonnie's head, her thoughts running over the insane conversation they'd had. Marceline the Vampire Queen. She giggles to herself a little at the name. How ridiculous.
She sits there for a while as she gets caught in the river of memories before eventually pressing the call button. A nurse answers after a few seconds. "Yes, do you need anything?"
"Uhm," Bonnie says, a little surprised at how croaky her voice sounds. "I just woke up?" The nurse responds with a few words and a little while later she (or one of the nurses at least) shows up in her room.
"Good, Bonnibel, you're finally awake. How are you feeling?"
"Well, everything hurts, so there's that. How long was I out?" Bonnie asks, almost dreading the answer. Old cliché movies where the patient has been asleep for weeks and weeks cross her mind.
"Oh, only about eight hours," the nurse replies with a small smile at the look of relief on Bonnie's face. "Now that your conscious the doctor should be here in a little while to talk to you. I'll let your friends know you're awake too."
Bonnie raises an eyebrow and the nurse continues. "Some people who came in last night when they heard about your accident wanted to see you, but we couldn't let them in, so it seems they crashed in the lobby." With that the nurse leaves, and a little while later another girl, the doctor she presumes, walks in. She has light brown hair and a pair drawn into a pair of pigtails, and a small pair of glasses rest on the edge of her nose.
"Hello, Bonnibel, I'm Dr. Penshire. Pleased to meet you," she says softly, walking up to the edge of the bed with a clipboard in her arms. Bonnie smiles at her and waits for her to say more. "As you know, you were in a pretty bad head-on collision last night. Your injuries are pretty bad, but right now you're more than stable and you should be fine. We've got you on some pain medication right now, and we'll send some home with you too, since you'll be able to leave in a few days. We had to put thirteen stitches in your stomach," she informs her, glancing at Bonnie's abdomen, even though it's covered by her hospital gown. "And there are seven on the gash along your neck. They're dissolvable ones, so you won't have to come back to have them removed, fortunately."
"Thanks, Dr. Penshire," Bonnie says, glad that she was so nice. She's had bad experiences with medical staff before, and it's not fun.
"Not a problem, Bonnibel. We've also called your parents. They said that they aren't able to make it down due to work, but that they are deeply concerned and want you to call as soon as you can. Also, would you like me to let your friends know they can come in now?"
"Yes, that would be fantastic," Bonnie replies with a nod. For some reason memories of Marceline the Vampire Queen keep returning to her. As she's re-living the moment of selling her soul to the vampire in her head, she's interrupted by the sound of her door opening again, and the people that come rushing through it make her smile.
Luna Radsky, her friend who's overly-fond of rainbows, all but runs to her side, eyes wide in concern. Gripping her right hand, she begins rambling, "Oh my gosh, Bonnie, what the heck happened? Are you okay? What did these awful doctors do to you? How did-"
She's cut off by a hand on her shoulder. Jake Dowlski, one of Bonnie's good friends and Luna's boyfriend, smiles and gives a small chuckle. "Relax, Luna. Give the poor girl a minute to think; one question at a time."
"Sorry, Bonnie," Luna says sheepishly, smiling apologetically.
"It's okay," she replies, laughing softly at her friend's antics. She's used to them by now anyways. "Where's Finn?"
Jake answers her. "I had to send him home last night because he has classes today. He was worried sick about you though; he refused to go home and get some rest until the doctor came and told us that you'd live for sure."
Bonnie smiles because that sounds exactly like the younger blond-haired boy whom was Jake's younger brother currently in college, living with the former. He's had a bit of a puppy-love crush on her for a while now, and while she'll never actually consider going out with him, the gestures of constant courtship are pretty cute. She has to give him points for the persistence despite her telling him on numerous occasions that she'll never be into him that way.
"Anyways," Luna starts, messing with the charms on her rainbow-colored bracelet. "Are you really okay?"
"Guys, seriously don't worry too much. I'm gonna be fine. Recovery isn't going to be fun, but I'll manage," Bonnie says, offering them the best comforting smile she can manage. "I've got stitches on my stomach and some up here on my neck. I'm also pretty bruised up, but like I said, I'll be good to go after a while."
Seeming to have eased her friend's worry a little, the three chat for a while before they finally leave. The rest of Bonnie's day in the hospital is relatively uneventful. Her nurse comes and goes, checking her vitals regularly and at one point giving her new IV bags of fluid. It isn't until later in the evening that her world is once again roughly flipped upside-down. The nurse buzzes in from the little device built into her bed. "Bonnibel? You have another visitor coming in."
Expecting to see Finn or some other recognized face, the person who walks in with the familiar unsettling grin makes Bonnie's eyes go wide. "Hey! Happy to see me?"
Bonnie, with her jaw hanging open, almost appears to be attempting to scramble back into the furthest corners of her hospital bed to no avail. "Y-you! Marceline, you...you don't exist!" Bonnie exclaims, pointing a shaky finger at the girl. Her brain whirs, desperately trying to find a reasonable answer to why the girl was here now. The pain medications? Maybe. She's gone completely insane? Possible. "My brain...my brain made you up so that I could s-survive!"
"Aww, you remember my name. How sweet," she says, floating over to the edge of her bed. Bonnie can do nothing but stare in astonishment because she's floating. "And don't be stupid, of course I exist, see?" The vampire shoves a finger into Bonnie's cheek and the pink-haired girl immediately swats the hand away, wincing because of the sore pain that runs up her shoulder. Her skin is just as cold as it had been in her memories, and she feels solid enough to be real. But that just doesn't make any sense.
"I just came in to see how my new mortal's doing. Very much not dead, I see," she says, hovering. "You're welcome for that."
"So...I...my soul?"
"All mine," Marceline says dramatically, smirking when Bonnie's face contorts to something close to mortification and confusion. The vampire idly glides to the other side of the bed to inspect the IV bags out of curiosity. It's been a while since she's been inside a mortal hospital and this is something she hasn't seen before (or perhaps she has and simply never noticed it). Losing interest in the fluid-filled bags, she turns her attention back to Bonnie. "So, what's up with your hair, Princess?" she asks, nodding towards her head of pink.
"Oh," she mumbles, not paying much attention to the question but rather on the vampire's appearance. The artificial light of the hospital hits her face in a completely different way now, allowing her to really see the Vampire Queen's features. "Pink's, uh, my favorite color, so I keep it dyed. "
Bonnie can see pointed ears poking out from beneath the vampire's long mane of black hair that contrasts with her eerily pale skin, along with a pair of peculiar puncture marks on her neck. But despite all of that, it's not what grabs the majority of Bonnie's interest. It's those eyes. Bright red irises that hold a certain sparkle of mischief stare right back at her, seemingly capable of looking right past her exterior and into the core of her soul. And who knows, maybe they can. "So," Bonnie starts, still caught in the sea of crimson that stands out so much amongst all of the vampire's other dull colors, "if you're real, how come you can just walk around without the other humans getting suspicious?"
Marceline shrugs. "As long as I keep my feet on the ground, most idiots just assume I'm some punk-rocker emo kid. Although," she adds, "I don't know how you guys can stand walking. It sucks."
"Well, I guess none of us really know the pleasure if floating, so what can I say?"
Marceline chuckles a little. "Too bad you aren't a thousand-year old Vampire Queen."
"Too bad," Bonnie mutters, trying to comprehend everything—a thousand years old?!—and failing miserably.
"Anyways," Marceline says, stretching her arms. "I gotta go back to the Nightosphere to grab some stuff, so I'm gonna go now. I look forward to seeing you later, Princess!"
And as the Vampire Queen departs, Bonnie finds herself staring at the space where the floating woman was just moments ago. Pushing away all questions her brain is screaming at her, she sighs and attempts to merely forget all of it, if only for a minute or two. But no matter how hard she tries, she can't seem to stop thinking about how unnaturally red the girl's eyes are, or how strangely enticing they had been.
A/N: Modern-day AU, but not a high school story because that's too mainstream. 5K-word long first chapter?! That's a record for me; most of my one-shots aren't even that long, haha. Anyways, this is my very first Bubbline story, as well as Adventure Time fanfic at all, so let me know how I'm doing. If you spot a mistake, please don't hesitate to point it out. The second chapter is already written, I just have to edit now, and it should be up within the next few days. I think as the story progresses, you'll start to understand why I chose this song to represent it. So until next time, ciao!
Also, the name Bauermeister. It's German, starts with a B, and relates to farming (which in my mind works for PB because farming = growing something from the land, and I feel like that can apply as a metaphor for PB growing the Candy Kingdom into a place of her own). And, Lady Rainicorn = LR = Luna Radsky. Jake the Dog = JD = Jake Dowlski. Yeah?