When he got to Gumball's everything went into hyperdrive. They ate breakfast; ridiculous that in times of such panic, eating was still something they had to do. Gumball couldn't finish his muffin, he was ridden with nauseating anxiety and he mumbled something about eating it later, placing it on top of the lab's mini fridge in some small show that there would be a later for which to eat it.
"The bomb will take fifteen minutes to reach the meteor." Gumball mumbled, fumbling to garb Marshall in the suit. Marshall rolled his eyes, he'd heard this plan over and over again. "Stay near the outskirts of the atmosphere and blast away only those meteors which are larger than your spaceship, and in a trajectory to Earth. The rest don't matter. Save your ammo, aim twice, shoot once."
"Yeah, I know." Marshall said, feeling horribly bad for the way Gumball's hands shook around the pressure gauge of the suit as he checked, double checked, triple checked that the suit was holding pressure. It caused the needle to jump, giving Gumball a bogus reading. Gumball gripped it with bubbling annoyance.
"It's fine." He said, giving up on checking the pressure. Marshall took Gumball's shaking hand in his spacesuit gloved one and squeezed reassuringly.
"It is fine." Marshall said, behind the veil of the helmet.
Gumball nodded, managing a thin smile.
"Don't die." He said, before making his way to the control module he'd created for the bomb's launching mechanism.
They'd hidden the bomb in one of the Gumball guardians, and the guardian stood at the press of a button of Gumball's instructions to walk into the front field where a proper blast off could take place safely. Marshall floated after it, his spaceship already waiting for him in the same field he'd been launched from for months.
The Gumball Guardian's exterior fell away to reveal the bomb strapped to a launching device. Marshall stared at it with growing nervousness. If only the launching device doesn't trigger the bomb to detonate, if only the launching device successfully reaches the meteor, if only it detonates, if only the bomb successfully destroys the meteor, if only Marshall doesn't miss destroying a big chunk headed straight for Aaa… then everything would be alright.
My Golb, their chances were slim.
A figure emerged from the forest on the outskirt of the field. He'd recognize that blonde head anywhere.
"Fionna!" He cried, "Don't go near that thing. What are you doing?!" He flew at full speed to stop her from going any further, nearly pushing her to the ground. The launching device began whirring with an increasingly high-pitched squeal as the launching sequence commenced.
"Prepare for launch." A voice crackled over the intercom of his helmet. Marshall pushed the button to speak, grabbing Fionna in his arms and floating quickly away from the site.
"All clear." He said, fighting Fionna in his arms. Marshall turned his attention to her writhing form.
"What are you doing here?" He cried.
"What are you doing here?!" She screamed back. She was crying. "Marshall, what's going on? What's going on with Gumball, with the meteors and the spaceships?"
"It's just another of Gumball's dumb experiments." Marshall lied, Fionna shook her head at his answer.
"I listened to the song, Marshall. What is going on?" She grabbed onto his spacesuit, and he tried to unclamp her hands from it in fear she'd tear the fabric, but his gloved hands were clumsy.
"Nothing, I swear!"
"Twenty seconds." Gumball's voice called in Marshall's ear.
"You're lying!" She said, shaking. The launching device began to smoke and quiver with energy, building pressure. Marshall grabbed her arm pulling her farther away from the site, and turning her away to hide it from her eyes.
"Ten seconds."
Flames sprang from the rockets, and Fionna turned to look, only for Marshall to turn her back around to face him.
"Yes, I am lying!" He screamed over the sound of the rockets. "But I can't tell you!"
"Five… four…"
Marshall couldn't hear her response over the roar of the rockets and the countdown in his ear, but she said something with a hand above the heart of her chest, with tears streaming all the while. Her mouth was moving in a curious way, it almost looked like she said…
But he wouldn't trick himself into thinking she'd say something like that. Just last night, he'd made her cry, and there was no way.
"Blastoff."
The launching device released, and the surge of pressure built underneath the bomb-loaded rocket shot it violently into space. A cloud of dust and smoke consumed them both, and when it began to clear, the groaning sound of the engines drifting further away, Fionna was left coughing from the inhalation.
"Yes! Bomb intact!" Gumball cheered over the headset. "Your turn, Marshall." The small success seemed to have heavily bolstered Gumball's pride.
Marshall took off his helmet, annoyed with Gumball's voice in his ear.
"Look, I have to go." He said to Fionna, shaking away his helmet hair. It had been days since he washed it, and it clung to his forehead.
"I've been watching you for weeks." She said, pointing to the spot where she had emerged earlier. "Something is going on. Something is wrong. Why won't you tell me?"
"I've got to go." He repeated, turning away from her to walk to his little spaceship.
"Promise me you'll be okay? That you will be back?"
"Sure." He said, entering the ship, and replacing his helmet on his head. "Stay away from the launch site."
He pulled the door closed, leaving Fionna staring at him severely. Again, she spoke words which he couldn't hear, but he had no time for them anyways.
This was not the time for sappy goodbyes. That time had unfortunately come and gone.
Marshall pushed the lever for the throttle forward, and with one last quick look to make sure Fionna had left the site, followed after the bomb into space.
He launched into atmosphere, annoyed again that his visor was fogging up. Gumball ranted on in his ear, recounting his plans out loud in a way that was supposed to reassure Marshall everything will be alright. Marshall offered an 'uh huh' and 'yup' just to keep Gumball happy, but the mission was the last thing that was on his mind. He kept recounting the way Fionna's mouth had moved in that deafening roar, he kept trying to place those words in her mouth, and hated that they fit.
"I've calculated the trajectory from the most recent placement of the meteor, we have a 90% chance it will make contact. So far, the rocket is staying on course, that's a good sign that we- hey!"
An interruption broke into the conversation, and voices resounded in the background.
Fionna had broken into the lab, and was now bothering Gumball with her incessant questions.
"Fionna!" Marshall said over the speaker. The room on the other end quieted.
"Fionna, leave Gumball alone. Go home."
"Come back, Marshall. If this is just a dumb experiment please come back." Her voice was close to the microphone, and the sounds of a struggle ensued. 'Give that back!' Marshall heard Gumball cry.
"I told you, I have to do this." Marshall said. "I've done this a thousand times. Don't worry."
"I never got to tell you at LSP's party-"
Fionna was cut off by Gumball seizing his headset back from Fionna, and heavy crackling followed as Fionna tried to take it back.
"I love you, Marshall." He thought he heard in the background. Those words seized him, but had he actually heard them, or was it wishful thinking? He held his breath, waiting for any hint that he had truly heard what he thought he heard. If he said it back, and it had just been a bunch of crackling, he would once again be on the losing end of an unrequited confession. So he waited, and nothing else was said.
The struggle on the other end continued, with Gumball calling backup to remove Fionna from his lab.
"What did you say- What did she say?" Marshall shouted into the mouthpiece, but only heard the closing of doors and Gumball softly cursing under his breath. Apparently, when alone, Gumball cursed like a sailor.
"Where were we?" Gumball said, affixing the headset back on his head.
"What did Fionna say?" Marshall asked.
"Oh, I don't know. She's been pretty nosy lately, you know? I just can't handle her right now."
Gumball treated her like a snot nosed kid and it pissed Marshall off.
"She's just scared, like the rest of us."
"She wouldn't be so scared if you didn't write cryptic songs about the apocalypse." Gumball shot back.
Marshall bit back a response. Things were dicey enough as it was. He didn't need friend drama over the drama of the apocalypse.
"How's the bomb?" Marshall asked, changing the subject.
"It's good. On path, contact in 2 minutes."
The engines of Marshall's spacecraft sputtered into silence as he broke through the last film of the atmosphere.
Again in this awful blackness. He looked outside of the little window which Gumball had kindly included in the craft, and looked back at the Earth, it's sharkbite sphere spinning slowly below him. Fionna was down there somewhere, walking around with words he hadn't heard, or hadn't thought he'd heard.
He decided that she'd said them, after all. He might as well die with the reassurance that she had finally returned his feelings. Too bad that he'd never get the reap the rewards of it.
"Contact in 30 seconds." Gumball said, all his confidence falling from his voice. "Prepare yourself, Marshall. I don't know how big this blast will be."
"Yup." Marshall said, and was surprised that a deluge of words poured from the speaker.
"You're my best friend, you know that? If something happened to you-"
"I'm ready to go, Gumball. You're my best friend too." Marshall responded.
"It'd be my fault."
"I chose to help. For the greater good, right?"
A short silence followed, and Marshall thought he heard Gumwad sniffle.
"Ten seconds." He said, clearing his throat.
Marshall looked on into the blackness, a bright spot in the distance, and gripped the handles of his controls. He was ready for anything.
But he wasn't ready for nothing. He counted ten seconds back, thinking maybe he had gone into shock and time was moving very slowly.
"Gumball?" Marshall asked over the speaker. Nothing again.
A hot, panicked feeling raced through Marshall. He'd known this would fail. He'd known all the while, so why was he so shocked that it had?
"Detonation failed." Gumball's soft reply finally came through. "It was a dud."
"It's okay, Gumball." Marshall said in comfort to his friend. "We tried."
"We could have tried harder." He cried in rising emotion.
"I'm coming back down, then." Marshall said, turning the ship around and preparing to land back onto Earth.
"You have one hour to say goodbye." Gumball said. "According to the data."
Then the system went dead, and Marshall was left with his thoughts ringing in his head. Or perhaps that was the sound of the engines as he broke through the atmosphere. Again. For the last time.
It was over. This year was, this life was finally over. And even if he had thought before that he was done with living, he found in this moment that he wasn't. He really, really wasn't.
He wanted one more night to look at the stars with Fionna, one more summer night at LSP's party, one more hot choc and movie day with Cake and the gang. At least, he would get one more chance to speak to Fionna, to know for certain what those words were.
He touched back down, a crowd of Aaa citizens had gathered in the field from the disturbance of the rocket launching, and they parted as Marshall's ship slowed its trajectory to land.
When he opened the door to his ship, citizens from every kingdom came to inspect who it was. Marshall took off his helmet, and undid the straps to the suit, floating himself out of it and popping out a little parasol he always kept on his person.
"Hey. What are you guys doing here?" He said in feigned nonchalance, scanning the crowd for Fionna.
"Did you do it?" One citizen asked. He couldn't tell who it was, they were all one big crowd of anxious murmuring.
"Do what?"
"Save the world?" Another said. Ah, so the rumors had really gone wild after all. What was he supposed to tell them? Marshall shrugged.
"Nah." He said, looking up. A small bright dot could now be seen in the bright daylight, and he pointed at it. All heads turned to watch in awe as the dot grew slowly as the sun set.
No one seemed to panic. It was all understood. Some had even brought a picnic. As the crowd dispersed to say goodbye to loved ones, or whatever they were off doing, one person fought through to get to Marshall.
Fionna threw her arms around him, regardless that he was sweaty from the suit or his hair all messed up from the helmet. He squeezed her to him, perhaps too hard, as her breath was coming in labored gasps.
"I love you, Marshall." She said by his ear. He'd really heard it this time, and felt a rush of warmth.
"Yeah, I thought that's what you said." He teased, pretending to not be affected.
"Is the world really going to end?" She asked. Her eyes were blurry with tears, and as he watched her there, clinging to him, his vision blurred as well.
"Yeah, Fionna. We gave it a good shot."
The day became much too bright as the meteor approached, and Marshall's little parasol struggled to protect him. He watched in silence as it grew larger. Any second now. Gumball rushed out into the field, watching his failures and his life flash before him.
Fionna turned Marshall's face to hers, and pressed her mouth between his.
One last kiss was all he had ever wanted, anyways.
The crowd roared, cried, screamed, as the light became blinding, an otherworldly roar vibrating the ground below their feet.
And then, as quickly as it came, it was gone.
Everyone looked to Gumball in confusion. One minute went by, where all Gumball heard in his ears was ringing, and his breath coming in quick burst.
"I- I miscalculated." He said softly. Then, with growing elation he screamed it.
"I miscalculated! I was wrong!" The crowd cheered and Gumball screamed over and over again
"I was wrong! I was wrong! Marshall, I was wrong!"
Gumball ran to Marshall, but there was no Marshall to run to. Only Fionna, holding onto dust blowing away in the wind next to a little parasol rolling around a pile of ashes.
The parasol had not been enough to keep Marshall from the brightness of the comet.
So, maybe it wasn't the end of the world. Not for everyone. But for Marshall it was over, and Fionna gripped onto the remnants of his hands that had so recently gripped hers.
"Don't leave me here alone." Gumball cried, kneeling beside the pile.
Fionna's tears streamed down her face, cutting neat little lines the dust that covered her cheeks and mouth.