Part Five of the Season Title: "The Danger, the Duo, and the Dance in the Dark"
(A note from the Author: Huzzah for the altered timeline of Marshall Lee!)
The Vampire King, taking the title of 'Ruler of the Nightosphere' from his mother, becomes the stuff of nightmares for the land of Aaa, that is until the alliance of royals calls forth their greatest warrior: Fionna the Human. Things don't go quite according to plan, but Marshall Lee and Fionna find themselves intrigued with each other, even if Fionna won't admit it.
It'd been almost a thousand years since Marshall Lee Abadeer set out on his own. In early life, he'd been a warmongering menace after he'd killed the Vampire Queen and gained his immense powers. Then, he became simply a trickster, occasionally a ruffian and fiend whenever simply sucking the red out of objects wasn't enough. As centuries passed, he fell to his axe guitar for entertainment and a sense of stability amid his ever-changing world. He never contacted his mother again until he was almost eight-hundred years old, and that ended in a bloody battle over painful memories and left each to retreat to their own hideouts to plan how they'd get rid of the other. Marshall Lee had claimed his inherited right to the throne of the Nightosphere, but Helen Abadeer had denied it, telling him that he would never be the Emperor of Darkness until she so chose to give that mantle to him.
Out of sheer hatred and the pent-up pain of being lost in the mortal world when he was only a child, Marshall Lee slew his mother in a weak moment after reminding her of her long-dead husband. He took everything, including the pendant that would make him the most powerful being in the Nightosphere and therefore, its Lord. He terrorized the dark world for another two centuries until he grew bored and decided to move onto the land of Aaa beyond his own. Its residents were people not used to the horrors of the Nightosphere, so Marshall Lee could literally bring a fresh hell to distract himself from his memories and past.
He enjoyed himself immensely, until a candy royal by the name of Gumball met his demonic forces with an alliance of all the great rulers of Aaa. Before him stood the newly-ascended Flame King who'd overthrown his mother, the all-too-familiar Ice Queen, and many other great leaders and fighters all led by Gumball. But the one that held out against Marshall Lee's attacks and actually managed to wound him in one fierce battle, was a lone human heroine by the name of Fionna. She caught his eye the moment her blade ripped through his shoulder, but he cast her away before she could finish him off.
Never had he met such beauty combined with such power… never had he been bested. He decided then and there, that night as his wound was treated by a demonic healer, that Fionna the Human would be his to control, or die. He never intended what happened next.
The next day as the armies clashed again, Marshall Lee focused on Fionna and captured her with ease. Prince Gumball and Flame King cared so deeply for her that they pulled back their armies when Marshall Lee threatened to kill the brave girl. Ice queen fought on, considering Fionna a close friend, and her army was annihilated. She was sent back to Gumball and Flame King in chains and blood, but she managed to survive.
Marshall Lee left his army to fight if Gumball and Flame King tried anything, and took Fionna back to his newly-built grand castle in the Nightosphere. He cast her into his dungeon, intent on breaking her and turning her into a demonic champion warrior. For weeks and weeks, she held out to torture and starvation, until it was Marshall Lee who broke without realizing it. He brought her the first food she'd had since her arrival- she was thin and sick by this point- but she simply slapped it from his hands when he tried to give it to her.
"Are you trying to starve to death?" Marshall Lee snarled.
"If it gets me away from you, then heck yeah I am!" Fionna snapped back before settling against the wall in her chains.
"I'm not trying to kill you, you stupid girl. I'm trying to make you into a warrior! You'll be so unstoppable that you can take whatever you want from the people you defeat. Don't tell me that doesn't sound amazing."
"Dude, I wouldn't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it, even if you gave me everything in the whole globbin' world!"
Marshall Lee paused then. So… what he'd heard about her was true. She was a pure hero, a defender of the weak and defeater of evil. "… You're sure about that?" He asked quietly.
"One-hundred percent," Fionna growled back.
"I see…" He then stepped forward, and even though she tried to retreat, he pulled her closer by her chains, and unlocked her shackles.
"Wh-… what're you doing?"
"Unbinding you. What else?"
"Why?"
"Because obviously these harsh tactics aren't going to get you on my side."
"Nothing's getting me on your side after all you've done," Fionna crossed her arms as she was freed.
"Suit yourself. Dinner will be ready in an hour if you want to get cleaned up. Up the stairs, down the hall to the left, last door is the bathroom, and across the hall from it is your room." Marshall Lee made his way out, leaving the cell open. He had already disappeared by the time Fionna got to the top of the stairs, panting from lack of energy and dizzy from weakness. She made her way unsteadily down the hall and drew a hot bath, but made sure to lock the door as she didn't trust this 'Lord of the Nightosphere' as far as she could throw him. Which probably wasn't too far given her current state. As she lay in the bathtub, she chuckled bitterly at the realization that she remembered a story from when she was little that matched her current situation. What was it called…? La Belle et la Bête? Some weird name from another language before the Great Mushroom War. Her mother- well, Cake's mom- had said it meant 'The Beauty and the Beast' or something.
When she went to her room wrapped in towels, she found a simple blue gown laid out for her on the bed. She frowned, but at least it wasn't frilly like what Cake would make her wear. She dressed slowly, unable to do much of anything very fast at the risk of getting dizzy and falling over. When she finally found her way down to the main hall, a small red demon butler pointed her to the dining room where she was expecting to see a great long table with a million chairs, but instead found that it'd been converted into a big library of sheet music and beautiful instruments in glass cases, with only a small round table in the center with two mismatched chairs, and the surface of the wooden table was a mosaic in the image of a red axe guitar very similar to the one Marshall Lee had used in battle.
Marshall Lee was studying a book of medieval Aaaian music from its first century after the War, idly humming the tune to himself. He glanced up as Fionna entered, finding that his servants had decided to leave a dress out for her. He honestly quite liked it, but he preferred her usual adventuring gear. He'd have someone fetch said clothes for her.
The Vampire King stepped around the table, drawing out a chair for Fionna, and she silently sat down while he took the seat across from her. Fionna didn't like how close they were across this little table. A few feet was not enough space between herself and the monster who'd been terrorizing her home for as long as she could remember. Dinner was brought out and served and the two ate without a word for some time. Fionna's meal was normal to her, as Marshall Lee knew she probably wouldn't eat Nightospherian food. His, however, was comprised of mostly red, bloody meat. Fionna half-expected him to eat like a dog, but he was quite courteous and she could almost get over what he was eating with how good his table manners were. Gumball had told her he used to be a punk musician before he overthrew his mother, but in becoming the Lord of the Nightosphere, he shaped up to be a sort of gentleman monster. His unruly black hair wasn't affected by the change, though, and it seemed he only wore suits in public because he was currently dressed in a plaid red shirt and jeans with red high-tops.
Fionna finally broke the silence when she finished. "So what am I doing here, exactly?"
"Becoming my warrior," Marshall Lee answered simply.
"Not gonna happen."
"I know."
"Then why the heck am I still here?!" Fionna growled, crossing her arms.
"If I return you, the war will start again. If I'm honest… I'm done with fighting, but I'm not about to admit defeat."
"Just call a truce, for Glob's sake!"
"Nope."
"You egotistical-…" Fionna shut her mouth and simply glared at him until she murmured, "So, what? Am I just gonna be stuck here forever?"
"Probably. The only way out of the Nightosphere now is by my portals. I disabled the spells that once allowed mortals with arcane knowledge to enter."
"Alright, then what am I gonna do while I'm here?" Marshall Lee was surprised by how well she was taking it all. It seemed like she was a little put off, but she certainly wasn't raging and screaming at him.
"I'm not sure… as my personal guest, you're pretty much free to do almost anything you want. Just don't get eaten by the demons."
"Psh, they couldn't eat me if they tried!" Fionna stated boldly as she rose, but she found she was still dizzy and sat back down again. "Maybe I'll just… y'know, leave the adventuring for tomorrow or something…"
"As I said, you're free to do whatever you want. And if you ever need help…" He slid a strange purple pendant across the table to her. "Just break that." So he cared a little bit.
Fionna spent months exploring the Nightosphere, ignoring the demons as they talked amongst themselves about how she was their Lord's new pet. Many tried to kill her, and a few even tried to capture her so they could blackmail Marshall Lee. She defeated them all with ease until one, a sort of demonic werewolf, captured her and threw her into an electrified cage that she couldn't break out of. The haughty wolf introduced himself as the new Lord of the Nightosphere, but Fionna's answer to that was to chuck her pendant at his face. It bounced off, then shattered on the floor while he nursed his bruised nose. In the floor, a portal opened and Marshall Lee burst through, slicing the wolf into bits in just seconds. He came to the cage to open it with his axe replaced on his back.
"No, don't touch-!" But Marshall had already grabbed the bars and Fionna saw his entire body go stiff and rigid until he collapsed, trembling violently. It was strong magic, even Marshall had to admit that. Fionna was so alarmed that she didn't think as she reached between the bars without touching them, taking Marshall's axe. She destroyed the bars easily with the weapon-made-guitar, and came to kneel by Marshall Lee. "You okay?" She asked softly.
"Yeah…" he muttered. "Just… a little weak…"
"Come on…" Fionna lifted him up with an arm around her shoulders and drew him toward the portal in the floor. He had hardly any strength to carry his own weight, and he certainly couldn't fly as he usually did. When they made their way through the black opening, Fionna found herself in Marshall's bedroom and blushed deep red. His room was… white. She guessed it'd been red at one point but he must've sucked out all the color. She helped him lay down and carefully set his axe guitar against the wall within his reach. He was out like a light, so she left him alone and returned to her own room.
Strange, she thought, I wonder why he cares.
'Cause he thinks you're cute, girl! She could almost hear Cake's voice, and blushed so hard that she thought her nose was going to bleed.
"Nope," she said quickly, jumping on her bed and burying her face in the pillows.
Not quite as feelsy as the previous couple chapters. This one is a run-up to the next chapter, which is the LAST OF THE SEASON. I'll be posting the link to Season Two after the last chapter, and after that, this Season is complete!
P.S. 'The Dance in the Dark' really applies to the next part, not this one. And yes, I purposely used 'The Beauty and the Beast' as inspiration.
-Taiylor Wallace