A/N: Well, I wasn't exactly expecting to get another entire chapter done today...but I accidentally the whole thing. This won't be a regular occurrence, I assure you, but I had a couple of days off, and I already had the first two chapters pretty well fleshed out before I even started writing. Thank you to those that read/reviewed/followed the first chapter; it made me even more motivated to give you something that gives a better look at the action to look forward to (trust me, I have several twists and turns planned along the way). Enjoy!

I still in no way, shape, or form own Adventure Time or any of its characters.

The pink princess sighed as she flopped onto her bed; it had been a tough day. More like a tough couple of months, she thought to herself as she stared at the ceiling.

It had all begun when she had managed to pinpoint the location of the Spoon of Prosperity. Well, that wasn't exactly correct; if she was completely honest with herself, this course had set itself into motion hundreds of years earlier. Still, it was crucial to her plans. With the Spoon, the expansion of the Candy Kingdom was finally feasible: She could supply an extended expedition without draining resources from the city's current citizens. I may not be around forever, she mused, but we haven't come far enough for me to be comfortable. Not yet.

Though her goal was the expansion of what she hoped would truly be an eternal empire, her motives were far from selfish. Princess Bubblegum hadn't been around quite as long as, say, Marceline, but she still vividly remembered the world before her Candy Kingdom. It was a world that reeked of death, she remembered. Toxic rivers crisscrossed a barren countryside dotted with hundreds of rotted and decaying trees. A nightmare barely more welcoming than the Nightosphere itself. It was a world that rejected the very notion of life, and yet somehow she had been born of that landscape.

Her earliest memories were those of loneliness; she had her parents, but a pile of sentient pink goo was never much for comfort or company. The loneliness was what first inspired the princess to make her children: the candy people. As she grew, though, so too did her sense of purpose. Simply making the candy people was a bandage, at best; to truly heal the land, to make sure no one else ever felt that kind of isolation, she needed to do more. Much more. The only cure for the death that plagued Ooo was to fill it with life. Thus, the Candy Kingdom was founded.

Princess Bubblegum couldn't help but be pleased with herself; despite all the odds, her city continued to thrive, and, thanks to the help of heroes like Billy and Finn, was a bastion of relative safety for all living creatures. Her eyes still fixed to the roof, the princess let out a contended sigh. Just as soon as she allowed herself to feel victorious, however, she began to frown.

If the ends are so noble, why do I feel this way?

Whatever her successes in the past had been, the princess couldn't allow herself to rest until she found a way to fill all of Ooo with life. She was thankful that, in places like the Fire Kingdom and the forests, life had sprung up of its own accord, but the badlands were still extensive and barren. Not to mention just a bit creepy.

And so, when she had found the Spoon, she was elated to begin the first expansion since the founding of the kingdom. The plan was to take things slow; careful planning, sampling, and experimentation were the keys to a successful colonization. Besides, this time the threats to establishing a living settlement were not nearly as severe as they had been hundreds of years ago: no Bath Boy Gang, no Lich, and no one had seen any mutants in years. The biggest threat was probably the Ice King, and he was, at his most dangerous, an idiot with a magic crown. Once a suitable site had been found, she would lead a crew of trusted candy people to begin construction herself, and would be able to travel back and forth between the colony site and the kingdom. No variables would be left on the table, and everything would be carried out with the utmost scientific accuracy. It would be easy.

That is, it would have been easy, but the expedition changed everything.

The first few samples from the badlands that Bubblegum had had brought back to her were not precisely what she had hoped for; many still contained high levels of radiation. While unexpected, she had to admit it was not entirely unprecedented. She had thought that the centuries would have allowed for a greater extent of radioactive decay, but it was possible that her assumptions on the initial amount of radioactive material had been errant. At that point, she didn't really think there was anything to worry about. Besides, she had made an entire toxic river benign before, so she was confident that she could deal with any residual radiation. Still, it couldn't hurt to check. So, Princess Bubblegum decided she would accompany Finn, Jake, and James on the next expedition.

Unfortunately, instead of alleviating her anxiety, the venture confirmed her worst fears.

To Finn and Jake, the oozing mutants that rose from the desert sands like zombies were just another monster that they could slay. And, had there not been so many of them, she was fairly confident that they could have dealt with them. No, the monsters themselves were not what had worried the princess. More than a reminder of an ancient evil, the very existence of the monsters implied that the death and decay that once ruled Ooo had not completely lost its grip on the land. The radioactivity she had detected was not just a remnant of times long past, but the manifestation of a blight that continued to thrive in the badlands.

And if those things are still kicking, Princess Bubblegum shuddered, then there's no telling what else-

"M'lady?" The princess's thoughts were interrupted by a light knock on her door. Sitting up and adjusting the creases in her long pink gown, Bubblegum responded.

"Come in."

The door came ajar, admitting the round figure of Peppermint Butler carrying a small tray. "M'lady," he continued, "you looked like you had quite a bit on your mind earlier, so I thought I might bring you some tea to ease your thoughts."

The princess couldn't help but smile at the devotion of her butler as she reached to pour herself a drink. If only he knew the cost at which devotion to me comes.

"Princess, are you sure you're feeling all right?" Peppermint Butler inquired, setting the tray down on a nightstand, "I usually only see you this way after working for multiple days in the lab."

"I'm fine. Please, don't worry about me," came the princess's response.

It was a lie. Then again, Peppermint Butler tended to know much more than he let on, so she suspected he knew it, too. In actuality, the princess hadn't been getting much sleep lately, but it had only lately been because she was performing experiments. Her insomnia began weeks earlier, shortly after the incident with James.

While her inability to locate the Spoon of Prosperity was certainly one of the main reasons the princess had been delaying her plans for expansion, she could not say it was the only reason for her waiting. Truthfully, she had perhaps been too slow in her colonization efforts, trusting that the radioactive nightmare caused by the Mushroom War would naturally decay over time. Everything she knew about radiation suggested that this would be the case, but she had realized the error in this attitude upon once more seeing the hollow, empty visages of the mutants she had first encountered all those years ago. She had assumed that the toxic radiation acted as all other forms of nuclear radiation: the simple deterioration of an atomic nucleus via the process of shedding alpha or beta particles or gamma waves that would eventually drop to nonhazardous levels. However, this radiation was different; it was alive. Instead of a radioactive decay, whatever was still alive in the badlands was some sort of radioactive growth. She admitted that it should have been obvious that living radiation would follow different natural laws than those that governed the radiation of elemental molecules, but she had been too confident in herself to consider it.

And now I've let it fester unchecked for centuries, she thought to herself with a sigh.

"Eh…Princess, if I may be so bold," said Peppermint Butler, who looked increasingly uncomfortable, no doubt due to Bubblegum's obvious distress, "You needn't worry about Finn, Jake, and Marceline. Finn and Jake are seasoned adventurers, and there's not much that can hurt Marceline besides direct sunlight."

He had a point, of course. Statistically, there was not a trio in Ooo who was more qualified for the job, which was precisely why she had chosen them. But that doesn't necessarily mean they can accomplish it, she knew. It just means that if they can't do it, no one can.

Her first thought after the trip to the Desert of Wonders had been to immediately move to start the new colony herself, along with Finn, Jake, and select few qualified candy-people; after seeing first-hand just what sort of thing was going on in the badlands, she knew that she couldn't wait any longer. Too much longer, and the badlands would never be able to be colonized. There was no way of knowing if the mutants would be satisfied to stay within their current borders, either, and the princess of the Candy Kingdom could not take that risk.

The more she looked into potential sites, however, the more discouraged she became. What had started as a few well-defined variables had quickly deteriorated into a turbulent chaos upon the revelation that the mutants still thrived. With all this time to evolve, there was no telling what the remnants of the Mushroom War's evil had managed to spawn. This, unfortunately, meant she couldn't personally oversee the colonization: She needed access to all the equipment of her kingdom in order to deal with the new data she was sure to obtain. At the same time, it meant that she would need to rely on Finn more than ever.

Finn…

She looked out her window, towards the tree house that she had been to so often over the past few years. This wouldn't be the first time she had needed the young boy's help on a mission and, Glob-willing, it wouldn't be the last. But, this time was different. For every other mission, she could plan down to almost the tiniest detail. Eventualities were taken into account, as were Finn's tendencies and abilities. She had never sent him on a mission of which she was not entirely confident in his success, with the possible exception of the Lich incident. She shuddered at the memory. Even then, at least he had Billy's glove and the sweater, she reflected somberly. This time I've sent him into a danger I know almost nothing about, with only two friends and a few scientists.

She knew it wouldn't have mattered to him even if he had been privy to all the details, but that made her feel even more guilty. His loyalty to me might get him killed, and he'd do it with a smile on his face. The princess grimaced at the thought. Unquestioning loyalty was not something that usually bothered her; it was a natural consequence of being the mother and creator of an entire race of beings. But she hadn't created Finn, and she couldn't bring him back if the unthinkable happened.

I wouldn't even know how to begin replacing someone like him, she thought to herself. She had considered telling Finn of all the dangers of the journey, but for some reason she just couldn't bring herself to do it. If he was going to do it anyway, and she knew he would, she at least wanted to spare him the grim outlook. To watch him knowingly walk into that kind of peril would have been too much. Even if it wasn't the kind of romantic affection he was looking for, Princess Bubblegum really and truly loved Finn.

At the very least, if she couldn't go with him, she was going to make sure he didn't go alone. Jake was a given; the brothers were inseparable, and the dog's powers were certain to come in handy. But, Bubblegum knew that the two of them wouldn't be enough, not this time. She needed someone who knew almost as much about the kind of enemy they were up against, someone else who could protect Finn when he inevitably overextended himself. She needed Marceline.

Thinking of Marceline made her feel even worse. What kind of friend holds a favor over another's head like that? she thought, remembering their visit to the Sky Witch. She had almost lost her nerve altogether when she and Marceline met eyes right before the group left. She knows, Bubblegum had thought after seeing the look of concern in the eyes of a girl who prided herself upon caring for very little.

She knows what she's getting into, and she knows it's where- Bubblegum shook her head. Unfounded speculation was not her way, and there was no getting around the fact that Marceline's presence was vital for the mission to have any chance of success. Marceline was even older than she was, and had more experience surviving among the mutants with far fewer resources. Not to mention she was one of the most powerful creatures in Ooo, when she felt like it was worth the trouble. If Finn and Jake had any chance of protecting the colony crew, they would need Marceline. Her kingdom had to come before her own feelings. Reluctant as she was to coerce the vampire queen into the job, it was the only option. I had no choice, she frowned.

I had no choice, but I can choose not to let that hold me back.

Princess Bubblegum placed the cup she had been given, still half-full, back onto the tray. Standing up, she addressed the servant still obediently waiting by her bedside.

"Peppermint Butler."

"Yes, Princess?" the candy man replied as he began to clean up the dishes he had brought in.

"I'm going to be in my lab until further notice. I'm to be interrupted only in the case of an absolute emergency, got it?"

"Understood, your highness," said the butler as he headed for the door.

Immediately, the princess headed for her lab. She may have had to use her friends, she may feel like dirt, but she wasn't about to sit idly by and mope about it. Amidst all the uncertainty she had been struggling with over the past months, there was one thing she was sure of: Science was the answer. The colony crew was a good start, but there was a strong chance that her friends would need a lot more help before their adventure was over. If they needed something, she wasn't going to be empty-handed.

When she got to her desk, she noticed a sheet of paper that had been left lying amidst her various instruments. She frowned at the parchment, recalling the conversation she had moments ago.

"I have calculated our odds of success here, and I think it's the place to go."

It hadn't been a complete lie. She had calculated the current odds of success, and she still believed where she had sent them was the place to go. "I think we can do better than that," she said, tossing the paper in a trashcan. The sheet didn't have much on it, save for a few scribbled calculations incomprehensible to anyone but the princess, and an underlined value that read "1%."

A/N: I hope this answered a few questions you guys had after chapter 1, though not too many, because that would be no fun. I also hope it was interesting to see things from PB's point of view! My hope is to get a chapter up once a week from here on out, but we'll see how that goes once I get busy again. Thank you again for reading, and please let me know what you think!