Chapter 11: The Calm

"So… you two good now?" Sasha asked the still incredibly flustered Anne and Marcy.

"Uh-huh…"

Sasha didn't say anything, and just walked up to the two of them and stared at them.

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again… I am really happy for you two!" Sasha said as she pulled them in for a hug.

"Thanks Sasha…" Marcy said.

"You know, it's funny. I was thinking about trying to help you two get together, but then we got sucked here." Sasha explained. "I… was kinda thinking about trying to convince one of you to ask the other out on Anne's birthday."

"Awww… Sasha." Anne said as she began hugging her friend. "That wouldn't of worked, but I would of appreciated the attempt."

"Pfft, yeah, probably." Sasha said as she returned the hug. "But it's all good now, you two are together and we are gonna kick Andrias' butt and get home!"

"Uh, how?!" Marcy asked. "I mean, didn't Luz destroy the music box?"

"Yeah, but I have friends back home working to make a new portal." Luz said. "We have… a bit of experience in that matter."

"Uh…" Sasha said in confusion.

"Oh, did we never tell you how we met?" Anne asked. "Ok, so here's the deal, Luz was actually stuck in another world too!"

"Right right! Now I remember where I heard about her from!" Marcy said. "You told me about her just before we summoned Chicka-lisk!"

"Chicka-what?" Luz asked.

"Long story." Anne said.

"So wait, you were stuck in the demon realm I guess?" Sasha asked, remember Luz's speech from earlier.

"Yeah… about as creepy as you'd imagine." Luz said. "Anyways, I was trying to get home by making a portal, but instead of home, I ended up here in Amphibia."

"Where she met the Planters and me!" Anne said. "This was like, three days before I met up with you, Sasha."

"Right, after that, we figured out a way to make a more… reliable portal back to the human realm." Luz explained. "So, take a second music box that we had that SHOULD be connected to Amphibia, and our knowledge, and my friends should be able to get it working!"

Marcy and Sasha just looked at Luz in shock.

"A SECOND MUSIC BOX?!" Marcy asked. "Oh, my gosh! This changes EVERYTHING!"

"And makes things dangerous! If they come here and Andrias gets his hands on that box, then he will have a way to invade Earth again!" Sasha pointed out.

"Yeah, so we gotta beat Andrias before they get here!" Luz said. "And if we can't, well, we'll have plenty of backup! No way we'll lose!"

"…"

"Marcy?" Anne asked, noticing the girl looking down.

"I… I don't know if it is going to be that simple." Marcy said. "He has The Core with him… that alone makes things really difficult."

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that name a couple of times… what is it?" Luz asked.

"Yes, I would like to know as well, Lady Marcy."

They all looked to the source to see Olivia, Yunan and Grime standing there.

"Hey! How did the scouting go?" Sasha asked.

"Went well, we found Bessie and Joe Sparrow, and told them to wait things out in Wartwood for now." Grime explained.

"Joe's ok? Thank goodness…" Marcy said in relief.

"Ahem…"

"You guys too!" Marcy said as she got up and gave Yunan and Olivia a hug. "After what happened, I am super relieved to see that you escaped!"

"Wait, did we miss something?" Anne asked.

"After the two of you left the castle the other day, Yunan and I tried to rescue Marcy." Olivia said. "Andrias got to her first though… I'm surprised you knew about that though Marcy."

"I may or may not of seen you back then." Marcy said with a wink.

"Oh… Marcy, I am so sorry we left without you…" Olivia apologized.

"Hey it's fine! I'm just happy you're ok!" Marcy said before hugging the two again.

"Right, anyways, The Core?" Luz asked.

"Ok, so, I don't know everything about it, but I'll tell you what I do know." Marcy said. "The Core is supposed to be the culmination of eight of Amphibia's greatest minds… at least, that is what Andrias said… but…"

"Huh? What's up?" Anne said.

"When it was controlling me, I found out a few things about it." Marcy explained. "One, it is using Andrias. I don't know it's goal, but it feels like it is using Andrias as a means to an end…"

"Ok, so what else?" Anne asked.

"Just one other thing… the eight minds merged, creating… something else."

"Something else…?"

"… A god…"

"A GOD?!" Anne asked. "A god possessed you?!"

"Dang girl! That means you overpowered a god! Good work!" Sasha said with a smile.

"It was really just a mental game… and you know I can't lose those!" Marcy said while tapping her forehead. "Besides, I had some help."

At that, everyone looked at Anne.

"Whoo! Helped beat a god!" Anne said as she pumped her fists into the air, but quickly brought them down as she hissed in pain.

"You ok?" Marcy asked.

"Y-yeah… still hurts from getting god beams to the face." Anne said reassuringly. "I'll be fine though, keep telling us about this Core."

Marcy looked unconvinced, but kept talking none-the-less.

"Anyways, from the looks of things, The Core is what is really calling the shots, and the reason Andrias is doing all of this… it mentioned something about a prophesy." Marcy explained.

"Ah yes, I do remember reading something about a prophesy involving the fate of Amphibia, however, I can't remember it off the top of my head." Olivia said.

"Well, from the sounds of things, they really don't want it to come true, cause they said that it was being 'undone.'" Marcy explained.

"So… we actually have a chance here?" Sasha asked.

"YUP!" Marcy said excitingly. "Hoo yeah! Let's teach that backstabbing, overgrown lizard who…"

Then, Marcy started looking down.

"Who… was like a real father to me…" Marcy said. "It… was all fake… and he never cared about me…"

"Marcy…"

"All those flipwart games… all the praise… all of it… was it just to get me on his side? To manipulate me?" Marcy asked as she fell to her knees. "How could he? I thought… I really thought he cared…"

Anne stayed silent at this, before getting out of bed and, rather painfully, walked over and gave Marcy a hug.

Before long, Sasha joined in, and the three girls were huddled together.

"You're not going to join in?" Olivia asked Luz.

"Nah… I think she just needs her two best friends right now." Luz said.

"…Agreed."

After a while, the three finally stood up, though they had to support Anne and help her back into bed.

"Oh thank goodness, that was getting way too much for me to handle." Grime groaned out.

Sasha just rolled her eyes. "Anyways, now that even more emotional trauma is out there, we need a plan."

"Agreed." Luz said. "And I think I have one!"

At that moment, she pulled out the three stones from the music box…

And everything went wrong.

End of Chapter 11

… Uh oh.

A bit of a shorter one, but I think the fact that this is the fourth chapter in two weeks makes up for that. Plus there's the oneshot I put up on Monday.

I guess you can say this is the halfway point, and when we start going towards the endgame. The first half is all about getting back to Amphibia and rescuing Marcy, the rest is about dealing with Andrias, among other things.

So, see you next time when we find out just what goes wrong with everything :D