Author's Note: ...So I'm late. Again. I honestly got a bit stuck trying to rework my plan after Prismo died. Because a dead Prismo completely messes up my plans. Also, more writer's block. And I probably won't be updating anytime soon due to an upcoming trip to Europe. Sorry. I hope you like this chapter.

"What does a vampire know about this man?" It was certainly a fair question. Although the Doctor had once appeared eager to meet vampires during that trip to Venice, he had really been terrified. Memories of the Great Vampires from the Time War continued to haunt some of his nightmares. He had met vampires on Earth and other planets before, though most of them had very little of the original genes from the Great Vampires. He had no idea what vampires were like in this universe, but he certainly did not want to deal with anything like a Great Vampire.

Finn quickly noted the Doctor's distress at the mention of Marceline's title, but he quickly assured him she wouldn't bite, assuming that was all he was worried about. "Don't worry about her. Marceline's a radical dame, always has been."

"Except when she scares the life out of me," Jake interjected. He still had vivid memories of when he first met Marceline. It had taken him a very long time to consider her a friend, and she still held the ability to frighten him at will. "And when she gets hungry!" He also remembered that time when she got hungry enough to pretty much lose her mind and nearly devour him and Finn. They were only saved when she sucked the insides out of Princess Bubblegum.

"The point is, we trust her. She knew Simon before he completely lost his mind, so she could tell you about him. She'd also be able to tell you about the days after the Great Mushroom War."

"How'd you know I'd have that on my mind?"

"Oh, Prubs told me you might be interested in history. I've never been one for that stuff, but she also mentioned you might learn stuff about the Lich."

The Doctor nodded, outwardly accepting this convenient information; however, inside his mind, he wondered what was going on. He seemed to be finding coincidence after coincidence, almost as if this universe had so many that he wouldn't be able to investigate all of them. It was time for him to start tackling these mysteries now before more ones divided his attention. "Well, then. We better get going." He quickly pointed his screwdriver at Ice King's crown, hoping the readings he'd get would be useful later on. The Doctor then turned around and started walking away before he realized he had no idea where he was going. "Er, do you two mind taking me wherever this Marceline is?"

"No prob, Bob," Finn replied. "We were going back home anyway for that huge party Jake threw."

Jake jumped out of the gaping hole he and Finn had made and promptly enlarged himself. "Hop on, everybody!"

Finn glanced at the Doctor, expecting a look of complete surprise. He saw a slightly different expression as the alien sped towards the giant dog: giddiness. "Geronimo!" he exclaimed as he jumped out and landed on Jake's enlarged back. He didn't stop jumping up and down like a child who couldn't stop testing out his new bed. "This is so cool! It defies all sense of logic to be able to spontaneously create mass and volume. I love new places!" He quickly scanned the dog with his screwdriver. "Oh, radiation over many generations creating actually a lot of mass and volume internally that can be outwardly manipulated. That actually makes a lot more sense. Forget what I said about defying logic."

These quirks did not go unnoticed by the human. "Are people like you always like this?" he asked as he got on Jake's back. The dog then began to move towards the tree that had been their home ever since their parents had croaked.

The Doctor instantly stopped jumping as a serious look crossed his face. "No…definitely not." He realized how dark he had sounded and attempted to lighten his tone. "I mean, Time Lord society has always been rules and protocol and properness all the time. Even when I used to be a part of that about a thousand years ago, I was at odds with that kind of lifestyle."

"Wait, you're over a thousand years old?" Finn interrupted.

"Yes, now hush. Anyways, I like running around seeing everywhere and everywhen much better than the confines of proper society. Of course, that kind of rebelliousness put me in quite a lot of disfavor with the government and society in general. The Council had tried to rein me in through so many different methods. They all failed. In fact, I even brought a few of their brightest examples into my life and broke them free from the minutia."

A smile crossed his face as he remembered two faces that made the same woman. "I remember travelling with that girl as if it were still only yesterday. It was a long time ago when I was recruited to procure a very important artifact in order to keep it from being used to destroy the universe. Naturally, I was trusted enough to do the task but not trusted enough to do it alone. They paired me with their shining example of the proper Time Lady: Romanadvoratrelundar or, as I liked to call her, Romana. Of all the people who had travelled with me previously, few could even come close to me in terms of intellect. As the epitome of what all Time Lords should be like, she professed herself to be superior to me. And in many cases, she was, but don't let anyone else know that I said that. Still, underneath all the shackles society had put on her, there was a sense of adventure that could only truly be satisfied by travelling. By the time the Time Lords wanted her back, she no longer wanted to return. She stayed in a place called E-Space in order to continue to help the people who lived there."

He trailed off, not wanting to remember what came afterwards but inevitably failing. He recalled how she had become Lady President when Gallifrey needed her once more. He remembered how she had regenerated as the Time War broke out into the War Queen, a colder person who barely resembled the woman he had travelled with so long ago. Alongside the image of the tyrant who the Time Lords preferred Rassilon over, another figure surfaced in his mind. Of course, with the memories of the Time War he remembered the man he so desperately wanted to forget. The warrior who had renounced the name of the Doctor.

"She sounds like a perfect match for you," Jake remarked. He saw that Finn had been captured by the Doctor's tale of someone he had strong feelings for. Perhaps this would help his brother out with his personal issues.

The Doctor broke from his thoughts and managed to smile. "Oh, yes," he fondly recalled. "She was the noblest Romana of them all." When it came to remembering the long-lost, he preferred to recall the best of them. He remembered his childhood friend Koschei, who had resurfaced after so many years of insanity and sacrificed himself to save him.

"Well, where's she at now?" Jake asked. "Wouldn't you like to see her again?"

"I can't," he replied in a dark, melancholy tone. "Not anymore."

It was definitely not the first time Finn had noticed the Doctor switch quickly between happiness and sadness, but the way he had done it this time caught Finn's attention. Was it possible that this stranger had a tale of a love forever lost to him, somewhat like his own experiences? "Why not?" he cautiously asked, not wanting to cause the older man to close off his tale.

For what felt like a long time, the Doctor remained silent. "You know of something called the Great Mushroom War," he eventually began. "I lived through a war far, far worse than even that catastrophe. I fought and killed so many in a war with no winner, only those who suffered and those who suffered even more. Romana was our leader against all those who tried to destroy us, but the Time Lords grew cruel and restless. When they deposed her, they resurrected Rassilon, one of the original founders of Time Lord society, and let him rule over them. Towards the end of the war, Romana had told me of Rassilon's plan to save the Time Lords by destroying all of time itself. It had become so desperate that the Time Lords were clamoring for the Final Sanction, so desperate that Romana and I launched one final effort to save the universe. I stole a weapon of great power called the Moment and used it. It took the twin suns of the system and destroyed all the combatants of the Time War. With my people dead, I was no longer been able to hear any of their living voices in my head. It was then when I realized I didn't hear Romana's voice. Rassilon must have had her captured before I used the Moment, likely wanting to stop me."

Here again, the Doctor paused to allow the story to sink in to both the human and the dog. "For a while afterwards, the war continued to tear into my soul. I went out and saved places all over the universe, but I could still feel myself getting darker and darker. It was a chance encounter with this girl that turned my life around." He allowed himself to smile again before continuing. "At first, I thought Rose Tyler was just some other stray who somehow found herself on my ship. And then I got to know her, and she got to know me. Well, when I became the Doctor, I made a promise to be the man who makes people better. She helped me become that man again. But then one day, we were fighting a part dual invasion part war between two races. She found herself in a parallel universe where I could never reach, save for one last link I used to say good-bye. She told me she loved me, but the connection broke before I could say the same."

Another pause. "Even after that, I still managed to find love once more. River Song and I have a complex relationship. It's all wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. When I first met her, she knew everything about me. I eventually found out that she was the daughter of my best friends, Amy and Rory. I also found out that she was kidnapped by the Silence and trained to kill me, but her parents helped her see though the brainwashing the Silence had given her. It wasn't the end of it. They kidnapped her again and tried to force her to kill me. Long story short, we faked my death, and I got married to her in the process. I'd like to say that this would lead to a happily ever after, except it won't. One day, I know I'll have to say good-bye to her because, in a way, I already had. I told you we have a complex relationship, often travelling in opposite directions in our time streams. I didn't tell you before that the day I met her was the day she died saving 4,023 people trapped in a computer database, an executive called Mr. Lux, and me."

Again, he paused to allow his story to sink in. This allowed Finn to say something. "Dang, love isn't easy…"

"Of course not," the Doctor agreed. "But that's what makes it more worthwhile than hate. It requires you to look upon the other person with all of their faults and accept them for who they are regardless. I'd definitely admit I can be quite an arse, and those women make sure I know it. They too have at times frustrated me to my breaking point, but I wouldn't change one line of the time I spent with them."

"Do you do this a lot?" Finn asked. "You know, give real talks about life to people you meet."

"Not really, but I think I'm making quite an exception today. This is the second time today I've given a detailed account of stuff in my past, and, like the first time, there's a lesson to be learned. It's not to avoid love out of the fear you will suffer in the end. Far from it: I want to tell you both to enjoy the time you have with your loved ones, however fleeting or long it may be. It is far better to have love lost than to have never loved at all because the ones who you love and who love you will never truly leave you. Through a complicated series of events I won't even begin to describe, I did end up seeing Rose properly one more time and made sure she would live her life happily with a bloke who loves her as much if not even more than I do. I have a strong feeling that River won't even let death stop her from helping me. And even though I'm quite sure it isn't physically happening, I feel that even Romana is still watching over me in some way."

Finn found these words strange due to how highly relevant they were. There was a possibility that the man was simply very good at reading people, but he felt that someone had told him about the feelings that were not in balance in his heart. "How did you know to tell me this?" he asked, voicing his thoughts. He glanced at Jake's eyes and saw them shifting about as if out of nervousness. "You didn't say anything, did you Jake?"

"What?" he nervously said. "Of course not." And really, he hadn't said a word of how part of his wish to Prismo was for someone to help get his brother back together with that certain fire elemental who held a special place in his heart. He just didn't want Finn to know that he had made such a wish.

"No, I haven't heard a word from Jake about your love life, if that's what you were wondering," the Doctor supplied, sounding completely oblivious to Jake's tone of voice. "Before you two came to rescue me, I had a bit of a discussion with Princess Bubblegum, and she gave me a bit of clarity over certain things around Ooo. Before that, I had landed in the Fire Kingdom and conversed with Flame Princess."

In an instant, a voice inside of Finn wanted to know what Flame Princess and Princess Bubblegum had told the Doctor. The less than heroic part of his personality feared that his selfish, immature actions of the past had created a lasting image that FP would never truly forgive, that PB would hold against him if ever she wanted to get him to do something that went beyond his duties as a hero, and that the stranger had already formed an opinion solely on that basis.

The more reasonable side of him, the greater part of him he hoped, found it foolish to worry about these trivialities. He knew well enough that the princesses at the end of the day would support him through whatever challenge came their way, and, though he had only known him for such a short time, he felt like he could trust the Doctor with his life. He didn't know what it was about the alien that made him seem trustworthy, but it felt somewhat akin to the confidence he had around Billy when he was still alive.

"I am ready to help you if you're ready to talk," the Doctor nudged. "You don't have to, of course. It's your choice."

Finn chuckled silently. Hadn't he once been nearly driven mad by the need to find his own way, regardless of who got hurt along the way? "Maybe later," he replied. It seemed strange to him that he gave a hesitant answer. Normally, he decisively acted, whether well thought out or not. Perhaps he wanted to err on the side of caution, afraid that any sudden movement could jeopardize the future. But would it be better to let it fester and maybe make a bigger problem to tackle down the road? All this guessing and second-guessing was starting to hurt his brain.

The Doctor seemed unfazed by the wishy-washy response. "It's alright, I suppose. Young love is almost always the most confusing type of love there is. Which is why I'd like to tell you one more story. A story of two young lovers who persevered through the most trying of circumstances to fulfill their hearts' desires. This is the story of Amy and Rory."

A long time ago, in the faraway and sleepy town of Leadworth, there lived a little girl in a big, old house. She had a very strong spirit and was afraid of nothing, except for a very strange crack in her bedroom wall. It whispered strange words into her head, and she could feel the dangerous power within it. She wished for someone to fix the crack, and she found help in the form of her Raggedy Man. With the swish of his magic wand, he sealed the crack away, but not before receiving a warning about a dangerous being on the loose. But before he could discover exactly where this creature was, he realized that his transport, his magic blue box, was about to leave without him. He entreated the girl to wait five minutes and promised a trip in time and space. So, the girl packed her suitcase and went to wait for him.

And so she waited. And she waited. And while she waited, the grown-ups around her tried to convince her that her Raggedy Man never really existed. As the years went by, she would only entrust her two closest friends with the tales of her imaginary friend. The first was a troublemaker who loved to have fun despite the repercussions of her mischief. The second was a soft-spoken boy who only had eyes for her. Through the years, they stood by each other, and a close bond formed between the ginger girl waiting for her knight in shining armor and the kind young boy who would later prove to be the man for her.

Many years later for her but only a few minutes for him, the Raggedy Man returned into her life. The little girl he had left behind had transformed into a strong, confident young woman who questioned whether or not she should believe in him. In trying to restore her faith and childhood spirit, he took her on the long overdue trip towards different worlds and times past and future. He showed wonders and awe, but she also found herself in the middle of such perilous dangers that come with them.

After a particularly trying outing that nearly took her life, she became quite out of sorts, to put it lightly. In an effort to help her out, the Raggedy Man brought along the boy who had managed to become her fiancé. Though initially antagonistic towards the Raggedy Man, the boy stayed on for the sake of the girl, who was quite unsure about how she wanted to live her life. Soon enough, a test came for her in the form of a choice between two different realities. In the first, all three were traveling the universe in the magic box. In the other, the boy and girl were married and awaiting their first child with the Raggedy Man popping in for a quick visit. The challenge was to find the true reality, facing deadly threats in both worlds. When the boy died at the hands of one of the deadly threats, the girl realized she didn't want to live in a world without him.

Unfortunately, fate was about to lay a nasty trap for the young couple. Hidden underneath their planet was an entire civilization of beings that wanted to retake the planet as their own. After preventing an imminent invasion of the surface, they ran to the magic box to get to safety when they found the crack that had first appeared in the girl's room so many years before. The Raggedy Man and the girl had realized that it had been following them for a while, and they knew its terrible ability to erase those who were consumed by it from existence, as if they had never lived at all. While they were dismayed by the appearance of the crack, the boy saw one of their dying foes attempting to kill the Raggedy Man. He sacrificed his life to save him, but the Raggedy Man, made a risky calculation and allowed the crack to consume the boy, erasing him from even the girl's conscious memory.

By some miracle, the boy reappeared alongside a legion of warriors. The Raggedy Man recognized the boy, but the girl did not at first. The boy was distraught; he had waited so long only to learn that she couldn't remember him. It was then when the Raggedy Man gave the boy something so important and so powerful it hadn't been erased: the girl's engagement ring kept safe in the Raggedy Man's magic box. With the ring as physical proof and his earnest words of love and care, the girl soon did remember the boy.

However, it was then when a trap was sprung on the Raggedy Man and the girl, and the boy played an unwilling but cruel part of it. The warriors, even the boy, were all derived from the girl's imagination and memories to bring the Raggedy Man into a trap and isolate him from any help. The boy realized right when the trap began to unfold the gravity of the situation and desperately pleaded with the girl, telling her to run for her life. The girl refused, hoping that her love could save him. In the end, against his will, the boy shot the girl and struck her dead. And as he gazed in horror at what he had done, the Raggedy Man's box was hijacked and blown up. The Raggedy Man was stuck in a timeless prison, and the stars died out as if they had never ever existed.

"WHAT?!" Finn exclaimed. "That's not a happy ending!"

"I'm getting there!" the Doctor exasperatedly retorted. "Good grief, you youngsters these days have the attention span of crickets. No, wait, crickets are way more patient. I once had a staring contest with one that lasted several weeks before I finally relented."

"Dude, hurry up and finish the story," Jake said. They had already crossed the border into the Grasslands, and he didn't want the story left off at such a critical point.

"Oh, fine," he quickly relented. "Buckle up because this is where things get complicated. Now then…"

As he watched the stars go out above him, the boy ruefully announced that the universe had ended with some melancholy mirth about how he'd never been born twice over. He wished for a ridiculous miracle to save her. He was answered by the Raggedy Man, though it was actually a version of him from the future. The Raggedy Man gave the boy the key to freeing his past self from the prison and promptly vanished afterwards. Stunned, the boy eventually made his way to the prison where the Raggedy Man was surprised to see he had been freed. After ensuring that the boy was still himself, the Raggedy Man placed the girl's corpse inside the prison and sealed it. He explained to the boy that the power of the prison could bring the girl back to life as soon as it got a scan of her living DNA, which would be found 2,000 years later. The Raggedy Man found a shortcut to get there, but the boy worried for the safety of the girl. He chose to stay behind to keep her safe, defending her for 2,000 years of history.

When the Raggedy Man reappeared 2,000 years later, he found the girl alive and well with her childhood self by her side. Unfortunately, he also saw that one of his jailers had come back to life as well, and it chased them down until a figure appeared and subdued it. The figure was the boy himself, and he wasted no time in his reunion with the girl. The boy tried to tell her how he hadn't meant to kill her, but she didn't care, simply wanting to hold him tight and never let go. It was an embrace he had waited 2,000 years for, and, though the Raggedy Man complained about the world around them destabilizing, he did not interfere until the jailer again attempted to finish its job.

As they continued to run, the Raggedy Man formed a plan to restore the universe. The prison had brought back both the girl and the jailer. If he could give it enough power, it would be able to restore the entire universe. He separated himself from the boy and girl, giving him enough time to enact his plan. He had seen in the sky the glowing form of his burning box, continuing to burn though the last remnants of the universe. He wired himself into the jail and readied it to fly into the burning box.

As he finished his work, the boy and girl found him again. The girl pleaded with the Raggedy Man not to go, but he replied that she didn't need her imaginary friend anymore. He then revealed the reason why he had been interested in taking her so many years ago: the crack in her wall had been eating out of her life, but, in turn, it had transferred some of its power to her. That was the reason why the boy was still there despite having been erased from history. She remembered him, and that was enough to bring him back. So, as the Raggedy Man faced his own deletion, he entreated her to remember him just enough to bring him back too.

"The girl woke up the next morning: her wedding day at last. At the reception, the Raggedy Man's story of the magic blue box came back to her. There she remembered, and the box, with the Raggedy Man in tow, appeared. Now wasn't that a great story?"

Finn didn't say a word, still transfixed by the story. "Well, the best thing about the story is that it's absolutely true," the Doctor continued. "Sometimes, the person of your dreams has been there all along. The girl who waited for her knight in shining armor finally found that he was there the entire time, waiting for her to realize it."

The Doctor finally took a look around their surroundings. "Oh, look at the great big tree!"

That finally bought Finn back to reality. "That's our home!"

"Wait a minute. Who's that grey girl terrorizing that green man in yellow?"

"Wait, what's Magic Man doing at our house?" Finn worriedly expressed.