Princess Bubblegum sat at the workbench in her lab, surrounded by fizzing vials of multicolored liquid, and felt the joy of losing herself in another experiment. Clad in a white lab coat and protective gloves, she adjusted the reading glasses perched on her pale pink nose and watched as the last bit of reinforced icing dissolved in the carbonated solution. She glanced at the stopwatch lying nearby and jotted down another time in her notebook as the reaction finished.

"It's more or less what I expected. Maybe at a higher concentration?" she muttered quietly to herself. Using a pipette, she squeezed a few drops of liquid to one of the vials, setting it to fizzing even more violently.

She settled in to wait, humming to herself, when suddenly the door behind her burst open with a bang. The table and vials rattled precariously, and she felt her candy heart lurch into her throat. She spun around to glare at the intruder, only to see Finn and Jake saunter into the room with big smiles on their faces.

"Hey PB! Look what we found!" Finn hoisted some kind of black and neon-green metal contraption over his head. It had a central box with thick wires and attachments coiling out from it like tentacles.

"Boys…" She sighed, feeling her heart rate return to normal. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking? These are volatile materials you could have disrupted."

"Oops, sorry," Finn said sheepishly.

"Yeah, our bad." Jake drawled. "I sometimes forget we're in a palace, and there are things like 'proper etiquette' you gotta follow." He emphasized the words with air quotes.

"But anyhow, I bet you could use a break, Peebs! I mean look at all this work." He stretched his yellow arms out to grab her notebook and look suspiciously at the numbers in it. "What do we say about working on the weekend, Finn?"

"Uh, I don't know. Nothing?"

"Exactly! We don't say nothing about work on the weekend, 'cause we aren't even thinking about it."

"Unless it's adventure…"

"Of course, that's a given," Jake conceded. "Adventure waits for no one. But anyways, PB, we're the fun police and you're under arrest for working on a Saturday!" He shapeshifted a brimmed police cap on his head and a matching badge on his chest.

The princess had to suppress a smile at the boys' antics. She was feeling a bit drained from staring at these beakers all morning, so a break wouldn't be amiss. However, she wasn't going admit that to them quite so easily.

"I don't know," she mused. "Wouldn't that make you the work police since you're stopping me from working? And besides, this isn't work…it's science!"

She paused for dramatic effect, but Jake just shifted his jaws wide so he could give a massive yawn.

"Science? We've got something much cooler than that."

Finn rushed over to the princess, setting the contraption down on the table.

"Yeah!" He said hoisting one of the attachments over his head. "Video games!"

Marceline was sleeping, floating a couple feet above her bed in her cave-dwelling house. She had a contented, serene expression on her face as she dreamed of chasing terrified candy people through a burning hellscape. She flew over some trembling gumdrop children, and without looking, ran headfirst into a soft, sticky mass of very pink bubblegum. Feeling how warm it was and how sweet it smelled, she relaxed completely into it, but…it gave off this really annoying ringing sound?

Snapping her eyes open, the vampire fell onto the bed with a soft bounce. Her cell phone was angrily ringing on her nearby nightstand. Blinking her eyes blearily, she reached over and grabbed her blue demon-slug-phone-thing. In response to being squeezed, it curled around her hand and wrist and showed her the name of the person calling: 'Bonnie'.

"Wha…Bonnie? You know I sleep at this time…" She rasped, her throat dry.

"Yooo! What's up, Marceline!" An excited, and decidedly unfeminine, voice answered her. "We got something awesome to show you!"

"Yeah, you're gonna love it!" Another male voice chimed in.

"What? Finn and Jake? Why are you on Bubblegum's phone?" She asked, starting to get annoyed.

"We didn't have any way to reach you." Finn answered. "And like I said, we found something real cool we think you'd like to see, so you should totally come over to PB's castle! Like, uh, now!"

"Also we just need four people," Jake added from the background.

"Dude, don't tell her that!"

"Pass." Marceline hung up the phone and flopped back on her pillow. After closing her eyes for a few blissful moments, that annoying ringing started again.

She snatched up the phone and answered it with a snarl. "What?"

"Um," Finn spoke meekly. "We didn't get a chance to say what it was. We found this ancient machine, and we think it's like, a video game or something? But it requires four people to play, so we were really hoping you might be interested. You like video games, right?"

"I do but..." Normally that would be right up her alley, but waking her up—at noon of all times—lost them major brownie points.

"Is Bonn…is the princess there? Can you put her on?" She heard a moment of shuffling and muffled voices while the phone changed hands.

"Hey, Marceline. Sorry about waking you up like that. I tried to stop them."

The vampire snorted. "Uh huh, I'm sure you tried your best." She drawled in a low voice. "Bonnibel Bubblegum's a real pushover after all."

"Heh, you got me. But I do feel a little bad about it. I just really want to try out this new machine."

Marceline sighed and felt a smile tugging at her lips despite herself. "That's pretty rare for our resident brainlord to get excited about something other than science. Since when are you into video games?"

"That's just the thing! It's so much more than a video game!" Her voice sped up and became intense. "If my understanding is correct, this machine is actually capable of generating a hyper-realistic simulation of Ooo and of the people connected to it. The sheer amount of computational power required to do such a thing is astronomical. And it's not just computation. It must have some way of observing a wide radius of the world around it to collect an accurate initial state for the simulation. Why if we could harness its technology for more constructive uses, we…"

"Woah woah woah, slow down and breathe, you dork." She could imagine the princess practically salivating over this new discovery, and the adorable image brought a smile to her face. "I also just woke up. Wait until I've at least had a cup of coffee before you start spouting about quantum computing."

"You can't even drink coffee, Marceline."

"Well, after I drink a red coffee mug, then." She paused at the natural lull in the conversation, considering. "You really want me to come over?"

"That's why the boys called, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but what do you want?"

"I want to try out the machine like I said." The princess said slightly confused. "And we need four people for that."

"You could always order Peppermint Butler to do it. Is there a reason you need me?" She spoke teasingly, but waited for an honest answer.

"Well, I wouldn't be adverse to your company."

Marceline scoffed. "As much as I try to cater to the princess's every whim…"

"I don't remember you ever doing that," Bonnie grumbled.

"…that's not good enough to get me up at noon. I'll at least need a 'Oh Marceline, I want you to come over!'" She mimicked a sugary sweet falsetto voice. "…before I'll head out."

The phone was silent for a moment, and Marceline felt her smile slipping. Perhaps she had pushed the stubborn princess too far.

Then she heard a sincere voice, dropping the usual glib banter. "Marceline, I want you to come spend the day with me."

Caught off guard, the vampire felt the words pierce her chest and send a flush spreading across her gray skin. "Uh, okay," she replied lamely. She could hear the tinkle of Bonnie's laughter on the other end of the line, and that just made her face grow hotter. It was crazy how her dead heart would still race from time to time.

"See you soon."

Bonnibel gave a lazy wave as Marceline floated into the laboratory and sat down on the tabletop next to her. The vampire arched her back, stretching, and smiled down at her drowsily.

"Morning," Marceline's greeting was accompanied by a wide yawn.

"Morning, sleepy head," the princess replied.

The gray-skinned girl was wearing a red halter top and jeans (without holes in them this time) along with pale yellow arm-length gloves and a wide-brimmed hat. Her long black hair was a tousled mess, indicating she had just rolled out of bed, but despite that she looked as good as always. Bonnie idly toyed with the tips of a few strands of the silky hair that were brushing her shoulder.

"Hey, guys," Marceline fist bumped with Jake and tossed her hat onto Finn's face, which he caught laughing.

"So what exactly am I looking at here?" She glanced over her shoulder at the machine in the center of the table. It was now turned on and humming with a sickly green glow. The wires sprouting from the box led to four headsets that looked like thick black goggles with a screen laid into the inside of the glasses. Marceline turned one of them about in her hands, studying it.

"This, my dear girl…" Jake answered before dropping his voice into a low bass rumble. "…is Death Match." He morphed one of his arms into a spiked mace and the other into a longsword.

"It's explained right here in this convenient instruction booklet we found along with the machine," Finn added, holding up a small glossy booklet with 'Death Match' emblazoned on the front in jagged letters.

"You go into the game and everything's just like it is here, except you know, virtual. But you can do all the same stuff you can do in the real world. Like you could fly, and Jake could transform, and I could do sweet karate moves." He threw a few chops and a kick just to demonstrate.

"All of our stuff is supposed to be there too. Like the whole flippin' castle would be there, and if you walked into this room, you'd see the same exact same science doodads and whizzamagizz!" Jake gestured around the room. "Everything except other people apparently."

"Okay, I'm starting to see where this is going. And it's called Death Match because…?"

"Because you win by killing everyone else!" Finn said with a big, innocent smile.

Marceline turned and raised a dubious eyebrow at Bonnie.

"I know, how distasteful." She sighed, but the boys looked excited at the idea of a game where they could fight each other. "Of all the things the creator could have simulated, they chose violence."

"Oh come on, PB. It'll be rad! It's like wrestling but with no holds barred," said Jake. "Haven't you ever wanted to fight us?"

"Not particularly."

Marceline hummed to herself, considering, and then her expression took on a wicked cast.

"So you're telling me…" She floated closer to the dog. "…that I can bite down on your tender necks, and drink the red from your soft, mortal flesh." She trailed a finger along the side of his neck, which he shrunk until it disappeared.

"Or maybe I'll suck out your souls, and let you wither away as empty husks." She loomed over him and breathed in deep, prompting Jake to give out an unmanly squeal.

"I don't know about this, man," Jake quavered. "What if, even though it's a game, it's not really a game? Like if we die in the game, we die in real life."

Even Finn paled a bit and started flipping through the instruction booklet.

"Don't worry, Jake," Marceline hissed, flicking her forked tongue over her fangs. "Even if you die I'll bring you back to serve as my undead minion…forever!" She threw back her head and did her best evil villain laugh until Bonnie slapped her on the back of the head.

"Just ignore her, Jake. She's only trying to scare you so she'll have an advantage in the game. Basically, she's trying to cheat." She threw an accusatory look the vampire's way, but Marceline's smirk only widened in response.

"I checked the headsets very thoroughly. There's absolutely nothing in them that could harm us. And besides, the booklet says this game is rated E for everyone. So how bad could it be?"

Jake looked mollified by her words, but inwardly Bonnie was feeling a bit unsettled herself. She was sure the simulation was perfectly safe. However, their perception of things would likely see feel quite real. What would certain things feel like, say for instance, a vampire biting down onto her neck? The thought put a restless feeling in her stomach.

"We'll have to input a few parameters to set up the simulation before we can begin," Bonnie said clearing her mind. "What time of day should we start at?"

"Night obviously." Marceline said, brushing her hair over her shoulder and settling the goggles on her forehead.

The other three just looked at her and chimed in together, "Noon." "Noon." "Definitely noon."

"What? That's not fair."

"Oh no, the vampire with superpowers thinks having a handicap isn't fair." Bonnie clasped her cheeks in faux-shock. "Come on, you big baby." She patted the other girl on the shoulder. "You'll be fine."

"Whatever," the vampire sighed. "But I better start somewhere dark."

"Right, we will need to pick starting locations. Any ideas?"

"How about we start where we live?" Finn chimed in. "PB in the castle, Marcy in her cave, and me and Jake in the treehouse."

"Bro, doesn't that just mean we're going to start fighting right away?"

"Oh, yeah." Finn sank into thought.

"Why don't we put them on a team?" Marceline suggested.

"Isn't that unfair?" said Finn.

"What, you think it's going to be too easy to beat us? Look at the big guy over here," She leered. "Plus, you guys are basically a unit. It'd be a shame to break you up."

"I guess," Finn reluctantly conceded. "Aren't you and PB a unit too then?"

"Ha, no!" The princess replied quickly. "We can barely tolerate each other most of the time." She said it jokingly, but winced as soon as the words were out of her mouth. She looked up to see a strange expression on Marceline's face.

"Um, but no, I think Marceline and I will stay separate. Besides, I wouldn't miss a chance to kick Marceline's butt." She taunted, hoping the other girl would take the bait.

"Not even in your dreams, princess. All of the butts will be kicked by me. And I'll be coming from yours first." She leaned down, her red eyes only a few inches from Bonnie's face. A small smile peeked out. "You better give up, candy butt."

"Yeah? Well you're going down…pizza clown."

With the other three laughing so hard they could barely get on their goggles, the game began.

"Initiating load sequence…scanning biological organisms…constructing neurologic interface…expanding simulation zone…reality engine ready…start game?"

Finn saw the sequence of words appear and disappear in neon green font on his visor's screen. When the final query flashed before his eyes, he lifted his hand to press the start button on the side of the headgear, or at least he thought he did. He felt his hand lift up and press onto the smooth plastic, but at the same time he also felt that hand still lying numbly in his lap, his body unmoving. The weird double sensation was unnerving, but then he felt a lurch and a falling sensation as he fell back into darkness.

The boy opened his eyes to see himself standing in the treehouse. The bright noon light filtered through the shutters, creating beams where it passed through clouds of dust floating in the air. Breathing in deep, he could smell the musty scent of wood and unwashed laundry. He could feel the hole in his left sock as he bounced up and down, and he could hear the wood floor creaking beneath him.

He lifted his hands to his face, but the headgear wasn't there. If he didn't know any better, he would've sworn he was actually back home. Everything looked so real.

"Woah…"

The fact that this was a game was proven, though, when he saw Jake materialize next to him. In almost the same way, his brother sniffed the air, checked his body, and looked around the room with eyes wide as saucers—literally in Jake's case, as he shapeshifted them to be extra-large.

"Woah, dude…"

"I know."

"It feels so real."

"I know!"

The stared around the room in mute appreciation for a moment until their eyes met.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Jake said with a grin as he tossed a bag of marshmallows and a bottle of chocolate syrup to Finn.

"I'm thinking I think I do," Finn said as he grabbed the items out of the air and added breakfast sausage and Skittles to the mix. "Winning is important and all but…"

"…Having a party-time feast is too!"

Bonnie opened her eyes in the simulation and quickly ascertained her surroundings. As expected, she was in her bedroom in the tower of her castle. Opening the glass door to her balcony, she was met with eerie silence. Physically the candy kingdom was all there—little pink shortbread houses and blue gumdrop buildings with a wall and moat surrounding it—but all of the people were all gone.

It was a strangely liberating sight. For a moment, she had the urge to shout at the top of her lungs, knowing there was no one to hear her, no one to judge her or expect anything of her. Her maturity tamped that emotion down fast, but maybe there was something to these video games after all. They seemed so pointless, but perhaps that was the point. You could just do things for the joy of doing them.

Playing around could wait until later though. For now she had to do two things: understand how the simulation worked and trounce Marceline.

The first goal was arguably more important, but there was simply no way she was letting Marceline win. She could imagine the vampire's gloating, with her classic fanged smirk and red eyes narrowed in amusement as she floated up in Bonnie's face. It wasn't a bad look necessarily. Sometimes she wanted to run a finger over those smooth fangs to see how they felt.

Marceline's surprised face when she lost would be even better though, so the princess headed off to the castle's secret armory to prepare. She had of course started planning her strategy as soon as the boys explained the rules.

Her castle, in the real world, had a number of defenses prepared against intruders. The vampire, and even Finn and Jake, would require a bit of ingenuity to beat, but she was already adapting various strategies in her head.

She doubted Marceline would have any sort of plan. 'Winging it' was very much her style, but she had good instincts. She would know that the longer she gave Bonnie to prepare, the worse the vampire's chances would become, so she would be getting here fast.

The princess picked up her pace to a jog, a smile inadvertently forming on her face. Not fast enough though.

Marceline opened her eyes in the cool and refreshingly dark confines of her bedroom. That probably wasn't the best place to be, as she could feel her bed drawing her in like a magnet. Maybe a quick nap wouldn't hurt.

Shaking her head, she instead forced back a yawn and floated over to her closet to get ready. Oh the things she did to please the princess.

And what would said princess be doing now? Knowing a brainlord like Bonnie, she would be holed up in the castle, probably preparing all sorts of nefarious traps and cackling like a mad scientist.

She had better hurry before the girl got too carried away. There was no way she was letting a totally newbie beat her at a video game. If she did, Bonnie would have that smug, satisfied look on her face like she did whenever she solved a problem or cracked a mystery. She'd probably say some lame and adorable taunt too like 'science rules, vampires drool'.

Opening her closet, the vampire traded out her hat and gloves for her serious UV suit—a long black cloak and welder's mask. She grabbed her trusty red axe-bass and checked herself in her phone's camera. Floating there, swaddled in darkness and holding a gleaming weapon, she looked like a movie monster, or, on second thought, perhaps a very confused lumberjack.

Either way, it was time to slay.

Princess Bubblegum eased back in a plush leather chair, the light of dozens of CRT monitors reflecting in her eyes. Each screen showed live footage from a security camera placed in or around the castle. There on one of the lower screens, a dark figure that could only be Marceline flew up the side of the castle and landed on the balcony of her bedroom. The princess leaned forward in anticipation and turned on the audio feed for that room.

"Bonnie, I'm home!" Marceline called in a singsong voice. She pushed open the glass doors and floated inside. She lifted up the face shield of her mask and looked around the empty room. "Now if I were a princess, where would I be?"

She floated over the king-sized bed and tilted it up with one hand. "Hmm, nothing."

Bonnibel face-palmed. "Marceline, I'm not a five-year-old playing hide-and-seek," she said to herself.

Marceline floated over to her wardrobe next. "How about…here!" She flung it open, revealing only clothes. "Nope." She did pause for a moment though to smirk at the picture taped to the inside of the cabinet door of her and Bonnie together.

Bonnie grimaced, feeling her face grow a bit warm. The vampire already knew that photo was there, so it wasn't a big deal. But in general, she hadn't considered that all of her 'private possessions' would be replicated in the simulation too.

"In that case," Marceline's grin grew devilish. "You're probably over here!" She slid open the top drawer of a dresser, revealing sets of neatly folded and color-coded underwear. She pulled out a red pair of panties and pierced it with a single fang, draining it of all color.

Oh. My. Glob. Bonnie, face as red as that garment was, smashed the broadcasting button with her fist, projecting her voice into the room. "You stop that right now!"

Marceline's head whipped around to the source of the sound, looking like a deer caught in headlights. With her mouth agape, the gray fabric slid off her fang and onto the ground.

"You…you're unbelievable. Absolutely incorrigible," the princess scolded in a flustered voice.

Hearing that, the other girl's shocked expression was replaced with laughter. She doubled over in midair and held her stomach as she tried to contain herself.

Unbelievable! The vampire had the audacity to do something so… distasteful! And now she could laugh about it.

Marceline, now only suffering an occasionally chuckle, floated over to the camera and looked directly into it. Wiping a tear of mirth from the corner of her eye, she gave a big toothy grin.

"It's a game, Bonnibel. Lighten up. We're all just having a good time." She gave a wink. "Besides, none of this is real."

"Right, but it all looks real. Speaking of which," she spoke in an overly sweet voice. "You seemed to know what was in that drawer even before you opened it. Hmm?"

The vampire's eyes slid to the side for a moment. "No idea what you're talking about, Bon Bon." She cleared her throat. "So is this like a security cam thing you got going on? You in some secret underground lair or something?"

"Maybe," the princess conceded, letting her change the subject. "You'll have to come and see. If you can stay focused on the game for more than five seconds," she grumbled.

"Okay, okay, anything for the princess. Here is my serious face going on." She slid a hand down her face and turned her smirk into a scowl. "Prepare to meet your imminent demise, Bonnibel."

Marceline turned towards the door, seemed to realize something, and then turned back with a brief smile.

"Boop!" Her clawed finger punched through the lens of the security camera, and Bonnie saw the feed dissolve into static.

Finn and Jake lay on their backs, nearly comatose. Chocolate syrup coated Finn's face like a beard and formed a giant pool underneath him, spreading like a bloodstain across the wood floor. Jake tried to roll over but half melted marshmallows and crumbled graham crackers formed a sticky concrete that glued his yellow fur to the ground.

"Ooooh…" Finn moaned. His belly rose up before him, round and bloated. "Never again."

"You said it, brother." Jake's belly had other smaller bellies growing out of it on account of him shapeshift extra stomachs to eat more food. "At least, not until tomorrow."

Finn chuckled wearily and agreed. "We really should get going. Let me just…" He rolled back and forth like a turtle on its back, eventually flipping over onto his stomach. Letting out a massive burp, the size of that stomach visibly decreased.

"Alright, I'm going too." Jake pushed in his little extra stomachs, letting out a chain of belches each time they disappeared.

After venting enough gas and watching some of the plants die from the fumes, Finn was able to stand up and pry Jake off the floor. They stood there, covered in a sticky mess of confection, and fist-bumped each other.

"We're well-rested, well-feasted. Basically, we're in peak physical condition," Finn said, pulling a couple of stray marshmallows from out of his animal hat and popping them in his mouth. "Now let's win this thing!"

"Yeah! Or die trying!" Jake said as they headed downstairs. "Cause that's how the game works."

Shrugging on his backpack, Finn grabbed the night sword off the wall. As soon as he touched it, he could feel the dark magic flowing from the purple blade into him, strengthening him. The demonic eye blinked and regarded him.

"Night sword," he said holding it parallel to the ground. "Show me the direction of my enemies!"

The slit pupil spun and pointed due north towards the castle.

"Alright, Jake. We know where they're at. Let's go!" said Finn, striding boldly out the door.

"Uh, dude that's just a compass," Jake muttered as he followed Finn outside. "But yeah, that's probably where they are anyways."

It was actually really hard to find someone in this labyrinth of a castle. Usually the princess would be somewhere easy to find like the throne room, laboratory, or bedroom. Or she would just make enough of a ruckus that Peppermint Butler or Bonnie would come find her. Actually searching for someone who wanted to be hidden though…yeesh!

Whenever she passed by another security camera, she would amuse herself by blowing raspberries or making funny faces, but she was quickly growing bored. She stopped in the gardens for a break, smelling the flowers when suddenly she had an idea. If Bonnie was the only one in the castle, her scent would be the only one there as well.

Racing back to the bedroom where she started, she transformed her nose into a bat's and took a big whiff. Sure enough, the faint scent of the princess lingered here. It was sweet and fruity, almost like her favorite strawberries, and it made her mouth start to water.

She grabbed a random sweater that she had seen Bonnie wear before and breathed in. This was just to better memorize the scent, okay? Like bloodhounds do! She grimaced, thinking back on the earlier encounter and was glad the camera was destroyed this time.

Hot on the trail now, she floated low to the ground out of the room and into the hallway. She wound her way through rooms and down stairs, eventually ending up in the basement in front of an innocuous-looking door. It was locked, but a quick pull of her wrist yanked the gingerbread door from the wall. Behind it was a solid steel panel with no discernable handle.

There was probably a secret way to open it, but what good is having an axe if you don't use it? Rearing back with her weapon held high, she swung the demonic instrument down in a thunderous blow. She ripped the axe free from the metal where it had formed a wide rent, and stuck her face into the hole with a rictus grin. "Here's…Marcy!"

Silence. Instead of the expected control room, there was a long dark stairway leading down. She heaved a huge sigh. No one heard that? Not even a camera?

Cutting open the door the rest of the way, she headed down until she reach a small stone room, about 10 feet on a side. At the far end of the room was a closed metal door, and a large flat screen television was embedded in one of the walls. As she entered the room from the stairway, a steel panel slid from the ceiling behind her, blocking the exit, and TV screen flickered on.

It showed the high back of a leather-bound chair, which slowly turned to face her. There sat Bubblegum, wearing a suit and a pink eyepatch of all things.

"Welcome to my secret lair, Ms. Abadeer." She steepled her fingers and leaned over them. "Prepare to die!"

"Really, Peebs?" She felt her stomach start to hurt from laughing so much. "You're killing me alright. What, are princess duties not keeping you busy enough?"

"There is no princess here," she said, not breaking character.

"Sure," she drawled and looked Bonnie up and down. "I like it though. It's cute."

"Ugh, I'm not cute. I'm…evil!" She growled, shaking a fist dramatically. "You, my dear intruder, are about to perish, dissolved into a sticky goo by my transmogrifying Sugar Mist!"

Pale blue gas started to pour into the room from a dozen tiny holes set into the mortar of the walls. The mist smelled to Marceline like blueberries and tasted like cotton candy on her tongue.

"Sugar mist is the best you've got? Oh no, I'm getting a cavity! Better hope I don't get diabetes!"

The princess-turned-villain just sat there, the grin on her face gradually widening.

It was kind of annoying, Marceline thought, how the cloying mist clung to her skin and made her start to feel sticky. She rolled up one of her sleeves and tried brushed the sugar off her forearm, but when she did so, her skin adhered together like glue. Pulling a bit harder, she saw her gray flesh, which had now turned a faint shade of blue, stretch away like strands of taffy.

Oh, this wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

"Now you see your predicament," Bonnie chuckled darkly. "You should have taken me seriously from the start."

"Well, one, I'm not going to take anyone who wears a pink eyepatch seriously." Marceline said holding up a finger. "Two, this is actually kind of horrifying. You have a sick mind and I like it. And three!" She lifted her axe over her head and charged the exit door. "I think I'll just leave."

She heaved the axe downwards as she had done before, but this time her arms stretched out like gummy candy and she couldn't put any force behind the blow. The axe scored a long thin scratch down the steel, but it was nowhere close to piercing through.

This was officially not good at all. Marceline put her hands to her head and let out a slow breath. If brute force wouldn't do anything, she'd just have to use her head.

The continual influx of gas was the most immediate problem. She transformed the lower half of her body into inky black tentacles and sent one each to block the holes that were pumping in mist. She felt the tips of the tentacles turn gooey, but the seals held fast and the level of gas in the room slowly decreased.

"Not bad," Bonnie applauded. "It's nice to see that your brain isn't made entirely of muscle. Still, there's enough gas in the room to finish you off in a few minutes. Tick tock, Marceline." She tapped an imaginary watch on her wrist.

Marceline sent Bonnie a baleful glare. "Just wait. I'll be out of here and coming for your butt in a moment."

"Oh no, a pile of blue frosting is threatening me. I'm shaking in my boots."

Tuning out Bonnie's taunts, Marceline concentrated on how to get past the door without using strength. She remembered one time when she had fully transformed into her black tentacle monster form while inside her house. She had blown out all of the windows and doors, which had been a huge pain to fix later. Maybe that would work.

Focusing her energy on transforming, Marceline felt her body expand and multiply in size. Within moments she had filled every corner of the small room and felt the pressure on her skin start to build. The TV screen cracked first, but the walls and doors still held strong. She kept growing, feeling like she was being crushed under a mountain of rocks, when suddenly the doors blew off their hinges and the pressure eased.

She slid out into the hallway beyond the room like a dark blue slug and tiredly reverted to her human form. Once outside of the gas, her healing powers kicked in, and her body quickly returned to its normal color and consistency.

Up ahead, she saw the doorway to another empty room and presumably another of Bonnie's traps. Once was enough of that. It was time to play by her own rules instead.

She focused on her right arm, remembering the time she and Bonnie had defended a pumpkin patch against little burrowing monsters called varmints. It was a poignant memory, one that marked the beginning of a change in 'things' between them. But what she needed to recall now was the look and feel of those annoying critters with their thick blunt teeth and claws that were perfect for digging.

Her arm from the elbow down transformed into a three-foot replica of one of those creatures, and she set it to work furiously digging through the stone wall and the earth behind it. She dug sideways out of the hallway and then turned and carved a path circumventing the next room.

"Marceline? Wait, you can't do that!" She heard Bonnie's voice projected from a speaker behind her. "Think of the exciting experiment, I mean challenge, you're missing."

"Yeah, I think I'll pass," she shouted back over her shoulder.

Once she was confident she had passed beyond the room, Marceline turned again and dug until she returned to the hallway. With the room behind her, one final door lay ahead. She could faintly hear the princess's complaints echoing from beyond it.

The door was locked, of course, so she gleefully smashed it apart with her axe and stepped into the room. Within, Bonnie was finishing zipping up a futuristic-looking suit. It was gray with black padding and metal circuitry tracing the outside. A tinted glass helmet surrounded her head like a fishbowl. She quickly sat down in her chair again, crossing her legs and regarding Marceline with a cool expression.

"How kind of you to finally join me," Bonnibel crooned, her eyepatch was still in place.

"Well, I couldn't leave a lady waiting." Marceline fought to suppress a smile. "You expected me to run away?"

"No, Ms. Abadeer," her own smile spread. "I expect you to die!" She slammed a button on the armrest of her chair, and the whole room lurched upwards like an elevator. Marceline stumbled, going down to one knee from the sudden movement, and Bonnie pulled a ray gun arcing with electricity from underneath her chair.

White-hot plasma shot from the tip of the weapon and burned clear through the metal next to Marceline's head. The princess's aim was a hair off due to the jouncing of the room, and she steadied it with both hands.

The second shot pierced through where the vampire' stomach would have been, but the girl had already sprung to the air and was flying around the circumference of the room. Marceline turned invisible and dropped her axe, knowing it would remain visible and give her away. Bonnie likewise pressed a button on her suit and faded from sight.

For a moment silence reigned over the room that appeared completely empty. Marceline floated silently beneath the ceiling and directly over the princess. Unfortunately for Bonnie, it was easy enough to tell exactly where the girl was. Her footsteps, her breathing, and even her heartbeat gave her away, clear as day. Marceline meanwhile had none of those weaknesses that came from being alive.

She couldn't see Bonnie's hands or tell what she was doing, but she assumed the princess pressed another button, as white powder suddenly billowed out of one side of the room, coating and revealing everything within it. After that settled, Marceline followed Bonnie to another side of the room where the procedure was repeated. As long as she stayed directly above the girl, though, she was safe as Bonnie wouldn't want to reveal herself.

As the vampire was smirking, thinking how easy this was, Bonnie leaned back and fired two shot directly above her and one behind her. Only by sheer chance did the bolts miss Marceline by a hairsbreadth. In fact, she could smell some of her hair burning where the shot had pierced it.

The princess didn't fire again though and kept moving around the room, so she must have been guessing where Marceline would be. Bonnie's intuition was seriously scary.

It was probably best to end this quickly before she got accidentally got fried. She transformed into her large werewolf form, becoming visible again, and dropped behind the princess with a thud. The girl spun around instantly but not before Marceline slammed her with a large paw, throwing her across the room. She landed in a cloud of the white powder.

"Uh, you okay?" Marceline called reflexively. She felt a twinge of guilt about hurting the girl.

A shot streaking out of the cloud and piercing her side answered her. Surprisingly the pain was minimal, like a small pinch. The simulation must have been mitigating any pain they felt. The hole quickly started to close.

"Of course I am. Take this seriously," the princess shouted, now visible as well and dusted in flour.

Well, she asked for it. Marceline charged across the room on all fours, dodging plasma blasts, and barreled into Bonnie. She pinned her to the ground with one massive paw when electricity coursed from the suit into her, sending her recoiling. The pain was reduced to an itch across her skin, but her muscles spasmed and flung her away.

Another shot pierced through the right side of her chest, but as long as it missed her heart it wasn't a problem. With the swipe of a claw she destroyed the electrocuting module and grabbed the arm holding the gun. With the other hand, she ran a claw down the front of Bonnie's suit opening it and accidentally cutting the clothes underneath as well.

"Oops." Her wolf tongue lolled out of the side of her mouth as she regarded the princess's exposed chest and stomach. The girl covered herself with her free hand and flushed a shade of darker pink.

"I guess this is the end." Marceline splayed her massive claws and raised her hand. Bonnie stared back defiantly and waited. And yet the hand didn't fall as Marceline paused in indecision.

There was something a bit too grisly about cutting her friend open and spilling her guts, even if it was a simulation. Marceline wasn't a stranger to blood and gore, but maybe in this case drinking her dry as a vampire would be more appealing.

She returned to her human form, cast aside her welder's mask, and sidled up to Bonnie. Before the other girl could react, she put one hand on her hips, another behind her head, and pressed her face into the crook of her neck. The scent was intoxicating up close, and as she ran her fangs lightly along the pink skin, she felt Bonnie shiver under her.

"Marceline?" she heard Bonnie ask in a breathless voice.

With the princess pressed up against her, she had to fight to keep that hairsbreadth of distance between her lips and tongue and the princess's skin. Realizing she was about to do something much worse than just drain Bonnie dry, she pushed the girl away.

"I can't do it."

"You can't…? Oh, the game! Right!" Bubblegum shook her head. "You know we can't leave the game until one of us wins. So come on, do it!" She poked Marceline in the ribs.

"I've never had someone beg me to kill them before," she laughed rubbing the spot. "How about we just agree that I won and that I'm the superior fighter?"

The princess scoffed and rolled her eyes. "No one wins until the battle is over. The tides could turn at any time after all."

"And you're going to do that how with your super suit broken?"

"Speaking of which," Bonnie shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. "Could I borrow your coat? It's kind of cold out today, especially since someone decided to aerate my clothes," she grumbled.

Marceline took off the long garment and wrapped it around Bonnie's shoulders. The vampire was left in a tank top and jeans, but she didn't feel the cold anyways. The princess held the coat closed at the collar with one hand and looked up into Marceline's eyes.

"Thanks. Now, there's just one more thing I'd like you to do for me."

"Uh, okay. Shoot."

Bonnie pulled a small remote control out of her pocket and pressed a button.

"Lose." She smiled sweetly.

The windows and roof of the room sprang open and sunlight flooded the area. The chamber had previously risen like an elevator all the way to the surface, and now the afternoon sun beat down and scoured all shadows away. Marceline had a brief moment where she gave a wide-eyed look of utmost indignation, and then she caught fire and turned into a cloud of smoke.

"In your face! Boom, science!" The princess jumped in the air and did a victory dance. If only she'd had a camera. Marceline's face belonged in the dictionary next to indignation and perhaps a couple other words too like outrage and incredulity.

"You mess with the best, you get put to rest," she laughed to herself, the adrenaline still going strong. She'd have to remember that one for when she saw Marceline again. Wow, these games were a lot more fun than she had thought. They'd have to do something like this again sometime, although perhaps with a less violent theme.

Expelling a deep breath, she felt her heart rate return to normal. Now she just had to wait for Finn and Jake to show up, and the game would be over. Looking around the room full of wrecked and expended gadgets, she realized she really should be preparing for their arrival with new defenses. However, she found she didn't have any motivation now that her main objective was accomplished.

Sitting down on her now-white leather chair, she marveled at her feeling of contentment. She had always defined herself by what she could do. If she wasn't doing something—protecting her kingdom, advancing scientific knowledge, or nurturing her people—what good was she? But now she found herself feeling happy just spending time with certain people.

It was scary. Change wasn't something that came easily when you were over eight hundred years old. But if Marceline could do it, as her new more empathetic self had shown, she could at least give it a try.

In the past, she had viewed Marceline as a corrupting influence and had pushed her away. Neither of them had handled it well. Stubbornness and a complete ineptitude at discussing their feelings were things they certainly had in common. Funny how a couple super-centenarians could act so immature.

But now they had a second chance. And eternity with someone didn't seem an unreachable goal.

But 'eternity' just made her think of how fragile it was, how easily forever could be ended. What was taking Finn and Jake so long? A sense of unease was building inside her, and she wanted to get back to the real world already.

Silence stretched as she sat there alone in this realistic world.

It was…strangely real, wasn't it?

She looked around at the perfectly realistic rendition of her secret lab that no one else had ever seen. The rubble, the smoke, and soot, even down to the tiniest grain, it seemed perfectly real.

The sight of Marceline catching fire and bursting into smoke…

Dying.

She felt something cold settle in her stomach and crawl up her spine.

What if this wasn't a game? What if this was the real world, and they were just tricked into thinking it was fake? Magic could do that, or mind-altering drugs. She clenched her hands together until her knuckles were white.

But there were no people in town! She had clear memories too of the lab and starting the machine up. It was improbable for anything to be able to create detailed memories so precisely. This had to be a simulation. She let out a shaky breath.

But how probable was it for a machine to perfectly simulate reality? How likely was it for that machine to only be used to play a game about killing each other?

"Marceline?" Her voice was weak and plaintive.

"I'm done playing. I'd just like to wake up now." She tried removing her headgear, moving her hands to where it would be, but there was nothing to grab onto.

"Quit game. End. End simulation." She shouted commands, hoping something would trigger the machine, but nothing changed.

She knew logically that she should wait for Finn and Jake and discuss the situation with them. Together they could see if their memories matched up, and if it was a simulation, they could end the game.

It was a simulation. It had to be.

Each minute waiting was like an hour. She paced back and forth as she ground her teeth.

That same doubt kept coming back: she had killed Marceline.

She picked up her ray gun and considered it. If this was a simulation, which it almost certainly was, she would wake up next to Marceline and everything would be fine. If it wasn't, she would die.

But in that case, was it anything less than what she deserved?

Before she had a chance to reconsider, she put the end of the gun to her chest and pulled the trigger.

Marceline pulled off her headgear that was showing 'Game Over' and tossed it aside. Hot anger coiled in her belly as she remembered how Bonnibel beat her. After she had refused to kill the princess and they had shared a nice moment together, Bonnie turned around and tricked her!

That didn't count. She definitely won the game, regardless of what some puffed up pink princess had to say.

And while she was feeling this way, Bonnie was still in the game, so Marceline couldn't even give her a piece of her mind. The other girl just sat there primly with her back straight and her hands folded neatly in her lap, a blank expression on her face as she wore the headgear. Maybe she should draw something on her face as revenge.

Finn and Jake meanwhile were slouched in their chairs. A thin trail of drool was dried on the sides of their faces, and a wet pool of it had formed in their laps. What the heck were these guys doing? The absurdity of it blunted the edge of her anger.

She was about to search around the lab for a marker, a permanent one, when suddenly Bonnie ripped her headgear off, not minding that it caught and tore a bit of her hair. The girl looked around the room frantically.

"Finn and Jake beat you that quickly?" Marceline asked, feeling a bit of frustration at their mutual demise. The least the princess could do was win the whole thing. Now she'd have to hear the boys gloating too.

"Marceline!" Bonnie shouted as her eyes locked onto the vampire. Her expression looked pained as her blue eyes scanned the girl up and down.

"Uh, present." Marceline stated, not sure while Bonnie was acting so strangely. "You okay there? You're acting a little…" Panicked was the word that sprang to mind. "If something's wrong, just let me know and I'll…"

Her voice cut off as Bonnie leaned forward and rested her forehead on Marceline's chest. She felt her undead heart start beating again. Hopefully the other girl couldn't hear it too.

It wasn't fair that Bonnie could do this to her. One moment she'd be irritated with the girl, and then with one touch, that would all melt away.

"Bonnie?" Marceline looked down but couldn't see her expression hidden by pink hair. "You're kind of scaring me here."

"It's fine. I'm fine. Just give me a moment."

Deciding to honor the princess's request, Marceline remained quiet. Bubblegum's forehead was their only point of contact, and the rest of her body was stiff as a rod.

Vulnerability wasn't something anyone associated with the Candy Kingdom's powerful and resilient ruler. Only Marceline got to see her like this. It made her feel privileged, but it also tore at her heart.

She placed one had on Bonnie's shoulder and another on the center of her back and began rubbing small circles. She heard the girl let out a few deep breaths and felt her shoulders start to relax.

Deciding that enough time had passed, she asked, "Was it scary getting killed by Finn and Jake?"

"That's not what I'm upset about," came the immediate reply. Bonnie looked up and met her gaze. Some of the steel was back in her eyes.

"I wouldn't be upset about that anyways."

"Okay," she said, waiting for her to elaborate.

"It's just," Bonnie struggled with the words. "It's stupid anyways. Forget it." She turned away.

"I bet it's not stupid."

"You don't even know what it is."

"I know it was important enough to upset you, so just tell me!" She rocked back in her seat and pulled Bonnie with her into her lap. The princess squawked as the chair tipped over, but Marceline stayed floating, holding her aloft.

The princess glared at the vampire who smirked in response. "Nope, I don't think I will."

"Oh, now you've done it." Marceline looped an arm around Bonnie's back and pulled the girl closer. "I did the heck out of being sympathetic, which you know I'm totally bad at, so I expect some sort of payoff."

"You, sympathetic? I don't remember that."

"Bonnie!" she whined.

"Alright, fine." She heaved a huge sigh. "It's honestly not such a big deal. It's just that after I 'offed' you in the game, I had a bit too much time by myself to think, and I…may have had a moment of temporary insanity."

She had curled her head into the crook of Marceline's neck, but the vampire could still see one of her ears go red.

"I started thinking dumb things like 'what if this wasn't actually a simulation, and we were put under a spell?' or 'what if I miscalculated and there actually were real-world consequences?' Logically, I knew none of those things were true, but I still had this nagging doubt that, uh…" Her voice faded down to a whisper. "…that I would never see you again."

Marceline was too surprised to respond at first.

"Wait, you were upset about me?" She felt her own face go red.

"Ugh, just forget it." The princess hit her on the ribs with the back of her hand. "Like I said, it was dumb."

Marceline floated down to the ground and let Bonnie take a step away now that she had regained her composure. She grabbed one of her pink hands and held it, though, running her thumb across the back of her knuckles.

"Well in that case we're both dumb, because I, uh, sort of had the same thought."

It was uncomfortable to admit, but Marceline figured it was only fair if they both shared.

"Not about it being real. I didn't think of that. But I couldn't finish you off in the game because, even if it was fake, it wasn't something I ever wanted to see." She turned her face to the side and felt her blush intensify.

"Oh." Bonnie had the same stunned reaction that Marceline had earlier. "Well, lucky you. I'm probably going to have nightmares about it, since I actually did it!" Bonnie groused.

Marceline gave a low chuckle. "So you'll be dreaming about me then?" Her smirk returned.

"You wish!" The princess swung her free hand to hit the vampire in the chest, but Marceline caught it, and held both her hands gently.

"Seriously, Bonnie, I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here as long as you want me to." She gave a small laugh. "I'll probably stick around even if you don't want me to."

Marceline met Bonnie's eyes and saw an expression that she had seen on rare occasions in the past. It was gentleness, longing, and something Marceline had tried to ignore before, something she had avoided defining. Bonnie moved a half step closer to her so that they were only a hand-span apart.

"Prove it," Bonnie whispered.

Marceline swallowed and felt her heart about to burst. She could face down hordes of monsters, but this had feeling terrified. Surely Bonnie could feel that her hands were getting clammy. She let go and put her hands on the other girl's hips.

She saw Bonnie's soft pink tongue moisten her lips, and her vision narrowed to only that point. Slowly shutting her eyes, she closed that last bit of distance and pressed her lips to Bonnie's.

The kiss was soft, sweet, and all too brief. She pulled back to see Bonnie's reaction, but other girl clasped her arms around Marcelin's neck and pulled her down again, crushing her lips against the vampire's. That was the sign that broke her restraint.

She kissed back deeper and harder. Each press of their lips sent a wild current down her spine and pushed all thoughts from her head except of this moment and the girl in her arms. She tightened her arms around the princess's waist, bringing their hips together flush. She felt a headiness and urgent need building, to feel more of her, to be closer.

She felt Bonnie's nails dig into the back of her neck, and the princess deepened the kiss, forcing her lips apart. She could taste the sweetness on the princess's tongue, and she felt her own feet rise off the ground. Holding Bonnie tight, she floated them a few inches in the air, where they spun slowly.

"Close, man, but not close enough! I beat you!" Jake's voice pierced through Marceline's haze, and they crashed back down to the ground and sprang apart.

"What? No you didn't! I got you at the same time, so it's a tie," Finn argued, pulling his headset off.

Neither boy looked over at Bubblegum and Marceline, which was fortunate as Bonnie's eyes were dilated, her lips were flushed and swollen, and her breath came in short gasps. Marceline was sure she looked much the same.

She ran a hand over her mouth and tried to compose herself. She wasn't if she wanted to kill her friends, flee the room, or go back to kissing Bonnie and damn the consequences. Her heart was a mess.

Finally the boys finished their argument and looked over.

"Oh, hey! You guys were done too. Did you both beat each other at the same time too?" Finn asked.

"Uh, something like that." Bonnie's voice was breathless.

"You alright?" Jake squinted his eyes. "You seem a little…weird."

"No, I'm fine! Great really. The epitome of impeccable wellbeing. The game was just quite exhilarating. Right, Marceline?" She waved her hands and looked to the vampire for help.

"It got our blood pumping, alright. You could really taste the excitement." She waggled her forked tongue at the flustered princess, who scowled and blushed in response.

"Awesome! I'm glad you guys liked it," said Finn. Jake, however, raised an eyebrow and looked between the two of them skeptically.

"You guys want to start another game then?" He ran over to his headgear and slipped it on, ready to go.

"No thanks, Finn." Marceline floated over to the door exiting the lab then looked back in with a smirk. "I think the princess and I have another game we're going to play alone later."