Oh Marceline! Why'd You Have To Turn Thirteen?
By Luna Mrow
—9—
He walked towards Marceline and kneeled down beside her. That's when he saw the white colored tomb stone that read in beautiful handwriting:
Here lies Evelyn Abadeer
Beloved mother, friend, and wife
May she remain pure, even in eternal slumber
"Your mother," Finn said softly. "This is where she was buried."
"This is my most painful memory," Marceline whispered. "And... I think I need to tell you about it... because if I don't, then Ash will use it against me. You deserve to know what happened to my mother." She wasn't looking at him, she was looking at the pure white gravestone. "Finn, my mother died because of me."
"You don't have to tell me, Marceline," he said softly. "There are some things that are too personal."
She shook her head. "You should know." The vampire kept her stare at her mother's pure white grave. "I was born half vampire and half human," she then explained, softly.
Finn's expression was surprised. "But... I thought I was the only human, I thought..."
"This was over a thousand years ago, Finn. Humans were still around, and Evelyn was my human mother." Marceline's tone was careful. "My dad, he was still evil, even back then, but somehow he got together with someone as kind and pure as Evelyn. And, well, they had me. I was born a half-breed, but my father would always tell me when I got older I would become a full vampire. He spent his time in the Night O'sphere, and I lived up in a nice grass field with lots of trees with my mother. We visited there in my memory. I think those were some of the best times of my life; playing outside with my mom and then eating cookies with her."
Evelyn Abadeer's face flashed through Finn's mind. Her warm and inviting smile, her long raven black hair, her bright pink lips. Evelyn looked like Marceline, if Marceline were human, Finn realized. If Marceline had a beating heart and colored skin, if she was just like him.
"When I turned thirteen my dad took my away from my mom to live in the Night O' sphere," then Queen continued. "I didn't want to go, but he forced me, and he told me it was time I learned about my vampire side. In his domain I was exposed to all the malevolence and evil that went on every day. I went from picking flowers in the fields with my mother to watching my dad torture demons and hearing their harsh howls. He also taught me about my vampire side. He gave me blood for the first time."
Marceline paused, because bringing up the first time she tasted sweet blood would be a memory she'd never forget.
"After my first taste of blood," she finally continued, "I was done for. I wanted to be a full-vampire. Not just for the blood, I loved the freedom that came with it. I loved being able to fly, I loved being able to morph into scary creatures, the immortality. I was too young to understand the repercussions of my decisions. I had to wait until I was seventeen until I could turn full vampire. It was a celebration down the Night Os'phere, everyone came to watch my skin turn gray, my eyes turn black, and my fangs pop out for the first time.
"And your mom?" Finn whispered.
"She was still on the surface world, in the same little cottage. She... she hadn't seen me for four years... and I'll bet she was really scared for her daughter. I probably really worried her. On the night of my ceremony, my father told me I had to cut my bond to my human blood. He handed me a glass filled with some kind of ancient vampire potion and told me to drink. I had no idea what would happen to my mother if I did. I didn't know, he never told me. I would have never done it if father had. I would have never..."
Marceline trailed off and buried her face in her hands. Her small shoulders shook from choked sobs. Finn wrapped his arms around her. "She died when you drank the potion, didn't she?" he murmured.
"I killed her!" Marceline cried. "By 'cutting off my human blood' I not only got rid of mine, I got rid of hers, because it was her human blood that I inherited! And no one knew that would happen, my father didn't know, and no one knew just how strong the potion was! It was never tested before, it was never used before, because I was the first half breed ever created by vampires and humans! So I drank the potion and I changed into a vampire, I felt the power surge through me but I also heard a horrible, a horrible terrible scream! And I knew, I knew whose voice it was!"
The Queen's explanation was coming out in choppy and erratic breaths. "Calm down Marcie, calm down," Finn said.
"I flew to the surface world and I found her on the grass a mile off from our old house. She was already dying when I got there. And I held her, I told her how sorry I was, and she died in my arms. She died because of me!"
Finn knew what she was talking about because he saw her memory. And in that moment, the adventurer could feel the Queen's pain. He could feel the heartache she was feeling and he saw the look of pure misery in her eyes as she held her dead mother. And Finn just held her tighter, and Marceline stopped crying but she couldn't look up at the human holding her. "The price of my power was the life of the one person I loved the most," she murmured finally.
"You didn't know. You didn't know the potion would kill her as well."
"But whether I knew or not, I still killed her."
He desperately wanted to make her feel better. Finn hated how Marceline was feeling. Didn't she know that she was one of his favorite people, aside from Jake? Didn't she know that he thought she was one of the most beautiful creatures in Ooo? Didn't she know how much he loved to spend time with her? Didn't she know that although her past is dark, although there are skeletons in her closet, she's still someone he cares about deeply?
She should know. She should know how much she truly means to the hero.
"Marceline?"
"Finn?"
"Marcy, you mean the— you're really important— I just..."
"Please don't try and make me feel better, Finn. It makes me feel weak."
"No, you're not weak. You're amazing. Marcy, you're one of my favorite people in the world. You're funny, smart, daring, challenging. But most importantly, you're not evil. You may not be the hero, but you're not the villain. You may not be Ooo's hero... but..." he trailed off, feeling his heart pound loud in his chest.
The young hero had never confessed his true feelings inside, not to anyone, even Princess Bubblegum. He was never outright honest with anyone, and now he was supposed to be with Marceline? He just didn't want to see her sad. He didn't want to see her defeated. He would do anything if it meant he got his old Marcy back. And if that meant embarrassing the glob out of himself so she knew the truth, it was worth it!
"Marceline, you may not be Ooo's hero, but you're my hero!" Finn suddenly exclaimed. "And what happened then is in the past, and as hurtful as it is, you can't let it disrupt your future! I need you to be my hero, Marceline! Be my hero, and I'll be yours!"
Whish!
He looked up and saw the young queen staring down at him. Her mouth was ajar, her fangs showing, her hands in tight fists. Finally. Finally. Finally! She was looking at him the way she used to look at him— with a challenge. Whatever he said to her brought her fire back. Finn stood up as well, and Marceline smiled, the traces of her sadness slowly disintegrating. "I'm not gonna lie Finn, that was the cheesiest speech I've ever heard."
The adventurer laughed. "You know, I'm starting to think you have a thing for cheesy. I think you secretly like weenies and all their cheese."
She made a face. "That sounded wrong."
"You know what I meant."
"Do I?"
"Marceline, you think I'm amazing! Admit it!"
She pulled his beloved hat off his head and put it on her own. "I'm sorry I haven't been myself. This trip through my mind, the poisoning of my blood, it was starting to become too much. Ash knew a memory of my mother would send me into misery and I'd give up because of guilt. But thank you, Finn. Thank you for snapping me back." Her words were sincere.
"Come on. We need to get going."
"Okay."
"Wait, gimme my hat back."
She smirked. "Come and take it." Marceline expected Finn to do just that, to take his hat back and to continue forward. But the young adventurer instead gave her a smile, and before she realized what was happening, he swooped forward and kissed her.
What. The. Glob.
This was Finn! Embarrassed, romantically challenged and sorta awkward Finn! And he was kissing Marceline the Vampire Queen? If Jake were there, he'd probably fall to his knees and gasp dramatically, barking something like, "What is this world coming to?"
But Jake wasn't there, which was good, because she started to kiss the human back. His kiss was sweet and he smiled against her lips when she kissed him back. Finn pulled back, his mouth making a pop sound as he did so. "Yup, you taste like strawberries," he breathed.
"You taste like... I dunno... weird."
"Well, I haven't exactly brushed my teeth in awhile..."
"Ugh! Gross!"
"Hey, the strawberries have an aftertaste of blood. That's gross." He laughed and held her pale hand. "Come on now." Finn took a few steps forward, unaware that he was walking towards the tombstone, and as soon as he hit the white stone slab, he fell through the ground!
"AAAAHHH!"
Of course, because he was holding onto Marceline, she fell too, and the two began free falling through an unknown hole. Falling through holes isn't exactly the best thing to do after a smooch, but hey, takes away from the awkward pause that's supposed to follow, right?
Real World, July 13th, 4:00 P.M.
"Jake?"
"Leave me alone."
"Oh come on Jakey, don't be a pouter for me."
"Lady?" The door swung open and the magical dog literally jumped out in excitement! "Oh Lady, I missed you so much, you're the best girlfriend in the— BEEMO?"
Jake then realized that he was hugging a robot, not a rainicorn. "Sorry Jake!" Beemo apologized. "But Ice King summoned me here with his powers, and I was scared, so I came to your door. And I was playing around with my voice audio, so I guess I sounded like Lady Rainicorn."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. Ice King summoned you here with his ice magic? I didn't know his ice magic could teleport! And why did he bring you here anyway?"
Beemo hugged Jake tighter. "He's so horrible! He wants to trade me with some tiger for a protein bar!" the poor robot hollered.
As if on cue, Ice King came into the hallway. "Give me back my valuable object! I've gotta trade it for my protein bar!" he shouted.
"Beemo doesn't belong to you, he's mine, and he's worth a lot more than a protein bar!" Jake yelled.
Ice King rubbed his beard. "Suppose you're right... fine, two protein bars. But I get one and a half."
"No one is getting a hold of Beemo! And realistically speaking, he'd be worth a box of protein bars, and a typical box has twelve, so he'd be worth twelve protein bars." Beemo gave Jake a look but the dog shrugged. "One of your controllers broke, you're not exactly in top shape." Jake set Beemo down and cleared his throat. "Now I've got Marceline and Finn on the beds. I don't know what that potion has done to Marceline, but I hope she's alright..."
Ice King raised a hand. "Maybe she'll be better if she had a—"
"—Don't say protein bar."
"... two protein bars."
"GO AWAY ICE KING!" Jake shouted, shutting the door to the room. Beemo was standing beside his friend as he huffed and puffed. The magical dog then looked at the scared and confused robot. "You need to be up to date, don't you?"
"It'd be nice to know what's going on..." the little robot stammered. "You know, if you're up to telling me."
Jake sighed and gave his friend a tight and assuring hug. "Ice King just stresses me," he sighed. "It's okay, I'll tell you."
"But before you do..."
"Yes?"
"I'm not going to make it back in time for soccer practice, am I?"
"No, poor Beemo. No."
The Memory Core
Finn won't lie, when he first fell down that mysterious hole, he screamed. He probably sounded like a girl, and if Marceline wasn't so busy screaming herself, she'd probably point that out. But at least he only gave one long and loud scream once. Then he shut up. Because the surroundings suddenly changed, everything was pitch black, and there was a white tree in the distance. The tree was pure white and glowed, and it was tall with hundreds of branches sticking out.
"We're at your memory core," he informed.
"That's great, but we won't reach it if we keep falling," Marceline huffed. "What, so in memory land gravity doesn't work?"
He hummed. "I don't remember that last time. But Jake and I were never suspended in the air for so long. Wow, this is weird." He thought of different ways they could reach the tree. Gravity wasn't on their side, apparently. There was a rustling sound and he turned his head to the vampire behind him, "What are you doing?"
"Looking through your backpack," Marceline informed. "You've got a lot of useless junk in here, you know that?"
"One man's junk is another man's treasure."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I dunno, Jake says it. He says dog instead of man though."
Marceline then hissed, "Yes! I found some rope! Hang on weenie, lemme show you how to lasso." Finn turned so he was facing her, waiting to be amazed. She tied a loop at the end of the rope and started to swing the rope back and forth. Momentum began to build and then after a few good swings, the vampire had the rope flying towards the tree!
Bwoop.
"Marceline? You missed."
Growl. "I know that, Finn."
He started laughing. "Wow, you really missed. Like, the rope didn't even make it halfway."
She made an angry face. "Well it's not my fault my body is a lot weaker! If I was stronger and older, my arms would be longer, and then I'd be able to make the branch!"
"I'm sure you could," he smiled.
Her eyes went into slits. "Alright pathetic human, let's see you try and make the rope hit the tree."
"Well, I would, but—"
"Ha! You know you wouldn't be able to get it farther than me!"
"... No, when you threw the rope, you let go of your end, so now the rope is all the way over there," Finn stated.
Marceline realized her mistake. "Oh," she muttered. "I meant to do that."
"You meant to cause more work? Now we have to really push ourselves in order to get the rope."
"Exactly. My plan was for you to workout and build some muscle, flabby."
Finn shrieked in horror. "You take that back! I know I have some pudge, but that's just because my body isn't fully into puberty, or something along that junk!"
She laughed. "No! You're pudgy because you eat Jake's ice cream pizza!"
"You keep his ice cream pizza out of this! You know I have a weakness for ice cream and pizza!" the hero boy hollered. "And I'll have you know that last Saturday I did eleven push ups!"
"Whoa, watch out, we got a badass over here!" Marceline retorted. "And my cat does more push ups than you."
Finn sneered. "You don't have a cat!"
"But if I did, I'd make sure he'd do TWELVE push-ups every Saturday! That'd make my cat that much better than YOU!" the Vampire Queen laughed.
He was starting to run out of quips, so instead his face scrunched up with frustration and tension. "Oh yeah? Oh yeah? Well cats are lame!"
"That response was lame."
"No it wasn't! You know Marcy, sometimes you can be downright— oomph!"
Finn was never able to finish his insult (not that it was a very good one) because his right side suddenly smacked into something hard. He immediately looked up, and was surprised to see that he had bumped right into the tree! Marceline laughed when she saw his expression. "I purposely argued with you because I know you move faster in frustration," she said simply. "Don't worry Finn, I don't have a cat. And your slight pudge is cute."
He was blushing furiously, because topics about his physical physique wasn't a topic he'd often chat about. "Ummm thank you?" he mumbled. The hero quickly turned his back to the amused vampire and started to climb up the tree. How can I go from kissing her to fighting with her, to wanting to climb away from her? The hero wondered to himself. When everything goes back to normal, I'm going to have a long sit and think about romance and all the junk. Maybe with a slice of ice cream pizza to go along with it. Ooh! Then I'll do more push ups. Yeah. That sounds math.
"Look Finn! Up there! See that shining light?" Marceline called, pointing upward.
Above was a bright crimson red light. "It's the same color of the blood I drank, the blood that poisoned me! This is it!" Marceline exclaimed. Both of them started climbing faster and faster, anticipation that all this danger could possibly be over! She passed Finn while climbing, and reached a hand out towards the light.
"Are you sure you can touch it?" he asked.
"I don't know... but I'm going to try!" she replied. Marceline gave Finn one final look. "Hey, we're gonna get out of here," she said. Her voice was a little calmer, her demeanor a little more serious.
He nodded in agreement. "We always do."
And with that silent confirmation, Marceline reached forward and stuck her hand through the light. "I'm feeling tingles..."
"Sounds fun?"
She humphed. "Wait... I'm feeling something else... the tingles are spreading...!"
"Now I'm getting tingles!" Finn exclaimed. He was suddenly taken aback. "Whoa, Marcy, you're glowing!"
The red light consumed her whole body, wrapping around her and forming to every bent and crevice in her body. It looked like she was wearing a cloak of red shining light, and it was only slightly disturbing that the color of red looked like blood. Everything happened so fast, as soon as the light consumed her, it brightened, and Finn was blinded by the sudden burst of light! He had no choice but to turn away and shut his eyes tight!
A few moments passed, who knows how long really, but abruptly the light deceased and once again the only thing illuminating the dark was the soft glow of the white tree. Finn wasted no time to look back at Marceline. "Are you okay? Marceline are you— WHOA!"
She blinked a few times and opened her eyes. "What? Are we out of my memories? What happened?" she grumbled. "Finn? What's with the look of terror?"
"Not terror! Happiness! Marceline, you're no longer thirteen! Your body is back to normal, you look older again!" he exclaimed.
Her hair was as long as it was before, her skin was back to its normal complexion, her body was taller, eyes brighter, and fangs exposed. All this was what they wanted to fix in the first place, but the queen couldn't help but think something was wrong. "No, this isn't right..." she muttered. "There's no way I can be back to normal..."
"Why not?" he questioned. "You're healthy again, aren't you?"
"I'm not... we're still in my memories. We're still in my mind, in a make believe figment. Anything that happens in here isn't real, so how would I be able to change my form and shape? No, something happened, something made me turn this way." Finn gave her a quizzical look and suddenly Marceline's eyes widened in panic. Her head snapped to her arm— it was still inside the red light. She tried to retract her arm, but it wouldn't go back. "Finn! Help me! My arm is stuck!" she shrieked.
He immediately climbed higher to her. "Your arm is stuck in the light?" he demanded.
Before she could answer, she screamed. "It's hurting meeee!" the queen hollered.
The adventurer was in panic. He tried to pull Marceline's arm out of the light, but something shocked him as soon as he touched it! The shock sent him flying, but luckily he clung onto the tree and tried to climb back up to Marceline! He wasn't fast enough.
Out from the light came a face, and it was Ash's. He laughed maniacally, a deep evil cackle. "You didn't think I'd let you win, did you?" he chuckled. "Now my mind is crossed with yours, dear Mar-Mar."
"The licorice I tasted! It was a potion you gave me!" she shrieked.
"Oh no, I didn't give it to you. Jake must have force-fed it to you," Ash replied.
"Jake would never!" Finn yelled.
"But he did." Ash laughed and he looked at Finn, giving the adventurer a quick wink. Then, he forcefully grabbed Marceline's face and pulled her into a heated kiss. She screamed against his lips, but he had a hold on her, and he kissed her full on the mouth with viciousness. When he broke off, she yelled she'd kill him, and he spat, "Ugh, you taste like hero. Gross."
The only good thing that came out of Ash's forced kiss on Marceline was Finn being able to grab his sword without him noticing. And now the adventurer was in full rage, because not only is Ash hurting his Marcy, but he totally just kissed her against her will! He flung the sword out and it stabbed straight through Ash's arm! "YOU LITTLE BRAT!" he hissed, automatically losing his grip on Marceline.
At least now that she was back to her normal body, she had her vampire powers. Now his grasp wasn't weakening her! She was able to float no problem and she swung out and kicked him, straight in the nose!
"You two are absolute idiots! You're not getting out of here!" Ash hollered. He then punched Marceline in the face and flew out of the red-light portal. "Your freedom will only come from me," he threatened.
Marceline rubbed the blood off her mouth. "Bring it on, Ash. I've fought you before, I'll fight you again."
"You lost before, you pathetic queen."
"But now is different." Marceline's voice suddenly became as cold and cruel as ice. "I've got Finn."
Author's Note:
Longest chapter yet! 8D Whoo! Well I hope this was a drama-bomb filled chapter, and I hope you all liked it. I just want to say thank you to all my guys are truly wonderful :) It's sad that this story is coming close to an end, but I hope you stick with me and read until the end!
I know the beginning was sad. That was the planned storyline for poor Marcy's mother. I hope you didn't find my switching from sad to funny all too sporadic. Marceline just decided enough was enough and her determination to get out alive strengthened her. Her grief for her mother was also stopping her from continuing forward.
The image for this story is a fan-art drawing the very talented The Stinky Foot drew. She drew it awhile back as a fan picture for my story and now it's the profile picture. She's such a wonderful artist :D
Let me know what you think of the chapter! I'M SO CLOSE TO 100 REVIEWS! RAAWWWRRR! That being said, I'd eternally appreciate a review, and thank you so much for reading!
Much love, randomness, and weirdness,
~Luna
