Fionna—is a 13-year-old adventurer and Cake's adoptive sister. While usually appearing as black dots, her eyes are seen as blue when enlarged. She wears a rabbit-themed hat (similar to Finn's bear-themed hat) with exposed locks of blonde hair. Unlike Finn, her neck is shown. Her outfit includes a teal blue shirt with elbow-length sleeves, a dark blue skirt, and knee-high socks with two thin horizontal stripes at the top. Fionna is heavier set than. She has a green backpack (similar to Finn's) and Mary Jane shoes. Her name was officially changed from "Fiona" to "Fionna," presumably to make it more similar to Finn's name. The pronunciation, however, has remained unchanged. Like Finn and his crush on Princess Bubblegum, it is revealed in many portraits posted that Fionna has a crush on Prince Gumball. Fionna has buck teeth like a rabbit. Fionna, like Finn, is Cake's adoptive sister.
Cake—Fionna's best friend/adoptive sister and Mo-Chro's girlfriend. She doesn't look much like Jake aside from their body proportions. She has white eyes in which the black pupils become circular if surprised, excited, shocked, or scared. She has a cat muzzle and a small nose (compared to Jake's), cat ears, white fur with many coffee colored spots, and a large bushy tail. Cake may know Morse code in order to speak to Lord Monochromicorn, similar to how Jake knows Korean in order to speak to Lady Rainicorn. Cake plays a hammered dulcimer, as opposed to a viola. Her tail "frizzes out" if it is agitated or worried. As a Lumpy Space 'cat', she is a light color of maroon with large spots of fuchsia to match her coffee-colored spots. Her tail is now lumpy and more beaver-tail-like.
Marshal Lee—is a counterpart of Marceline. He has the same abilities as Marceline. Marshall Lee has pointy ears and light blue skin. His hair is shorter than Marceline's but he has a matching permanent bite mark. He initially wore a grey plaid shirt, but now wears a red and black plaid shirt. He also wears dark blue jeans, and brownish-white sneakers. His outfits differ in the episodes, though, like Prince Gumball. Though Marceline has circle-shaped eyes, his eyes are rectangular. Unlike Marceline's forked, snake-like tongue, Marshall Lee's tongue is rounded. Marshall Lee is a wild rock star. Centuries of wandering the Land of Aaa have made him a fearless daredevil. He and Marceline both have regular electric bass guitars.
Ashley-Marshall Lee's immortal ex-girlfriend. He broke up with her because she sold his beloved bear, Hamba, in exchange for a Sakura Wand. Ashley, like Marshall Lee, has light gray skin and slightly pointed ears. Her skin is slightly darker than Maeshall Lee's. She has three wisps of long, white hair, one of which falls in the middle of her face. She wears a short, V-neck black dress with ripped, upturned sleeves, a choker, and a small puch of Magic Dust at her side.
RECOLLECTION OF A RECOLLECTION
Title Card
Fionna and Cake reach out for Marshall Lee, who lays asleep on his bed, gravity lifting all three of them into nothingness...
Cake's paws hit the water with a loud splash.
She was panting rhythmically, wiping sweat from her fur every now and then. It was sweltering hot that day, with every being in Aaa taking shelter in the cool of their homes. Running wasn't a good activity at the moment. Stretched thirty feet tall, Cake towered over the treetops like a golem, the elevation only making her more suffocated. On her right shoulder sat her human sister, Fionna. On her other shoulder was a woman who referred to herself as the Scrap Witch, a green-skinned, purple-haired person who had busted into their Treehouse, screaming that 'He's in trouble!' whilst tearing their furniture apart. With a filthy, mildewed hood, a tunic made from sloppily-sewn scraps of unruly cloth, and no legs whatsoever, the Scrap Witch looked more like a hobo than a magical being.
"Hurry!" she cried again, in her deep, raspy voice. Cake did so, stretching her aching legs further. "He's in danger!"
Cake turned to her sister, who leaned in to hear her without the Scrap Witch overhearing. "Who is this wingnut talking about?"
"I haven't the slightest clue," Fionna whispered back, her thin eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Wha-? Then why am I running so fast?!"
"Because-"
"Because he's in danger!" the Scrap Witch snapped, causing the two girls to jump (and thus causing Fionna and the Scrap Witch to almost bounce of off Cake's shoulders entirely.) "He's in trouble!"
"Who's in trouble?" Fionna and Cake asked in symmetrical unison.
"Marshall Lee!"
Fionna gasped at the news that her 1000+ vampire-king friend was in grave danger. Marshall Lee could probably take care of himself, but what if the danger he was being faced with was just too much for the vampire teen? She turned to her sister with a cry of, "HURRY, CUPCAKE!"
"Geronimo!" the feline whooped before taking off at top speed, Fionna and the Scrap Witch hanging on for dear life as water whipped at their faces.
The trio entered Marshall Lee's Cave-Swamp a short time later, the agonizing heat turning comfortably cool. The smell of must and foliage filled their nostrils so much it almost stunned them. The emerald green water, though exceedingly clean, turned Cake's white fur honeydew in color. Cake shrank down a good bit, but thick, stringy vines still tickled their faces and shoulders like feathery snakes. Marshall Lee's house sat on a rock bed, looking odd in the eerie environment.
Cake's forehead furrowed, and she turned to the Scrap Witch. "Hey, how do ya know Marshall Lee, anyway?"
"I...am his Soul Beast."
"...Oh."
The feline's enlarged paw met the wood of the vampire king's porch. As she shrunk down to normal size, the Scrap Witch and Fionna climbed off of Cake's back. All three charged for the mahogany door, with Scrap Queen a bit behind due to her having to crawl with her arms.
When the door creaked open, Fionna and Cake gasped shrilly.
Marshall Lee, the Vampire King, was out cold on the black carpet of his living room. With his arms splayed at his sides, his mouth agape, and his jet-black hair a disheveled mess, he actually seemed like he had fallen asleep, rather than being knocked out. The Colombia blue button-down, loose white jeans and cerise slippers only added to the sleeping image. Fionna and Cake rushed to the vampire's side immediately. Fionna could hear his breathing, slow and steady. She shook him, trying to wake him up, but the movement did nothing. If anything, her friend only fell deeper into slumber. "Marshall Lee!" Fionna turned around to address the Scrap Witch. "What's wrong with him?!"
"He accidentally cast a Slumber Spell on himself," the Scrap Witch replied, struggling to balance her upper body with only her arms. "And now he is trapped in an endless coma."
"Tell us how to break the spell," commanded Fionna as her sister brushed the vampire's bangs from his face.
"I shall transport you both into Marshall Lee's brain, where you will travel through his memories and find his Cognizance Essence." As the Scrap Witch told them this, her elbows bent with emphasis.
"Whadda we do after that?" asked Cake.
"Find the memory of Marshall Lee casting the Slumber Spell on himself. When you touch it, you and the memory will immediately be taken back into the real world."
Cake put her paws on her hips, quirking her eyes. "If you know all of this, why do we have to do it? Why not just do it yourself?"
"Entering one's brain can be a dangerous descent. And I have no legs. Just arms."
With a grunt of effort, the Scrap Witch lifted one of her aged arms, balancing herself on the other with great difficulty. She reached out her greenish, wrinkled fingers to Fionna's chest, right where her heart was.
Immediately, Fionna felt her body turn hot and cold at the same time. Her bones seemed to tremble and her skin felt like it was melting. Waves of icy heat exploded from her heart, pumping into the rest of her body.
Just as soon as the sensation came, it was over. Fionna rubbed her chest, expecting a burn of a bump or something along those lines. But all she felt was her chest, smooth and satiny. "What did you do?"
"When you get close to the memory, your heart will glow." The Scrap Witch struggled to move one of her hands to her side. Snatching a scruffy blue bag from her belt of rope, she handed it to Fionna. "Take this Magic Dust. Sit down and breathe it in."
Fionna and Cake complied, sitting down on the red sofa. They sunk deep into the black leather, as if it were made of quicksand. Fionna opened the bag, and immediately, a sweet, stunning fragrance filled her nostrils in a puff of silvery dust. Cake breathed it in as well, and immediately, the feline's back arched in a yawn. Fionna felt it, too. She sofa was like a cloud, cooing for her to surrender to slumber.
"Feel sleepy?" Fionna heard the Scrap Witch ask. Her voice was soft, only a wisp of sound.
Fionna and Cake tried to nod, but found that their heads were to heavy to move. So they tried to reply, but their lips felt like stone. So they just made low moaning sounds from her throats.
"Very good...sleep now..."
Her voice was so soothing, so calming, Fionna felt like slumber was hugging her to death. She closed her eyes, losing the strength to keep them open...
"BUT BE WARNED!"
The Scrap Witch's voice rose ten octaves, making Fionna awaken, if only for a split second. Through her cloudy eyes, she could make out the Scrap Witch's form, a big blob of gray and green.
"If you fail, Marshall Lee will be trapped in an endless coma, trapping you two in his brain for all eternity."
Fionna managed to croak out a gasp before sleep began to pull at her once more. As the world became clouded with black, and her body felt like a mound of weighted feathers, she heard the whispered voice of the Scrap Witch.
"For all eternity...all eternity...eternity..."
That was the last she remembered before she finally fell victim to slumber.
Fionna and Cake's eyes snapped open.
They felt as if they'd been asleep for a thousand years. So much energy pent up inside them, waiting to be burned off. Eyelids no longer heavy, brains to longer jellied, and bodies no longer weak. Now they were light, stony, and strong. They picked themselves up off of the leather couch, their bodies leaving imprints in the soft material.
The two girls frowned. Couch?
The two girls took in their surroundings. The same two windows embedded in the same blood red walls, the same picture of a bloody knife over the same old juke box, the same leather sofas sitting on top of black carpets, the same small television. Everything was the same. Everything, even beyond the windows.
"I don't think it worked," Cake commented.
"I don't think so, either," agreed Fionna. "Nothing seems different."
Cake did a full 180, trying to find some sort of difference in the environment. Something caught her eye, and she stopped. The back of the sofa, if one would look veeeeeeeeeery closely, seemed to be wavering. Nothing big at all, just a tiny tremble of energy, a flicker of a candle's flame. Experimentally, Cake took a step forward.
That did it. Suddenly, the sofa grew. Its form shot out, the cushions exploding in size. The growing sofa's front hit the girls' knees, making them fall onto the ever-growing seating device.
Suddenly, it seemed as if they were riding on the most amazing, most spectacular, most flabbergasting roller-coaster ride in all of existence. They stayed seated on the sofa, riding it as it continued to move at light-speed. Things began to grow around them. Trees sprung from the dark ground, turning from little sprouts to mighty oaks in a matter of seconds. Bushes and foliage burst to life like popcorn kernels. The black carpet quickly transformed into grass, alive and somewhat healthy. The roof seemed to fade and fade until it became the sky, endless blue-gray dotted with ashy clouds. Everything changed. The smell of leather turned into must, the air going from cool to humid.
The ride finally stopped. Fionna and Cake stepped down onto the hay-like grass, dry and choked. The sofa, which now seemed like an endless mass of soft black leather, shot away from existence. Now, Fionna and Cake were in the middle of a jungle. But it seemed eerie, like almost all life had been sucked out of it. The bark, instead of brown, was black, the leaves gray instead of green. Even the dirt seemed dead. They could see wreckage scattered about, oddly. A car tire here, a plane wing there. Fionna and Cake took it all in with stunned awe.
"Which way do we go?" Fionna asked in a whisper.
Cake, in response, lifted her ears to the air. To the North, East, and West, all she heard was silence. But to the South, she could hear the soft cackling of fire, the crunch of gravel, the whisper of paper brushing across the earth. Cake waved a paw in that direction. "This way!"
The two girls charged through the underbrush, thorns scraping their skin and grass tickling their ankles. When they reached the forest line, they gasped.
Immediately, they knew that the place/time they were in wasn't all that much after the Great Fungi War. For miles around, all they saw was destruction. Abandoned furniture and household items lay scattered around like discarded toys. All plant life they could see was either dead or dying. In the sky, it was unknown what as a gray cloud or what was smoke. Every building, as far as the eye could see, was almost entirely demolished. Some were caved in, some were crumbling in the breeze, some were just heaps of wood and paint. Electrical poles were fallen to the earth, cars lay fiery on their sides, stray animals scurried for cover.
"Where's Marshall Lee?" Fionna asked, her eyes scanning the area around her. "Shouldn't he be here?"
Cake hummed, and followed her sister's gaze whilst using her advanced sense of sight. "There he is!"
Cake pointed to a house down below. Or, at least, what was left of it. The one remaining half of the house, painted a chipping blood-red color with shattered windows and falling shingles, was caved into the earth. In the front yard, which had parched grass and scorched rocks, sat a young boy who could only be Marshall Lee. He had the same light blue skin, pointed ears, tousled black hair, and all the same facial features, from his mischievous black eyes to his sharp fangs. But he was much, much younger than the Marshall Lee they knew. He was about two heads shorter, with dimples and a bit of remaining baby fat. He was dressed poorly, in only a rose quarts T-shirt, Payne's gray overalls, and nothing on his feet but one tattered sock. A mint green toy was in his hands, looking like something between a monkey and a bear. It had seen better days, obviously. Its fabric, once bright and vibrant, was dark and mildewed, covered in deep-colored patches and stitches sewn sloppily. One of its button eyes were missing, leaving just an empty space on its head.
"Hey, Little Marshie."
'Marshie' looked up questioningly. Fionna and Cake stood before him, smiling down with glistening eyes.
Both girls had the exact same thought in their heads:
Marshall Lee was so adorable!
"Who are you?" Marshie asked in a somewhat rude manner, holding his toy close to his chest, as if for protection.
"We're Fionna and Cake!" the human teenager replied bubbly.
"We're ya friends!" added Cake.
"Hamba is my only friend," Marshie looked down at his little green toy with absolute love. He held it up so that the two girls could see it clearly. "See?" Marshie frowned and examined the stuffed animal's face. "You need another transplant, Mrs. Hamba. Luckily, we have a donor." Marshie set the toy down, plucking a button from one of his overall straps. As the strap fell limp, Marshie talked to himself. "Doctor, hand me a string. Yes, Nurse." Marshie reached over to a fallen string spool, picking off the last inch of string entwined inside a needle. Marshie sighed. "Our last piece." Turning to Hamba, he instructed, "Be still." As he stuck the needle through one of the button holes, into the stuffed animal's head. "This hurts me more than it hurts you."
"Hey, Marshie?"
Marshie huffed and looked up at Fionna and Cake, who were still staring at him. "What?"
"We're trying to wake you up from a coma," replied Fionna.
"Do you know where your Cognizance Essence is?" asked Cake.
"No clue." Marshie pointed over to a rusted hatch embedded in the earth. "But there may be anything down that hatch."
"Ooh!" Cake dashed over to the hatch, twisting the large valve and opening the hatch with a loud creak. "Cupcakes and Popsicles!" A gush of cool air made her fur flutter, and she looked down the hatch questionably. "This door leads to a new memory." Cake beamed. "And I see food!" Cake gasped in excitement before leaping straight down the hatch. "Sherbet!"
"I want some, too!" Fionna jumped down after her sister.
Immediately, she was engulfed by black darkness. She fell and fell, finding herself becoming lighter and lighter. Is this what Alice felt like when she was falling down the rabbit hole?
Suddenly, gravity took a sharp turn. Fionna's body flew to the right, being pulled down by a different force of gravity.
Fionna's feet hit cool metal for a split second before it burst open. Fionna found herself in a new atmosphere, clutching onto whatever had opened her to it. As Cake suddenly appeared, clutching onto her ankles, Fionna took in her environment.
She was in Marshall Lee's kitchen, for sure. She recognized the stainless steel fridge, the blood-red cabinets and counters, checkered tiles and pale purple walls. What made it Marshall Lee's kitchen for absolute certainty was the multiple cutting knives and the large jug of rabbit blood on the counter.
It was Marshall Lee's kitchen. But they were sideways. It was like it had flipped itself over. Fionna was hanging onto the fridge's door, her legs dangling beneath her whilst Cake clutched her ankles. All of the counters and cabinets were sideways, but still remained stuck to the floor. It was like a picture turned sideways.
Fionna looked through the small window that opened into Marshall Lee's living room whilst Cake munched on some cherry sherbet. Marshall Lee sat on one of the leather couches, the television switched onto the Music Channel. This memory seemed to be relatively recent. Marshall Lee looked exactly like he did right now, wearing the same plaid flannel shirt, worn-out jeans and brownish-red sneakers that they had first seen him in.
Fionna watched the seen in front of her in uncomfortable disgust. Marshall Lee was digging through his belly button, his face concentrated intently. He pulled out a piece of lint and flicked it across the room.
Fionna shivered.
"Fifi, c'mon."
Fionna looked down. Cake was holding the door open, more like a cellar door than a normal one. Fionna let go of the fridge's door, letting herself plummet through the other. Cake followed soon after.
It only took a split second for the two of them to hit another matter, bursting into another memory. They groaned as they hit something hard, their bodies entwined. They were in another kitchen, Fionna decided. But this looked more like a restaurant kitchen. A little wheel in a small window held a few order notes, the letters too faded by age to read. Posters of "Employees Only", "Remember to Wash Your Hands", and "Fry or Die" were plastered to the wall. It was dark, the only light emitting from the small window. Fionna picked herself up and looked through it.
She jumped.
Heather Adageer sat at the only table in the room, her form illuminated by one single hanging light. She was stuffing some kind of fruity pastry into her mouth like a wild beast, barely even taking the time to chew before swallowing.
Fionna cringed. It was a pie. "Hey, girl."
Heather gasped and almost fell out of her chair to look at Fionna. A glob of fruit fell from her mouth.
Fionna sighed. "Don't eat that."
Footsteps echoed out of nowhere. Heather choked, sputtering out, "Marshall Lee!"
Marshall Lee stood a few feet away. His hand was clutching some kind of green bottle, filled with what Fionna could guess to be water. He looked younger than he did now, about Fionna's age, if not a few months younger. Clad in a gray T-shirt, blue shorts, blue sneakers, and his hair an unruly mess, he looked as boyish as ever. He was staring at his mother with so much sorrow and betrayal that it broke Fionna's heart.
Heather choked on her pie. "M-Marshall Lee!"
As Fionna and Cake dashed out of the exit, Fionna heard Marshall Lee sniffle. "Mommy...Why?"
Fionna was, once again, in total darkness. But she wasn't falling this time. She was walking blindly, feeling around for some kind of wall to cling to. A beam of light caught her eye, as well as Cake's. The source came from a square that was just hanging in the air. Fionna approached it, feeling no wall surrounding it. It really was just floating there. Fionna looked inside.
Wooden floors, wooden walls, odd woody structures like pillars...
Cake squeezed her face next to Fionna to look inside with her. "What is it? Where is it?"
"...Our Treehouse." Fionna took in the room once more. It was the living room, she decided. But it had no furniture of any sort. Rather, cardboard boxes were scattered about, with words such as Clothes, Pictures, and Toiletries scribbled on them in black marker. "This must be when Marshall Lee lived here."
Grunts of effort took them out of their searching gazes. Looking to the right as much as they could, Fionna and Cake could just make out two people. One of them being Marshall Lee, just a tad bit younger than he was now. He seemed to be trying out a new fashion style, a touch of retro and a sprinkle of hipster. He was dressed in a baggy gray shirt with elbow-long sleeves, with a slightly less baggier, pale-plum tank top over it. He was also clad in short red boots and-Fionna blushed-tight black jeans. And...jeez, his hair. It was so long and thick it fell to his shoulder blades, tied by a single red string.
The second person Fionna did not recognize whatsoever. She was a bit shorter than Marshall Lee, with skin ever-so-slightly darker than his. Her hair, which only consisted of three long strands (one fell right down her face), was snowy white and slightly scruffy. She wore a knee-long black dress that was fitted around the chest but free around the skirt. Its hem was straight, its neck dipped down in a V-shape, and its short sleeves were ripped and upturned. A golden rope was tied around her waist. Fionna took note that she, oddly, wore no shoes.
The two of them were carrying a small, black leather sofa that Fionna recognized was one of Marshall Lee's current one. It seemed to be very, very heavy, because their arms were trembling and their grunts were ones of effort and strain.
"You got it?" the white-haired girl gasped out.
"Yeah, just-WHOA!" Marshall Lee gasped as the sofa slipped from his grasp. The two teenagers-were they together?-jumped back to avoid their toes or any other limbs of being crushed by its weight.
Marshall Lee chuckled as he and the girl collapsed onto the sofa together. "I'm so glad we're doing this, Ashley."
"I am, too," 'Ashley' replied. She then made an 'oh' sound and shifted to that her hands were in front of her. "Watch this, I've been practicing."
She twiddled her fingers together. A silvery orb of light appeared between her palms, flickering and sparkling. A small heart with an adorable face materialized, smiling up at the Vampire King. "Marshall Wee! I wuv! I wuv!"
Marshall Lee stared at the heart in absolute confusion. Ashley twiddled her fingers again, and the heart split open, revealing a truffle-like sweet. Marshall Lee cheered. "Cool! Chocolate!" He tossed the sweet into his mouth, chewing and swallowing before-Fionna gagged-kissing Ashley on the cheek. "You're the best, Ashley."
Ashley blushed with a girlish giggle.
Cake took in the scene with absolute disgust and confusion. "Who is this gal?"
"Ashley, apparently," answered Fionna, just as disgusted as her feline sister.
It eventually became too much for the two girls. They walked away from the small viewing square, walking through the darkness once more.
They found an exit sooner than expected. They walked towards the dome-shaped exit, shielding their eyes from the bright light that emitted from it. Eventually, their gaze adjusted to it, and they took in the new memory.
Immediately, they knew they were shrunken down to size. Every single thing in the room was gargantuan. The tables, chairs, utensils, pots, pans, locked safe, and single couch towered over them, looking like they belonged to a Beanstalk giant. A mouse scurried across the floor, the size of a bear.
Their eyes immediately fell on Marshall Lee, who was the size of the Eiffel Tower to them. He looked like he was going through a phase of some sort. His jet-black hair stuck up on end, as if he had just pulled himself out of bed. He obviously hadn't made much of an effort of dressing himself, either. Just a pale mint fleece shirt, a pair of worn brown jeans, and violet-blue boots. He was splayed across the couch, staring up at the ceiling. He let out a sigh, flipping over to face the wall.
Fionna sniffed the air. "This place smells good."
"Fifi, your thang's glowin'."
"My what?" Fionna followed her sister's paw to look down at her chest, catching a flicker of gold. A split second later, it appeared again. Each time her heart beat, Fionna saw a gold light shine through her shirt. A tingling feeling filled her veins. "Oh, right."
"We must be close to the Essence," Cake said as she turned her head this way and that, searching for a passage into the next memory. She must have found it, because she started to walk away. "Here, I think I see an exit."
Fionna heard thundering footsteps approach. She caught Cake by the shoulder, stopping her trek. "Hey, look. It's that Ashley girl again."
In their distraction, Marshall Lee had gotten up from the couch to approach his-Fionna gagged again-girlfriend. Ashley stood before him now, dressed in the exact same outfit as before. She was holding a branch in her hands, full of beautiful sakura blossoms. "I just got this new wand. Here, look at the blossoms. They're real."
Marshall Lee experimentally touched one of the pink flower blossoms. When it zapped him, he nodded in approval. "Cool." Marshall Lee's eyebrows furrowed. "Where'd you get the money for that thing?"
"Oh, I sold that bear-monkey thing that you loved so much," Ashley said as if it were nothing. "To a wizard."
Marshall Lee's jaw dropped. His eyes went wide, and every hair on his body went up. Staring at his horrible girlfriend in horror, he sputtered, "Y-you did what? ARE YOU INSANE?
I LOVED THAT THING!"
"Duh, that's why it was worth so much. You know, for brews and stuff." Ashley held up the sakura wand, pointing a finger at the healthiest bloom. A little spirit popped out, saying 'duh' over and over.
"THAT IS IT, ASHLEY! I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" Marshall Lee cried. Fionna jumped when she saw angry tears pouring down his flushed cheeks. Marshall Lee quickly brushed them away, sputtering, "You're a psycho brat that ruined my life!"
Ashley frowned. Obviously, she wasn't expecting a break-up. "B-but only most of it-"
"IT'S OVER, YOU BRAT!" Marshall Lee shrieked at her, his eyes going bright red and his fangs growing long.
Marshall Lee turned on his heel and stomped out of the room, making Fionna and Cake bounce up and down. As Fionna watched the stricken Ashley, Cake walked away unnoticed. "Hey, Fifi! Over here!" Fionna turned around and saw Cake standing in front of a perfectly shaped hole in the ground. A shimmering silver light shined out of it, making Cake's body seem unearthly. "There's a memory hole! It's banaynays down there!" Cake hopped down the hole with a swan-dive.
Fionna glanced at Ashley one last time before following her.
Fionna and Cake floated deep through the depths of Marshall Lee's mind. As light became dark and dark became light, Fionna saw the memories around them. Twisting and curling, spreading like mental weeds. The weeds bloomed, showing images of Marshall Lee's memories, still moving and talking.
Fionna and Cake landed on one of the thicker vines. Fionna couldn't even make out Cake, let alone herself, anymore. They were nothing but silhouettes of black, shapes cut out from paper. "This must be the core..." Fionna said, her voice echoing out into the mental void.
"All of these blooms must be Marshall Lee's memories," Cake agreed, her voice echoing as well.
"How do we know which one to grab?"
"Play Close and Closer with your heart."
Fionna looked down at the place on her chest where her heart would be. It still flashed, each beat bringing a flash of pink color on her snowy form. Fionna moved to the left.
"Not close at all," Cake instructed.
Fionna jumped onto a higher vine. Her heart's shine went rosy-red.
"Closer."
Fionna climbed up the main vine. Her heart went cerise.
"Closeeeer."
Fionna hopped up three more branches. Her heart was bright red by now, each beat sending fire pumping through her body.
"Really, really, really, reaaaaaaaaaaally close!" Cake pointed above. A single bloom of a memory hovered above, no vines at all attached. "That must be the one!"
Fionna reached for the memory. Her skin bubbled, her veins exploded, her brain was collapsing in on itself.
She just touched the memory when her heart burst into a million shards.
Fionna's eyes snapped open.
She knew she was back in reality, though she wasn't sure how. She was back in Marshall Lee's living room, his real living room. Marshall Lee still laid unconscious on the floor, not having moved an inch. Beside her, Cake shuffled awake. Wiping the drool from the corner of her mouth, Fionna sat up with a groan, helping Cake up. She looked over at the Scrap Witch, who was carrying some kind of orb in her hands. The orb was nestled inside a snowy white blossom, glimmering like morning dew. Inside, a black silhouette of...well, Fionna couldn't make out what it was, but she knew it was the memory the Scrap Witch wanted.
Speaking of the Scrap Witch...
Wait, she had LEGS?
"You have legs!" Fionna exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the sorceress. True enough, the Scrap Witch was standing a head taller than Fionna, long, sinewy legs poking out of her tattered dress.
"Duh, I have legs," the Scrap Witch scoffed.
Fionna couldn't help but note that the Scrap Witch's tone was oddly familiar.
"Why did you lie to us?" demanded Fionna, steadily growing annoyed and angry.
"That's not important. What is important is that Marshall Lee is awake." The Scrap Witch pointed down at the fallen vampire king. A beam of shimmering red light exploded from her fingertip, encircling Marshall Lee in a tight embrace before disappearing.
Marshall Lee groaned, propping himself up on his elbow and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Fionna and Cake immediately dashed over to him. "Marshie! Marshie! Marshie!" They knelt down next to him, running their fingers through his jet-black locks.
Marshall Lee slapped their hands away. "Quit petting me!"
"You had a magic catastrophe," Fionna explained to him as he yawned loudly. She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder without looking. "We got help from your witchy friend."
Marshall Lee gave her a confused smirk. "That's Ashley."
Fionna and Cake jumped, spinning around in disbelief. Sure enough, Ashley stood there, having not aged a single day. The same three strands of white hair, bluish skin, and choppy black dress. She gave the girls a teasing wave. "ASHLEY?!"
"She's not my friend, she's my girlfriend," Marshall Lee floated into the air, making the two girls part from each other.
As he floated away to join his 'girlfriend' the two girls could only cry, "WHAT?"
"That's right, baby," Ashley smirked at Marshall Lee flirtatiously. Fionna noticed that she was hiding one hand behind her back now. "I just came to see if you wanted to hang at my place."
"Oh, you're an angel," Marshall Lee sighed and leaned forward to peck Ashley on the cheek.
Fionna and Cake gawked. "WHAAAAT?"
"Jealous?" teased Marshall Lee, his black eyebrows waggling. He turned back to Ashley, saying, "Give me a minute to get ready?"
"More like an hour," Ashley joked.
Marshall Lee laughed out loud, floating away. Just as he reached the door, he sighed, "Ashley, you're the best" and drifted away to get ready.
Fionna turned to Ashley in unending shock. "Whaaaaat?"
"Don't you idiots get it?" Ashley chuckled to herself, twirling a finger next to her temple. "I outsmarted y'all. That wasn't the memory of the Slumber Spell you brought me. That was the memory of our break-up!" Ashley held up the blossom-memory in her hands. Inside was a picture of an enraged Marshall Lee, screaming "IT'S OVER, YOU BRAT!" Ashley squeezed her fingers around the memory, and it disappeared in a smoky pop. "There we go!"
Cake groaned, slapping her forehead. "You can't be fo real!"
Fionna continued to gawk. "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"
"You know it," Ashley smirked at them as Marshall Lee floated back into the room, his clothes pressed and his hair combed. Marshall Lee wrapped his arms around Ashley's waist, smiling.
"No, Marshall Lee-!" Fionna exclaimed.
"Ashlemus," Ashley hissed, waving a hand into the air around her. With a swirl of their own colors, Marshall Lee and Ashley blasted through the ceiling like ghosts. Fionna and Cake ran outside immediately, trying to stop them while they still could. But all that remained of the ill couple were remaining wisps of hues in the air.
"She took him!" exclaimed the enraged human girl. With a shriek of anger, Fionna sent her fist into the wall of the house, ignoring the blazing pain in her fists that resulted from it.
"Don't fret, child!" Cake told her, her ears already picking up to the air. "I gots their Sound!" The last, tiny tendrils of Marshall Lee and Ashley drifted into Cake's ear, and the feline heard their chuckles of delight. "Follow me!"
A half-hour later saw the two girls hiding in the bushes surrounding Ashley's house.
The house itself was an arranged wreck, as well as its surroundings. The building was slanted heavily to the left, as if the Big Bad Wolf had failed to blow it down. The roof was so badly kept and attended to that moss and flowers had bloomed from the shingles, covering ever inch in a thick garden with a long metal pipe poking out for the chimney. On top of the 'garden' was a small trailer, actually pretty well-kept despite expectations, with three large stepping stones leading up to it. On top of the trailer was a bug-styled car, a bright strawberry red but rusted from many years of heavy rains and snows. A picket fence partly surrounded the area, half-colored white as if someone had tried to paint it but gave up almost immediately. Odd machines lay scattered around, such as a freezer next to the trailer and a clothes dryer pressed to the left outside wall. The right corner of the house had a string attached to it, with forgotten garments clothes-pinned to it. A metal wash tub lay on its side, with mosquito-infested water still inside. Small logs of wood were scattered around the grass, particularly around a tree stump with an axe embedded inside. A red sofa faced the woods, which actually didn't seem like a bad idea for star-gazing. A poorly-made outhouse was to the left side of the area, made from rusty metal plates and pipes. Fionna and Cake didn't even want to THINK of the horrors inside.
"I can hear them inside," Cake proclaimed. She wished that Fionna could hear the laughs and giggles coming from inside. It was disgusting her. "Both of 'em."
Fionna hummed. "Alright." She pointed over to a stray hammer laying in the grass. "You go get that hammer and hit it against the outhouse. Ashley will come out to see what's up, and I'll go inside to get Marshall Lee."
Cake nodded in approval. "Roger."
"No, we're going to go get Marshall Lee."
Cake nodded slower. "Roger."
"No. MARSHALL LEE."
"Forget it," Cake sighed before slinking out of the bushes.
Cake approached the hammer with silent movement and quiet breaths. She lay hunched forward, trying her best to not let Ashley see her. When she finally came to the hammer, she grabbed it and stealthily approached the outhouse.
Then, she got busy wrecking. She sent the head of the hammer into the side of the small shack with a loud clank of sound. Immediately, two plates of metal dropped to the ground. Two more hits and the roof caved in and every metal plate dropped off. Just as Cake was going to destroy the frame, a tiny little troll ran from one of the demolished corners.
She looked up at Cake with terrified eyes. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? THIS IS MY HOUSE!"
Cake lowered the hammer in shock. "Wha-?"
"NO! PLEASE! HAVE MERCY!" shrieked the Troll.
"No, no, no! I wasn't gonna-"
The Tiny Troll began to screech in fear. She flailed her tiny arms about, tears pouring down her face in waterfalls. "HELP! HELP ME, SOMEBODY!"
"What's all this racket about?"
When the front door of the house busted open, Cake's tail went on end. Ashley stood there, her form illuminated from the light coming from inside her home. She gave Cake an acid glare. "Hey! You!"
Cake didn't hesitate. She took off for the woods, leaving the Tiny Troll shrieking behind her. She heard Ashley running after her, calling, "Get back here!"
Marshall Lee watched Ashley chase the intruder through the window with worry. When they had heard him/her making all that noise outside, he had offered to check it out, only for Ashley to (oddly) do it. He knew Ashley could handle herself, though. If that intruder caused any trouble, she could simply blast them away with some magic.
"Ah!"
Marshall Lee whipped around just as something popped out of the fireplace. Ashy clouds of soot bloomed everywhere, scattering all around Ashley's floors. When the dust cleared, he saw Fionna laying on her stomach, coughing and sputtering out blackened ash. "Fionna?" Marshall Lee knelt down next to the human teenager. "Fionna! You can't be here. Ashley doesn't like it when I bring girly friends over."
Fionna nodded a fake nod. "Yeah, alright. I'll go." Fionna reached into her pocket, taking out a small blue bag tied by a string. "I need to show you something first, though." She reached into the bag and took out a handful of silver powder.
Just as Marshall Lee leaned in for closer inspection, Fionna blew the power right into his face.
All Marshall Lee remembered before passing out was the staggering sweet smell of the powder and the feeling of stunning fatigue.
Marshall Lee awoke sputtering and coughing, the silver powder puffing out of his mouth and nostrils. Waving the stuff away from his face, he tried to look around him, only to see darkness for miles around. Then, there came light.
He was in a hallway of some sort. It curved around in a C-shape, with multiple mahogany doors leading into unknown rooms. The floor was made of a green carpet and the walls were made out of planks of oak. Photographs were hung inside picture frames, showing two smiling cats, a human baby, and a little kitten. He must have been enlarged, because he had to stay crouched in order to not hit his head on the ceiling. "Fionna?"
One of the doors was open, and Marshall Lee looked inside.
It was some sort of closet, or a dress-up room. To the right was a long rack of clothes, from normal everyday garments to fancier wear and dress-up costumes. To the left was a three-panel mirror that allowed one to see their front and sides from standing on a small platform. Shoes and hats lay scattered around the orange carpeted floor. A small human toddler stood in front of the mirror, dressed as a heroine of a sort. She had on colorful gardening gloves, a baggy gray t-shirt and a long red cape, as well as a woden sword in her chubby left hand.
When Marshall Lee saw the bluish-green eyes, rough blonde hair, and, most importantly, the bunny-eared hat, he had to choke back an explosion of laughter. The toddler was Fionna.
"I'm a buff baby that can dance like a lady,
I can shake-a my fanny, I can shake-a my heinie!
I'm a tough tootin' baby, I can punch all your buns!
Punch all your buns, I can punch all your buns!
If you're an evil wizard, I will punch you for fun!"
Only when Fionna finished her song and dance did Marshall Lee let out his amusement. He fell on his back, guffawing so loudly and bemusedly that it hurt his sides and shoulders, and he struggled to breath.
"Hey, there you are."
Fionna chose this moment to appear from behind a curved corner, smiling politely at her vampiric friend. She glanced into the cracked door, and, upon seeing her still-dancing toddler self, blushed scarlet and closed the door shut, hoping to Glob Marshall Lee hadn't seen.
"What the ding-dong is this place?" Marshall Lee asked, his lips still bubbling with giggles.
"This used to be my house. That powder I blew at cha got you into my memories. Cake and I were in yours before, but Ashley made us take your memory of breaking up with her."
Marshall Lee blinked at the possibly toasted human girl.
"It's alright, though. Because I saw the missing memory." Fionna took out a fully-blossomed memory from her backpack, the image too blurred to see. "Now I have a memory of your memory in my memory."
(A/N: YO DAWG!)
"See?" Fionna held out the memory for the king to see.
Marshall Lee looked inside. The white blob inside the orb began to shift, forming a picture of Ashley. She was smiling, a small branch of sakura blossoms in her hand. "Oh, I sold that bear-monkey thing that you loved so much. To a wizard."
The image suddenly turned into his own self, teeth bared in a snarl and eyes almost in flames with fury. "IT'S OVER, YOU BRAT!"
Marshall Lee stared at the memory in absolute uncertainty for a long moment.
With a sigh, he looked up at Fionna. "I wanna wake up now."
A few minutes later saw the teenage human girl and the ancient vampire king walking out of Ashley's house. Marshall Lee had his hands in his pockets, kicking at the pebbles in the grass. Fionna turned to him with sincere concern. "You OK?"
"Yeah, I'll be cool," Marshall Lee assured her. Then, looking up at her with his deep onyx eyes, he started, "Listen, Fionna-"
"Hey, Marsh-Marsh."
Ashley suddenly appeared out from the woods, smiling her usual bratty smile. When her milky eyes fell on Fionna, she sneered. "What's with the girl? C'mon, I said don't bring any girls." With a huff, Ashley added, "I'm hungry. Be a doll and go inside and order some pizza."
Marshall Lee snarled at her.
"I want double cheese and three meats."
Marshall Lee snarled louder.
"And olives. A LOT of olives."
Marshall Lee's hand shot out to one of the supporters of the porch roof. He snapped it off like a toothpick, and a dangerous crackling sound surrounded the three. With a thunder of sound, the entire left half of the house smashed down right on top of the white-haired 'witch.' Ashley screamed, a more of a "I BROKE A NAIL!" scream than a "I'M BEING CRUSHED BY MY HOUSE!" scream. Mossy shingles hat cut her skin, splinters of wood embedded into her flesh. Her torso down was hidden under the rubble and debris. Marshall Lee stalked over and snatched a wooden plank that was supporting a slanted window. The window crashed down, showering Ashley in glass shards that cut her face and eyes. "My eyes! I can't see!"
Fionna chuckled, wanting to join in on the fun. So, she kicked at the pile of rubble, causing it to shift and crush Ashley even more. The poor but hated witch groaned in pain.
Cake finished it off by bringing her gargantuan paw down on Ashley.
EPISODE CONNECTIONS
Marshall Lee's mother appears eating his pie, an event that caused the song Marshall Lee sang in "It Came from the Twilosphere."
Marshall Lee is now confirmed to have lived in the Treehouse before.
STORYLINE ANALYSIS
When Fionna and Cake enter the first memory, the burning ruins of the city around Marshall Lee are evidence that the Fungi War occurred relatively recently or was going on at that time.