Marceline shot along the ground, flying as fast as she could, towards the Candy Kingdom. Marceline couldn't believe Ash was back and was messing with her again. Him messing with her she had always tolerated, but this time he had gone too far. If he lay so much as a finger on her…
As Marceline approached the Candy Kingdom, she saw a pink figure running towards her. Bubblegum raised her arms for a hug as Marceline approached.
"Marce…" Bubblegum began, but before she could finish, she was interrupted by Marceline's fist.
Marceline punched Ash so hard, he dropped his disguise. She transformed as much as she could without merging with her clothes and slammed an enormous hand down on Ash's torso and neck, preventing him from getting up.
"H…how?" Ash choked.
"Bonnie smells like sugar. You reek of stale man perfume! Now WHERE IS SHE!?" Marceline roared.
Ash disappeared and reappeared, standing up, in front of Marceline.
"She's safe, babe. And she'll stay safe, as long as you agree to be my girlfriend again."
Marceline trembled with frustration and rage.
"Ash! I don't like men, and I HATE you! You will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER have a shot with me! Bonnibel and I are in LOVE, and every time you try to undermine that, you just make me want to kill you more!. You know, it's only because of her that I haven't killed you yet!"
Marceline stared at Ash. Slowly, it seemed as if her words sank in. He sighed and lowered his head. Marceline lowered her guard, but this turned out to be a bad idea.
"Sunicus Blasticus!" Ash cried.
White balls al light erupted from Ash's wand. Caught off guard, Marceline was hit square in the chest by several of them. She screamed and writhed as smoke poured out from under her shirt.
"If I can't have you, then no one can!" Ash cried. A wooden stake materialised in his hand.
"Ash, you're crazy!" Marceline shouted back angrily, once the smoke subsided.
Ash continued his bombardment, but now, Marceline was ready for him. She darted left and right, up and down, as the white balls sailed past her or grazed her arms or sides, occasionally getting enough of an opening to punch him or swing at him with her axe.
In the distance, Princess Bubblegum crouched low amongst the feathers of a huge, brown bird, swooping towards the two of them.
Seeing the fight ensuing, Bubblegum cried, "Morrow! Step on it!"
As the bird accelerated, she held up the torch she had used in her lab, slid out the clear lens and replaced it with a black filter from her pocket. Morrow swept along the grass alongside Marceline and Ash, and Bubblegum nimbly leapt off his back, leaving him to return to the skies.
"Marceline!" She cried.
As the two of them turned to look at Bubblegum, she aimed the flashlight at them and turned it on. It spread a wide, dark shadow upon the two immortals, in a similar way to how a regular flashlight might shine light.
Marceline grinned. Ash flicked his wand again, but the concentrated balls of sunlight had become feeble, grey wisps in Bubblegum's artificial shadow. Marceline took off her hat and charged at him, fangs first. Ash seemed panicked at first, but a second before Marceline reached him, he smiled. He vanished and, a split second later, reappeared in the same place, but with Marceline having charged past him. Before she could turn around, he plunged his stake through her back and into her heart.
Bubblegum's heart was clutched by ice. Marceline seemed to fall to her knees in slow motion. Her skin began to boil and she seemed to be melting.
"NOOOOOO!" Bubblegum shrieked.
She reached into her pocket with her free hand, produced a plastic gun and fired. Ash vanished, but he hadn't been her target. Two metal prongs on a thin cable sailed through the air and jabbed into Marceline's back, next to the stake.
"I'm so sorry sweetie!" Bubblegum said sympathetically.
She turned up a dial on the gun with her thumb. Marceline began to scream, but her body slowly returned to normal.
Ash reappeared next to Bubblegum.
"What do you think you're doing?" He asked snidely.
"Saving her life!" Bubblegum snarled.
Ash pointed his wand at her. "We'll see about that."
Bubblegum squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't drop either of the objects in her hands or move, if Marceline was to have even a chance of recovering.
She waited… Marceline's screams continued, but the spell never came. Suddenly, Bubblegum shivered with cold. She opened her eyes to see an ice statue standing where Ash had been, covered in icicles and with mist seeping from it. A flower wand made of ice was pointing right at her face.
The Ice King floated down next to him, his pristine crown back on his head.
"Ash, you went too far!" He scalded. "You are BANNED from my future game nights! Messing with my favourite gals like that…"
Bubblegum stood up and thrust the flashlight into the Ice King's hands.
"Ice King! Keep that trained on Marceline!" She ordered.
She ran over to her, and carefully removed the stake from her back.
"You're gonna be fine, Marceline." Bubblegum said, her voice shaking slightly. "I just need to give your body enough power to regenerate your heart."
Wincing on Marceline's behalf, Bubblegum turned the dial on the gun all the way round. Marceline chomped down on her lower lip. She was in an impossible amount of pain, but even stronger was her desire not to frighten Bonnibel any more than she already had.
Bubblegum looked at a display on the gun in dismay as various flashing shapes moved around seemingly at random.
"No no no no!" She cried. "It's not enough!"
"So what's going on?" The Ice King asked.
Bubblegum almost looked up from what she was doing in shock. Along with the usual boredom and absent-mindedness the Ice King usually displayed when asking questions like that, he almost sounded concerned.
"I need more power to heal her!" Bubblegum said.
She quickly took off her backpack and turned it upside down, tipping various magical stones, amulets and devices onto the floor. Then she opened a compartment on the bottom of the gun and pulled out a suction cup on another cable. She stuck it to each item, one after the other, turning each one grey and sometimes even causing them to shrivel into a crumpled ball.
After sucking the power from each item, Bubblegum looked more and more worried. Once the last one was dry, tears swelled up in her eyes.
"It's not enough!" She cried.
She knelt down next to Marceline. She wanted nothing more than to hold her shoulder, kiss her, comfort her in some way, but she knew that the power coursing through Marceline would kill her in an instant, and removing the prongs would do the same to Marceline. She put her hands up to her eyes and wept. Marceline looked up at her helplessly, it was still all she could do to not continue screaming.
The Ice King watched the two of them silently, still pointing the shadow-projecting flashlight at them. A range of emotions boiled inside of him, some of which he hadn't felt for centuries, others he barely recognized. Suddenly, resolve burned in his otherwise blank, white eyes.
A thin pillar of ice reached up from the ground and held the flashlight in place. Without a word, he marched over to Princess Bubblegum's gun, removed his crown and firmly attached the suction cup to it.
The second the suction cup touched the crown, the cables, the gun and Marceline lit up like Christmas lights. Marceline screamed again as the wound in her back slowly healed up. Bubblegum looked between Marceline and the Ice King in disbelief, and then in panic, as she realised what was about to happen.
The gun exploded violently. Smoke erupted across the grass.
"Mar… Marceline?" Bubblegum coughed, blinking smoke out of her eyes.
Suddenly, Marceline sat bolt upright. She put her hands on both sides of the Princess' head and kissed her deeply.
"Bonnibel, I love you." She sighed, gently rubbing her forehead against hers. "Ow… Ow!"
As the smoke cleared, the two of them realized that the flashlight had been knocked over. Marceline quickly stood up and put her hat back on. As she did, she noticed the Ice King, brushing himself down. She stepped over and hugged him, taking him by surprise.
"Simon, I can't believe you risked your crown for me like that!" She sighed.
The Ice King held up his crown. It had paled slightly, and the points had started to melt, but before their eyes, it restored itself in mere seconds.
"Well sure Marceline!" The Ice King said, repositioning the crown. "What am I supposed to do? Write songs for the princesses myself?"
Marceline smiled slightly, she turned to Bubblegum.
"Well come on, Princess. Let's go home." She crouched down, prompting Bubblegum to jump on her back.
"Wait!" The Ice King said. "You know it's still Game Night. You guys wanna come hang out in the Ice Kingdom? Finn and Jake are probably waiting."
Marceline turned to face Bubblegum and cringed jokingly. Bubblegum shrugged.
"Sure thing, man." Marceline said. "But if we're playing Monopoly, I'm the racecar."
"Aww…"
The three of them flew into the air, leaving a frozen Ash, to stare helplessly after them.