*Finn's Age: 18*

Marceline's P.O.V

"You know, when I said I want us to spend more time together, this isn't quite what I had in mind" I admit, feeling a little disappointed even though I'm still enjoying the moment just by having him here with me.

"I know, Marcy" My boyfriend nods in understanding, "But think of how much fun it'll be for us to adventure into the unknown together! Not to mention the fact that we're all alone out here."

He winks at that last bit and I nearly blush at his flirting. I huff and give him a kiss on the lips, Finn always knowing how to sweet talk me.

"The things you do to me, Finn" I sigh, shaking my head and trying to dispel any of the hesitance I have for continuing onward.

"Oh, don't tempt me, Marcy. Because I'm willing to do a whole more if you'll let me~" Finn flirts, nearly making me blush for the second time in a row.

I swear, I think I rubbed off on him too much as to where now he's the charmer and sensual-speaking one in our relationship and I'm not, the roles being easily reversed a number of months ago.

"Where do we need to be going again?" I ask, trying to get my mind off his flirting.

"Here" Finn stops, holding out the map and pointing to a spot marked by a circle, "That's where all the unusual power surges are coming from."

Leave it to Bonnibel to be monitoring such boring things as power surges throughout Ooo and to see that one area on the map, that's supposedly part of the Dark Forest, is the cause of it. Also leave it to Bonnibel to send Finn out to see if there's something there that wasn't marked correctly on the map, which in turn became our Friday plans out together. Honestly, the news doesn't surprise me since this official map of Ooo is so outdated that it's probably the same one that was used a couple hundred years ago. They really need to redo this with some scouting parties and update it to match the current day, but I guess that's what we're doing right now anyway, which doesn't really make this any more fun. I was hoping we'd do dinner out, a movie, and some making out in bed with maybe getting a little touchy with each other depending on how far we'd both would want to go, but I guess I'll have to table most of that for another time.

"Oh, well that's splendid. Nothing says a romantic walk out with your partner like taking a stroll through the most evil forest ever recorded in Ooo history. Fantastic" I remark, not even trying to hide my heavy sarcasm.

Finn smiles sympathetically at me and puts the map away in his pack, the both of us resuming our walk and heading towards the fast-approaching forest. I don't particularly want to go in there, especially since Finn's the only one who's carrying a weapon, but we keep walking and walking in that direction until we're inside. The trees are so tightly packed together and the air so thin that I feel like I'm getting claustrophobic. It also doesn't help that the air is sickly sweet in the sense that it'll make your brain go numb and leave you susceptible to monsters attacking you.

"Finn, is there any way we can go around? This place is quickly getting torturous" I speak up.

"Well, I don't...." He pauses, then coming to a realization, "Actually there is a way. Would you mind flying us up and out of here so we can just hover over the treetops?"

I gladly smile, immediately picking him us and soaring us through the tops of the trees in no time. I then keep a hold of him as he takes the map back out and politely instructs me on where to fly, to which I happily oblige. You see, this right here is more of my style, taking the non-traditional route and being able to hold the boy I love while doing it.

"It should be over...there" He points, the two of us then at a loss for words when we look and see that the forest ends and the remains of a small human city lie ahead.

I fly us close and set us down on the grass just beyond the northern wall. Yes, this city does have a wall, one that goes around it's entire perimeter apparently, even though I remember it not being a very common thing based on the cities I've been in before. Perhaps some people lived here for a time and built it. Or maybe they're even still here. Shuddering, I see that there are three lone skyscrapers, stacked together in a triangular pattern, in the center of the city, the rest of the buildings being smaller but abundant in amount. The wall in front of us seems to have this old-fashioned wooden gate built into it, but I'm not sure if we should try to go in or not. We could just say that we found the source of the power surge, but have we really found anything that would indicate it came from here? Not really and Bonnie would surely sniff out the excuse. Finn realizes this too and gestures towards the gate, to which I shrug and begin walking towards it. We both get up to it and look through, our next surprise of the day awaiting us on the other side.

There are humans inside the city, actual living, breathing humans. I blink a few times to see if I'm hallucinating for some reason, but no, I'm not. The humans are either hunched over tables or boxes and working on something or merely standing around and talking with one another. I glance at Finn to see what his reaction is, by he's just staring at them. Unfortunately, we're caught when a woman's gaze catches onto us and she notifies some of the others around her. A small group of the humans come towards the gate, it being ordered open, and Finn and I step back in anticipation of them looking to fight us. However, smiles appear on the human's faces and they usher us in welcomingly. My past experience with humans led me to trust them overall, so my internal reaction to their kind behavior is skepticism and suspicion that they might be hiding some kind of darker nature. But, to find out for sure, we'll have to play along, which is why Finn and I allow them to take us inside the city, the gate shutting again once we've passed.

As we're inadvertently led deeper into the human's encampment, I look around to see that there's men, women, and young children about, the kids making me smile since they're so adorable and remind me of when I was one. The group that spotted us seems to be taking us to the main skyscraper of the trio, where I can see with my vampire vision that more humans are camped out with tents set up on the mostly empty streets. I begin to wonder why, but it becomes pretty clear once we get there and a couple of the humans go up to this trio of a man, a woman, and a girl, who are apparently the leaders of this hidden human colony. The three look at Finn and I after the two that walked up to them point at us and while they speak in hushed voices, I can hear that they're in disbelief, but cautious if we're friend or foe. The girl offers to talk to us and see if she can find it out through our actions, which the man and women, who I guess are her parents, agree.

The human girl then starts walking towards us, stopping once she's clearly in our line of sight. She's good looking, go figure, and has lightly tanned skin, a small button nose, curly, light brown hair, and darker brown eyes along with a slightly curvy body shape. In other words, she's a mix of cute and sexy, which I don't particularly like admitting since she's standing quite close to us, but primarily focusing her gaze on my boyfriend. My territorial girlfriend instincts are telling me that she could potentially come to fall in love with Finn and maybe try to steal him away from me, even though it's way, way, way too soon to say that for sure. But my hero hasn't attracted the gaze of nearly every princess in Ooo, along with myself, if he wasn't adorable, handsome, and capable in many ways. Either way, though, I'm going to be keeping a very close eye on her.

"Two humans from outside the boundary line?! I almost don't believe it!" The human girl exclaims in surprise, her voice sound a bit strange before I correctly identify her accent as British, "Welcome, welcome! I'm glad you're ok! It's not a kind world out there, which I'm sure you know already."

She walks forward and shakes both our hands, looking genuinely happy to see us for some reason. I'm not floating right now, so they don't know that I'm a vampire, but I'm sure it might not help in gaining their favor to find out how they're here, why they're here, and so on if I presented myself as the demon/vampire daughter of Hunson Abadeer, Lord of the Nightosphere. Though I doubt that they know who my dad is to begin with.

"We're the only ones of our kind left in this world, so finding more of us is always a good thing to see" The girl partially explains before pausing, "Dear me, where are my manners? Nice to meet you both, my name is Millie!"

"Pleasure to meet you, Millie" Finn replies with a smile, "My name is Finn."

She shakes his hand warmly before turning to me.

"And I'm Marceline" I introduce myself, waiting to mention the fact that we're boyfriend and girlfriend just to see if she's going to try anything without having that knowledge known to her.

"Nice to meet you" Millie replies, shaking my hand too.

"So, if it's ok for me to ask, what's the situation here? And why do you seem so surprised at seeing us?" Finn asks, Millie looking like she'll willingly answer any question he'd ask her without any hesitation.

"Sure, feel free to ask me anything you'd like" The human girl replies, then going on to actually answer his questions, "My parents lead this place, though I'm also partially in charge since we helped create this sort of grouped together society. In order to survive, which is just our day to day goal here, we hunt for food, defend against monsters, and find love in each other to create more humans, but I'm sure you two know all about the monsters don't you?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, frowning a bit.

"They're out there, nearly everywhere beyond these walls, these monsters" Millie elaborates, "And they present a constant danger to us, so we need to make sure that when it comes to either them or us, it's us and not them."

"You two are more than welcome to stay" Millie's mother says to us, her and her husband walking down to stand behind Millie.

"But if you do, we'll need you both to help us in our efforts to keep humanity going" Millie's father adds.

I know how I'd respond to them, since I'm still keeping the mindset of staying to find out what they might be up to, but I don't know what Finn's thinking on the matter is. And since I want to be a good girlfriend and not decide for him, I think it's best we step away and talk about it before we give them a definite answer. Not to mention that we should report this to Bonnie and potentially get her opinion on this too.

"Could we have a minute, please?" I ask politely, tenderly grabbing Finn's wrist, "We need to discuss some things together."

"Sure, take as much time as you need" Millie nods, "I'm sure it's probably hard to decide after being out there for so long."

I hold Finn's wrist and pull him with me as I walk away from Millie and her parents, going into one of the nearby empty tents. I do a quick look-around to make sure we're not being eavesdropped on and then speak to him.

"Do you think we should stick around, Finn? Because I'm willing to bet that these ancient skyscraper buildings are the cause of the power surges, but we didn't account for the humans we'd find here" I say to him.

"Well, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't interested in meeting more of my own people, but I'd also be lying if I said Millie's spiel about monsters being everywhere didn't put me off a bit since we know pretty much everyone there is to know in Ooo and not nearly as many of them are monsters. It makes me wonder if they're planning something."

"I was thinking so too, so I'm glad you caught onto that as well" I admit, "But before we make any decisions, let's call Bonnie and tell her what we found."

"Good idea" My boyfriend agrees.

We then each look around and check our corners once more, making sure nobody's watching or listening to us again, before Finn pulls the holo-pendant necklace out of his shirt and turns it on, Bonnie's upper body appearing via hologram.

"So, how's the search going, you two?" She asks, acknowledging my presence without even sparing me a glance, "You haven't checked in yet, so I was beginning to get a bit worried."

"Well, I have good news and surprising news" Finn tells her, "Which would you prefer first?"

"The surprising news, please" Bonnibel answers.

"Well, it turns out that the remains of a small human city from the past are right where the power surges are coming from. But the surprising part is that are also a lot of actual humans here too!" Finn explains, trying not to speak too loudly, "Which, I guess, answers the good news too, so two birds with one stone."

"No way. Are you serious?" Bubblegum gasps in disbelief, "That's....that's incredible! What are they like?"

"It's too soon to say for sure, but at least the ones Marcy and I have talked with thus far have been pretty nice. Though there are still some notable questions buzzing around in the air, like their ability to just be here in the first place during this day and age, since I remember you telling me that most if not all humans died out during the Mushroom War" Finn elaborates.

"Hmmm, well, it's possible that some kind of ice age put them in a sort of frozen-in-time state where their bodies were safely stored, but that would mean that only a global warming type of event could've melted them and set them free. But then where-?" Bubblegum rants on, trying to rationalize how these humans could've possible re-emerged before she remembers that the hologram is still on, "Oh, my apologies, I briefly forgot myself. Look, would it be ok for me to ask that you two stay there and try to either befriend some of them to see if they can tell you anything about their seemingly existential rebirth?"

"Well I'm sure they won't mind" I answer, "They think we're humans like them, even though Finn technically is one already, so they're looking to keep us close. That and the daughter of the leaders here seems to be taking a friendly shine to us."

"Perfect. Good job, you two" Bonnie nods, "I must go, but keep me posted."

The hologram then fades and Finn puts the pendant back under his shirt. We don't need to ask each other if we still need to make a decision, since it's pretty much already been decided. Finn does look a bit nervous about it, though, so I smile and caress his face before kissing him. He loves my kisses and it always helps him relax, this case being yet another example. But when Finn's done smiling warmly at me after I pull away, we exit the tent and return to where the human girl and her parents are standing, the three of them still at the exact same spot we left them at.

"We talked and I think, yeah, we'd both like to stay if you'll let us" I tell the three humans.

"We'd be happy to" Millie's mother says, shaking my hand as Millie's father does the same with Finn, "Our daughter will get you a room set up in the Tower later, but in the meantime, are you hungry? Lunch is just around the corner."

"Sure, that sounds great" My boyfriends nods, him and I smiling at the equally happy humans while our embedded investigation operation begins.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A week has passed since that day and I now lie in bed next to my sleeping boyfriend in my pajamas, which is really just my clothes but with my pants, socks and boots off. I just woke up from a nightmare and am trying to burn the thoughts out of my head while also looking to think of something else. That Millie girl showed us our room after lunch that day and it was the nicest looking one either of us had seen, which made bedtime ever the more enjoyable for us both. But once I learned what regular days were for the humans and the jobs they had, I kinda wished that we didn't stay, because man oh man was it grueling and dreadfully boring. Finn and I got placed in the same kind of job group as Millie, which was hunting for food, which also proved to be irritating for me since I could clearly see her subtle attempts at getting close to Finn and not just through friendly hugs alone. Luckily, Finn kept her from doing anything, even though it was done with obliviousness instead of direct recognition. Still, her and my boyfriend have become pretty good friends. I can't help but feel, though, that these humans are bit more eager to conceive children than the ones I've seen many, many years ago. A lot of their talk is either jokes about it or about an experience they recently had with a member of the opposite sex. Not to mention the fact that I've noticed some of the humans staring at me, most of them guys but also a few women too. It kinda creeps me out.

 Sighing, I roll over onto my back, unable to get that nightmare out of my head. It started out as a wet dream with me and Finn, the two of us having sex with some foreplay involved beforehand. It was enticing and exciting until the nightmare part came in, which was that I got pushed to the floor by some unknown force and upon getting back up, and looking over the side of the bed, I saw Millie in bed with my boyfriend and in white, skimpy underwear. The most horrifying part though was when she straddled him while he was asleep before leaning down and kissing him. I woke up after that, seeing that I was wet below from the first part, but scared from the second as I looked over and saw that Finn was here next to me with no Millie. I then sighed and laid back in an attempt to calm down.

I soon decide that I should just go for a walk to clear my head, floating out of bed, putting my pants on, and quietly leaving our room. It was another long day today and so far, nothing has been super suspicious about these humans, which Finn her reported to Bubblegum in his daily meetings with her. Sighing, I rub my eyes and turn another corner in my aimless drifting down the hallway. But my heart thuds suddenly when I see Millie coming around the corner on the other side of the hallway, making me quickly turn invisible before she can see me. She must've seen something, though, since she frowns while looking at the spot I'm at and walks over until she's literally inches away from me.

"Bloody hell, I need to go to bed sooner" The human girl sighs, disregarding what she saw as just a hallucination.

But when she resumes her walking, I go to follow her, my untrustworthy feelings of her propelling me to see where she's going. Millie makes a few turns down a couple of hallways until she stops at a door and lightly knocks, it opening a second later. I float in just behind her, but then go off into a corner to listen in as I see it's Millie's parents room. Her father shuts the door once she's in and the three of them stand and talk.

"It's settled, Millie. We leave in the morning and head for the colored castle about 5 klicks from here" Her father is saying, my eyes widening since I know he's referring to the Candy Kingdom, "We'll deal with the monsters there and claim it in the first expansion of our kind's re-population."

"Are you sure I can go with you?" Millie asks her dad.

"Of course" He nods, "Though we don't have any plans to die any day soon, you'll have to take over and lead humanity forward when we do pass away in the future."

"Though, speaking of re-populating, how goes your relationship with the new boy?" Millie's mother asks, my chest tightening as Millie looks down in embarrassment, "Finn, was it?"

"I just......feel confused, Mum" Millie admits, "I know that Marceline girl is his girlfriend, but every time I look at him, I get increasingly hot and bothered, like I want to kiss him and.....I don't know if it's my hormones, but do other....dirty things too. But is that wrong?"

I feel my fists clench, my teeth bare, and my eyes glow red at the thought of her making love to Finn. But then I pause at her seemingly confused and hesitant tone, which makes me wonder if she's not as much of a homewrecker as I thought, even though my nightmare is getting mostly confirmed here.

"It's like we told you before, sweetie. It's not wrong, especially since you've developed feelings for him. We need to ensure the survival of our race, Millie, which means that if more than one person has a shared interest in someone, they should share and both help our cause. They should both understand, but maybe you should also help them to understand so that they can go along with it. Finn would then eventually impregnate that Marceline girl and then you too, which is ok since you both are over 18" Millie's mother explains.

So, her parents are the ones who are putting these things into her head? I feel a pang of sympathy for Millie, but don't completely change my opinion of her since she still confessed to wanting to kiss my boyfriend amongst other disgusting things.

"Alright, well, I should go get some sleep and think on these things. Thanks, Mum and Dad" The human girl says appreciatively.

Millie then walks to the door of her parent's room and I follow her as she leaves. I tail her through the dimly lit hallway, always making sure to stick close as she turns some corners, as she heads back to her room and shuts the door behind her. The girl then takes her pants off and switches into a short-sleeved shirt before jumping on her bed and hugging her pillow face down. I deactivate my invisibility and hover next to her bedside, fully intending to scare her if she looks in my direction. And after a bit of shifting around to get comfortable, Millie does look my way and nearly screams in fright, rolling off the opposite side of her bed and backing up against the wall as I float over her bed and hover above her.

"M-M-Marceline?" The human girl stammers, "W-What...?"

"Let's cut right to the chase here, Millie. I overheard what you said about Finn to your parents and I'm only going to say this once, so listen closely. Keep your horny, adolescent hands off my boyfriend, that you very well admitted to knowing was mine, or else I'll suck all your blood out and leave you a dried out corpse that'll crumble to dust. Understand?" I tell her, my voice threateningly low as I flash my fangs at her.

"You're...a vampire?" She half asks, half remarks.

"You better believe it, princess" I snarl.

"You're...You're a monster!" Millie exclaims, only making me angrier, "You're the very thing we're looking to eliminate and yet we let you right in! How could we be so dumb?"

She goes to swing at me, but I duck out the way and punch her in the head, making her head smack back against the wall she has her back to. I pulled my punch back since my normal strength would've seriously caused her damage and I only want to get my point across without potentially killing her. With scrunched eyebrows and a hand going to her head, I pick her up by her neck and throw her back onto her bed, Milling thumping against her covers. I then quickly hover over her and put my hands around her throat, squeezing at medium strength as the girl frantically pries at my tight grip on her. She's losing air, her lightly tanned legs twitching and spasming as she gasps for breath. But just when she thinks I'm going to kill her, I remove my hands and float backwards, Millie sharply inhaling air and leaning over to cough. I let the girl get her breathing back under control before snapping my fingers and getting her to look at me.

"First of all, don't call me a monster. I hate being referred to as one. And, secondly, am I really a monster when I just let you go? You and I both know I could've easily killed you, but I didn't" I say to her, crossing my arms as she glares at me while holding her throat, "If I had to venture a guess, you view monsters as savage beasts that only kill when threatened, but you have yet to see the irony when your logic is applied to yourselves. You label anything or anyone that's dangerous to you as 'a monster' and are planning to go attack the Candy Kingdom to savagely kill everyone there because you seem them that way. So, essentially, you humans are acting the exact same way. You coin the term 'humanity' as if it stands for the 'morally right thing' for someone or something to have, yet then go trying to steal other people's boyfriends from them? Sounds like you guys are the last people who have any right to be preaching to others about morals."

Millie looks like she wants to argue, but before she says anything, she stops and thinks over what I just said. Judging by her bit lip and the way her eyes are flitting about, I think she's realizing that I'm right.

"And there's one other thing too. Have you or your parents even tried talking with Princess Bubblegum, who's the one in charge of the kingdom?" I question, Millie shaking her head no, "See, now that's an issue. You're too quick to use violence to solve your problems. Finn and I used to be that way too, but we grew out of that and began using more peaceful and diplomatic ways to resolve conflicts. If you only use violence to communicate your intentions to everyone else, how can they see you as anything but monsters? It all comes around full circle."

"...My parents just want us to survive" Millie sighs, gaining her voice back, "And I want the same thing. And while I would say that I'd follow their footsteps of securing it by any means necessary, I don't like unnecessary bloodshed. But are you saying that the people inside this 'Candy Kingdom' are not monsters?"

"If we're going by your definition, then no" I shake my head, "The candy citizens are innocent, fun-loving people. Nearly everyone in this land is, which is why I take such issue with your future plans, since I bet if you and your parents capture the Candy Kingdom, you won't stop there, will you?"

"No, they won't" Millie shakes her head, sitting up and resting on her legs, "But given your sound logic and what you've told me about these people, I'm willing to believe you on what you're saying, which makes me willing to admit that I would like it if we could attempt a peaceful coexistence with the rest of the land. I don't know if my parents would like it at first, but I can do my best to convince them and then try to establish an agreement with this 'Princess Bubblegum' of yours before any lives are lost."

"You think you can do that?" I ask, sounding hopeful.

"Sure I can" The girl smirks, standing up off her bed, "I'm a leader by nature and the people will listen to me if they're unable to listen to Mum and Dad."

I smile and Millie does too, but the two of us then realize that we went from fighting to acting pretty friendly to one another real quick.

"Look, Marceline, I'm sorry for calling you a monster" Millie apologizes, "And you're right about what you said about us. We really are a bunch of hypocrites. But, hopefully it's not to late to course correct."

"I'm sorry too for nearly choking you, but I meant what I said about leaving me and Finn's relationship alone. You may have feelings for him, but we're in a dedicated partnership, and I'd like it if you could respect that" I tell her.

"I understand" She nods, "But can we still be friends?"

"Sure. Just keep your hormones in check and don't try to cross any further boundaries that'll break your promise. I already told you what would happen if you did" I say, willing to be accepting, but still warning her again.

"I will. Thanks, Marceline" Millie nods once more.

A sudden amount of loud noise then comes from outside, Millie and I going to her window that looks down into the city and peering below to see that a number of their mechanical vehicles are driving fast out of the open gate. That can mean only one thing.....

"Bollocks" Millie curses in frustration, "Mum and Dad lied to me."

"They probably didn't want you to go with them for fear of putting you in danger, which is why they actually planned on leaving earlier" I infer.

"Either way, it doesn't matter now. If we're to prevent this from becoming open war, we need to get to the Candy Kingdom before they do" Millie articulates, both of us turning away from the window, "Let's go get Finn and get moving to make it to the gate. We can steal one of the vehicles to catch up and overtake them."

The two of us then run out of her room and race down the hallway until we reach the room they let Finn and I have. I quickly turn the knob and fly over to Finn's bed, shaking him lightly and getting him to wake up. My boyfriend rubs his eyes and sits up, getting his bearings as I begin to explain the situation to him.

"Millie's parents are taking a force of human soldiers to attack the Candy Kingdom. We have to hurry so that Millie here can stop them" I summarize for him.

"Ok, but one question" Finn says, the human girl and I nodding, "Why aren't you wearing pants, Millie?"

Millie looks down and flushes with embarrassment at the fact that she's still in her white panties and that Finn saw her in them.

"I'll....go put some clothes on. You two meet me by the lift" Millie instructs, quickly rushing out of the room afterwards.

I give Finn a sideways smile and he shrugs, knowing what I'm silently telling him. He then puts his clothes on at a lightning fast pace and grabs his sword and backpack, him and I running out of the room and to the spot where the elevator doors are. I press the button to go down and we wait for a little bit until that 'ding' sounds and the doors open. Finn and I enter and I go to press the ground floor button, but Millie calls for me to wait. She then runs into the elevator a second later and then I press the button, the doors closing and our descent commencing.

"We'll need to be stealthy about this. Most wouldn't typically expect to see any of us out of bed at this hour" Millie informs us, Finn and I nodding since we've made a habit of that throughout this past week.

"Then how are we going to get past the gate?" I ask, not knowing if she's thought that far ahead.

"Well, could I ask you to do it? I can swing by and grab you while we're making our escape, since it might very well end that way no matter how hard we try to be quiet" Millie asks.

"Sure, I can handle that" I shrug, not feeling like revealing that I can turn invisible and make this the easiest thing I've ever done in my life.

"Finn, stick by me, ok?" Millie instructs with no flirtatious intent.

"Alright, Millie" He nods.

"Then let's do this thing" The girl states confidently.

The elevator then reaches the ground floor and stops, the three of us getting out and peering outside before we exit the building. Thankfully, there's nobody out here in the immediate vicinity, which stands to reason that they're probably asleep like everyone else except the nightly watch. We then each nod to each other before Millie and Finn set off to the right while I turn invisible and just casually float my way down the center of the empty street leading towards the wall. I almost start humming contently, but I stop myself since that would give me away when I'm supposed to be sneaking around. The encampments around the gate are mostly quiet as I reach them, only a handful of humans up and about. They speak in hushed tones with lamps lit around them as I float past. The switch to raise the gate is unguarded, so I hover next to it and keep my eyes out for Millie and Finn, who should be coming this way any second now. And like the girl said, we'll have to do it fast since the sounds of a vehicle coming towards the gate that isn't supposed to be running will attract quite a lot of attention and they'll try and keep it from leaving. But that's why I'm here.

Soon enough, a couple minutes later, the rumbling noise of a vehicle engine gets louder and louder, the humans pausing their conversations and standing up to see what's going on. Two bright headlights shine in my direction and as I hear Millie getting closer, I push the switch up and look to see the gate rising upwards. The guards call to the watchmen to close the gate, but when a couple of those humans run up to where I am, I knock them out in quick succession with a couple punches. Millie then drives right up alongside where I'm at as I deactivate my invisibility and Finn grabs my hand, pulling me into the vehicle while Millie keeps on going through the gate without even breaking.

"Looks like that went pretty smoothly" Millie says loudly, the small city getting more and more behind us by the second, "Good job, Marceline."

"Thanks" I reply, before realizing something and tapping Finn on the shoulder, "Finn, we gotta warn Bonnibel about the hostile force of humans coming her way!"

"Right, right!" My boyfriend nods, getting the holo-pendant out and attempting to call Bubblegum.

"PB! A bunch of humans are heading towards the Candy Kingdom!" Finn says quickly as Bonnie picks up, "They're going-"

"I know, Finn! They're already here!" Bonnibel states anxiously, her hologram crouched over as sounds of fighting can be heard in the background, "Get back as soon as you can!"

"...Well, it looks like we're too late to get there before them, so please go faster, Millie!" Finn pressures her.

"I'll try, but this thing is really being a piece of shite right now" The girl huffs, lightly smacking the dashboard as the vehicle shudders and rattles.

Since this vehicle is faster than it would be with me trying to carry both of them while flying, we're able to take a detour around the western side of the Dark Forest and make it to the Candy Kingdom within five minutes. But as we near the outer wall, Millie pales in fear when she sees human bodies sprawled on the ground and knows that there's no chance they're coming back alive. She skids to a halt just outside the front entrance and the three of us run into the kingdom, coming across more bodies as we race to the castle, a number of Banana Guards among the fallen.

But we come to a halt once reach the steps of the castle, seeing quite a sight laid out before us. Two bodies lie at the foot of the stairs, the man and woman being none other than Millie's parents. Millie is shocked and stares at them while I glance up to see Bonnibel herself sitting on the last step before the door, a sword lying on the ground next to her. Looks like the battle ended before we even made it here. Finn lightly taps Millie on her shoulder and points up at Bubblegum, as if silently telling her that she is the leader here. Taking a deep breath, she goes first in walking up the stairs, Finn and I going behind her. Bonnie eventually recognizes us, but goes to grab her sword upon seeing Millie, the human girl holding up both hands in surrender.

"Please, I'm not here looking to pick a fight" Millie says calmly, briefly glancing at her parents before looking back to Bonnibel, "My parents already made that mistake."

"Then would I be right to assume that you're in charge of the humans now?" PB asks cautiously.

"Yes, the responsibility to lead now falls to me" Millie nods, Bonnie not retracting her hand from her sword, "But what I wish is to talk with you so that we can work something out."

"After what just happened, I don't think my people would be all that open to such a sudden change from hostility to friendship" Bonnie says, "It's not that easy."

"Sure, it might take time for your people to begin attempting to trust mine, but a peaceful co-existence agreement can still be made. We can still salvage this situation without it having to become a war neither of us want. After all, we're only just trying to survive, just like you, so what sense would it make to have that come at the cost of more lives being lost?" The human girl asks.

The pink princess sits there quietly and thinks for a good long moment before she stands up and switches her sword around so that she's holding it non-lethally.

"Alright, then, I'm willing to agree to something like that. Let's go inside and discuss it at length" PB says to Millie.

Upon nodding, Millie gives us a confident smile and follows the princess inside, the doors shutting behind them. Deciding to give them some space, I tell Finn we should go wait by the vehicle, to which he agrees and we head down the castle steps and through the kingdom until we're back outside its outer wall. The two of us lean back against the mechanical contraption and look up at the stars while we joke and talk cutely to one another. About an hour or so goes by, though I don't know for sure, and I then see Millie and Bonnibel walking up towards us, a roll of paper in each of their hands. I nudge Finn and he sees them too, so we stand up and meet them.

"It's done" Millie sighs, looking tired as she holds the paper close to her chest, "But now I need to go back and announce it to the people before I pass out from exhaustion."

Her and I exchange a fist bump while Finn and her hug, Millie then hopping in the vehicle and starting it up.

"You're still welcome to come by any time you'd like, just so you know" The girl says, leaving us with those words before she drives away.

"Really interesting girl, that one" Bonnibel remarks, watching as Millie's vehicle gets farther and farther away, "Pretty smart for her age. Almost reminds me of myself."

"Oh, say it isn't so" I remark playfully, my arm going over Finn's shoulders as the three of us watch our newest ally disappear over the horizon.