I do not own Amphibia.
If Google has any degree of accuracy, นางฟ้าis Thai for angel.
Spoilers for True Colors.
Of Broken Spirits and Renewed Hope
"Home."
Anne felt her vocal cords vibrate in her throat, felt her tongue curve around the syllable of the word, felt her lips as they moved to accommodate her vocal cords and her tongue. But she was speaking from instinct, not intent, as her brain swam in a haze of mixed colours—green, pink and blue, and the orange glow of a blazing sword—
Anne could feel herself wavering on the edge, practically see the black abyss threatening to swallow her whole, but three harsh coughs interrupted her dark spiral.
"What's that smell?" rasped Polly, covering her nose as she wheezed. Her gags racked her small form and Hop Pop quickly whipped a handkerchief from his pocket, using it to cover Polly's face.
The buzzing in Anne's ears stopped and the world exploded with sound and sensation.
Dozens of horns blared from commuters who were impatient and annoyed with traffic that should have been as familiar to them as the back of their hands. Heat seared Anne's exposed skin as the metal of the vehicle they were lying on burned from the exposure to the Californian sun. Exhaust rose in black clouds, sour and noxious, burning Anne's nose and making her eyes water.
There was the click of the car door opening and Anne snapped her head around. The portly man gazed blankly at her as his mind struggled to comprehend what he was witnessing. With a boggled expression, he looked between the girl wearing an armoured chest plate and the three large, anthropomorphic frogs sitting next to her.
"Hi," chirped Anne, managing to sound upbeat and cheerful. "Sorry, dude. We'll just be on our way."
"Where did you come from?" he asked. Anne couldn't identify his dialect, but his accent coupled with the maple leaf-shaped air freshener and his outfit screamed 'tourist'. "And what the heck are those?"
Sprig opened his mouth, no doubt to introduce himself, but Anne seized the Plantars in a one-arm hold, squeezing just tightly enough for speech to be difficult. "Sorry," she repeated, using her free hand to snag the strap of her backpack.
She slid down the hood and if it weren't for months of walking over sticks, stones and hard, uneven ground, the hot asphalt seeping through her worn-out sock might have crumpled her. But she ignored the pain as she swung her bag over her shoulder. The weight of Frobo's deactivated head nearly sent her sprawling, but she regained her balance and took off running.
She weaved her way through the bumper-to-bumper traffic, climbing over vans and sports cars and SUVs, ignoring the shouts and curses aimed her way by the disgruntled owners. She reached the metal barrier that separated the embankment from the freeway and she hoisted herself over it.
They tumbled down the grassy slope and Anne sprinted through the trees. The sounds of human civilization eventually quieted and Anne halted her sprint when she registered Sprig smacking at her arm.
She quickly let them go and they dropped to the ground. Anne's knees buckled as the adrenaline drained right out of her. Her mind was a mess of thoughts and her lungs felt like they were going to collapse.
The flaming blade piercing through Marcy's chest. The stunned expression in Marcy's eyes, the way all colour faded from her face. The tears that spilled down her cheeks, and the final words that tumbled from her mouth as her eyes rolled back into her head.
"I'm sorry. For everything."
Anne's agonized scream was promptly choked by the vomit that filled her mouth.
Hop Pop was by her side in an instant, hands gripping her shoulders as she hunched over and hacked into the grass. Her throat burned and her limbs trembled, the sight of Marcy falling lifeless and the sound of Sasha's horrified howl haunting her.
The sobs that pealed out of her came from somewhere deep inside the girl. They were filled with pure loss and devastation and it echoed amongst the towering trees. Tears poured down Anne's face, snot leaked from her nose as she cried and her fists pounded into the grass as emotion overcame her.
"Marcy!" she wailed. "Marcy, nooooo! Maaaaarcyyyy!"
Hop Pop wound his arms securely around her neck and pulled her close. Sprig and Polly clung to her, and all of his grandchildren were in a state of grief, tears glimmering on their skin and their small bodies shaking.
Hop Pop swallowed back his own sadness. As traumatizing as it had been to see a child slain in front of his eyes, he had to be strong for his family. He stroked Anne's hair, patted Sprig and Polly's heads, and gave comfort not with words but his presence.
Anne cried herself hoarse. When she found she had run out of tears to shed, she weakly sat up and wiped at her face. "It's not fair," she said croakily. "Hop Pop, it's not fair."
"I know, kiddo. I'm so sorry." Hop Pop rubbed his thumb gently over Anne's knuckles.
"She sacrificed herself to save us," said Sprig, squeezing his eyes shut against the swell of despair. "Her and Sasha."
Anne gave a distraught moan, her head bowing slightly as the weight of two worlds crushed against her shoulders.
"Hey, hey, look at me," ordered Hop Pop, and Anne reluctantly lifted her chin. "We don't know what happened to Sasha. She's a tough one. I'm sure she's fine."
"We don't know that!" shouted Anne, her voice cracking. "Marcy should have been fine, but she isn't! She's dead, and Sasha might be too! This isn't how it was supposed to go! We were supposed to come home together!"
She began to dry heave, stress and panic and grief clenching tight around her heart and making her feel sick. Hop Pop grabbed her face with both hands and stared steadily into her wet eyes. "Breathe with me. In and out."
Anne's first attempts resulted in strangled gasps, but eventually she gained control of her breathing. "I don't know what to do," she whimpered.
"We worry about that later," said Hop Pop firmly.
"But what about Andrias? And if Sasha is still alive—"
"Anne, right now, none of us are in a state to do much of anything," said Hop Pop calmly. "To be honest, I don't know if we can do anything."
Anne blinked at him before realization hit. "The music box is still in Amphibia."
Polly was crestfallen. "Does that mean we'll never be able to go home?"
"What about Bessie and MicroAngelo?" asked Sprig desperately. "And Ivy! I didn't get to say goodbye to Ivy!"
"Hush," said Hop Pop soothingly, pulling Sprig and Polly into his arms. "The townspeople will take care of our snails, and I'm sure Ivy will understand, Sprig. As for going back home, I don't know." He let out a heavy sigh, feeling every year of his existence weigh down his bones. "Maybe we can figure something out. But if we can't, we have each other. Home is where we are, even if we aren't in Wartwood."
He swept his eyes over his grandchildren, biological and adopted, and saw the words provided little peace in the moment of intense sorrow. But he knew they would come to appreciate how fortuitous it was that they returned to Anne's world as a family, even when the losses they suffered hung darkly over their thoughts.
Anne was staring numbly at the ground and Hop Pop tugged lightly at her elbow. She fell easily into his embrace, as if she were made of nothing but feathers, and her forehead rested against the top of his head. For a moment they just stayed there, Anne's body radiating warmth and causing Polly and Sprig to nestle closer to her, seeking her familiar heat.
Polly was the first one to hear the musical twinkling. She blinked over at Anne's backpack. "Anne, your bag is singing."
Anne slowly turned to follow Polly's gaze, and it took her several seconds to register the noise. Suddenly it was as if a live wire had touched her and jolted to action, shrieking, "My phone!"
The Plantars were jostled as she dove for her bag. She ripped Frobo's head out and Polly said furiously, "Hey! Don't treat him like he's junk!"
But Anne barely heard her. She plunged her hand into her bag, the bristles of her brush and points of her bobby pins sticking her flesh. Her fingers wrapped around her phone and she yanked it out.
Her text alert, which she hadn't heard in months, was jarring to her ears. The notification center on her phone was being flooded by dozens and dozens of texts, missed calls and voicemail alerts. They poured in so fast Anne was only able to glimpse the names attached before they were replaced by another batch of notifications.
The majority of the texts were from Sasha, Marcy and Anne's parents. There were a couple from the local police station, which caused Anne's stomach to grow cold with fear. She hadn't even considered the consequences of literally disappearing off the face of the Earth.
And then her phone froze, unable to keep up with the backlog of messages coming in all at once. Frustrated, Anne stabbed at her screen with her finger, but it was no use.
Her eyes fell upon the last text to make it to her notification center. It was from her mother.
Oh, นางฟ้า, your father and I miss you so much. We pray for a sign that you and the girls are alive, and that you will return home soon.
"Oh, Mommy," whispered Anne, her fingers digging into the rubber material of her phone case.
Hop Pop approached and set a hand against her back. "Let's go see your parents," he said softly.
"But I don't even know what to say to them," she said helplessly. "I don't know if they'll understand. It's…the things I've been through, the things we've been through, they don't happen here. Not ever."
"Well, we're here to help you explain things," said Sprig earnestly.
"Yeah, I'm…I think I might need some time to prepare them for you three," muttered Anne. "They are so gonna freak out." She glanced back at her frozen screen, and her heart plummeted as she read the most recent message from Marcy's father. "Oh, how do I tell them?" she said in despair. "How do I tell Sasha's parents that I had to leave her behind? How do I tell Marcy's parents that their daughter is…is…"
Her voice wobbled and her eyes started to sting once more. Anne wanted to cry, but she didn't have the energy nor the water for proper tears. Hop Pop gently set her phone back in her bag, which Anne allowed without protest. He laced his fingers with hers and said, "We'll tell them the truth, Anne. That's all we can do. We'll tell 'em how brave their daughters are."
Anne gave a sniff. She tugged her hand free from Hop Pop's grasp so she could rub at her eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, for sure."
She took a few minutes to gather herself, to try and clumsily sort through the heavy emotions swirling in her chest. She wanted to mourn, but there wasn't time. She had to see her parents, had to tell them what happened.
"So, how long have you been gone?" asked Polly in a small voice, embarrassed by her earlier outburst. "Does time work the same way here?"
"Um…I don't know." Anne gestured to her pink backpack, where her phone was once again nestled safely inside. "It froze on me, so I can't check the calendar or anything. And I didn't get to see the dates on the first few rounds of texts." She looked over to see the pollywog nuzzling Frobo's cheek. "I'm sorry, Polly. I shouldn't have thrown him around like that."
"S'okay," mumbled Polly. "I shouldn't have yelled. I'm just really sad and upset right now."
"Me too." Anne leaned over and brought Polly into her arms, pressing a gentle kiss against her head. "I'm sorry, Polly. Maybe we can fix him."
"Yeah," piped up Sprig. "He just needs a new body, right? When we get home, we can go back to that weird machine place and get him a fresh one."
Polly perked up at that. "Yeah…yeah!" she said. "If we keep his head safe, we can rebuild him!"
There was hope in her eyes. It glimmered and shone and Anne found herself hypnotized by it.
Something flickered in her heart.
"Until then, we'll do what we can here."
Hop Pop, Polly and Sprig looked at her in surprise. The teen's chin was set, her mouth settled in a determined line. "Anne?" ventured her best friend. "What do you mean?"
"I'm not just going to sit here and wait," said Anne. Her own hope ignited, and the spark soon blazed throughout her whole being. "I'm not gonna just do nothing." She set Polly down and stood, her fists clenched by her sides. "You're right, Hop Pop. Sasha's fine. Marcy…Marcy made the mistake of turning her back to Andrias, but that wasn't her fault. Sasha won't do that. She'll find a way to take the box from that monster and open the portal again.
"But until she figures that out, I gotta do my part. That music box came to Earth somehow. The thrift store where Marcy found it, they had a wardrobe with the Amphibia symbol engraved into the wood. And Marcy knew what the box could do, which meant she found some information about it somewhere."
She thought about Wartwood, her home away from home. She thought about Wally, Mrs. Croaker, Archie, Bessie, MicroAngelo, Toadstool, Toadie, Loggle, Ivy, Sylvia, Felicia, Stumpy, Maddie and the rest of her friends from the humble country town. She thought about Sasha, who despite her need for control and her habit of lying to get what she wanted, came through for her friends in the end.
She thought about Marcy.
She had tricked them into leaving their parents, their lives, and trapping them in a world so beyond imagination that Anne never in a million years would have dreamed it up. She had done it because she was so scared to lose the friends she loved most, so desperate to stay with Sasha and Anne forever.
She had been inconsiderate. She had been selfish.
So had Anne. So had Sasha. Marcy didn't deserve to die for her mistakes—none of them did. They were just three teen girls who sometimes did stupid, stupid things.
But they cared about each other—Anne believed that. Even if it was misguided, even if it was manipulative, she knew Sasha and Marcy cared about her—they sometimes just went about it in all the wrong ways.
And even though Marcy was the reason they were in this mess in the first place, and even though Sasha's trickery was the reason Anne didn't initially believe her about Andrias, she cared about them, too.
Right now, it didn't matter if she wasn't sure if she still wanted to be friends with Sasha after all she had done. It didn't matter that she still stung over Marcy's own manipulative scheme to take her friends away from everything they ever knew.
However complicated her emotions currently were, it didn't mean she couldn't still care about the two girls she'd shared her most precious memories with.
She was going to find a way to get back to Amphibia. She was going to save her friends. She was going to bring her frog family back home. She was going to save Amphibia and countless other worlds from Andrias' tyranny.
She wouldn't let anyone else she loved die by his hands.
"We're not helpless!" she said fiercely. "We won't let him make us helpless! We're gonna stop him!"
Her pupils and irises illuminated a bright blue.
"They did it again!" exclaimed Polly.
Anne blinked and the colour of her eyes returned to normal. "What?"
"Your eyes! They did the funny light-up thing! Are you gonna turn blue again?"
Anne flexed her fingers, but she didn't feel numb or tingly, like she had when Andrias had thrown Sprig out the window. "No, I don't think so." She glanced down at her hands, brow furrowed. "To be honest, I have no idea how that happened. I don't even really remember it? I mean, I know what I did, but it felt like I wasn't in my body while I was doing it."
Sprig looked between Polly and Anne in confusion. "I clearly missed something when I was falling to my death."
"Oh, it was so cool, Sprig! Anne went all glowy, and she was using blue magic, and she was flying! She nearly beat the snot out of Andrias!" said Polly excitedly.
The words reverberated through Anne's mind; She nearly beat the snot out of Andrias.
She could beat him. She was still connected to her stone, and that fact seemed to cause Andrias great unease.
"Do you think you'd be able to use those powers again, Anne?" asked Hop Pop, following her same train of thought.
"I'll learn," said Anne firmly. "I'll figure it out. Once I get control of my powers, Andrias won't stand a chance."
There was no question of whether or not she'd be able to gain control of her newfound abilities—she had to. It was her best bet to defeat Amphibia's king.
Sprig tilted his head to the side. "Do you know what activated them in the first place?"
Anne regarded him, intense warmth and adoration bubbling in her stomach, and she gave a soft smile. "You. When he threw you out the window, I thought you were dead, and I was so angry."
At a momentary loss for words, Sprig's eyes filled with touched tears and he jumped into her arms. "Oh, Anne."
"I love you," said Anne passionately. She lowered to her knees and brought Hop Pop and Polly into her steel embrace. "I love all of you. I'll do whatever it takes to protect you."
"We love you too," said Hop Pop tenderly, lightly running his fingers through her curly hair. "That's what we've got over Andrias—love for one another. Pardon the sappiness of it, but that's what we'll use to beat him."
"It's not sappy at all," said Anne. "It's the truth." She gave them one more tight squeeze before setting them back down. She grabbed her backpack, swinging it over her shoulders, and she picked up Frobo's head. "Come on. I've kept Mom and Dad waiting long enough. I can't wait for you guys to meet each other."
They headed back to the freeway, where Anne hoped one of the stuck commuters would be willing to lend her their cell phone so she could call her parents to pick them up. As they made their way up the littered slope, Anne closed her eyes briefly.
Hang on, Wartwood. I'm coming back for you. Do what you can until I get there, Sasha. I know you can do it—you never give up.
A lump swelled in her throat, and she swallowed back a sob.
We won't let him win, Marcy. I promise we won't. You saved us, and I'm so sorry I couldn't return the favour.
A breeze kicked up, ruffling her thick, curly hair, and in the caress of the wind she swore she could hear a carefree giggle and a sweet summons of Anna-Banana. She let out a slow breath, and a lone tear spilled from the corner of her eye and trailed down her cheek.
I forgive you, Mar-Mar. I forgive you.