Marshall awoke groggily in the gentle shade of the forest trees. He looked up at the scattering light between the leaves, the specks of sunshine like sharp pricks on his skin.
Where the heck was he? He wetted his lips, and tasted some deliciously sweet thing. Wow, he felt fantastic. The leaves which he lay upon were like the softest bed. He felt light, energized, and rested. As if he had just woken up from a thousand year sleep only to awake in paradise.
The only unpleasantness he felt was the throbbing of his shoulder. As he regained consciousness, he grew increasingly uncomfortable. Finally, he sat up, moving the fabric of his shirt aside to inspect the source of the pain. A neat little hole pierced him right through. Marshall looked about himself, noting for the first time that his pants were down to his ankles, and that blood covered his shirt. From the wound, certainly.
He licked his lips again, and he recognized suddenly what the sweet taste was. It was blood. He fell suddenly from his blissful high as he started to piece together the happenings of the past few of hours. He remembered begging Gumball. He remembered going home, and locking himself in. With shaking hands, he had fastened chains to his arms and legs. He had planned to write a goodbye note, something sweet to leave those he loved in Aaa, but at that point he was too far gone, and couldn't manage a pen in his hand, much less the key to the lock on the chains. The key shook as he had tried to plunge it into the safety of the lock, and then Marshall remembered nothing.
He should have died, so why was he still here?
"Finally awake, I see." Came an unhappy voice. Marshall turned about him to find Gumball amongst the trees.
"Gumball." Marshall said thickly. He had never seen Gumball with such a sinister look about him. All of his usual sweetness absent in his features. Marshall felt a sinking in his gut.
"I taste blood." Marshall said flatly. Gumball gave him a glare which spoke 'no, shit'.
"Fionna…" Marshall began to softly inquire. PG raised his hands in speaking that Marshall should say no more.
"Just, don't, Marshall." He said, seething. A terrible sadness overcame Marshall's features, and PG tsked annoyedly. "She's fine, Marshall." PG assured.
A look of confusion came over Marshall. "But I-"
"You're not to come near Candy Kingdom ever again."
Marshall's brows furrowed as he slowly processed what PG had said.
"Not Candy Kingdom, not Fionna, not me. I'm banishing you." It pained PG to say it, but he was so angry at Marshall it dulled the pain significantly.
Marshall scoffed.
"Where am I supposed to live?"
"Elsewhere. I don't care. I'm giving you until tomorrow to move out."
PG then turned to walk away.
"Wait!" Marshall cried after him. "If I can't see Fionna anymore..."
"I will continue supplying you, but you're not to interact with her."
"PG, come on!" Marshall cried, stumbling after his friend. "My whole life is in Candy Kingdom." PG stopped in his tracks to give Marshall a severe look.
"And now your life is somewhere else."
"Let me at least say goodbye-"
"No!" PG screamed. "Let me make this crystal clear for you, Marshall. If you come near Candy Kingdom, if you even think about Fionna, I will have you killed on the spot, understand?"
Tears began to fall from Marshall's eyes as he stuttered over his words.
"Tomorrow I will make sure you are gone, and I will come see you monthly to keep you alive, but to the rest of the world you will be dead, understand?"
"Did I hurt her?" Marshall whispered.
"You did enough." PG said finally as he mounted his bird and flew away.
Marshall was left in the filtering light of the trees, tears pouring from him as he was consumed with shame.
"How is she doing?" PG asked Butterscotch Nurse as he donned some protective gloves.
"Better, Majesty. She's getting her pink back." Replied Butter as she took Fionna's hourly temperature with a candy thermometer. "She's stabilizing her temperature on her own."
PG nodded happily, and then approached to survey the condition of Aaa's last human. Gently, he pushed aside her hair to reveal the deeply bruised wound on her neck.
"We will stitch it carefully." PG began. "She will never know anything happened."
"And her memories?" The nurse questioned.
"We will interrogate her, but then we will wipe it. Two doses of Blebbistatin. Wipe it back to next week for all I care." PG winced as he continued to scan her injuries. He reached her belly and prodded it softly.
"Keep me updated on any new developments." PG mumbled finally before pulling off his gloves and exiting the room. Butterscotch nodded and took Fionna's blood pressure, which was slowly and steadily normalizing.
When Fionna awoke, she was sore all over. PG sat in a chair next to her, watching her eyes flicker under their lids as she regained consciousness. She groaned in displeasure.
"Hey, Fionna." PG said softly. Her eyes slowly opened against the brightness of the lights, and she turned towards PG's voice.
"What happened?" She whispered dryly. PG handed her a cup of water knowingly, and Fionna attempted to sit up to drink it. Her body felt like lead.
"You tell me, Fionna. What do you remember?" He questioned gently. Fionna fingered the empty cup and stared into the bottom of it, piecing together what had happened.
"There was a lockdown." She began. "Marshall was missing." She stopped speaking abruptly as two pitch black eyes surfaced in her memory. "M-Marshall was-"
Her voice hitched, and she wondered if PG was angry with her.
"I'm sorry I snuck out…" She mumbled. PG offered her a soft smile.
"You were only trying to find your friend." He said gently.
"How is Marshall?"
PG's mouth tightened to a thin line, and he shook his head sadly at her. Fionna felt as if her blood had turned to ice. Again, that pitch-black gaze haunted her mind, and she began to cry.
"Oh, Glob!" She cried. PG put his arms around her comfortingly.
"There was nothing you could do." PG reassured. Gently he placed a glass full of water in her hand, then placed two little pills in her other. "These will make the pain go away."
PG searched her eyes, begging silently that she would take the pills without question, and Fionna, knowing no better, popped them into her mouth and swallowed. Gumball smiled at her and nodded.
"Good girl." He said before he stood to leave. Fionna felt dizzy as the medicine began to take effect, and her brain became fuzzy.
PG softly closed the door and sighed heavily. There, all had been set right. Everyone would think that Marshall had died, Fionna would supply Marshall's life blood unknowingly, and this whole scenario would be resolved. Fionna would have no memory of the attack, and she would live her happy human life for the next 60 years.
Even now, as he walked down the hallway, Fionna forgot completely their earlier conversation as her memories dissolved one by one. She forgot, even, PG's lie that Marshall had died. This was an oversight that PG would eventually regret.
A couple of weeks later, Fionna was back to her old self. She never questioned what kind of adventure had sent her into the Candy Hospital, she was just happy to get back to normal. Cake refused to go back to the treehouse, afraid that Marshall's ghost was haunting the halls of his old home, and so, Fionna and Cake moved into Candy Castle. There where two things Cake could not stand: Ghosts, and Vampires. Both of which, to the knowledge of everyone except Fionna, Marshall was. Yet, no one spoke of it. The subject had become taboo, should any mention of it resurface memories Fionna might have suppressed.
When Fionna asked about Marshall, everyone seemed to change the subject. No one wanted to be the turd to slip up about what really happened that night.
PG had invited, with some force, Fionna and Cake to live in the castle, stating that since she worked so loyaly for him, he should at least house them. Fionna had wanted to decline the invitation, preferring her old house, but Cake had insisted.
"Fionna, I would like to ask you a favor," PG asked casually over breakfast that morning, "Could you assist me in an experiment I'm working on?"
Another adventure for her to go on! She was ecstatic to return to normalcy. After losing her childhood home, and uprooting to PG's Castle, she craved the life she had before.
"Yeah! Where are we going?" She asked excitedly. PG chuckled.
"Nowhere! My lab." He responded. Fionna looked at him confused. "How would you like to bring the human race back from extinction?"
"What would you have me do?" She asked skeptically. PG smiled warmly at her.
"I just need to examine your blood, your body, your genome… I just need you. Will you help me with that?"
Fionna sighed disappointedly.
"Why do you want to bring back humans?"
PG was taken aback at the question.
"Isn't that what you've always wanted? To be amongst your own?"
Fionna frowned in thought. Yes, she had always wanted it, but she had never thought it possible. And if it ever did happen, she imagined that the humans would be older than her, wiser than her. That they would be able to tell her the story of her people. That's what she truly wanted. She didn't give a fish about keeping her species alive, especially through creepy experimentation, but how could she deny PG's attempt to at least try.
"Yeah, sure." She said. PG smiled sweetly at her.
"Great, let's start now."