… Marceline. Wake up.
A voice is calling to me. From inside my head. It was the same one nagging at me before when I turned invisible...
Face me.
I open my eyes to see a horde of red-eyed monsters before me. Front and center is the Vampire King, but he's been restored. His hair is lustrous like a mane, actually his whole face was like a lion. I look at his feet and they're chicken legs. But there's nothing funny here. These are all vampires... His army...
"Where am I?" Last I remember, I was hugging Bonnie and falling...
Do you see all this before you, my Queen...
With one sweep of his hand, the horde suddenly turns to nil. He holds his outstretched palm to me and I can see twinkling vapor clouds.
"Souls..."
Yes. The Vampire Monarch is destined to house the souls of the dead, lost vampires. My Queen... We are all housed in you.
"What?"
We and all our powers now lie in you. Where else do you get the ability to fly, to transform and such?
"Get out of my head!"
If you're to have our powers, this madness is what you will live with!
"No... No, take it back! I don't want to be your stupid queen! I-"
Do you truly not want this?
An image forms in the darkness. When I was still with Simon.
"Simon, one day, you won't have to protect us from the oozers anymore."
"Why's that, Marcy?"
"Cuz I'll be able to beat them all up myself!"
"Oh you," He pats my head, smiling, and the image fades.
"No... I didn't – I really-" I feel a crushing grip close in, "I never wanted this..."
Wake up. This is the price you pay for power. The moment I decided you would be Queen, this is your price. He may be gone. But you still desire to use this power. Do not lie to me. Do not resist. We are part of you now. All your memories, thoughts … None of it is solely your anymore.
His voice begins to boom louder and louder.
Now wake up, WAKE UP!
"GAH!" I sit up, coughing sweet syrup. My eyes take a second to get adjusted to the darkness. We fell back down here to the tunnels. There's syrup everywhere. A thick layer has accumulated with bits and pieces of wood and earth.
Pink luminescence glows softly along the walls. I see the sugar rocks embedded emitting lights. They seem to illuminate the rail car tracks on the floor.
"...Bonnie?" I call out a little weakly. I was getting strangely ravenous. My vision was tinging redder by the second, "Hey, you still alive?"
I hear a groan.
"Bonnie!"
I quickly scan for something moving and I see it. It's the dang worm! And it's sinking its teeth into …
"RARH!" I ram into its head with all my strength. It teeters away a little, snarling. I pick Bonnibel up and fly in some random direction away from the thing.
She feels lighter … and cold... I don't look down and I feel my hands tremble holding her. My mind is racing. How do we get out of here...?
"SKREEEE!" The worm is coming, and fast. It smells of honey and syrup. I look back and see some piece of cloth on one of its fangs. It ate everyone else...
CEASE.
The voice in my head hits like a wall. It's large and rudimentary, but it blocks everything else out. It doesn't sound like the vampire King...
RETURN MY PREY.
Wait, was that … the worm?! Am I able to read its thoughts because of some vampire power? In that case, I should be able to talk to it too, right? I try to send a thought message.
Stop chasing us.
The worm gives another shriek and speeds up its slither. Guess that didn't work.
"Unh..." I feel Bonnibel move. My pace slows just a step and suddenly I feel pain erupt from multiple points along my back.
"Ohh, crud..." Was all I could say as Bonnie slips through my hands.
…
When Marceline showed up, I was sure she was up to no good and look at that! She just ruined the Bee Kingdom Trade meeting! Then we get chased by a dang worm in the Rock Candy Mine Tunnels and then we're just falling...
Actually I'm still falling. Then I hit the floor and my crown rolls away. Everywhere hurts and it's all dark, save some blurry pink lights. I can feel two puncture holes near my waist. Wait, there's something snarling in the background...
I flick on my light beam setting of my watch and shine it at the belly of the worm beast. Is it, like, standing up? What the...
I shine along the body and freeze at the mouth. Multiple spires of what seem like bone are protruding out of Marceline from its mouth. She hangs there motionless as the worm seems to be sucking her fluids...
"MARCELINE!"
Oh, crud, I shouldn't have screamed. Worms can sense vibrations in the air. It spits Marceline out, leaving her lying on the floor. My heart's pounding out of my chest as the worm comes closer with its spires of goring death. I can't move.
…
"MARCELINE!" I heard someone call my name. My eyes crack open just a little to see Bonnie cornered by the worm. Stupid worm bit me from behind... My fingers have lost feeling and I can only feel fear seizing up … along with this weird feeling of my flesh crawling.
Suddenly my vision turns really red. Like red RED. My body seems to move without my needing to act so. I feel removed from my body as I see myself tear at the worm. It screeches and rears away from Bonnie. My hands turn to razor claws and thoroughly decapitate the worm. The head goes blah immediately but the body still squirms a little. It hist the side of a wall and I don't know what really happened next but sweet stuff began streaming out, filling the tunnel.
"He's broke into Lake Butterscotch! We've gotta get outta here!" Bonnibel shouts to me as the sticky fluid reaches her chin level.
I make a grab for her, then I plunge directly into the hole in the wall. Butterscotch fills my mouth and nose but I don't stop going up from there. Last I remember, I'm trying to keep my hold on Bonnie and it all just goes from butterscotch to darkness.
…
"Huh?"
Ice King stops in mid-flight. He's taking his usual route through Lake Butterscotch to Wizard City. Today, the lake looks a bit … stirred? Bubbly? Curious, he flaps down to its banks and scans the lakefront. Yup, huge bubbles were just coming from up the lake bottom.
He scratches his head, "Did a sea monster or something move in?"
Then one humongous bubble pops, spitting two girls out onto the surface. One is Princess Bubblegum. The other was Ash's lady friend.
"Oh!" He hurriedly freezes a raft and huddles in to fish them out before they sink. Luckily the Lake has high surface tension. Unfortunately, that made it hard to paddle. So he drags the boat while flying to the two unconscious teens. Gingerly, he lifts them out of the butterscotch and places them into the boat. Upon landing back on shore, he sees a peppermint Candy standing impatiently at the bank.
"Ice King!" The peppermint indignantly cries and runs towards the boat, "What the junk are you doing to Princess Bubblegum?!"
"Hey, buddy, I found her first!" The Ice King points a threatening finger at the approaching stranger, "She's mine!"
"You poor thing," the loyal candy jumps onto the rim of the boat, looking the king in the eye, "Is this how far it's driven you? This magic?"
"Hey, I said she's mine!"
Ice King's finger brims with magic, but before he can shoot Peppermint Butler throws a dust bomb in his face. He sputters and when the dust clears, the Candy and the Princess are gone.
"NOOOO!" He screams in fury, having been foiled.
Marceline, still inside the raft, stirs. She heard everything.