A/N: As usual I don't own anything but the mind that tells this story... ^_^
The day comes to a close in Ooo, and Marceline heads over to Ice King's castle for her now weekly visit. She's sporting a leather jacket she found in Ice King's 'The Past Room' with her 'No smoking' shirt underneath. She stopped for a little while looking at the moon, she spent lots of time over her life watching it. It would often bring back memories of her mother, and the time she spent with Simon. While traveling with Simon she'd often pretend to sleep because she didn't need it and would look on to what Simon would do when he though she was snoozing. Needless to say she at that point in the reminiscence started to shake her head and continue on to Ice King's abode. She arrived shortly after her moon gazing session to see Gunter with what looked like a scouter* on his head.
"Hello Marceline." The penguin wenked.
"Woah, you can talk now?" Marceline said surprised. Ice King floated in behind her.
"You like? Bubblegum gifted it to me, she said it would be more helpful for me to understand my little pals." he said gleefully.
"Sure seems to help me understand them, well linguistically anyways." Marcy half giggled.
"Well, you know, gifts are a great first step in the relationship!" Ice King exclaimed.
His cheerfulness somewhat irked Marceline, she decided to make a latteral move.
"Say, did you setup the Karaoke equipment?" She inquired.
"Oh, snaps and whistles, I forgot!" the blue man panicked.
"Just hang out for a bit, I have to finish up the dinner and then I'll set it right up, shouldn't take too long." He relayed.
"Its cool, I'll just go and poke around in "The Past Room" okay?" Marceline said graciously.
"Sure, knock yourself out. You sure like to spend a lot of time in there." Ice King uttered as he flew off to finish up the tasks he'd still not done.
Marceline flew to the room she spent so much time in lately, outside of her house. She poked around for a bit looking for old diaries. She had found a few over the past month or so containing recent stuff but not a whole lot with Simon's past. She made her way behind the old desk which led to Simon's study. There, she found his generator from the time she gave Hambo to say sorry to Betty, which ultimately led to her traveling to this current time. She went to the generator to see if there was any remnant of Hambo. She searched the generator only to find ashes.
"Ashes to ashes eh?" She said disappointed.
She looked along the bookshelves to try and find another one of Simon's Diaries and came across a curious book called, "Memory", she picked up the book and started to skim through the entries.
Wednesday:
It has been nine months since the bombs stopped, eleven since my princess has left me. All I have to show for my survival is this acursed crown. I miss Betty, I miss the world, I wish this war could have been avoided. I had searched far and wide for my beloved fiancee but am coming to realize the cold reality that she might have perished with the rest of the world under the bombs. It's times like these I wonder if I'll ever see another human ever again. I'm going to put some sleep on it, maybe that will help. Nothing else seems to be working...
Marceline read the passage with a twinge of sadness in her heart. She skipped a bit forward to see what else might be in the book.
Sunday (I think...):
I have wandered farther south towards an old ruin I used to read about in college. It seems to have sunken into the Earth. I should move on to the city in the far distance. The days get shorter this time of year, the weather is colder but I don't feel too bothered by it. My eyes see crazy apparitions of things now, things that have now become normal to my everyday vision. The moon shines extra bright tonight, what a wonderful sight among the desolate wasteland...
Marceline read on in earnest, she instinctively started to come up with a song in her head while reading this. She continued to read.
Tuesday:
Today while wandering the dead city I heard crying. It was eerie at first and I thought it was just the crown's doing. But as I made my way towards it I found it wasn't the crown but a little girl. She was wandering around in this dead city for I don't know how long. I went over to her and asked her where her parents were she said that she got seperated from her mother a couple days ago. She continued crying but I tried to console her, I ran over to a nearby destroyed toy store and grabbed a stuffed plush to see if it would calm her a little. I gave it to her and she seemed to like it. She said her name was Marceline, I told her that I would help her try to find her mother. It's not like I had anything better to do, and it gave me hope I'd finally see other people. The more important thing is to get the girl back to her parents though. I hope we can find them, for her sake...
Marceline started to well up at the entry, she knew what was coming next. But even knowing that she continued. She tried to prepare for the next entry.
Wednesday:
Today was a bad day. We found Marcy's mother, she had died, alone under rubble. Marceline simply thought that she was sleeping. When she didn't respond to her she found it concerning, she felt the cold touch of her deceased mother, that sent her over the edge. She cried and cried for what seemed like an eternity. When she'd finish crying she'd fall asleep, and then when she woke again she'd try to hold back the tears but eventually start sobbing again. I try to keep her spirits up, we keep moving. Wherever the road takes us is fine, as long as we can bury the past because that's exactly what it is, the past. She seems to like it when I read to her and tell her stories, she's a sweet girl. But I have many things I must try to figure out in the coming days. I feel that my sanity is leaving me day by day.
The entry burst Marceline's limit, she started to cry. She had long since forgotten about that day and what she felt when they found her mother there. She cried for a long while, and shortly fell asleep after. Ice King wondered where Marceline went and checked the usual place. He found her curled up with a book on an ice couch. The hour was late, so he called upon Gunter and had him bring pelts and blankets for Marceline. He used is ice power to lift the couch then made a thin platform to catch Marcy. He the proceeded to put the pelts on the couch and let her float down onto them. He then covered her and noticed her eyes.
"Man, I don't know why you come down here Marcy. You always seem to cry. Oh well, nighty night" He said to the sleeping vampire.
Marceline awoke a few hours later. It was daybreak outside and Ice King left her a note.
Dear Marceline:
I left to go and do my morning fly over. Feel free to hang out till dusk then you can get home safely.
Ice King
Marceline smiled at the note. She then saw the Memory book. She for some reason felt angry looking at it. She quickly got up and threw it into the generator and made for the bicycle to try and destroy it. She wasn't thinking straight, she also hadn't eaten in the past few days either. She peddled as hard as she could and saw the generator start to glow. A brilliant green light shone out of it. She stopped peddling and went over to see what was inside the generator. She felt something drawing her towards it, as if it were calling out to her. She touched the green light and was suddenly sucked into it. She felt as if her body was being torn apart in a scary green vortex, she screamed at the pain and desperately tried to assess the situation. She eventually passed out from the experience. When she awoke, she was in a new place.
"How long was I out for?" She wondered aloud. She wandered around the surrounding area and found nothing but bluffs of rock and snow. She figured she was still in the Ice Kingdom but flew up just to be sure. When she ascended she wasn't expecting what was in store for her.
"Uh... I guess I was out for a while." She uttered.
The surrounding area was a vast divided Ooo, on the one half there was a lush vast living western front and on the eastern front there was a very desolate and stagnant terrain. She floated down and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. It was then that she heard something coming her way.
"Oh glob!" she exclaimed. She hid behind some of the ice and rocks in the immediate area. She peered over the ice to see who or what was coming.
"Hmm, I could have sworn I heard someone over here. Oh well, must be my imagination." A man said.
Initially she couldn't see his face because of his helmet. Shortly after searching the area he removed it. She got a better look at him and just about lost her marbles. It was Simon, he looked like he did before he ever used the crown. Though she noted that he was wearing some weird armor. It looked cool and had what seemed to be a No Smoking emblem seared over the breast plate. She cautiously exited from her hiding place. The man took notice.
"Simon?" she asked fully cloaked.
"Hello, who's there?" The man asked. Marceline made herself visible.
"Um, hello..." the vampire queen relayed.
"Oh, thank glob its just you... My... Queen?" the man said quizzically.
"Your Queen?" Marceline responded curiously.
"I'm sorry, you look so much like her. What brings you to this part of the barrens miss?" the man stopped.
"You don't remember me?" the vampire queen questioned.
"Have we met before?" The man asked. She was puzzled the he had no memory of her but decided to play it off for now and continued on.
"Marcy, my names Marcy." Marceline said with a small smile.
"Marcy huh, just like the Queen. Well Marcy, would you like to come with me to the Night Sovereign?" The man inquired.
"Um, I guess so." She said reluctantly.
"Great, my name is..." The man started.
"Simon...?" Marceline guessed.
"How'd you guess?" Simon then asked.
"Just a feeling." Marceline said parting her hair to one side.
"Well anyways, my name is Simon Petrikov, Queen Marceline's Royal Guard and Herald. It would be my honor to guide you back to our Night Sovereign." The knight said with a slight bow.
"Okay, sure. Let's go meet this Queen yo!" Marceline said happily.
The two set off in tandem towards Castle Aberdeer. From the distance though a familiar duo was watching from the distance, the sun colored beast and the Bear masked White Knight were ever curious of who the new girl was.
"Dude, that was weird. That girl appeared out of that green light!" The Bear Knight exclaimed.
"Yeah, looks like stranger things are going to happen soon." The Sun beast stated.
"Well, we should get back to Queen Bonnibel, she'll want to know this." said the Bear Knight.
"Sure will, we can also report on our surveillance of Marceline's herald." The sun beast replied.
As Marceline followed Simon she was full of questions. What is this place, what happened to Ooo, how did Simon become normal again and what's more why didn't he remember anything about her. Those and many questions ran through her mind as they entered the Night Sovereign.
Scouter* - An eye glass scanning device.