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The Nephilim King Michael: Thank you! I hope you enjoy it.

Desperado558: Thank you!Waiting can build suspense, but sadly in this case it's writer's block/personal crap getting in the way.

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trasgo artifexdiaz: Thank you! Yeah, I think being kind to Vampires is generally a good idea.

Chapter 10: Evanescence

After ten minutes of walking silently behind Marceline, though well aware she, with her enhanced senses, must know he was there, Finn was pretty positive they weren't heading anywhere near the cave.

Judging by the fact that she had just used some words Finn had only heard Jake shout when his brother had thought the hero hadn't been in the room, he was more than a little concerned. As he began to piece together what he should tell her to cool her jets, he noticed she had stopped moving, and gulped.

"Um, Marcy, look—"

"WHY ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME!?" The Vampire Queen barked menacingly, turning on a dime, grabbing Finn by the shoulder and lifting him so he was level with her face. "You should know by now how I blow off steam, fool!" Red, pulsing eyes demanded some kind of response.

Her anger was countered by Finn shrugging with a nervous smile, reaching into his shirt pocket, and quickly placing something on the Vampire's chest.

"Wha?" She murmured, dropping him and glancing down. Upon her shirt was a small, gold star. Marceline gazed at it for several seconds, her eyes still fluctuating in rage. And then, as if a Vampire-angst switch was flipped, she sighed, crossing her legs and plopping onto the ground.

"I hate you Finn," She cursed smacking her fist into the ground, her eyes not leaving the star. "Because no matter how angry I get, I can't get angry at YOU. I can push away everyone I care about, no, everything in the world, but you. I just swore out an entire village and threatened to set the villagers on fire, and here's a lumpin' gold star on my chest. 'Great job Marceline! Good job gettin' loco as a cup of hot cocoa!' WHY ARE YOU SO UNHATABLE?"

"Marceline, it's alright, it's all good, we did it!" Finn said, raising his hands up and lowering them in an attempted soothing motion.

"…What did we do? And what are YOU doing with your arms? Is that some kind of goofy dance move?" The Vampire asked, her anger dissipating, propping her arms on her sides.

"Saved the day!" Finn shouted heroically, his voice deepening slightly before it inadvertently cracked into a squeak. "And nah, I'm trying to be a calming influence!"

Despite her immediate snicker, Marceline was not amused. "Saved the day. Right. Everyone just seemed soooo thankful." She added harsh emphasis to the "k" in thankful, and for a moment Finn had images of his friend beating the… uh… grass out of Grass People.

"…Well," Finn replied, glancing away from her. "We saved them, but sometimes, even heroes don't get thanked. I mean, sometimes you get sweet gear, and if you're really lucky a kiss from a princess, but it doesn't always pan out that you get a reward or praise. Just that special bubbly feeling in yo heart. Do you hear it beating, Marceline? It's saying 'good job!'"

"A, what's the point of saving and helping people if they treat you like dirt?" Marceline asked, ignoring all the bubbly feeling junk. "And B, I'm not a hero, I'm a Vampire, which if you couldn't guess is WHY I got treated like dirt, and why I'm not a goody-two-shoes like you." Taking perhaps a little more of her agitation out on him than she should, Marceline jabbed her finger into Finn's chest, sending him to the ground.

She immediately flinched at her own actions, hissing at the rush of guilt. Just as quickly she offered a hand, Finn taking it. "You okay?" Marceline asked, and despite that he felt a new bruise coming on, Finn nodded readily. Her eyes narrowed, and slowly she extended her finger out to the same spot on his chest. Contact led to a yelp of pain, and Marceline sighed.

"That's gonna bruise, huh?" She barked, more to herself than him. "And of course after pushing you down I remember you almost drowned…"

"No! I was just being… uh… disagreeable towards water!" Finn claimed, the Vampire Queen's rising angst given sonic-form as she cracked her knuckles brutally. "…Are you going to make me leave? Because I almost drowned?" His quiet, broken tone snapping her from her rage.

"No, I mean… cripes, that is the first rule, huh?" Marceline whispered, having completely forgotten it entirely. She looked him up and down; the Finn experiment definitely wasn't failing, as though her heart still swung from "just peachy" to "HEAVY METAL SCREAMING", usually whenever she journeyed to blow off steam the needle stuck with the latter. As she had said herself, it was hard to hate the goofball.

To accentuate that point, the small pop of a fart disturbed the intense silence, Finn coughing embarrassedly.

Returning to her internal thoughts now sporting a grin, she wondered if she even could ditch him at this point. The Vampire would feel grungy and despicable if she left him so far from home, forcing him to bushwhack his way back, though she had no doubt he was more than capable of making the journey. Heck, he would just follow her at this point regardless. She should have never brought up a specific cardinal direction, and should have smashed the device Bonnibel spawned when she had held it in her hands.

"I guess I still could…" She whispered, Finn tilting his head at her words.

"…Could what?" He asked, his face falling as she flinched again.

"Oh! Nuthin'!" She hastily replied, swallowing. "Just… you're fine. Don't worry about it."

"…Alright," Finn said with a shrug. In his own heart he worried that she was having second thoughts, but he said nothing. "…I know it kind of got a little out of hand back there, but honestly, that was a kind of loaded situation. What if we found something more small-scale?"

"You've got one more shot to find some poor sucker for us to help, and then I'm out," Marceline replied, her tone flatter than her heart-line.

"Then I shall choose well my lady," Finn replied with a small bow, and after avoiding a barrage of snickers and mocking at his over-done chivalry, the odd couple continued down the road, Vampire filled once more with doubt while human fell into the habit of cursing his foolishness silently. A habit he had no idea his companion shared.

After a short, and relatively silent (the exception being a beat-boxing contest in the middle) march, they came across a perfectly round, maroon house. Finn continued to walk by, Marceline's lack of footsteps making it so he had no awareness that she had stopped, a thick glob of drool dangling from her mouth and swinging like a drunken pendulum.

Eventually he realized he had started a discussion about how awesome a skateboard powered by spitting would be with himself, and turned to find the Vampire Queen knocking at the door of the house.

It was her favorite shade of red, and one she had been loath to feast on for many, many years (and that even now gave her slight indigestion at times). As a rule she tended to not keep anything its shade lying around the house, unless it was for special occasions. Seeing it in small doses was tantalizing, but a whole house?

As a spec of sense crept into her head, and she wondered how on earth she was going to proposition whoever lived here to let her eat their house, the door began to creak open slowly. A pale gray face stuck out from it wearingly, and as soon as the two wide, black eyes upon it viewed Marceline, the person screamed and slammed the door shut.

"OH GOD NOW HE SENT HIS WIFE TO FINISH THE JOB!" Came a cry from inside the house as Finn rushed over to see who was screaming like they swallowed hot porridge. Suddenly the face momentarily darted into one of the windows before flying back. "AND SHE HAS A SLAVE!"

"I am no man's wife!" Marceline shouted as Finn bellowed, "I haven't been her slave for like, two years!"

"Trickery and lies!" The voice retorted, thought at least now it wasn't screaming, and they both vaguely made it out as belonging to an elderly man. "Just leave me be. First you take away my claim to fame, and then you were cruel enough to leave me trapped in a monument to my former glory!"

"Okay, this guy's diving in the crazy pool, can we disengage?" Marceline whispered, but Finn shook his head sternly.

"He's clearly frightened, let's just try talking him some sense and then maybe we can organize the letters in his alphabet soup," Finn suggested, the Vampire shrugging in response.

"We're sorry for whatever happened to you, and swear it wasn't us!" Finn shouted, knocking politely upon the door. "We'd be happy to help though!"

"I know a Vampire when I see one!" Came a wary reply, to which Marceline and Finn exchanged a confused glance.

"You… were attacked by a Vampire?" Marceline asked slowly, and after a moment the door opened once more.

"…Yes, and you're a Vampire, aren't ya?" The old dude asked, and after a moment the Queen of said race nodded.

"I apologize, sir," Marceline replied with an air of grace Finn have never witnessed her display. "I am the ruler of all Vampiric folk, and have strictly ordered them not to cause undue strife to others."

"…But then what about that time you sucked the red out of that guy's bowtie?" Finn began. "He seemed scared as—" He gulped at the terrifying look Marceline was giving him, and stuck a sock in it.

"If one of those under my wing are acting as such," Marceline continued, falling back into a pleasant countenance, "I will do anything in my power to see to it they are stopped. What happened to you?"

The geezer looked her up and down, and only after several seconds of thought did he sigh, and motion for them to come in.

Marceline had been inside for all of five seconds before she spoke, her voice throbbing with barely contained anger and disbelief. "You were red. A Vampire sucked it out of you." She nudged Finn and pointed to a picture on the wall of what was clearly the old man in his younger years, fashioned as a cowboy and balancing on a raging bull.

They turned to the old fella, getting their first good look at him; gravity and time had wrenched him downward, and a small pot belly hung from his stomach, but Finn could definitely picture him riding around on buckin' broncos at an earlier age, and he still wore vaguely western clothing.

He nodded with sorrow at Marceline's words. "Came in a week ago. Sucked me dry. I loved being red. I was the reddest cowboy in all of Ooo. And now I'm just gray. Gray, gray, gray." He sulked lower and lower as he repeated the word.

"Awww… cheer up! It looks like you were an awesome cowboy, and we could… uh…" Finn trailed off, looking at Marceline in desperation as the old dude began to weep, but she didn't even notice, so far away were her eyes. "Uh, we could decorate you!"

"…I am the shell of a proud man who once wrestled a hog to the ground with his pinky!" The cowboy shouted, wagging his hand in an elderly fashion. "You think I want to be decorated?"

"Oh, suffering saber-bikers, I forgot to ask!" Marceline said smacking her head, and knocking a grasshopper out of her ear in the process. "Uh, could I suck some of the red out of your house?"

"What!? Yeah! I hate it! I just makes me think about when I was red, gosh darnit!" The geezer replied. "Make it fifty shades of gray!"

"Whoooaaa, man, what?" Marceline asked, backing away, until she viewed the man's confused expression and realized he hadn't been talking about what she had imagined at all. After this, she coughed awkwardly, and replied, "Yeah, sure! As long as you let peachy here decorate you." Marceline smiled sheepishly and pulled Finn into a one arm hug, the hero blushing and the old man hurumping.

"Fine!" He shouted.

One hour of sucking and colored markers later

"I feel like I ate an army of Licorice BLUUUUUUUUURGH!" Marceline started before burping, the skin on Finn's face rippling from the shock wave. "An army of Licorice Knights," She finished, smiling contentedly and rubbing her belly.

"What about you, Mr. Cowboy?" Finn asked, turning to the old man, who was covered in purple marker, smiley faces, pasted-on fake battle wings in the back, and enough gold stars that in the future he would receive a very profitable position as a disco ball.

"Ummm. I feel. Glittery. I'm not sure if this is doing it for me," The geezer replied gazing at his body. "Er, what's this doohickey on my arm again?" He pointed to a rather elaborate section of lines on his forearm, and Finn smiled.

"That's your arm's power band!" Finn exclaimed, holding his own forearm up; sure enough, he had drawn a matching one on his own. "Maybe I should slap a crossbow onto your other one!"

The retired cowboy gave him one of those looks people give their cats when they bring back dead rodents as gifts, and slowly shook his head. "Nah, nah, I feel, uh, pretty enough."

"Did you hear that Marceline! He feels pretty! Whoo! Go cowboy! Hogtie em!" Finn began to run around the yard enthusiastically, and when she was positive he wasn't paying attention the Vampire floated to the side of the old man.

"If you shower quickly I think everything will wash off… except maybe the stars," She whispered tugging at her own sticker in mild amusement. "I think he uses super glue or something for those."

"Thanks for the tip," He replied, giving himself another look-over and shuddering. "Where'd you find that one? He's kookier than a horse at a square dance."

Marceline shared his shudder (but in her case it was at the mention of square dancing), and then shrugged. "I found him… a long time ago, and recently re-found him. He's probably the kindest person I've ever met. It drives me bat-crazy. Like, I don't turn into a bat, but… you get me."

"Yeah yeah, I get ya," The cowboy replied. There was an awkward silence of several second before he ended it beautifully by saying, "Sorry I thought you were going to eat me."

"Eh, I get that reaction all the time. 'Specially from my ex."

The cowboy gave her a long look before deciding not to ask.

"I'm sorry again about the rogue Vampire attack. I'll track them down," Marceline muttered, her fist clenching as she picture smacking heads together. "I guess I've been a bit too lenient."

"Just leave him at home, lest he gets eaten," The cowboy warned before turning and walking into his house. She immediately frowned, and despite knowing what the old man did not, that Finn was a first class hero who punched danger till it was mere liquid and then used it as maple syrup, having a human around a rogue Vampire was a terrible, terrible idea.

"Well, I guess we should head back," Finn said with a shrug, coming up to her after a few moments.

"Totes Magotes!" Marceline replied cheerfully picking up Finn by gripping his head in both hands which (due to the grip of her textured fingers and immense strength) didn't even hurt. In fact, it was almost as cool as Baking Bacon Pancakes. Almost.

"Marcy, this is almost as awesome as bacon pancakes!" Finn shouted, laughing at the sensation of the wind sliding through the gaps between his teeth (a sensation usually only felt by the Flower Prince when he travelled through alternate realities to slam lips with Wind Princess).

"Hahaha, get ready for the loooooops!" Marceline screeched, the wind ripping through her voice and leaving only a high, glorious and fluttering guttural trill. For not the first time Finn realized he was being flown in the hands of a very pretty and cool girl, whose singing voice made his mushy heart warm.

"Dude, your heart-rate just went off like Jawbreaker-mines (the most deadly Candy Kingdom mine ever constructed)!" Marceline shouted as they pierced the air as if a corkscrew wielded by an amateur riding a skateboard. "You aight?"

"Uh-uh, yeah, just the acceleration and adrenaline!" Finn replied. At that moment he and Marceline tilted their respective heads, their eyes meeting. Marceline smiled, the fringes of her lips trembling with a raging swirl of emotion slamming at whatever makeshift mental damns she could muster. And then, at that moment, a truth she had been unable to settle on came to her, and despite some lingering hesitation, she felt assured. It was a hard thing, doing what was right.

The thrill of the moment was too much for Finn, and he missed the tinge of quivering sadness in her curved mouth, or the glittering in her eyes and the tears that followed; perhaps he believed them to be the wind's doing. He simply smiled as wide as he could.

Their eyes parted, and after a short time they landed back at the cave; it was late afternoon now, the mountains a canvas for the sun's fading and dazzling light.

"Well, at least we helped that old dude," Finn concluded as he strode over to his gear, taking out some berries.

"Yeah, I've always wanted to be a cowboy. Sucks with that whole Vampire thing though. Ugh. And seriously, I wasn't trying to make that pun," Marceline muttered in embarrassment as she finished.

"It does, but we did what we could! And you got full off of it! I like that shade of red too," Finn replied.

"…Yeah, it's cool," She replied hesitantly, slipping upside down in midair and carving into the ground, expanding the minor mural she had already created during their stay. "…It's just I don't like eating too much of it. Indigestion with certain reds, you know? It's like… desert."

More like the main course of a feast. Maybe with a plucked apple in his mouth. You take the first cut?

Malus's voice slipped into her mind and then fell down her spin like the point of a dagger, the images of a nightmare she had suffered the last time she had managed sleep following. She refocused her gaze on Finn, and then held back a gasp at the bloodied face in front of her. A few blinks, and her hallucination was gone, Finn staring at her with concern and not a spec of blood.

"…Yeah, I know," He said slowly, dropping into criss cross applesauce, obviously wondering what was up but sticking with the conversation.

"When was the last time you ate that much? Also, the last person I decorated was LSP, and she wasn't too apple-jacks about it after," Finn asked. Marceline's face fell further, and he pinched himself in dismay. Aw, mang, she probably got the stomach volcanoes and barfed up maroon the last time. Great job bringing it up, ya doink.

"Finn, are you glad you met me?" Marceline asked, very quietly, flipping upright and sliding her back against the rock behind her; it was just as cool as nearly as smooth.

"Wh-wha? Of course mang! Marcy, you know that!" He exclaimed, trying to jump up so fast he merely bounced upward at first, his feet caught within each other. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have any experience with bass, know how to run with wolves, or be able to touch my nose with my smallest toe!"

"I mean it Finn! Like seriously… ah, gah, here I go again…" The Vampire Queen cursed, smashing her fist against the wall.

"What?" Finn asked after a second, and she sighed.

"I did the same thing with Bonnie," Marceline whispered, not even caring she let her pet-name slip. "As soon as I start living with someone, or become like, seriously involved I… Finn?" She froze at his wide-eyed face, and suddenly she blushed.

"No, no, NOOOoooo, big boy. Down! Stop that tomfoolery!" She chided, shaking her head. "I mean, like involved as in spend a ton of time with, and make deep connections. Not… not just romantic junk."

"Oh. Right." Finn remained silent after his much-faster-than-socially-normal reply, and Marceline sighed again.

"…I start over-analyzing everything about my relationship with them," She finished, putting her face in her hands. "And make a big wreck out of it."

"…But?" Finn asked, and at her look he cleared his throat. "You wanted me to answer you seriously? I don't get it, Marce… you know I'm glad we're buds."

"Because you don't think it over," Marceline growled, flinging an apple into her hand via telekinesis and clashing her lips into its red exterior. "What if I wasn't around? Bubblegum would probably get over herself… and me, and give you a chance. And—"

"If you're going to talk about me almost dying again, you can stop," Finn said with sudden harshness, the pale girl's head snapping up in reaction.

"…Excuse me?" Marceline's reply came, a blend of genuine surprise, hurt, and confusion.

"You're right, you're overanalyzing," Finn responded, his face hard. "Just… stop. It's okay. Why do you do this to yourself? You're such a great person Marceline, and you act like—"

"LISTEN, KID! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO I AM!" Came the thunderous reply, THE Vampire Queen having leapt into his immediate presence and bearing down upon him with green, hollow eyes as her black hair snaked through the air. "You don't know what I've seen! What I've done! You think, you… you think… you…" Marceline huffed, having run out of steam. Suddenly, it all flooded back, and she couldn't take what she had just done, or the confused face in front of her.

"I'm not a good person!" Was all she could shout before shooting up and out of the cave in a flash. She was nowhere near fast enough to escape Finn's shout of anger, and could not get its terrible bitterness out of her head as she swooped to the top of the mountain.

Her heartstrings seemed to simultaneously pull her into the sky and back into the cave, so she figured she would simply vent in silence (or at least far enough away that he couldn't hear).

And that's when she heard, "I knew I should have stuck with that Candy Kingdom diet," from below her. It was a voice she just recognized.

"Are you lumpin' serious," She hissed, gazing downward and spotting a lump of maroon struggling scale down the mountain. At her words it stopped, and looked up. The pink face of the Fire Wizard looked quite worse for the wear as he realized how pissed she truly was.

"You were sneaking up on us so you could murder us in our sleep," She began in an eerily calm tone, the foreshadowed menace in her soft voice more terrifying than any weapon or power.

"No, no!" The wizard shouted, gulping. "Just… was going to rob you!"

"You picked a bad week," Marceline whispered, her mouth curving into a sly smile. "I haven't been able to sleep, and have been DESPERATE for something to take some aggression out on."

There was no battle. The punk had already nearly killed Finn, had directly caused her first freak-out of the day, and had made the mistake of being caught about to attempt more ill while she was in the middle of her second.

Marceline the Vampire Queen raised her fist, and like a bolt of fury it descended from the sky. This time the Marcy-Torpedo would not be denied, and was greeted in return with the sound of cracking bone.

His body landed with a thud; he was on his back, and she wasted no time mounting upon her prey, a quick knee to the gut all she needed to subdue him just to the point of bare-consciousness.

"Ugh… please… no…" He begged, Marceline's fingers twitching in bloodlust. There was no hesitation; he was a threat to her and Finn, and as sick as it made her feel, perhaps this was just what she needed. She hadn't tasted flesh for a long while; too long. Ignoring how much she was sounding like Malus, she quickly wondered how this would go.

This clown already wore red on the outside, but his face was pink… and while the thought of biting him made her stomach quake, she did have a thing for the color pink.

"The dopey kid! In the hat! He wouldn't want you to do it!" The wizard shouted as her head began to lower and he became aware of her actual intentions, Marceline freezing at his words. "Yeah! See! You know, he's all… heroic and shiz! He'd make you let me live!"

She nearly let him go that instant, wondering whether in any way she could justify this action to Finn. Marceline knew the answer was no, but suddenly felt hesitation drown in a torrent of purpose.

"He wouldn't like a lot of things I've done," Came a scathing reply. A neck snapped forward so quickly that the head's motion was but a blur. It was followed by a nasty crunch, and then a horrible, pained cry.

Finn might have heard it were he not flinging his belongings at the cave walls in anger and pounding out the gnarliest, biggest tears he had ever produced. Instead, he grew silent after a short while, only to rise once more at a sudden sound coming from a certain horribly named Marceline-locating-device.

Cliffhangers are fun, and so is foreshadowing! I am drained, so this will be a quick note, but Glob am I glad I finally freaking finished this chapter. The only thing I'm worried about at this point is keeping up pacing and not making Marcy seem too bipolar (though as you can tell, there are definite reasons for it). Thanks for reading!