Chapter Text
“Everyone, take up your positions.”
Bonnibel crouched near the top of the Hive, a place she’d been countless times before. Although, admittedly she’d never had so many bodies accompanying her before. It left her… fearful, but hopeful. Maybe they’d be able to pull it off, once and for all.
She hadn’t started out this journey with so many. In fact, originally, she’d only started out with two others by her side: Huntress and Martin Mertins. Both weren’t completely ideal company (one certainly more than the other), but they were equally helpful in their own rights. She hadn’t expected much, maybe get to the Star again and have the slimmest chance to enact her revenge. It had been what had felt like centuries since she’d even gotten close to the Vampire King; and that was even before the Star had taken her eye. She felt like she’d been stumbling around in the dark ever since, never able to catch a break. She’d gained and lost so many friends over the years, all at the hands of the vampires. It had almost made her lose all hope when she’d been reduced down to the two current recruits.
But then she’d think of what had been taken from her by the vampires.
And that helped her find the will to keep fighting.
Bonnie and her crew had been on their way in her Pep Tank, plowing through the abandoned city when they had come across a sight which was quite peculiar. Three travelers, two human and one… some kind of mutant cat? Bonnibel could really care less about what it was, as it seemed like the ultimate vampire killing machine. So, she’d helped them out and offered the mutant refuge in her tank. She hadn’t really wanted the other two useless bodies to tag along, but if the mutant (apparently named Cake?) insisted, then it would be.
It had taken them another full day to get near the hive, and Bonnibel was on full alert. When they had come across two pitiful travelers on the beaten road, begging them to stop, Bonnie was prepared to keep going and not look back. But her unwanted party had… other plans.
Now they were down a man and a tank. Cake had offered to become their new tank, and one of the humans, Fionna, took Martin’s place on their team. It was far, far from ideal, but Bonnibel had learned how to roll with the punches. Even if those punches had been self inflicted, they would just have to move on and make do with what they had.
So, here they were. Bonnibel had sent the rest of her surviving team to plant Garbos all around the hive, planning to have them all go off at once and drive all of the vampires out. Then, with them distracted, Huntress would sneak into the throne room of the Vampire King and either wound or kill him with a garlic arrow. Bonnie would call any progress for the day a win, and perhaps with the Vampire King gone, the Star would be much easier to take out as well. She felt herself becoming giddy at the thought, but couldn’t help that troublesome nagging at the back of her mind.
As her team regrouped around her, Bonnibel waited silently and with baited breath. Her Garbos had been rigged to all set off at a certain time, and hopefully that would give them just enough time to enact their plan and escape before they were swarmed. She turned to Huntress, who was rigging the garlic arrow and sliding it into her bow. They had already tied the rope around her waist, Bonnibel holding the other end and waiting until Huntress was ready before carefully hoisting her down into the Vampire King’s throne room.
She checked her watch. Fifteen seconds. She glanced back up to Huntress, and at the silent nod she received, shifted to carefully start lowering her comrade into the throne room. Ten seconds. When she felt a tug on the rope, she paused her movement, her heart beating near out of her chest at the anticipation. Five seconds.
Four.
Three.
Two.
Why hadn’t she heard anything yet?
One.
… And nothing happened.
Bonnie nearly dropped the rope in her hand, completely dumbfounded. Had she set the wrong time? Had all of them malfunctioned? What was going on?
She didn’t get much time to speculate, her heart lurching at the gurgled scream she heard from the hole below them. She felt the rope go slack, then sharply pull, nearly sending Bonnie straight into the hole with Huntress. The general had enough sense to let go of the rope and scramble backwards, watching in utter horror as the Vampire King himself burst through the hole, followed by countless of his vampire minions.
And in his arms laid a lifeless Huntress, impaled with the very arrows that had been designed for him.
Bonnibel heard the rest of her team let out a gasp behind her, but she herself felt speechless. She felt hot, angry tears welling up in the corners of her eyes, feeling that awful sinking feeling welling in her gut.
Huntress was dead, they were being surrounded by angry vampires, and it was all her fault.
She let out a biting yell as she felt hands grabbing at her, pinning her arms behind her back. She did her best to fight, kicking back wiping her head back to hopefully catch with one of her attackers, but it was no use. In little time at all, they had all of her team captured, and forced them down to kneel in from of the Vampire King. The vampires had never acted like this with them before, being so coordinated and quick to strike. Almost like this was… planned. Like they had known all along that she and her team had been here, plotting to kill their king. How could she have been so blind…?
She somehow felt her heart sink even lower when she heard that haunting laugh, coming from somewhere behind her.
Bonnibel did her best to turn her head to see her arch enemy, but the vampires holding her made moving near impossible. She could only glare in front of her at the Vampire King who loomed over them, the ice crown shimmering atop his head in the low light of the day. A constant reminder of her first failure.
The King dropped Huntress’ lifeless body carelessly to the floor, stepping over her and coming closer to the four of them. She could hear one of them fighting hard from her right. Cake, she instantly thought. That mutant cat could get us out of this mess for sure.
But the fighting soon seemed to calm abruptly, and Bonnibel felt herself fighting back a sob. She had no lifeline, no defense, no plan B. She had been bested, swiftly and unceremoniously, right from under her nose. And, to top it all off, she was pulling down five innocent people with her.
“Fancy seeing you here,” the Vampire King knelt down in front of Bonnie, his scowl unwavering. Bonnibel only glowered in return, gritting her teeth to spit back a sour remark before he stood and stepped back, giving her a curious look. Bonnibel fell silent before she even began to speak, confusion settling over her features. He only snickered softly, stepping aside and allowing that snake to step into Bonnibel’s line of sight.
It had been a long while since they’d been face to face with each other. Years, maybe. Bonnibel wasn’t sure, and it’s not like anyone here kept track of the passage of time anyways. The last time, Bonnibel had failed again, like she always did. She’d lost many of her friends… she should have known. Every new recruit ended up the same. The Star would show up, slaughter everything and everyone she held dear, and would let Bonnibel slip through the cracks to live another day. Bonnie almost wondered if the Star got some sort of sick, twisted enjoyment out of killing her friends. She wouldn’t put it past her.
Bonnibel only glared at the beautiful vampire before her as she stepped forward, casting a dark shadow over Bonnie’s figure. She knelt down right in front of her, a delicate finger coming up to trace Bonnibel’s chin. The general hissed in response, trying in vain to pull away from her sickening touch.
“Long time no see, Bonnibel,” the Star purred, her eyes lidded in sick pleasure as she painfully grabbed Bonnie’s chin, forcing them face to face. “Thought you’d best us this time, hmm?”
Bonnie grit her teeth, yanking her head out of the Star’s grasp to collect her saliva and spit straight into the Star’s face. She watched in satisfaction as the vampire recoiled slightly, disgust flashing over her features for a few short moments before her face settled back into a smirk, reaching up to gather the light pink saliva with her thumb. She brought the hand back to gaze at the liquid that dribbled down her thumb, seeming to contemplate it for a moment before fixing Bonnie with a lidded stare. Bonnibel gave her a confused look which turned into one of disgust as the Star made a show of licking the saliva off of her thumb, never breaking eye contact with the general.
“Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie…” The Star clicked her tongue, patting Bonnibel’s head before taking a stand again, stepping back a few paces. “I really thought you’d moved past this… so childish.”
Bonnibel only fixed her with a glare, her chest heaving. “Stop fucking playing with me and just kill me already!”
“Who ever said I wanted to kill you?” The Star snickered, but wilted a bit as she noticed the look the Vampire King was fixing her with. “I mean, of course we all know I have to, but… Who ever said I couldn’t play with you first?”
Bonnibel felt the gears turning in her mind, and she knew Star could tell too. No matter how much she’d changed, no matter how much she’d learned over the countless years they had known each other, both of them knew each other in and out. She knew the Vampire King was most likely getting tired of their little back and forth games and wanted things to end before Bonnibel actually did get the upper hand… And she could see the look in the Star’s eyes as she gazed down at her, contemplating her next move. She felt this odd feeling in her gut arising when she realized that, even after all of this time that they’ve had to grow to resent each other, the vampire really didn’t want to kill her. Maybe she was still in love, maybe it was because of that indescribable bond that they both shared… either way, it didn’t matter. The only thing that matters was that perhaps she could use it to her advantage.
“I… I have a proposition,” Bonnibel spoke slowly, her voice wavering. Was she really about to do this, for people she had only just met yesterday? On any normal day, in any normal occasion, that would be a resounding no. But this wasn’t any normal occasion, and maybe this would be a good thing. She’d be alone on this, but perhaps that could give her the advantage she needed.
“Let my team go, and you can have me. I’ll give myself up, willingly.”
Bonnibel felt her heart sink at the excited look that had washed over the Star’s face at her proposal. Part of this had been sort of a bluff to gage the Star’s reaction to see if her team even was still alive, and now she was instantly having second thoughts. But it seemed that didn’t matter, and she’d just handed the vampire everything she wanted.
“Is that so?” The Star snickered, sharp fangs flashing in her smile. “Just as easy as that? Are these three really that special to you? You’ve never once given in to me like this,” the vampire came stalking back into Bonnibel’s space, pulling her from the vampires that had been previously holding her. And Bonnibel let her do it, more tears pricking at her eyes.
“I like it.”
Bonnibel took a quick glance to her right, feeling a small sliver of relief at the sight. Cake was still very much alive, just knocked unconscious. She took another glance to her left, seeing that the other two were still alive as well, and conscious to boot. They seemed to be whispering to each other, both of their eyes locked fearfully with hers. I hope you use this freedom to it’s fullest, Bonnibel thought somewhat bitterly, feeling herself being pulled chest to chest with the Star.
Before the vamp could try anything, Bonnibel looked back to her, fixing her with an intense glare. “I have to see them off first.”
The Star gave her a frown, but only shrugged, snapping her fingers. “As you wish,” she grumbled. Even though Bonnibel was still trapped within her worse enemies clutches, she relaxed a little as the last remaining members of her team were let go, Fionna instantly running over to Cake’s side to check on her. She realized she didn’t want to watch any longer, turning back to The Star with a neutral expression.
They both just stared at each other, searching each other’s gazes. Bonnibel almost swore that she saw a bit of that vulnerability finding it’s way back onto Star’s face, like how she was when they were…
“Now what?” Bonnibel said at length, the first to break the tense silence that had settled over them. The Star gave a long, pondering sigh, gripping Bonnibel tight around the wrist.
“Honestly?” She muttered, sparing a glance back at her father. “… I didn’t ever think I’d get this far. Or that you’d be so stupid as to show up in the Hive.”
Bonnibel felt like she was experiencing whiplash with how quickly Star was reverting back into how she used to talk when it was just the two of them. Most of the twisted malice had drained from her voice, and she just sounded like that unsure and venerable young vampire again. Maybe- maybe she was imagining it. Maybe it had been so long since they’d been this close to each other that her memories were messing with how her perceived Star now.
When The Star looked back at her, her eyes were dark, but she looked more upset with Bonnibel than anything. “… You’re such an idiot.”
“Yeah, I know,” Bonnibel felt herself whispering in return, feeling a lump starting to rise in her throat. She thought it was just her nerves, but then she was suddenly lurching over and hurling up everything she’d eaten the night before onto the ground below. She could feel The Star let go of her wrist, stepping back and yelling something, but a ringing in Bonnibel’s ears started to pick up and drowned out any sounds from the outside. Falling to her knees, she coughed up the last of the bile sliding from her throat, clutching her head and her stomach. Her vision grew dizzy and blurry, and it took all of her remaining strength to just keep herself upright. She barely even registered when hands wrapped around her, lifting her from the ground and carrying her away. She felt her head lolling to the right, and the last thing she saw through her blurry vision was the silhouettes of Fionna, Cake, and Simon flashing in a pinkish light, and then they were gone.
