The Blood of a Human

It’s been a year since the heroes of Ooo beat the Rising Demon and found out that Finn and Marceline's daughter Shelby was the Bloodforged, the possessor of the mighty Bloodforged armor that makes her the most powerful warrior in Ooo.  Her latest growth spurt got her to the mental & physical age of 14, even though she is chronologically only 7.  Princess Bubblegum has assured her parents that at this point her growth will be VERY slow, and it seems that she will age about 1 year for every 5 that pass, virtually assuring she will reach at least the age of 400!  After that battle left Finn more vampyrized than before, this means that he should live about as long as she does, which makes him happy!  Marceline is very happy that they will both have very long lives, and she knows that Finn will become a Vampire when he dies.  She is still sorting out how she will feel about being married to an old man for eternity!  But Finn and she will sort that out in the future!

A frequent visitor to the tree house has been Darkelon! He and Finn have become regular sparring partners, and they have only made themselves better for it.  Princess Bubblegum also likes to watch these battles!  She has been showing a lot of interest in Darkelon, but she tends to hide her feelings.  Her subjects are still scared to death ofhim!  She has been trying to help him learn mannerisms that would endear him to the candy people, but every time that his massive, 7’2” frame turns to a group of candy people and he flashes one of his grins full of pointed, razor sharp teeth, almost invariably one gets so scared that he or she explodes!  Even though he knows its wrong, Darkelon does think it’s kind of funny!  He is very practiced at holding a poker face until he can get back to his training area!  With this encouragement, PB was able to make a potion that can reliably recover the ‘splodeys to life!  Finn and Marcie are still working on a way to get these two to admit that they like each other and quit hiding their crushes!  But PB and Dar both hide the stars they get in their eyes whenever they are around each other…

While Finn and Marcie are discussing this situation, Marceline remembers a book at the Hall of Vampires that might be helpful called To Love a Dhampyr.  They let Shelby know they are going out, and they trust their daughter to be good!  Knowing that she is the Bloodforged does ease their minds in these situations!  They let her know they will be back in a few hours, about 2am.  Then they put on their Vampyri royal armor and fly out towards Doom Gulch!  As they fly away, Shelby calls her cousin Mort.  Mortimer was the only one of Jake and Lady Rainicorn’s Canisicorn pups that got both of his parent’s abilities!  He can stretch just like his dad, and can fly and phase shift like his mom.  He can also fire beams of light from his horn that can change a target’s color, but he has refined this so he can fire beams of heat energy as well!  While these beams are not super powerful, they do cause a lot of pain to their targets, and are good for starting campfires!  She invites him over to play BMO, and Lady OK’s that.  He comes over and as they play, Shelby's friend Christy comes in the window!  Mort and Shelby greet her and then they talk about stuff, and then take turns playing BMO.  They end up staying up until quite a bit past Shelby’s bedtime!  Finally she goes to bed about midnight, and Mort crashes on the couch.  Christy is content to sleep in Finn’s old sleeping bag on the floor in Shelby’s room – it’s better than lying on the ground in the forest!

The next morning, Shelby gets up and goes to wake up her dad to see if he wants to spar a bit, but he’s not in bed!  Mom’s gone too!  She gets a little worried; they said they would be back around 2am.  She calls Jake and PB to see if they went there, but neither has seen them!  She asks PB if she will have Darkelon come over, because she is worried and wants to go look for them.  PB agrees and says, “No problem Shelby, I’ll go down and tell him right away!”  Shelby thanks her and thinks, “Man, why doesn’t Princess undies-in-a-wad just tell Dar that she likes him!  Everyone in the Kingdom knows it!”  Shelby’s friends get up and ask why she is anxious.  She explains that her parents were supposed to be home last night!  Christy gets a little teary eyed thinking about her parents, but holds the tears in… Within 10 minutes Darkelon arrives, and she explains what happened.  They head off to Doom Gulch, where no flight is possible unless you are wearing Vampyri Royal armor, and when they get there Mort turns himself into a big horse.  Darkelon and Shelby turn into bats to ease his load, and then the group travels into the gulch.  Shelby stops Mort and then she speaks the incantation to open the door to the Hall of Vampires.  The door opens and Shelby gasps!  The place has been wrecked!  Tables have been shattered, and almost all of the chairs have been broken.  A lot of the artwork has been destroyed or is missing!  And there are no zombies anywhere!  The group splits up to look around. Mort and Christy find the zombies – they are all dead.  Shelby is looking around with Darkelon, and they hear some noise from the armory!  Shelby recalls her Bloodforged armor, and Darkelon opens the door…

Finn is inside!  He is bleeding badly and looks like he is in bad shape!  Shelby flies to him and says, “Daddy!  What happened?”  She starts healing him with the blood red energy, and he says, “When we got here, there were a bunch of vampires here!  They were raiding the place andtrying to get into the armory!  They saw us in our Vampyri Royal armor, and they attacked us!  Your mom scourged a couple of them, but then they knocked her out and pulled her to the side!  I tried to fight them, but there were a dozen of them!  I killed a couple, but they started slashing me, and I lost too much blood!  We got to the armory, and my Sword phased us through the wall! Once I wasn’t fighting, my fast healing saved me, but I knew it would be a while before I could go after your mom!  They could not get into the armory, since they had no Dhampyrs with them.  And I think they figured I would die soon enough from blood loss.”  He sits up and says, “These evil Vampyri plan to drown the land of Ooo in its own blood; Turning or enslaving anyone that resists them!”  He stands and says, “Quiet everyone…”  He focuses on contacting Marceline via the private link they share with the armor.  Then he hears Marceline’s voice!  She thinks, “Finn, is that you?  I’m in it deep honey!  They have me in the Mountains of Darkness!  There is some kind of magic that keeps demons out of this area, but they put a bug on my neck that let me come in!  If I try to shape shift, the bug will jump off and I’ll burn up!”  Finn is horrified at that!  She continues, “Finn, they are starving me.  There is a vampire male here that is opening wounds on his hand and putting it near my nose!  He is trying to force bloodlust on me so I will attack him!  Once I drink his blood, he’ll be the Vampire King!  Finn, you are supposed to be the Vampire King!  But if I break and bite him…”  Finn reaches out to his crystalline sword, a gift from the Ice King with tremendous ice powers, amongst other things!  It leaps off of the ground and into his hand!  He sheathes it as Marceline continues, “Finn, I don’t know how long I will last.  I’m getting hungrier by the minute, and the smell of blood is not helping!”  Finn quickly recaps what is happening to the group.  He leads them outside, and has the 2 Dhampyrs turn into bats and jump on his back.  Finn grabs Mort in one arm and Christy in the other and flies off towards the Mountains of Darkness!  After a few minutes they are clear of Doom Gulch, and Mortimer starts flying, and Christy gets on his back.  The two Dhampyrs stay on Finn’s back, and the group continues their journey!

They get to the mountains, and Shelby can feel the resistance to her demon side!  She can’t even get in with the Bloodforged armor on!  So she keeps the armor on, crosses her arms and pouts!  Finn says, “Mort, you and Christy try to find out what is keeping Shelby out.  Darkelon, you and I are going to have to take on these Vampyri and free Marceline before they break her!”  The two groups separate and go in.  Darkelon turns to Finn and says, “You know that if she breaks and turns that vampire into the king, they will immediately kill her so the new King can select his own queen.”  Finn gets a stolid look on his face and replies, “I know.”

Mort and Christy move cautiously around the area.  Christy is looking for clues, and as they fly around her practiced forest-savvy eyes spot some broken tree limbs and crushed ground cover… She says to Mort, “That way!  Head towards the sea to the north!”  He hurries there, and they see a bunch of vampyri slaves overseen by a Dhampyr!  The slaves are surrounding an incantation circle, and the Dhampyr is right in the middle of it!  Christy jumps down and says, “Take out the circle after I draw their attention.”  She stands up and uses her bow to shoot an arrow at the Dhampyr.  He catches it, looks at her and growls!  He waves for the slaves to follow him!  She starts firing arrow after arrow, with everyone finding a mark, taking out a slave!  As this goes on, Mort sneaks to the incantation circle, and starts spinning like a helicopter blade!  After a few seconds the Dhampyr feels the breeze, looks over and says, “NOOO!”  The design in the circle breaks up, and all of the slaves fall to the ground dead!  Mort fires his heat beam at the Dhampyr, causing him much pain!  When he turns to face him, Christy leaps in the air and strikes the Dhampyr in the shoulder with her sword!  The Dhampyr screams, and turns to face Christy!  She uses her tremendous agility and her sword to make the Dhampyr miss or weaken his blows.  Then Mort comes over and turns his fists into hammers, and wallops the Dhampyr!  As he stumbles, Christy uses her sword to trip him, and he hits his head on a rock!  He is going to be out for a while!  Mort and Christy start heading quickly back to where Shelby is!

Finn and Darkelon approach a castle at the center ofthe area.  There is a pair of Dhampyr guards at the gate, and all other windows have been sealed with brick!  They don’t have time to search for an entrance, they decide to attack!  Finn grabs Darkelon by the collar and drops him between the two guards!  Then Finn freezes one in place!  Darkelon turns to the other and they clash!  Dar swings across at his enemy, who evades the attack and thrusts at Darkelon!  Darkelon parries the attack, and then uses his Dhampyr ability to boost his muscles, his Seal of Honor, to power his fist, which smashes into the guard, stunning him!  Then Dar raises his spear and impales his enemy!  Finn flies down and strikes the other Dhampyr with the hilt of his blade, causing him to shatter!

Then Finn receives a message from Marceline.  “Finn, I-I can’t hold out any longer, I am about to go into bloodlust!  I just want you to know I love you with all of my heart!  Tell Shelby I love her!”  Finn thinks back, “Marcie, no!  Hold out one more minute, I have a plan!”  Finn walks up to Darkelon and whispers in his ear.  Darkelon’s eyes get really big, and he sheds the first tears he has cried in decades…

Shelby is getting really anxious waiting around doing nothing!  She is The Bloodforged, damnit, and she should be in this fight!  Then Mort flies over the forest with Christy on his back!  She says, “It’s clear Shel, go ahead!”  Blood red energy surrounds her, and she flies off towards the castle as fast as she can go!

Inside the castle, Marceline has waited as long as she can.  With tears in her eyes, she bites the Vampire’s hand!  But then she spits the blood out, it tastes horrible!  But that can only mean one thing…

She blurts out, “There is already a king!”

Suddenly there is a huge amount of noise in the ballroom of the castle!  Then a large wolf leaps into the room and growls at the vampire!  The wolf changes into Finn!  Marceline is shocked!  She sees that Finn is a full blown vampire!  Darkelon enters the room, and he shuts the door behind them; there is a HUGE explosion in the ballroom!  Finn pulls out his crystalline sword and says to the other vampire in the room, “Your judgment is death!”  He fires a beam from his sword that locks the vampire in a block of ice, and then Darkelon leaps at him and hits him with a Seal enhanced fist, shattering the block of ice into a thousand pieces!  Darkelon looks over at Queen Marceline, and hurriedly pulls out a red scarf he has in his belt satchel, and puts it to her mouth.  She sees it and sticks her fangs in and draws the red out lustily!  Her eyes return to normal, and Darkelon frees her, swatting away the bug on her neck!  She jumps up and runs to Finn hugging him with all of the love in her heart, but he is having trouble absorbing all of the changes to his body and mind occurring because of his vampyrization, and has a faraway look in his eyes… Marceline can relate to the disorientation that comes from being turned into a vampire! 

As her dad was moving towards the room where her mom was being held, Shelby sees all of these evil vampires and their slaves in the room!  They look at her, and a few recognize what she is!  She looks at them with absolute hate, and starts firing blood red energy at them!  She yells, “YOU MADE THIS HAPPEN!  YOU FORCED MY DAD TO BECOME A VAMPIRE!  YOU ARE THE ONES THAT ARE HURTING MY MOM!  AND YOU ARE GOING TO PAY RIGHT NOW!!! As the energy strikes, the vampires and slaves explode!  She turns to a group of them and forms a cloud of red energy over them, and it starts striking them with blood red lightning!  Then when she sees that her dad and Darkelon have gone in the room and shut the door, she screams, and blood red energy fills the room, vaporizing everything!  Woe to them that make the Bloodforged their enemy!  After that she floats to the ground and walks to the room where her dad and mom are…

She walks in and sees her mom hugging her dad, and her dad nearly in oblivion.  Darkelon has his head bowed, and Shelby walks up to him, absorbing her armor into her skin as she goes.  Tears form in her eyes and she strikes him in the mouth and says, “How could you kill my dad?”  Darkelon also forms tears in his eyes.  He feels the blood running down his lip and says, “W-We had no choice.  The only way to stop things was for there to already be a vampire king.  Your father was already destined for the job.  When your mother said she could not hold out any longer, Finn begged me to kill him!  It was the hardest thing I have ever done, he is my closest friend!”  Darkelon continues with an uncharacteristic stutter in his voice, “But his plan worked, and now your dad is Finn, King of the Vampires!”  He bends down to a knee and says, “Shelby, I beg your forgiveness.  There was no other way…”  She looks at him with obvious fury, then more tears form in her eyes and she hugs him!  She starts bawling and says, “I forgive you, my friend…”   Then she stands up and goes over to her parents and hugs them both…  Finn gets some clarity of thinking and says, “Marcie, we can’t have this happen again.  How can you not be the Vampire Queen?”  She replies, “The only way I can lose this crown is to not be a vampire.”  She puts her hand against her chin and says, “Hmm… If I rejoined with my mirror self from the 50^th dead world, I won’t be a vampire anymore.”  Finn, whose thinking is a bit crazy at the moment, thinks that sounds logical!  Shelby gives a foul look to her dad, and turns to her mom and says, “Mom, don’t do it!  You can’t take the chance!  I-I need you in my life!”  Marceline says, with tears forming in her eyes, “Your dad is right, Shel.  If there are other vampires in the land of Ooo, they are also going to be hunting me.  Eventually something will go wrong, and they will win!”  She looks into the sky and closes her eyes.  A miniature tornado forms in the room and it is glowing with bright energy.  It flashes out of existence, and Marceline’s mirror image, the part of her that died when she became a vampire, is standing across from her.  Mirror Marceline looks around the room, and can sense the intense emotions being felt by everyone!  She looks at Marceline and says, “Are you sure this is what you want?”  Marceline says, “Yes.  This is the best thing for the land of Ooo…”  Mirror Marceline reaches her hand out, knowing that this touch has a 50/50 chance of  both of them living or dying, and they both blink out of existence.  Finn and Shelby both know that their beloved is in the 50^th dead world.  They are both devastated, and hold each other crying…

Then Finn opens his eyes!  He is in a featureless area, and he is 15 again!  He looks around and sees the Cosmic Owl!  “You see, young hero that is
the path your life will lead if you are with Marceline.  You have already seen the path you will have with Flame Princess.”  He shakes his head and remembers what the Owl showed him first...  

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He continues dating Flame Princess for about a year, and then there is an incident where she superheats and evaporates Finns arm and mutilates his face!  He immediately breaks up with her!  Finn goes into hiding, and Marceline, who has been looking for him diligently, finds him in a cave – it’s the cave that she hid in during the Mushroom War!  He tells her to go away, but she won’t leave.  She tells him how stupid she was!  She was looking forward to dating him, but wanted him to be a little older when they started.  She has difficulty looking at him, but she knows she really loves him!  Eventually she gets him to leave the cave and move in with her.  She helps him get a cybernetic arm, and they find a mask that covers the burnt part of his face.  Eventually he starts allowing others back into his life!  Then one day the evil demon rose.  Darkelon is by the side of the greatest hero Ooo would ever have!  Jake and Marceline are with them, and they all know this is it!  The fight goes poorly for the heroes; Darkelon fights valiantly, but ends up grounded with a broken leg.  Jake is knocked unconscious, and Marceline had several bones break from a thrown boulder!  Now it’s up to Finn!  He avoids the attacks of the demon, and strikes him in the belly with his Demon Blood sword!  He leaps into the air and as the demon screams, Finn jumps into his mouth!  As he jumps he screams “I LOVE YOU MARCELINE!”  He goes into the belly of the beast, and looks at his cybernetic arm.  He crosses the wires on the power supply, and it starts sparking!  Then a bubble of energy grows, and consumes Finn! The bubble explodes as a micro nuclear blast, and the beast is vaporized!  Darkelon, Jake and Marceline are horrified!  Finn gave his life to stop the demon!  Marceline sits up the
best she can, and starts bawling uncontrollably.  Darkelon crawls over to her even though it is very painful for him, and puts his hand on her shoulder.  He says, “He was the bravest warrior and the greatest hero the land of Ooo will ever see…” 

After a few minutes Marceline finishes healing and stands up.  She walks over to Jake, who is also devastated.  She says, “Make sure there is a monument put up for his bravery.”  He gets a determined look in his eyes, and nods.  Then she flies off.  Later the sun starts rising, and Marceline flies into the air.  She starts flying higher and higher!  She gets to about 30,000 feet, where there is barely enough air to breathe, and waits… The sun breaks over the horizon, and she begins burning.  She starts crying and says, “I’ll be there soon, my love…”

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The Cosmic Owl looks at Finn and says, “When you leave here, you won’t remember any of this. I can help influence two decisions in your life.  What would you like to see happen?”  Finn whispers into the Cosmic Owl’s ear…

This next part will be easier to understand if you read my story Bloodlust, or at least the first few paragraphs.  [link]

Finn shakes off a woozy feeling and stands upright, and then he thinks, ‘Whatev’s” and continues looking around the curio shop.  He has a little treasure with him and is looking for something cool to spend it on!  He sees a crystalline rose that glistens in the light of the shop.  He is sure Flame Princess would love it!  As he is looking at the rose, he faintly hears a song in his head, The Dance of the Phoenix, a flute oriented piece he used to play before he broke his flute.  Then he sees a flute hanging on the wall!  He thinks, “Wow, I sure would like to try that again!”  He only has enough treasure to buy one or the other.  He looks at the rose, and then the flute, puts down the rose and buys the flute!  He gets on the phone and says, “Hi Marceline!  I just bought a flute; can I come over and play some stuff with you?  AWESOME!  See you in a few!”  He hangs up and asks Jake if he wants to join them.  Jake says, “Naw, I need a nappy!”  Then Finn walks over to Marceline’s house…

Finn and Marceline live out their lives as the Cosmic Owl showed it to them.  They go through the Bond, get cured from it, have a child, restore sanity to the Ice King, and save the Land of Ooo from the Rising Demon.  Finn, Shelby and the rest of their friends save Marceline from the Rogue vampires, and Finn has approved Marceline’s plan to reunite with her Mirror self from the 50^th dead world.  As they get ready to touch, a voice in Finn’s head says, “Slow down buddy!”  Finn says, “Wait!”  Marceline and her Mirror look at Finn, and he says, “Never mind…”  Marceline touches her Mirror image, the dice are rolled, but this roll is a few seconds after the one that the Cosmic Owl had showed Finn!  The outcome is quite different!  Bright energy surrounds them both!  It forms tendrils that dance around the two, and then wraps around them!  There is a flash of light, and Marceline is standing there!  Her skin tone and color show that she is no longer a Vampire!  She rushes over to Finn and Shelby, and hugs them with everything she has!  Tears form in Marcie’s eyes, and she can’t wait to walk out into the sunlight!  About this time Mort and Christy walk into the room sheepishly; Christy says, “That was a wild fight Shelby!  Is it safe to come in?”  Shelby walks over to her friends with a smile on her face and beckons them to come in!

Suddenly a dimensional portal opens behind Finn, and a skeletal hand grabs him by the collar and pulls him through, after which the portal closes!  Marceline and Shelby are stunned and don’t know what to do! 

In the 50^th Dead World, Death stares at Finn!  “You pitiful human!  Your time is not up yet!  Why is THIS here?”  Finn sees his mirror image, the part of him that died when he became a vampire!  Finn says, “I saw no other way for things to work out!”  Death sighs, and says, “Yes, mortals are so limited in their ability to reason…”  He looks at Finn, and says, “You need to stay alive as a person for a few more years.  There is still much for you to do before you can enter my kingdom!”  He starts playing a song on his piano, and Finn and his mirror are drawn together.  They touch, and then blackness!

Finn falls out of a portal from the ceiling and lands unceremoniously on the floor!  Finn looks just like he did before Darkelon killed him; he is still a vampyri affected human!  Finn says, “It looks like the vampire nation is going to have to wait for its royalty.  Until I die, there won’t be a vampire king or queen!”  Marceline runs over to Finn and kisses him with all the passion she can muster!  Shelby turns away from them, looks at Mort and Christy and says, “They still know how to creep me out…” under her breath!

Finn asks Marceline if she can still fly.  She tries to levitate, and is successful!  But then she says, “It’s the armor.  I wasn’t able to fly before I became a vampire.  The armor gives limited flight ability, or boosts any you already have.”  Then she says, “Wait!  Why am I still wearing the armor, other than all I have on under it is lingerie?  I’m not a vampire anymore!”  Finn says, “You are worthy to be the Vampire Queen milady, and that is why the armor is still yours!”

The group steps out of the castle, and the sun has risen.  Marceline turns her face to the sunlight, and enjoys the feel of the warmth!  Marceline wonders what it will feel like to get a suntan!  It’s been hundreds of years since she has felt the blood of a human coursing through her veins, and she really, really likes it!  Finn grabs Marcie and Shelby by their waists; Christy and Darkelon jump on Mort’s back and they fly to the tree house.  Mort drops off Christy and heads off to the Candy Kingdom with Darkelon.  Finn lands in the tree house, and offers Christy free run in the kitchen, and says she can nap in the living room and even spend the night if she wants.  Shelby gets a smile on her face, and says, “Who wants some bacon pancakes?”  Christy thinks that sounds great!  Finn wants to take a nap, and Marcie joins him in their bedroom.  He looks at her and says, “So, nothing but lingerie under the armor?”  She smirks and says, “Finn!  We have a guest in the house!”  He looks at her with a devious grin and says, “You owe me!” And then he turns over to rest.  Marceline looks at him with all the love she has to give and thinks, “Yes, Finn I owe you more than you will ever, ever know…”

END