Chapter Three
Innocent Child

"It just takes a bit to get the results, yanno? It might take a few days, and we don't need you dying on us." Her face faltered as her mind wandered to the sixteen-year-old boy who needed to hear the story she had just been told. "...He doesn't need you dying on him."

Bonnibel rushed to her lab with the human's hairs, her thoughts spiraling uncontrollably in her mind. That man back in the infirmary… surely he couldn't actually be Finn's father. He looked to be in his mid-twenties at best, maybe his early thirties at worst. Regardless, he looked entirely too young to be Finn's father. That man had to be at least in his forties by now.

Also, the way Finn always described Martin was off from the man in the infirmary as well. Finn had described his father as lazy, selfish, and emotionally barren, but the man in the infirmary seemed decent, even charming at points, if not troubled. The personalities just didn't match.

Perhaps the most peculiar thing, however, was his thoughts. His brainwaves showed that the story about him, his wife, and baby Finn was true. He wasn't lying, or shying away from the issue like Finn described. He didn't try to escape, and even if he did, he was certainly too weak to do so.

Did Martin revert back to how he was in the past? Was he actually from the past? Or was this just another scheme that he had set up to get something he wanted? Bonnie couldn't be entirely sure, and it honestly made her head hurt. Maybe she could find out with the DNA test. After all, with his brainwaves and the DNA, she should be able to decode it. She learned the hard way that a lot of strange things in Ooo left epigenetic markings on human DNA.

With her free hand, Bonnie opened the door to her lab. She took a deep breath. If the best was to be believed about Martin, then there was no time to waste.

"I'm telling you, man, that's Banana Guard #17! It's in the face!"

"All their faces look the same, Jake. Besides, Banana Guard 17 is kinda lopsided. This is Banana Guard 33. He's all serious and junk, you know? He lacks finn-esse."

"Dude, was that a pun?"

"Heck yeah, brother!"

"...Okay, that was pretty good."

"Thanks, man."

The uncharacteristically stoic banana guard opened the door to Princess Bubblegum's laboratory. He stiffly gestured for Finn and Jake to enter. After they stepped into the lab, the banana guard closed the door without a word. The echo of his footsteps were heard as he climbed back up the stairs.

"Yeah, that's definitely Banana Guard 33," Jake admitted, staring at the closed door. He stretched his neck upwards towards a small window on the door, so he could effortlessly watch as the banana guard marched away.

Finn, however, was staring at the strangely unorganized lab. A few lights were flickering like they desperately needed to be replaced; multiple papers of data and analysis were strewed across the room unevenly... Thin layers of dust were beginning to form in neglected areas of the room. Finn narrowed his eyes. Princess Bubblegum had to be working on something important to disregard order to such an extent.

"Yo, PB? You in here?" Finn called, his voice echoing throughout the large room.

"Yes! Finn, Jake, I'm glad you made it here so quickly! Come here! I have… important information!" she shouted back from a far corner in the lab. Finn looked over at Jake, confused, but the latter simply shrugged and followed the direction of the princess's voice.

The brothers managed their way through untidiness and clutter until they found Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum huddled away in a corner. Her hair was in a messy ponytail, her lab coat and clothes were all wrinkled and dirtied, and when she turned around to greet the two heroes, there were very prominent bags under her eyes, making it appear as though she hadn't slept in weeks. Finn and Jake flinched at her lack of self care.

"PB, you look awful! What've you been doing down here?" Jake said nonchalantly. Finn shoved him for the rude declaration, but Bonnie paid no mind.

"Just some testing, though it took longer than expected. I just finished, and the results are… interesting," she explained vaguely, glancing away for a moment. Before either of the boys could press her further, she hesitantly continued, "Finn, about a week ago… a human washed up on one of Ooo's beaches."

"A human?!" Finn repeated, his eyes wide. Jake looked up at him with concern. There was a brief moment of silence before Finn spoke. "What-?! A real human?! Why didn't you tell me?" he questioned almost hysterically. With his thoughts racing a mile a minute, that was the only thing he could manage to utter.

"I wanted to make sure it wasn't just some humanoid creature. Actual humans aren't common in Ooo. Everyone knows that," Bonnie said, sounding both stern and sincere. The princess paused to give Finn a moment or two to process her words, as he still stood wide-eyed.

Besides his own feckless father, Finn hadn't really had a chance to meet an actual human. He wasn't exactly sure if Susan was human anymore, and he never really met Simon when he was still, well, Simon. He didn't necessarily count Betty, either, because he only saw her for about thirty seconds, if that.

He could list off countless humanoids he had met, from kind inventor Moe to the cybernetically enhanced Dr. Gross, but he never really had a chance to truly talk to them about the rarity of their kind. Especially not in the case of Dr. Gross, who had paralyzed him and may or may not have wanted to kill Susan.

Would this human be any different?

After sorting out his mind, Finn regathered himself and politely gestured for Bonnie to go on. She cleared her throat, continuing her previous thought, "When the human regained consciousness in the Candy Infirmary, he told me this strange story… His brainwaves showed it to be true, as crazy as it sounded. It -" She stopped herself almost immediately, looking down at the floor. "Well, I couldn't do it justice trying to explain it. You need to hear it first hand," she eventually said, anxiously fiddling with the sleeves of her lab coat.

Silence filled the room as she refused to elaborate fully. Finn opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it. Instead, he looked over at Jake, who shared the same knowing glance. "You're stalling, PB," Jake accused, crossing his arms. In response, the princess only gave a small sigh.

Finn could sense her nerves, and it was rather strange. She was almost never nervous, or at least she hid it well. It was weird… what did she have to say? "PB, what's going on?" he asked quietly.

Bonnie hesitated, but eventually she said, "It's very personal and very important to you, Finn, but it's complicated. I don't know how you'll react. If this goes bad, I don't want to hurt you." She avoided eye contact with the human boy.

"Well if it's important, then why are we wasting time? Just lay it on me!" Finn said, gesturing to himself. If it's a human, of course it'll be personal and important, he thought without digging deeper into her words. He wanted to make sure he was fully listening when she broke 'the news.'

The princess gave Finn a sympathetic look, which didn't go unnoticed. Finn furrowed his brow in response, but nonetheless tried to stay curious as he waited for the Princess to continue. Though, he ultimately went against his own goals, as he couldn't help but let his mind wander. This wasn't something she could control with science, was it?

There was another long pause before Bonnie finally spoke. "The human…" she started, looking back towards her results. "…It's Martin. Your dad, Finn."

Finn stared blankly at Bonnie for several moments, even looking down at the floor in an attempt to fully comprehend the information. Eventually, he uttered the phrase, "Martin's in Ooo?", but there were so many other things left unspoken.

Was that really what this was all about? he thought. I mean, I guess he did kind of leave with the Comet and all, but… why would this be important? Did he manipulate PB in any way? No, PB is way too smart to fall for any of that bizz…

Jake, on the other hand, carried a confused complexion. "Wait, didn't Martin 'ascend to a higher plane of existence' or whatever with the Catalyst Comet?" he asked, his head cocked to the side.

Bonnie gave a small nod. "Allegedly, but this isn't that Martin. I believe this Martin travelled here from the past."

At this, Finn perked his head up. "What?" he said quietly at the same time Jake said, "He's from where?"

Princess Bubblegum grabbed a few papers from an unorganised pile on the nearest table. "I got few of his hairs to run a DNA test. I compared his DNA to yours, Finn, and you have a lot of matching DNA sequences, just like a parent and child would, even though he doesn't look old enough to be your father now," she explained, briefly showing them the results as she spoke. "There were also epigenetic markings in Martin's DNA, these sort of imprints on his genes that show he's travelled through something unnatural, likely a time portal of sorts. With all this information, I've concluded he's from the past. It's not the Martin you know, and I have scientific proof of it."

There was a moment of uneasy silence. Finn stared at the papers in the Princess's hands. She was smart enough to tell if he was lying, and she had no reason herself to lie… Could this human really be his dad from the past?

...Maybe he could finally learn why his parents abandoned him.

Finn started fiddling with the fingers on his mechanical arm, shifting his gaze back to the floor. "So that story… does it explain why he and my mom left me?" he asked awkwardly, refusing to look directly at Bonnie.

"It's much more complicated than that, but yes," Bonnie answered. She gave a small smile towards the human boy. "I could tell this Martin cared about you very much, Finn, and I can only guess what dastardly things turned him into what you know today. I just want this Martin to know you're okay, and I want you to finally know where you came from, but that has to come from you talking to him first hand."

Finn thought on her words for a moment. "Where is he?" he asked, finally looking back up to the Princess.

"The Candy Kingdom Infirmary. We've been treating his multiple head injuries there. Hey, not so fast!" she shouted as Finn and Jake started towards the laboratory door. "I think I need to talk to him first. You know, to ease him into things, but I'm gonna have to clean up beforehand," she said calmly, looking down at her less-than-professional appearance.

"Oh. Okay," Finn said. Both he and Jake returned to their idle stances.

Bonnie hurried past the brothers, her stained labcoat flying behind her. "Just stay here! I'll come and get you when it's time!" she shouted as she approached the laboratory doors.

When the door slammed behind the princess, Finn's eyes shifted over to the pages of results and analysis left astray on the nearest table. He slowly walked over to them. In the mess of papers, he saw a picture of his young father taken from the Candy Hospital. Hesitantly, he picked it up, staring at it for a considerable amount of time. The image of his father as he was now entered his mind…

So much had physically changed about him over the years. He had lost hair, gained weight, grew a beard… Perhaps the same could be said emotionally as well? Bonnie did say he cared, but she also said that things were complicated…

"Hey, Finn, are you okay? You're a bit 'soul-searchy' right now." Jake's voice caused Finn to jump, but it also broke him out of his thoughts. Finn turned to his adoptive brother, still holding the picture of young Martin in his hands.

"I don't know," Finn answered, looking back down at the picture. His mind was swarming with questions. Did Martin really care for him at one point in time? If he did, then why did he abandon his infant son? "It's just hard to imagine Martin being anything but a self-absorbed jerk… but PB wouldn't lie to us… Not about something like this."

"I just don't trust this, man. I got a bad feeling in my gut," Jake said exasperatedly, holding out his stretched stomach. "What if Martin's got an extremely elaborate plan to use you again?" he asked, seriousness taking over his tone as he let go of his stomach.

"Why would he even care? He's at a higher plane of existence or whatever. I don't think he needs me at this point," Finn said dejectedly, putting down the picture. Tears were beginning to involuntarily well up in his eyes as fears from the past were creeping out of his mind vault, and he didn't like it. He tried to blink them away. "I just… I think PB's telling the truth, and I want to see this through. If I don't, then I lose my chance of learning more about myself, and humans, and I don't want to lose that chance."

He gave Jake a pleading look, just hoping that his brother would understand. After a short moment, Jake sighed, and though he still looked a bit uneasy, he smiled at Finn. "I'll be behind you if he tries anything," Jake said defiantly.

Finn smiled slightly. "I know you will."

Bonnibel tried to hide her grin. Finally, she thought as she practically ran to her room. Finn can at least know something about his past. She glided past her servants and other castle staff, both excited and nervous for the events to come. She had to be quick, for anything in this situation could go wrong so easily, and she needed it so desperately to go right.

There's no time to waste.

A/N

Thank you all so much for reading this story :) I really didn't think I'd get many reviews or anything just because Martin's not exactly a popular character, so it means a lot that you guys are excited for this story!

However, I feel like I should say, I never intended this story to be very long, only about 6-7 chapters originally, as it sort of just started out as a "what if" thought experiment that kind of turned into a character study for Martin. What Islands turned his character arc into intrigued me, so here we are!

However, as I was proofreading my chapters, I found a plot hole I can't believe I missed, so I'm having to re-write the second half of this story. That means it's probably going to be longer! (Maybe 7-13 chapters, depending on how I lay everything out. I also still have to figure everything out, ha.) Though, that also means updates may take longer; they've only been so frequent because I've already written all of this story out.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! :)
(which I proofread and posted right before I went to bed ((and also right after I finished my homework, because high school amiright. I have no free time, like, zilch)), so pardon any grammar mistakes! I tried my best to fix them, but it's pretty late so I'm not as awake, obviously! So sorry, I just wanted to get this chapter out today!)

~Emily Believes xoxo