Bubblegum took a deep breath and adjusted her backpack more firmly on her shoulders before stepping through the front gate of the Candy Kingdom.

She hadn't ridden her bird—she thought that taking the long way home might clear her head a bit, might make her feel slightly better. Instead, it had just made her sweaty and hungry.

Candy people milled about as the princess made her way toward the castle, stumbling through their daily lives like confused, eternal babies. In a way, Bubblegum supposed, that's what they were. Just innocent lives she had brought into this world so that she didn't feel so alone. A few stopped to wave at her and she waved back, though she didn't stop walking. She probably should have taken the time to actually talk to them, considering how she had been neglecting her duties lately, but she couldn't bring herself to do so.

Truthfully, Princess Bubblegum couldn't care less right then. She was exhausted, and she just wanted to take a weeklong nap, or maybe soak in a bubble bath for a hundred years and let the kingdom sort itself out.

That stuff with Marceline—it had been ugly. With every step on the candy stone street, Bubblegum's heart felt heavier and heavier.

But it hadn't been unexpected.

She had known it wasn't going to last, and she never expected it to. She had even told Marceline as much, for whatever good that had done in the end. The two of them were like distant stars orbiting the center of the Milky Way; always within view, within reach of each other but rarely straying from their respective, repeating paths apart. But when they did…

Bubblegum bit her lip.

When stars grow weak and fall from their intended paths… When they collide…

Lost in her own thoughts, Bubblegum narrowly missed running straight into a small candy person who was walking in circles in the middle of the road, mumbling quietly to himself.

Great, Bubblegum thought, dreading the impending conversation. I guess I can't avoid the candy people forever.

"Starchy, how are you?" Bubblegum said, smile fake, voice too cheerful. Yikes. She needed to tone it down a notch.

"Huh wha—?" Starchy looked up at her with a mildly dazed expression, and continued walking around in circles.

Bubblegum's false smile faltered a bit. She didn't have the patience for this right now. "I just asked how you were doing."

"Yes, indeed." Starchy nodded and changed course, walking a zigzag in the other direction. "See you later, gum lady."

Bubblegum raised her eyebrows in confusion, but she began walking once again. That was weird, but honestly not unusual. Most of her people weren't that smart, and Starchy was getting old. Honestly, it was a relief that he had ended the conversation before it had really started; Princess Bubblegum just wanted to go home.

Her feet sped up as the castle came into view—she was so close! A hundred bubble baths and her soft feather bed awaited her if she could just. Reach. The castle.

As she neared the front doors, she noticed Peppermint Butler standing in one of the many front windows looking pensive, as he often did. She raised an arm to catch his attention—those bubble baths weren't going to fill themselves—but as soon as he saw her his expression turned to one of immense relief, and he disappeared from the window only to burst through the front door moments later.

"Princess, where have you been?"

"You know exactly where I've been, Peps," she sighed. Dear Glob, she just wanted to rest. But from the look on her butler's round face, something had happened while she was gone.

If Bubblegum had to guess, it was probably something involving her robot double. She hadn't spent very long building it, and as perfect as she was, Bubblegum was mature enough to admit that the thing was probably not completely up to par.

Whatever the problem, it was fixable. Everything was, if you had science on your side.

Without warning, an image of Marceline popped into Bubblegum's head, and the princess winced. Well, maybe not everything.

"I've been trying to call you for hours," Peppermint Butler continued, oblivious to Bubblegum's thoughts.

"Oh. Right." Bubblegum swung her backpack off her shoulders and reached in to grab her emergency phone. "I turned it off. You guys were distracting me from my experiments."

"It's an emergency phone for a reason, Princess,"

"Just tell me what's wrong Peps."

Peppermint Butler sighed, and pushed the door open.

Bubblegum's eyes widened as she took in the sight before her. A large number of candy people had taken residence in the Great Hall; small candy tents were pitched along the walls, and sleeping bags were scattered across the floor at random. A makeshift kitchen had been set up in one corner and soup was being ladled into bowls by a candy woman in a hairnet.

No bubble baths for a while, it seemed.

Princess Bubblegum took a step forward into her castle. "What in Glob's name—"

"Princess!" Bubblegum turned to the voice. It was Finn, waving at her from the other side of the Hall. He began running toward her.

"Finn, what the heck is going on? How long have these candy citizens been here?" She lowered her voice. "Is this another zombie situation?"

"It's only been a few hours," Finn replied, finally reaching her. "And no, it isn't zombies."

"Then what? What happened?"

Finn took a deep breath. "Well, we didn't notice anything was wrong at first. The candy people are kind of"—Finn waved his fingers—"you know."

"They're idiots, Finn. I know."

"Yeah." Finn cleared his throat, looking worried. "Princess, these candy people—they've lost their memories."

Bubblegum's entire body went cold. "They what?"

Finn nodded. "Just like Marceline."

Bubblegum surveyed the Hall once again with a mounting feeling of sickness deep in her gut. Recovering Marceline's memories had been a matter of making her feel strong emotion, and she doubted the candy peoples' situation would be much different. But she didn't have the time or personal ties to every single one of her candy citizens to cure all of them, at least not the same way, not any time soon.

"We don't know when this started," Peppermint Butler stated coolly. "Or how long it's been going on, but it seems to have mainly affected those who live on the edge of the kingdom, or people who had recently been traveling outside its walls."

"Why are they here?" she asked, turning to look at Peppermint Butler. "In the castle?"

"We tried to send them home," Finn said. "But…" He and Peppermint Butler exchanged glances.

"But that only made them scared," the butler finished. "And you know what happens when candy people get scared."

"Cripes," Bubblegum said.

"Not only that," Jake said suddenly, popping out of Finn's pocket the size of a jelly bean, "but the castle phone has been off the hook, princess. Yours isn't the only kingdom this is happening to." Jake stretched just his arms to return them to normal size, and counted with his fingers "Breakfast Kingdom, Slime Kingdom, even Worm Kingdom."

Bubblegum closed her eyes and rubbed her temples with her fingers. This was her fault, at least partially. If she hadn't been tucked safely away in Marceline's cave for the past few days, maybe she could have stopped this before it got so bad.

"Okay," she said, opening her eyes and straightening her posture. "We need a plan." She could fix this. She would figure it out. Everything was going to be fine. "I don't think the candy people would react well to being experimented on, but I have all my research notes from the tests I did on Marceline's brain, so that's a start."

The problem was, she had left most of that stuff behind when she walked out. It was neatly organized, in Marceline's music room. She hadn't exactly had time to collect it all.

"Jake and I could go explore outside the kingdom now that you're back," Finn said. "Try to see if we can figure out if something is causing this?"

"That sounds perfect," Bubblegum said. She was still trying to figure out the best way to get her machines and notes back from Marceline's house, but nothing good came to mind besides actually going back, confronting Marceline…

"Peps," she said, pushing the thoughts to the side and turning to her butler. She could figure it out later. "I'm putting you in charge of the candy people here. Make sure they're cared for and accommodated well, and keep an eye on them. If anything changes, come get me immediately."

The small man nodded, but didn't look thrilled.

"I'll be in my lab." Bubblegum turned and hurried in the direction of her lab.

She was dreading having to see Marceline again, but it couldn't be helped; her people were in trouble, and they came before anyone else. Even Bubblegum's pride. It could, however, be put off until further notice while she decided the best course of action moving forward. She had been nowhere close to a cure after she had gathered data on Marceline; she hadn't even come close to identifying the problem. Where the memories had gone, why they had been erased.

If Bubblegum was being honest with herself, which she did not love to do, she would have admitted that, at the time, she had been too wrapped up in finally being close to Marceline again to be at her scientific best. She had been too wrapped up in the intimacy, and not even just the kissing part—though she had, indeed, missed that. But it was more than that. It was the friendship that she missed. Being able to just exist in the same space as someone else and not have to worry about them or be responsible for their happiness or their wellbeing or their entire dang life.

Sure, Finn and Jake were her friends. But they didn't understand what she had been through—not like Marceline did. Or, at least, like she had, before her memories were taken.

Like she was starting to, maybe, before Bubblegum had had to leave her behind again.

Reaching her lab, she pushed the door open and tried to change her train of thought to the task at hand. The room was still messed up. She had barely tried to clean it the day she and Marceline had fought. She had been too annoyed, too angry.

Now, she pushed chairs and tables back where they were supposed to go, and assessed the damage. There was a hole in the floor the size of a pizza, but luckily she had cleaned up the mixture and disposed of it before it had had a chance to ruin things further. The rest of the damage was minimal, thank Glob. But now, Bubblegum wasn't sure what to do.

It looked like she would have to see Marceline again after all.

Bubblegum stepped over the hole and walked to the window. It was still closed from when the Vampire Queen had been there just days before. Only days…it felt like a lifetime since things had changed.

She pushed open the window, letting the cooling pre-twilight air fill the room, and her thoughts.

Marcy had just wanted to hang out, that was all. And if Bubblegum had gone with her, maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe her people wouldn't be suffering, and maybe Marceline would be here, right now, floating in this window and hounding Bubblegum to hang out with her.

Maybes were useless, Bubblegum told herself. Regrets and wishes were useless.

Still, Bubblegum laid a hand on the windowsill and leaned forward. She closed her eyes to let the wind and the purple sky wash over her, and she allowed herself to wish, just for a moment. She wished she had gone with Marceline. Right now she would trade her own soul if she could go back and tell Marceline that yes, we can go play videogames at your place. Sure, let's go throw rocks into the abyss, even though that place is a horrible mass of danger and nightmares.

Bubblegum's eyes snapped open, and she inhaled a large, suddenly painful burst of air into her lungs.

The Abyss.

Bubblegum swung her backpack from her shoulders and dug out her phone, turned it on impatiently, then dialed the number for the emergency phone she had given Finn.

No answer.

Gathering various weapons throughout the room and stuffing them into her pack—she hoped all of them still worked—she let out a stream of curse words as she tried Finn's phone again. Still no answer.

The Abyss. That stupid, Glob danged place. Surely Marceline hadn't been so foolish… Bubblegum hurried out of the room and down the stairs and out the door of the castle, ignoring Peppermint Butler's questions as she passed him and sprinted through town, toward the edge of the Kingdom.

She called to her bird, and hopped on its back, leading it straight up into the sky. Finn and Jake had only just left, so there was no way they had gotten very far. She had plenty of time to catch them. The thought made her relax, but only a little.

As she surveyed the skies, she cursed that awful place and she cursed her past self for even discovering it, that roiling chasm that seemed like it might someday swallow the world and the solar system and all the nearest stars. She should have figured out a way to destroy it a long time ago.

She kicked the falcon to urge it slightly faster, eliciting a screeee from the poor creature.

She couldn't help but think, even at an urgent time like this while the wind rushed around her and threatened to rip her from the Morrow if she did not hold on tight enough, about Marceline, and the stars that were beginning to wink slowly into visibility in the sky above. About how they were all on a strict path designed by the universe to go in one direction, the same direction, for the entirety of each of their lives.

About how, if two stars were to fall and to cross each other's path, the resulting explosion would be enough to rock the fabric of the universe, distorting spacetime and shattering both stars into massive amounts of dying fire and gold.

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If anyone is interested in that stuff about stars exploding, that was inspired by this article that I found by accident while I was trying to come up with smart-sounding science metaphors for Bubblegum's POV chapters. Check it out, it's pretty cool:

edit: kay, so this site won't let me paste a URL into a document. If you really want to check the thing out, just type "Two stars crash into each other, wobbling the universe and flinging out huge amounts of gold" into whatever search engine and it will pop up.

Anyway, thanks for reading! And thanks for all the lovely coments and reviews, they make me happy to keep writing.