Chapter 8:

"Ugh…" Fionna groaned awake. The sword at her side was doing weird things again. She pulled it from the band of her skort and tossed it over to the end of the bed. "Stupid sword." She mumbled before cuddling back into Marshall to fall back asleep. Marshall lavished in the attention, but his own attention was captured by the sword sitting inanimate on the bed. He had known that Fionna picked up all sorts of wacked up, wicked weaponry, but this one caught his attention for once. When he had first encountered the weapon, it seemed nothing more but an enchanted sword with some kind of witchy energy radiating from it. But now there was something new. It felt… strangely like himself.

He hadn't noticed it until she had tossed it away, and felt a part of him being physically lurched in a particular direction.

"What the fuck…" He mumbled, eyeing the energy it now emitted. Gross, it was like looking at himself in the mirror, except in the worst possible light.

Marshall looked down at Fionna to make sure she was asleep, then wiggled his way out of her grasp. He leaned over to the sword, and hovered his hand over the blade. He felt a familiar feeling of dread come over him. As if he was reaching a hand towards his psyche itself. It pulled at him. That familiar pull to sink into the void. To bury himself in sadness and misery.

His hand made contact with the blade, and nothing happened. The darkness was calling, but trapped within that rusty old metal.

What the fuck was this thing? His fingers traced the blade, feeling the inscription of the Banisher of Evil along his fingertips. All the while, that electrifying aura threatened to pour into him.

Marshall smiled. It made him feel strangely powerful to be so close to this negative energy; his negative energy, and not give in to it. He hadn't succumbed to that side of him all day. With Fionna around, everything was better, brighter.

But still, he was curious about why the sword… He grasped the hilt, and it was a thunderbolt to his chest.

And it was happening again, just like it had happened before two years ago. The darkness trapped within the sword leeched from the hilt and crawled venomously into his veins.

Marshall felt the power from the sword drain into him.

Finally, I am home, spoke the Chaos, and it destroyed him.

Fionna flew awake to that horrible scream, and her heart jittered into panic as she watched the silver eyes of Marshall Lee warm to gold, and then horribly into a violent red.

Dear Glob, she had seen those eyes before. She felt frantically for her sword, and foolishly remembered tossing it aside.

Marshall was shaking with the surge of chaos, his body mutating with its power, its absolute awfulness.

Don't lose your head! Don't lose your head! He screamed at himself. PUSH IT DOWN. And he shook with the effort to retain his sanity. He concentrated on Fionna. Fionna was right there. His head turned to see her, and she emitted a blood curdling scream. Never had he heard her scream like that… and she screamed because she was scared of him.

'I am a monster.' Was the last thing Marshall remembered before succumbing to the chaos.

The moment those red eyes had connect with hers, Fionna's blood had turned to ice.

She had never screamed like that, and it seemed to do nothing but fuel the fire within the creature that had become Marshall Lee. He growled like an animal, his eyes honing in on its victim. He made to rush towards her. To devour her, but suddenly felt himself restrained. The vines of the cave had sprung to life and squeezed around him, restricting him completely.

Fionna sat dumbly on the bed, blind to only the redness in his eyes.

"Get the sword, you stupid human!" Groaned a voice with effort. Ew, was that really… the forest witch? "Quickly!"

Finally, Fionna snapped out of her shock, and searched for the sword.

I need… I need….

And just as it had before in the river, she grasped in the dark and there it was, in her hand.

The monster of Marshall tired in wrestling in the vines, the forest witch groaning with the effort to keep him down.

"OH MY GLOB, Kill him, you idiot!" The witch said between clenched teeth.

"What?! No!" Screamed Fionna back watching the red eyes start to dim in exhaustion.

"Kill me!" Marshall howled. "Kill me! Kill me! I want to die! End me, please!"

"For Pete's sake, woman! Kill the man!" Replied the witch. "I can't hold him much longer!"

The sword, hungry and willing honed in on its host. Fionna knew that all she had to do was thrust, and it would hit the target.

"I-I can't." She said, the sword shaking in her hand. She watched his eyes growing calmer and she began to trust that he would pull himself out of it.

"Yes. You. Can. Just stick him like you stuck me!" The witch cackled.

"Please, Fionna…. Kill me… It's okay if you do it." Marshall moaned, his ferocity waning.

"Marshall! Shut up! I love you, you dope! I'm not going to let you die! So, shut up!" Then, Fionna switched targets. The sword resisted the weaker aura of the witch, but once it had connected to it all Fionna had to do was thrust.

"Are you bleeping kidding me?" The witch cried, as Fionna leapt blindly to stab her through with the sword. Then once again, in a blinding light the witch disappeared back into the blade.

In an instant, Fionna was thrown to the ground, and instinctively she raised her weapon. The blade grew excited at Marshall's powerful energy and it threw small jolts of lightning towards him. Taking little tastes of the evil within.

Marshall was tempted by the blade, too. The chaos flurrying inside him urged him to slide himself over that blade, to let it sink within the chambers of his heart. He wanted it. The tempting release. Reveling in the pain that the electricity from the blade offered, Marshall held a hand to the blade and guided it towards his chest. The sparks illuminated the scene, and Fionna's heart stopped at the sight.

"Marshall…" She whispered, as she felt the blade break skin.

But the moment the blade had tasted blood, it delighted in devouring the evil within Marshall, and like before it threw aside the other.

Marshall was thrust unconscious, once more, to the other side of the room. Fionna ran to him, blindly feeling for his form. She felt liquid warmth on his chest, and she pressed a hand on it to stop the bleeding. Immediately, her mouth sought his. Whether it be grief or desperation, she needed to kiss him.

It offered her a small groan from him as he regained consciousness.

"What happened…?" He moaned. "Wha- I think… did those things really happen?" Marshall was tired, so tired. And confused.

Fionna buried her face against his. Thank glob. He was alright.

"Does it hurt?" She mumbled as she felt his hand wander over to where hers was pressed so hard.

"Not really…" He said, gently pushing her fingers away to explore his wound. "It's not deep…" Marshall said relieved. Soon his vampirism would rid him of the wound, only to leave another little scar.

"I want to sleep forever…" Mumbled Marshall as he tried to sit up. "But I'm not going to do it here…" Fionna didn't stop him from standing, and did her best to help him apply his weight to her.

Whatever the sword had sucked from him, it had taken some vital strengths from him with it.

They made their way towards the bed, and Fionna did her best to accommodate him in her current blindness.

"Are you okay? Are you comfortable? What can I do?" She asked frantically.

"Just stay with me." He said, already falling asleep as soon as he was prone. Fionna acquiesced and laid next to him.

"More..." He said, weakly pulling her arm over his chest. She wrapped herself completely around him. "Much better." He sighed as he finally fell asleep.