To my readers-

I am truly sorry for making you wait so long for another chapter to be uploaded. I don't have any excuse; I merely procrastinated until today. I had about half a chapter completed, and I just finished it. So here it is, long overdue. I must tell you all, however, that I will be rescinding my promise to update daily, and rather I will do a content dump every week.

Sorry- Josh

Chapter Ten: Escape

Marceline smiled as she saw that Finn was doing alright. She rubbed her neck where he had bitten it, and shivered as her hand brushed past her bite marks. "I guess I'll never really get over the fact that I'm not truly alive…" she thought sadly. She kept smiling though, and she watched as Finn looked over towards Bubblegum.

His muscles tensed, and he sidestepped to place himself between Marceline and the woman whom he thought to be his captor.

Marceline remembered that he had no idea what was going on, so she spoke as soothingly as she could, saying, "Finn, calm down. The Bubblegum that hurt you was a clone, one that was madly in love with Cyrus. He is the cause of all of this. But that is Bonnie."

Finn quickly looked back towards her and relaxed as he saw the sure but soft expression that Marceline bore. He glanced at Bubblegum, but then returned to Marceline. He walked over to her, rested his forehead atop her scalp, and wrapped his arms around her lower back. She wrapped her long arms around him in return. Pulling her in close, he nibbled her ear lobe.

She didn't resist, but when he pulled away Marceline asked quietly, "What's with all this weird stuff you're doing? First my neck, now my ear?"

Finn shrugged, still holding her, and replied, "Just seems right. I don't know."

Suddenly Bubblegum cleared her throat. Both Finn and Marceline quickly looked over towards her, and, getting their attention, she stated, "We woke Finn up for a reason, remember?"

Marceline released Finn and replied, "Yes. Yes we did. Finn, come on. You need to eat." She held out her hand and he gladly took it, letting her lead him to Bubblegum for nourishment. When they reached her, she held out her hand, which held five candy eggs. They were each about an inch long, a quarter of an inch wide at the small end, and half an inch wide at the large end. There was a variety of fun colors and designs, with pinks and blues and stripes and polka-dots and more. "Now don't eat these too quickly Finn, because they swell in your stomach. I packed all the nutrients you need into them, and they expand just to make you feel satisfied."

Finn, just realizing how hungry he was, grabbed the small things from her hand and quickly said "Thanks PB," then he began veraciously devouring one of the eggs. Bubblegum backed off a few feet to give him space.

"Slow down!" Bubblegum said, just as Finn was about to begin attacking his second egg.

He looked at her morosely, but he listened and set out to eat the rest of the eggs.

Bubblegum and Marceline merely watched him eat quietly, until Marceline's stomach broke the silence. It growled loudly, expressing its disapproval of not eating for almost six days.

Both Bubblegum and Finn looked up at the sudden noise, and Marceline said embarrassedly, "You wouldn't happen to have anything red, would you Bonnie?"

Bubblegum laughed, then looked around and shrugged. "Not anything safe."

Marceline looked down at her stomach. "Alright, I guess I can wait. So what's our plan for getting out of here anyways?"

"Simple," said Bubblegum, "There is an escape tunnel built into this room that leads directly from here to a hidden spot in the forest."

Marceline looked at her with a look on her face that just screamed "Really?" and then looked over to Finn and said, "Hurry up Finn. If I get any hungrier I just might eat you." then she winked at him and he began to tear apart his last egg with greater speed than before. She chuckled, and walked away to the chair to sit down. Bubblegum walked over to sit down next to the chair, and also next to her clone. She began to mess with the clone's head, but Marceline was too busy watching Finn to notice.

She watched as he finished his last bit of food, and then Bubblegum got up out of nowhere, walked back over and handed him a large blue glass filled halfway with a liquid of indeterminable color. "Drink this," she said.

"What is it?" Finn asked.

Bubblegum sighed, and replied "It's water you dum-dum. Now drink it."

Finn swigged the water deeply, coughing a little as it went down his throat which he now knew to be extremely dry. He went to take another drink but stopped when he felt another fit of coughs coming on. It did come, and he coughed violently for a few seconds, spewing spittle and lurching.

Marceline and Bubblegum both looked alarmed by this, but when he stopped Marceline merely asked, "Are you okay?"

Finn looked a little woozy, but he replied calmly and in an even tone, "Yeah. I'm fine, thanks." He forced a light smile for Marceline, and then set out to finish the drink, though with much smaller gulps.

When finally he finished, Bubblegum said casually, "So I think we should get out of here now. Cyrus is still here after all."

Marceline and Finn nodded, then, realizing what that meant, Finn said in a whisper, "So wait, how did you even get in here with him snooping around in the castle?"

Bubblegum looked at him frustrated and said, "I'll explain everything once we're out of here. We can talk at your house Finn."

Finn looked at her suspiciously but didn't object, and said, "Alright. The sooner we get out of here the better."

With that, Bubblegum turned around and walked to the end of the room opposite the door and stomped on the center tile. It sprung upwards and opened violently, stopping less than a centimeter away from hitting the wall behind it. She swept her hand towards her, ushering Finn and Marceline towards the exit. Marceline, however, hung back and said "What about your clone?"

Bubblegum looked at her confusedly, and then remembered something. "I forgot to tell you didn't I?" she said. "How silly of me; I overloaded her brain while Finn was eating. She's dead." She smiled sheepishly and then swept her hand at the trapdoor again.

Marceline stared at her as if she was crazy. "Isn't that kind of unethical?" she said worriedly.

Bubblegum looked at her in disbelief, as if her words had been meant to detriment Bubblegum's ability to make decisions. She sighed angrily, and then said "No, it's completely ethical. I created her, from me, so I reserved the right to get rid of her." She started getting frustrated, and vexed she said, "We don't have time for this. Come on." Then she swept her hand towards the trapdoor with emphasis and Marceline grudgingly obeyed, slipping through the hole into a nearly pitch black corridor. Bubblegum followed behind her, shutting the door by pulling on a rope in the hallway. When the door had been shut, all but Marceline were blind in the darkness.

Finn shouted from somewhere ahead, "Who turned out the lights?"

In response, bright fluorescent headlamps flickered to life above the three, temporarily blinding them all. When Bubblegum's eyes recovered, she saw that Marceline was standing next to the breaker that had turned on the lights. "Thanks." said Bubblegum.

"No probs Peebubs." said Marceline.

"Let's go guys." said Finn from further away.

'Wait up!" Marceline and Bubblegum yelled in unison. They looked at each other, laughed, and then set off running through the now lit corridor. When they turned a corner a few seconds later, they saw Finn standing still looking in their direction. When he saw them running towards him, he turned around and began running also, obviously trying to mess with the girls. What he didn't account for, however, was that Marceline surpassed him in every way, and soon he was struggling to keep up with her easy jogging.

For several minutes, they ran in silence. Then out of nowhere they came to a dead-end. Bubblegum took a few seconds to catch up, and when she did she said, "Alright, this is the outlet into the forest." Then she kicked the center of the wall and the hall was flooded with natural light streaming in from a hole in the roof.

Marceline looked at Bubblegum, and then said "You sure like kicking stuff don't you P.B.?"

Finn chuckled, and Bubblegum looked back at them both, saying, "Kicking stuff is my thang." Then she eyed both her companions and they laughed at the seriousness of her expression. Bubblegum then laughed also, and they all shared in this moment of joy. But soon it was over, and Bubblegum was ushering the two to climb up and out of the hole in the roof.

The first one out was Finn, followed by Marceline and finally Bubblegum. When she came to the surface, Bubblegum shut the trapdoor that was lying on the ground and all three saw that it blended in perfectly with its surroundings. The only thing that gave away anything about this location was that it was under the largest tree in a small grotto. The Candy Kingdom splayed itself across their view from miles away, and Bubblegum couldn't help but feel awestruck by the beauty of her prosperous kingdom.

But their fascination was short lived, for out of the surrounding trees burst five banana guards. And along with this clumsy security force was the one person with whom they were all dreading a confrontation.

"Hello their, Finn, Marceline, and hello Princess Bubblegum." He said evilly, smiling with a satisfied grin.

Finn and Bubblegum stood shocked, but Marceline jumped forwards and tackled the man to the ground, hissing viciously and baring her fangs at Cyrus's face.

"This is where you die!" She screamed.

Cyrus, not phased in the slightest, said coolly, "No, my dear Marceline. This is where YOU die."

And then everything went dark.