Fionna PoV.
1 Day Later…
"This is where you needed to go?" Marshall asked his sister, she shrugged, "I have a gig here, and there's a short cut to the kingdom through here." She said. They had arrived at a rickety old pub that that was consumed in vines and moss, and the paint was old and chipped; the sign read "The Snuggly Duckling", Marshall raised an eyebrow at the name, "Really?" he said, Marceline shrugged, "Well at least I have a job." She snapped, Marshall groaned, Fionna giggled at the two, "They really are brother and sister." She giggled to Cake, "Mm-hm." She said nodding.
As soon as they entered the old pub, all eyes were turned on them; most of the customers were big and brawny, most of them being either thugs or thieves, of course, this made Fionna uncomfortable, she gripped her frying pan tightly, her hands shaking and Cake shrinking small enough to hide in the crook of her neck, Marshall smirked at her, he turned to Fionna, "You smell that? Take a deep breath through the nose." He breathed through his nose, "Really let that seep in. What are you getting? Because to me, that's part man-smell and the other part is really bad man-smell. I don't know why, but overall it just smells like the color brown. Your thoughts?" he said wrapping an arm around a now terrified Fionna, he was enjoying this, Marceline rolled her eyes, then a hand slapped against the wall stopping them in their tracks; a big brawny man with a scraggly brown beard, a bear fur vest, and a metal helmet, scowled at them, his eyes resting on Marshall Lee, then he smirked, "This you?" he said in a deep hoarse voice, Marshall looked at what he was pointing at, he peered around the man to see his hand was covering it, he moved his hand aside to see his wanted poster, Fionna looked at him surprised, Marshall rolled his eyes completely exasperated, then someone grabbed his shoulders and held him against the wall, "Oh Crap!" he yelled he looked over at Marceline who was nonchalantly munching on an apple sitting herself on the bar table watching, "A little help here?" he called towards his sister, she shrugged, "Not my problem." She said turning away, Marshall looked at her with a shocked look on his face, the thugs held him down; one looked up at man with a red beard, "Get the guards." He said, the other nodded and ran out the door, "I'm gonna use the reward money to buy me a new hook." One said, "NO! I need the money!" said another, "No, I need it! I'm broke." They all started tugging at him until they were all holding him down against the wall, and the thug with the hook raised his good hand to sock him in right in the face, Marshall turned his face away to brace himself for pain, Fionna tried to pull them away from him, failed miserably, she looked up to see a some kind of branch sticking out of the wall, she took off her hat, her hair falling to the ground in a big heap, she grabbed the end of her tresses and used it as a rope to grab a hold of the branch, as her hair wrapped around it, she pulled it back as hard as she could she aimed it for the thug's head, as soon as her aim was right, she let it go with a snap, smacking the thug in the back of his head before he could assault Marshall, everyone, including Marceline froze and stared at the small blonde girl, "Put him down!" she commanded, Marshall looked at her dumbfounded, as did the other thugs, she sighed and tried to calm herself, "Okay, I don't know where the lump I am, but I need him because he is going to take me to see the lanterns which I've been dreaming to go see my whole life! Have some humanity! Haven't you ever had a dream before? Because if you turn him in, you'll ruin mine!" she cried, completely out of breath, the thug who was hit in the head lowered his fist, and turned to her, seeing the sincerity in her eyes, he sighed and turned to Marshall with a scowl on his face, "This true?" he asked Marshall, he nodded, "Yeah." He said, the thug with the hook laughed, "You're lucky your little girl friend saved you this time," he growled through his teeth, "but since you're helping her fulfill her dream, I'm gonna let you go, just this once." They all let him go, dispersing away from him, Fionna ran towards him, "You okay?" she asked, but before he could answer, the thug with the red beard returned, "I got the gaurds!" "Oh crap…not again." Marshall groaned, Fionna instinctively grabbed his wrist and dragged him behind the bar table, Marceline turned around and looked over the table, "Whatever you do; don't make a noise." She said seriously, Fionna nodded, Cake on her shoulder again, and her hair hugged tight to her chest, Fionna was scared, she didn't know what to do, she heard the door bang open, "Where's Lee?" a young voice called out, the room was silent for a moment, until Marceline broke the silence, "What's it to you?" she asked calmly, he heard boots clack against the floor boards towards Marceline's direction, "What are you staring at Gumball." She said flatly, Fionna heard him scoff, and him turning around, "Search the place! Find Lee and bring him here!" Fionna saw Marshall Lee peek over the table top, his eyes widened and he sat back down, "What is it?" she asked, he scowled at the floor, "We got to get out of here…" he mumbled, she turned around and looked over the table to see two red headed brawny men shackled together, one had sideburns, the other had an eye patch, Marshall pulled her down, "Don't let them see you!" he snapped, he felt a hand on his shoulder to see Marceline looking at them, she motioned them silently to the other end of the bar table, she removed a rug to reveal a hidden hatch under it, she opened it quietly, and looked at the two, "You guys go through here and make your way to the city; I'll meet you there tomorrow." She whispered, Fionna looked at the older girl with a worried look on her face, "What about you?" Marcy laughed, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Now go on." She said motioning to the hatch, Fionna hesitated then she and Cake gathered the rest of her hair and slipped through the entrance.
Marshall PoV.
Marshall was about the hop in before Marceline stopped him, "Hold on Marsh." She said he stopped and looked at his sister, "I need you to promise me that you'll keep that girl safe, you hear me?" he nodded, she hugged her brother one last time, "I love you, Mar." he hugged her back, "I'll see you soon." He said, she let go and winked at him as she stood up and left. Marshall jumped through the the entrance, closing the hatch behind him, only to have Fionna and Cake waiting for him at the bottom with a torch.
"So… what was that about?" Fionna asked him as they walked through the dark tunnel, "What was what?" He asked, "What Marceline told you." He thought for a moment, I need you to promise me that you'll keep that girl safe, you hear me? "Nothing." He lied, Fionna wasn't buying it, but she left it alone, "But that was pretty impressive what you did back there with the whole hair and that branch thing." "I know!" Fionna said excitedly, but she caught herself, "I know." She said trying to sound nonchalant, he gave her a funny look and proceeded to walk on, torch in hand, passing the occasional skeleton here and there, Fionna tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "So…Marshall, where are you from?" "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, I don't do back stories, though I've become very interested in yours." She raised an eyebrow, "Though I can't ask about the mom," "Nope." "The hair…" "Uh-uh." "And frankly I'm too scared to ask about the badger…" "Cat." Cake corrected, "Nuance." Marshall said, "But my question is; if you wanted to see the lanterns so bad," Marshall stopped walking, "why didn't you do before?" he asked, Fionna stopped and looked at Cake nervously, "Um…well, it's uh…." She was cut short when they heard a low rumbling coming from the tunnel, Fionna turned around, her eyes becoming wide, "Uh…Marshall…?" she said, then the source came into view, it was the guards, "Marshall…!" Marshall turned around his eyes widening, he grabbed Fionna's shoulder and pushed her forward, "Run." He said, Gumball was right behind them; "Run!" he yelled, Cake and Fionna gathered the rest of her hair and ran for their lives to the end of the tunnel. "We're almost there!" Marshall said as they reached the end, into the daylight, only to be stopped at the edge of a cliff, "Oh my Glob! What is with all these flipping cliffs?" Marshall yelled, they heard yelling behind them only to have the guards barge in after them, they must have found the hatch! Marshall thought, then he saw a girl with them, he looked closely, it was Marceline, he boiled with anger, Gumball smirked, "I've waited a long time for this Lee." Marshall gritted his teeth, "Let. Go. Of. My. Sister. Now!" he growled, Marceline shook her head, and then Lord M. stepped in front of her, a triumphant gleam in his eye, "Here!" Fionna thrust her frying pan into Marshall's stomach, grabbed her hair and threw it up in the air, clinging onto a beam, yanked on it to tighten it and jumped off the cliff swinging to the other side over the river below them, she looked back to see Marshall in a situation. The guards advanced towards him swords drawn, and out of pure instinct, he used the frying pan. One swung at him he ducked and slammed the pan into his face, the lieutenant swung at him too only to be blocked and then knocked unconscious like the other, and finally he came face to face with Gumball, who unfortunately does not learn, who swung at him head on only to be hit right in the face; and this was all done in less than 6 seconds. He stared down in amazement at the frying pan, "Oh, mama! I have got to get me one of these!" then a sword pointed at him, "Marsh watch out!" Marceline and Fionna said in unison, he turned around ready to fight when he saw that his opponent was Lord M, he looked at the horse confused until he engaged him into battle, Sword against frying pan, man against horse, Marshall felt ridiculous, "You should know this is the strangest thing I've ever done!" he yelled, then the horse found his blind spot and slashed his arm, Marshall dropped the frying pan and gripped his arm, "Not fair dang it…!" he said through his teeth, the all of a sudden Marceline jumped onto Lord M and tugged at his reins, "You leave my baby brother alone!" she yelled, he neighed in distress and he toppled sideways as Marceline jumped off his back, Fionna tossing her hair to the other side for them to grab on to, "Grab on!" she called, then Marshall grabbed onto her hair and looked back at his sister, "Marceline, c'mon!" but as soon as he said that, he saw the last two people he wanted to see; it was Jack and Cain. Marceline looked down at the unconscious Gumball and grabbed him, "Marceline what the lump are you doing?" he yelled, she looked up at him, "They'll kill him if he stays! And besides; he could be our hostage!" he was about to protest when Fionna yelled, "We gotta go!" she yelled, he rolled his eyes, and jumped of the cliff unfortunately missing the cliff and falling into the river, pulling Fionna in with them, being dragged by the current.
Fionna PoV.
Half way down the river, Cake turned into a raft for all of them to fit in and eventually made it to land, safe and sound. They set up camp separately for the boys and girls, Marceline was watching over Gumball as he slept, making sure he didn't run off when he woke up. It was getting dark so Fionna and Cake set up a fire, since both Marceline and Marshall were unable to do it. "Marshall, give me your arm." Fionna said, he gripped his arm, "Why?" he asked, she rolled her eyes, "Just bring it over here…" "Ow!" he winced, Fionna jumped, "I'm sorry!" he sighed, "it's fine…" he said, she gingerly took his arm into her hands and started to wrap her hair around his wound, "Um…you're being strangely cryptic as you wrap your hair around my injured arm, Ack!" he winced, "Sorry!" she said, he smiled at her with his dazzling smile, she turned away and blushed, she sighed, "What I'm about to do…don't…don't freak out…" she said cautiously, he nodded, then she closed her eyes and started to sing:
Flower, gleam and glow
Let your power shine
Make the clock reverse
Bring back what once was mine…
Marshall watched in amazement as her golden hair started to glow from her head snaking its way to his arm. He singing voice was beautiful, and it shocked him that such a beautiful voice could come from this small girl, he looked over at Cake who was smiling smugly and pointing at her arm, that's when I knew:
Heal what has been hurt
Change the Fates' design
Save what has been lost
Bring back what once was mine
What once was mine…..
Once she was done singing she looked up at him timidly as he carefully untied her hair from his arm, and was left completely speechless; his wound was gone. He didn't know what to say, his mouth opened to probably yell, "Don't freak out!" she said quickly starting to panic at his reaction, he stopped and started to laugh nervously, "What? What, I'm not freaking out, are you freaking out? I'm just amazed at your hair and what magical qualities it possesses how long has it been doing that?" he asked rocking back and forth from shock, Fionna shrugged, "I don't know; forever, I guess…mother said that when I was a baby, people tried to cut it; saying that they wanted it for themselves. But once it's cut; it turns normal blonde and loses its power." She showed him a short lock of yellow blond hair that contrasted from the rest of it, she sighed, and tugged at her bangs, "A gift like that has to be protected, that's why my mother never…I mean, I never…" he looked at her concerned, "You never left that tower." He finished, she gave him an apologetic look, "And you're still going back?" he said concernedly, "No." she said, then she looked down, "Yes…?" she sighed in frustration and buried her face into her hands, "It's complicated." Cake nuzzled closely to her friend to comfort her, there was a brief silence and Fionna peeked through her fingers, taking her hands off her face and running her hands through her hair and flattening it out, "So…you still haven't told me your story." She said smiling, he laughed, "Yeah, I'll save you the depressing story of poor Marshall Lee and his sister." She scooted closer to him to show her interest, he chuckled, "Well, Marcy and I always had to look out for each other when we were kids, we ran away from our abusive parents, and tried to make a better future for ourselves." He laughed at the memory, and then he continued, "But there was this one day when I was 13 that I just, you know, I wanted to make a name for myself, so I left Marceline at home, and well..." He said shrugging, he sighed, Fionna looked at him concerned, "Is that why you took on thieving?" He sighed, and fell backwards laying on the grass looking at the sky, Fionna followed looking in his direction, "Yeah, I guess you could say that. And it worked; now I'm the most wanted criminal in the land of Aaa…" Fionna sat up, "I don't think you're a criminal." She said, he scoffed, "I think of you as my friend." She smiled; he turned his head in her direction and blushed, he sat up abruptly, "I think I'll go check up on Marcy and get more fire wood…" he stood up and was about to walk away, "Hey Marshall." He stopped and turned around, "I meant what I said; about you being my friend. Don't ever forget that." She said, he smiled and felt his now healed arm and looked back up at her, "Well then you'd be the first." He said, and walked away, Fionna watched him leave when he heard a voice behind her, "Well, I thought he'd never leave." Fionna turned around and her eyes widened, "Mother…?"