Of course this chapter comes with darkness warnings, and of course I apologise in advance. But then Bonnie wouldn't be Bonnie if she didn't sometimes make a huge miscalculation and screw things up for herself, right? As ever, I only torture her because she's secretly my favourite and she's just so interesting when she's having drama.

So if you get to the end of this chapter, wonder if I deliberately named my OCs in a way that would promote ambiguity all the way back in Foundlings, and wonder how long my long game is on this... yes, I did, and there is more to come. I've been subtly foreshadowing a pretty big reveal since the beginning of Foundlings and you won't get to find out what it is until the end of Full Circle, although I'd love to hear some fan theories on that if you have any. Or, feedback in general. Feedback is awesome.

Content Warning: Elliot being dickish, feeling revelations, nods to the great Tony Bennett, injury, bravery, suicide missions, plot devices, head-fucks.

As Gopala finally spun to a halt and put a windswept Phoebe down with another bow she became aware that there was a hum of conversation running through the ball room that didn't sound exactly friendly. She wasn't able to make out any distinct words but there was something subtly different in the mood of the crowd, something of tense excitement and speculation.

"Thanks, Gopala. I should go find my brothers." she muttered to him distractedly as she stared off into the crowd. Finn was dancing with stupid Victoria who looked far too pretty to be allowed at someone else's birthday party. Besides there was exactly zero chance of her dumb little brother having noticed anything unusual happening anyway. Instead Phoebe whirled, scanning the room for Jake. She found herself face to face with a very unwelcome pair of grey-blue eyes that were smirking at her.

"Happy birthday, Glow Worm." Elliot greeted her with a toothy grin.

"It's Firefly, and only my family call me that." she snapped back, temper flaring. Dammit, she didn't have time to play games with her androgynous vampire guardian, she needed to find out what was going on. Where were her parents? They'd been right there a couple of minutes earlier and now they were nowhere to be seen.

"Whatever. So, you're looking for your family? Ohh, you don't know yet! How precious. Well, there's some gossip going down alright. Your Mom is off in the study screaming at your Mama because some talking lemon dude turned up and screeched that he was her lawful husband. I guess that wasn't part of the night's entertainment? Chill, your Aunt Zoe is already reassuring people that Fruit Brain is just confused and there's nothing to worry about. I mean... that's a pretty obvious lie though, right? So, your parents might not be legally wed after all. Huh. Technically that means all their late night fumbling was adultery, does the Candy Kingdom have laws about that? Does that make you a bastard, since you were adopted out of wedlock? How does that work, do you think?"

"I swear to Grod, Elliot. If you don't shut the fuck up right now I will stake you right here in front of all these witnesses-"

"Princess! What is this I hear about you mothers committing bigamy? There's no truth in the rumour, is there?" a new voice asked. But at least it was only the father and not-

No, when she spun to address the Duke of Nuts as he bore down on her from the dessert table with pudding stains around his mouth Macadamien was trailing him and smiling at her like he'd done something very subtle in talking his father into asking her about the night's gossip.

"Just a misunderstanding, dear Duke. Mom has it all under control. You know how Lemongrab gets, he's confused." Phoebe replied with a smooth curtsy to him.

"He's just the worst, I can't imagine why he was even invited. And on your birthday too, I'm so sorry. Princess Phoebe, while we're here I was wondering if you would do my eldest son the honour of the next dance?"

She cringed internally and looked over his shoulder in desperation.

"I'm afraid I already have a partner for the evening." Phoebe lied quickly. "I agreed to dance with... Uh..."

Elliot was smirking at her with a raised eyebrow like Phoebe had backed herself into a corner and for one horrifying split second she thought she might have to dance with the unpleasant vampire all evening. Until a familiar outline at the punch table caught her attention.

"I agreed to teach Yrran how to dance." Phoebe announced loudly enough for the bald Grimmalk to hear. He turned to look at her, breaking off from his conversation with M'iol Deservingblood to catch her eye in surprise. "Yrran! There you are! I thought I'd lost you."

"M'lady." Yrran greeted her as he slid gracefully through the crowd to where they stood. "I arrived late, I thought the gracious thing to do would be allow you to finish your first dance. Shall we?"

He held out a paw and she took it with no outward sign of surprise that he was playing along with her bizarre ploy even when instead of the expected brief kiss he touched the back of her hand against the warm suede of his cheek in a traditional Grimmalk greeting. Macadamien watched them disappear off onto the dance floor with narrowed eyes.

"Thanks for getting me out of that." Phoebe murmured as they settled into a gentle waltz rhythm. "Macadamien won't leave me alone, he thinks I'm his true love. I might have lost my temper and shouted at him yesterday. How's your sunburn by the way?"

"Painful." Yrran replied quietly.

"Sorry about that. But I suppose that's a good thing though, right?"

"I guess so, given what your goal was. I've never seen a light show quite like it before. Is that... can all flame elementals do that?"

She shrugged and he misstepped, ending up too close and with one back leg halfway shoved between the skirts of her dress. Yrran flushed and stepped back hurriedly.

"Sorry." he mumbled with an embarrassed flick of his long, bat-like ears. "Guess I need those dancing lessons after all."

"No, it's my fault." she sighed, suddenly pensive. "I don't know if other flame elementals can do that, I don't know much about them at all. It only just occurred to me recently that I might be capable of controlling more than just fireballs, you know? Since the rebels came back. My biological brother told me I was a weapon, my fire is better than any sword. So I decided to experiment with it. I don't think anyone else in the Fire Kingdom has thought about applying scientific process to their abilities. But from what my study suggests we're basically tiny nuclear reactors and we can emit light at the visible range. So then why not infrared and ultraviolet light too? Or anything on the electromagnetic spectrum; maybe I could even learn to emit radio waves or radiation. Those are produced in a nuclear reaction too, not just yellow and red light. So I figured, why not experiment with the length of light waves I emit? I- I'm sorry, I'm boring you."

Phoebe forced herself to stop talking. It was just that she'd never really met anyone but her Mama who shared her passion for science and she was keeping her new discovery about her light waves a secret from her parents until she was certain she could produce accurate and reliable results. Any attempt for permission to fight before she could prove she was their best weapon would result in her being kept under strict lock and key for the rest of the war and Phoebe was not going to let her Mama's overprotectiveness stop her from being useful. But Yrran was watching her with that same unwavering intensity that she'd come to associate with the quiet cat demon.

"You call it science, I call it magic." he replied softly. "You can create the essence of daylight and bend flames to your will, you can tell your fire when to burn and when to gently warm the skin. It's witchcraft. You are a witch. An enchantress."

It was difficult but not impossible for a flame elemental to blush, Phoebe knew. And she was so glad that the flickering blue of her flame shield obscured any small change in the colour of her cheeks. She looked away as they swayed in a wide arc around the room.

"May I ask you a personal question, Princess?" Yrran asked softly after the silence stretched between them.

"Sure."

"Why do they call you Firefly?"

"It's been a nickname since I was young. Mom started calling me it, she said it's because I radiate moon glow."

"Oh. Well, Lady Evil is as poetically accurate as ever, then. I understand the 'fire' part, but why 'fly'? Do... do you have the power of flight?"

He looked stunned at the surprised giggle that burst from her lips and Phoebe found herself grinning at the genuine innocence in the cat demon's eyes. They were cold blooded assassins, the worst demons of the underworld with a reputation more chilling and deserved than anyone else she'd ever met. And Yrran had no idea what a firefly was, the princess realised.

"No, like, a firefly is a type of bug. They glow in the evenings and stuff, they're considered quite pretty and, well, kinda romantic I suppose. People write about them in songs and use them in paintings. You've never seen one?"

He shook his head and the next words were falling out of her mouth without her even thinking about it.

"Oh. Well meet me in the rose garden at sunset tomorrow, I'll show you some."

"I would be honoured." Yrran replied with a slow, soft smile. They carried on waltzing carefully and Phoebe found it almost impossible to look away from his unblinking eyes or focus her mind with her usual sharp accuracy.

Mama would throw a fit, she realised distantly. Mom would try to behead him for treason or lock her in her bedroom for the next hundred years. But she didn't actually care, they weren't there to keep her away from the 'dangerous' demon and Yrran was a revelation, he was like nobody she'd ever met before. And against all odds Phoebe found herself waltzing around the ballroom in the arms of a thoughtful, handsome, intelligent man who was interested in science and thought she was magical and had never once tried to talk her into anything or assumed she was too dumb to see through him. There was just a tiny possibility she was developing a little bit of a crush on him and that was a problem for a number of reasons. Yrran was a soldier; a well-read and polite soldier with impeccable manners but still not even close to approaching royalty or nobility. Of course her parents wouldn't care about that but wider society would talk and Phoebe hated being the subject of gossip. They were in the middle of what was looking like it was going to be a violent rebellion, she didn't have time to date anyone and even if she did she had a horrible feeling that she wouldn't know how to do it anyway. Jake had never shown the least interest in anyone ever until he met Lady and they became more or less inseparable immediately. Finn had kissed about every single girl he wasn't related to at one point or another and she didn't want to know if he'd done more than just taking girls out on dates and smooching with them because ew gross, but there was a good chance he'd fooled around a bit since he'd managed to get Victoria pregnant like the idiot he was. And Phoebe had always thought she was far too clever for dating; girls didn't interest her anyway and boys were just so dumb. She had no contact with any other flame elemental except her brother Daven and she was too scared to think of hurting anyone who wasn't made of fire if her shield failed so the number of people she could even think about safely kissing was pretty much zero. And now here she was dancing with a Grimmalk, not even a regular one of them because he was a strange hairless cat considered a weirdo by his demon comrades and he was still staring at her in intense fascination like she was the only person in the room-

"I have to go. I told LSP I'd dance with her too." Phoebe announced abruptly, dropping his paw and stepping back hurriedly. She needed to think and being too close to that direct slatted gaze made her brain feel fogged.

"Oh. Of course, I wouldn't want to monopolise your time. Happy birthday, your Majesty." Yrran replied in that same soft voice, bowing again gracefully with the barest hint of a tiny purr behind his words. Phoebe hurried away with her head spinning and heart pounding.

...

Starchy wasn't brave and he wasn't clever. What he was, more than anything, was simply loyal. And when he'd seen his queen running from her study with tears on her face and raised voices following her he'd automatically abandoned his sweeping and jogged after her without a second thought. All of the years of changed behaviour didn't count for anything if that vampire woman was going to go back to making Queen Bubblegum upset, and on her daughter's birthday too. Well Starchy wouldn't stand for it; if her wife wasn't going to comfort her then he was. She fled out to the courtyard and into the town and he ran after her, puffing hard to keep up. Bubblegum stopped at the edge of town, looked around, glowered at the palace and then took off in the direction of Lake Butterscotch. Where was she going? It was the middle of the night and Starchy had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. There were vampires out there. It seemed like a bad idea to him and he tried to call out to tell her so but he was winded from the sprinting and his words came out as a quiet gasp as she took off again in the gloom oblivious to his warning. Starchy sucked in another burning breath and took off running again, following his mistress despite his stubby legs screaming in protest at the pace.

For a minute he was terrified that he'd lost her somewhere in the inky darkness of the tree line, until a flare of lamp light in a window up ahead showed him that she'd gone into a house of some kind. Starchy finally slowed and allowed his breathing to return to normal before approaching. The queen would be safe enough in her cabin for now, he knew vampires couldn't enter without permission so he took a minute to compose himself first.

He'd wandered close enough that he could see the door and porch clearly but he was still far enough back that the golden light spilling from the windows didn't directly illuminate him for anyone inside the cabin to see if they were looking for him. And for a moment Starchy wondered who the strange man on the porch was, he hadn't seen anyone else walk up to the cabin but next second there was just a man floating there in the air, touching down soundlessly. Just like the vampire queen when she dropped out of a hover and slid back to visibility-

The man shook his head and a long, glossy mane of ebony black hair fell down to his heels, obscuring his shape for a second. Starchy blinked. But that looked just like Queen Marceline, the man was now a slender woman dressed in clothes that were too big for her. Starchy was about to call out, ask what Marceline thought she was doing, but something stopped him. Perhaps it was instinct or fear or just pure dumb luck. But next second he heard the stranger knock on the cabin door and he slunk further back into the shadows, not wishing either of his queens to think he'd been spying on their private business.

"What do you want now?" Bubblegum's voice called angrily from the other side of the door.

"Hello cupcake. I can't wait to taste your screams." the stranger muttered in a low, masculine voice full of the promise of violence. Starchy swallowed in sudden fear. That couldn't really be Marceline, not even after their worst fights would the vampire woman ever deliberately hurt her wife.

"What? I can't hear you. Oh, for Grod's sakes, just come in and we'll talk."

Before Starchy could find his voice to shout a warning the door was thrown open and the man disguised as Marceline hovered inside. Starchy panicked. What could he do? Creep forward and try to stake the man while he was distracted? But he was so afraid, there was every chance that if he had to look into those burning undead eyes close up he'd explode from the fear. Maybe he could run back to the palace and fetch the real Marceline? But by the time he'd done that what if Bubblegum was already dead? He dithered, paralysed by indecision and trembling with terror.

It looked for a second like Starchy had underestimated his queen's resourcefulness because just when he was settling on a plan to run in blindly and hope he found some courage Bubblegum exploded from the door and shot out into the night, almost bowling him over as he scrambled to get out of her way. And half a second later the stranger followed, face now masculine again and set in a mask of rage. He tackled her and spiralled up into the night sky with her gripped in a painful hold, talking to her in a low, angry voice too quiet for Starchy to hear. He stifled his gasp when the man took the crown from his queen's head and her sudden scream was cut off after half a second, then something twisted that glittered brokenly in the moonlight fell from his fist and clattered to the ground. The man flew off, back towards him and into the trees, and for a moment Starchy felt his queen's eyes on his face. She'd seen him, she must have. He knew then that he had to follow then, there was no other way. Bubblegum was depending on him. So off he went, bumbling along recklessly after them down a dark forest path covered in ground creepers and thorns and other things that tried to snag him and trip him, tear at his skin. Luckily the vampire man was too far ahead for him to hear Starchy crashing through the undergrowth behind him and after a couple of minutes of terrified stumbling the flickering light of a fire that the stranger stopped by gave the candy janitor plenty of warning to slow down and silence his movements before approaching any closer. His heart was pounding and for a moment he thought perhaps it would give him away but it was such a fast pulse and so low to the ground, Starchy hoped they'd mistake him for an animal of some kind since the woods were alive with wildlife.

Bubblegum was gagged and tied to a tree at the side of a clearing lit by a huge bonfire. There were shapes moving and voices laughing together; as he crept closer shivering against his fear Starchy made out the silhouettes of about twenty young vampire men with eyes crazed by bloodlust and group excitement bordering on hysteria. They howled and cheered at the man he'd seen abduct the queen, standing tall and proud next to where she was tied like a hunter showing off their kill.

"Quiet!" the man called in a carrying voice, and like trained hounds the rabble stilled and stare up at him adoringly.

"Do you know who this woman is?" he asked them. One or two shook their heads but most of them were still gazing rapturously at the man with unnatural stillness. "This is Queen Bubblegum. Ruler of the Candy Kingdom, the smartest woman alive. And the wife of our dear friend Marceline. Can you imagine what it would do to her to lose her wife?"

The watching men broke out into cheers again and started chanting "Zeta Psi! Zeta Psi!" and punching the air in excitement. Starchy took the opportunity to edge closer still under cover of their noise, moving as quickly as he dared on legs that barely managed to keep him upright with how badly they shook. From the position he was crouched in Starchy managed to circle behind the tree Bubblegum was tied to but before he'd taken more than quick glance at the knots binding her hands the strange man with the oddly tall hair was back again. Starchy scrambled into the darkness as the man took hold of Bubblegum's chin and gently tilted her head back and to the side to expose her throat. He stared at her skin hungrily before he went in for another deep bite to the appreciative howls and cheers of the mob. Starchy was helpless to do anything but watch with horrified eyes as a line of dark pink blood slowly spilled from the man's lips to soak the shoulder of his queen's delicate ball gown.

...

It was like... Bonnie didn't think she really had words for how the sensation of Garrett's Talent touching her mind felt. She knew his name, knew him in a familiar way like he'd always been there in her mind when his power took hold over her. And he knew her. He could see everything, all her deepest and most shameful memories, all her thoughts and secret fears, all the parts of herself too ancient and too deep to show anyone. It was like he was spreading the finest threads of roots and growing into her mind, inside her memories and everything that made her who she was. Even when his fangs finally withdrew from her wounded neck he was still inside her head.

"You boys know I can only work with what's there already, right?" Garrett spoke out loud to his followers. Bonnie cringed against her gag; she knew what he'd found and she knew what he intended and if there had been a single thing she could have done about it she'd give anything to stop him. Garrett turned back to her and smiled in such a friendly, disarming way that if it hadn't been for the blood ringing his mouth he could almost have passed himself off as non-threatening. "It's no wonder the two of you are having problems, sweet stuff. You keep secrets from your wife, never quite let even her all the way in. I mean, I don't pretend to understand how you homos figure it out but take it from a guy with a ton of boyfriend experience, you gotta keep your girl happy. And that means you gotta just be her girl, you understand? Sure you do. So this, this thing I'm seeing here in your brain? Well, cupcake, if I wasn't about to screw with that then I'd be telling you how to go be a better wife because as much as I hate that stupid ditz's spiky face nobody deserves disloyal thoughts from their spouse. And you thought she'd never find out. Huh. Wish I could see the look on her face. Let's start with this then see what else I can play with, shall we?"

The grip of Garrett's Talent in her mind twisted and Bonnie screamed against the gag and writhed in agony; something was shifting and changing inside her brain, something that didn't fit was reshaping itself and shoving something else out of the way and now she didn't know which was supposed to be there, what was real and what was the Talent corrupting her thoughts. All she could feel was mental agony worse than any migraine and for a few long seconds Bonnie blacked out completely from the sheer intensity of pain. When she came to again it was to discover that Garrett's Talent had receded back to that thread-like network of subtle influence beneath her thoughts. He reached out and pulled the gag away from her mouth with another charming smile.

"Sorry I had to hurt you, sweet cheeks. It was the only way to do it against your will and I'm sure you understand that I'm not the sorta cat who'd do anything without a lady's express consent under any other circumstances. Tell us about yourself."

She wanted to tell him to go fuck himself but his touch on her mind pushed the words out before she could stop them. And at the same time she felt small fingers beginning to pull furiously at the knots binding her hands behind her back.

"I- ah- my name is Bonnibel and I am eight hundred years old. I created a kingdom based on a blueprint left in my head by an ancient human, it's one of my deepest fears that one day the kingdom will find out the whole thing was just an advertising campaign for candy, that the original Princess Bubblegum was a cartoon drawing and our entire culture is founded from that because I didn't understand when I was first created that there was a difference between reality and fantasy. I wanted to be the beautiful princess from the concept art, I wanted them to cheer for me and love me and-"

"Tell us about your family." Garrett interrupted impatiently, and again the words spilled past her control before she could try to hold them back. The small hands trying to untie her arms had paused in surprise at her confession of the origins of the kingdom and she was certain it must be a candy citizen, but they recovered and resumed their work a second later.

"I have a brother, I called him Neddy. I think that name used to be important to one of the ancient humans who went into creating me, maybe they had a brother called Neddy too? But I just knew it was a name that fit the vague label 'brother' I had in my head. I have three adopted children. Jake is the oldest, he's such a sweetheart. He has five kids of his own now, can you believe I'm a grandmother? I don't look a day over eighteen, my grandsons both look older than me already. And then Phoebe, my daughter, my most precious little Firefly. Tonight is her coming-of-age ball, I wonder if she's missed me yet? I'm still trying to make up to her how we first met, it was... I'm so ashamed of that. And our youngest is Finn, our human son. He's trouble alright, always in the thick of whatever mischief is going on but you never met a boy who could charm you as well as he can. Finn's expecting a baby of his own with his girlfriend, I won't say I'm happy about it but what's done is done-"

Bonnie paused; the ropes finally loosened around her wrists but the small hands that had untied her carefully rested on her own, warning her silently not to move yet. Whoever it was must have a plan, she just needed to get her thumb ring off and hold it in her palm to use the magic Stefan had gifted her with all those years ago and return home. They needed a distraction.

"Your wife, tell us about your wife." Garrett sighed.

"My wife? Oh. She's... just amazing, really. Too good for me. She thinks I'm perfect, acts like I'm some kind of divine being, but the truth is she's a better person than me. A better mother, a better ruler, more principled. I-"

"What's your wife's name?"

"Her... Her name? Don't you know her? My wife is called Ma-"

Bonnie never finished talking because next second someone was barreling out of the darkness behind her and Garrett's grip on her mind broke off from the surprise.

"EAT MY FUDGE YOU UNDEAD SONS OF BITCHES!"

Oh Grod, of all her citizens it was Starchy who staggered out into the ring of red eyed vampires, violently shaking in terror and holding up a broken branch like a sword in front of him. One of the vampires lunged for him and with surprising agility for an elderly candy janitor Starchy evaded his grip then to Bonnie's astonishment he plunged the sharp edge of the branch into the man's chest and a second later the vampire crumbled into dust with his eyes wide in disbelief. Starchy looked like he couldn't believe it either, he'd actually staked an actual vampire, he'd drawn the first blood for his kingdom in their war. But the victory was short lived. Bonnie wasn't stupid, she knew what he was doing the moment the round little man charged into the clearing and all she could do now was make sure his plan worked. But her hands were numb and stiff from being bound for so long, especially the left hand that she'd had reattached. She almost dropped her magic ring and fumbled desperately, trying to catch hold of it without her movements drawing the vampires' attention.

"What the fuck are you supposed to be, little dude? Her bodyguard?" Garrett snarled as he caught hold of one arm and lifted Starchy up into the air.

"Me? I used to be her janitor." Starchy announced proudly, although his eyes were squeezed tight shut and he was vibrating dangerously, maybe only a few seconds away from being overwhelmed by his terror. Bonnie finally succeeded in getting the magic ring into her right palm and squeezing it tightly, thinking back sixteen years to the trigger words she'd set and regretting that she'd thought it necessary to make them so long.

"Used to be?" Garrett prompted with a vicious grin. "Duh. Because you're about to be a corpse, right?"

"Nope." Starchy replied proudly. "Used to be, because Old Starchy's not just a janitor anymore. He's a distraction. Old Starchy's gonna die a war hero."

Starchy opened his eyes and looked into the burning red gaze barely a foot from his own face and stopped fighting it. He left himself feel every fibre of the terror that was trying to consume him, felt his body shake harder than ever then go rigid-

Starchy exploded, and covered the staring ring of vampires head to foot in thick, sticky fondant filling. The last thing he ever heard was his queen suck in a deep breath at the exact same moment and yell the trigger words for her magic ring, the one that would transport her home one single time if she had desperate need for it. He died with a smile on his face despite the terror.

"I HAVE BECOME THE VICTIM OF MY OWN HUBRIS!"

Before they could wipe the fondant from their faces or turn to grab her or do more than stare around in confusion Bubblegum was dissolving into the air and even as Garrett lunged with a wordless snarl for her she was gone, whisked away from his reach by some unknown magic. His face collided with the tree trunk and left a sticky imprint. Garrett swore loudly but he was already less real than the swirl of colour and magic that was pulling her irresistibly away. Home.

It took less than a second. Bonnie didn't even have time to reflect on the irony of those trigger words and how right she'd been to set them; something she'd never say accidentally, something that if she ever did need to use the ring would remind her that she'd made a serious miscalculation and would need to consider her next move much more carefully. The woods and the circle of vampires and the bonfire disappeared, replaced by her own bedroom. She'd used her wife's wedding ring as the anchor point, so wherever in Ooo she ended up she'd always come home. And with overwhelming relief Bonnie saw the outline of a woman curled under the blankets on the bed; despite their awful row earlier she flung herself forward and landed a tight hug onto the shape she loved so well.

"I was scared I'd never come home. I was so scared." she announced in a voice that trembled in delayed fear and grief. "Starchy- he, he's d-dead. I almost didn't get away, they did something to me, I-"

"Bon? Babe, what happened? Is that blood? I thought you were just in the gardens!"

Bonnie stiffened in shock and staggered backwards, away from the anxious green eyes gazing at her from the bed. Her vision tunnelled in horror, she felt like she was falling backwards. No. The world was wrong, it made no sense.

"No." she gasped, shaking her head in disbelief. "No, I- what is this? What's going on?"

"Bonnie?" Marceline asked again, reaching out to her. But her wife shrank back with horror and confusion swirling through the rose tints of her eyes.

"You stay the hell away from me! Who the hell are you? Where's my wife? Where's Matilda?"