AN:

Well hello again everyone. All I can say is that the reception for the first chapter was awesome. This whole thing is still in a pretty nebulous state for me, so I hope you guys only enjoy it more as things mature.

Your feedback sustains me. I crystalize it, and then drink it as an invigorating mist.

GIVE ME MORE.

Chapter 2: Road Warriors

"Ooh, we're gonna get a bass. We'll get that bass and Marcie's gonna play it real fast and then I'll get a crazy sword… Oooh, I'll get a crazy sword when me and Marcie use her bass to make the titan work his forge!"

Marceline chuckles, amused by her snaggle-toothed traveling bud's limericks. She wasn't about to tell him that his rhyme didn't quite work, since bass was pronounced 'base'. No need to ruin his fun. "Wow Finn, you're awful pumped about this," she says, floating along down the road. "I mean, more than you usually are."

"Well, I'm adventuring," Finn says, trotting along with a massive grin plastered across his face. "That's always a good thing. And I'm hanging out with you. It's been crazy long since we had just Finn and Marcie time."

The vampire nods her head, looking around. "Yeah, I was actually trying to remember the last time it was just the two of us hanging out, but nothing really came up. There's almost always someone tagging along, like Jake, or Bubblegum."

"Mmhm. And more pals is always nice, but there's just something about doin' stuff with just you and someone else that's different," Finn says. "It's like… Kinda like parties. Exactly like parties. Partying is math and all, but it's not the same as just, you know, hanging out. Too much noise and stuff to really be soul-bros with somebody."

His vampire friend raises one eyebrow curiously. "Soul-bros?" she asks.

"Yeah, you know! Soul-bros. Lots of people can be bros. Heck, even Ice King is my bro, in a really weird, 'I beat you up for kidnapping people' way. But not everyone can be a soul-bro. You've gotta be bros... With each other's souls. And trust me Marcie, that ain't no jive. Soul-bro-ship is serious biz, ya dig it?"

"Heh, oh don't worry hero-boy, I think I can dig it," Marceline says. "Am I a soul-bro?"

"Well yeah, of course you…" Finn stops for a second, his feet coming to rest as he thinks more about his answer. "Are? Well… Jake was my first soul-bro, so our broship is kinda what I base it on. He's a soul-bro, PB is a soul-bro, B-MO is a soul-bro too…"

"Oh come on, Finn! I woulda thought that I'd be at least as big a bro as Bubblegum! That's just insulting." The undead rocker feigns an insulted pout, before her stoneface breaks with a snickering laugh.

"H-hey! Come on Marcie, you're totally as big a bro as PB!" Finn protests, yet there is still uncertainty and confusion marking his face. The gears turning in his head are almost audible. "Just… I dunno, it's different! PB is really cool and all and I trust her a lot, but she also has me do lots of stuff for her, really important stuff to help lots of people. I'm like her go-to-dude, I guess. And, well, I live with Jake and B-MO. I know all kinds of mondo-weirdo stuff about 'em, and they know all sorts of mondo-weirdo stuff about me. I don't know so much about you… But I really trust you anyways. Cause you make me feel like the mondo-weirdo stuff isn't so mondo-weird… And you've never got huge stuff for me to do, like PB. I feel like I can just… Stop when I'm around you. Like stop being Finn the Big Honkin' Hero for a while, and just be… Well, Finn."

Marceline rolls her eyes, reaching over to press a silencing finger to Finn's rambling lips as she floated around to face him. "Yeah, I think the word you're looking for is comfy, hero-boy. Don't gotta put some whacky title on it. Jake is Jake, B-MO is B-MO, Peebles is Peebles, and I'm me. And that's all she wrote."

"Huh… You know, I think you're right. Soul-bros sounds kinda stuffy anyways."

Marcie eyes Finn with mild confusion, as the two resume their pace down the road. "Well then why'd you use it?"

"Oh no, that was Jake's idea. Say, where are we going anyways?" The last human looked about; the treehouse was already just a shape on the horizon behind them, with the tall northern spires of the Ice Kingdom looming up above them, still a ways off.

"Well, according to Ash's journal, Thoros lives deep under the Ice Kingdom, where he stokes his forge on the fires of Ooo's core. The bass is his greatest creation; so great, he knew when it was finished that he'd never forge anything more perfect, so he locked it away, so he could keep working his forge without having to see proof that he was past his prime. It's at the top of the mountain, a place so frigid that he'd never be tempted to go and see it," Marceline explains, pointing to the tall range before them. "That one, right there. See the one with smoke coming out of its sides?"

Finn scanned the direction that Marcie's finger indicated, but couldn't locate it. "I'm not seeing it," he said.

"Look, it's right there. Right there!" Marceline pointed again, jabbing her finger in the air.

Finn slowly shook his head. "Nope. Not getting it."

"Ugh!"

Finn was very vaguely aware of Marcie moving, at full vampire speed, directly behind him, when suddenly soft, cool fingers pulled down his hood and set themselves on either side of his face. Then, with gentle but irresistible strength, his vampiric friend forced his head to move where she wanted it to, to the left a little, and then up some. "Come on baby-face," she implored. "Don't tell me those blue eyes ain't got any shine. It's right over there." She leaned on over him, pressing up against his back as she braced her arm on his shoulder, her pointing finger laid directly along his line of sight. "See it?" she asked.

"Ahh, y-yeah, I see it! Yup! Right there, dunno how I missed it!" Finn babbled, feeling the tips of his ears go red hot as he wormed himself out of Marceline's grasp. "Well, now that that's been settled, let's, y'know, just keep on truckin'!" He started off at a strident pace, leaving Marceline still sort of hanging on someone who wasn't quite there anymore.

"Huh…" she mumbled to herself.

"Glob-noggit, Finn! What the shoop!?"

The two of them had fallen into a peaceful silence. The edge of the Ice Kingdom was slowly getting closer, and just in time; by Finn's estimations, they should reach the shelter and shade of those tall mountains before the full force of the midday son was posed overhead. With luck, they'd even find their cave without too much time out in it. Marceline was mostly safe from direct exposure, what with her hat and gloves, but daytime as a whole was bright enough to be a nuisance. At midday, that nuisance could become genuinely painful, and long times out in the sun would quickly wear her down and saddle her with body-wide pain, no matter how well she covered herself. In that regard, they were doing just fine.

Finn's discomfort stemmed entirely from Marcie, when she tried to point out their destination. Well, more as to how she had done it. Finn's brain flicked back to a time years ago, when he and Jake had played hide and seek around the vampire's home while she was out, only to be interrupted when she had returned. Finn liked to imagine himself as a good dude. The kind of dude who doesn't spy on people, who doesn't look at things he's not supposed to, who respects people and doesn't go rummaging around in their private biz.

The last human had stumbled into quite a bit of Marceline's private biz that day. By the end of it he had been practically neck deep in stuff he was absolutely certain was not his to be walking around in.

"Yeah, but even if they're stolen, you can't return memories and stuff. Even if you didn't mean to steal 'em."

Which isn't to say he hadn't tried, as feeble as the attempt was. He had told her that he'd seen everything, but Marceline either hadn't grasped the scope of the confession, or simply didn't care. Regardless, she seemed entirely unperturbed, and after a while, he let it go too. Things went back to normal, and all of the… Stuff that Finn had seen was tucked neatly away in the place that he put the things he was determined to never think of again. And all was well.

That is, until a few years down the line, when Marceline just had to show Finn the mountain they were planning on exploring, pressing a good deal of that private biz firmly against his back as she did. That sort of broke the whole thing wide open, and Finn was absolutely lost as to how to stuff it all back. And since the levy had broken, it had all been slamming around the walls of his dome-piece like a swarm of angry bees.

"Soft, smooth, squishy looking bees… Oh gunk, AGAIN?!" Finn could have just slapped himself, and that's just what he did. Marceline looked over with confused concern.

"Ahh, Finn buddy? You alright? You've been acting awful weird for a while…" She drifted on closer, studying his face with a scrutiny that the last human found almost impossible to bear.

"Heh, yeah, no problems, none at all! Just… Ah… J-just got a rock in my shoe, y'know? Hehehe, that's right…" He hopped up on one leg to pull off his right shoe, shaking it up and down furiously. Naturally, nothing came out; there hadn't been a rock to begin with. Finn still ran with it. "Haha, you know what, I think I may have just gotten it out! Yup, looks like we're rock free, haha!" He shoved his shoe back on and increased his pace.

He didn't want to think about how hard it was becoming to maintain eye contact. "Good glob, I think something's wrong with me…" he lamented to himself. "Alrighty Finn, you can do this. Use that whiz-kid-lid of yours, just tough it out! Do some mind-body biz, keep your thoughts straight. See, we're in the Ice Kingdom proper now. We're almost there. You just need a little dungeon crawl to clear your head, that's all…"

When chilly fingers slid across his shoulder, he practically soared. "Gyahhhah! What, what is it!?"

"Finn," Marceline said firmly, grasping his shoulders and forcing the boy to face her directly. "I swear, you're the worst liar in Ooo. What's wrong? You're starting to zonk me out, for reals."

Finn swallowed hard. He knew that voice, and knew he couldn't escape. Bad things happen when you try to ignore that voice.

"W-well… Do… D-do you remember way back when, when me and Jake were gonna come over to jam… B-but you weren't there, right, so we ended up laying hide and seek in your house, before you got back…?" Marcie nods quickly. "Well… Y'see…"

Finn never really thought he'd find something to say after that, but he was fairly certain that ignoring that voice would almost certainly end with him getting jacked up, so he'd take it. Thankfully for Finn, he never got that far. There was a whoosh and a thump and then suddenly the boy found himself quite removed from Marceline's cool touch. As well as gravity.

Finn landed in a snowbank, and wasted no time in bolting up to see who had socked him. Three animated suits of chilled armor, all bearing tall shields and flanged maces, stood barring the road, arranged between the cliffs on either side of the path up into the heart of the Ice Kingdom. Their eyes glowed ghastly blue, flickers of the dark power that gave them life.

"Who the gob are you bozos?" Marceline asked with venom in her voice. "And tell me just what you think you're doing? We were talking here, could you not see that!? Did it not occur to you that maybe 'Oh, I should at least wait till they're done talking before I wallop 'em'? Did it EVER cross your mind that maybe, just MAYBE, there are more important things going on than your oh-so-urgent need for a dramatic fight scene RIGHT THIS MOMENT?!"

The armored spirits looked between each other, confused murmurs passing about. Eventually, the middle one spoke. "Well… We hadn't really thought that…"

"No that's right, you didn't think, did you? Nope, never even crossed your mind, did it? All it would have taken was a teensy weensy bit of self-restraint, maybe just a tiny tad of thought before action, and we could have had a nice conversation, followed by an action-packed battle. But NO, you had to go muck it up, and now we've got our talky-talky all jumbled up with our fighty-fighty! And it's your flobbin' fault!"

For a while, all was silent save for Marceline's quiet gasps. "Finn," she said after a bit. "Take these clowns to school, please?"

"Well, I mean. You're right there. Couldn't you just transform and clean 'em up?"

Marceline scoffed. "Not at this time of day. The hat doesn't change with me, wild-child, I'd be soup in a heartbeat. C'mon hero-boy, just lickity split, and we'll be on our way in WHOOOOAAAH!" She ducked as a mace flew through the space her head had occupied not moments before.

"We are the Revenant of Icetooth Pass!" the one in the center howled. "We died in the bitter cold, searching for this path out of the mountains, and none shall find passage here while our vengeful souls still walk Ooo!" He swung his mace again, several times, aimed at the still startled vampire queen.

"Hoop!" She stepped to the right of the first swing. "Whoop-ah!" The second swing flew wide. "Hahhhh…" She simply turned and walked out of range of the third swing, before turning back to offer choice taunts. "So awfully slow, you're like a little old lady with clonked bonkers! Clonked. Bonkers."

"Don't you mock me!" the revenant roared, tearing his mace from the ground. The movement sent up a plume of snow, splattering Marcie's face with it like she had been hit with a pie, like a clown at a circus. The vengeful spirit took his chance, and took a swing that tossed her to the ground. "Try running around for days in the cold looking for a mountain pass, just to die and be forced to guard it for all eternity! Come back and tell me how it feels!"

Now, someone with a keen mind, who was familiar with vampires, and more specifically the things that can and cannot hurt them, would know that there was simply zero chance that a mace of simple steel, no matter how heavy or how powerfully swung, could ever harm a pureblooded vampire. It simply wasn't possible.

Finn was none of those things. But smowzow, did he have a temper.

"Y-you…" he mumbled, fixated on Marceline's prone form.

"Yeah, I hit the dame!" the revenant said. It was almost like he was trying to be mocking, but couldn't quite muster all the backbone. It came out as a sort of half-question, half-sob. "Don't judge me! You don't know what I've been through!"

The boy mumbled something completely indecipherable. Marcie was picking her face out of the snow, looking quite miffed but ultimately no worse for wear, but the last human wasn't in a mood to notice.

"What was that?" the revenant asked. "You know I used to have a stuttering problem, couldn't get a single clear word out of my mouth, but I've got this guy I see every Tuesday, and he told me that if I wanna sound confident, I gotta tell myself…-"

What issued from Finn's mouth was somewhere between the scream of a pterodactyl with a sprained talon, two tigers being shaken around inside a spike-lined box, and a pack of howler monkeys who've just helped themselves to far too much espresso. And it ended with "…KIIIIILL YOUUUUU!"

Marceline simply sat and watched as the last human in Ooo flung himself bodily through the air, colliding with the first revenant in a furious cyclone of swords, adrenaline, and screaming. Within three seconds of his initial impact, he had used his longsword to sever the spirit-armor's right arm before sliding it into the chest cavity through the top of his unfortunate target's breastplate, while the shortsword entered and exited the now exposed right side of the revenant's body a total of seven times, and Finn was moving to the next one before his first victim had hit the ground. He spun under the second spirit's lumbering swing as though it had been suspended in molasses, scouring the back of his opponent with twelve different cuts and stabs that left the armor's joints undone, with the moldering bones within falling to the snow as the back of the breastplate hung loose by a single leather strap.

The third and last spirit charged in, intending to use his superior bulk and tall tower shield to blindside Finn and crush the screaming hellion into the snow. Finn leapt, tumbling through the air to land on top of the spirit-armor's shield, driving the point of the frigid metal sheet deep into the packed snow. Finn transitioned from atop the shield to a perch on the revenant's shoulders, where he proceeded to plunge his blades down into the neck and up under the arms of his final victim, till the possessed suit of plate fell to the snow with a crunch, the integrity of its arms and neck completely destroyed.

The entire exchange lasted no longer than half a minute.

"Fwoo… Hahhh… Fwoo… Hahhh… Fwoo… Hahhh…" Finn stood above the broken scraps of what was once a band of vengeful warrior spirits, his breath coming in hard through the nose and out slow through the mouth. Marceline simply watched in shock.

"Mmm," the boy said, his usual cheer spread across his face. "That feels a lot better. You good Marcie?"

"Huh…?" The vampire had yet to regain her footing, still lying in the snow where she had been when Finn started his rampage. The Last Human of Ooo offered her his hand, and the gesture seemed to shock her.

"Marceline? Is your dome-piece alright?"

Something seemed to fall back into place in the rocker-vamp's head, and she floated up out of the snow, brushing herself off. "Dandy, bright-eyes," she said, flipping her hair rakishly over her shoulder. "Now let's get moving. Wasted enough time with these wads."

"Pure math!" Finn exclaimed, jogging down the path around bits of broken plate. Marceline just watched, still awestruck.

"I guess…" she marveled, floating on behind him. "I guess he's changed more than I thought…"