Adventure Time: Transcendence

Chapter 1

            It has been exactly ten years and two weeks since that fateful night, when Finn, the hero, effectively sealed the Lich once and for all. They had a memorial for Finn and his fallen brother, Jake, where Finn's wife, Marceline, had decided to stay by his side for all of eternity, wishing every day for his return. After waiting ten years, the ring on Marceline's finger finally reacts, pointing eastward. She took flight, heading in the general direction, flying over fields and forests of Ooo. The ring had led her to a particular part of the forests, where she turns  and dives onto the ground. She called for her husband. "Finn!?" She hears a rustling in the brushes right behind her. She looks to see a silhouetted figure running away from her, and looks at her ring to confirm whether it’s the right person or not. The ring is pointing at the running figure, symbolizing that the figure is Finn. She follows him. "Finn! Stop!"

            "Stay away from me!" yelled the figure. He kept running and Marceline did not understand why. She chased him into a corner, where he turned to look at her. He was acting defensive and scared, lifting his hands and shielding himself from Marceline.

            "Finn, it's me," Marceline said. She began to cry. "It's me." As she approaches Finn, he faints. Before he fell and nearly hit his head on the ground, Marceline swooped under him and grabbed him. She parts Finn's hair, staring at the face she had been missing for the previous ten years. She noticed a few things different about her husband, though. Aside from his torn clothes, he had scars, from which Marceline had never seen before. There were ones on his face, his arms, and the most noticeable one is on his neck, encircling it completely. Marceline places Finn onto her shoulder and flies off to the Candy Kingdom.

            Finn wakes up in a hospital room, naked, with Marceline and Bubblegum at his sides. He begins to shake his head. "No! No! Get away from me!" He begins to struggle, but is tied down for safety precautions.

            "Finn, its us!" screamed Bubblegum. "Stop struggling!"

            His heart rate began to increase, making the alarm sound. The Candy Doctors and Nurses ran in. "Doctor, what's happening?" Marceline asked.

            "His heart rate is increasing at abnormal rates!" said the doctor. "We need to sedate him before he has a heart attack." The nurses pulled out a few syringes and laid them out on the table. The doctor grabbed a syringe and stuck the needle into Finn's arm, where he proceeded to inject sedatives into him. He calmed down almost immediately, for his heart rate decrease, but he was still struggling to free himself. "He needs another one!" yelled the doctor. So he injected another set of sedatives into Finn's blood stream and Finn knocked out nearly immediately.

            "Wow…" Bubblegum was speechless. "What was that about?"

            "I have no idea."

            Bubblegum placed her finger on her cheek, signifying that she was thinking. "Perhaps I have an idea what is going on." Marceline gave Bubblegum her full undivided attention. "Now I am no doctor, but I did see this behavior in some of the citizens post-war. Finn seems to be exhibiting a case of PTSD."

            "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

            "That’s right," nodded Bubblegum. "What worries me though, is that Finn seems to be exhibiting the effects of PTSD as if he had been through intense trauma for an extended period of time, normally, perhaps an entire lifetime." Marceline stared back down to Finn, holding his hand. "… But here is what worries me the most," Bubblegum continued. "Finn may still have the Lich inside of him. Whoever did get him out of that dimensional prison may want the Lich back."

            Marceline looked at Bubblegum in fear. "That’s impossible," she argued. "The stone should have been the only thing that was capable of bringing Finn back. Even then, it only could have been used once."

            "I know. Which leads me to think that someone or something got him out through means of some sort of interdimensional travel," Bubblegum looked at Marceline seriously. "Which means we may possibly be dealing with a force stronger than we could possibly imagine."

            Throughout this whole ordeal, once again, Marceline never leaves his side, like she did a little more than ten years ago. Bubblegum had left back to her studies, but came back to check on them every couple of hours. Marceline had been staring at Finn's scars, wondering what happened to him while he was locked away. It hurt her to think about it, but she just felt so curious. She became depressed, crying over her lover's unconscious body. She placed her hand onto his restrained hand and Finn wakes up from his slumber. He sees Marceline and begins to struggle for freedom again. "Finn, it's me! Marceline, your wife! Don’t you remember!?"

            "You're not Marceline!!" was Finn's response. "You're the Lich!"

            "Finn, it's really me!" Marceline grabbed his hand. "This is real! I'm real! You are really back in Ooo!" She waved his hand around. "Do you feel this? It's real." She proceeded to show Finn her ring. "Look! We're married, Finn! You put this on my hand during our wedding! Don’t you remember? I'm not the Lich!"

            Finn looked horrified. "No! This isn’t possible!" he screamed. His heart began to race again, and the nurses had to rush back in and sedate him again, knocking him out once more.

            Marceline looked at Finn, grasping his hand tightly. "What happened to you, Finn?"