Sour Candy

Icy fortress

Jake's front half of his body comes closer and closer until he's placing his front two paws n the ground. He pulls his back toward us, and we catch the amusing glance of BMO clinging onto the tail.

"BMO!" Jake says indignantly while me and Finn laugh, "We told you you can't come! It's dangerous!" BMO ignores him and climbs onto my shoulders. I shrug and we set off.

"So, what are we looking for princess?" Jake asks. I shrug again. Talking still takes up too much effort, as Madeline's song is still fresh in my mind.

"We'll know when we see it," Finn puts in.

We decide to follow the goo near the tree house. It takes us into the Ice Kingdom. I expected this so I silently pass out heat-suits. On we trudge, BMO asleep on my head.

"Hey, how'd you convince Simon to let us in here?" Jake ponders as he flies over, completely ignoring us. I ignore him, secretly grimacing at the memory. All it was was one simple kiss, and I love Marceline so much I would of been happy to go further, but it was still a stain on my mind.

The goo trail became thicker and larger, until it engulfed a whole mountain. We stood, staring up at what seemed like a never-ending height. Jake stretches himself to look like an "elevator" in one of those human books, and we climb inside. Forgetting where I am, I begin to hum the only song I ever taught Marceline, though vice versa is very common.

Finn smiles, "What's that?"

I stop and mutter, "Human book,"

Finn looks like he's about to dig deeper but then Jake, in a monotonous voice, announces "We have arrived at our destination."

We step out onto a dormant volcano. Everything is covered in ice and we cautiously toe our way towards the crater in the middle. A humanoid shape, the colour and texture of the goo, is watching a bunch of screens. It appears relaxed. Then something odd happens.

On one of the screens, featuring LSP on the phone, two words flash up; "Marceline Abadeer". The thing nearly falls off it's chair, then hurriedly taps some keys.

"...wasn't it aimed at her gf?" Melissa says through the phone. The thing taps out a few sentences, an LSP replies, "Don't talk to me about that vampire. She's dead to anyone sane in Ooo." The thing leans back, satisfied, and mutes the screen.

"Oooh," I say, "It's too much work to control all the enslaved people all the time, so she lets them have free will until Marceline becomes a topic of conversation, then it controls it using the goo."

 "But how many people does it control?" Finn whispers.

I point to the various screens, "LSP...Tree Trunks and Mr Pig...Flame Princess...Slime Princess..." as one screen flicks to what I assume is another camera, I add, "Simon and Gunther. At least."

Jake whistles low. Finn starts to draw out a map.

"So, obviously to kill the goo we need to kill that thing..." I tune his voice out as I take in more of our surroundings. I blush as I realize every wall and surface is covered in me. Pictures of me, drawings of me, bubblegum stacked high on tables and in cupboards. Some photos I realize originally contained Marceline, but she's been ripped or edited out. I know how to stop this thing.