Marshall pulled his gloves on, before putting on his mask and striding into the graveyard. That night, it would all fall into place. 

Of course, Fionna hadn't been talking to him for the last few days, and the Shieldmaiden seemed to be avoiding him, but that's okay, because he was doing the same. But the one thing holding him back was gone— her bandages had come off. So she was both a formidable adversary again, and he could forget that night ever happened.

The earth in front of him began to shift and move, as corpses clawed their way to the surface in various states of decomposition. The Demon smirked. This was all going to plan. The corpses and skeletons turned to him, waiting for their orders. 

"Tonight, we're taking over the town. Tomorrow, possibly the county, if everything goes smoothly. Now, don't go out of your way to kill anyone... and if any of you happen to capture a blonde girl in a blue shirt and skirt, I want her alive, and unharmed."

The skeletons clacked their jaws in agreement, and the zombies moaned. The Demon pointed to the cemetary gate, and they flowed past him. 

He adjusted his mask, then followed them, whistling softly to himself. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

The Demon watched leisurely from a power cord as his ragtag army swarmed the police blockade on Main Street, preventing them from overrunning the town hall. 

And then the Shieldmaiden appeared, as the police turned and fled. She jumped on top of the nearest police car, and started decapitating anything that tried to get over. 

The Demon frowned. How had she known that would stop them? Never mind. He quickly reformed them, and her mouth dropped, before a determined look came over her face. She started hacking away harder than before, then she leaped off of the car and started making her way over to him. 

He regarded her coolly as she soon reached him. "Well, Shieldmaiden? I did tell you I could do it." 

"Yeah. But you know what Gumball told me? If I want to destroy your little army here, all I have to do is cut it off at the source." 

He jumped back, suddenly on edge. "Are you going to kill me?" 

"Of course not! But I am going to have to knock you unconscious..." 

He ran to the nearest building, and she followed. He had prepared for this. In a second, roaring flames surrounded them. 

The Shieldmaiden frowned. "I don't want to fight you, Demon!" 

"Well, it doesn't seem like you've got much of a choice, now does it?" He growled back.

She sheathed her sword and lunged for him, and he jumped away. 

She kicked him, and he caught her foot. "My, my, Shieldmaiden. Might want to consider wearing some shorts under that skirt of yours, mm?" 

She kicked him with her other leg, sending him reeling back as she dropped to the ground. 

He reached up and felt his nose, before frowning. 

"Give up?" She asked. 

"Never." He growled. He moved towards her, grabbing her arm and twisting her around. "You may have gotten in one hit, but now what, sweetheart?" 

"You lost the right to call me that long ago." She snapped, kicking back. He ignored her, until she elbowed him in the stomach with her free arm, and twisted away, hurting her arm in the process. 

She bit her lip to keep from crying out, then punched him in the face with her good hand. 

He fell back to the edge of the building, then extinguished the fire, and somersaulted over. 

She cried out and ran to the edge, just in time to see him become a giant bat. 

He knocked her off of the building, and she hurtled towards the ground, before catching herself. Then she  fought her way through the zombies surrounding her, as blood started to well up in her mouth.

She climbed up another building using window ledges as he destroyed the nearest empty building. She turned so that they were facing each other, and snapped, "This is not a game, Marshall." 

He rolled his eyes, and she leaped off of the edge, aiming for him. 

He caught her almost immediately out of the air, and set her down in a large amount of skeletons, before turning back to his humanoid form. "I'll take this." He grinned, unbuckling her scabbard. "Now, if you excuse me, I have a town to take—" 

"Cease and desist!" A voice suddenly yelled. 

"What now?" The Demon grumbled, as the Shieldmaiden fought to free herself. 

"This is the United States Army, and we demand that you stand down!" The voice continued. 

The Demon chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Okay then. Oh, they have tanks. Hm. Those should be helpful. Go capture the tanks." 

Meanwhile, the Shieldmaiden escaped into the nearest tunnel. 

The Demon frowned and followed her in, only to be jumped from behind. She tackled him and wrestled her scabbard out of his grasp. 

He growled and brought them both to the ground. "Nice, but you won't be able to try that again!" 

He pinned her to the ground, and grabbed her scabbard back. "Stop thrashing!" He hissed, backing away, before running past her out of the tunnel. 

The Shieldmaiden felt the back of her head and winced, before running after him. The sun was just beginning to come up. 

The Demon tossed away the sword, and turned into a giant bat again, before stepping on several military vehicles that were vacated seconds before he put his foot down. 

"Hey! Demon!" 

He turned, only to see the Shieldmaiden on top of a nearby building. Her hair was slowly becoming undone, and she looked furious. 

"Let's see how you handle this." She lunged for him, knocking him into a nearby building. He knocked his head on it and fell unconscious, and they both ended up under a small pile of rubble. 

The Shieldmaiden quickly regained consciousness, and clawed her way out, before grabbing him out from underneath. "What are you...? Wait, no. No no no. You can't be dead. You just can't... great trick, you got me. Now wake up." She shook him, tearing running down her face. "Wake up! Wake up! Please, please, please. Wake up. I'll join you. I'll do anything. Just... please... for the love of God... wake up." 

*Author's Note* 

Hey, anybody remember how mad I made you at the end of AFF? I'm going to take your glares as a yes. Now, knowing that I've faked you all out once before, I want you all to remember the last time that I killed either of them off, for real. I can only count one, and it's not canon in any of the series. 

So, knowing that I like fake-outs, what can we all assume? (That I should not be yelled at. That is a good conclusion.) Besides, the story is only about half done.