AN: My dear friends, I'm sorry this has been so long coming, but at long last we're moving forward with the final end of the first volume of our story. Over the next few weeks, Finn Grows Up Book 1 will undergo an editing spree to prepare us for Book 2. Be sure to check in once and while if you're interested in watching me attempt to turn some of the most clunky passages into more pleasant prose. Until then, enjoy the last chapter... For now.
The last incense stick, burning low, shed ash onto the ash plate. Above, the sky shimmered. This far out into the grasslands, away from any major cities, light pollution was nonexistent, and the whole of the galaxy, every star, nebula, and mote of space dust, was lit by the starfire. Great washes of traveling photons kissed her eyes, cast across existence by great balls of fusion, roiling and churning with the ultimate fury as they spun through space to the waltz of the gods.
Long ago, Marceline Abadeer had been robbed of her true joy; the feeling of the sun on her face, her first god, distant but nurturing. Before then, night was a terror, a time when Earth's brilliant guardian left her to the horrors that walked her planet.
It was here, in this lookout, her first home since that theft, that she had been born again to a new faith. She saw not the holy dance, at first; her eyes, glittering gems in the mottled light, could barely follow the music, let alone conceive of the steps. But her meager beholder's eyes only hightened the beauty.
Marceline had never been religious. She knew of neither a master nor a savior in her world, beyond herself. No, her gods and goddesses were of a different sort. They cared not for her, and it had taken her centuries of pain and confusion to recognize that the fabric of her reality did not despise her. She was so small; how could the stars, moons, and comets loath something so frail and fleeting? Even an immortal vampire demon could be killed.
At times, Marcie wondered what it was to be one of them; to bathe the universe in life-giving radiance, to burn without tire throughout the eons, and to detonate at the end so others could be born from her remains, until the end of time itself. For if a virus, a bare scrap of chemical information, could be alive, how could such glory be called an object without will or animus?
The vampire queen had learned, her gods did not, could not hate her. Nor could they love, either. They were divergent existences, and they interacted conciously no more than Marceline did with the organisms that caused her vampirism; their relationships were predicated on reactions inherent to the truth of what they were, which neither party could control. Just as the virus could not cease to infect her in the same way that she could not sustain herself with normal food, the sun could not refrain from burning her with it's full spectrum of brilliance.
She wondered, at her most honest, introspective times, whether she could more clearly see her God, or if God more accurately perceived her.
A soft, rolling sound stirred her from her meditation, pulling her eyes down, back to her own plane. There, the weight on her lap reminded her of her place in the world. He slumbered deeply then; she stroked the lines of his lax face, caressed the seams of his body, but he slumbered on, snoring gently, mumbling tender gibberish. However he was dreaming, it seemed pleasant.
How small he used to seem. Marceline recalled the way he seemed before; so beneath her, like a cute puppy. Then she reflected on her theology, and saw him for the equal he truly was. He wasn't the sun, and he wasn't the virus; he was like her, and she laughed at herself inside for ever having discounted him.
Silently musing through his blond hair, like spun, holy sunlight, she wondered if Finn had a God, if he too sat in awe and fear of something beyond his control, or if whoever stole his human anatomy had stolen his human soul as well, the most primordial wonder of the beyond that all living things shared, be they beast or man.
On the horizon, the faintest blue tinge of morning began to creep up into the sky. Marcie gazed there with a heavy sigh, before resolving, shaking Finn's shoulder.
"Mhh?" he whined, burrowing his face adorably against her lap and belly. "Mh... Marcie? Whazzap...?"
If Marceline had to hide from her eternal beloved, at least Finn could keep her sun company in her place, and learn to worship it's splendor. "It's gonna be dawn soon, baby," she said to him softly. "PB will be up soon, we shouldn't keep her waiting."
Finn nodded his head, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. Wordlessly he moved to clamber down into the treehouse. Marcie floated after him, leaning on his doorframe as he dressed himself. He noticed her before he'd finished taking off his shirt, even as groggy as he was. "Uh, you wanna wait outside?" he ventured, clearing his throat.
His new paramour grinned. "Nope," she said, eyebrows waggling.
Finn flushed, saying nothing more as he stripped down, tossed his laundry into a bin and selected fresh clothes. "Let's go," he said when he was done, grabbing his bag and his new blade. "It's Answers Time. Jaaaaake! Wakey wakey, we've got some biz, bro!"
Before the sun rose again on Ooo, PB rose from her bed. She began each day by going out to a balcony, looking out over her kingdom, and recalling its most pressing and dire needs. It focused her for the day, and let the gum girl taste how the day would be for those who didn't work in a posh, secure palace. This day started with pleasant weather, but storm clouds loomed a way out, dark and threatening.
After fifteen minutes of washing, grooming, and dressing, PB emerged from her royal quarters to find Peppermint Butler, ever diligent.
The dress of the day was more pastel fatigues, and PB felt a gloom fall over her. She would have loved something more colorful, something more fun, but the Candy Kingdom, as of that morning, was officially in a state of total war. One of her duties this day, as the rooster called, would be to proclaim it to her people. The fun seemed to have gone out of her life.
"How went the night, PB?" She asked her retainer, her mood coming through on the tone of her voice.
"Uneventful, PB," her butler shot back. The phrasing of it took the gum girl by surprise, and she turned to find her man servant smirking quietly, and found herself breaking a small smile. Peppermint Butler, for all his shadiness, was unrivaled in his role. If not for his support and loyalty, the kingdom would have crumbled long ago. They were an odd pair, for sure. "Word came from our facility on the Sea of Something. The first of the guided missile destroyers is crewed, armed, fueled, and ready for her shakedown cruise."
"Excellent, then all we need is Finn." Bonnie braced herself; this was information that had made the night's sleep hard to find. "What's his status?"
"He's still sleeping on the lookout. Observation of Marceline's efforts to retrieve him was successful; Intel gathered shows both are still at the tree fort. With any luck, they and Jake should return here promtly."
"Whew!" About half the tension in PB's neck and shoulders ebbed away. "Finn going walkabout now could have ruined us. Anything on the instruments?"
"Orbital and atmospheric early warning was quiet, and word from Mars reports that the fleet from old Earth has stuck to it's predicted course. However, we are now detecting with the deep sea sonar prototypes we deployed. These prototypes are operating at reduced capacity as we have already discussed, but the preliminary data suggests that there is a pre-war submersible aircraft carrier operating somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. I transmitted this to Mars last night, and they agree that this is a logical explanation for the presence of Old Earth forces despite Martin still being months away."
PB relaxed further, sighing in relief. "So, we live to fight on," she said. Telling her people that their lives would be ruled by war would be that much easier, now that she knew it was a war they had a chance of winning. "Thank you, Peppermint. You've been my rock these past months; none of this would have happened without you."
Her butler clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Not a word, my lady," he insisted. "Now, you need to make the daily proclamation, because I need you in the laboratories as soon as possible."
PB nodded, feeling sadness fill her again. She took a moment to steady herself. "Please, forgive me," she whispered to nobody, before heading out to break the bad news.
Finn, Marcie, and Jake sat in one of many meeting spaces Princess Bubblegum used throughout the palace. Jake lay on Finn's lap, as the hero boy scratched the hound's tummy anxiously. Marceline floated up in a corner, her back against the wall, almost as though she were exercising by sitting up on the wall without a chair. For Marceline, however, this was less strenuous than simply standing on her two legs.
Every so often, Marceline would glance Finn's way, and he would meet her gaze with a shy, crooked smile, no teeth, that would melt her a little, in her heart. It became almost a game; trying to look at him without him noticing.
Jake watched the two of them, snickering to himself. The pooch had a plan. At an appropriate time, brotherly shenanigans would ensue. Until then, however, the mood was impatient, with a tiny bit of nagging resentment. Finn no longer hated PB for all she'd done; deceived him as to his true nature while using him as what amounted to her own personal one-boy commando outfit. All that remained was a demand for answers. The part of him that would always be friends with the princess hoped to itself that the ends, when all was said and done, would justify the means.
After a bit more of waiting, Peppermint Butler entered the room. "The princess will see you now," he said, dapper and slick as ever. "Please, follow me to the royal laboratory." They did follow, out the room and down the hall to a hidden elevator, which Peppermint revealed by pressing his hand to a masterfully painted picture of the Mothergum. "Hanger level," the butler said curtly once all had entered. With a whoosh, they began moving downwards at a gradual acceleration. They traveled for a long moment, deep beneath the castle, into the crust of the planet.
"Uhh, PepBut?" Finn asked. "Why so deep?"
"The lower portions of the Candy Palace are built a kilometer and a half below the planet's surface, encased totally in reenforced concrete, behind an armor system which is essentially several giant steel shields, each a few feet thick. It's to protect it from nuclear attack."
"Ah." Finn wasn't sure how to take that. "Gotcha."
Eventually the lift came to a stop, the door sliding open to reveal a motley crowd. FP and Guy were there, along with Lady Rainicorn, Ice King, Abracadaniel, and Bananaman.
"Woah, hello peeps," Finn said cheerily.
Marceline scanned the crowd quickly, her eyes falling on Flame Princess as she brushed Finns finger idly.. She saw the eye contact between Finn and the burning girl. The two girls had never interacted much; odd moments here and there. But the smile the two shared made her swell inside with possessiveness, even as she immediately recognized it was a harmless trifle. She gave a friendly wave despite herself.
Princess Bubblegum turned from the gang already there, greeting Finn, Jake, and Marceline. "I'm glad you three could make it so soon," see said. There was something off about her; she seemed raw, visibly on edge. It was a rare thing for her among such company.
"The sooner I start asking, the sooner you start answering," Finn said in what he hoped was a neutral tone. He looked about once more. "Where's Thoros?"
"Waiting," the gum girl replied, tossing to her knight. Finn caught the object in hand, turning it over. It was a watch, a piece of titanium with blank black screen for a face. "Put that on."
The last human did so, but the moment he closed the clasp around his right wrist, a jabbing sting emitted from the thing, like a needle driving into him. "Youch!" he yelped, but the pain went as quickly as it came. Whatever stuck him stung again as it was pulled from his arm. Within moments, the watch had flickered to life.
"Finn." The projection, laser light suspended upon empty air, was the spitting image of all Finn's faintest, nebulous memories of his biological mother. His hair was hers, cut medium to her shoulders, and her eyes were a bright green hue that was absent from her son's visage. There was stress in her eyes, but also tenderness. Finn could feel a huge lump in his throat, growing more impassible as the hologram ground on. "If are viewing this message, it means that you've grown up enough to make use of all that I was able to preserve for you. There is so much you must know, my dear boy. So much you must have learned by now, which I should've been the one to teach you."
There was noise from the background then; the image turned to face something, the camera washing out with a new brightness, before the woman turned back to her recording.
"Listen carefully Finn," she implored, her voice cracking into surpressed tears by the end. "I have prepared a facility for you, in the Arctic. There, I will hopefully provide you with all the guidance and support I wish I could have given you for all the years of your life. Go north, my dear Finn. Good luck and godspeed..." The last words sounded through his head like a ringing gong. "Love, Mom."