I still suck at titles. This ended up a bit longer than I expected so I've spread it out a little. This is - like I said - kinda related to that oneshot I did and kinda not. You don't have to read them both, but this one does sort of follow on. But it also stands by itself. So... whatever, I guess. :D
It was a simple job, really. Nothing to complicate matters, clean cut. Get in, do some reconnaissance, scope out the threat and eliminate it. The easiest thing in the world. Or apparently not. Ever one to make judgements based on what she knew, Marceline was pretty convinced that there wasn't even a speck of threat to be found in the sugar-coated kingdom. The people were literally marshmallows. What threat could they possibly be? What could they do; throw themselves at their attackers and induce a sugar high? The thought was comical.
She was starting to think this whole endeavour had just been misrepresented. The palace guards were bananas and had something akin to mush for brains. They weren't very alert, but they could detect her presence, if not do anything about it. The people moseyed about without a care in the world and they adored their leader. Their leader.
Marceline was sitting on the balcony railing as she did pretty much every night, watching through the window. Her legs swung beneath her invisible body and she leaned right back, her hair swirling out over the drop. The door clicked and the lights buzzed on. Marceline snapped upright, hands tightening painfully on the steel railing.
The little pink woman slammed the door behind her; she was fuming for whatever reason. Normally her butler would be with her; perhaps he'd been behind the door. A smirk ghosted across her face at the thought of the door banging on his nose. He was so… irritating. If he ever caught Marceline here… well… She didn't want to think too hard about that.
Her invisibility shimmered away just as the princess turned towards the window. Instantly her frown evaporated and she grinned. Who would ever have thought someone would smile at her like that? Who would ever have thought Marceline would be friends with a candy person? Yeah… no one.
Bubblegum opened the doors, still smiling. "Why do you always sit out there?" she queried. "Come in, it's warmer."
She drifted closer, waiting for the princess to step aside before the floated in, shutting the door behind her. "I don't want any unfortunate encounters with your butler," she said without thinking, sinking into the sofa. The cushion tilted beneath her as Bubblegum sat down too.
"You don't like Peppermint?"
Oops! She should've thought about that before just saying it. Bubblegum had developed a fondness for interrogating her since the evening in the gardens. For some reason she failed to identify, Marceline couldn't help but answer. Usually with the truth.
This time she just shrugged. "I'm a vampire, Bonnie. I'm not exactly easy to like." She draped one leg over the arm of the chair and rested her head back. "Besides, you already said your little dudes don't like vampires. Best not to stir them up too much, eh? I kinda don't want to be impaled by their bitty candy canes." She smirked.
Bubblegum puffed out her cheeks. "Maybe they'd like vampires more if they weren't jerks all the time."
"You callin' me a jerk, bubble-brain?" Marceline teased.
The other woman just huffed again. "I might be." She turned away. "There was another attack today," she whispered after a moment. "They're becoming more frequent. The people are scared."
"I swear it's not me, Bonnie," Marceline said, her impish smile vanishing. "Promise."
The centre of Bubblegum's brow drew down and her mouth formed a thin line. Marceline knew that face; that was her thinking-about-sciency-questions face. It never boded well.
"Can vampires break promises?" The question was almost inaudible.
"Uh… duh," Marceline replied. She probably should've thought her answer through more. "Anyone can break a promise, Bon. You know that."
"Then how do I know you won't break yours?"
Marceline straightened, swinging her leg back over the chair and elbowed her friend in the ribs. "Would I lie to you, brainiac?" she asked. "Seriously. Why would I lie to someone who finds my company… I dunno… acceptable? Honestly. It's like you think I have friends stashed all over the place."
The sour look on Bubblegum's face disappeared and was replaced with a soft smile. Grod. It was nice when she smiled; she spent far too much time worrying about things.
"Why are they attacking us, Marcy?" Bubblegum slouched. Such poor posture was unlike her, but perhaps everything was weighing her down. A knot tightened in Marceline's stomach at the question, unsure if she could bring herself to answer. "What did we ever do to them?"
Her mind raced, trying to come up with a way she could answer the question truthfully without telling her friend why she really spent so much time here. Bubblegum watched her with intent green eyes. Normally these kinds of question were rhetorical, but apparently Bonnie wanted an answer. She felt dead inside; hollow.
Marceline stood and walked over to the window but she could still feel that penetrating stare on her back. She sighed. "They… um… we… are supposed to be making sure the candy people aren't a threat. The Vampire King ordered a test. We have to do what he says."
The silence was practically palpable. Bubblegum was still watching her, she knew, but she was afraid to turn around and see the horror in her eyes. Wait… afraid? No, that couldn't be right. She wasn't afraid of a little pink woman made of sugar. That was ridiculous!
"You're a spy." The accusation rang painfully in Marceline's ears. And it was an accusation, not a question. The quiet stretched. "If they were here to kill me people, find our weaknesses… what are you doing here? What's your job?" The words seemed to ramble, Bubblegum wasn't talking to Marceline anymore, she was just musing aloud. Working things through, and when she reached her conclusion with an almost audible click, the truth stung bitter, deep and Marceline felt… empty. "You're here for me. To find out everything you can, get close and then remove me. That's your job."
Horror. It resonated thick in Bubblegum's voice. Disgust and horror at being deceived. But not fear. Marceline knew the sound of fear in a person's tone and there was none of it when Bubblegum spoke.
"You were here to kill me."
"No," Marceline said vehemently, spinning to look at her friend – ex-friend – with wide eyes. "No. I'm not here to kill you." She balled her hands into fists, unclenched, clenched. Fingers moving, eyes staring, the hollow ache in her chest made her knees tremble. "To watch. To report. I'm not supposed to make any decisions, that's for the King." Her shoulders slumped. "I did break my promise, Bonnie. But not any I made you."
Bubblegum's mouth hung open. "What do you mean?" she eventually put forth. "What promise?"
"I was supposed to report in once a week on your doings," Marceline told her. And once the words started, she couldn't stop. "Your mannerisms, your methods, routines, the way you rule, treat your people. What military do you have? Technology, advancements, medicine, that kind of thing. Any of it, all of it was to be sent back to the King. But… I stopped sending reports after the first two weeks. You did the same stuff every day and you have no army – not really. Your people are harmless. I sent that in my last report. He didn't listen…" she trailed off, staring at the flickering light of the desk lamp. "He ordered my return and your execution."
"What? Why?" Bonnie interrupted. "What's he want from you?"
Marceline's hands groped at nothing as she searched for words. "I… don't know. Probably to give me more instructions. He doesn't like you. He thinks your intelligence will one day make you a threat to us. He thinks you'll try to wipe us out."
Bubblegum frowned. "You know I'm not that kind of person. I would never…"
"Not unless we attacked first," Marceline finished bitterly. "But the King is the kind of guy who takes action to defeat any who might one day be a threat. Not the kind of guy to make peace treaties with them. He won't listen. He'll just kill you."
Bonnie was silent a long time. A very long time. She sat down at her desk and mindlessly pushed papers around, staring, but not seeing. Marceline stood there a while, watching her, wondering how heavy that crown really was. In the end, she left, ghostly, out the window. Bubblegum didn't see her go.
