Chapter 10: Sonata's Song
Finn was wandering through the massive snowy wasteland of the Ice Kingdom after getting the ankh from the temple. He was lost in his thoughts. He kept hearing a voice repeating the words in his head. "A failure… a monster… a villain…" Finn was worried about not being able to prevent the dark future that had been predicted for him. His footprints in the snow were being quickly covered up one step after the other. Finn overlooked himself. He looked at his bloody shoulder which had barely healed, and he was starting to question if it was infected. He looked at the injury in his knee. It was becoming harder to walk. He hadn't noticed until now, though he knew he had no items to treat his injuries with. Suddenly he had a revelation and looked towards the obscured view of the sun. "I need to get to Marceline's!" Finn exclaimed to himself, continuing to trek through the snow as fast as his injured leg would let him.
Finn walked fast through the Land of Ooo again. It was nice to be back in the warm sun and out of the cold snow. He had a smile on his face once he arrived to his friend's cave. He didn't hesitate to march to her front door and knock on it, hoping she wouldn't question him about the ankh or the power gauntlet he had acquired. The door opened, the vampire queen herself floating there. "Oh hey, Finn- whoa…!" she greeted him, but was shocked upon sight of his injuries "I'm guessing you're here to get those treated?" Marceline asked, letting him inside, presuming that the reason for his visit was for medical assistance.
"Well yeah, for one thing anyway. I came to ask for a big favour. It's really important, Marcy," Finn exclaimed while taking a seat in her living room. He had her attention grabbed. "Okay. What is it?" she hesitated to interrogate him about what he wanted. It was awkward to her. He was seemingly very happy over whatever this was. "I need you to… well… I want you to kill me!" Finn blurted out. He thought that dying was the easier and better method of avoiding the terrible future. It was possible that he might die either way on this dangerous quest.
Marceline was frozen stiff from the initial shock at first. She then glared at him. "Are you insane?! I can't just kill you for the sake of it!" she snapped back, not wanting to harm her friend. "Please, Marcy! If I don't die, something terrible is going to happen in a few months. I can't live with this guilt, knowing what I might do is worse than what I nearly did to the Ice King…" Finn pleaded, only to receive a punch to the face, getting his mouth to close shut. "Do you even hear yourself? What are you even talking about?!" Marceline responded. She was somewhat infuriated at him for asking to be killed. Finn had to come clean now after the breakdown and beg for death.
"…I found a fortune teller, and in a couple of months, she showed my future. It was about me killing my brother by a demolished Candy Kingdom. Either I find all these items to stop it or I die," Finn explained to her the best he could, but he had begun tearing up, looking at the floor, just at the thought of being a murderous crook.
Marceline just sighed, holding her head. She knew that he was upset about everything that happened. "And you think death is the best option out of those two?" she asked. Finn just shrugged. "Well… I'm just a pain to everyone at this point," he mumbled. "Well not to me. As much as I'd love to get an easy taste of blood, I can't do it. We need you, Finn. You're a hero no matter what," she argued back, reassuring him. As she spoke, it was going to get dark soon. "I'll go get the medical kit. You can spend the night if you want," she offered. "…Alright. Thanks, Marcy… and sorry," he apologized for bringing up this subject of death. Marceline patted his shoulder, easily forgiving him for this like it was nothing.
The night went pretty, normally between the two of them. She treated his injuries with all of her medical experience, but Finn noticed at one point where she was getting her bass axe guitar. It was an instrument that doubled as a weapon when needed. Marceline was tuning it, having practiced with it a lot. "Hey, uh… do you mind if I listen?" he asked her. "Yeah, sure. I just need to try and finish this song. Only the beginning is written, really…" Marceline admitted. She was trying to finish a song, but now she was thinking that perhaps Finn could assist with adding more lyrics while listening to what she had so far.
Marceline strummed her guitar slightly before beginning to hum until it got to a certain point. "Lost like a child, I searched aimlessly. The sky hanging overhead like a graveyard, although my life is changing like ink, on a map that is caught in the pouring rain…" Marceline stopped at that point. She just was strumming her guitar, having run out of lyrics. Finn smirked, standing up, having always enjoyed joining her in a song. "Although I am small and my strides barely make any impact. I can go beyond the clouds in the sky, to a place that's alive. But just like dancing in the dark you slip through like a knife to cut your way right to my heart, to see a bright light in a new path," Finn sang while she continued to play her guitar. Marceline smiled, somewhat liking the lyrics before beginning to sing with him.
"That is calling softly to me. I can break through to the other side of this, though I won't forget what's left behind. Unknowingly embedded like a thought from a dream. We're surrounded by sticker stars, black and white, that's something precious that we chose to hide out of fear of our rainbow world," they sang before Marceline continued it solo. "Like from the stars up above," Finn took over the solo singing act for a moment. "Or the colors of the flowers that bloom out of love," they both looked to each other before singing the last lyrical line together. "In a treasure chest from a false vision, that we're both sharing, like a hologram," they finished, Marceline strumming her guitar one last time before Finn was panting to regain his lost breath. The vampire queen herself was writing it down on paper.
"Not really my kind of song, but I didn't mind it. Thanks for the help, Finn," Marceline thanked him before holding out the musical sheet of paper with the lyrics written on it to him. Finn took it with a raised eyebrow. "Don't you want this?" he asked. "Nah, you keep it. Try to get some rest," she declined Finn's question and bid him goodnight. Marceline took her equipment upstairs, letting him sleep on her couch. Finn felt much better after hanging out with her. She always knew how to cheer him up. However, Finn knew that he had to find the next temple tomorrow, so he just tried to enjoy his night rest while he still had it.
End of Chapter 10