Alternate Title: I Still Remember You

A letter, a memory, a song, and a friendship long since ruined by the evil of an ice crown.

Fire burns them to black soot. Smoke chokes them until they fall.

Ash…

So much ash…All from the clouds above, raining down with the debris…

Over the mountain, the ominous cloud,

Coming to cover the land in a shroud.

Hide in a bushel, a basement, a cave,

But when the cloud comes a-hunting…

No one's a-safe.

He knew that rhyme too well, and it always struck him so hard when he heard little children sing it, so much so that he would nearly fall to his knees with his residual sorrow and anger. Did they have any inkling of what that song was really about? Didn't they know their 'Cloud Hunt' of hide-and-seek was based on the idea that no one, not even in the best of hiding places, could escape from the huge mushroom clouds of nuclear fallout and fire and ash? If the people back then hadn't burned to death, been crushed, blown up, or suffocated, they had mutated into monsters or some of the ancestors of the current people in the land of Ooo.

The Mushroom War had been one of the darkest times in Marshall Lee's life, made bearable only by the companionship of Symone Petrikov after his mother had abandoned him. Symone had made the world… almost wonderful. Despite the destruction, and despite the fact that Marshall Lee had been only a small half-demon child with hardly any power or knowledge, Symone had brought back curiosity, wonder, and hope. That was, until the crown had taken her away.

"Symone!" He cried fearfully. "Symone, where are you?!" Tears of fear were about to fill his eyes, thinking he'd been abandoned again, just like how his mother had done months before… He rose from his makeshift little bed where his best friend and caretaker had left him to sleep while she scavenged for breakfast. He'd woken from a nightmare and had been calling for her for some time now, too afraid to go outside in the hostile broken city they wandered through. He was brave for a child, but not brave enough to face the horrors wrought by the mushroom clouds. But this time, too scared to stay and be alone, he left the little half-broken house they'd taken shelter in for the night. He wandered the ash-dusted streets with bare feet save for the torn sock on one foot. Broken glass and splinters had long since stopped hurting him, but Symone still searched constantly for shoes that might fit him.

After several hours, he finally came to a halt on a sidewalk and let his tears flow, sniffling and trying to be brave like Symone often told him they had to be in the face of such a worldwide tragedy. But he couldn't. He was lost, alone, and he couldn't even figure out where he'd come from. He was so lost in fear and tears that he didn't hear the hurrying footsteps until he felt hands on his face, wiping his tears away. Warm hands, gentle despite callouses from years of work as a collector and scholar.

"Marshall Lee," the voice like a soothing bell reached his ears and he looked up to see his dear friend. "Marshall, honey, I told you to stay at the shelter…"

"I had a nightmare," Marshall told her with a sniffle.

"Oh?"

"Mom left me again, and she still didn't come back," he began to sob again.

"… Stay right there, sweetheart," Symone kissed his forehead before hurrying off across the broken street. She'd noticed a collapsed toy store there on her hunt for food, but had decided to pick up a toy on the way back for her little companion. He needed it now more than ever before. She looked among the toys, most torn or filthy, until her eyes settled on a pink teddy with black button eyes and a smile. She didn't know if Marshall Lee would like pink, but it was the only whole and clean toy. She hurried back and came to stop before Marshall Lee, holding out the teddy until he looked up. At first, he was surprised behind those teary eyes, but then a smile lit up his little blue face and he took the teddy and snuggled it like it was an old friend.

"He's perfect!" Marshall exclaimed, looking up at Symone with the kind of gratitude that only a child could convey.

"He'll be your friend while I'm away," Symone told him, pulling a kerchief from her pocket to wipe his dirty and tear-stained face. "That way you'll never have to be alone. But he needs a name, of course."

"Hambo!" Marshall blurted, hugging the teddy tightly.

"Hambo?" Symone chuckled. "Well, then. Hambo it is." She lifted the seven-year old up and gladly carried him away as they made their way back toward their shelter. She'd managed to find canned fruit and some good jerky, and it was more than they'd had in weeks. Soon, they'd be out of the city, and hopefully there would be more food where fallout had not ruined the greenery.

"Symone?" Marshall Lee asked softly as they finished their meal.

"Yes, Marshall?" She looked down upon him with her gentle blue eyes over the rim of her circular glasses.

"What's an 'anti-carion'?

"An antiquarian."

"Yeah."

"Well, as an antiquarian, I traveled the world studying ancient artifacts and items from years past."

"Like what?"

"Well… like ancient swords and armor, tools, paintings… and this crown I found in Scandinavia," she tapped the jewel-studded golden crown at her hip. "A man sold it to me without realizing what it does."

"… Is that why you're changing? Because of the crown…?"

"Yes. It's why my hair is turning white and my skin is turning blue."

"But blue's not so bad. It's like me!"

"I think I could learn to like blue, just because of you," Symone smiled softly, pulling him close to her side where he settled happily. After a long silence, he looked up at her, but he hesitated to speak his mind a moment. "See something interesting?" She asked him when she realized he was staring.

"Symone?"

"Hm?"

"… You're my best friend."

Marshall Lee let his head fall into his hands, the scattered pages of pictures and letters laying before him. He'd been searching through his old possessions, looking for inspiration when he'd come across the letter Symone had written him before she'd lost her mind completely to the effects of the ice crown.

He couldn't help remembering the day Symone, or 'Ice Queen' as she was known now, came and found his new home just as she'd found every one of his previous homes, asking him for help to write a song. She apparently didn't know why she was attached to him, always chalking it up to 'you're just a groovy guy' or some nonsense like that. With the letter and pictures before him, they'd made a song that he often dreamed about and woke up in tears from. He hated feeling so horrible for something that neither of them could've stopped. He'd been too young, and the magic in the crown was all that kept Symone alive, but it stole her mind away from her at the same time.

Slowly, Marshall Lee reached down to pick up the letter scrawled on the back of a picture, and tears filled his eyes once more as he read its contents.

Marshall Lee, is it just you and me in the wreckage of the world?

That must be so confusing when I'm coming unfurled.

And I know you're going to need me here with you,

But I'm losing myself and I'm afraid you're going to lose me too.

I can feel myself slipping away…

I can't remember what it made me say,

But I remember I saw you frown.

I swear, it wasn't me, it was the crown.

This magic keeps me alive but it's making me crazy.

And I need to save you, but who's going to save me?

Please forgive me for whatever I do

When I don't remember you.

-Love, Symone

"You stupid old woman…" Marshall Lee whispered as he could once again hear the song they'd created, playing through his head. He missed her. Not Ice Queen, but Symone Petrikov, the beautiful, wonderful woman who'd saved the little boy who'd been lost from his own world in the dying land of humans as they destroyed themselves. But she would not let them destroy the spirit of a tiny outcast boy. No, not Symone. She would've given up everything before she let him be hurt.

It was just too bad she'd lost it all with her mind, and left the boy more scared and confused than ever with only one small, stuffed friend left to cling to when the shadows grew dark and fearful and the night set in. Back then, he'd been afraid of the dark. She'd always chased it away with a fire or a candle or a story. After she'd lost her mind, Marshall Lee could only bury his face in Hambo and wish the fear away. Some nights, he still huddled alone in his home, wishing for the sun to rise despite how it hurt him now.

All he wanted was one more embrace. One more tender word from a fully-lucid Symone to assure him he was okay, and that she would keep him safe even when the crown took over. Just one more minute with Symone. The real Symone, the mother that she'd become when his own left or lost him in the human world. He still didn't know how he'd been lost... only that it hadn't been so bad with his best friend in the dying world.

This one's a bit short and too important to be a mini-sode, but I felt like it deserved... no, NEEDED to be written out in respect to the same story between Simon and Marceline. Marshall Lee, being her mirrored male self, needs a little bit of expanding upon his past. I hope to also add in a chapter about how Marshall became the Vampire King, after hearing that a person on the Adventure Time team mentioned that Marceline had killed the Vampire King to become the Vampire Queen.

We shall see. By the way, I'm sorry for all the sad recently, but you gotta admit these are necessary tears for the story.

-Taiylor Wallace