Here's the product of a day's worth of writing, and a day's worth of editing and failing to try out Grammarly. Enjoy :)

A scream pierced the crisp morning air.

"They're gonna kill me!"

"Miss, please-"

"In cold blood!"

"Princess, surely you expected them, you said yourself that your counsel knows of their installment," said the little peppermint man.

"Yeah, but I didn't think they'd be monsters." Marceline pouted, refusing to pass the gumball guardians. They were not at all what she'd expected. They looked hundreds of feet tall, but maybe that was just her imagination. They could kill her easily, especially since she was a vampire. Vampires were sworn enemies of the candy people, so why not eliminate her?

"They're not monsters, miss. Merely sentinels of… grand size. And they won't kill you, so long as you're not evil. If you've nothing sinister to hide, you'll easily make it past them. Come along."

"And if I am evil?" The question did stand. What if she was just as wicked as the rest? But then there was the reminder on her swear that doubts would reign no longer.

"Then it would be at Leon's fault, and his alliance with our kingdom will be terminated. Milady, if you will, we must go before the banana guards spot us."

"That's weird." She sighed. "Okay, fine."

The vampire outlaw inhaled once before darting past the huge guards, biting down on her tongue the whole time. She carried the butler with her, entering the castle through a window that he directed her to. The guardians did so much as glance at her, not even turning to watch what she was doing or where she was going. She grinned when she released the butler and looked around at the incredibly luminous room.

Huh, she thought with a tinge of pride. Guess I'm not evil.

The room that they entered was awfully bright, and awfully colorful. The walls were brick, predominantly yellow, but with blush scatters. The floors were cotton candy pink with rugs, also pink, but in a subtly different way that she couldn't really put her finger on.

"Miss?" The little candy man interrupted her wonders of how something could look so perfectly like a candy kingdom. Perhaps because it was, but still, it was a bit too sweet for her eyes.

"Huh?"

"Right through this door."

He led her through the winding halls, all incredibly vibrant. Marceline had to keep rubbing at her eyes. They were not quite used to so much brightness and color. Down what seemed like the main corridor, there were a few chambers branching off. It didn't appear that there were useless rooms with tea tables and fireplaces. That was a nice thing to see for a change. Peppermint Butler led her into one of the rooms where a flamingo colored table (why was everything pink?) sat in the center. It resembled the meeting room back her own castle, just less mundane.

"You can wait here while I fetch the princess."

"Sure," she shrugged, clicking her tongue in a bored fashion. What kind of princess was the girl, anyway? Candy, obviously, but it was fun to imagine a girl in the shape of a gummy root beer bottle, or maybe a gumdrop. Yikes, what if she was a worm made from sugar? Or maybe she was an actual sweet, like a cake slice. Wait, that didn't sound right.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S A VAMPIRE IN MY CASTLE?" someone screeched from down the hall. Maybe she was a marshmallow vulture? A butterscotch dragon?

Rushed footsteps neared her as she suddenly began to shift nervously. What if this lady was crazy, savage? Maybe Marceline hadn't thought this through thoroughly enough. If she ended up in jail- or executed even, her efforts would have been in vain. Leon's efforts would have been in vain. Failure was something she'd come to recognize, to know within herself, but this was her last chance. If she failed, all would be lost.

The door burst open. Marceline jumped a couple inches, despite not actually being on the ground. She floated down, taking in the sight of the figure furiously smoldering in the doorway.

Oh.

She wasn't a candy or a sweet at all. She was an actual girl. But pink? The butler did mention their ruler being named Bubblegum, now that she thought about it. The girl was short, or shorter than Marcy, at least. She had long, fluffy looking hair, held back in a ridiculously messy, low pony tail. She wore glasses, like some sort of nerd, and a long white lab coat. Her face was incredibly sculpted, and her body was thin but so curvy, exactly how a candy girl would be sculpted. But she had deep, dark bags beneath her eyes. It was evident that she was exhausted. Did she know there was a thing called sleep? Nevertheless, she was very… pretty. Pretty for a strawberry gum girl.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were the kingdom scientist." Marcy commented at the sight of her.

"I am a scientist! Who are you?" When Marcy only stared, suddenly speechless, the princess turned to her butler, enraged. "How did she get past my guardians?"

"Princess, she's one of us. Hear her out."

"One of-? She's a flipping vampire!"

Marceline tried to be offended, but couldn't. Of course, her kind were known to the candy people as killers. Could she blame the pink girl for not trusting her, or immediately welcoming her with open arms?

"Pep-But says that if I were really evil, your big ugly guards would have zapped me," she offered.

"You're a vampire." Bubblegum was dumbfounded. "So what in Ooo are you doing in my conference room?" she hissed. Her tone struck Marcy in the chest, it was all accusation.

"Well, long story short? I'm here to convince you to stop the war."

"Really? And how do you propose I do that?"

"Well, I- uh…" Marceline thought back to her conversation with Leon, remembering that seducing a king wouldn't get the candy people to lay down their armor. Mostly because they didn't have a king at all. "You can not send your armies out?"

"I'm well aware that your people are soon sending troops to massacre my citizens. Do you propose that I just let them, instead of sending an army?"

"Well, when you put it like that…"

"You will leave immediately. You are not welcome here."

"Wait! I need your help." The princess stared, the closest thing to an opportunity to talk that she'd given Marcy yet. "You said it yourself, your citizens are going to be massacred. Sending an army will only slow the inevitable. You will lose either way. If you let me help-"

"Help?!" Princess Bubblegum threw her arms up in exasperation. "You? This is ridiculous."

"Princess, please," her butler tried.

"No, I've had quite enough of this. Peps, lead this miscreant out of my castle, before I lead her to my dungeon."

"Miscreant?! You chewy piece of-!"

"As you wish, Princess," Peppermint Butler hurriedly took the darker girl by the arm, both of them looking quite grim, and led her out of the room. The bubblegum princess began muttering to herself in hushed, angry tones.

Marceline wanted to be angry at the girl. She wanted to scream and resist fate and beg Bubblegum to reconsider. She wanted to stop this war and save lives. For once, couldn't she be the hero? Why did she always have to be considered the villain, just because she belonged to a barbarity of blood-suckers who committed crimes? She wasn't them. But she was born the daughter of evil, raised among killers, her adolescence slain by her courtship was a ruthless king, and now her roots were determining her fate. She was always meant be judged for the crimes she didn't commit. It wasn't her fault, but as a vampire, it was in her blood.

She wanted to hate Princess Bubblegum, but she couldn't.

"My apologies, Ms. Abadeer. The princess is under a lot of stress at the moment."

She looked at the talking candy, and felt a stab of sorrow in her heart. He really tried to uphold his agreement with Leon. He really tried to help a vampire gone rogue. And he very well was going to die, all because of a feud Marcy couldn't douse.

They remained silent as he walked out the front gate, where she finally saw the banana guards she'd heard about. They were actual bananas, with chocolate heads and poky spears. They stared at her in wonder before letting her pass. This time, the gumball guardians didn't even spare her a glance.

"I'm sorry, little candy man," she sniffed, hating herself for being emotional. It was about time she felt something new, though.

"For what, miss?" The look of confusion on his face just killed her even more.

"I can't save you. I can't save any of you, not even your stubborn princess."

He dismissed her nonchalantly and just said, "Don't give up so soon."

"I'll be around, butler," she exhaled dramatically before floating grudgingly into the taffy trees, which were just as rosy as the kingdom they surrounded. She sat around pondering for a while, occasionally drinking the red from tiny little forest flowers to keep her energy up. She wondered, if they were poisonous, could sucking the color cause the poison to befall her?

When all was quiet, and the pondering continued, there began a humming sound. At first, she paid no mind, but it quickly grew into a loud droning. Suddenly the trees were rumbling. A far-off explosion sounded. Was there an earthquake? She peeked out of the tree line, curious. She was startled to see the Candy Kingdom was smoking in several places, and screams began fracturing the slumbering night. Wait- night? Had she been gone from home so long?

Night. It was the waking hour of the vampires, their time of thriving. This was no earthquake.

Marceline made it as far as she could without leaving the cover of the trees. Painful howls assaulted her ears, and then were drowned out by several more explosions. She hissed to herself with fury. The war had officially been approved. They were letting the candy people know: They were coming. Slowly, the culprits began to emerge from the ruin. She waited for the very second that they were completely out of range for witnessing her to leap from her position. It was a race to the kingdom, a race against death. Someone could perish, but maybe she'd be the hero if she got there with time on her side. It was a flash of seconds, then she was there.

Destruction wasn't even remotely how she would describe the sight. There were bodies everywhere. This was absolute demolition. She was reminded morbidly of her conversation with the princess. This wasn't a fight, it was a massacre. Buildings were collapsed completely, and people were wailing in the streets. She had no time to marvel at how many different candy people there were, though she would have liked to under different circumstances. The only building left standing was the castle, home of the princess. If this wasn't a message, Marcy didn't know what was. She flew through the kingdom, searching for survivors in need. Most were either just shaken, or already en route to the castle.

In one particular section, closest to the castle, was the most damage. Taller buildings hadn't even collapsed in, they'd completely fallen on their sides like they'd been tapped by a giant, sending them into a domino chain reaction. Houses and shops were crushed beneath them, and the residents within probably had no time to flee.

Then, as quick as she turned the corner, her heart fell into her stomach.

"Over here, PB!" a human boy yelled over a crushed candy citizen, shattered into paper-thin filaments within a little tuxedo. The boy hung his head as Marcy sucked in a breath of grief. He didn't even seem to notice that beside him was a vampire. Suddenly the princess was there, too, still dressed in a lab coat and dorky glasses. She emitted a choked sob, and fell to her knees, grasping the remains of one once known to her.

"Can't you glue him back together, with like spit, or something scientific?" said the boy.

"I can't. His structure is too finely destructed. In order to save him, I'd need to mend his genetic material, and I don't have the chemicals necessary for that. My lab was damaged in a nearby explosion."

"Pep-But," Marceline whispered.

"I can't save you. I can't save any of you, not even your stubborn princess."

"Don't give up so soon."

"I didn't save you…"

Princess Bubblegum and the human boy seemed to finally notice her presence.

"You!" the princess shouted.

"I didn't have anything to do with this! I came to help when I heard the explosions," Marcy explained. When the princess looked at her with doubt, she continued with, "Look me in the eyes. Peppermint Butler was almost like a friend, my only friend around here."

"Princess," the boy spoke up. He was studying Marcy closely as she spoke. "She didn't do it. I saw her after I escaped the last vampires. She was helping. I didn't know she was a vampire."

"Well… as my most loyal knight, I trust you. I just hope you're right, Finn, because in such a case, royal protocol demands I treat her as any other innocent."

"Finn, is it?" Marceline asked.

He grinned despite his mourning and stuck out a hand for her to shake. How incredible for her to see a real human, when many thought them to be extinct. And how incredible for him to have an ally of the same breed as his enemies. Perhaps he was especially starstruck, because he didn't even ask for her name.

"Well, Princess, I'll leave you be and round up the rest of the survivors. I'll send Jake for the… corpses," Finn said, his voice cracking with sorrow. When the leader only nodded, he retrieved a sword from the rubble and sheathed it before leaving.

"I'm sorry, Bubblegum," Marcy said, fiddling with the end of her shirt uncomfortably.

"I'd like to say it's not your fault, but I'm not sure about anything anymore." She removed her glasses as a single tear fell to the ground. Marcy wasn't even offended by that. "I'm sorry I rejected you so definitely earlier. Perhaps if I'd accepted your help, this wouldn't have been so terribly tragic."

"I'm sorry," the outlaw said again. She knew this wasn't her doing, but she still didn't know what else to voice other than apologies.

"Don't be." The pink-skinned even went as far as to smile softly. "I can bring most of them back to life."

"Oh, okay… Wait- what?"

"Forget I'm a scientist? A pretty brilliant one, I'd say. I've perfected the right serum for the job."

"Oh, that's great, I think." Was bringing people back from rest great? It wasn't natural, that was for sure.

"But without my lab, the ones who aren't intact enough are just… gone." She turned back to her shattered, late friend, more tears welling.

"Princess? Please let me help."

The princess looked back up at her, commencing eye contact. "You know," she said. "I never caught your name."

"Marceline." She blushed in embarrassment. "I know it's weird. Not like there's anything I can do about it, anyway."

"Don't feel too bad. Mine is Bonnibel."

Marcy thought, with sudden interest, that the girl's name was strangely pretty. Delicate and pretty.

"Okay then, Marceline. What's your plan?"

"How about we clean up this fiasco first, before we go anywhere." She spun in a circle, surveying the scene with a sinking feeling.

"And then?"

"And then… the Vampire Kingdom."