If you guys haven't figured it out yet, Fionna and Charlie were in New York City- or what was left of it... I just though it would be interesting to have a piece of the old world Simone lived in-

Speaking of Simone: Ice Queen is still being difficult for Marshall Lee and his attempts to get her to remember the events of the war and who she was before the crown. Gumball and Marshall are trying to rekindle their friendship and Cake deeply misses Fionna. What's gonna happen?

The song submitted was sent in by tomboy. Thank you for the song! Remember to send in any songs for the story.

Disclaimer: Nope!

Cake and Gumball watched, leaning against the wall of ice, as Marshall Lee and Ice Queen argued over whether or not she should take off the crown. It's almost like she was refusing to remember everything she had said before. About trying and about kind of remembering Marshall Lee. It was as if the tiara was speaking for her. Marshall was chasing her around the room, trying to grab the crown off of her head as Ice Queen shot little icicles towards him. They were harmless but they kept the vampire at bay.

"How long has is been now?" Cake asked Gumball, who was dozing off.

"Uh," he mumbled sleepily, not used to the nocturnal lifestyle. "I think it's been two hours of this." He kicked off the wall and, as Ice Queen passed him by, he casually stuck out his foot and sent her flying to the ground. Marshall saw this as an opportunity and pinned her down. Ice Queen tried to fight him off but he was stronger.

"Simone! Take off the tiara!" Marshall said.

"No way!" Ice Queen snapped.

"Don't you remember anything you've said over these past few months?" Marshall said, pleading to her. "You're trying, aren't you?"

They stared at one another for a moment until Marshall groaned and floated upwards, away from her and leaned on the wall beside Gumball. He smacked Gumball in the arm and nodded towards Ice Queen.

"You're turn," Marshall said, sitting down and hiding his head in his arms, exhausted. Gumball groaned and stepped forward. He smiled pleasantly at Ice Queen, his hands behind his back.

"Hello," he said. "You know, I'd love to hang out with you if you didn't wear that tiara all the time..."

Marshall and Cake looked up at him, wondering if Gumball's weak flirting would trigger something in Ice Queen. She watched him for a few seconds, unsure of whether she should believe him or not. She sided with not believing him and crossed her arms, glaring at him with her white eyes. Gumball went back to the wall and tapped Cake on the shoulder. The cat tiredly walked over and stretched her arms behind Ice Queen and smacked the tiara off, her other hand grabbing it and a third arm holding Ice Queen in place, who started to struggle, trying to get her tiara back. Cake continued to hold her and tossed the crown to Marshall.

"That works too," Gumball said, scratching the back of his neck, giving Cake an impressed look.

"No! It can't be like this," Marshall said, shaking his head. "Simone has to take it off. Not one of us."

"Look, Marshall, it's all we can do now. While we have her vulnerable, we can easily talk to her without asking her to take it off," Cake explained. "In time, we'll get her to take off the crown on her own."

Marshall examined the crown and then looked up at his two companions, who were giving him tired looks, almost begging him to try out Cake's idea. He sighed and nodded, still holding onto the crown. He told Cake to let Ice Queen go and Cake did so. As soon as she lunged towards the Vampire King to grab her headgear, he floated upwards, out of her reach. Without the tiara, she couldn't fly after him.

"Listen good, Simone," he said to her. "I'm not going to give this back to you until you have some sort of breakthrough, understand?"

"What the jibber jab do you mean?" Ice Queen snapped at him.

"You told me that you were trying, remember? You said that you felt there was a part of you missing- or something along those lines," Marshall explained. "I'm not going to return the crown until you say a truthful thing about your old self. Even it that means I have to take the crown home with me."

Cake and Gumball exchanged looks of surprise, their eyebrows raised. Marshall was getting more serious about this than ever. But they knew it was coming from a good place so they didn't say anything to stop him. Ice Queen was gaping at the fanged boy, her eyebrows scrunched together, her fists clenched. And Marshall glared right back, arms crossed and crown in hand. It occurred to her that she wasn't going to get anywhere with this little stare contest so she turned away, her mind only on getting her crown back.

"Simone, I want you to think about who you were... who you are," Marshall said gently. "Don't think about this stupid hat." Then Marshall snapped his fingers in realization. "Oh, hold on!" He flew out of the room for a few minutes and then returned with a big box of what looked like junk. He gave the crown to Cake and told her to keep it away from Ice Queen and then faced said witch.

"Alright, this is from your 'The Past Room'," he said to her. "This has a bunch of your old keepsakes that you were able to save from the war." He pulled out an old journal and stuck it beneath her nose. "Look, see? This is what you always wrote it when we traveled together. Remember- ah- Marshall Lee, is it just you and me in the world that they've destroyed? That must be so confusing for a little boy. Remember that?"

All Ice Queen was stare at him incredulously, blinking with a dumbfounded expression on her face. Her eyes kept sliding over to where Cake was in the corner but Marshall waved a pale hand in front of her and called back her attention to him.

"And this," he went on, taking out a scrapbook, revealing a bunch of old pictures of Marshall and news clippings and pictures of Bertram. "You made this. See, this is me. That's you when we presented The Enchiridion to the museum and... this was your fiance Bertram."

Ice Queen took the book from him and squinted her witch eyes down at the picture of her lost love. He was smiling serenely at the camera, reading a book that was in his lap. There was a sudden sadness and loneliness that filled Ice Queen to the brim that she had never felt before. Something in the back of her head clicked but she didn't understand why. She looked back up at Marshall, who was hoping for a positive response from her. All she did was shake her head slowly and hand him back the picture.

She didn't want to admit it to him but, without the crown, she felt freer. Like a huge weight was lifted off of her chest and she could breath and... and think properly. But somewhere in her insane brain, she desperately wanted the crown back from the feline, who was still in the corner, Gumball guarding her. She watched Marshall dig through the pile of old and pull out a scrap of paper at the very bottom of the box. He unraveled it and smoothed it out. He stared at it, his eyes darting forward and backward. Marshall Lee's name was scribbled at the very top and it looked incredibly familiar. Marshall's handwriting was apparent on the paper, showing it was the first song Marshall had written for Simone, who was never able to read it because she lost her mind completely the day he gave it to her. Simone was the entire reason Marshall wanted to become a musician. Her songs inspired him so much that he just felt like he could do it too. He grabbed a pencil out of the box and stared to jot down a few more lines, completing the song and then, beside his name, he put a colon and a title so that it read- Marshall Lee: Forever Lost.

"Cake... get out your dulcimer and start a beat. Make it slow," Marshall said in a monotone voice. Cake did as instructed, taking her instrument off of her back and holing the crown in a third arm she stretched out. "Gumball, there's a synthesizer keyboard over there. Play along." Gumball grabbed the board and played a tinkling tune. Marshall grabbed his axe guitar from the wall and turned to Ice Queen. "Can you play along with your drums? Nice and slow." Ice Queen hesitantly grabbed her drum sticks and played the drums. The three of them synced perfectly and Marshall was able to join in with ease. Then he started to sing.

Lost and insecure

Lying on the floor

From a disease without a cure

Lost and then found

Feet barely on the ground

Scared from what I've seen

You came to comfort me

Why did you have to go and leave?

You were meant to save me

I know it wasn't your fault

It was the crown

Making you act like a clown

Don't get mad at me if I frown

You have been drowned

By all of that black magic

It's so very tragic

He paused for a second, letting the music flow through the room to give the song a breath before the last few new lyrics took their full effect. He drew in a breath and sang the newly added lines.

And now you're gone

You've been gone for so long

So come on...

Just remember me

I remember you

How is this fair?

You left me feeling blue

I don't think you're lost

Break free from that prison of frost

And just remember me.

They stopped their playing after a few seconds and then stood there in a heavy silence. Ice Queen stood from her drums and, for a split second, Marshall thought she was going after the crown. Instead, she paused to stand before him, looking up at the floating boy. He stared back, wondering what she was going to do next.

"I don't know why," she said, "but I feel like I want to hug you."

Marshall grinned and laughed. "Go for it." He opened his arms up for her and invited her into a hug that they both enjoyed. Marshall felt a little more closure with her and knew that they made good progress tonight. He let Cake give her back her tiara but Ice Queen didn't put it on.

"What's wrong?" Gumball asked her.

"Nothing," Ice Queen said, putting on the tiara.

Marshall sighed, thinking that they had prevented her from putting it on for good but bid her goodnight anyway. The three of them walked out of the Ice Palace towards the Candy Kingdom to drop Gumball off first. Their walk was in silence as they thought about their rather eventful evening. As they reached the gates, Marshall stopped Gumball for a talk.

"Thanks, Bubba," Marshall said. "Thanks a whole lot for your help tonight."

"Ahem?"

"You too, Cake."

"It was nothing, Marshall," Gumball said with a modest shrug. "Let's hope we can get Ice Queen to remember a little more."

"It wasn't so much remembering," Cake pointed out. "More like a familiar feeling. But it's definitely a start."

"Right," Marshall agreed. "All we can do now is continue this and hope for the best."

They waved goodbye to Gumball, who walked into his kingdom, and went to the treehouse to drop off Cake. Again, it was a silent walk until they reached the place of residence. Cake paused at the door and turned to Marshall, speaking in a tone he'd never heard her use before. It was a tone of pleading, sadness, and was slightly hollow.

"What was the last thing she said to you?" Cake said to him. "You just found her but you never said how... so..."

"Well... I was my way to my gig and I saw her leaving the treehouse and I asked her where she was going and she kinda told me. We argued a little back and forth but I caved and let her go. Even though I wanted to come with her to make sure that she's okay but she said...," Marshall sighed. "The last thing she said to me was 'No, Marshall. I need to do this alone.' And then... she kissed me."

"On the cheek?"

He shook his head and Cake's eyes widened only slightly. She knew that Fionna cared for Marshall Lee but enough to kiss him? Cake thought Fionna had given up on the man-hunt or dudes alltogether, waiting until she was ready or the right guy came along. Still... it wasn't too surprising that Fionna's last action towards Marshall was a kiss. It seemed like the thing she'd do. Something Marshall would have done to Fionna if she caught him leaving. A taste of his own medicine.

All Cake could do was smile, realizing why Fionna had told her that she loved her the last night she was home. Just to make sure Cake knew before Fionna left and possibly never came back. It warmed her heart knowing that Fionna had matured so much but didn't even show it or realize it herself. Cake then bid Marshall goodnight and walked into the house. After putting away her dulcimer, she crawled beneath Fionna's fur blankets and went to sleep, waiting for the morning sun.

Marshall walked home alone, plucking at his guitar as he went, humming a tune to himself. He finally reached his own house and flew over to his front door, opening it and getting a friendly greeting from Schwabl before putting away his guitar in its case. He floated up to bed and rested his back on the sheets, his hands behind his head and staring blankly up at the ceiling. Somehow, talking about Fionna's show of affection made it all the more real. He tenderly touched his lips and felt like she was kissing him again, telling him that she was going to be okay and that she would come back in one piece. Marshall hoped she was going to come back soon. But he also hoped she would find what she was looking for.

And miles away, Fionna was walking behind Charlie in the cool night air. She paused for a second and turned towards the direction of Aaa, the strangest feeling occurring as if someone was just talking about her.

"Fionna?" Charlie called, wondering why she stopped.

She looked back over at him as he stood, waiting for her. She smiled simply and walked back up to him, quickening her pace.

"Coming!" she said cheerily and they continued their journey down the path.

It was a little short but the story isn't all about Marshall so... sorry. More on Charlie and Fionna in the next chapter as they get closer to the crater. What things will they come across next time? I dunno. We'll have to see, huh?

Again, thank you all for your reviews even though it's a slow process but I'm very happy with where this story is going.

As always:

See you next time!