Chapter XI - Homebound

Jake had arrived home after some time, since he embarked on his travel home from Lady's house. He unlocks the door and opens it, letting himself inside. He took notice of the place being cold, the candles were out, and once he closed the door, it was a shade of darkness and blue that filled the room. He looked around. BMO wasn't in site. Unaware of this, BMO was in Finn and Jake's room, lying in the clutter of clothes that Jake had left out before he went off to stay the night at Lady's house. Jake grew some goosebumps behind his golden fur and rubbed his shoulder.

"Finn? Marceline?" Jake called out. No response. He looked around again as he sat his stuff near the couch. He grabbed a lighter from inside his duffel bag and only lit up a few of the candles in the living room. He placed the lighter down and heads upstairs. BMO heard his footsteps and slowly woke up. Walking up the stairs, he looked behind himself, seeing if anyone was following him, as his sixth sense was kicked into play, although he did lock the door from behind him. Their room door was slightly ajar, he raised his eyebrow a little.

"Finn...?" He called out again. "Marceline..?" Jake slowly opened the door, the room was a bit cold, giving off a dark blue color to the room due to the slightly low temperature. He could even see his own breath. The door was wide open now. He barked loudly, it shook the room very slightly. BMO fell off the pile of clothes left by Jake and he fell on the room. He heard a small thud and a grunt from his left side. "BMO?" Jake said as he rushed to his aid, picking him off from the floor and holding him in his hands. "Shit, my bad dude. I didn't know you were here, you're usually in the living room." Jake added as he rubbed his head. BMO rubbed his side. "No worries." BMO responded.

"Say BMO?" Jake asked, and BMO looked at him. "You know where Finn and Marceline ran off to?" Jake further asked. BMO nodded and stood up. "Yes I do, the both of them were fighting outside the house, I had watched from the door since it was cracked open. I had grabbed some popcor-" BMO was cut off by Jake. "Whoa whoa whoa wait a minute Fighting? Each other? Why?" Jake said as he raised his voice in concern. "It appears that when they were fighting, they were both big bipedal werewolves. The had attacked each other and they were thrown far from him, looks like the woods." BMO continued. Jake widened his eyes. BMO rubbed the sides of his head trying to remember what took place before his eyes. Jake placed BMO on his bed and Jake sat on Finn's bed. "What else happened?" Jake asked, while placing his hands on his head. "Well that was what I saw, I don't know what had happened after they both flown to the forest." BMO concluded. "How could this happen..?" Jake said to himself. "Marceline wouldn't hurt Finn, unless on accident, and Finn rarely has laid hands on a female, at least not aggressively. "You sure that's all that happened BMO?" BMO rubbed his chin. "I did hear heavy banging at the door."

"Banging..?" Jake asked. "Yes. That is all I know. I'm sure they can tell you when they return home." BMO said. Jake stood up and paced around the room, trying to piece together the puzzle and had an idea as to what could cause this. "What the hell.." Jake said to himself. "You didn't see anyone?" Jake asked. "BMO nodded. "No Jake, but I did record it through my system." BMO said as he stood up. Jake jumped onto the bed and grabbed BMO from Jake's pile of clothes. "Show me man." Jake insisted. BMO gave Jake a 'thumbs up" gesture and his face turned to static. It said "PLAYING TAPE" on the top left corner of BMO's screen. The video starts off with roaring and growling, following voices. "Is this the person you turn to after you killed me?" Jake couldn't make out the tone of voice, although it did seem demonic. He squinted his eyes as he watched closer. The both werewolves started to fight each other. Clawing each other and gave each other blow after blow after blow. Some growling and the sounds of the punches and sin being attacked and lacerated. "Bitch." The demonic voice said. It ends with the both of them being flown towards a different area, not seen by BMO's perspective. BMO's face returned back to normal after the video ends. "That's all I caught, I wanted to chase after them, but they flew fast and given my size, it could take me a long time to get there." BMO said. Jake blinked and rubbed his head. "Werewolves.. only Marceline can turn into a werewolf of that size. But who was the other. It must've been some type of, unnatural force.." Jake said to BMO. "A Ghost?" BMO responded. "Something like that. When they get home, I'm gonna get to the bottom of this."

The skies began to clear up as Finn and Marceline continued to walk home, due to the sun starting to beam down on the duo, Marceline reduced her size to a small cute bat and snuggled up inside Finn's bear hat, in which he placed on to block sunlight for himself. They got done singing another song to pass the time. "You know, we should write a song together one day." Finn said as he started at the Treehouse in the distance. "Sure, we can do that, just any song?" Marceline asked as she snuggled up into Finn's hair. "Um.. maybe.. uh.. I do not know exactly." Finn said as he thought about it. "How's this? A love song." Marceline suggested. "That can work. In fact, that could work pretty well." Finn agrees with Marceline's suggestion. He blushed a little bit as he thought of what the words could be if they got them time to work on the song. The ground was slightly wet from the drizzle that touched down on the area for a couple of hours. The dew that covered the grass provided a slushy but cool sensation on Finn's feet. He had tattered socks on and they were not that wet. The sun rays shined upon Finn's body, offering a little bit of warmth as he treaded onwards.

"Can you recall anything that had happened last night?" Marceline asked Finn, seeing if he would question it. He didn't. "I only remember choking on.. something.. and then I blacked out." Finn said as he rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Sleepy much?" Marceline asked. "More so exhausted but I'm fine. Some food should do it." Finn said. Marceline nodded her head. "Good. I could go for some grub as well." She figured to keep the events of last night to herself and when ready, should she tell the story to Finn. "Hey, you think Bonnie ever went through with the investigation at the cave?" Marceline asked Finn, scratching his scalp a little bit.

"I'm not too sure about that. I mean maybe she has, or not. To be honest, the case must've went cold." Finn said as he nodded his head, slowing down a bit since his legs started to cramp up. Marceline noticed that he slowed down. "You okay? Your legs hurt or something?" She asked with some concern in her tone. Finn crossed his arms. "I'm okay, just tense, I rarely had this feeling before." Finn said to her. "You heard from your dad recently?" Finn asked. Marceline scoffed at his question, knowing exactly what she was going to respond with. "Abadeer? No, never really called him like that. I'm pretty sure he's somewhere sucking up souls and other dastardly deeds. Why?" Marceline asked coyly. Finn grew some goosebumps. "Just thought I ask." Finn said, feeling the tone she gave off. Marceline sighed. "What about your parents?" She asked him.

"I had no parents, Jake's parent's were my guardian, and they took care of me from a very young age." Finn said softly, placing his hands in his pocket. "What had happened to them? You don't contact them?" Marceline asked. She too could hear the shift in Finn's tone. "No, they uh.. passed away. How? I don't know.. I ever asked Jake, and I planned to keep it that away." Finn said, closing his eyes. Marceline sighs and closes her eyes as well. She arched over to his forehead and kissed him, while still in her bat form. "It's okay, don't worry about it.." Marceline said as she tried to make Finn feel better. "We are almost home." She added. Finn and Marceline were halfway towards the Treehouse. There were minimal clouds in the sky and the Sun shined. Finn whistled to himself but it faded away, as he saw the Treehouse in the distance. He also saw the Ice Kingdom in the very far distance. Under Finn's bear hat, Marceline started thinking to herself, and the events of last night's battle.

"I'm for sure that he could finally stay dead this time, although.. it was kinda weird to have an out of body experience. I pray to Glob that this.. this will not happen again. I can not stand anyone close to me getting hurt, not even Finn or Hambo. Hell, even Jake." Marceline's mind started to go to autopilot with many thoughts. The first thought was when Hambo was sold by Ash and how emotional she got, since Hambo was her only true friend in the entire world that stuck by her, even through extremely tough times. Remembering the time after the Mushroom War, the Ice King found it in a broken down toy store, and had given it to her. The grim atmosphere had been embedded into her mind ever since but she does not think about it as much as Simon does. How she repaired Hambo's lost eye with her own button that came from her shirt. An echo raced through her head, with the words "You're all fixed now, and you are gonna be better than ever." ringing through her mind.

Her second thought was even she encountered Finn and Jake for the first time, being in their home and laughing at the fear and confusion on their petrified faces, especially Jake's face. She smiled at the thought of it. She remembered how she took over their new home as well, not knowing that the home they found was Marceline's current home at the time, and how Finn battled her for the first time and in a very long time, she had some fun. Marceline remembers how she was watching Heat Signature with Finn after she ditched her ghostly friends since they tried to suck Finn and Jake's souls. How she stayed up the entire night as Jake and Finn slept at her house. Marceline also remembered riding wolves with Finn, just for fun. How she tried to help Finn get Bonnie to notice him a bit more during that one night. Nothing but good memories flow through Marceline's head. Then a question came about inside her head.

"Hey Finn?" Marceline asked, boldly. "Yea?" Finn answered back. "Do you ever see yourself dating anybody? Or just dating in general?" She asked Finn. Finn thought to himself for a little bit, although he didn't want to leave the question hovering in the air. Finn closed his eyes and sighed. "Well, I don't know. It's something I really tend not to think about that often. Not something that I really share with people." Finn said to Marceline. He sees a large eagle like shadow that casts upon the pair, followed by a large eagle screech. Finn looked up to see the eagle, as it got closer to them. Marceline looked up. "Uh oh.." She said, and ducked inside his tattered bear hat. "The Morrow..?" Finn said to himself. "No.. it can't be." The Morrow screeched as it touched down in front of Finn. None other than Princess Bubblegum was riding on top of him. "Finn The Human. You must come with me. It is urgent." Princess Bubblegum said to Finn.

Finn slapped his face and sat on the damped grass. "Can it wait..? I'm exhausted.." Finn said. "I'm sorry, but it's quite the urgency Finn." Bubblegum said. Finn rubbed his eyes and got up, while he did that, Bubblegum lends her hand out so she could help him on The Morrow. Finn lends out his hand and Bubblegum helps him up on the massive bird. The Morrow jumps up to a considerable height and flapped it's wings. It started to fly into the air, on it's way to the Candy Kingdom. Soon enough they were flying at top speed. Finn held onto The Morrow.

"Wanna tell me why I'm here PB?" Finn asked. "What?" Bubblegum shouted, due to the air speed. "Oh boy.." Finn sighed. "Where are you taking me!?" Finn shouted. "To my office. I need to ask you some questions!" Bubblegum said. "Questions?" Finn asked. "Yes!" Bubblegum shouted once more.

Within 15 Minutes, the trio entered the Candy Kingdom and were already walking towards Bubblegum's Office. She opens the door, and Finn walks in, with Bubblegum locking it behind him. He turns around. "Um.. is there any reason why you're.."

"Shirtless? I do not wanna talk about it." Finn said, finishing her question. "I see.." Bubblegum added. "Well, proceeding." She said and went to her desk, cracked her knuckles and sat down on the chair. She looked at him and offered Finn a seat. He nodded. "Well, what I'm about to ask you is a bit much, but I do need you on this Finn. Would you help me..?" She connected her fingers, bringing her hands together. She looked at him dead in the eyes. "Depends on what it is PB.." Finn said, he yawned and crossed his arms. "Okay, well let me explain.. She stood up a little bit. "Some time ago, I got a call from my grandpa.. and he had told me some rather unfortunate news.." "Which is..?" "Well, the bad news is, we are under a specific type of curse, a curse that has been with in the hierarchy of the Bubblegum Legacy. I can't go into detail as it dates back many many centuries ago. The curse can be broken by.. well.. this is where I need your help.." Bubblegum raised her eyebrows in a concerning manner. Twiddling with her fingers in a nervous manner. Finn raised an eyebrow. He took a step back as she came from around her desk. She dawned her lab jacket on. "What is it..?" Finn asked. "To.. bear a child.. with a human.." Bubblegum said. Finn grew goosebumps along his arms. He just bursts out in laughter, as if he found it comedic.

"Hahaha.. hahah!" Finn laughed. "Surely you don't mean that. It's a joke ri-right..?" Finn's laughter fades away as he took a good look at her very serious face." She had her hands together still, as if she was pleading with him with her eyes. His entire facial expression changed, now seeing the severity of such a request like this. Silence grew in the room and it stayed like that for a good minute.

"No." Finn said sternly.

-To Be Continued-