Disclaimer - Adventure Time and all characters belong to Pendleton Ward. I do not own any of them.

Roses for Abadeer

Memories and Other Things

With wondering eyes she searched the starry sky above, trying to trace something familiar out of night, long hair blowing gently about her in a careless fashion. It was a peaceful sort of exercise she had grown accustomed to over the long years, when living was far too painful a fate to endure alone. To her, the stars had been her one constant anchor in these ever-shifting tides.

Looking to the heavens it was easy to imagine something bigger than herself looking back. A reason and rhyme for life and the bunked up world she had grown up in. It was so simple to think everything was connected when faced with such endless beauty, that there was some grand plan in store for her.

Even after she had grown up and stopped expecting the answers to find her, even after she had settled down and found friends in this crazy world, she made it a mission to do this nightly, to keep up the charade. To try and forget the one regret she had through it all.

But no matter which shape she attempted her path would inevitably drift to the spikey planes of a crown.

No, she quickly looked down and closed her eyes, severing all contact with the universe. Don't torture yourself, she scolded.

The wind from the north seemed a lot cooler suddenly. With a frown the Vampire Queen rolled to a seated position on the tree-fort roof and scanned the area. In the pit of her undead heart she knew he'd be out there. Somewhere. Watching.

During the last few hundred years it had become almost involuntary for him, stalking her like this. As if she were the last link he had to his sanity. So exhausting! No matter where she went he'd find her. As if losing her from his sight would somehow implode the world he had built up around the lie.

Ice King, that pitiful old fool. The very idea tormented her.

With an irritable huff she lifted off the rooftop and threw her hands onto her hips.

"Ice King! I know you're out there!" She shouted, much to the chagrin of the sleeping Finn and Jake who woke in an instant without knowing why.

"Dude..?" Jake's sleepy whine could be heard below, "What's going on?"

"I don't know, bro, but it sounds like it came from outside!"

No other words seemed right in this heated moment, and blushing furiously at her mistake, Marceline took off angrily toward her private abode. She could faintly hear the two adventurers clamber out of their beds and to the window. She could feel their eyes on her fleeting form.

"Glob! That frozen butt!" Marceline exclaimed into the night after flying for a while. "Why won't he just leave me alone already?"

Under her breath she lamented, "It's not like he even really remembers anymore. Is this just a game to him?"

Everywhere she went he eventually found her, just as a song she had sung years ago poignantly described. That old coot was totally fluffing nuts.

Back in the day, when Simon had first started drifting into madness, the way he'd find her was almost…sweet. He'd turn up in such unexpected places after she'd leave.

He'd find her as if they were truly connected to one another, two soul mates destined to be entwined for life. It was so easy to believe that she could somehow be his rock this way, that if he found her enough one day he might even find himself again.

But the endearment had definitely become an unhealthy obsession, and Simon never did get better.

Oh Glob, did she try though. It had been ten years to the day in fact that Marceline had entrusted her heart to this task. Opened up to the childish possibility of his getting better.

With a twisted sense of righteousness the woman had allowed him to enter her life again. Playing music, shooting some hoops, you know, just chillin'... All the while searching into those vapid white eyes for a hint of her old Simon. Anything. She would have settled for anything.

Speaking to him as she had once done. Showing him pictures and objects of his past to spark memory. Calling him by his true name.

All in vain.

She landed at her pad and slammed the door almost off its hinges. Why in Glob's name did he have to wear that fizzing crown all the time? Why? Why couldn't he give it up?

For me, was the unspoken wish harbored deep within her. Tears welled at the admission. A bitter resentment rose up like bile in Marceline's throat.

"Just go away, you old DORK!" She screamed to no one, kicking over a chair.

An unsuspecting nightstand bought it during her tirade through the house, wood splintering across the floor in a shower of rage. She mindlessly plucked a large sliver from her arm and tossed it aside. In the height of her emotion a soft crunch of glass underfoot caught her off guard.

An old black and white photograph, salvaged from the Ice King's palace some years ago, brought her back down to reality.

A young Simon smiled proudly up into the camera, happily indulging in a cup of cocoa, newspaper propped open to reveal an image of him with the Enchiridion. He held the hand of a woman off camera, Betty most likely, his finger rubbing her engagement ring fondly. His hair was so much shorter then, darker. Not white. His face was so much younger. His nose short on his round, youthful face.

And he still wore his glasses then. Marceline traced their shape with her finger.

On the table in the photo was a bunch of roses, wrapped in the sort of style one gives to someone on special occasion. Although their color was in shades of grey, Marceline had imagined them to be red. The idea intrigued her.

What had they been for? Were they in celebration of getting his picture in the paper?

She had asked him once, she remembered. Back in the rubble of war. The Simon of her youth, already white-haired and bearded and slightly mad, had shrugged her questions off in his silly manner, never taking the world seriously for even a second. Hadn't remembered taking the photo, he said. Wasn't sure if that was even him.

Ashamed of herself, Marceline flicked off the broken glass and cradled the frame to her, tears falling freely.

It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment he had truly succumbed to its evils, the deterioration of his mind spread out so much over these long years that she hardly remembered anymore, but that crown…its power over Simon was infuriating. It was all because of that crown. His early days of dementia were such a blur to her now. If only she could remember a time when he wasn't so dependent on it.

So many fights over that crown, too many to distinguish from one another. Words of cruelty she never meant settling in the cracks. She had been harsh to him, to her dear Simon. Pushed him away when he was already slipping.

Marceline had been young and childish then. She had begged him to not wear it, to toss it away. But he just couldn't. And when he chose that crown over her, she turned her anger on him.

What she would give to do it all again, to go back as she was now, with the insight and maturity she had grown into over the years. Maybe she could save Simon from himself.

"But that's impossible," Marceline sighed and put the frame down onto another table nearby, picture first to hide her failure. The past was as dead as she was. The Simon she had known and lost, the Simon she had only dreamed of…the Simon in that photo…she would never be with him.

Then a thought struck her.

There was a bag she kept in a dark corner of her closet, the contents of which filled her with equal parts excitement and dread. Some nights the thought of Simon kept her awake and she itched for this bag and what was inside. Intoxicating ideas flowed through her.

She found herself at the door, pressing her head to the cool wood while her brain screamed that to use this would be her downfall, and her heart countered that to not would be her end.

At the time of its creation, she had vowed never to use it. It was a silly vow. Ten years she had resisted. But now…

With all the rationality one thousand and twenty years had afforded her, the vampire queen still could not extinguish the small ray of hope that radiated from that bag. She opened her closet door.

A space that she knew by heart suddenly seemed foreign. Shadows stretched into gaping mouths, clothing became beasts she only knew in nightmare. She reached for the bag over what seemed a mile of hellfire until her fingers finally made purchase.

The remains of Ash's memory dust, which she had furtively swept into a pile and gathered into this bag, appeared to be drawing her near. Shining and terrible, with bits of dirt mixed in from her neglected floor, it was all too tempting. Probably not enough to do much with, she stalled, secretly hoping for the opposite. Take her back to this morning and nothing more.

Her heart, had it still been capable of beating, would have done so uncomfortably fast at the yearning in her soul.

Suppose it was enough, she licked her lips as the haunting glow of dust lured her closer to its twinkling depths. Suppose she could spend a few more hours with Simon, the Simon she loved. How wicked was the thought.

So appropriate it was to have the stars as her witness, that she was inspired to leave her house completely. They alone had been her friend through her years of suffering at the loss of Simon, and they alone would see her through this until the end.

Affixing herself to the railing of the ancient bridge on her home's cavern mouth, she felt the wind suddenly die away. The world was silent for her as she searched the Heaven's once more, feeling Fate guiding her to this moment.

"Simon," his name a reverent whisper, "I know this won't save you. I doubt I'll ever save you. I know it is selfish but…I have to see you again. If only for a little while. If only to have a memory of a memory to cherish in my heart."

She opened the bag fully and emptied its contents into the palm of her hand. Eyes fluttered closed. Hope swelled. Her hand clutched upon the silvery dust, ready to throw it at herself, and –

"Marceline!" A man's voice caused her to panic, and with slow seizing horror she watched her specks of hope disappear into the night forever. "What's going on? Why were you at our house?!

"You started shouting all loud like and then just…left! Totally jacked up our dreams, bro!"

"Yeah," Jake joined in, stretching himself and his pal up to her frozen form and depositing the two of them onto the decrepit old bridge. "And I was having a totally bazonkin' dream, too. Lady and I were at this picnic and she reaches over and starts fe –"

"What? Ew, Jake! Just stop, man."

"Hmph, nothing wrong with feeding a dog chocolate, bro. You need a lady, man."

The two of them went on for a while like this back and forth, age having no effect on their childish ways, until Finn noticed Marceline's face. Her wide eyes described a shock which hadn't been seen before on her. He slapped Jake's stretchy arm away from picking his nose and faltered.

"Flaps…you okay, man? You look like someone just flipped your zip, yo."

"That…" Marceline's voice was hollow and distant, "That was…"

"Hey man; Finn, I think I'm gonna head back. I mean, it was cool at first, running after you guys and all, but I'm feeling way tired. Not as young as I once was it seems. Kids, man. Drains a bro, ya know?"

Finn shook his head, instantly distracted from the topic at hand, "Weak, man."

"What?" Jake innocently shrugged. "I'm a dog past his prime. Look at how I've let myself go."

He stretched out his stomach into a puddle of lazy yellow and laughed when Finn tried to do the same, squeezing his little human handles, pinching flesh.

"Love me," Finn taunted in jest. "Love these handles….look at them. Chubby, chubby…Wow, I really need to cut down on the snacks."

"You can't tell under your shirt, man. No worries."

Something in Marceline snapped. She suddenly was painfully aware of the two by her side and the chill of night etching up her back. The wind, as if to mock her, had begun to wail and the clouds above blocked most of her stars. It was over, all of it. Simon was truly lost to her. When she had the bag in her possession it was easy to allow that glimmer of hope, that chance of…

She smelled the Ice King on the breeze and her thoughts went red.

"No…" She began, drowned out by the rekindled banter of the two best friends nearby.

With remarkable delirium, her eyes narrowed on Finn as he tackled Jake playfully, and then shifted with knifelike menace towards the dog as he stretched into a giant butt. She cocked her head predatorily as one large cheek smacked down to hold the human in place while he laughed.

"Sick! Get the plop off me, dude, before I dingle your bones!"

"What," the vampire queen started, shaking. Her form flickered as it threatened to transform, "the MATH do you think you are DOING?!"

In an explosion of rage she was suddenly all tentacles and teeth, a black beast which stole the two fools from where they had been standing, gripping them in her claws. The ancient bridge creaked madly beneath her added weight. Her scream shook birds from their nests in nearby trees.

Finn seemed to pick up that something was wrong.

"Yo man, wanna talk about it?"

The beast formally known as Marceline shrieked into the night and slammed the two idiots into one another viciously. Finn, with his one good eye, stared up at her and made a face. He struggled in vain for a moment. His sword was out of reach.

"MARCELINE! What the fluff, bro!?"

"She's off her nut, Finn."

"You little DORKING PLEEBS have messed with me for the LAST TIME!"

The sound was more a roar than a voice, something dwelling until now in the shadows of the Nightosphere. Jake felt the reverbs even as he shrank down through her massive talons and dropped to the bridge below. The mini-dog pointed an accusatory finger at the mad beast as he hopped to a more stable board. Something went snap nearby and the bridge shook slightly underfoot.

"Hey man, you woke us up, first."

"Yeah, I mean, you totally went benay-nay and then flew away, Marce. What did you expect? We had to follow you. Bros for life, right?"

The beast's red eyes shifted to the human in its claw with a cold look of incomprehension. Seething, it squeezed tighter and brought its leg down upon the dog, who was too quick in his small size to be stomped. In a flash, Jake stretched out his limps and wrapped around the beast's legs, tightening them together despite the screams of protest.

The bridge sounded a warning crack that the three figures didn't heed.

"Alright now!" The dog drifted up in one long curve from the beast's legs to sit level with his friend, whom attempted to bro five him but shrugged when he couldn't free his arms. "It's cool, I'll get you later."

"Marceline," Finn shouted, a hero's heart fueling his words. "What's the damage?! The Glob is going on with you?"

Marceline, immobilized, roared one final time until her screams were curiously drowned out by a terrible organic sound. The old bridge splintered, fractured wood and rebar giving out. The three began plummeting to the rocky crevice below. In surprise, the claw holding Finn opened enough for him to pry himself free…to fall unhindered.

"OH…MATH!"

"Hold on, buddy!"

Jake became a kite and encircled the man, spreading himself out and winging them to safety.

In her blind rage, the beast could not stop herself from falling, a cry of horror escaping as she fell. The two men stood and watched in slow motion as their friend dropped to certain death.

Jake jumped from his perch on the rock face, navigating the splintered boards as he dived into the night. He couldn't reach her.

"No!"

Making a hasty decision when faced with this failure, he stretched out an arm and stopped his pursuit midair.

"Marceline!"

An enormous channel of ice formed itself above the jagged sea of rock, cushioning her fall and guiding her to the valley floor. She slid to safety in this way, the coolness bringing her hot head back down to size. By the time she reached the end of her slide, Marceline in her correct form was fully aware of who had saved her. It was a bittersweet end of a terrible night and she just wanted to go home.

Finn and Jake, careening themselves from cliff to cliff until finally reaching the crevasse's bottom, screamed her name until she sat up and rubbed her sore skin.

"Holy fractions, Marceline! We thought you were done for!"

The woman sighed and stood up, fixing her skirt. Without much conviction she stated, "I'm a thousand years old, Finn. It takes a lot more than that to kill me."

"Hey, did the Ice King make this?" Was Jake's question, sliding his paw over the gleaming surface of ice. "I didn't even see him around. That's so weird."

"Yeah man, that is weird. Why would he be all the way out here?"

Finn looked to the mouth of the gorge and shouted.

"ICE KING, show yourself!"

"Finn," Marceline said sourly, "just stop. It's okay. There's no point. He probably doesn't even know why he saved me."

The human watched helplessly as she brushed herself off and fixed her bangs, slipping further into depression. Misery was written plainly on her face. In response he toned down his hero-slang and tried to take her hand.

"Marce…what's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's nothing. Whatever…I'm going home."

Jake said nothing. He had a feeling he knew what was chewing her. The two men stood there while she floated away into her cave and exchanged a look with one another after she had gone.

"Hey Finn, why don't you head back? I have to…uh…do something."

Finn cocked a brow. "Heck no, brother. Something's wrong with Marceline. We should go talk to her."

"No," the dog hastily dodged. He could see the familiar determination on his friend's face, such stubborn thick heroism. He quickly formulated a plan.

"We should…split up. Yeah. Yeah…Split up and go find Ice King. He's gotta be around here somewhere. I bet if we find him we'll find out why Marceline was so mad."

"You think?"

"Totally."

Finn examined his friend closely but was none the wiser. "Okay."

Jake lifted Finn up to the gorge's summit and watched him leave. Then he turned his attention back toward Marceline's cave.

The vampire queen lay curled in a ball, floating a few inches from her floor. Tears had long since stopped but the trembling of a broken heart shook her as she sniffled into her knees. It was her fault for hoping.

Somehow even at the height of her anticipation, when the world had finally made sense and her path had become clear, she knew something would go wrong. It was a small treacherous voice in the back of her mind which told her so. She should have listened.

"Why? Why do I keep setting myself up like this?"

"Marceline!" A voice outside full of concern made her grip her knees protectively, hissing at the intrusion. "Marceline, I know you're in there. Open the door."

"Go away!"

"Marceline," Jake reasoned. "Come on, please open the door."

"No, you've done enough!"

With a whoosh he shortened himself and slid through the doggie flap in her door.

"I said go away," the woman roared half-heartedly, making a brief show of her rage that was more sad than anything.

"Listen…I…think I know why you're upset. Or at least, part of it."

Marceline tucked her head under her arm in defeat. "You don't know anything."

"Yes I do. It has to do with the Ice King, I know that much. Don't think I didn't hear you back at the tree fort.

"Then again, just now, when Finn and I mentioned his name... You totally clammed up and pushed us away. Come on," The dog sat down and laid his head against her leg in comfort. "I know you two have a history together…so, don't act as if you're all alone in this. I'm your friend and I care about you. Maybe I can help."

The woman sat up but didn't meet his eyes. "No, Jake. No one can help. I couldn't even help. I just have to accept that Simon is gone."

She suddenly looked shamefaced. She'd said too much.

"So that's what this is all about. Girl, you shouldn't feel guilty over something that isn't your fault."

"I just wish that I could go back and fix things before they spiraled so far out of control."

Despite himself, at the word "wish", the dog had an idea that shown visibly on his face for a quick moment. Marceline noticed, even after he pretended nothing was up.

"What was that?" She said, searching his face.

"What?"

"That look. You know something, don't you? Spill it."

"Nothing, it's nothing. Seriously, it's stupid anyway." Jake looked away with guilt, rubbing the back of his head. "I mean, even if it was possible…which it's not…there'd be no way to get there. Just forget it."

"Jake!"

"Alright, alright, geez. It was just something you said, is all. Got me thinking."

Marceline, never one to be patient when her heart's happiness was at stake, stared menacingly at him until he revealed everything. Her eyes never left him. Never blinked actually. He'd never been so uncomfortable in his life.

So, this was his story.

"There is a room of time, hidden in some other dimension, that has a dude…probably the creator of time itself, but really – who can tell, right? I mean, suppose he did create time. No one would be around to prove it. It would basically be just him going around claiming to have done so. But then, who created him? So many questions…

"But that's off-topic, haha...please don't eat me!

"Sheesh! Anyway, his name is Prismo and he grants wishes. One wish, actually. It's sort of complicated…And it is a really bad idea because he usually mucks them up and twists them to be evil and bad things just…happen. Like this one time Finn had wished for the Lich never to have been born and then we were transported to this other world and –

"Okay, okay! Stop pinching me! Dude, not cool!

"Anyway, like I said it was a stupid idea and wouldn't work anyway…because the Enchiridion is gone. Ploof! Kabloowy! Badoinkled! Destroyed."

"What's so important about the Enchiridion," Marceline said, fascinated. Her rapt attention rested solely on Jake. He began to sweat.

"Well, that was the doorway. You had to like, steal jewels and stuff from princesses and put them in the book. Then these other dimensions flew out of it and floated in the air. All these shapes and stuff." Imitating them he splayed his arms wide and circled around then snorted, forgetting himself. "Wow you know, when you really get down to it, that whole thing just seems silly."

He looked at the woman and suddenly things weren't quite so silly anymore.

A heated moment passed while she stared at him. Just when he thought for sure she'd gobble him up, a smile popped onto her face and she smacked a fist into the palm of her other hand.

"Well, why didn't you just say that! It's so simple! Man, Jake, you really know how to make a situation dramatic."

"What?"

She stood up and looked triumphant. "It's easy. I'll just go to the Nightosphere and have my dad open up the portal. I mean, he is the Lord of Darkness. He's probably got a ton of portals down there. Maybe one leads to this Prismo guy."

"No, dude…I just told you; his wishes are bad news. Look, say I wanted two thousand bucks. He'd probably kill Jake Jr. and have me collect from the insurance! Your wish will just be tainted and messed up. Don't do it, Marceline!"

Marceline was already opening the portal to the Nightosphere. "Relax. It'll be fine. Don't be so dramatic."

"Nnn…I think we should get Finn."

The soul-sucking portal opened in her wall and she turned just long enough to regard him. With a smile she said, "Don't worry so much."

With a faint plop she was gone.

"Oh…Glob."