Yo! Crazy7634, here. So, for those who have followed and favorited me due to my three other stories, you might know that I haven't been all that active in quite a while. Well, that's because this idea was stuck in my head. Every time I tried to continue writing the next chapters of my other stories, this would always block my train of thought. I assure you though, those will be coming out soon enough. But to those who haven't read any of my stories, I implore you to do so and maybe notify me of any mistakes that I have made in any of them. They are three crossover fanfics, one is Naruto and Steven Universe, the other is Naruto and Gravity Falls, while the last one is Naruto and Digimon. As you probably have noticed, I am quite a Naruto fan… *chuckles nervously*. Just to let those who for some reason haven't seen the mini-series "Stakes", this story follows through that. Anyway, without further ado, I introduce to you the first chapter of… The Tenth Guardian.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, especially Naruto and Adventure Time.
Chapter 1 – Remembrance of an Old Friend
"MARCELINE!" Finn yelled, running towards the windmill. His legs burning as he pushed them to their limit, mentally wishing that he would reach his friend in time. In a stroke of bad luck, his foot hit a rock and he tripped, falling face first into the dirt. The blonde futilely stretched his arm towards the Vampire Queen's form, as if it would extend just like Jake's. "No!"
Marceline stared at the rapidly rising sun with slight fear in her eyes, she snapped her head towards her fallen friend and shouted. "Finn, burn all my diaries! Do NOT let anyone read them, they're embarrassing!"
She tensed and winced as she waited for the agonizing pain encompass her, writhing slightly in her restraints. The vampire clenched her eyes shut as the brightness of the giant star became too painful to bare and looked away, screaming as a white light filled her sight.
[Flashback]
[Marceline, Age 6]
A dark-skinned woman wearing a green cardigan, a white undershirt and ripped jeans sat behind the table of her trailer, cradling her half-demon child in her arms. She stared out into the horizon, recounting a tale to her worried daughter.
"…and that's how I met your dad." She finished, running a hand through her child's hair soothingly. The little girl who wore pink and purple pyjamas looked up at her mother, clutching her parent's arm a bit tighter.
"Mom, he still hasn't come home… I'm worried." She whispered out. "Can we please go out and look for him?"
Her mother sighed at the request and gave her a sad smile. "I'm sorry Marceline, but it's a bit too dangerous for you to go outside. Besides, it's nap time."
Marceline pulled her mother's arm over her head, sat up on her knees and turned to face her parent. "But I can't sleep yet, he's still out there!"
The woman wrapped an arm around the girl and looked at her with an apologetic expression on her face. "Sweetie, I-"
As she was about to speak, she was cut off when she heard the trailer's pet door squeak open before slamming shut. Both hers and Marceline's eyes widened, the half-demon instantly broke out of her mother's embrace and ran towards the golden fox kit who had walked in.
"You're back-!" Her breath hitched in her throat as her hands flew up to her mouth in shock when she saw that her animal friend was limping and had cuts littering his frame. Gently, she picked him up placed him on her lap. "What happened?!"
Hearing her daughter gasp and seeing the blood oozing down the young fox's face, she quickly went to the kitchen area. She grabbed a metal box with a red cross on the front and wet a rag before kneeling by the duo's side. She looked at the animal with a worried gaze as she inspected his wounds. She dabbed the blood away and opened the first-aid kit, reaching for the roll of gauze and box of bandages. As she patched him up, she saw the bite mark on his tail and sighed.
"You went into the forest and fought the other animals there again, didn't you?" she said in an accusing tone, narrowing her eyes at the small fox kit. The fox winced at her exclamation and refused to look at Marceline, knowing that she was looking at him with a disappointed stare, just as she always did whenever he did this. Marceline scratched him behind his ear.
"Why do you always go out to fight… you're always hurt when you return." She mumbled. The fox leaned into her hand and spoke.
"They always roam around your home… always waiting for the right moment to strike. Better to take care of them now than later." He purred out, the green crystal necklace around his neck shining. The little girl frowned and pursed her lips.
"So what? I don't want you to do that anymore… you're my best friend, I don't like it when you're hurt." She responded, tears beginning to appear in the corners of her eyes and her hands clenched into fists. The golden fox nuzzled into the girl's stomach, as an attempt to calm her down. Marceline's mother watched them with a small smile before picking the two up and walking back to where she and her daughter had been seated earlier.
"Shh, shh… okay you two, enough with those thoughts and let's put you to sleep." She sat down, her daughter lying on her lap while the fox was on the child's stomach. They seemed to have been drifting off when a wolf staring at the trailer caught the fox's eye from outside the window. He growled lowly and jumped onto the table, glaring at the beast he had been fighting earlier; his circular pupils turning into vertical slits while his fur spiked up. Marceline sat up, staring at her friend worriedly. The human woman sighed, pulling her daughter back onto her lap and plucking the animal off of the table, giving him to her child to hug. "Alright, it's time to calm down now."
Patting them on the heads, she began to sing. "Let's go in the garden, you'll find something waiting. Right there where you left it, lying upside down…"
As she sang, Marceline's eyes slowly closed as she began to fall asleep, hugging the animal closer to her chest. The fox blinked as his red angered eyes morphed back to their normal azure, his fur stopped standing and turned back into its usual soft appearance. His eyes closed as the song lulled both him and Marceline into deep slumber.
[Flashback Timeskip]
[Marceline, Age 11]
"Simon… please, don't leave! You can't go away too! I don't know where that stupid fox went off to for the past few months, but he probably won't be coming back. If you go away, I'll be all alone!" An older Marceline wearing a long-sleeved brown jumper, dark blue pants and purplish boots pleaded for the blue-skinned man in front of her to not leave. As the frozen particles fell down from the sky, it covered the broken city in a thick coat of snow. The bespectacled male didn't have the courage to look back and see the no doubt broken-hearted look on the girl's face and merely tightened his grip on the handles of his dogsled.
"I have to… it's the only way I can protect you." He spoke lowly, his eyes staring at the snow beneath his feet. His reply only managed to sadden the girl even more.
"How can you protect me when you're not even here?!" Marceline exclaimed, raising her hands in the air to emphasise her point. Simon lifted his head up, staring at the snowy landscape.
"I've arranged for someone to look after you… I'll make sure that he doesn't leave." Simon mumbled, lifting his hand up and forced sparks of ice to come to life at his fingertips before making them disappear.
The half-human looked sadly at the cursed man, tears about to fall from her eyes. "Please… I can help you with this."
The ivory-haired man chuckled hollowly, finally turning around to face the girl. "Hah… you know, maybe someday you will. But until then, I'm too dangerous for you to be around. Stay safe."
He brought his hand up to her face and was wiping a tear off when he accidentally froze it into a small, spiky ice ball and dragged it across her face, making her hiss at the pain of the tiny cut he had created. Simon flinched, he immediately took a step back away from her and turned back to the dogsled. "I-I have to go now. Goodbye Marceline."
"What- No! Wait!" Marceline yelled out, her eyes widening when he suddenly urged the canines hooked to his sled to run. She tried to go after him, but her foot sunk into the snow, preventing her from moving. "Simon… Simon!"
Said man kept his clenched his eyes shut, trying to block out Marceline's pained screams of his name. The girl let her head drop, tears flowing out of her eyes. She was all alone now, no one was there by her side. She stayed there for a few minutes before she began to try and pull her foot free of its icy prison. After a few tries, she placed her hands down by her sides and cried at the futility.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA!"
Her eyes snapped open and she used her sleeve to wipe her tears away when she heard the yells emanating from behind her. She gasped in shock when she saw an odd man wearing a suit riding on a large, bright yellow fox that was a metre taller than her. In a few seconds, they were at her location, the canine noticing her predicament. It bent its neck low and gently clamped its fangs onto the back of her collar, slowly lifting her up from the snow. Once it put her down, she spun around and hugged its neck, burying her face into its soft fur.
"You came back…" She mumbled. The fox grinned down at her, the crystal tied to his neck glinting slightly while the pointy-eared man on his back said nothing as he was still trying to regain his bearings.
"Why wouldn't I? You know I'd never leave you unless it's because of something important." Marceline just nodded absentmindedly, happy that her friend had returned.
[Flashback Timeskip]
[Marceline, Age 18]
"Come on big guy, we need to go faster!" Marceline whooped as her fox companion, who was now nearly twice her size, ran through a deserted town as he followed the sound of laughter echoing in the air. A red axe was strapped to her back and her hair was styled into a mohawk. The teenaged half-human wore a furry trench coat, black shorts, an orange shirt and matching orange boots while gauze was wrapped around her arms and legs. The fox jumped over a fallen zombie monster and skidded to a stop in front of an old blood donation truck. The female hopped off of his back and slid down a tail smoothly before opening the door to the back compartment of the vehicle. The moonlight lit up the inside of the truck and showed a small, giggling, one-toothed creature.
"Peek-a-pop!" It exclaimed, using its ability to fly to dodge the stake Marceline had attempted to stab him with. "You found me, now you're it!"
"This isn't some kind of game, Fool!" Marceline growled at the flying being, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "You're a freaking bloodthirsty vampire, I'm trying to kill you!"
The oddly elf-like vampire, however, went on as if she never said anything in the first place. "Hey, you wanna see something funny?"
The Fool sucked a large amount of air in, causing his cheeks to expand due to the large influx of air. "I look like a butt!"
He blew a raspberry, making the half-demon teen glare at him in irritation. Hearing muffled laughter by her side, she looked and saw her best friend rolling on the ground, trying not to guffaw loudly. He felt her gaze and instantly stopped his snickering when he spotted the look she was giving him at the corner of her eye. He sat up on his haunches and coughed into a fisted paw, forcing himself to calm down.
"*ahem* Sorry, sorry…"
Marceline turned her gaze back to The Fool, who was now floating in front of her face and shoved the stake in her hand straight through his chest, making the vampire explode into glittering particles. She coughed and waved The Fool's soul dust away from her face before staring curiously at the bluish cloud.
"Huh?" Marceline sniffed the cloud and opened her mouth, sucking the soul into her. She felt The Fool's power flow through her veins and her body slowly floated upwards. She smiled while the fox just tilted his head in interest. "Cool… well, that's one more down. Let's go."
She pulled her axe bass to her front and scratched another line into her weaponized guitar as she floated off, the fox following after her silently, his tails waving along to the tune she played.
[Flashback Timeskip]
[Marceline, Age 19]
A yellow fox kit and a white poodle rolled around in the forest's grass, wrestling each other playfully, making sure not to accidentally knock down their half-demon friend's tent. Marceline watched them mess around, an amused smile on her face. She was now one year older, her hair was still styled in a Mohawk and she currently wore a brown singlet, ripped black pants and orange boots. Her axe was imbedded into a tree stump nearby and she was fastening a lasso out of a rope she had found earlier. She laughed and shook her head when the two accidentally ate a couple blades of grass. Marceline looked at the carrot she had left out in the open earlier and hurriedly placed the circular part of her finished lasso around the vegetable when she saw long white ears poking out of the bushes a couple of metres away. She ducked her head behind the bushes that hid their camp and kept focus on the bunny nearby.
"Come on… go get the juicy carrot." After a few moments of staring, Marceline sighed in exasperation and tugged the lasso back to her. "Stupid animal…"
She swung the rope above her head and let it fly towards the oblivious creature after a few rotations. She heard the bunny let out a squawk of confusion and surprise; it turned its head and Marceline saw that it wasn't a bunny at all… it was a human.
"O-Oh, I'm sorry!" She quickly walked over to the confused girl and gently took the lasso off. "Hold still… there you go. See? It's okay."
The girl grew a small smile and she gave her a grin back. The small human's eyes widened and she sprinted away screaming in fear after seeing Marceline's fangs. The half-demon reached towards the girl.
"Wait, kid! It's okay, I'm a really good… person." Marceline called out, floating after the frightened child. Her largest animal partner heard the screams and poked his head out of the bushes. After seeing her fly off, he turned towards the smaller canine who sat at their camp. The two shared nods of understanding, and the fox leapt after her. He slowed to a stop when he saw Marceline conversing with the scared humans, observing them from the shadows.
"…go away, vampire." The male human who seemed to be the leader of the group stuttered out nervously, pointing a marshmallow impaled on a stick at Marceline as if it was a weapon.
"Dude, I'm not a vampire! I'm literally in the flippin' sunlight!" She yelled, her outburst causing the group to drop everything in their hands before deserting their camp. Marceline sighed, bringing a hand up to her sharp demonic teeth, staring sadly at bushes that the humans had ran through to get away from her. She heard a grunt and saw her fox friend standing by her side as he grew to her height. He nuzzled her in the stomach comfortingly, making a smile grow on her face. She scratched him behind the ear before floating back towards their make-shift base. "Come on, we've had enough rest. Let's pack up."
The duo went back to the camp and picked up Schwabl along with her axe and trench coat before walking off into the forest to search for the humans that they had scared off. They trailed the group of animal-hat wearing humans for hours, watching them while they set up camp for the night as the sun set, making sure that no vampires came to harm them. Marceline sat behind a big group of bushes, Schwabl resting beside her while her other canine partner was curled around her form protectively, his tails acting as a makeshift blanket while his body was like a soft, furry bed. She heard the leader start singing a familiar song. After listening to a few off-key lyrics, she started to sing the song herself, her companions opening their closed eyes to look up at her.
"…but sometimes things get turned around and no one spared. All hands look out belo-o-ow, there's a change in the status quo-o-o. Gonna need all the help that we can ge-" The vampire hunter was interrupted by a cough and the bunny girl from earlier had walked out of the bushes, offering Marceline a leg of meat. She took it and turned her gaze from the girl, to the food and then to the girl again. The rabbit child pointed at the leg and made guitar playing movements and sounds. "You… want me to play more?"
"Yes, please." Marceline twisted her head to look behind her, seeing the rest of the humans gathered up around the bush she had been hiding behind. "My consensus is that your cover is better."
Marceline smiled, and began to play again, the music lulling her canine friends back to their naps as their tails moved along to the tune. "According to our new arrival, life is more than mere survival…"
[Flashback Timeskip]
[Marceline, Age 21]
The vampire hunter calmly walked through the autumn woods, Schwabl trotting at her side. Marceline still wore her furry trench coat, brown shirt. The colour of her orange boots had faded slightly over the years and she now wore black shorts instead of pants. Her hair had grown and she tied it up into two short ponytails at the front of her ears. She was playing her axe bass when the sound of a stick snapping reached her ears. Marceline smiled, closing her eyes and continued to play her guitar. As she floated towards her destination, she nonchalantly spoke to the zombie poodle beside her.
"Oh man, Schwabl. I sure hope there isn't a little vampire kid sneaking up behind me." The tiny audible footsteps grew louder as the would-be assailant grew closer. The young bunny girl threw secrecy out the window and pounced on the half-demon.
"VAMPIRE ATTACK!" She cried, two leaves that she had put in her mouth to appear as fangs poked out of her lips. Marceline laughed and playfully yelled out her death.
"Oh nooo! *choking noises* Eck, I am dead." She closed her eyes and let her head drop limply, a smirk on her face. She heard the girl on her back spit out the leaves in her mouth and craned her neck to look at her when she spoke.
"Seriously Marceline, what if I really was a vampire? You need an animal hat!" Marceline only chuckled in response, floating out of the forest and through the leaves of a tree, Schwabl quickly sprinting to try and catch up to them. She and the younger girl stared up at the monstrous contraption currently floating on the ocean.
"Well, seems like the project's nearly finished, eh?" The axe-wielding woman said, flying up to the deck of the enormous ship. She whistled, waking up the fox sleeping in the corner and getting the humans' attention. "Two-Bread Tom, how's it going?"
"It's going great! This ship is nearly done. By my calculations, we should be able to sail away in a day or two." He said, grinning at the setting sun.
"O-Oh… that's great. But, you know, I've nearly cleared out almost all the vampires that are left. I-If you just give me a week or so, I'll be able to take all of them out, then there'll be no need for you guys to go away. Yeah, Marceline!" She said, letting out the "discrete" cheer to herself afterwards. Two-Bread Tom pivoted back to face her, giving the 21-year-old an apologetic look.
"*sigh* Marceline, you're such a good kid. But it ain't just the vampires making us want to hightail it outta here. Our atmospheric readings are going cuckoo, something's gonna happen that'll change all this here." He claimed, raising his arms up and gesturing to the landscape around them. "We don't know what it is, or what it might be, but we know that it's gonna be big. Best to just leave this whole continent while we still can. You know, you could come too if you want. You are one of us, after all."
Before Marceline could reply to his offer, a bell being shaken in a panicked way on the beach caught their attention. They hurriedly went to the side of the ship and peered down to see what the commotion was about. They saw a deer hat man ringing the bell yelling out, "They're here, they're here!"
Marceline gritted her teeth when she saw a vampire bite the man's hat, she hastily took the stake she hid in her coat and flew down by the man's side, stabbing it through the blood-sucking beast's chest. She spotted many more emerging from the woods and blurred through three of them, stabbing them in quick succession as she flew past. Marceline hovered in the air when she saw seven more running towards the ship and swiftly zig-zagged through them, making them disperse into shining dust using the stake in her hand.
'Hmm… that was easy. Too easy.' She thought suspiciously. The half-demon's ears twitched slightly and she perked up when she heard the sound of Two-Bread Tom shouting. Marceline quickly returned back to the deck of the ship, only to see someone who had been impersonating Schwabl transform back to their usual appearance. It turned out to be a pale man with horns, a moustache and bat ears. He had a thick, fur coat on and wore shiny ebony boots.
"Aww, so you got me. How did you figure it out? Did my boots give it away again?" He chuckled before his figure expanded and became disfigured, shapeshifting into an enormous, black, tentacle monster. The vampire was about to bring a tentacle arm down to crush the humans when a golden twister shaved a part of his tentacle clean off. "Aagh!"
He brought the arm back and stared at the stump, his shocked aquamarine eyes turning their gaze from the injured appendage to the massive yellow fox growling at him from below. "You ain't getting these humans, Hierophant."
"But if you're here, then that means…" The Hierophant looked towards the forest where he had sent minions to attack from and saw Marceline hovering above the deck's railing. "…Marceline!"
He hurriedly transformed his arms and legs into those of a bat's and propelled himself backwards, avoiding a bite from the golden quadruped. He saw movement in the corner of his eye and morphed his fingers into blades, blocking the stab Marceline aimed at his heart.
"Hello, Hierophant." She said mockingly. Said vampire narrowed his eyes and frowned, struggling to keep the stake away from his chest.
"W-Why can't you just let us feed on the blood of humans? You are being a nuisance to the cycle of life! We vampires rule the night, it's our time!" He grunted. Marceline smirked at him.
"Not anymore. It's my time now, and once I gain your shapeshifting powers, I'm gonna be unstoppable!" She pushed herself away from Hierophant by kicking off of his chest, blocking the swipes he threw at her with the stake. She was about to speak, but the vampire interrupted her by slicing her in half by the waist. Marceline chuckled at the old-fashioned male's shocked face when the two halves of her body merged together, not leaving behind any scars. "Surprised? I picked up enhanced regenerative powers around about a month ago from some woman whose head looked like a garden trowel."
Hierophant's hand blades were no more, instead he now had butterfly-like wings on his back. He clicked his tongue and huffed in annoyance. "So, you've slain The Moon. Tch, you're just a half-breed punk, someone who doesn't even know the price you are supposed to pay in order to obtain such powers."
Marceline rolled her eyes, replying in a mocking copy of Hierophant's accent. "Bleh, I don't care!"
"So be it…" the horned vampire morphed his entire arm into a snake, sending it jaws-open after Marceline. The female giggled as she turned herself invisible, escaping the snake's fangs. "Show yourself!"
"Okay!" He heard a feminine laugh behind him and cursed when he felt a stake stab him in the heart from behind. "Wah, wah!"
The man exploded into a cloud, which Marceline immediately sucked up. She felt her body gain Hierophant's power and tested it out by changing her fingers into blades, something that she had seen him do earlier. "Hah, awesome!"
Before she could test her new power even more, she heard Schwabl beginning to bark at the now foggy forest. She felt something enter her mind and instantly knew who the figure obscured by the mist was. She turned to her two canine companions. "You two, get everyone below deck and protect them."
Marceline floated down to Two-Bread Tom and took her axe out of his grasp. The human leader looked at her worriedly. "What's wrong?"
She tightened her grip on the handle of her weapon, glaring at the being in the forest. "You have to go, it's not safe for you to be on the deck. He's here and he's the worst of them all… the Vampire King."
Everyone but Marceline and the canines gasped in surprise. Once they had heard the information, they quickly rushed to the stairs that led to the cargo hold, Schwabl joining them with the fox following behind. The golden animal looked back at his half-human companion as she stared down the Vampire King who now stood on the railings at the other side of the ship. His azure eyes widened when he saw the King make small hand movements along with the large tentacle of water heading straight for Marceline's back. He sent a black ball of energy at the King and then, as fast as his legs could carry him, ran towards his best friend. He jumped onto the railings and launched himself straight at her, pushing her away from the blast and taking the brunt of the attack. He was thrown into the deck of the ship, his head colliding with a mast harshly as his body made an indentation in the ship's wooden floor, the force of the blow knocking him unconscious. Marceline's breath hitched in her throat and she blurred to his side. She knelt down and placed her axe beside her feet, inspecting the fox's limp form. The fur on his back had been violently torn off by the tendril of water, showing pink skin that was bleeding slightly. His left hind leg was angled in a broken way and blood was sliding down from the wound he had sustained on his head from the collision with the mast. The vampire hunter's hands clenched into fists, her mouth forming a snarl in her anger. She snapped her head to the Vampire King, her eyes burning with rage.
"Hmph. Well, what do you know? That bothersome fox of yours does have some usefulness in him." He cackled, making a blob of water rise with a single hand motion.
Marceline's eyes twitched in irritation, the slight shift of her foot was the only thing the King saw before she picked up her bass and blurred into nothing. He sensed her presence behind him and held a palm out, coaxing the water to form a dome around him, halting the stake's movements towards his heart as well as breaking the weaponized instrument in half. He folded his palm into a fist and the dome reconstructed itself into hand, grabbing Marceline before throwing her to the left of the ship. She crashed into the metal wall by the captain's steering wheel. The 21-year-old placed a hand on the metal, clutching her pounding head with the other. The Vampire King however, gave her no chance to recover and flicked his wrist, sending blades of water at her. Marceline flinched when she saw the attack and only just managed to escape it with minor cuts. Her eyes bore into Vampire King's skull as he teleported to the other side of the ship. Her right hand tightened its grip on the handle of her now broken axe while her left held the stake in a reverse grip. The King crossed his arms over his chest, his pristine white suit was ripped in several places due to the ball that had exploded on his chest earlier.
"You've got power, that I can see. But unlike us, you haven't paid a price for it. It's going to drive you insane. You have already staked my people and my court, I am the only one that is left. Are you really going to wipe out an entire race?" He said, calmly standing on the top of a large chimney.
Marceline's black orbs narrowed, growling as she responded. "After all the innocent humans you have killed just to feed, after the agony your race has caused others… and after what you have just done to my best friend. Yes, I am."
"If that is your choice…" The young woman didn't say anything, opting instead to fly upwards and meet the King in combat. "I gave you a chance Mar-"
"-I don't care!" She interjected, clashing with the Vampire King at the centre of the ship. The duo crashed down into the ship's deck, their harsh landing luckily not creating a sizable crater. They snarled at each other as they fought for dominance, Marceline's stake only a centimetre from the vampire's heart.
"You know, Marceline. There is another way for my species to live on…" He started, smirking down at her as his fangs elongated. Marceline's eyes widened in realization and she began to struggle even more.
"Wait- No. No! NO!" She screamed as the Vampire King bit down on her neck, her mindset altering into that of a creature who feasts on blood in the moonlight while the stake in her hands glowed, the weapons piercing through the King's chest.
[Flashback End]
"-AAAH… huh?" Marceline stopped screaming when she noticed that her body didn't feel as if it had been set on fire. She tentatively opened her eyes, staring cautiously at her surroundings. She gasped when she saw smoke sizzle from her neck and felt the holes that had been made by the Vampire King's fangs hundreds of years ago fill up. "I-I'm not dead? Then that means… PB's cure worked!"
She watched as Finn and the villagers began to untie her, oblivious to the fact that the green crystal necklace hidden by her shirt was glowing faintly and that a beast sleeping in a place unknown cracked its eyes open from its slumber.