Finally finished! Gosh, took a while, but I wrote chap 15! Don't expect such a fast update for chap 16, I'm still working out the kinks for it. Thank you guys for almost 7,000 views! I'm glad people are a least looking at my story ^.^ Hope you like. Read on…

Chapter 15

Marshall Lee fell from his floating just over head, and crashed onto the floor. He pulled himself up on shaking arms, "The Lich?!" He said fiercely. Gumball nodded solemnly, his eyes showing the fear he felt.

Marshall looked to Fionna. She had her blue eyes wide, and her hands were shaking slightly. "But… we killed the Lich, remember? When we went to that time box and junk, Cake told me so!"

Even Peppermint Maid, usually so calm, was hyperventilating in the corner of the room. "Sire, when did you know of this?!" she breathed. "When did he come back!"

The Prince shook his head absently, "I don't know how or when, but he's back. And this time, he is determined to win." They watched as he shivered, gritting his teeth against something. Marshall picked up on it.

"You had a vision, didn't you?" he asked, trying to keep the fear from entering his person. Fionna, hearing Marshall's voice become low, looked across the bed at him. Her eyes mirrored him, a small figure that looked just as confused and alarmed as he felt.

Gumball nodded, not trusting his voice. Marshall leaned forward, gripping the bed railing until his knuckles turned white, "What did he say Gumball?" The Prince took a deep breath, tilting his head so that his gaze met the vampire's eyes.

"He said we all have three days to live, and then he will destroy all of Aaa." The words hung in the air like rocks above their heads, threatening to come tumbling down with the force to kill.

Both royals turned at the sudden sob that escarped Fionna. Her hands had come up and were covering her mouth. Marshall saw she was shaking slightly. He reached a hand over, resting it on her shoulder.

She instantly ran around the bed and tackled Marshall in a fierce hug, dry sobs escaping her. "I thought I had killed him. I thought he was gone for good. I thought…"

"We all thought Fionna." Marshall said. He looked over at Prince Gumball, searching or any sign of rest. The Vampire King could see right through the thin front the Prince had put up, and so he saw every look of worry and turbulence that raced across his face.

"What do we do now Princy, just sit here and do nothing?" He felt angry, and weighted. Just saying those words took a lot of effort. He hated not being able to do anything. Usually, he knew he could win a fight with someone. But the Lich was a foe even he didn't dare try to take on.

Gumball picked up his arms, rubbing his eyes. Marshall saw that he winced, probably from the pain. "I have no idea," he said sighing, "but we have to do something. I'm not just going to sit by and watch as my kingdom is destroyed."

Peppermint Maid nodded, looking more determined than Marshall knew she felt. He also picked out that the Prince was putting his kingdom first, before himself. Before Marshall. And before Fionna.

"What's the plan dude. I'm in for the action if it means killing that evil thing." He looked at Gumball expectantly, lightly grasping Fionna's hand when she pulled away from him to stare the Prince down with her own questioning eyes.

Gumball's fists clenched, a muscle in his jaw straining. "I don't know," he said through measured breaths, "I didn't call you here to discuss battle strategies. I called you here to warn you. Fionna's name was mentioned in my vision. The Lich remembers her, and my bet is that he wants revenge."

Marshall hissed, rage flaring up inside him, "I'll kill him before he lays a hand on Fionna! I'll kill that son of a b-"

"Marshall Lee, we both know you're not strong enough to take him head on," Gumball said cutting off Marshall mid curse. "No one is. The only reason Fionna and Cake even drove him out was because they out witted him. But I think he's learned from his mistakes."

He shook his head, "He's gotten strong. So strong that I don't know what will end him once and for all." Marshall, ignoring Fionna's stare, let a string of curses run from his mouth. This was the last thing he wanted to hear. An evil deathless psycho, out to get Fionna, and the fate of the whole land of Aaa hanging in the balance?

When did life become so friggin' complicated! Now, just trying to stay alive is becoming a struggle. He was awakened from his thoughts by Fionna's warm hand on his cheek. Marshall looked down and saw that he was gripping her wrist harshly, her hand turning a slight bluish color.

He let go instantly, not realizing he had been cutting off the circulation. Fionna looked at his face, examining it. "Marshall, are you ok?" He felt like all the pressure from the past few days was crushing him, making him bend and crumble with its overall weight.

He sighed, leaving Fionna by the Princes bedside, and walking over to the open window. He propped himself up against the wall, running a hand through his hair. He had gotten into the habit of doing that when he was frustrated.

The gentle breeze brought in from the cold night chilled the small bead of sweat that had started on his forehead, the commotion of everything making him feel like he was on fire. He closed his eyes, imagining that nothing was wrong in the world.

That he and Fionna were perfect, they their lives weren't threatened, that he could be with her forever without complications. That she was in his arms, watching the night stars with him, his hand stroking her bunny clad head.

When he opened his eyes and looked down, he found he was doing just that. She had walked over unnoticed and had slipped one of his arms around her shoulders. He'd started gently stroking her head unconsciously. She was looking up at him with soft eyes, letting him know that she felt the same way.

That she felt the stress of it all trying to break them, trying to bend them out of shape. She felt his sorrow and his fear, not just for herself, but for him as well.

And that's what Marshall loved some much about her, among other things. She understood him, and if she didn't, she tried to understand. She would pester him about his past, about what he thought, when to others, he was just a terrifying monster.

But to Fionna, he was her friend, companion lover. Everything. And Fionna was Marshall's everything. She was his everything…

And her life was threatened.

Marshall felt a hot coal burning inside him, relighting his fire. If nothing was done, if the Lich wasn't stopped, they would all die. Fionna included. He wouldn't lose her, couldn't lose her. Because if he lost her, he lost everything. He held her close. "We'll be fine Fi, I promise. We'll stop him… somehow." I'll stop him if I have to he thought silently.

Fionna seemed to relax, knowing that Marshall was back to being the resilient Vampire King he was. She watched as he once again closed his eyes, his chin pointed at the window. He took a breath, and when he opened his eyes Fionna saw deep determination there.

"All righty," he said turning around and walking back to Prince Gumball, who had been watching quietly, "We need a battle plan." The Prince looked down at the stark white sheets, "I have no idea what to do. From what I can guess, we have-"

"That's it! No more mopping, it's time to work." He glared at the Prince who had raised his head, a defiant surprised frown plastered on his pink face. Marshall returned the frown, but it seemed more mocking than actually there.

"We need to come up with a plan, and I don't care how crazy it is! I am not going down without a fight." He jabbed a finger at Gumball, "There has to be something, anything, that we can use against him. Think brainy, think! I know the answers in your big head somewhere."

They all stared at the stunned Prince, who in return blinked twice. And then, like a light had been turned on, his face broke out on a small quirk of a smile. "There's a book… the Book!" All of a sudden he was scrambling to get out from under the cover, ripping I.V's out nonstop.

Peppermint Maid, rushed forward, trying to calm Gumball, "Prince, what are you doing? You still haven't healed as much as you need to! Can't this wait till morning?" The Prince surprised everyone with a scoff.

"If we wait much longer, by the time we find what we need, there won't be a world to save. I need to get to my private study, immediately!" He jumped off the bed, Marshall and Fionna trailing behind him, barely keeping up.

He almost ran out the doors, and continued to speed walk down the hallway, taking long strides. Fionna hurried to catch up to his side, "What Book?" she asked, hope glinting in her eyes. Gumball didn't look at her.

"I don't know if it has what we need, but it's worth a try. A few years ago, I came across an old book…" He turned a corner so sharply that Fionna almost missed it. She caught up again, straining to hear his words as they flowed from his mouth.

"…It was particularly weird, as you might say, and its pages were filled with writing that I couldn't understand." Fionna was puzzled, "Then how did you know what it said?" Gumball threw up a finger, almost declaring, "Aha! There was another book that I found with the previous Book. It helped translate the Book and then I could understand it! But I've only translated half of it, and…"

Another turn.

"…but while translating it, I came across a symbol that looked quite odd considering I hadn't found it in any witch or wizard books. I translated it, for it had writing around it. Some of it was of someone else's writing, written into the book by the previous owner I would presume."

"Most of it read, 'Don't read,' 'Evil,' 'Cursed Being'. A paragraph out to the side gave a very detail description of it, but I can't remember exactly what it said." He took a breath, one of the only one he had taken the entire time of talking.

"But what I do remember is that it was called the Mark, and it belonged to the Lich." Fionna glanced over at him, her mouth hanging open. She looked back to Marshall Lee, who had been listening in on the whole thing.

Their eyes met, and in one brief moment, the two wanted to ask a million questions. But they held their tongues, and the Prince started talking again. They had turned corners at least five times.

"At first I thought that I should burn the book. Not just because of that one thing, but because the book was filled from cover to cover with dark magic and secrets that made the Lich pale in comparison."

"But I decided to translate more of the mystery person's handwriting. It seems that They had come up with an anti-Mark, named Karm. When I turned the page I found that it had been drawn on the back of it, but it was not easy to find."

"But you just said it was drawn on the back of the page," Marshall protested, "What's so hard about finding that?" Gumball wiggled a finger, "If secrets were so easy to figure out, they wouldn't be called secrets."

"I had to recite an incantation. How I found it, please don't ask. It was more of a thought in my head than actually finding it written on parchment. Only after I had said the magic words did the picture appear."

"And not for long, mind you. It disappeared after exactly three minutes, and I had to repeat the spell in order to see it again." Prince Gumball stopped abruptly at the large chamber door that led up the long staircase to his secret library.

He produced a key from one of his various pockets, and unlocked the door with a click. Motioning the two in, he came after them, closing and locking the heavy wooden door. They hurried up the stairs, taking two at a time.

It was then that they noticed that Peppermint Maid was not with them. But they all dismissed it without further thought. "So," Marshall said, "You just kept saying the spell over and over?"

The Prince shook his head, "Give me some credit, the first time it disappeared I grabbed a piece of paper and drew the symbol myself. I wasn't going to keep repeating those words. They had a… feel to them that wasn't quite right."

Marshall quirked his head, "What was the incantation?" Gumball cleared his throat, "Sashedra` holdesk mi ciotum." He hadn't said it loudly, but Fionna felt as if they echoed of the walls. There had been power behind them, and just like Gumball had said, they didn't feel right.

"What does it mean?" she asked. Before Gumball could answer, Marshall spoke up, "Let Hells secrets come unto me." They both rounded on him, eyes wide. "How did you know that?" Fionna asked.

He shrugged, "I grew up in the Nightosphere. Of course I'm going to pick up on some demon language here and there. But I don't speak it fluently." Gumball nodded, and continued up the stairs.

They reached the door just when the trio thought the stairs would never end. Gumball leaned forward, and the door opened with a click. Great, even Gummy knows Demon arts. Who next, Fionna? Marshall didn't want to think about that.

They entered the library, and noticed that what Peppermint Maid had said was true. The books were in neat piles, each one in its place. Fionna looked at the wall that held the door leading into Gumball's secret chamber, but the mountains of books hid any evidence that a door was there to begin with.

Gumball pursed his lips, walking over to one of the stacks. "After I had drawn Karm, I had immediately put the book on one of the shelves. Or at least I think I did…" He smiled ruefully, picking different books up, and throwing them aside.

"I don't exactly know where, but it is in this room. If we could get out hands on it, it could probably give us a clue as in how we are to defeat our opponent." Books kept hitting the floor with a thud, Gumball not even looking at where he was tossing them.

Fionna looked over at Marshall, then back to Gumball. "So, what does the book look like?" Marshall floated over to the Prince, eyeing each book he picked up. After some mumbling in thought, Gumball replied.

"It is bout in a blood red cover, although I would suspect it to be a little worn down. It is from the Great Mushroom War, the very beginning of our time. It's ancient." A book barely missed Fionna's head.

"It has black lettering on the front, and it's in demon language. Or at least, I think it is." Gumball straightened to look at Marshall, "The book that came with it to translate it. I do believe it was demonic in origination. Did the incantation sound… different to you?"

Marshall floated in midair, eyebrows raised. "Now that you mention it Gumwad, there was something different about the way it was worded. It sounded like how Nightosphere demons used to write," He looked up in thought, "Oh, I'd say about a thousand years ago."

Gumball nodded, almost expecting Marshall's words, "That is when I suspect our world was created. Old as time, I guess you could say." Gumball was about to turn back to his digging, but he quickly quirked his head towards Marshall.

"Oh, and Marshall Lee?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't call me Gumwad."

Marshall gave a mocking salute, "Aye aye, Cap'i'tan!" The Prince shook his head, rolling his eyes, and then started again. Marshall flew over and dived into a pile, immediately reading the covers of each manuscript he encountered. Fionna, likewise, was soon across the room, looking at book after book. Her head started to hurt a little after cracking open a sciencey looking volume.

"Gumball, why do you have so many books? It's not like you can read all of these anyways." She shoveled through a pile, all about the theories of quantum physics. He chuckled, "Actually, I've read all of these. Twice."

Fionna felt her head spin. She couldn't think of anyone reading all of this stuff! And there was no fiction! It was all science! She sometimes wondered about Gumball. Maybe he was a little too smart.

They looked for hours, going through easily a thousand books each, but they came up empty handed. Fionna had had enough of books. She still saw printed words when she closed her eyes, and when she opened them, the books stared her down with them.

Eventually, Marshall voiced their thoughts, "Ok, I am done! D-U-N, done! I am sick of books. Let's call it a day and get some rest. We can look some more tomorrow." He rubbed the back of his neck, stretching with a groan.

Fionna second the notion, but Gumball shook his head. "You two can go on, I'll keep looking. Besides, I can't sleep anyways. It's pretty late. Ask Peppermint Maid for a couple's suit. That way you guys can be here when the search for the book resumes."

"Whoopie…" Marshall said rolling his eyes. But it was nice that the Prince had offered. He did feel bone tired, and spending the night with Fionna didn't sound too bad. The two walked sluggishly down the stairs, Marshall even walking half the time.

When they reached the hallway, they locked the door behind them. Peppermint Maid was nowhere to be found. After roaming the halls, Fionna finally spotted a servant, and had them assigned a room.

It was a royal suit; complete with a king sized bed, a bathroom, and waiting service. Marshall took no time at all in ordering some delicate strawberries. He asked if Fionna wanted anything, but she shook her head, lying out on the bed.

The soft pink comforter was very comfortable. Fionna let out a tired sigh as she closed her eyes, wanting to fall asleep as fast as possible. But she couldn't. Fionna flopped around on the bed, trying to get in a better sleeping position, but she could not fall asleep.

Sooner rather than later, she sat up, sitting on the king with her legs crossed and her head in her hands. Marshall looked across the room at her, a strawberry half way to his mouth. "Everything Ok Fi?" he asked.

Fionna shrugged, not knowing how to answer. "I can't sleep. I guess all this 'save the world' bizz has got me on an adrenalin rush. But I really just wanna-"

"Lay down and sleep like the dead?" Marshall said. Fionna laughed, "Yeah, something like that." He smiled, sucking the red coloring of the strawberry like it was a drink. He tossed the ghost of it to Fionna, who caught it.

"Have a strawberry," he said putting the bowl of them down, "It'll help clear your head." Fionna didn't feel like eating white fruit, but she did anyways. It was tart, but sweet at the same time. Perfect.

She threw the little green top into the trash can beside the bed, and then resumed her position on the bed. She groaned, throwing off her hat, and laid back into the bedspread once again, looking up at the canopy overhead.

Some time later, Marshall Lee's head came into view, his black hair standing out against the pink in the room. "Hey," he said plainly. Fionna went along with it, "Hey." "What's wrong sexy lady? Being in a room by yourself with the Vampire King not good enough for you?"

Fionna blew a puff of air, making his hair fly out around his face. "No," she said simply, "I'm just…"

"Just what Fi?" his face had turned serious now, seeing that Fionna looked a bit upset. Fionna had been holding it in as long as she could, telling herself that things would work out, like Marshall had said.

But she couldn't keep her fantasies in check anymore, and couldn't mask the fear that was collecting inside of her. "What if we don't make it Marshall…" she whispered in a small voice, sounding almost like a child.

"What if we don't find the book in time? What if the Lich isn't affected by what's in the Book? What if Gumball gets hurt again? What if-"

"Fionna, life is full of ifs, you just have to get past them. They're what make life livable." He gently reached down, caressing her cheek. She looked up into is deep black eyes. "How can you be so calm at a time like this? How can you not think about the ifs?"

Marshall tilted his head, a small smile playing on his mouth, "Because there is only one if I'm worried about. And that's if you live." He moved his hand to her hair, twirling it in between his fingers, "You're all that matters…" he whispered.

He started to float down, sliding into the bed beside her. Grabbing her chin, he tilted her head up to face him, and he kissed her. It was one of the softest kisses Fionna had ever felt, just a breath on her tingling lips.

She suddenly felt sleepy, laying there in Marshall's arms. It was then that she realized why she hadn't been able to go to sleep before. Marshall hadn't been with her. But now, with his sweet breath warming her face, she felt sleep finally pulling her under.

Fionna curled up to Marshall, laying her head on his chest. He curled his arms around her, holding her close against his body. He rested his own head on hers.

"You're all that matters to me Fi." Marshall mumbled into her hair.

I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I don't know exactly why, probably cause I got a lot of inspiration from it. As the saying goes, you can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club XD Haha, hope you ppl liked it! Plz review! Sry if it's kinda crappy, I tried my bestest ^.^

Cheyenne iz out, PEACE!