During Liam Abadeer's childhood, a lot changed in Ooo and the communities around it. Marceline took her father's place as the ruler of the Nightosphere, and quickly did away with pain and weird punishments in favor of creating a fairly governed and successful kingdom. The old family castle was demolished and a new one rebuilt in time to celebrate Liam's first birthday in the spacious ballroom, surrounded by family and friends.
Marceline and Finn built a life together, and it was just as they had imagined in the months before Liam's birth when they had been finding themselves and each other. They built a swing set outside for Liam, and their days were filled with music and adventure. They argued sometimes, but made up at night tangled in each other's arms in the moonlight. They were parents, and lovers, and best friends, and everything was right.
The group who had accompanied Marceline and Finn on the most difficult journey of their lives stayed by them and became Liam's extended family. Marceline made Simon the president of the Nightosphere's first university, and he started a very important program within the school that discovered and catalogued items from the pre-Mushroom War era. Liam knew him as Grandpa, a title that nearly brought Simon to tears the first few times he heard it.
Princess Bubblegum, or Bubs, as Liam affectionately referred to her as, went back to her duties as the ruler of the Candy Kingdom. She named Jake Junior as the heir to her throne and, with that weight off her shoulders, had more time to spend experimenting and bettering the lives of her people. She often visited the Nightosphere, where she instilled in Liam a love of science that began on his fifth birthday when she gave him an advanced chemistry set. It wasn't long before the young hero became Princess Bubblegum's best lab assistant. When Princess Bubblegum married her girlfriend of five years, Huntress Wizard, when Liam was seven, the young hero escorted her to the altar.
Jake and Lady Rainicorn shared eight more years together after Liam's birth, and Lady gave birth to two more litters of pups. It was during a routine check-up after the second litter was born that Doctor Princess found a small mass on Lady's uterus, thought at first to be benign. Biopsy results, however, revealed that it was cancer, and she dead within the year. Jake fell into a deep depression, but with the help of his kids, along with his friends, he made it through. Three days after Liam's eighth birthday, the Dog moved into an apartment near the castle in the Nightosphere. He found solace volunteering in a music program created by Marceline, teaching the youth of the Nightosphere how to play the viola.
Cassius and Portia made an effort to be proper grandparents to Liam. For the first year of his life, they regularly sent him gift and letter, and even visited him a few times. After the third visit went the way of the previous two-dry and formal with a hint of awkwardness- they didn't schedule another. Slowly, the cards, letters, and gifts slowed, then stopped. Marceline had initially been hurt by Cassius breaking the promise he had made to her, but when she received a letter from the elderly Wizard, she forgave him.
"Dearest Marceline," the letter began. "I know you may think us awful for not wanting to see our grandson, but please hear our reason. When Portia and I see Liam, he is well cared for, surrounded by family and friends, and above all, happy. Our presence, however, can bring back nothing but memories of a time I'm sure we'd all like to forget. So, for now, Portia and I will cease contact with you and Liam. Please know that if you ever need anything, you shouldn't hesitate to call. Furthermore, if Liam is interested in knowing about his biological grandparents when he gets older, we would be happy to get involved again. We feel that, at the time being, this is best course of action for everyone."
Liam grew up quickly, at least from Marceline and Finn's perspective. He was always precocious, learning to walk and talk faster than his peers. When he was nearly three, Marceline had heard him laughing from his toy room and went to investigate. The queen had found him sitting on the rug, two stuffed animals locked in playful battle hovering above him in the air. It was then that she had realized that Liam had inherited magical powers from Ash, much to her displeasure. She had admitted to Finn, late that night, that she was afraid Liam would use his powers like his biological father had.
Marceline's fears proved groundless over the years, however, as Liam's personality was more similar to Finn's than Ash's. He had an unstoppable drive to save people, and his adventurous spirit often landed him in some dangerous situations, prompting Finn to rescue him on nearly a monthly basis. Marceline often joked that they would give her gray hairs if not for the fact that she was ageless.
Around his twelfth birthday, however, Liam calmed down somewhat and discovered that he could help people in ways that put himself in less danger. He started volunteering at the local orphanage, reading to the children or helping them with homework, a few days out of the week. He also found that he could be of help at the shelter for abused women and children that Marceline had funded during her first year as queen, doing routine maintenance on the building or chatting with the women as if he was a miniature adult.
Shortly before he turned thirteen, Liam's habits changed. Rather than wandering around the Nightosphere for hours at a time after having breakfast with his parents, Liam started to visit Ooo every day. He often walked through the Candy Kingdom, wearing his signature baseball cap displaying the logo of The Thorns, his mother's favorite band. Yet, no matter where he intended to go, he always ended up sitting at the base of a large statue in the castle gardens.
The statue had been there as long as Liam could remember, and it featured three men encased in the arms of a large owl. Liam often looked up at the men, nervously playing with his long, white pony-tail, for hours on end. Sometimes he would lose track of time and Princess Bubblegum would come out to the gardens to remind him that he had missed curfew yet again. When he arrived home, Marceline would be waiting for him, her eyes tired and somewhat red. Liam knew he was upsetting her, and tried to apologize, but she would simply hug him and say that it wasn't his fault.
Liam tried to ask about the statue, everyone from his mother and father, to Princess Bubblegum, to his friends from both the Nightosphere and Ooo, but no one would tell him its significance. Even the great library in the Candy Kingdom didn't have any information on it beyond the fact that the men it featured were known as Ash, Hunson, and the Lich. Liam couldn't understand why he was drawn to the statue, but he accepted it. His only wish was that it didn't hurt his mother so much.
The day after Liam's thirteenth birthday party, Marceline stood at the sink washing dishes when her son quickly pecked her on the cheek and told her that he was going to hang out with some friends in the Nightosphere Park. She didn't believe him, but allowed him to go anyway. As she watched her son walk away, his baseball cap firmly on his head, tears began to roll down her face. When he disappeared into the forests, her tears turned into sobs, and Marceline washed the same plate over and over.
"I can't give him up yet," she thought. "It's too soon…I just can't."
Marceline screamed in frustration and sadness, sending the plate in her hand hurling towards the wall. It shattered against the wall, bringing Finn running into the kitchen. He watched in horror for a brief moment as Marceline sent dish after dish towards the wall, leaving a pile of glass on the floor.
"Marcy, stop!" Finn cried.
He ran over to his wife, gently took a glass from her hand, put it on the counter, and held both of her arms firmly at her side.
"What's wrong, Marcy?" He whispered, holding her tightly to him.
"It's happening. Liam is spending all his time around that globdamned statue, and it's going to take him! He's too young, Finn!"
Marceline slumped to the ground and Finn followed. He clung to the queen, holding her tightly and rocking her back and forth. He hadn't seen her so hurt and upset since Ash had kidnapped Liam, and it broke his heart. All he wanted to do was make everything better, but he couldn't think of a way to help. Liam had a destiny to fulfill, and no one could change that.
"We knew to expect this, Marcy," he whispered, stroking her hair.
"Not this soon!" Marceline sobbed, clinging to Finn's shirt. "We've barely had any time with him! Thirteen years isn't enough!"
"I know, Marcy. I know."
Finn scooped the sobbing queen up in his arms and carried her to bed, where he tucked her in and kissed her forehead. He went back to the kitchen and cleaned up the broken glass so that Liam wouldn't get hurt when he came home, and turned off the lights throughout the house. Finn found Marceline, cocooned in the sheets on her bed, tears running down her face. He climbed into bed next to her, buried his face in her hair, and allowed himself to cry for the son her knew he would soon lose.
That night, Liam didn't come home. As the first rays of light shown through Ooo, Princess Bubblegum took her coffee into the gardens to sit near the statue as had been her habit since it was moved outside from the ballroom over twelve years ago. This morning, however, the statue was very different. The princess dropped her coffee to the ground, where the cup shattered and a scalding liquid splashed on her feet. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number to the Nightosphere's castle, her hands trembling.
"Finn?" She asked into the phone. "Come quick. It happened."
Marceline and Finn were in the Candy Castle's gardens within minutes, but the area around the statue was already crowded with curious citizens hoping to get a glance at the change. Marceline pushed through them, dragging Finn behind her by his hand. Her hair was a mess, her makeup smudged, and her clothes wrinkled, yet her appearance was the last thing on her mind.
The Banana Guards stationed around the statue stepped aside when they saw Marceline, allowing her to walk right up to the stone monument. When she saw the change it had undergone, the queen gasped. The three men still stood as always, an obvious pain etched on their stone faces, but the wings that surrounded them came not from an owl, but from Liam's back.
Marceline looked up at her son's face and raised her hand to gently stroke his stone cheek. She recoiled as if shocked when her hand touched his face, and the queen sunk to the ground. Liam's signature baseball cap lay in front of her, and Marceline grabbed it and held it to her face as she cried. The wind picked up and a small slip of paper floated from the base of the statue and directly into Finn's hands. He opened it, looked inside, and stared for a long while before sinking to his knees next to Marceline and handing the paper to her.
"Look at this, Marcy," he whispered.
With trembling, clumsy fingers, Marceline took the paper and looked at it. In small, neat letters the queen instantly recognized as her son's handwriting, was written "Your sunshine will always be there. I love you, Mom and Dad".
Marceline read the message over and over before taking Finn's hand and standing up. She put her hands on Liam's shoulders, kissed his cheek, and turned back to her husband.
"Let's go home, Finn," Marceline whispered.
Confused, the hero nodded and wrapped his arm around Marceline's waist. Wordlessly, the crowd separated, leaving a path for the couple to walk through. Marceline placed Liam's baseball cap on her head and started towards the portal back to the Nightosphere. They were almost there when a gentle rain began to fall.
"Come on, Marcy, let's get out of this," Finn said.
"Race you," the queen whispered, smiling at her husband.
"You're on," Finn replied.
They ran towards the portal, laughing.
"It's going to be okay," Finn thought, in awe from the realization. "We're going to be okay."
A/N: I never realized how emotional I would be writing the end of this story! Thanks to everyone who's read or reviewed! I appreciate you immensely! I'll be posting more stories on here soon, and the next one I am considering has an unconventional pairing, but I think you'll like it! Also, I am happy to take requests for stories or pairings! Thanks again, and I hope to be seeing you all again soon!
