Betty stood by herself staring at the vast field of dry, tall grass early in the morning. Once she recalled having a weary look in her eyes several months ago when she first set foot at this place, but now she had one renewed with determination. Her involvement in the Candy-Fire War had helped her acquire a new level of confidence and courage that to venture into the unknown proved to be a less-harrowing experience. Of course she still remained wary, being sure not to lower her guard and underestimate any hostiles she had yet to encounter. Moments later, her train of thought was broken when she heard someone approaching from behind.

"You alright?" Marceline asked as she accompanied Betty's left side.

"Yeah," she replied as she cleaned her box-framed glasses with her own white T-shirt before straightening her olive coat. "Just getting ready to spring into action once everyone's ready." Betty frowned moments later and lifted a palm amending, "But not right now of course, it's way too early."

The vampire shrugged with a smile, "Eh, I can't go back to sleep anyway. Got too much on my mind."

It was then Betty's turn to smile mischievously, "Still thinking about your kiss?"

Marcy became flustered and replied hastily, "W-well, I.. uhh... Yes." She drooped her head in acceptance. "I feel like I'm starting to obsess over it too much!"

"You'll be alright," Betty comforted as she placed a hand on Marcy's shoulder. "Just learn to accept it."

"Okay," the vampire mocked rolling her eyes. "I'll just wait for it to magically disappear now that I'll admit it out loud to myself." She took a dramatic pause and looked left and right, "Eh, nope. Still there."

"Oh, quit being a drama queen," Betty chided playfully.

"You're right, I already have a title of my own," Marcy stuck out her tongue.

"Can't do anything else then," the woman shook her head chuckling.

They both recomposed themselves and stared off in the distance for a short time until Marcy asked, "So, this is it huh?"

"I've been waiting for this for such a long time," Betty said solemnly. "For once, I can actually believe that I'll see Simon again real soon. It'll be nice to have him in my arms again and share the future that was meant to be."

"What if this place's a bust?" Marcy asked. "I mean, I'm not trying to be mean or anything."

"It has crossed my mind," Betty nodded thoughtfully. "I've wandered across the globe on my own many times thinking I would find a definite end for Simon's curse. All those days I've had my hopes built up, only for it to come crashing down like a rude awakening. This case may not be any different with that kind of sense, but there's just something out there that I can't explain that's making me consider otherwise." She looked over to her directly, "I've dreamt of this place, Marceline. Every time I do, I get this vivid experience that I'm standing there in front of the temple entrance. And when I lean my head closer against the door, I swear I could hear his voice calling to me, waiting for me to rescue him on the other side."

The vampire didn't know what to make of it, but nodded intently.

"I feel like it's destiny," Betty said as she faced the distant horizon again, with ambition in her eyes. "That somehow this is supposed to happen. I wish there was something else that I could go off on, but I just have to believe!"

"I just hope you're right," Marceline said with a sad smile. "I would hate to see you disappointed."

Betty returned the smile and replied, "Thanks. Now go on ahead and get some rest while you still can. We're bound to spend the whole day looking around for this place."

"Every square mile?" Marcy asked recalling Betty's last words on the matter.

"Every single one," she nodded with determination.


And so, Betty and her friends began their first day searching the lost temple. While she and Ice King scouted ahead on board a magical carpet, Marceline, Phoebe and Jake 2 scaled the surface. It was a mundane task overall as the group stumbled into nothing of interest and soon enough, they took breaks to refresh themselves.

"How's the search going?" Phoebe asked Betty when they were all gathered around a campfire in the afternoon.

"It's still going, I'm afraid," she replied. "Can't tell if we're close or not. On the other hand, we did cover a lot of ground though."

"That's reassuring," Ice King commented. "Because I can't wait to meet back with Gunter already! Not that I'm saying it's not fun hanging out with you three ladies, but it has been dull hanging out over here."

"Ice King, I understand," Betty admitted. "I would rather be somewhere else right now that's a lot more exciting, but I have to do this first. This gift that I want to get for you is so precious that it'll easily convince you, in fact all of us that this was worth it!"

"Yeah, I know," IK grumbled. "You've said that already, a dozen times actually. I'd rather settle for something simpler like a late night dinner or a new shirt, or maybe even a new book!"

"A book?" Betty chuckled with a quizzed expression. "What on earth for?"

"You know," IK rubbed his neck slightly blushing. "For my fanfiction. Gotta have some source material to keep it fresh every once in a while heheh."

"Oh this again," Marceline face-palmed with a giggle.

"Fanfiction?" Phoebe asked innocently. "What about?"

The vampire faced the elemental, "He normally writes about made-up adventures that are based off the ones with Finn and Jake. Only difference though is that it's a gender-bent universe where it's called, 'Fionna and Cake.'"

"Sounds.. interesting," Phoebe commented as she imagined her male counterpart would be sitting in the same spot right now, having a similar moment. "Are they any good?"

Marcy and Betty glanced at each other before the former replied, "Yeah of course they are! Absolutely!" The ice wizard puffed his chest in pride from her praise and stared off into distance with a smug grin. Taking the opportunity, Marcy leaned forward at Phoebe and mouthed, "No they're not!"


The days kept on progressing at a slow rate as the group continued searching. Betty studied the map she charted herself as she hovered over the skies with Ice King and then tucked it away with an irritated sigh.

"I feel like we're not doing something right," she said out loud to herself. It had been almost two weeks so far.

"I get like that too sometimes," Ice King nodded with a yawn. "One time I was trying to make this spell that would help me look like a prince charming for the princesses, but I missed this flask that had the right measurements. It stunk actually, I spent so much time prepping it together, formulas and all and then I couldn't finish the project! All I could do then was wing it, really."

"We're you that close?" Betty asked compassionately.

"Maybe," the ice wizard shrugged with a glum expression. "I bought the set from some guy who was standing in front of the magic shop in Wizard City who I thought was a worker. Looking back, he could have been a con man for all I know. There was no way of knowing. Add to the fact that Gunter likes to meddle in between my experiments by breaking stuff and you got a recipe for disaster. I sprayed him a couple times with water to teach him a lesson, but he still does his thing from time to time. Eh, oh well." He muttered at the end.

"You'll get your break soon," Betty eyed him with determination. "I promise."

Suddenly her phone went off and discovered it was Marceline calling.

"Guys," the vampire announced. "You two need to see this!"

"We're on our way," Betty answered as her face changed into a stoic expression. She then motioned IK to descend with her and reached the ground. Once they landed, the pair saw Phoebe and Marcy holding onto what appeared to be a helmet with a broken visor.

"Any ideas?" The elemental asked as she handed it to Betty.

"Color's all faded and the markings are gone," Betty frowned examining the piece. "Looks like something I would see in a sci-fi flick." She ran one hand across the visor frame and noticed it had a small web of cracks in the middle. "Whoever was wearing this must have had a rough battle. You know, come to think of it. I wonder..." She explored the head gear with her fingers pressing for something until a thin rectangular chip ejected from the back. "Ah, there we go!"

"How'd you know that?" Phoebe asked astonished.

"I didn't," Betty replied chuckling. "I was just doing what they do in the movies."

"I'm sure there's a way for BMO to extract the files," Marcy nodded. "It'll be interesting to know the backstory behind it. Although, I have to say, it doesn't look like your average flash drive or SIM card for that matter."

"Was there anything else?" Betty asked.

"You see that's thing," Marcy answered. "It just randomly popped out in midair from this heat wave or whatever it was." Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw something drop behind Betty only a few feet and then pointed, "There, like that!"

The group investigated and discovered it was soda can upon closer inspection. Marceline crouched to pick it up slowly and said, "Purple Flurp soda? What's this doing here?"

Betty and the others looked back up and noticed a few more random objects dropping nearby all around them.

"Huh, neat," Phoebe commented as she crouched to pick up a straight sword nearby designed with a dark blade. "It's got an obsidian look to it, very sleek."

Meanwhile, Jake 2 was sniffing a stray ultility boot that dropped beside him before losing interest.

"There's a lot of magical displacement going on," Betty stated as she realized the heat waves were actually rifts. "Normally when something like this happens in my experience, it usually means-"

At that moment, she tensed instantly when she heard the familiar sound of a beast growling ominously, followed by several more.

"Gals," Ice King warned with a bewildered expression as sweat ran down his face. "We got company!"