A/N: To ShallowGlass, who has reviewed everything I've written and helped assure me that I'm better than I think. Three more chapters for you, S.G. You go, S.G!

And none for Gretchen Wieners.

-O-

Bubblegum's heart was throbbing in her chest. It kicked at her ribs like a trapped rabbit.

She held onto The Morrow tighter, scared her trembling limbs were about to give inches from the ground.

The bird arched his wings back, his talons splaying for the earth. She braced, feeling the enormous eagle stop just inches from the cave's mouth.

"Okay," she whispered to herself, prying her hands free of feathers. Her feet touched down, and The Morrow was off.

She swallowed thickly. The fear knotting her guts was now sweating down her palms. What was she going to find here?

She stepped into the cave, hunching and crawling down to keep herself from sliding.

Was Marceline going to be a drained skeleton?

She stepped over the now dry dirt at the bottom of the cave, littered with the remnants of bones and apple cores eaten years ago, and her stomach churned at the sight of the empty house.

Were the windows dusted over? Were there spiders in her bed? Rotten fruit in her fridge?

She stopped, gripping a rocky pillar. Her jaw clenched tight, lips quivering. The darkness swelled in front of her, but it was the last thing she was afraid of.

It would be all her fault if Marceline was…

Gone.

Her teeth snared down on her lower lip, forcing it to still.

No.

She inhaled deeply from her nose, face settling into determination.

What would Marceline do?

A voice murmured faintly inside her skull, and her eyes welled shut, straining to listen…

"I don't bathe in blood—that's hard to get out of towels."

What? No, something else—

"I don't look fish in the eye. Those poo eaters don't deserve it."

Well, yes, she had said that, but later she had apologized for sounding ignorant with the ever sensitive, "Man, that wasn't me back there. That was my father."

Come on, dig deep—

"Sometimes you gotta pee like a big dog."

Close enough.

She grabbed a fist full of dirt, rubbing her hands together before stamping two black handprints over her eyes.

The crown and coat were stuffed down into her back pack, and she ripped the sleeves off of her grey sweatshirt. A cold wind eagerly ran down her freshly exposed skin, but she didn't shiver.

The princess crouched, shaking her hair loose and wild.

"Pink's the new black," she growled at the shadows. She lunged forward, a wilderness spiking through her like wolf blood—

Her foot hit empty air.

And too startled to scream, Bonnibel plummeted.

-O-

"Hey! Have! You! Seen! Marceline?!" Finn hollered with every leap.

"No means no!" a frog yelled. He flipped, webbed toes slapping at the boy's face.

"Gobslamnit!" Finn snarled, falling back to bounce on his buns. "I've asked everyone here!"

The Bouncy Castle had at least thirty-eight jumping rooms, colored brightly and swollen with air belching up from natural vents in the earth. And not one animal, mutant or baby had seen the rock star.

"Me too man," Jake groused, springing over upside down on his yellow head, jowls flapping.

"Hey, you were supposed to be in the Meadow of Giggles!"

"I was there alright!" the dog grumbled. "They laughed at me for falling for this obvious rooster!"

"OMG! U mean RUSE! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!" cried a daisy, popping from his gold ear. He growled, stuffing a pinky in to pull it out.

"They should call it the MEANDOW of Snickers!"

"Wait…you mean Bubblegum tricked us?" Finn stared, managing to land on his feet.

"Yeah man! She really didn't want us following her!" Jake said, finally yanking the flower from his ear. "Got ya!"

"But why would she do that? What did she do to Mars?…Waitaminute…" Finn's face froze, pupils growing wide.

"LOL look at his dumb face!" the daisy shrieked, kicking its roots. Jake stuffed it into his mouth, chewing down hard and spitting a green blob out.

"Oh my Gob," hissed Finn, curling down so that his hands could grip his face. "Jake…it's all coming together."

"Uh oh!" the dog popped back to his feet, wrapping his arms around his buddy. "I know! Bouncing around all day really gets the poop chutes working!"

"NO!" Finn exclaimed as the dog stretched them out the nearest plushy window and into the night dipped grass below. "I get it now!"

"Get what?" Jake said, the rest of his body whipping down.

"PB's feels! The shirt that the Door Lord took! Marceline's song! And wanting to make PB jealous! And totes sabotaging me that night with the wolves and wrestling! Peebles telling me sometimes you want to be with someone but you can't, the bite on her wrist-!" Finn cried, gripping his head as if the universe was being funneled into his skull. "Jake, they're in LOVE!"

"Eh?!" Jake's head leaned back in disbelief. "What're you going all bananas about?"

"Bubblegum and Marceline! If you can love a Rainicorn, and I can love a Fire Princess, then a Candy Princess can love a Vampire Queen!" Finn burst, grabbing the dog. "And they deserve to be just as happy as us."

"You don't know that! And you can't go playing cupid, dude," Jake warned, paws gripping the boy's shoulders. "Some people aren't together for a reason."

"Name one reason besides Marceline being a creepy vampire," Finn frowned.

"Hey! I've been working on that. Sort of."

"And if this is why Bubblegum couldn't let me be hers…then this might be the final closure I need to really be with Fire Princess," Finn admitted, casting his eyes down.

"Well…when you say it that way!" the dog caved, pouting. "But how are we going to get them to see it?"

An expression of heroic thought washed over Finn's face, and he peered into the distance.

"I think I got a plan, Stinky Stan…" he whispered.

Jake sniffed at the white cap astride the hero's head. "…Dude, my name's Jake. I think you fried your brain."

"You can't brain your fry, Stan! Let's gooooo!" Finn ran off into the night, his arms over his head.

"I really think you should rest first! It smells like that time we burnt the tuna melt!" Jake cried, bounding after him.

-O-

Annnd I'm dead. Thanks a heapin' bunch of flips.

"I didn't tell you to leap first without looking, Irony Princess. Ha. I'm funny."

You did subliminally, with your who do voodoo—

"What? I'm not that type of girl Bonnie. I don't force my way on others by holding their arms behind their backs over mistakes."

I know. I'm sorry. I kept putting myself in your shoes, but instead of taking in I was looking out.

"Wait a sec, rewind…you think I'm hypnotizing you? You know that only works if I've seduced someone first."

Paws off, Marceline! You're not even the real thing. You're just a figment of my guilt!

"So I'm you internalizing me to tell yourself you dig me so you can tell me that you like me."

Yes! I mean no—hey! HANDS ABOVE THE WAIST—

"Hold on, babe, that's not me."

What—

"The hands on your buns are coming from outside your body! Look alive!"

"What…"

Bubblegum drooled, feeling her body thump down onto the dirt. Her eyes were swimming in dark shapes and orange flames, her body too dazed to flinch at the claws prodding and rasping the flesh of her arms.

She snapped into focus, though, at a pair of red boots touching down.

"What is it? It's so pink."

"Back away," growled voice, deep and low. Bubblegum heard the skulking of several feet, and one of the red boots snuck a tip under her shoulder, rolling her over effortlessly.

Marceline stared down, two dark red lines staining down the corners of her lip to the bottom of her chin. She was wearing a black shirt over her jeans, gaping holes down her sides where no sleeve has gone before. A large, bright red 'M' sat on its center.

For the first time since meeting her, Bubblegum felt a flicker of fear. Wait. She squinted past the Queen's heavy gaze.

Oh good word. Ears. So many. Many. Ears.

Some fat, some long, all crusty, mummified ears—they laced about the top of her head, trailing down her shoulders along her mane in the most disgusting headdress ever.

"What are you doing here?" the vampire queen hissed. Her head lowered, and the torch flames pooled her eyes into a reflective green.

"Mars…it's me. Under the stupid outfit," Bubblegum whispered. Her voice couldn't find any strength.

"I'm well aware. Who dressed you?"

"You did."

"Eh?" Marceline cocked a brow, her fangs gleaming.

"I mean, when you were inside me," Bonnibel said, then hastily adding, "My head. When you were in my head."

"So, you think you can just show up after monthsof ignoring me?" Marceline flashed her teeth, moving to circle the princess.

"Are you nutting with me?" Bonnibel snapped, scrambling to her feet despite a flare of pain in her hip and arm.

The hundreds of vamp tramps about them gasped, lurching shadows only distinct from another by their illuminated eyes.

"You said you would bring me a souvenir! That you would stop by! You promised!" Bubblegum shouted, reaching up to adjust a crown that wasn't there. She was smart enough not to show her panic upon realizing someone had taken her pack.

But without any sort of back up in a realm that did not belong to her... she was also smart enough to know that she was royally screwed.

"I've been sending moths for weeks," Marceline rumbled. "Haven't you been getting them?"

"Moths…?" Bonnibel repeated slowly.

Her open window. The moths that came in.

The ones that she immediately sprayed, watching them nose dive into mothy oblivion.

"Moths," she squinted her eyes, lips pursing as her cheeks filled with air.

"That's your guilty face…" Marceline started, narrowing her eyes as the tip of her tongue pressed to a canine. "You sprayed 'em, huh."

She turned, addressing her legions. "OY! GET OUTTA HERE. Y'ALL SMELL LIKE THAT TIME FINN AND JAKE BURNED THE TUNA MELT."

Grumbling, the shadows retracted, crawling into walls and oozing along the floors. Slinking off until it was only the Queen and the Princess.

And somehow, Bubblegum felt more endangered than ever.