The forest

"Guys! Guys!" Finn yelled as he and Jake ran towards a wandering Princess Bubblegum and Marceline.

"We just saw the flippin Moon!" Finn exclaimed.
"Woah seriously? What happened?" Princess Bubblegum asked.

"Ok so Jake and I were just following the orbs like we said we were, and after a while things started to get really hazy, I got dizzy and then afterwards I saw all these colors. It was like a rainbow but like everything was crazy bright and like… Beautiful!" Finn explained.

A look of confusion immediately painted itself across Princess Bubblegum's face as she furrowed her brow, attempting to understand the human.

"Yeahh the Moon can be like that sometimes." Marceline sighed.
"Like what?" Princess Bubblegum asked.

"She's confusing. I don't know how to explain it. It's just really hard to interact with her sometimes. She's an easy kill most of the time but there are those times where it feels like being around her messes with your head." Marceline elaborated.

"Well ,after all that stuff happened, Jake and I began looking around, I took out my sword and then we both saw her! She was…. Angelic. We only saw her for a few seconds but… It felt like I'd seen her before.. A long time ago" Finn finished.

"Yeah yeah, blah blah. Long story short, you didn't kill her." Marceline said.

"Y-Yeah! But like, she was something else! I felt like she was important! I mean look at Jake!" Finn exclaimed pointing toward the dog who had a look of complete mysticism breathing through his eyes from the minute that he and Finn had come in contact with the women.

"Yeah that's kinda how she is, mysterious and weird and stuff. Trust me I get it. I killed her before." Marceline said.

"Maybe we don't need to kill her!" Finn exclaimed.

"What's with you and this whole 'we don't need to kill these guys' thing? They're vamps! They should die!" Marceline said.

"But you were a vampire before! What makes these guys different!?" Finn asked

"I never tore people limb from limb and ate them!" Marceline shouted. A deep quiet filled the forest air soon after.

"I didn't go barging into other people's houses eating them, ripping them apart, beating them to death, mind controlling them so that they kill other humans, tore spinal cords out from people, pulverized people with their severed limbs, burned people to death, turned them into monsters before eating them, killed people with other animals, or ripped their faces in half and then watched them walk around for sport…. I also never played blood sports to see how many people I could kill with my vampire friends, or got into competitions of the most brutal ways that I could kill humans, or even EVER turn a single human into a vampire!" Marceline continued.

By this point the entire world appeared to be speechless in the face of Marceline's experiences.

"All of those horrible things that I just told you by the way, I got to see all of them happen to people who I knew and loved…. So yeah, I kinda think that these guys don't deserve redemption.." She ended

Finn and Jake continued staring at Marceline. Princess Bubblegum simply looked down.

"Marcie…. I didn-"

"Please. Spare me" Marceline interrupted, holding a hand up to Finn. "Trust me when I say that when someone says "I'm sorry that happened to you" it doesn't really help. All that matters is that we kill these guys and make sure that never happens ever again." Marceline explained.

Everyone else remained silent.

"Well. PB and I didn't manage to kill our target either so.. I guess we've got somethin in common. We found the Hierophant, he's a shapeshifter, really nasty you don't want to fight him alone. We didn't. He told us though that the Empress is going towards the 'City of Thieves'. Apparently there's some human blood there."

"The 'City of Thieves'?! That's where Penny is!" Finn shouted.

"Yeah…. So I say we get a move on. We'll head there, kill her and then head back and regroup.

"Ok but wait, who's the Empress? What's her power?" Princess Bubblegum asked.

"Alright alright! I'm gonna explain this one by one! We've got the Hierophant. PB, you and me just met him. He can shapeshift into pretty much whatever he wants. Finn, Jake, and, Peps you met The Moon. She's freaking weird! I have no idea what her power is! She's pretty easy, but do not let her touch you! She just… Ugh, I don't like her. Then we have The Empress, she can turn invisible and has mind control…. If it wasn't for the Hierophant.. I'd hate her the most. As long as you don't look her in the eyes you'll be fine; not like it matters since she likes to control large amounts of people, so usually she doesn't have to fight. Then we've got the Vampire King who is like… He's freaking weird too. He can move things with his mind, he can make it like…. Oh wait he's dead… Ok scratch that you don't need to know his powers. Umm, and then we've got the fool, he can fly. Alright, is everyone caught up?" Marceline asked.

"Well wait? So are we going after the Empress?" Finn asked.

"Yes! I just said we were!" Marceline said.

"Is that the one with the weird powers?" Jake asked.

"Yes! I mean no! Her powers aren't weird." Marceline said.

"I dunno, I think mind-control is pretty weird. Jake, you must do as I command! Ooooooooo!" Finn said, attempting to hypnotize Jake.

"Ahhh! Stop it dude! You know how I feel about hypnotizing!" Jake said.

"Alright it sounds like we're on the same page." Marceline said

"Not really. Why go after The Empress? Why not just go after the other two? It seems like they're closer." Princess Bubblegum said.

"Maybe we could but like… The Empress is really really dangerous if she has enough time to herself. She can hypnotize groups of people at once and it's not hard for her to make an army. You need to hit her hard and hit her fast, otherwise she can lay low while we hunt the other two and attack with an entire army while we're at our weakest. Say what you will but at least the other two are loners." Marceline said. Princess Bubblegum could only nod as she realized the validity of her statement.

"Alright! Then let's set off!" Marceline exclaimed.

*Crack*

*Crunch*

*Creak*

The leaves and stick of the forest shattered underneath the weight of the adventurers that traversed through to the unknown.

None of them were sure what to expect. Except for Marceline, who even then wasn't entirely sure how much The Empress had grown in skill. As well as in bloodlust.

"So what's it like being human after all this time?" Finn asked, staring at Marceline's back.

"It's better than you could imagine…. Being a vampire is awesome in the beginning. The whole world feels like an adrenaline rush. It made me feel like a rockstar. After a while though, colors begin to fade, sounds don't sound as sweet… The only thing that brings back that insane high is blood.." Marceline explained.

"What about drinking red?" Princess Bubblegum asked.

"Drinking red makes you full. It's like… Eating water. It has no flavor or taste or anything. Blood always tastes magical and it tastes different depending on the human too. When you drink it it gives you a really big euphoric feeling… It's a rush that you've never felt before, and you actually get stronger. Vampires can only get stronger by drinking more blood, otherwise they remain the same." Marceline said.

"Do all vampires get super cool powers too?" Finn asked.

"Yeah but from what I've seen you gotta drink a butt ton of blood. It's pretty bad." Marceline explained.

"Well how'd you get your powers?" Jake asked.

"Heh, soul sucking. I'm the daughter of the King of the Nightosphere. Soul sucking's in the blood, and when you take someone's soul, you take their powers too." Marceline said

"Did you ever kill a lot of people as a vampire?' Finn asked. For a moment there was a pause as the group continued walking. Finn began to feel a pit in his stomach after asking that question.

"Yeah." Marceline finally responded. "I killed a few." She said.

"Really? Why?" Finn asked.

"Heh, 'couldn't control myself." Marceline said with a brief chuckle. "Back then… Things were so different, you wouldn't really get it. Being brutal was just a way of life dude. There were zombies, Simon was… Simon. And the vampires were just the worst… So I adapted, I did what was right and then I killed them." Marceline said.

"But how'd you become a vampire?" Jake asked.

"We're asking a lot of questions right now aren't we?!" Marceline asked.

"Well it is pretty interesting Marceline. I don't even know how you became a vampire." Princess Bubblegum said, looking down.

"Well… It wasn't by choice. Believe me I tried my hardest not to become one. I hated vampires. I still do. These guys are the most brutal of the bunch, and believe me, the stories I could tell you would blow you away." Marceline said. Once again a brief moment of silence rang through the forest. Aside from the cracking of the sticks beneath everyone, there was nothing.

"Well…. Can you tell us one?" Finn asked. Marceline paused for a moment; almost as if pondering the thought.

"Uh… I guess. Well, there was this one time that I was hanging out with a few human survivors in the woods. We liked to do that back then, just go in the forest and.. Hang out. We'd start fires, eat food, sing, but we never came out when it was night. 'Always stay in the light' that was the motto.

So we're hanging out, it's midday, the sun's right above us and as we're cooking some stale and old hotdogs we found, things began to get weird. I swear it was like someone was singing, but like in my ear y'know? Like someone was whispering a beautiful song in my ear. The hotdogs began to smell sweeter, the fire looked like it was turning colors and I just felt this warmth come over me… I looked around at my friends and they were just enjoying themselves, just like me, we were all looking around and smiling. That's when I met the Moon. I spotted her in the distance. Weird dress, weird necklace, weird thing on her head, but her smile was just beautiful. I blinked for one second and she was wayy closer than before.

I blinked again and then I saw her right in front of me. Thing is I couldn't make out her face. Like even though she was right in front of me it felt like her face was like… Moving, like waves in the ocean or something. I couldn't tell what she looked like, it was almost like dreaming, the whole world seemed like it was changing. Trees changed into birds and plants melted into crystals. I got this horrible… Headache and I turned around and puked my guts out all over the floor, and even that looked like I was puking fire. When I turned back around I saw her grabbing Jennifer...

The Moon just caressed her face, l-like she was a baby. That weird thing on her head started moving back and forth… And Jennifer…. She started choking, she was… Choking like crazy and wheezing and… Then this weird freaking… Tree branch just shouted out of her mouth. It was longer and bigger than my arm and I heard it tearing her jaw apart. It got bigger and grew- my other friend by the way was still puking his guts out too- but with Jennifer this… Thing, it was getting bigger and the branch stretched out and these weird red fruits, t-that were shaped like balls, grew off of the branch too. All the while I heard Jennifer screaming at the top of her lungs, choking, crying…. And…. When it was all done, the branch was three feet long, it had all those weird red plants on it and Jennifer… She wasn't moving anymore. The Moon plucked one of the fruits off and bit into it, blood poured out of the thing and I know that those fruits had blood in them. The blood gushed out like crazy.. Jennifer's blood.

Then The Moon turned towards me. She did that same smile from before and I knew I had to leave. So I shook my head, punched myself in the face so that I could wake myself up and bolted… And I didn't look back." Marceline said, finishing her story and wiping her eyes before any tears could even surface.