A bead of gelatinous sweat formed on the forehead of Aaa's most brilliant astronomer. Prince Gumball looked away from the eyepiece, and gazed into the blackness of the sky. The night looked innocent, with its usual charming glint of stars. One star in particular shone brighter, and to the happy curiosity of Candy Kingdom's prince, it was a star that for the past couple of years had not existed before. At first it had inspired his thirst for knowledge and discovery, but soon, Gumball found that this was not a discovery he had wanted to make.
He looked into the eyepiece again, a small measurement tool superimposed over the lens to calculate the growth of the star. He counted once, twice, and then with shaking fingers noted the inarguable data that the star had grown exponentially in the last couple of months. The growth could only be due to the star's movement, and according to the math, it was moving fast. So rapidly, in fact, that it could be assumed to be gathering speed. At first it had darted across the sky, like a comet, but recently its trajectory had stopped, and all he saw was the brightness of the astral body growing ominously larger. Whatever it was, it was coming straight towards the Earth.
For the rest of the night, Prince Gumball locked himself in his astronomy tower, building a hypothesis for the mysterious astral body. Stars didn't just materialize out of nowhere. A nagging feeling told him that the origin of this lump of space rock wasn't so far from home. He calculated the time of the Great Mushroom War, by the force of the blast, and the position of the Earth on that particular day. He had a hunch, and was hoping to be proven wrong. But to his dismay, the star was positioned approximately where that giant chunk of Earth which had been blown away would be 5,000 years after the great blast.
The stray clump of the planet had travelled all the way across the solar system, to touch onto the edge of another, only to make its way back down and pinball across the great expanse between Jupiter and Mars. Soon, its orbit, and the orbit of the Earth, would kiss, and blast away any remaining part of the third planet into a shattering of stardust.
A sense of panic set in as Prince Gumball devised when the two orbits would meet. A year. Only a year remained unless something could be done. Gumball shared this information with no one, save for one person.
Marshall was his sole companion in immortality. Being half demon, half human, and inflicted with vampirism had made him his closest and most trusted friend. He hated giving him the news, as they had worked so hard at dealing with their incessant existence with no end in sight. It was bittersweet to tell him that finally, there would be an end. A great, dramatic exit for the both of them. Gumball had expected Marshall to be sad, or at least a bit worried, but the Vampire King just smiled and said, "Finally, something to live for."
For Marshall, it was a salvation from his eternal purgatory on Aaa. Not for Gumball, he refused to go down without a fight, and he never came to a fight alone.
The beginning of autumn was showing its colors, and for the rest of Aaa, it was simply one more summer's end. Fionna and Cake hunted for pumpkins on the forest floor, and set them all up in a pile next to the diving board which had recently been retired of its summer duties.
Cake climbed to the top of the ladder, and looked into the pile below.
"Are you sure we are supposed to jump into a pile of pumpkins?" She cried to Fionna below.
"Yeah! I mean, that's what mom's story said to do anyways, right?"
"I don't know, those stems look painful." Cake said, rubbing her bottom in contemplation.
"Maybe we have to set them on fire first…" Fionna said, tapping her chin. Cake retreated from the edge of the diving board.
"Fionna, this doesn't sound like Halloween Fun Times to me. This sounds like Bad Idea Times."
"Ugh, but it's tradition, Cake! That's what humans did. I have to celebrate my culture."
"It's jumping in a pile of leaves, not pumpkins, Fionna." A dark voice said, snickering. Marshall floated down, twirling his parasol in his hands, to land next to Fionna. He bumped his shoulder with hers. Marshall was the only friend who constantly broke her personal bubble. She didn't bump him back. Instead, she crossed her arms and grimaced at the pile of pumpkins.
"I could have sworn there was something to do with pumpkins…" She mumbled. Marshall laughed, and grabbed a pumpkin from the pile.
"You hollow them out and cut faces into them." He said, holding the pumpkin over his face. "See?" He pretended the pumpkin was his face, and made goofy voices. Fionna didn't want to laugh, but she did anyways, and Cake, relieved from jumping from a precarious height, climbed down to safety.
"Vampire boy, for once, I'm happy you're here." She said, exasperated. "You saved my little furry butt."
Fionna stabbed a pumpkin with her sword, trying to cut out a face as Marshall had described.
"Whoa, there, Fionna." He said chuckling, and grabbing her arm in mid swing, "Pumpkin carving is an art, let me show you how it's done…"
They sat in the shade of the reddening trees, carving away at the pumpkins they had picked. Fionna made a Cake face, complete with whiskers and an attitude. Marshall carved out Fionna, with little hearts for eyes. Cake didn't want to get her paws gooey so she just watched.
"See Fionna, this is you!" Marshall said, holding up his pumpkin and fluttering his eyes to accentuate the smitten look on his Jack o Lantern. Fionna pouted.
"Stop it, I do not have hearts for eyes." She said, turning her full concentration on gutting another pumpkin. He cackled, his eyes fixed on the last human as she squished pumpkin guts between her fingers, giggling at Cake's disgusted reaction.
Ever since Gumbutt had told him about the impending end of the world, things had felt different. Days were sweeter, laughter came easier, and friends seemed more precious. His pain would finally end. After centuries of loving people only to watch them die, finally he would be able to follow his loved ones into the dark.
Fionna turned to glare at him with a pronounced pout as she felt his eyes burning at her back. He cast his eyes down, a small smile crossing his face as he lifted his gaze again to snicker at her embarrassment. Marshall knew that flirting with her drove her nuts, and he had the bruises to prove it, but he couldn't help himself. She was too precious, too alive, too… there weren't words to describe how he felt about Fionna. He could only say that she was the only one he truly wanted to end the world with. Hang the rest of the world, if he could be with Fionna, he could die happy.
She glanced at him again only to find he was still staring at her, her face turned hot under his gaze.
"Would you stop?" She said, turning fully away from him. He cackled, unable to resist teasing her further and snuck up behind her to whisper "No." in her ear before planting a small kiss on her cheek. She turned to smack him, turning all different shades of red, and he floated away, wise to her violent reactions.
When night fell, Cake retired inside, leaving Marshall and Fionna to light the Jack O Lanterns together. The entire population of Aaa alighted in the form of silhouettes in pumpkins. They watched the glowing faces flicker in the dark. Marshall put his arm around Fionna's shoulder, and prepared for Fionna to push him away. But to his happy surprise, she didn't. She seemed stiff in his arm at first, but relaxed in his hold. He looked down at her, and smiled. Maybe he was finally getting to her.
He pushed his luck, and bent his head down to kiss her. Their lips only met for a fraction of a second before she sputtered in surprise.
"Marshall!" She chastised. He cackled, trying to hide that he was kind of hurt. She slipped away from his arms and walked towards the safety of the house, where no vampires were trying to kiss her, glaring at him all the while.
When she disappeared inside, his smiled dropped. He bit his lip, thinking of the small contact his mouth had made with hers. Taking a deep breath of chilling air, he inhaled the sweetness of the falling leaves. It would be his last autumn, and he intended to make the very best of it.
One by one he blew out the candles inside of the pumpkins, and when he got to Fionna's pumpkin face, he hesitated, tracing the little hearts he had carved in her eyes. Wishful thinking was what it was, but he couldn't help but hope.
Nobody makes wishes when blowing out Jack O Lanterns, that was for birthdays, but since he didn't really know his, perhaps he would get lucky. Halloween seemed a good day as any to be born. He blew out the candle, watching the carved face of Fionna darken.