Marceline's heart felt it was being crushed by an invisible hand as panic and anxiety set in. A moment later though, she realised something wonderful, Simon had remembered her! Not her name, granted, but he realised she was the same girl who he used to look after.

"Simon…" Marceline said, warmly.

Simon flew over to Marceline and snatched the penguin from her. Marceline's fleeting good feeling shattered like glass, as she realised it was the penguin Simon had been talking to. He held it over his head, endearingly.

"Did the strange lady hurt you, Gunter?" He said, in the patronising voice one might use with a baby. "It's alright, daddy's here!"

"You replaced me… with a penguin…" Marceline barely whispered, as she collapsed to her knees. Simon heard her.

"Huh? Replaced you? I don't even know you, lady!" He turned around, shielding Gunter from her.

"Simon, it's me!" Marceline pleaded, tears welling up in her eyes.

The Ice King stared at her blankly.

"I'm Marceline! Remember back when you only put on the crown to protect us?" Marceline thought back to the last time she had met Simon. "Oh! Remember that time 70 years ago, when you fought at Wizard Battle!"

A couple of seconds later, Simon remembered. "Oh yeah! You were that crazy lady who came over for an autograph and then ran away!"

"I didn't want an…" Marceline started, but she conceded that it was no use.

"Hey, are you following me? Because you're not my type."

"What!?" Marceline gasped.

"Yeah, I'm more of a princess guy. You'd think that's picky, but there are a lot of princesses around these parts."

Marceline suddenly remembered Bubblegum mentioning the crazy hermit who kept trying to kidnap her, then she glanced at the large cage. So that's what Simon was up to these days…

"Simon…" Marceline tried again. She scoured her mind for anything that might prompt him to remember something.

"My name's not Simon, anyway." The Ice King said. "I am the King OF ICE AND SNOW!"

He laughed madly and raised his hands in the air, throwing Gunter aside as he did. Suddenly, his hands glowed blue and snow began to rain down from the ceiling. As quickly as it had started, a moment later, it stopped.

"My friends call me the Ice King though. Hey! You wanna be my friend?" He asked, hopefully.

Marceline frowned at the rambling child before her, her face streaked with tears. She thought longingly of the man he had once been, and sadly, this visit had gotten her no closer to accepting the fact that he was gone. For the time being, though, she convinced herself to give it a rest.

"No dude. Now listen, I need to know where you used to live, before here." Marceline said, slowly.

"Whaa? Erm… I think I was born here." Simon offered.

Marceline groaned. "No, before the war, and the crown, you lived in an apartment!"

"An awhatment?"

Marceline rubbed her forehead irritably. She desperately wanted to just fly out of the door and leave this toxic environment, but she thought of Bubblegum, who needed her help and whose forgiveness she found herself craving.

"Ok… Do you just have some old records, or diaries or something I could look at?" She asked Simon.

"Well sure, but you can't read my diaries!" Simon snapped, defensively.

Hoping the Ice King was as stupid as he was childish, Marceline replied. "Oh… I don't want to read them… I just… love the smell of old paper!"

The Ice King stared at her with one eyebrow raised, as if pondering the request.

"I guess that's ok!" He grinned, after a while. "Follow me!"

Picking up Gunter, Simon flapped into the air with his beard and flew through the doorway in the back of his cave. Marceline followed him and gasped. On the other side, was a colossal cavern that stretched down as far as the eye could see. Pathways twisted and turned downwards, snaking across the chasm and around enormous stalagmites of ice. It almost seemed like the interior of the mountain was slightly bigger than the exterior.

Simon flew downwards, making a beeline for one of the rooms, deep down. Clearly he had every single one of the rooms in his home memorized, which didn't make Marceline feel any better about him forgetting her. Very close to the bottom of the mountain, Simon flew through a doorway and down a narrow corridor, which led him and Marceline to a large room, the walls of which were piled to the ceiling with cupboards, bureaus and filing cabinets. Scraps of paper poked out of every orifice and covered the floor.

"Mmmm, that paper sure does smell good!" Simon agreed. "This is the room where I keep all my 'the past' stuff. Knock yourself out!"

Marceline floated past him, daunted by the mass of documents to search through. Why didn't Simon just have a digital organiser, like everyone else? As Marceline sighed and flew over to the nearest cabinet to get started, she noticed Simon, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey, you wanna go see a movie or something, after this?" He asked her.

"No." Marceline replied, instantly. "You know, you can take off if you want? I can find my way out on my own."

"Huh…" Simon looked thoughtful for a few seconds. "You know what? I'll go get us some sodas." He put Gunter down on the floor. "Gunter, you stay here and play nicely with Marceline, ok?"

Marceline's head shot round to face Simon as she heard him say her name, but a second later, she remembered that she'd told him it earlier. She sighed and pulled a handful of paper out of a half-open draw. As soon as Simon left the room, she began studying them, and tossing them to the floor, once she realised they weren't helpful. She blew through hundreds of receipts, angry letters from libraries and bus timetables. Very occasionally, she found something that made her feel nostalgic, like a photograph of herself and Simon, from when she was a child, but, eager to find what she needed and get out before Simon came back, she didn't dwell on them.

"Waa! Waa!" Came Gunter's muffled quack.

"I'm busy, Gunter!" Marceline said, without turning around.

"Waaa!"

"I'm not gonna stop, if that's what you want." She opened a huge cupboard and paper rained down on her.

"WAAAAAA!"

Marceline spun around, angrily, to see Gunter hopping on the spot, as if trying to reach her, while holding a slip of paper in his beak.

"What the…" Marceline floated down and took the paper from him. "Oh my glob…"

It was an electricity bill, addressed to Simon Petrikov, with his full address written in the corner. Gleefully, she knelt down and hugged Gunter again.

"This is awesome dude! Thanks!"

She gently kissed Gunter's forehead and then flew out of the record room and towards the mountain's main cavern. Before she reached it, Simon dropped down in front of her, holding a tray with three soda cans on it.

"Hey Marceline, you done smelling the paper, huh?"

Now that she had Simon's address, Marceline was beginning to feel a desperation to leave the Ice Kingdom, similar to claustrophobia. She pushed past him, frantically and flew to the top of the mountain, as fast as she could.

"Hey! Wait up!" Simon cried after her. "What's the hurry?"

Marceline tore through Simon's living space. In the past, she had run away from dragons with less urgency. Simon caught up with her, just before she flew out of the door.

"Hey, where ya going Marceline?" He asked her. "I've got some board games if you want to hang out?"

Marceline rounded on him, tears beginning to well in her eyes again. "Just… leave me alone, Ice King! I never want to see you again!"

Before he could respond, Marceline repositioned her umbrella and flew from the Ice Kingdom as fast as she could.