For the fifth time today, Bonnibel had to remind herself that she had nothing but her own hubris to blame for her current predicament. 'Current predicament' in this case meaning choking down another bowl of boba soup, since the doctors insisted she get some nutrients back in her system yet refused to let her near solid foods. Letting the spoon rattle against the side of the still-full bowl, the princess lay back with a groan, wishing Lady's weight wasn't so heavy on her stomach.

The Rainicorn rested on and around Bonnibel, her body an incomprehensible, inescapable knot. Soon after her own injuries had healed Lady had insisted she be by Bonnibel's side. The first thing Lady had done when she peeked through the doorway to see Bonni sitting up on her own was neigh loudly, zipping past a startled nurse and wrapping herself up in her friend. They had been inseparable ever since, Lady refusing to go back home until she was certain her princess was on her feet again. It helped Bonnibel immeasurably to have that reassuring warmth so close by. Sleep was elusive. The vision she had seen of Death chased her every dream. Awakening in the night to uncontrollable shivers and headaches, she had developed a compulsion to check her temperature more than was strictly necessary.

"Want me to finish that?" Lady asked with a yawn, button eyes blinking away the sleep-gunk. "Doctor Princess doesn't have to know." Grunting and handing her soup over, she thanked the Rainicorn, who lapped away at her leftovers. Here in the light of day with her best friend in the world, it was much easier to believe that her dream had been just that- a dream. And the fact that Lady hadn't abandoned her after she had gotten them into so much trouble helped her rest, even when she could not sleep.

"Blehhhh," Bonnibel succinctly opined, eyeballing the boba soup. "Tapioca is for old people. Why do you enjoy that swill?"

Licking her lips and dabbing at her chin with a napkin from the bedside table, Lady held back a burp and set aside the empty dish. "Because it's good, miss smarty pants."

"Maybe you're just secretly an old person."

"Maybe you're just secretly a picky snooty patoot."

"Maybe the both of you ought to try listening to your elders once in a while."

The two girls sat up ramrod straight, turning their attention to the voice of authority that had just entered their sick room. Grandma Cho had taken time out of her feverish schedule to visit both of them at least once a day since they had been found collapsed on the library floor. Rainicorn had dragged her unconscious friend back up to safety before blacking out herself. They were frequently reminded that they were both lucky to be alive and that their punishment was not forgotten, but merely withheld until a later date. Now, seeing that Cho held Conviction's scabbard flat in both her hands, they had a sinking feeling that their due reward had caught up to them at last.

"Girls," Cho said by way of greeting, giving them a curt nod. They did their best to return some sort of curtsy while still bedridden, murmuring the proper welcome to the monarch. "How are we feeling today?"

Lady whickered, "Fairly well." Lowering her gaze and pawing at the bed sheets, she shrank closer around Bonnibel.

"Better," the princess said, resting a hand on Lady's back, not afraid to meet Cho's steady scrutiny with a practiced shrug. She couldn't hold it for long, though, quickly breaking down into a nervous cough and a hopeful smile. "...I'm glad to see you, Granny."

"As seeing you gladdens me. Though I'm only here to return what's yours; I must attend to my regular duties soon."

A tension in her muscles she hadn't realized she had been holding slipped away. Bonni breathed a little easier when Cho set the scabbard down across her lap and bent over, pushing aside her messy hair to plant a kiss on her forehead. "Do you like it?" she couldn't help but ask as her grandmother pulled away. She held her scabbard close to her chest, hugging it tightly. It represented something important to Bonnibel, validated her in a way she hadn't known she had needed. "It saved my life down there. It belonged to a sword named Conviction and it saved me because I'm a true Candy Monarch."

Cho laughed, her wrinkles lightening for a moment. A shadow of her youth splintered out in that instant; Bonnibel blinked, and it was gone. "Oh, did it now?" she said, still smiling.

Deeply rankled, Bonnibel shook the scabbard point first at her. "What, don't you believe me? It is drawn to royal blood, you know! The statue said so!"

"I don't doubt it," Cho said, her movements careful and ginger as she sat on the edge of Bonnibel's bed. Her creaking joints complained, but she ignored them. "But Conviction isn't a stranger to me. And it isn't a sword."

Though quiet ever since Cho had entered the room, Lady spoke. Unable to resist satisfying her curiosity, she shyly looked up at the queen. "What is it, then?"

"Ahh." Another smile; the stiffness in her posture relaxed, Cho's mind going somewhere far away. "Conviction? Well, to the right person, it's a lot of things." She made a wide gesture, crooked fingers splaying out towards something only she could see. "It's light as a wish, but as powerful as an ideal."

"I'm sure she meant-"

"I know what she meant, Bonnibel." Tapping one long fingernail against the scabbard, Cho sharply tapped out her syllables, shutting off whatever Bonnibel was going to say. "Lis-ten- to- me- for- once- in- your- life."

The princess clammed up, her lips stretching back in a bemused smile. "So, uh, Conviction isn't a sword. So are you going to tell us what it is or are we going to dance more around all these cryptic clues?"

Cho merely tapped the scabbard again, nodding down to it.

It took a moment to click.

"What, the scabbard?" Bonnibel asked, holding it aloft. "This thing doesn't even have a- a point or an edge or anything." She set it down, meandering between pleasure and disappointment. On one hand, a long lost treasure was still a treasure. But who ever heard of a magic scabbard?

The queen clucked her tongue. "It's not meant to be a weapon. On its own, Conviction protects, it guides, it inspires. It doesn't attack, though it makes your strikes fly truer." She rested her hand on top of Bonni's, squeezing tightly. "Do you understand?"

Before she could answer, one of the nurses bustled in, bowing to the nobles before taking away Bonni's discarded lunch, congratulating her on finishing all her soup today and my, what a good patient she was being. The princess and Lady exchanged a look, but otherwise the three remained silent until they were alone again.

Conviction rested hard on her lap, digging down with its dull weight. Indestructible magical heirlooms were the sort of thing that belonged in her collection, no doubt. But if it was really as powerful as Granny Cho seemed to insinuate it was, then surely there was a better recipient for its power. Hefting it up, Bonnibel extended Conviction to her grandmother, pressing it into her hands. "I do understand, and you should have it, Granny. You need it's protection more than I do."

Gracious yet firm, Cho refused to hold the scabbard, pushing it back to the girl. "With all the running around you do- against my explicit orders, I might add-" Bonni and Lady both flinched, since after all they were still waiting for the bomb to drop on their reckless rule breaking. "I think you're the only one here who needs a little more guardianship. Besides," Cho said, getting to her feet again. It took effort, her old limbs resisting movement. Standing with her hands clasped in front of her, Cho gave her willful grand daughter an inscrutable little nod. "Conviction seems to be attracted to your... most defining trait."

When all else fails, try to be cute. "You mean my, eh, aheh, my ah, adventurous spirit?" Bonni asked with a grin and a dry laugh. The dry pounding of a headache was beginning to form behind her eyes, formed from the cocktail of stress and anxiety that had shaped the past few weeks and stirred by her current reminder of her inability to please her grandmother.

"I mean you're more stubborn than a mule."

"She has a point," Lady said.

"You're not helping," Bonni darkly grumbled, lying back on her bed and holding Conviction for extra security. It did resonate with her, in a way. Though she wasn't quick to jump to a supernatural explanation for her sense of attachment to the scabbard, it did appear at just the right time to save her life. A little suspension of disbelief was forgivable in this scenario. A sudden, sharp yawn jerked her thoughts back to the hospital room, and her lingering headache. "I am really sorry for disobeying you though, Granny," she said, burying her face against the cool metal. "I shouldn't have gone off on my own." Groping around her until she found a stretch of downy fur, Bonni stroked along Lady's long back. "I keep putting other people in danger."

If there was any chink in Cho's armor, it was beyond a doubt her love for Bonnibel. Shushing her, the queen put her palm against the girl's cheek. Ironing out the worry wrinkles forming on Bonni's frowning face with her thumb, she said, "Shh. Just rest, child. We can discuss what happened when you're better."

Bonni didn't say anything, but fell asleep to the soothing feeling of having everyone she cared about close at hand.

OoOoOo

The blessing of their youth and young, green bones meant that the two girls healed up fast and well. By the time Lady Rainicorn's parents arrived from the neighboring kingdom to recover their daughter from her long stay at the Candy castle, all that was left of their little adventure was a few moldy purple bruises, soon to fade into memory. Cho decided the injuries they had sustained were punishment enough for their unauthorized escapade beneath the castle; further deterrent, she believed, should not be necessary.

"What are we going to tell my parents?" Lady whispered to Bonnibel, spotting her mother flying in over the horizon. Fidgeting and coiling a few times around the princess, she nuzzled against her for comfort.

"I dunno. Maybe they already know."

"If they knew I was in trouble they'd have shown up sooner."

"Yeah, but-"

They didn't get much time to formulate any kind of plan. Soon her parents had swept her up in an embarrassing display of hugs and kisses. When Granny showed up to properly greet them and nobody commented on the bruise still visible on Bonnibel's cheek, they decided that perhaps it was best to keep this their little secret.

OoOoOo

To properly enter the section of the afterlife where her friends most likely resided would take three things: time, planning, and gumption. Marceline lacked neither time nor a well formulated plan, but the idea of finally confronting a dead man she had successfully avoided for near two decades- well, it didn't sit very nicely with her, to say the least. Cho would visit her in her secret lair, brave past the crashing waterfall to tidy the place up and make it more cozy, homey. A woman's touch! she said, ignoring the fact that Marceline was quite female, thanks.

There was always lot of news to catch up on, stories to tell, and boasts to brag about. It was comfortable and casual even when Marceline acted like a shameless flirt. They also discussed business- where and how to get the materials necessary for Marceline's journey to come, the next step in her phase to find out who had murdered Bonnibel's parents.

To be honest, this was a last resort. There were few places vampires hated more than the Underworld, being neither alive nor dead. Though she had some status there as the daughter of Hunson Abadeer, she also had more than a few enemies who resented her rank and her refusal to accept it. But as the letters stating their meeting times became more and more frequent, Marceline was almost... glad to have this excuse to be around Cho again, even if it was mostly a lot of nostalgia trips and necromancy.

Then, one day, when she expected Cho to come striding through the waterfall with the spray catching in her hair like stray pearls, someone else busted through the sheet of water, shrieking at the cold. The unfamiliar voice put Marceline on instant alert. Was it a stranger accidentally sneaking into her well-hidden home? An intruder? Hunter? Spy?

Axe in hand and clinging to the shadows, she peered through narrowed eyes at the interloper only to discover someone far, far worse.

It was that child, Bonnibel. Her first instinct was to 'shift into something uniquely terrifying to try and send her running away screaming, but the last time she had done that she wound up with a crossbow bolt splitting her pelvic bone in half. Sighing loudly, Marceline dripped free from the darkness stained across the ceiling, dropping in front of the girl with a loud thmp of boots and leather in an animalistic crouch. "What-" she straightened up, hefting her axe over her shoulder "-Are you doing here, little girl?"

Though she'd been startled, she regained her composure to display her empty hands. "I'm unarmed."

Marceline's mouth yawned open in a silent hiss, jaw full of more teeth than normal and wider than it had any right to be. It was instinctual more than anything else- she doubted Bonnibel would react to it more than she would react to a good plain old fashioned fuck you. "You think I give a shit? Listen, I think you're kind of a badass, but that doesn't mean I like you or enjoy your presence." Lifting one leg up, she pressed the sole of her boot against Bonni's shoulder, pushing her back. "Am-scray. And leave the basket," she added, noticing it tucked in the crook of her elbow. It smelled like there was something nice in there.

Stumbling back, all the red in her body rushed to her face, filling the air with a scent almost better than the basket. Very distracting. "I'm not here because I want to be!" she protested, cheeks puffing out. "I trust you about as far as I can throw you, vampire, but Granny broke her hip and she can't come so here." She tossed the basket into Marceline's stunned arms, whipped around, and started marching back out of the cave. "I hope you choke on them!"

She was already through the waterfall curtain by the time Marceline set down the basket, pulled on a hood, and chased after her. A lanky pre-teen rainicorn had been waiting for her outside, mumbling something in cracking, buzzing translator speech to calm the princess down. "Whoa, wait!" Marceline said as Bonnibel threw one leg over the rainicorn's shoulder, getting ready to fly away back to the castle. The rainicorn paused, even though Bonni ushered her to just leave already.

What a royal brat. To think that she expected to come here, deliver that news, and then just leave? Marceline conveniently forgot she was the one who had ordered the girl to scram in the first place. Floating up so that her body was parallel to the ground, she took a deep breath to calm herself. "Wait. What's wrong with Cho? Is she okay? Was there an attempt on her life? How'd she break her hip? Is-"

Bonni pressed her palms against her ears, shaking her head. "Stop, stop, stop!"

"Well, answer the question, pipsqueak!"

"Which one?" the rainicorn asked dryly, twisting her body so that she came between the vampire and the princess. "The Queen is in no danger. She simply fell down the stairs."

A broken hip. She could have snapped her neck just as easily, and Marceline wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. Like a lightning bolt, her real reasons for trying to find the killer who had taken away Cho's family revealed itself to her: If she could settle these ghosts at last, then maybe the curse that kept her from entering the Candy Kingdom would finally be lifted. And then, finally, maybe she and Cho could be together again, for however long Cho had left in this world.

An expression of pure pain twisted Marceline's face like the knot of a withered tree. Too easily she could imagine Cho, helpless and frail, still ordering her only grand daughter out to make sure Marceline got the latest pieces to the portal she was building. She sent Bonni so that Marceline wouldn't get concerned when she was late. Turning away, Marceline went back to the cave without another word. Letting the pair fly away, she sunk into her mattress and wished she were tired so that the sleep could null her grief, if only for a little while.