Okay, guys, last chapter. Sorry for more delays in getting this one out (school takes time and work, even when you're the teacher), but I have a bonus with this chapter. I couldn't resist doing a painting of an image from the climactic battle. DO NOT look at it until you've read the whole scene/chapter as it's spoilerific (unless you'd rather be spoiled first, I guess). If you want to check it out, it's on my deviantArt page here (take away all the spaces when copy/pasting the link or if it doesn't post correctly here, just go to their site, search my screenname, and find my gallery. It's the watercolor painting):
seti-fan . deviantart #/ d5e1m7n
Thank you all so much for all every kind review you've written for this story. I'm thrilled it's been such a hit and hope the ending lives up to your expectations. It's been a joy sharing it with you and I hope you'll enjoy future stories I write too. You guys have made my week(s) with your responses.
Marceline swooped backward, picking up the tempo on her bass, and sure enough, the Deathwyrm slithered out of its tunnel after her. Its body dropped to the floor of the chamber, but it kept its head up, pursuing Marceline as she floated deeper into the chamber, taunting it all the while.
"I know you're having trouble figuring me out
Trying to fit me into one of your categories
But I don't care what you expect me to be about
I'm not a monster from your myths and ghost stories
So go ahead and decide what you think I should be
You can't pin me down or predict what I'll do
There's only one thing you need to know about me
I'll be the death of you"
Finn, Jake, and Bubblegum peered around the stalagmite, holding their breath as the wyrm neared the cluster of sucravores. Flame Princess rose behind her cover, fireballs forming at her hands.
Maybe it was the increased heat or maybe Flame Princess' heart beat faster with adrenaline, but whatever it was, the Deathwyrm's attention diverted from Marceline and fell on the girl. Flame Princess froze, torn between defending herself and combusting the gas with the wyrm in the wrong place. As she hesitated, it opened its mouth, tongue curling to lash out.
"No!" Finn yelled, leaping up from behind the stalagmite, sword in hand. Bubblegum tried to pull him back down, but it was too late. The Deathwyrm was now fully focused on them and moving away from the glycydrogen cloud.
Marceline growled and strummed loudly on her bass, but the wyrm was far more intent on getting at the living mortals in the room. Finn slashed at the creature's snout while Jake grew huge and grabbed it around the neck. All the while, Flame Princess strained to hold off ignition.
Marceline groaned in frustration. The creature thrashed beneath her, freeing itself from Jake's grip, and the movement drew her attention to the thin, pale skin on the top of its back. Black veins were visible beneath the surface. Maybe…
Moving her bass around to her back, Marceline swooped down at the Deathwyrm and plunged her fangs as deep into its flesh as she could. Whatever it had for blood was coagulated and acidic, but she barely had time to register her disgust before the wyrm screamed in pain and whipped its body, flinging her backward across the chamber.
She heard Finn yell her name, but caught herself in midair, floating to a stop. She got her bearings and stared back at the Deathwyrm, its ichor still dripping from her mouth.
The serpent turned and faced her straight on. If it had had eyes, they would have blazed with hatred. It hissed and she wasn't sure if she heard or imagined that it sounded like, "Vampyr…"
"Took you long enough."
Behind the beast, Marceline saw Bubblegum get Finn and Jake back behind cover and Flame Princess watching her, waiting to let go. She realized the wyrm had thrown her near the glycydrogen cloud. Bringing her guitar back around, she drifted toward the trap.
"You want to take at least one demon out of this world? Let's do this!" She could hear her voice shake as she challenged the monster. Her head felt woozy and she remembered why vampires only drank blood from the truly living. She tried to play the heartbeat-like song again, but her numb fingers stumbled on the strings.
The Deathwyrm knew this faltering rhythm well and closed in on her hungrily.
Behind the stalagmite, one arm around Finn, Bubblegum closed her eyes and pressed her free hand over her mouth.
The serpent slithered closer and closer, black tongue coiled. It hesitated at the edge of the glycydrogen cloud. Marceline floated back even further, playing whatever notes she could get out. "Come on. Come on!"
Bubblegum, Finn, and Jake heard her yell "Come on!" one more time, then the fwoosh of fire igniting and a compressive BOOM as the gas combusted. Bubblegum and Finn clung to each other and Jake stretched to shield both of them as a wave of white heat and flame blasted through the chamber. But the rock column held fast and the fire was diverted around them.
Relatively quickly, the flames stopped and the air went silent, but for the pinging of cooling rock. Jake shrank back down and Finn pulled out of Bubblegum's arms to look around the stalagmite.
He stared in awe at the gigantic snake skeleton stretched before him, its bones charred gray.
Jake walked up beside him and whistled. "It worked."
"FP?" Finn called, running down the trail to find her.
Flame Princess stood beside the slag pile, staring at the aftermath with a haunted look.
Finn came to her side with a relieved grin. "Princess, are you all right?"
She turned to look at him now, eyes dark. "I think so. But…"
She trailed off. Finn followed her gaze and his heart clenched.
At the nose of the Deathwyrm's skull, Marceline's axe-bass, every string snapped and curled, had landed blade-down in the ground so it stood upright, like a headstone for the still-smoldering pile of ashes in front of it.
"Marcie?" Finn breathed.
"She told me I was doing the right thing," Flame Princess said, her throat choked up. "She couldn't get out of the way, but she told me to do it." She squeezed Finn's gauntleted hand, her flames dim and flickering.
Jake caught up to them. "What's the matter? Oh…"
As they stared, frozen in the moment, Bubblegum ran past them, digging frantically through her science bag.
"Where is it? Stupid bag!" She flopped the bag down beside the ash pile and tossed equipment out of it. "I always have some with me. Where are you? Aha!"
She held up a stoppered glass vial filled with dark red liquid.
"Is that blood?" Finn squeaked.
"For most vampires, you would need blood, but for Marceline, I suspect concentrated strawberry essence may work better."
She removed the cork and poured the liquid over the ashes, then stepped back with the others as it soaked in.
For a moment, the liquid simply seeped through the dry pile. Then, slowly, the ashes began to clump together. Part of the pile twitched organically.
"Come on," Bubblegum whispered.
As if stirred by a wind, the ashes gathered from where they had scattered on the chamber floor and pulled together. The pile turned an oily black color and swelled outward, stretching into a mass of writhing tentacles. An unearthly howl rose from the mass before both tentacles and voice shrank and coalesced into the familiar form of Marceline propped up on one arm, clutching her forehead.
"Let's not do that again," she groaned.
"Marcie!" Finn cried, racing over to her, Jake fast at his side. She was nearly knocked over by the excited embraces of the boy and dog.
Flame Princess beamed in every meaning of the word as her flames flared with joy before she abruptly pulled them back under control.
Behind them, Bubblegum let out a sigh of relief, sitting down.
"All right! Geez!" Marceline managed to pull free of the boys' hugs. "I take it we won?"
"Oh yeah!" Finn exalted. "That wyrm's gone back to the Underworld as a customer!"
"Good." She coughed and gave Flame Princess a thumbs-up. "Nice work, Pyro."
Flame Princess looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry. I should have waited longer or tried to bend the fire around you. My control isn't very good yet, but—"
"Hey!" Marceline interrupted sharply, pointing at her. "What did I say to remember?"
"I saved the world?" Flame Princess asked.
"Glob yeah, you did! And besides, everything worked out fine." She suddenly turned to Finn, eyes urgent. "Tell me you didn't use your blood to bring me back."
"Nah." He shook his head. "That was PB with the save and her concentrating strawberry stuff."
Marceline looked past them to where Bubblegum sat on a nearby rock, watching quietly. "You still carry that?"
"A wise princess is always prepared," Bubblegum said with a slight smile. "Luckily, my hypothesis was correct."
"Yeah." Marceline still stared at her. "Thanks."
"Shame we can't use that on your bass too," Jake said.
"What?" Marceline's head whipped around and she saw the state of her guitar. "Aw, man!" She leapt up to cradle and inspect it. "This sucks! I just polished this thing like two days ago!" She snarled and kicked the side of the Deathwyrm's skull. "You're lucky you're dead!"
"You were just cremated and that's what you're angry about?!" Bubblegum asked, incredulous.
"Yeah!" Marceline retorted. "Do you know how long it's going to take to re-string and tune this thing?"
As Bubblegum continued to gape at her in exasperation, Jake yawned. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to go home, get a cold drink, and not think about death for a while."
"Me too," Finn said.
As they started walking back up the tunnel, Finn added, "If it makes you feel better, Marcie, you really scared me that time."
"Oh. Good. I'll keep that one in mind."
OOO
As the sun rose over the Candy Kingdom, Banana Guards went door-to-door, telling citizens they could remove their earplugs. The process was taking a while.
"I said you can take those out now!" a guard yelled.
"What?" Cinnamon Bun yelled back.
"Your earplugs!" They gestured.
"I don't have a hat!"
Up in her castle, Bubblegum stood on her balcony and watched her kingdom wake up, safe and alive for another morning.
Marceline drifted into the room behind her. "Beemo's recharging. He said he wants you to tell a Software Princess how he helped save the world tonight."
Bubblegum smiled. "If that is what he wishes for his assistance, I'll let her know." She turned back into the room. "How are you?"
Marceline blinked in surprise. "Uh, I'm fine. Why?"
Bubblegum stared at her. "Why? Marceline, you died last night!"
Marceline laughed. "I died long before the Candy People even existed."
"You know what I mean."
Marceline realized the princess was serious. "I'm really fine, Bonnie." She grinned. "Besides, I had you to clean up my mess as usual."
Bubblegum huffed a laugh at that. "Well, good." She hesitated. "If it's not too personal, may I ask you something?"
"This should be interesting." Marceline reclined back in the air and fiddled with her stricken bass out of habit. "Fire away."
Bubblegum flinched at her wording. "When…that happened, where did you go?"
For a long moment, Marceline picked at a fleck of melted metal on her guitar, her eyes focused on the movement. "I don't remember."
"I understand," Bubblegum said, pulling back. "It's a sensitive thing—"
"No," Marceline interrupted, looking up. "I seriously don't remember. I remember the explosion, then waking up with everything tasting like roasted strawberries. Maybe there was a Cosmic Owl or Pearly Gates or the Underworld. Maybe since I'm already undead, there was nowhere else to go. I know you like answers, Bonnie, but I really don't have any for you."
Bubblegum nodded. "That's all right. I suppose some things in life we can't know until the time's right."
"I guess." Though Marceline knew it was a question that would be haunting her anew whenever she let herself sit down and process what happened that night.
As Bubblegum started to head back out to the balcony, Marceline called, "Hey, thanks for keeping that strawberry stuff. And thanks for actually using it. I mean, you could've finally had me out of your hair for good. I wouldn't have blamed you and Finn and the others never would have known—"
She had meant it half-jokingly, but Bubblegum jerked back around, her eyes hurt and offended. "Of course I used it! Marceline, I don't want you annihilated!"
"Yeah?" Marceline's face lit up. "Bonnie, that's the nicest thing you've said to me in years!"
"Shut up," Bubblegum grumbled, but without any real bite in it. She strode back out to survey her kingdom.
Marceline floated after her and leaned on the doorframe within the shadows of the room. They stood in silence for a time. Marceline noticed Bubblegum was watching Finn talk to Flame Princess below.
"It really chafes you seeing them together, huh?"
"I'm not jealous," Bubblegum said.
"Never said you were."
Bubblegum sighed. "I've grown to like Flame Princess, and I'm truly glad that Finn's happy. He deserves it. But she's inherently unstable and he's throwing fuel on a very dangerous fire. They've already nearly destroyed the world once."
"Well, she saved it tonight. I'd say that balances it out."
"Perhaps. I had just hoped to wait until she was an adult to deal with this risk. That's why I had her contained until she was mature enough."
Marceline jerked upright. "Wait, you're the one who locked that girl up?!"
"I did it to protect the world!"
"You can't punish a kid for having emotions!"
"Her 'emotions' can melt the planet's core!" Bubblegum retorted. "It wasn't safe to have her loose until she learned to control them!"
"And keeping her prisoner where she never experienced anything was going to teach her?" Marceline spat.
"Sometimes you have to miss the thrill to avoid the fright!" Bubblegum snapped. She froze, as surprised to hear the words come out of her mouth as Marceline was. She took a breath and shifted to a quieter tone. "If you had a destructive power you couldn't control, you would want someone to stop you from hurting people. I know that."
Marceline growled and looked away. Her mind flashed back to struggling to close a portal to Ooo during her brief moment of lucidity before the cloud of Chaotic Evil swallowed her up again. "She still should've had a say in it. You could have had someone teach her about control instead of telling her she's evil for being that way."
"I had planned to when she was older. I suppose I should have started sooner, but I didn't think she would understand." Bubblegum looked back out at the couple. "They're still so young," she breathed.
Marceline relented and leaned on the door again. "You're not their mom. They'll figure it out. And if they get in trouble, then we'll help them."
"It's just…It's like they've accepted they're always going to be hurting each other."
Marceline stared at the princess's back. "I guess they figure it's worth the pain."
"It'll be harder than they think," Bubblegum said quietly.
"Yeah, but they're tough kids. Maybe they'll make it work. What's the point of living if you don't take the dive?"
Bubblegum was silent for a long moment, her hand coming up to rest over her heart again.
"Or maybe he'll break up with her next week. He got over you fast enough."
Bubblegum turned to glare at her and saw Marceline's wicked grin. "Shouldn't you be getting home to bed?"
"I figured I'd stick around here till nightfall. Had enough close calls for one day."
She saw Bubblegum's eyes soften a bit and almost spoke up to assure her that she was still fine, but Bubblegum nodded and composed herself. "Of course. Make yourself at home. You know your way around the castle."
"I'm good here," Marceline said, floating over to Bubblegum's bed and lounging back. "Don't let me interrupt you thinking deep princess thoughts about your people. You won't even know I'm here."
Bubblegum doubted that very much, but turned back to the balcony to make sure life was returning to normal out there. After a few moments, things had been quiet long enough that her instincts told her it would be a good idea to check what Marceline was doing, so she headed back inside.
"Marceline! That's not a rag to clean your guitar with!"
"What, like you can't buy more handkerchiefs? I thought you were royalty!"
And so life returned to normal inside the castle as well.
OOO
Down in the courtyard, Finn and Flame Princess sat side-by-side on the steps. Finn was folding and crumpling a sheet of tinfoil into a flower.
"I'm sorry our campout didn't turn out the way I planned," he said.
"That's okay. You wanted me to get to know your friends and I did. And I had a great time." She smiled, gleaming as brightly as the orange light of the sunrise. "I'm sorry you didn't get to be the one who killed the Deathwyrm."
"Are you kidding? My girlfriend was the first person to beat a Deathwyrm! That's awesome!"
They both blushed at his use of the word 'girlfriend'. Finn handed her the finished flower. She giggled and sniffed the smoke rising from its glowing edges. Then her face fell a bit.
"I'm surprised Marceline isn't mad at me."
"Why?" Finn asked. "You didn't try to hurt her. And even then, she's pretty cool about stuff like that. She forgave Jake, and he tried to stake her."
They looked over where Jake and Lady Rainacorn were curled up together, dozing happily.
"I'm still going to keep practicing controlling my flame. I don't ever want to burn anyone who isn't evil again." She looked over at him. "Especially you."
Finn felt heat creep up his face that had nothing to do with fire. "It really doesn't bother me."
She smiled a little sadly. "I know. But it bothers me."
Finn frowned slightly, unsure how to reassure her. In response, Flame Princess tore off a sheet of tinfoil, held it up against his cheek, and kissed him. Despite the protection from damage, his face was red when she leaned back.
"I'm going to go home and get some sleep. Can we do this again soon?"
"Yeah, definitely," Finn breathed.
She grinned, tucked the silver flower into her hair, and sped away into the dawn as a trail of fire.
Finn looked at the warm spot next to him and noticed she had melted a handprint into the candy brittle of the step. He rested his hand on it, pretending hers was still there, and watched her go.
"Master Finn?"
Finn jumped at Peppermint Butler's voice behind him and stood up quickly. "Oh, hey, what's up?"
The butler looked slightly amused as he spoke in a low voice. "You asked me to speak with Death about the Deathwyrm?"
Finn's attention instantly focused again. "Oh, yeah! Did you find out what the deal was?"
"Death was completely unaware that any of his creatures had escaped. He passes on his gratitude for dispatching it before it caused too much work for him."
"No problem," Finn said, adopting a heroic pose at the idea of Death being in his debt. "Guess he needs to just make sure he doesn't leave his gate open from now on."
"Quite the contrary," Peppermint Butler said. "The Deathwyrms are contained in a dimension that is secured against nearly every form of magic in the world. Death prides himself on keeping everything in his care where it is supposed to be. He is launching a very thorough investigation into how someone managed to release one without him knowing."
"Whoa." Finn frowned. "But who would have the power to go against Death himself?"
OOO
Deep in the sugar mines, a small form moved through the darkness. Coming to the top of a stalagmite, it looked over the crumbling skeleton of the giant serpent, the creature's destructive potential cut short.
His dark, sinister eyes narrowed and the Snail let out a roar of thwarted rage.