What happened last:

With Finn's curse broken, it was discovered that he wasn't completely dead as everyone thought. Now Marceline must go to see Death and see about getting Finn's soul back… but not before an unexplained waiting period.

M: "When will it finally end…?" The depressing phrase resonated throughout her rapidly deteriorating mind.

She was full of questions that nobody could answer.

Will Finn be ok?

What if Death says no?

Why do I even have to wait two days?

Will I be able to handle living without him if I fail?

The questions began piling up in her brain like a stack of bricks; weighing her morale and emotions down. Part of her wanted to be alone until she could go save Finn and the other half wanted someone, anyone, there to comfort her. She had lived her whole life alone and she got used to it until she truly fell in love. Now Finn has become a sort of… crutch for Marceline.

You truly don't know what you have until it's gone.

Marceline remained curled up on her bed, not crying but hoping that this heartache would pass. She knew that Finn's future looked bleak because returning a soul wasn't as easy as Death just saying yes. There was always the chance that Finn's body wouldn't accept his own soul because of the dark magic that banished it in the first place. Soo much uncertainty… soo much fear… no hope…

Marceline remained in her curled-up fetal position for about 30 hours or so. She didn't move and she didn't get up for any reason. Her body was functioning at an almost coma-like state. Marceline was once again, giving up on everything but her body wasn't letting her. She was glad that nobody came by her house to check up on her. She lived many years alone and it felt normal for her. Then someone came to break the cycle…

PB: "Hello?" Her voice sounded distant. She just entered Marceline's house without knocking like she always used to do.

Marceline rose up from her fetal position and sat on the edge of her bed. She immediately began wiping the tears from her eyes that were ever soo slowly pouring and attempted to look as if she wasn't crying. She tried her best but crying just wasn't possible to avoid. Not with a heart as broken as hers.

Marceline wanted to stay in her room and maybe even hide from the candy princess but she knew that it wouldn't help at all. Bubblegum knew all of her favorite hiding places anyway. Bonnie was going to help in any way she could and Marcy wasn't going to stop her. Not that she wanted to.

Eventually, Bonnibel got up to Marceline's room and saw her sitting on the edge of her bed. She went up to her, sat down and wrapped her arm around the sad vampire queen without saying a word. Bubblegum knew what Marcy needed and proceeded to comfort her.

PB: "It'll be ok, Marcy." She said in a quiet and sweet voice.

That's all she needed to say then Marceline really began to cry. The vampire queen squeezed Bonnie tightly and cried into her shoulder. Marceline was soo tired of crying and all of the heartache but she knew that it would eventually pass. It would eventually end.

Just like everything in her life.

M: "No…" She said through her tears.

PB: "What is it, Marcy?" She wanted to get her to talk about everything that was on her mind.

M: "I don't believe that it's gonna get better. It always does for a little bit… but then it always falls apart again. Always." She said in a very serious tone. Her tears weren't interfering with her ability to speak; it was as if she was talking about her own fate and she's known this fact for a long time.

PB: "Well… maybe this time will be diff-"

M: "No, PB! Don't you get it?"

The vampire queen took a few deep breaths and began to explain the problem with her life. She told Bonnibel exactly what was on her mind and it completely made sense.

M: "Every second's soaked in sadness and I feel like every person I know create a mental war in my head. I'm practically drowning in déjà vu. I've seen this all before…" She kept explaining and it kept sounding more and more depressing the more she went on.

M: "Bonnie… I don't wanna do this by myself and I don't wanna live like a broken record. I've heard that line a thousand times and I've seen it all before. You say that it's going to get better but I know how it will always end up…"

PB: "Marcy…"

M: "Bonnibel…" She said her name just to hear it.

There was immediately a powerfully emotional moment between those two. Bubblegum kept a tight grip around Marceline to attempt to comfort her

PB: "I'm sorry, it's not enough." She began to cry. She knew that her words weren't enough to fix Marceline's broken heart.

M: "It's ok, P Bubs. Thank you for showing up. I really needed this." She was already starting to feel better.

They both hugged each other until both of their tears stopped falling. It didn't take too long because they were both very strong. Bubblegum pulled back and looked Marceline in the eyes to make sure that she was ok.

PB: "I know how you think and I know what you believe, Marcy. But I know that it will be different this time. Finn isn't like everyone else. He isn't Ash. Finn is a good…guy. He'll treat you right and he won't leave you." She choked on her words for a second because she still has feelings for Finn but she knew that Marceline deserves him.

M: "I believe you, PB." She didn't know what else to say but she definitely felt better.

PB: "Oh and by the way, I asked Peppermint Butler why you had to wait two days before seeing Death." She awkwardly stopped her sentence there.

M: "And…?"

PB: "And it's because he's apparently doing some sort of jam session thing with his buddies."

M: "Are you… *yawn* kidding me?" The fatigue randomly just hit her really hard. She has been up for numerous hours and it was finally getting to her. Regardless of wanting to stay up, Bubblegum was always relaxing to be around.

PB: "No, that's what he said. But you should probably get some sleep. When was the last time you slept?"

M: "I… ummm… like five minutes… ago…" She was falling asleep while talking to the princess.

PB: "Ah ok. Well, how about you take a nap or something?" She said as she began to help Marcy lay down. The vampire queen attempted to resist but she needed to sleep so she didn't try very hard.

Everything started to fade out while Marceline tried to stay awake. She wanted to remain conscious but Bubblegum made her feel safe and she was able to relax. Her vision faded to black and she fell asleep.

Marceline had a very hazy dream whilst she slept. It was confusing and very unclear.

..

The setting was an all-white background and all that was visible was a bed. Only Marceline and Bubblegum were there and they were both lying on the bed.

M: "Bonnie, I'm soo alone." She said as she embraced the hardly clothed candy princess.

PB: "I know, Marcy."

M: "Never let me go…"

PB: "I know, Marcy."

M: "What? Are you even listening to me?"

PB: "I know, Marcy." Her face was replaced by a clock that was rapidly spinning, signifying the large amount of time that Marceline has spent in her life watching the same thing happen over and over as time passed.

Marceline realized that she was having a semi-lucid dream and she woke up soon after. Her unconscious mind knew that she wasn't really awake and she knew that she had to wake up to know what was really going on.

..

Her eyes opened and she was looking straight up at the ceiling.

M: "B-Bonnie?" She said quietly.

She noticed that the candy princess was asleep next to her, wearing the shirt that Marceline gave her. Bubblegum was sound asleep and her arm was lying across Marceline's upper body. The vampire queen couldn't help but think about the time when this situation used to be an everyday thing. It was normal and they used to do it daily.

Marceline would have loved to reminisce about the past all day but she knew that she had more important things to take care of. She didn't know if two days had passed yet but she decided that she was going to go see death regardless of waiting. He wasn't doing anything too important and she was the daughter of Hunson Abadeer. Death can find time to help her out.

Before escaping from the candy princess's comforting grasp, Marcy took in all of the very familiar scents, sights and sounds of this type of situation. She loved how everything was quiet and calm except for the subtle sound of the princess respiring and she loved how peaceful she looked while she was asleep. But most of all, she loved how Bonnie smelled sweet like bubblegum. Bubblegum may not have been Finn, but she was able to raise Marceline's spirits as if she was the human boy herself.

After checking if Bonnibel was asleep or not, Marceline slowly and carefully slipped from her embrace and left the room. Marceline wasn't great with creating portals but she had to do it anyway, she needed to make a portal to get to Death. She didn't usually make them to get to the Land of the Dead or any of the dead worlds for that matter but she knew how.

She left the princess's room and got a good distance away before casting her portal spell. She found a relatively remote location and created the portal. After taking a few seconds to create the transdimentional rift, Marceline stepped through and promptly closed the portal behind herself.

For once, she was exactly where she wanted to be. She was just outside of Death's castle of light. She could hear the faint sound of Death's double base beating quickly and repeatedly, so she knew that he was home.

She knew that the only way she would ever hope to stop Death from doing what he was doing was because she was the daughter of the ruler of the Nightosphere; therefore being royalty. She walked up to the front of the building and walked in.

She looked around and saw various items; ranging from musical instruments to the heads of large beasts. Death had a large collection of very rare items and all of them were very different from the next. His house had many evil looking objects and also many things that appeared to be innocent such as toys and fancy paintings. The vampire queen didn't let Death's interesting knick-knacks distract her from her main goal. She needed to find him to get Finn's soul back.

She wasn't new to this at all. She knew exactly how to find Death. She could feel it in her bones. She followed her instincts and unsurprisingly found him in his living room. He was playing music with some of his friends.

D: "Ok guys, let's play this song again from the top and…" He stopped when he noticed the vampire queen before she entered the room. He noticed the demonic royalty entering his home and shooed his friends away. There hasn't been a single soul in history that had gone to talk to Death without some serious reason.

D: "Hey guys, we'll pick this back up later. I got some stuff to do." His undead friends didn't question Death's will. They just left.

There was a brief moment of silence while Death's friends left. They almost systematically filed out of his house until they were gone. Marceline stood in the doorway of the powerful undead being; waiting for him to speak. He would obviously ask her why she showed up at his legendarily sacred dwelling.

D: "Госпожа Aбадийр, Извините. I didn't know you were coming." He said humbly

M: "Говорят по-английски." She said in an equally humble voice.

D: "Do you need something? You rarely come here so you obviously need something."

M: "Well actually…" She lost her voice and looked down at her feet. She was fidgeting with her hands which made it obvious that she wanted something very important.

D: "You need someone's soul back don't you?"

M: "I…"

D: "Yes, I know. I recently received a very powerful soul. I figured that someone would come to try and claim it, but I didn't think that it would be an Abadeer."

M: "Well, yeah. It's me. And I need that soul back."

D: "Really now? How badly do you need it? How much does it mean to you?" He asked is very standard questions.

M: "That doesn't matter. It means more to me than pretty much anything else. Isn't that enough?" She sounded very sincere.

Death thought about it and realized that the vampire queen was right. Just the way she showed emotion was enough.

D: "Ok. I'll hear your plight, but you know that I can't just give you a soul without compensation. It's the rules."

Marceline reached in her pocket to retrieve the nickel. Death promptly raised his hand towards her, expecting her to present a penny to him.

D: "Sorry, but I can no longer accept pennies. The former king of Mars used them too much."

M: "Don't worry, I got something better." She pulled out the abnormally shiny dime and brandished it as if she truly knew its worth.

D: "Well… when you put it like that, I may just be able to accommodate you." He said as he approached the vampire queen.

Marceline held her hand out to offer the nickel to Death. When his bony hand went to grab the coin, she could easily feel the air becoming much colder. Death's body felt cold even for the vampire queen.

Death then took out a small magnifying glass and looked at the nickel more closely. He knew that it wasn't a counterfeit without looking at it but he always liked to get a better look at it. He then tucked the nickel away in his pocket and shifted his attention back to Marceline.

D: "Ok, now whose soul did you want returned again?"

M: "I don't think I said who-"

D: "-Finn the Human? Ah, that's right!"

M: "Y-yes! So… you'll be able to do it? Return his soul?" She said with a hopeful tone in her voice.

D: "Of course, it shouldn't be a problem. I just have to go get it. Follow me." He said then left the room.

Marceline followed the ruler of the Dead World to his massive collection of souls that were in limbo between life and death. His collection included all of the souls that could never find peace in the afterlife as well as the ones that were split from their respective bodies, just like Finn's. The room was illuminated with the relatively bright blue light that was emanating from the soul stones.

M: "Woah… there's gotta be like, a million souls here." She was awestruck by the large number of soul stones in the warehouse-like room.

D: "Nah, I just put a bunch of mirrors all over the room to make it look like a lot. Most people don't get stuck between life and death. But don't tell anyone I told you that. It's a secret."

M: "Yeah, sure thing."

Death went down a few of the rows containing a mind bogglingly large amount of blue soul stones and stopped by one. He reached over at one of the stones, grabbed it and handed it to Marceline.

M: "So this is it? How do you know it's the right one? They all look the same." She said as she inspected the odd blue orb.

He just gave her a dumb look and a blank stare.

M: "Oh yeah, you're Death." She chuckled at her own dumb question.

D: "All you need to do is break that soul stone near Finn's body and his soul will find its way back to where it belongs."

M: "Oh uh… ok then. Seems easy enough."

D: "So do you need me to make you a portal to get back home or…"

M: "N-no. I got it…" She didn't feel confident but she also didn't want to accept Death's help. She knew how to make portals and she needed the practice anyway.

Marceline did the same thing that she always did when she made portals. She raised a hand and a portal formed out of thin air. She didn't waste any time, she stepped through, thanked Death for his help and closed the portal behind herself.

She was able to make the portal bring her back almost to where she wanted. She was right outside of Bubblegum's room.

M: "*sigh* Good…" She was relieved that she didn't mess up.

With hope in her heart she moved towards Bubblegum's bedroom door, took a deep breath and walked in.