Chapter Two: Touch of Magic
"Look!" her voice squealed with glee. "Look over here I found something!"
Lanky legs clothed in a tattered brown suit strode in behind the pale little girl. A man knelt beside her wearing a kind, fatherly expression. His long snow white colored hair hung down over his shoulders as he rested his hand gently on the top of her todder-ish head. She didn't flinch even though it was rather cold. Reaching his other hand up the man adjusted his old round glasses to better see the object causing such excitement. This was rather difficult with the large crack running down the right frame.
"What a discovery", he mused with tender care as he reached down to pick it up. "Would you like to keep it?"
"I can?" she asked with wide eyes.
The man stood and looked around at the destroyed and abandoned town, a smirk finding him as he softly replied "I don't think the owner will be out to look for it sweetheart"
"Ah", her intake of breath was sharp and quick as if it were her first.
Birds awoke Marceline.
Her heavily ringed eyes opened and glanced tiredly over at her window. It was bright and sunny outside, the last thing she really wanted to see. As she rose from the cold floor she rubbed her head and bitterly admitted to herself that she had cried herself to sleep.
Setting her guitar to the side Marceline safely went limp, her head rolling back onto the firm couch cushion. It would be a long day, she knew. Her head tilted to the side and she glanced over at her bookshelf. In her collection Marceline had a few old texts from the early days of the war. She'd read them all admittedly from cover to cover on several occasions hoping to find answers, but there were none, no clues, no mentions of the crown her friend so tragically came upon.
Nobody had ever heard of it.
And the source of his plight was the crown itself. It spoke to Simon, made him do things he would never do on his own. Marceline knew him to be a kind, caring human. His mind however was now a labyrinth, a jumbled mess of bits and pieces of the man she once knew twisted to the liking of a cursed artifact. Sadly, she admitted to herself that she knew he could never escape it, not on his own. There had to be a way to clear a path for her old friend, to bring his memories forth.
"Remember me", Marceline whispered. "…Just remember me…"
But he only remembered bits of things and the pieces of Simon that squeezed into his consciousness were so minute the crown twisted them, for the crown was powerful and immensely corrupt. Simon still mourned for losing his true love Betty and so it sent him after princesses and well, with Marceline the crown for the most part erased everything, everything but the fact that he knew her. It brought a slight smirk to the vampire queen's lips just knowing the crown couldn't truly make him forget her. He really did love her.
Marceline left her house in a troubled mood. She left knowing somewhere there was something that would help her tie up the most tangled of her loose ends. Not incredibly much to go on, but in the end Marceline knew it was a matter of finding it. Or perhaps it was a matter of the solution finding her.
Her old tree house. It was the first time she'd been in love with a boy, a young punk wizard named Ash. Marceline had felt he'd loved her but Ash was selfish and rotten, like most people who squeezed their way into Marceline's life. Why she had wanted to return here after the breakup, she still wasn't sure. The Vampire Queen had always been more sentimental than she'd care to admit.
Jake wasn't home but Finn was. The hyperactive human child hopped around on the tops of furniture, claiming he was training for a visit to the fire kingdom. It was good fun, that's why Marceline liked hanging out with him. Finn was a laid back kind of guy and a good, loyal friend.
"Look Finn…" she spoke unclearly with her head resting tilted her dainty pale hand. "It's not like I haven't had messed up stuff happen to me…you know like ALL the time. I'm used to it…" there was sadness in her tone that brought her friend down from the table. "I dunno. I feel bad for him I guess", she added without giving away exactly how much this was bothering her. "And I owe the guy. He was a good human once…really, it's messed up what happened to him"
"Okay…"
Finn rubbed his chin, trying to soak it all in. Marceline was going on a quest…to save the Ice King? Weird. The human boy scratched under his headgear and thought carefully about what he should say. He knew about the tapes, that the Ice King had once been a human man named Simon. After obtaining the crown he had gone insane, but if the crown was supposedly also keeping him alive wouldn't curing him mean killing him?
"…what if we just take the crown away?"
"No", Marceline shot the idea down quickly. "I thought of that but its magic is too deeply rooted into his psyche", spinning onto her back in the air she closed her eyes and listened to the subtle creaking of the tree house. "Sorry to have barged in on you Finn…you know with all this"
"S'cool", Finn dismissed with a wave of his arm. "Brainstorming is bettah with two noggins anyways"
"Yeah", Marceline agreed softly. "Sides this place holds a lotta memories", she admitted, floating over to a wall and patting it fondly. "Good ones and bad ones"
"Marceline!"
Finn's shriek cracked her composure, leaving a ringing in Marceline's ears. She glared at the human, making it very clear that he'd better have the most important thing in the world to say. Leaping across the room to be by her side Finn jumped up and down with his arms wiggling all about. Marceline held out her hand and pushed Finn till he stood still, feet planted firmly in the ground.
"What is it already?" she grumbled.
"You said the key word!"
"Key…word?" the words rolled awkwardly off the tip of her tongue. "You're not making much sense Finn"
"No Marceline, check this out", he jumped onto the couch and pointed down at her. "The Ice King is all whacked out with the poo brain because the crown twists his memories and junk. He even said his brain was a labyrinth", as Finn spoke his voice got higher, but as squeaky as it was Marceline couldn't help but be inspired by the point he was getting at. "What if we bring his past memories to the surface? Maybe if he truly remembered who he was he could overcome the evil power of the crown?"
Marceline thought about it.
"That's not a bad idea", she smoothly added.
"Yeah", Finn agreed with a hard nod. "Maybe we could even, you know use that spell that put me and Jake in your memories so we could go in his mind?"
"That spell is powerful", Marceline commented with frustration. "Not just anybody could conjure it…we'd need someone magical to make it for us"
"We could kick Ash in the buns till he makes us some?"
"Nah, he'd probably mess with the formula…you know, to try and get me to hook back up with him"
Finn slumped onto the couch, his good ideas at an untimely end. He knew very few wizards. There was however one person he knew of who could make such a spell. Leaving said person in one piece however was an entirely different story. It would be dangerous, perilous and absolutely insane to purposely engage him. But Finn knew where he lived. He could be at his door within the hour.
"What's up", Marceline questioned playfully. "You got an idea?"
"Yeah…but, I dunno. Could be dangerous"
"That's cool", Marceline shrugged her shoulders. "I don't mind a little danger"
"Math"
Fin extended his fist and she did the same. Bump.
The house stood in shambles; piles of filthy things, weeds running rampant, broken windows and boxes labeled and filled with dirt were strewn everywhere. The two intruders stepped forth, avoiding the unknown pools of liquid and filth to reach the door. Marceline looked around, her understanding that the person who lived here was sick, in more ways than one. Her vampire eyes shifted and locked with Finn's. He shrugged his shoulders, a light blush dusting his cheeks as he realized how poorly thought out his idea really was. But, this one man had limitless power and could be the only one to break the curse. Slowly, hesitantly Fin lifted his arm and brought his wrist back.
Knock
A loud boom sent the two scrambling for an escape, but colored clouds and fireworks surrounded them. Fin screamed. Marceline hissed. Suddenly Finn hunched halfway over in pain, sweat covering his brow. He clutched his stomach, clawed at it as something squirmed and came up. A blue green man squeezed out of his mouth and floated above their heads as the human boy toppled over.
Marceline took to the air and a powerful burst of magic threw her to the ground. She grumbled as she picked herself up out of the dirt. Magic Man laughed as he landed besides Finn and gently kicked him over with his foot. The madman tilted his head to the side, a large grin on his face as he chuckled once.
"I remember you", he said in a cheery tone. "Have you come to use my special machine again?"
"Uh…no", Finn coughed a sputtered response. "I wanted to ask you for a favor?"
"Oh", Magic Man cheered, raising his hands above his head, his fingers dancing. "You'd like to once again become a foot!"
Finn got to his feet and landed a solid blow into Magic Man's face. The Magical Martian hardly faltered in his misplaced cheer as his caved in skull popped back into its usual position. He leaned forwards, disregarding how heavily Finn flinched as he did so to wrap his arm around his shoulder. Marceline tilted her hip to the side and adjusted her sunhat as she eyed the strange being Finn somehow knew.
"Finn…who is this wacked out weirdo?" she asked with a hard glare.
"Oh uh…" Finn hesitantly introduced the two of them. "Marceline…this is Magic Man. He's from Mars. Magic Man, here's um…my friend Marceline", his eyes darted from one to the other making sure neither would do anything irrational. "So…weez all good?"
"You'll notice that I've rearranged the dirt and the black mold has doubled in size since your last visit", Magic Man commented as he rose vertically in the air then turned on his side and slid through the broken front window with Finn in tow. "Oh yeah, and I've added a dead rat!"
Marceline considered leaving. It was only by the slim chance that this might be the only way to get anything done that the Vampire Queen's feet left the earth and she floated into the living room of the psychotic Martian. She nearly chucked what little she had in her stomach when she saw the remains of a rat being devoured by maggots. Even vampires had their limits. Finn was across the room trying with all his might not to be shoved into the bathroom.
"I told you man, i'm good", he winced as he backed away from the entrance. "Went before I left, you know how it is"
"What-EVER!" the man sing-songed as he floated up to the ceiling. "I've got nothing to do today. You want to hang out?"
"How about a raincheck", Finn quickly spat. "I actually wanted to ask you…for a favor?"
"F…a…v…our?" Magic man tested the word, clearly not knowing its meaning. "You said that earlier. Is that like turning someone inside out?"
Marceline stepped forward to approach the two, but something caught her eye. In the pile of dirt next to her she saw a rusted old frame. Compelled to pick it up Marceline turned the old dirty thing over and examined the image. It was an old photo of the lunatic standing before her looking far less insane and a Martian woman. They were holding hands and looked very happy. Looking up at the poo-brained magic use Marceline had to wonder what happened to make him this way?
"I need a potion that lets you go into someone's mind so I can awaken old memories", Finn asked slowly.
"For her?" Magic Man said, the smile fading faintly "For the vampire?"
Marceline froze, for some reason raising the photo to cover her face. He suddenly appeared before her, his blue green hand on the frame to lower it. He focused his eyes and saw into her. Past present and future came to him so easily. It would be fair to say he could possibly give her what she wanted, but he really didn't want to. Magic Man felt something cold and clammy in his hand and realized looking down that is was a picture frame, the picture frame.
He plucked it from Marceline, turned it around and stared at it. His body froze as his eyes focused on the woman half knowing she was somebody important to him at one time or another. Slowly his eyes wandered up to Marceline. In her eyes he saw a familiar distant sadness that sometimes appeared on the face of the man that lived in his bathroom window. Magic Man stepped forward and Marceline stepped back.
With a chuckle he held out his hand and sprinkled magic dust with the other till a magical golden pile of dream sand was right there. It was offered to her, with a small smile and Marceline took it with her heart racing. Magic Man looked down at the picture and slowly melted into the floor till the photo was again left in the living room dirt pile. Finn scrambled to Marceline's side as she backed up to the window. In her ear she felt a feint puff of breath and heard the madman's voice soft whisper.
"You both will suffer terribly"
((Author's Note))
An omen from Magic Man? What the what!? Anyway, get ready for fun on a bun in Chapter three when Marceline ventures into the ice kingdom to try and unlock Simon's memories. Feedback is appreciated!
