Ok, so before we start, the reason why this took so long to release was due to the delay of True Colors. I was originally planning on releasing this before it aired, but decided against that and chose to instead wait until after I watched TC so that I could make the proper edits. But because of TC getting delayed, this chapter also ended up getting delayed as a result. The revision ended up being relatively the same as its original version, which you can check out if you want by searching up this URL (www reddit com/r/amphibia/comments/n1x9mk/it_has_to_be_this_way_chapter_2_part_1/), just be sure to replace the spaces with dots when you do. Anyways, enough talk; enjoy Chapter 2.
After invading Newtopia and surrendering herself to Anne, Sasha, Anne, and Marcy were waiting for some Newtopia guards to arrive to take her away, but due to the invasion happening the forces were spread very thin. Sasha decided to try and talk to Anne, try and sway her back to obeying her commands; but before she could say anything though, a volley of boomshroom arrows blasted apart one of the nearby buildings, causing a pretty sizable chunk of debris to come flying towards Sasha's head, and then...
Lights out. When she awoke, Sasha found herself within a black void.
"Where... Where am I?" As she looked around, she ended up hearing a very familiar voice, and it didn't sound happy. "ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!"
"Huh?" Sasha turned towards the voice to find Inner-Sasha in a chair, staring at a screen that said "Technical Difficulties: Please Stand By" and throwing popcorn at it. And honestly, I can understand why she's pissed right now.
"Those idiots! It was just getting good!" Inner-Sasha then threw the bucket she was holding at the screen before screaming in rage and sighing in annoyance. A few seconds pass before she goes "Huh?" and turns around, noticing Sasha.
"Uhhhhhh," Sasha says before chuckling nervously. "Hi."
Inner-Sasha could only stare in confusion. "W. T. F." With that said, she then got up out of the chair and walked up to Sasha, staring at her for a few seconds before she started poking her. She then started poking her all over her face and body, with Sasha eventually doing the same; after a few seconds they stopped poking each other and just stared. The staring contest lasted for about 20 seconds before Sasha suddenly screamed like a banshee.
"JEEZ!" cried Inner-Sasha as she smacked Sasha in the face.
"Ow!" Sasha cried as she started rubbing where she got smacked. "You know, in all honesty, I kind of deserved that."
"What the heck are you doing here?! HOW did you get here?!"
Sasha just shrugged her shoulders as she replied, "I don't know, one minute I'm surrendering and the next minute everything goes black, then when I opened my eyes again, I ended up here." Sasha then looked around.
"What is 'here' exactly?"
"This is your mind."
Sasha raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"My mind?" She then looked around again as she alternated between her eyebrows.
"Huh, thought it would be a bit less... Dark."
Inner-Sasha shrugged her shoulders as Sasha stopped looking around.
"Eh, you get used to it." She then turned around and started walking back to the chair, motioning for Sasha to follow her.
"Anyways, since you're here I may as well go over what your next course of action is to get Anne back. So, what I was thinking..."
As she started talking, Sasha noticed the cell containing Young-Sasha and pointed at it. "What's in there?"
"Huh?" Inner-Sasha turned and noticed where Sasha was pointing. "Oh, that's just where all of the bad stuff goes, no need to pay any attention to that. Anyways going back on topic here..."
"I feel like there's something important there, like it's... Connected to me somehow."
Inner-Sasha rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Well duh it's connected to you, it's literally a part of your brain. So unless you want to relive your worst nightmares, I highly suggest that you avoid that thing like the plague, end of discussion." Inner-Sasha then continued to ramble on about her plan, granting Sasha the opportunity to sneak by unnoticed towards the cell.
Once she got close enough to the cage, she noticed a small figure behind the bars. And that's unfortunately the moment where Inner-Sasha ended up noticing her.
"Hey! What did I say about staying away from that cell?!" She said as Sasha slowly turned towards her. "I am trying to tell you something important and you're just ignoring me! Now you're going to walk and STAY AWAY from that cell, right now! End! Of! Discussion!"
Sasha was shocked, though a little unsurprised, at how her inner self ended up using her own words against her, but she quickly snapped out of it and turned back towards the cell.
"Hey, is someone in there?" The figure in the darkness slowly walked up to the bars, revealing themselves to be Young Sasha and eliciting a small gasp from Sasha.
"Oh, my Frog! What happened to you?"
As Young-Sasha was about to open her mouth to speak, Inner-Sasha cleared her throat to get her attention, putting her finger up to her mouth as if to shush her, before sliding it across her throat. However, Young-Sasha has had enough and glared as she pointed at Inner-Sasha.
"It was her, she's the one who tossed me in here and sealed me away!"
Inner-Sasha gasped in disgusted shock as Sasha turned towards her. "Seriously? Are you really going to listen to this kid's lies, Sash?" She couldn't let Sasha figure out the truth.
Unfortunately, the universe seemed pretty keen on toying with her as Young-Sasha continued talking, even as she told her to shut up through gritted teeth.
"Please, you have to believe me! She's the true reason why Anne left, SHE'S the reason why Percy and Braddock left after you got the hammer, in fact she's the one responsible for all of this!"
At that moment, Inner-Sasha had officially snapped as veins began to bulge on her forehead.
"Shut up shut up shutupSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUUUUUPPPPPPPPP! ! ! ! ! !" This sudden display of rage caused Sasha to begin slowly welling up in fear over her inner self's breakdown while Young Sasha started to question if she should have spilled the beans like that. Inner Sasha then snapped her fingers, opening the cell and removing the chains, before grabbing Young Sasha by the neck and lifting her up.
"I SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE!"
In what may be her last act of defiance, Young-Sasha spat into Inner Sasha's eye.
"Burn in heck."
Inner-Sasha wiped off the spit and glared at Young-Sasha.
"You son of a...!" She growled before grinding Young-Sasha's face against the cell bars like a cheese grater. Sasha could only watch in shock and horror as Inner Sasha slammed her younger self face first into the ground and started grinding it on the floor.
"You're a monster!" Sasha cried.
At that moment, Inner-Sasha stopped and slowly turned her head towards Sasha, her eyes bloodshot with anger. "Monster? MONSTER?! I was the one responsible for keeping you three together, but then Marcy found that stupid music box and now everything, everything has gone to crap! ! ! But I swear once we're back on Earth, I will make things right!"
"You mean make them worse. She's right, none of this would have happened if you never existed in the first place! And I reckon it's high time that you disappear," Sasha said as she drew her sword. "Now!"
Inner-Sasha could only stare deadpan at Sasha, before she started to chuckle, which then turned into mad laughter.
"You seriously think that you can get rid of me that easily?! Wow, you're even dumber than I thought!" She tossed Young-Sasha into the cell and shut it tight before continuing.
"But if you really want to try, then BE MY GUEST!" Inner-Sasha then kicked Sasha and knocked her back hard, causing her to crash through an invisible wall and onto Toad Tower. Sasha looked around in bewilderment as she got back up and onto her feet.
"Huh, what?!"
Inner-Sasha then stepped out of the hole and walked towards Sasha with an intimidating stride.
"You know, this is going to sound pretty hypocritical of me but, when we get back home, I am really going to miss all of... This," she said as she gestured towards the area, before sighing wistfully.
"I made so many good memories here, it's a shame that I'll have to leave it all behind soon."
Sasha raised an eyebrow in confusion at that.
"What are you talking about, I made those memories."
Inner-Sasha snickered at that.
"Not for long, because once I kill you and that dumb brat, I'LL be the one in charge!" Inner-Sasha pulled out the photo as she continued.
"And then things will go back to EXACTLY how they were."
Sasha's eyes widened in shock.
"What?! Oh no! No! No! No! No! You are NOT stealing MY body and doing whatever you please with it!" She quickly got into a fighting stance as Inner-Sasha pocketed the picture. Inner-Sasha then threw off her shirt and jacket, revealing some well-toned muscles and a sarashi around her torso, before waggling her finger at Sasha. Sasha then charged at Inner-Sasha and thrusted her sword forward, only for Inner-Sasha to spin 180 degrees to her left as she stepped to the right and slammed her elbow into Sasha's face. Sasha then started swinging wildly, hoping she could get at least one hit in, but Inner-Sasha dodged each one and countered by slamming her fist into Sasha's face, knocking her to the ground.
"You're going to have to try a little harder than that if you want to beat me," Inner-Sasha said before chuckling.
Sasha spat at the ground as she struggled getting back up.
"We are NOTHING alike you son of a-!" But before she could finish that sentence, Sasha got grabbed by the face and was tossed away like a ragdoll.
"Language young lady, and you're right. We ARE nothing alike, because I'm BETTER than you, I'm Sasha Two-Point-Oh!"
Sasha let out a grunt as she was slammed against a wall, shaking as she stood back up.
"Two-Point-Oh? Don't make me laugh, you're nothing but a worthless downgrade!" Sasha then threw her sword at Inner-Sasha, who calmly caught the blade with a barehanded blade block, before letting it go and having it harmlessly clang onto the ground. However, Sasha took this opportunity to tackle her to the ground, headbutting her during the descent. After getting back up and drawing her knife out, Sasha then leapt into the air and jammed it straight into Inner-Sasha's left eye, causing her to scream in pure agony, blood spurting out as Sasha gouged her eye out. After a few seconds, Sasha took the knife out, grabbed her sword, and started slamming it onto Inner-Sasha.
"Die! Die! DiediediediediediediediediedieDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!" And with each utterance of the word, Sasha slammed the sword faster and faster, splattering and eviscerating Inner-Sasha into a bloody, unrecognizable pulp. And with one last yell from the top of her lungs, Sasha is now completely drenched and covered in her consciousness' blood, panting heavily like a wild animal as she slowly walked back out through the hole in the wall and towards the cell.
"Hey kid! Did you see? Did you see me kick that punk's butt?!" Sasha said as she chuckled to herself, before noticing the scared look in Young-Sasha's eyes.
"Hey! What's-what's the matter, you're safe."
Young-Sasha pointed a shaky finger behind her, causing Sasha to turn around and get grabbed by the face and slammed into the ground. Upon getting a good look at what slammed her, Sasha's eyes widened in fear as the thing turned out to be Inner-Sasha, fully reformed and mutated into some grotesque fusion between Sasha and Yunan, with a dark aura surrounding her and wearing an eyepatch over her left eye, which can barely be considered an eyepatch since you can still see the empty eye socket underneath. And she had an anger so fierce she could make even the likes of Kratos cower in fear.
"Ya done screwed up now, Sash!" She then started to repeatedly slam Sasha's head into the ground, causing cracks to form around the point of impact.
"If you had just accepted my help, NONE OF THIS WOULD BE HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE! ! ! !" And with one last slam, the ground broke, causing the two Sashas to fall through and into the void. Inner-Sasha then jumped off Sasha, letting her fall hard onto the ground below. As Sasha slowly got back up, she started hearing some familiar voices, turning her head around she saw some familiar scenes; Sasha forcing Anne to hang out with her and Marcy instead of going home, forcing Anne to steal the music box, the fight on Toad Tower; all of these memories and more were being played out on repeat right in front of her eyes. Inner-Sasha then landed a few feet behind her, causing Sasha to whip around upon the sound of impact.
"Do you see now?" She said as she gestured towards the sword fight.
"She left you because you were too weak to make her stay. But I can help. If you could just let me take control, I promise that not only will you be spared, but your friendship with Anne will be fixed as well. It'll be like you never came to Amphibia," Inner-Sasha then walked up to Sasha and held her hand out for a handshake.
Sasha looked at the hand, then the memories, a look of worry on her face as she ACTUALLY began to consider the deal. But then she notices the memory of her standing up for Anne and Marcy back when they were little kids. Then she saw the bad memories were getting replaced by memories where she, Anne and/or Marcy were happy, GENUINELY happy and having fun. No manipulations, no potentially illegal activities, just three girls having a good time.
"Wait a second, what am I even THINKING? She barely even tried to manipulate me into this. Tch, and she says she's a Two-Point-Oh of me," Sasha then punched Inner-Sasha in the face, causing the memories to disappear as Inner-Sasha rubbed her face.
"That... Was your last..." Inner-Sasha growled as she produced blades from her arms, ripping through her skin and covered in her blood.
"CHANCE!" Inner-Sasha then vanished, surprising Sasha.
"What the-?!" Sasha tried to look around for her, when suddenly Inner-Sasha appeared right in front of her and slashed downwards, barely giving Sasha any time to react as she closed her eyes and braced for impact as a gash appeared over her left eyelid, heavily damaging it and forcing it shut as it started to bleed heavily. Sasha yelled in pain as she put her hand over her left eye, then she started swinging her sword wildly as Inner-Sasha continuously beat down on her, before getting her sword knocked out of her hands as she got stabbed in the arm.
"YOU THOUGHT!" Inner-Sasha yelled as she slammed Sasha to the ground with a German suplex.
"THAT YOU WERE THE ONE IN CONTROL?!" She then transitioned into a cross armbreaker as she continued.
"I WAS THE ONE WHO GAVE YOU THE IDEA TO SAVE THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!" She said as she triangle choked Sasha.
"I WAS THE ONE WHO MADE YOU TELL MAGGIE TO LEAVE ANNE ALONE!" Followed by an anaconda strike.
"IN FACT, IF IT WEREN'T FOR ME, YOU WOULD STILL BE STUCK IN THAT JAIL CELL BACK AT TOAD TOWER!" She cried as she did a guillotine choke on Sasha before mounting her.
"Face it, Sash, you're NOTHING without me, you NEED me, and I say it's high time that you got that through your THICK! SKULL!" And to further emphasize it, Inner-Sasha punched Sasha hard in the face and got back up after rolling away from her.
"Once I get rid of you, a storm's gonna be coming, Sasha, and no amount of umbrellas or raincoats will keep them from being drenched!" Sasha just lied there, motionless as the pain from the beatdown coursed through her entire body.
"You've made a lot of mistakes, Sasha. But don't worry, I'll make this quick," Inner-Sasha then brandished her blades and started walking towards her.
"You're right." Inner-Sasha stopped, surprised and unsure of how to respond.
"I have made a lot of mistakes. Some I'm not even sure if I can make up for," Sasha slowly sat up as she continued.
"I robbed! I cheated! I hurt people!" She grabbed her sword and used it as support.
"I've done things no thirteen-year-old should even THINK of doing," Sasha chuckled dryly as she stood up.
"I mean, I led an ARMY for crying out loud! But none of them," Sasha said as she gripped the sword handle tightly.
"NONE of the come close to me listening to you since day one!" Sasha yelled as she raised her sword and pointed it at Inner-Sasha. And at that moment, storm clouds began to gather, confusing Inner-Sasha as Sasha cracked her neck and undid her ponytail.
"What is happening? Where did these clouds come from?"
Sasha brushed her hair back as it started raining.
"Also, remember back when I said that we were nothing alike? Well, what separates you and I is the fact that I never! Give! Up! Not in the past, not in the present, and I most certainly will NOT give up in the future! You're right though, a storm is coming, ME. I am the storm that is approaching! So, in the words of a certain silver-haired, fellow sword wielder," she said as she raised her sword and pointed it at the sky, letting lightning strike it and coating it in electricity, before getting into a battle stance as she glared at Inner-Sasha.
"Show me your motivation!"
Inner-Sasha growled before charging towards Sasha and clashing blades with her. Sasha then forced her back and dashed forward, slicing Inner-Sasha as she ran past her, before sheathing her sword and whipping out her knife. Unfortunately, before she could get any use out of it, Inner-Sasha knocked it into the air. The two then jumped to try and grab the knife as it fell, landing back-to-back with Sasha holding the knife, who then promptly slashed Inner-Sasha as she quickly turned around, only for it to get kicked back up after doing so.
They traded blows, with Sasha delivering a swift gut punch before they each delivered a front kick to each other's faces. They then noticed the knife coming back down and did a roundhouse kick, intending to jam it into the other's leg. Once they made contact with the knife, a stabbing sound could be heard as Inner-Sasha yelled in pain and fell to the floor, pulling the knife out of her leg afterwards.
"Why you-!" She growled as she got back up. Inner-Sasha then grabbed Sasha by the back of her head and slammed her onto an invisible wall, smiling with sadistic glee as she's about to stab her in the hand. Sasha quickly dodged the attack and slammed her inner self's head onto the knife's handle before kicking her back and grabbing the knife.
"If you could keep your mitts off of my toys," Sasha pulls out her sword as she puts the knife away.
"I would greatly appreciate it," Inner-Sasha roared with rage as she charged at Sasha, who stood her ground and countered every attack that she could. While Inner-Sasha did get a couple good hits in, she was ultimately no match to Sasha spontaneously kicking her in the crotch.
"Ugh Frog do you EVER shut up, all of that constant yelling of yours is starting to annoy me to no end," and to further accentuate that point, Sasha kicked her in the jaw and sent her flying.
"Ugh!" Inner-Sasha grunted upon impact.
"You think that just because you persevere means that you're some kind of special snowflake? Well news flash princess, I will not stop until I have your head mounted onto my wall!" She growled as she got back up.
Sasha responded with, "Sorry, kind of need my head in order to... y'know, SURVIVE and all that jazz. Anyways, I think we're done here."
After she said that, Sasha raised her sword to the sky and let lightning strike it once again, before thrusting the blade forward and launching the lightning at Inner-Sasha, electrocuting her. A fiery pink aura then surrounds Sasha as her eye gets imbued with a pink glow and a flaming aura of equal color begins to stream from the corner of her eye as she reels her sword back.
"You shall die!" And with her inner self's death declared, Sasha vanished, and almost immediately after that, several slash marks appeared in the air, on Inner-Sasha, and on the ground, with Inner-Sasha in the center of it all as Sasha reappeared a few feet in front of her, facing away from her. The slash marks on Inner-Sasha soon began to glow red due to blood spurting out of them, causing her face to twist into one of fear.
"No, no!" she cried as she reached out towards Sasha.
"YOU NEED MEEEEEEE! ! !"
Sasha then swung her blade to the side in order to flick the blood off of it, before slowly sheathing it as she said "No. You. Need." and just as the blade finally clicks into place, "Me."
Once the sword was fully inserted into the scabbard, everything shattered like glass as light started to shine from where the pieces fell. And what the void turned into, was the playground where the three girls first met. Sasha then noticed the cell was there, but it and the chains latched onto Young-Sasha were fading away.
"You did it. You actually did it," she said as a chuckle escaped her lips.
"You're free."
Sasha kneeled and put her hand on Young-Sasha's shoulder as the last of the chains disappeared.
"No... we're free," suddenly she started glowing, surprising Sasha, and causing her to back up as Young-Sasha transformed into Inner-Sasha. She then slowly and warily put her hand onto her sword.
"You're not going to make a control freak, are you?" She asked with caution in her voice as she pushed her sword out a bit with her thumb.
Inner-Sasha smirked as she said, "Ha! No," causing Sasha to be surprised at the answer.
"Look, I know that my new look makes me seem untrustworthy, but you gotta remember that she grinded my face on those bars like a block of cheese and that she tried to kill you just because you didn't want to go through with her plan. Does that really sound like the kind of predecessor that you would want to emulate?"
Sasha thought it over for a second before responding back with "Nope."
"Exactly," Inner-Sasha then clapped her hands together. "Alright, I have a lot of work to do here fixing the mess that control freak made, while you need to go back to Anne and Marcy."
At that moment, a door appeared in front of the bench Anne sat on when she opened the box. Sasha walked towards it and put her hand on the handle but hesitated twisting it. She looked over to Inner-Sasha one last time, who told her that she's got this, before turning back to the door and taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. And after that, she opened the door and stepped through into the light.
When the light faded, everything was pitch black before Sasha slowly started opening her eyes. Once they were fully opened, she was greeted with the sight of a ceiling riddled with blue glowing mushrooms, as she sat up and looked around.
As she scanned the room, she made note of how it was now nighttime because of the window and wondered why it was so familiar for a jail cell. Her gaze soon fell upon a mirror to her right, shocking her with what she saw in the reflection. The Sasha within the mirror had on a plain white t-shirt and bandages wrapped around her head, left eye (right eye from Sasha's perspective) and her arms. Sasha's eye widened in shock at just how damaged her body was and turned away from the mirror, inspecting her arms.
"What happened to me? I-It was just a piece of rubble I mean, how could something as simple as that cause all of... this?"
Suddenly the hatch opening above snapped Sasha out of her thoughts, causing her to look and see the last person she thinks would EVER pay her a visit, ESPECIALLY after all of the horrible things that had done to her: Anne, with Marcy right behind her. As soon as they saw that Sasha was awake, they immediately rushed over and hopped onto the bed with looks of relief on their faces, with Anne being the first to speak up.
"You're ok!"
Marcy followed up with a sigh of relief and saying, Thank Frog we managed to get you to safety in time, that looked like it hurt!"
Sasha asked the question that I am sure we are all wondering, "What happened?" She then noticed a cut on Anne's cheek.
"And how'd you get that scar?"
Anne and Marcy looked at each other, wordlessly asking if they should tell her before nodding their heads, and Marcy being the first to speak up.
"It's... kind of a long story."
Many, many hours earlier. Sasha had just gotten hit in the head by the debris, causing Anne and Marcy to start freaking out. Anne is the first to voice her distress in this situation.
"Oh no, Sasha!"
Marcy kneeled to get a better look at Sasha's head wound.
"This is bad, she's bleeding. We have to get her to Andrias, maybe he can have a doctor patch her up!" She then proceeded to lift Sasha up, though she did struggle a bit, I mean this is Marcy we're talking about here. Despite that though, she managed to fully lift Sasha up and started carrying her bridal style.
"Come on!"
But before they could go anywhere though, a toad came by and saw them, gasping as he drew his sword.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing with Lieutenant Sasha?!"
Marcy was the first to speak up, saying "She's been hurt really bad! She needs medical help!" hoping to defuse the situation a little bit, because from what Andrias told her, an angry toad was a dangerous toad. The toad, thankfully, lowered his sword, but what he said next made the two extra worried.
"Oh. Well, if she's hurt then she needs someone to escort her to safety, that someone being me. Now just put her down and walk away, and I won't have to hurt you." Marcy looked over to Anne, who looked back at her as they both thought the same thing; if this toad were to take Sasha back to the toad army, there's no telling how they'll react.
The toad in front of them might lie and say that they knocked Sasha out and were about to kill her, causing the toad army to want revenge in some way. What that revenge would be though is unknown, but neither of the girls wanted to find out. Anne mouthed the word "Run," causing Marcy to nod her head and start dashing towards the castle. The toad did not like that one bit as he yelled at them.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!" The toad started running after Marcy. Despite his small size, he managed to catch up to Marcy and grabbed Sasha as he ran past her, quickly and carefully propping the lieutenant against a wall before turning back towards Marcy.
"You done messed up now!" To further emphasize his rage, he slashed at Marcy, leaving a gash going diagonally left downwards from the bottom of her chest to just above her waist. She yelled in pain as she staggered backwards, before getting slammed in the gut so hard that she was sent flying into a wall, cracking it upon impact. Anne could only stare in horror at what just happened.
"Ma... Mar-Mar?!" That was the only thing she could mutter as she stared at Marcy's motionless body. With no response, Anne started shedding tears, before roaring into a fit of rage as she ran towards the toad, her eyes flickering blue as she socked him in the jaw.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!"
The toad staggered a bit, but he recovered.
"You really got a death wish that bad, eh? Well then consider me a genie because your wish is my command!" He charged at Anne, only to receive a cross punch slammed into his face, knocking him back as Anne grabbed a nearby rock and smacked it into the toad's head three times, with the third being particularly powerful as Anne jumped and slammed it down, knocking him to the ground. After he got back up, Anne pulled his arms so hard that his shoulders got dislocated, turned him around with a sumo slap, then tossed him with a judo throw. Anne then rushed over and flipped him onto his back, mounted him, and then started wailing on him.
However, as she pounded away at the toad's face, Anne's eyes flickered like old lightbulbs and she got a headache, giving him the chance to kick Anne off of him and onto the ground, leaping on top of her like a lion trying to bite her face off. Anne struggled against him, before her eyes glowed blue again and she forced him off of her and assumed a Muay Thai stance once she got up. The toad did not take kindly to that, however as he tightened the grip on his sword.
"I don't know what it is that you're doing, but whatever it is it ain't gonna work!" He tried swinging his sword to try and slice Anne into ribbons, only for his blade to be shattered in one bite.
"What the-?!" It was all he could say before Anne slammed him in the gut with a te ta, followed by a flurry of te trongs, and then ending it with a kradot chok to his face, knocking him out cold. As Anne calmed down and panted from the adrenaline rush, her eyes dimmed back to normal as she glared at the toad.
"If you know what's good for ya, you had better stay down." Her eyes then widened in terror as she quickly turned towards Sasha and Marcy.
"Oh no, Marcy! Sasha!" She immediately ran towards Sasha and hoisted her onto her shoulder, then she ran towards Marcy and carefully held the unconscious teen under her arm and rushed towards the castle. Upon reaching the throne room, Anne forcefully kicked the door open and ran towards Andrias.
"Andrias!" She gently put down Sasha and Marcy as she dropped to her knees.
"Andrias, my friends need medical help stat!" She turned towards Sasha as she explained what happened.
"Sasha got hit in the head by some debris-!" she turned to Marcy.
"And Marcy got slashed by-!"
However, before she could continue, Andrias held his hand up as he said, "Say no more. While the one with the yellow hair, who I'm assuming is Sasha, is an enemy, a good leader must know when to show compassion and mercy towards even their enemy. I'll see to it that they get patched up as soon as possible."
This caused Anne to sigh in relief as she stood back up.
"Thank you Andrias, thank you."
Fast forward to now and Sasha had her arms crossed.
"So that's what happened, huh?"
Marcy lifted up her shirt, showing the bandages and confirming the story as true.
"There's more. After I woke up, Andrias wanted to talk to me about the box. I wanted Anne, the Plantars, Olivia and Yunan to join and he accepted my request, but then when we got to him, he... he..." Tears began to well up in Marcy's eyes, but then Anne patted her on the shoulder, wordlessly telling her that she could take it from there.
"But that's when things went downhill fast."
A few hours before Sasha woke up, Marcy, Anne and co. were in the throne room, the music box in Marcy's hands.
"Here it is, one fully charged music box. Now all we gotta do is have you show us how it works."
Andrias beamed with pride at his Chief Ranger.
"Excellent work Marcy. Now give it to me, and I will show you how to go home." As Marcy was about to give the box to Andrias, something ended up shaking the castle and a roar was heard. Andrias was especially nervous at the roar.
Anne was the first to verbally express her shock.
"What was that?!"
Andrias had to get things back on track and FAST. "That's not important right now. Marcy, the music box, NOW."
"Huh?" Marcy asked in confusion, before she quickly put two and two together in regards to what she had to do.
"OH, right, the box," she started handing it to Andrias, but stopped just as she was about to place it into the palm of his hand.
"Wait a second."
andrias started to sweat bullets because of Marcy's hesitation. "Marcy~," he said as he began to grit his teeth.
"Now is not the time for having second thoughts."
However, fate seemed to favor Marcy as she started to interrogate Andrias.
"Just, one question your majesty. You seemed pretty nervous when the source of the roar made itself known, why is that?"
Andrias tried to deflect the question by saying, "It's of no concern to you and your friends now GIVE ME THE MUSIC BOX!"
Unfortunately for him, Marcy pressed on.
"Not until you tell us where the roar came from, it was somewhere in the castle wasn't it?! I have gone through this entire building top to bottom, so I know practically every nook and cranny within these walls, but apparently there were some things I missed so where is it?"
At this point, Andrias was starting to get a little ticked off at Marcy's sudden insubordination.
"Who cares about that dumb, insignificant roar just GIVE ME THE BOX!"
But Marcy wouldn't take no for an answer.
"Andrias, I have done practically everything you told me to do up until this point! Now either you tell me where that roar came from or else I'll... I'll... I-I'll run away with Anne and Sasha and find someone else who knows how to use the box!"
Andrias's face fell into one unimpressed at Marcy's threat.
"That the best you could come up with? Look Marcy," Andrias said as he got up from his throne.
"I'm the only one in the entirety of Amphibia who knows how the box works, so either give it to me now, or else I'll have to force you to give it." Marcy clutched the box tight against her chest as she cried out.
"No!"
Andrias lets out a deep sigh.
"Then you leave me no choice," within nearly an instant, Andrias jabbed the tip of his tail into various areas of Marcy's body, including the side of her neck, striking various nerves and causing her to let go of the box. Guess all those hours spent studying human biology turned out to be more useful than he originally thought. He then grabbed her by the cape and lifted her into the air, before letting go and slamming Marcy with a front kick, sending her flying straight into the wall.
As everyone looked on in shock, Andrias grabbed the box and stepped on a pressure plate, just as Grime burst into the throne room.
"I think it's time I gave you all a proper history lesson. When I said my people were 'peaceful explorers,' I was actually lying. We were conquerors! Every world we went to could only cower in terror at our immense might, however I was betrayed by my closest friends and over a thousand years later, our legacy was forgotten."
Grime noticed a happy and cheerful tapestry on one of the walls and pulled it down, revealing a mural depicting Andrias standing over a pile of bones, most likely from the innocents he slayed as well as any enemies who tried to stop him.
"Wow, he is not kidding."
Andrias continued.
"But now," he said as he put the music box onto a pedestal that came out of the floor.
"I can reclaim it, and then some!" The lines on the pedestal started glowing the same colors as the gems, snaking their way down towards and along the ground as the castle started shaking.
"Oh, and I may as well spill the tea as you humans tend to say. After you left, Anne, me and Marcy talked over a game of flipwart and at one point she told me that she was afraid. Afraid of how once she's back home she'll no longer be with her friends, how she'll be alone in this foreign world. Of course, considering how you went straight to the Plantars without a second thought she was understandably upset. But then I stepped in and offered her a deal; charge up the musix box, and I could take her and her friends on adventures into new worlds all the time, removing the fear of ever losing her friends again."
Anne turned towards Marcy, who began to cry as the castle started rising into the air.
"I just... didn't want to be alone."
The smug snake Andrias was taking great pleasure out of the moment as he continued.
"So go ahead." He sat in his throne as robots suddenly came crashing in through the windows. "Thank Marcy for inadvertently helping me finish what my ancestors started."
Anne couldn't believe it. While getting stranded in another world just because your friend was scared of being alone was one thing, Andrias had manipulated and controlled Marcy like his own personal puppet, pretending to be someone who cared about her, and then taking that trust and smashing it into dust.
"Tch. And here I thought Sasha manipulating ME was bad, but you just took that and blew it straight out of the water! We may have made some mistakes, but there is absolutely no denying the fact that you are pure evil! She yelled as she pointed at Andrias before drawing her sword. Andrias said nothing as he snapped his fingers, prompting one of the robots to grab Sprig and take him over and hold him out of one of the windows, while the other robots separated Anne from the rest of the group.
"Sprig!" She turned towards Andrias and glared daggers at him.
"Let him go!"
Andrias wagged his finger like a metronome at Anne's words.
"Ah bup-bup, choose your words carefully Anne, we wouldn't want your little friend here to end up going splat on the ground, now would we? Now put down the sword, or your friends perish."
Anne looked between Sprig, Andrias, and the others as she thought about what to do. She can't lose Sprig, he was the first TRUE friend she had ever made since she first came to Amphibia, same with the others. Well, maybe not Olivia or Yunan since they didn't really hang out all that much, and ESPECIALLY Grime, but even they didn't deserve to die, especially not at the hands of this mad tyrant who thinks himself a god. And it is with a heavy sigh that Anne let go of her sword and let it fall to the ground.
"There. I did what you said. You happy?"
Andrias flashed an evil grin.
"Very. You know, you're a lot stupider than you look, you know that?" He turned to the robot holding Sprig.
"Toss him!"
And as if time began to crawl, Anne could only watch in horror as the robot holding Sprig threw him out of the window. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she fell to her knees and memories of Sprig began flashing through her mind. Anne's head hung low as the tears fell, but she's not the only one who's upset. Yunan could only watch in horror and disgust at how Andrias treated a child's life like it was nothing. This was not the king she knew.
"How could you Andrias?! He was just a child, and yet you treated him like trash! Effective immediately I am renouncing my allegiance to you!" She then slipped past the robots and tackled the one that dropped Sprig out the window.
"Hmph, she always was a bit of a nutcase," Andrias grunted once she went out the window. Outside, Yunan crawled over to the robot's back and slammed her fists into the machine's back, hijacking and forcing it to fly and reach out towards Sprig to try and grab him.
Back within the castle, Anne was still in shock over what just happened. She then started breathing heavily as rage inside her started building up, and her eyes started glowing blue. Everyone stood there in shock as Anne's hair started turning blue and was rising as the twigs within began to grow as she slowly got back onto her feet, and a blue aura began to surround her.
"Give! HIM! BAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCKKKKKKKK! ! ! ! !" After screaming at the top of her lungs, Anne grabbed her sword and bisected one of the robots, before proceeding to slaughter the others.
Andrias was in shock at what was happening before him.
"But how?! I thought that they already charged the Heart Gem, she shouldn't have her powers if that's the case," he then noticed Anne temporarily go back to normal, before roaring at the robots and shifting back to her Calamity form.
"Hmm, looks like the gem was only charged halfway. And it appears she hasn't mastered her powers yet," he whispered quietly to himself before yelling to the rest of the robots at the top of his lungs and pointed to the group.
"GET THEM! ! !"
The robots that weren't destroyed immediately started attacking the others, however they too managed to put up a fight, forcing Andrias to stand up, draw his sword and start attacking. At that moment, Yunan came back in with Sprig and saw one of the robots was about to attack Olivia, immediately jumping in and slicing the robot apart with her claws. While everyone was busy fighting, Marcy managed to free herself from the wall and started sneaking towards the Calamity Box. After removing the box from the pedestal, the castle started to slowly fall back to the ground, tipping Andrias off that something was wrong.
"NO! ! !" He charged towards Marcy and thrust his sword towards Marcy's back to try and stop her from fiddling with the box, and once it made contact...
At that moment, Marcy could only feel pain; hot, searing pain as she dropped the music box again. Andrias only managed to slice a deep gash up Marcy's back due to Anne quickly noticing and deflecting his sword just in time. While it didn't manage to kill her, it did manage to draw deep; very deep, enough to where the cut on Marcy's back was spewing blood.
"MARCY! ! !" Anne cried out in horror, before turning to glare at Andrias.
"Now look what you've made me do," he spoke in a low voice before trying to slice her apart.
Anne quickly and barely dodged Andrias's sword as she grabbed Marcy, receiving a cut on her left cheek in a mirror position to Sasha's as she dashed towards the door, slashing apart the robots and beckoning everyone to follow her. As they ran, Grime immediately stopped when he realized something.
"Wait a minute, where's Sasha?!"
Anne got a look of horror on her face as she handed Marcy to Frobo and immediately ran off to get Sasha. When she got there, one of the robots was about to shoot Sasha in the head. Acting quickly, she decapitated the machine and saw that her arms were covered in slash and stab marks, and there was a gash over Sasha's left eye, the same kind of damages that Inner-Sasha gave her, with all of them most likely from the robot. Once Anne bandaged Sasha up and put her over her shoulder, she quickly caught up to the others.
"Ok, let's go!"
At that moment, Marcy started to cough up blood.
"Wait-! Anne!" she weakly said before coughing some more.
Anne was starting to get worried due to the amount of blood Marcy was spitting out.
"What is it, Marcy?!"
Marcy mustered as much strength as she could to continue.
"The book-! Andrias's book, about the Box! We might, need it!" And with her final breath, she fell unconscious due to blood loss.
Anne tried shaking her awake.
"No Marcy, stay with me girl, MARCY! !" But she just wouldn't budge.
"Dang it," Anne sheathed her sword and put Marcy over her other shoulder.
"We have to get out of here, NOW!" After Anne said that, Olivia blew a finger whistle as they started running again, making it to Joe Sparrow just as he landed on one of the balconies. Frobo quickly helped everyone but Polly and Anne onto Joe as the three of them needed to get Andrias's book.
The flashback ended as the three ran back into the castle.
"After that we ran to the archives, found the book and had Frobo carry it back. Once we got to Joe though, one of Andrias's robots blasted a hole into Frobo's chest through his back and-!"
Marcy continued once Anne stopped.
"And I was out while this happened but apparently at that moment, Polly grew her legs! I knew she'd get those walkers someday, just didn't think it would be when I'm slowly dying if I'm being honest."
Anne continued where Marcy left off.
"After that, she started running and jumping around, drawing the fire of the other robots and forcing them to shoot each other. Before she got on Joe, she checked Frobo to see if he was ok and all he could do was weakly give a thumbs up as he lifted the book up and started following us. From there we came here to Wartwood, patched Marcy up, and after I woke up from the small coma my weird powers gave me once they deactivated, we explained to everyone what happened."
Marcy continued.
"Frobo managed to survive and is still functioning despite the gaping hole in his chest, like that thing is about as big as my head for crying out loud! Kind of reminds me of Legion from Mass Effect."
Anne threw in her two cents saying, "Yeah, THAT is what Polly considers to be a miracle."
Sasha could not believe what she had just heard. She always knew from what Grime told her that Andrias was a bad dude but, she did not exactly realize how true he was. To think that he would dupe Marcy that hard made her sick to her stomach. However, considering Marcy was responsible for purposefully getting them stuck in Amphibia in the first place, could you really blame her for smacking Marcy hard across the face?
"What were you THINKING?! We could have all died here, and none of our parents would have known about it! Tch, and you're supposed to be the smart one." Marcy looked away with guilt and sadness as she rubbed her cheek. But then Sasha got confused about something.
"Wait, aside from me asking, why are you telling me all of this?"
Anne placed a hand on Sasha's shoulder.
"Because we need you, Sash. We need you so that we can take down Andrias, save Amphibia and the worlds, and get back home."
Sasha was surprised at how determined Anne was at telling her that, despite all the horrible things she did to her, the Plantars, ESPECIALLY the people of Amphibia. All of that, and yet Anne still needs, no WANTS her in her life. If there was one way to describe that mindset, it would be to call it a quintessential paradox. She then held her head down in shame.
"Anne, like I said back at Toad Tower maybe, maybe you're better off without me. I mean look at the signs Anne; I bossed you around, I tried to kill Hop Pop, my surrender was faked just so you could get me close to Andrias so I could kill him, I mean what else do I have to say in order to get my point across?!" Anne and Marcy looked at each other as tears started to fall from Sasha's eye.
"Everything I did with the intention of trying to get us back together only ended up tearing us apart more and more. So, if you want to sock me in the jaw, then go ahead and do it!" She spread her arms out to the side as she closed her eye.
"Right now! End! Of! Discussion!" Even though Sasha braced for impact, it never came. As she slowly opened her eye, Anne and Marcy suddenly tackled into her for a hug, surprising her with the sudden affection. And as Sasha slowly wrapped her arms around them, the tears came flooding as Sasha started crying, occasionally whispering "I'm sorry," in between sobs. After what felt like an eternity, the three girls broke the hug.
"Oh, there's one more thing," Anne said before kissing Sasha on the cheek, right where the scar is.
"Just in case it still needs healing, you know?"
Sasha blushed as Anne caressed her cheek, only for Marcy to grab her head and turn it so that she can kiss it too.
"Knowing that you and Anne fought may be the only context I have in regard to the scar, but if Anne kissed it to make it feel better than I might as well help out, you know?"
Sasha's entire face turned red at this point as she lightly shoved Marcy and Anne back, their giggles causing her to practically turn into a ripe tomato.
"Just throw me out and force me to live in a cave already, at least that's a better alternative to what's happening right now!"
"Sasha, we all know that we would never do that to you." Marcy said as her giggling died down. "At least, I think we wouldn't. Probably would now that I think about it."
"Yeah, we probably would have. Also I used to live in a cave before I met the Plantars; would not recommend," Anne said in agreement. Sasha frowned in annoyance as her face returned to normal. Anne then continued.
"Now look, just because I'm forgiving you now does," she light jammed her finger into the bridge of Sasha's nose, "NOT mean I fully forgive you overall. There's a lot of work you're going to have to do in order to have ANY form of a relationship with me."
Sasha nodded in understanding as Anne moved her finger back.
"Alright, glad you understand. Now, once you're healed, we can go over the ground rules going forward, as well as set you up on the path to becoming a better person."
Sasha could already tell what these new rules would amount to: No more manipulating and controlling people like puppets.
She knew that it would be difficult for her to adjust to these new rules, but she knew that it would be worth it in the end.
"Got that, Sash?"
"Crystal, Anne," she then started to get up.
"Now let's get out of here and kick Andrias's-!" But before she could really go anywhere, she was forced back down by Marcy.
"Whoawhoawhoa, hold your horses there, Sashimi. You're still healing. Man, really starting to think we shouldn't have gone to the temples so quickly because I was going through Andrias's book on the box and apparently one of the powers for the bearer of the Strength Gem is a healing factor. Still don't know what mine and Anne's gem powers are considering how big the book is, like it is practically the size of a truck it's so huge, so it takes quite a bit of effort just to turn one page. So please, just stay in bed until you're fully healed, okay Sash?"
Sasha was slightly annoyed at the fact that she did not get to kick Andrias's slimy butt right away, but she understands and decides to just wait it out.
"Fine."
She will get her chance; it was all just a matter of when.
"Glad to hear it," Anne then proceeded to kiss Sasha on the forehead.
"Good night, Sash."
Anne and Marcy walked out of the bedroom and closed the hatch, but not before Anne told Marcy something that Sasha could not quite make out. Something about Marcy getting the same treatment she was getting; she could not really tell due to how hard her brain was malfunctioning because of the kiss.
She was like that chihuahua that got spontaneously kissed on the forehead as it growled and just did not know how to respond. Sasha laid down and stared at the ceiling, wondering with what little of her functioning brain she had remaining if she was still unconscious and if this was all just a coma induced dream. All it took was a familiar voice to snap her out of her thoughts.
"This is all real you know," She turned her head to look at the mirror, surprised to see Inner-Sasha within the reflective glass as she stepped out of it and sat in an invisible chair.
"Huh, didn't expect to see you here. And so soon, too."
"Neither did I, but well here we are. And adding on to what I said before? No matter how many times you tell yourself that this is all too good to be true, this is real. And it's all thanks to you taking the initiative and setting your mind straight. Now, all that's left to do is tell everyone that you regret your actions and that somehow, someway you'll make it up to them. Now this is probably going to bring up some bad memories, but just trust me on this and repeat after me; it has to be this way."
Sasha initially hesitated, but after thinking over what she said, her face turned serious as she parroted her new inner self's words.
"It has to be this way."
"And if Anne or Marcy want me to cuddle with them because it's cold in the middle of the night, then so be it."
"And if Anne or Marcy want me to cuddle with them because it's cold in the middle of the night, then so be it," a second passes before Sasha's eye widens and her face goes red after realizing what she just said.
"Wait what?!"
Inner-Sasha just giggled as she gave Sasha a pat on the head.
"See you around, Sash."
And with that, she faded away. All Sasha could do was elicit a long, annoyed sigh.
"Great, even my own conscience is ganging up on me. Just kill me already and get it over with."
A few days, leaning into weeks later Sasha, now fully healed, was standing in front of the mirror inspecting herself as she put her hand up to touch the scar over her left eye. Anne said that Frobo scanned her, and it showed that due to it being closed, despite how deep it was, she would still retain her peripheral vision, which was good.
She then took out and looked at her sword, before undoing her hair tie and letting her hair fall, slicing it off with her sword. Every lock that she could manage to cut without hurting herself fell to the floor, out with the old and in with the new as they say. And with one last slice on the final strand, Sasha's head had been completely shaven. There was no going back now. By the time her hair grows back, Sasha will be a completely different person. She breathed a sigh of content as she sheathed her sword.
"It has to be this way." And with that, she headed up the stairs and out of the basement, ready for whatever the future may bring.
And there you have it folks. Again, I apologize for how long this took to come out. What I am NOT sorry for though, is the implied Sashannarcy near the end of the chapter. Now, there's going to be one more chapter to this story, then after that I'm open to requests about different scenarios and events afterwards, one of which I'm already working on being a sleepover between the three girls so expect to see that sometime in the future. Anyways that's enough out of me, reviews and favorites are highly appreciated.