Notes: Whoops! So in canon, 'memory core' means 'center of mind' whereas I've been using it mean a single memory that you extract as an orb. Oh well! I'll keep using it my way for consistency's sake. Thanks for everyone's comments too!


Exploring the inside of someone's mind was surprisingly normal, Bonnie found. She had expected a more surreal experience like that time she gassed herself with a hallucinogen in her lab. For the rest of that unfortunate day, she had to pretend to act normal whenever talking to her candy subjects, while on the inside she saw their colors spin in rainbow patterns, felt blood run from their cute button eyes, and heard their warbling voices sound like the screams of the damned.

Compared to that, the inside of Jake's mind was practically mundane. Instead of a mystical wonderland, Ash's magic powder had brought her to a concrete representation of a memory, one which she recognized as the time in the candy castle hospital after the pups were born.

In this memory, Jake, the newly minted father, knelt on a blanket on the floor surrounded by his newborn puppies. To call them 'newborn' was a bit off though. After only a single day, the dog-rainicorn hybrids had aged into young children, already a couple feet tall and able to walk and talk. Bonnie remembered how shocked she had been when she had visited the next day and seen them so grown. Apparently time was a bit wonky with rainicorns, and Lady hadn't been the least bit perturbed.

Bonnie hadn't seen this particular scene before though. Jake, for some unfathomable reason, had wrapped a bedsheet around himself like a dress and smeared his face with lipstick gotten from who knows where. He was pantomiming a tea party in a falsetto voice, and the kids were happily playing along. Then before her eyes, one of the children spontaneously aged in a shower of rainbow magic. She grew a foot taller in moments, her hair lengthened, and the cute baby fat in her cheeks melted away and was replaced with a teenager's scowl.

"Ugh, you're so lame, Dad. Stop treating me like a kid!" she said as she stood up from the party. The girl, who Bonnie now recognized as Charlie, had blond hair hanging over one eye, and she used her horn to dye it and her clothes into pure black.

"What? You can't talk to your mother like that," said Jake, still using a high-pitched voice.

"Gross." Her stare was filled with disdain. "And don't tell me what to do. You don't even know me."

"Well, it has only been a few days…" Jake trailed off, his eyes swimming. The teenager gave one last sneer of disgust, turned, and fled out of the room.

"You'll respect me in a couple days when you're older!" He hollered after her, as her footsteps echoed down the hallway.

Bonnie smiled fondly as Jake returned to entertaining his other children. In hindsight, it had probably been for the best that they grew up so fast. Jake certainly loved his kids, and he was good at entertaining them, but Bonnie doubted he'd have been happy as a full-time caretaker for years. His nature was more free-spirited.

Not that she could blame him though. She'd certainly had her fair share of mistakes with her creations like Lemongrab and Goliad.

As she looked at the sparkle in Jake's eyes as he played with his kids, she wondered if there was a difference between creations and children. She imagined for a moment Marceline sitting on her couch, bouncing a little boy or girl on her knee. The child looked up at her, its smiling face holding a mixture of their features, black and pink, sharp and soft.

A useless dream.

She crushed the thought savagely, despite the twinge it sent through her. This wasn't the time to be daydreaming of the impossible. Every moment wasted was a moment closer to Marceline losing her memories forever. She tamped her emotions down and headed for the door to exit the memory. There would be time for all of that later when people weren't counting on her.

She walked through room after room, hardly stopping to look, until she entered a vast dark chamber: the center of Jake's mind. A branching tree of glowing white held his memory cores like ripe fruit. Now, all she had to do was pluck one. She searched for a trivial memory, something that wouldn't be missed, and found an orb on a lower branch that glowed dimmer than the rest.

Peering inside, she saw the blue carpet and pink wallpaper of Marceline's house. The room was empty save for Jake standing opposite of Schwabl, Marceline's pet poodle.

"Hey man, how's it going? I'm Jake." He stuck his hand forward to shake hands. The other dog trotted over and sniffed his hand in response.

"Uh, you okay, dude?" he said, pulling back a bit.

The poodle yipped and began racing circles around an increasingly alarmed Jake.

"Marceline! I think your friend is having an episode," he shouted upstairs but got no reply from the vampire. Instead, Schwabl jumped up on Jake's chest with two paws and licked him in the face.

"Argh, no! Dude, I have a girlfriend." Jake pushed the poodle away and backed slowly towards the door. Schwabl, oblivious to his crisis, followed.

The memory faded to black as it ended, and Bonnie plucked it from the tree with a small smile. She was sure Jake wouldn't miss this one. Still, it was hard to believe that in the distant past dogs used to be like animals. Wondering what other crazy things the old world held, she willed herself awake.


Bonnie opened her eyes in her laboratory, the glowing memory core cradled in her lap like a precious egg. The translucent sphere was light as air with rubbery skin that felt as if it might pop if she squeezed too hard. She laid it within a glass box for protection and then held the orb up to admire it.

As much as she despised 'magic'—which was truly just unexplained science—the things it produced were often beautiful. The clear orb had an inky shape swirling inside it like an egg yolk crossed with a Rorschach test. From a distance it looked vaguely like a dog's head, but as she drew closer the shape dispersed and resolved itself into the scene of Jake and Schwabl, playing on repeat.

"Is that my memory?" said Jake, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Bonnie handed over the box to him.

"Neat!" He held it up to the light and peered into it. "Huh, don't remember that."

"Well I should hope not," Bonnie laughed. "Be careful with it though. We need to preserve it to see how long memories can last outside of a person."

"Ah, your experiment?" he asked as he handed it back over.

"Yes, part of it at least. I also need to see if it emits any detectable physical or chemical signatures. Electromagnetic fields, UV radiation, olfactory emissions, you know, that kind of thing."

"Right…"

"Then I can calibrate this radar, or as I'm calling it 'memdar', to detect memory cores at range." She gestured to a small box with a radar dish attached to it on her workbench.

"Cool. I guess? So are you all set? You've got the orb."

Bonnie hesitated for a moment, knowing what was coming next.

"No, not quite. I…" She grimaced at this part. "I need you to go into my brain too and find a strong memory. Of Marceline."

Jake's eyes lit up on hearing this. In fact, they literally became twice as big and started to glow. That couldn't be a good sign.

"It's just possible different memories last for different amounts of time outside of a person or even give off different signatures based on their strength and composition," she hurried to explain.

Damn wizards. If only they had kept proper notes on memory cores, she wouldn't have to do all of this research from scratch. But no, the words 'empirical' and 'research' probably made their brains explode.

"No problem, PB! Your memories are in the hands of the best. I'm a veteran mind spelunker after all."

Jake shapeshifted his yellow fur into a miner's outfit, complete with hard hat and headlamp, a pickaxe in one hand, and a rope slung over his shoulder. The image of him gleefully using a pickaxe to smash through her gray matter wasn't making her feel any better though.

"While I appreciate your enthusiasm, just stick to the plan. Find one memory with Marceline and extract it."

Logically she knew she was being hypocritical to Jake. She had already poked around in his head. But after keeping secrets for so many years, it was hard to feel comfortable with sharing her innermost thoughts. Sharing ones related to the vampire might be the hardest.

"Just don't look around too much," she repeated.

"You got it, girl," Jake readily agreed. "I'll be as blind as a bat." He shrank his eyes until they disappeared, and he started stumbling around with his hands stretched out in front of him.

"Thanks. Now please hurry. I can't afford to sleep when there's so much work left to do."

She drew a pinch of the magic powder from the bag and sprinkled it over her eyes. Despite her words, closing her weary eyes felt good, and she sank immediately into a deep sleep.


Jake opened his eyes to find himself in a different version of Princess Bubblegum's lab, one cluttered with cylindrical vats overflowing with raw candies in various shades: yellow lemon drops, red fireballs, green gummy worms, and a dozen others. He peered around with interest. Fortunately for him, bats weren't blind at all. In fact, their eyesight was quite good.

He found Bonnie seated on a barstool before a hydraulic press. She poured carefully measured amounts of raw candy into the chamber beneath the press and then pulled the lever. The hammer came down with a hiss and produced a cloud of sugary smoke where it connected with the candy pile. When the press retreated and the cloud cleared, a tiny candy person stood in the chamber.

"Warblegarble!" The six-inch candy creature made a high-pitched cry from its deformed mouth. Its face was a bit lopsided with one eye higher than the other, and its long mouth slanted from one ear down to the opposite shoulder. The creature stumbled as it tried to take faltering steps on its uneven limbs.

The princess scratched down a few notes in her notebook and then pulled the level again. The hammer pulverized the creature ever so slowly, and its candy shards were released to fall into a bucket that held more than a few pounds of broken candy.

Bonnie repeated the process a few times as Jake watched in horrid fascination. Each time the mixture of ingredients was a bit different, and so too was the resulting candy person. Their eventual fate, however, was always the same.

"Uggaaa!" Another creature screamed. Scritch, scratch, went Bonnie's pencil as she took notes. Smash went the press as demolished the experiment.

"Kikikiki!" Notes. Smash.

"Mothaaar…." Notes. Smash.

Feeling a bit disturbed as the more lifelike creations were turned to rubble, Jake headed to the next memory.

As he passed through the lab's doorway, he stepped onto a cold marble floor and found himself in a grand ballroom. The room was filled with an eclectic array of creatures from all over Ooo. To his left was a kangaroo lady in a yellow gown, her huge feet poking out from the beneath the edge of her petticoats, and a stuffy-looking zucchini gentleman smoking a pipe and wearing a monocle over one eye. To his right was a pair of young pillow girls with elaborate embroidery on their colorful pillow cases. The only unifying theme among the guests was that they were dressed to the nines and had that hoity air of rich folk about them.

The venue was nice though. Jake didn't recognize it, as he wasn't the sort to get invited anywhere fancy, but the music, the lighting, and the mouth-watering aroma of food set a good atmosphere.

He weaved a path through the crowd to the buffet table and saw Princess Bubblegum along the way. She stood with a half circle of people arrayed before her and spoke animatedly to the group. As soon as Jake heard a few words like 'policy', 'trade', and 'reciprocity', he tuned out the rest, but the listeners seemed to hang off her every word.

The buffet table was more alluring in his opinion though. He'd never had dream food before. Mini-quiches, fried crickets, and piles of cotton candy (or was that just cotton?) were laid out, catering to all types of people.

Wondering where to start, he saw a shrimp float up off a tray and dunk itself into the cocktail sauce. Silently, it rose into the air and had its reddish color drained from both the seafood and the sauce, leaving it a dry and gray husk. Then the shrimp hurtled through the air, landing with a splat on the sun hat of one of the women talking to the princess. No one seemed to notice except Bonnie who paused her speech as her eyes slid over to the table.

Another shrimp was consumed the same way, and when this one was thrown, it landed on the back of a man's neck as he was asking a question of the princess. The man cut off with a shriek and did little jig as the cold shellfish slid down inside his shirt. Bonnie excused herself during the confusion and marched over to the buffet table. She reached about in the air until she seemed to grab hold of something, and then she dragged it over to the edge of the room.

"What is wrong with you?" Bonnie put her hands on her hips and glowered at the air.

Marceline's lean, dark form materialized before her. Her eyes were squinted in mirth, and she bit her lip as her chest rose and fell with suppressed laughter.

"His face…" She tried to get her laughter under control. "But look, they're bonding!"

She pointed back towards the group, where one the ladies was trying to hold the writhing man still while another man reached his arm down his shirt to fish out the offending crustacean. Bonnie shook her head in disbelief and tried to look stern, but the smile that kept trying to form on her face ruined the effect.

"I can't believe they still invite you to these things," she said.

"Me neither. I guess they figure they can't stop me from coming either way."

Marceline looked out over the crowd. Almost everyone was either talking or eating.

"But it's a good thing they did. Without me, people just might start dying of boredom."

"It's a diplomatic event. People are supposed to be talking, not…shelling each other with shellfish."

She poked the vampire in the chest to emphasize her point. Marceline folded her hand around Bonnie's, but after a quick glance at the crowd, Bonnie pulled away, prompting a brief frown from the vampire.

"Well regardless, I'm providing a valuable service. People don't get closer by talking about business. They get closer by cutting loose and having fun. Hmm, did I mention you look amazing?"

Marceline's gaze raked over the princess from top to bottom. Her hair was piled atop her head, leaving her neck bare. A sleeveless wine-colored dress hugged her waist, and she wore a diaphanous shawl in the crooks of her elbows. The dress's skirt flared about her hips and was cut shorter in the front, letting pink sandals peek through. Eventually Marceline's eyes returned to Bonnie's face, and she gave her a heated smile. Bonnie fiddled with the shawl in her hands as her cheeks and the tips of her ears turned a brighter shade of pink. She smiled back shyly.

"Thanks. You look great too."

She straightened the collar of Marceline's white dress shirt that had the top button undone. It laid beneath a tight-fitting black vest and matching slacks. Her only color was a red ribbon tying her long black hair into a ponytail. The vampire's fangs dimpled her lips as her smile became more mischievous.

"So how about we get started on that 'having fun'? Care to dance, princess?" She extended a hand towards the other girl in a mock half-bow.

Bonnie's smile melted off her face.

"Oh, I can't," she said apologetically. "It's, you know." She gestured to the room full of people.

Marceline's mouth formed a line, but then she brightened again.

"Don't worry. You're a great dancer, and I promise not to show you up too much."

"Marcy," Bonnie warned.

"I know, I know!" She sighed. "But what does it matter what they think about us?"

"Seeing as they determine what resources my kingdom gets in trade, I'd say it matters quite a lot."

"You're stronger than them. They should be the ones catering to you!"

Bonnie shook her head. This sounded to Jake like an argument they had had before.

"We can always dance some other time," Bonnie offered.

"When we're alone? Perhaps sealed in a vault somewhere?" Marceline's voice grew heated for a moment, and she heaved a sigh, letting the frustration drain out of her. "I just don't like having to hold back every time we're together."

Bonnie didn't say anything and pulled her shawl tighter around herself.

"How about just once? Other people are dancing, and it doesn't mean anything." She pointed to a young boy and his mother on the dance floor. "I promise not to anything uncouth toward your royal personage."

She stepped forward to take hold of Bonnie's hand, but the princess retreated just as quickly.

"I can't."

Bonnie's back step bumped a tray table of empty wine glasses, setting it to rocking back and forth. Several of the glasses on the edge tumbled over and fell to the floor, shattering with a loud crash.

The sound drew all eyes in the vicinity, and the guests, upon seeing Marceline and Bonnie together at the source of the sound, began whispering amongst themselves. Bonnie seemed frozen in indecision, but Marceline stepped in front of her. Her face melted into an expression of relaxed arrogance.

"Heh, princess, you should see your face. Ah, I never get tired of messing with strangers," she said loud enough for the crowd to hear. "Hmm, who should I play with next?"

She looked out over the crowd with a vicious grin, and most of the eyes flinched away. A few met her gaze with defiant frowns or sneers though. Others looked at Bonnie sympathetically. As the vampire floated towards the exit, the crowd parted before her, and the whispers turned to discussing the vampire or hurling insults at her.

Bonnie meanwhile raised an arm towards Marceline as she left, but silently let it drop. Then, to Jake's bewilderment, a second version of Bonnie seemed to step out of the first. This one was ethereal, and the ghostly princess stepped forward boldly address the crowd.

"Marceline isn't uncouth or a menace or any of those things you're whispering! None of you know her, so don't talk like you do."

As she said this, a ghostly double split out of the retreating Marceline and turned back towards Bonnie. The two doppelgangers met each other's eyes.

"Marceline is an important friend and…and...more than that," she squeezed out the words. "Anyone who has a problem with that can go straight to the nightosphere!"

The two ethereal figures faded away as if they had never been. The original Bonnie remained, rooted to the floor, staring with hands clenched as Marceline left the room.

What in the world was that? Jake wondered. It didn't seem real, so was it a fantasy? He headed out of the room as well, not much in the mood for exploring anymore.

If that fantasy was what she wanted to do, why not just do it? It was simple, right?

PB held herself back too much. Finn had that same problem too. They were always thinking about what the 'right' thing to do was, which just seemed dumb to Jake.

If your heart wants something, go do it—within reason of course. If your heart was set on crafting a peanut butter replica of someone and then devouring it in front of them, you should probably just handle that business by yourself.

Maybe he should have a talk with the girls when he got back. Finn having relationship problems he could understand, but PB and Marcy were too old for some of this nonsense.

With that in mind, he sped through the next few rooms until he reached the center of Bonnie's mind. He stretched his legs to quickly scale the white tree and found the memory core of the ballroom, a glowing sphere with an inky black center in the shape of a shrimp. Pulling it from the tree, he pinched himself until he awoke.