August 2, 2103
Los Angeles, California, Earth
At age 97, Sasha Waybright made sure to have as much fun as possible every day. When you're that old, you never know when your time will end, so it's best to make the most of the days you have left. And for someone who's almost 100 years old, Sasha's health is notably good. Obviously her swordfighting days are long behind her, but she's still pretty active and mobile, definitely a lot more than Anne and Marcy were in their final years.
"A good balance of exercise and fun keeps the body healthy" has been Sasha's philosophy over the past couple of decades.
Yes, Sasha could still sometimes hear her late wives' voices. At least it was subtle when it was just Anne. Marcy's energy was so intense it felt like the late Taiwanese woman was right next to her.
"Fuck, I really am going senile," Sasha recently said after hearing Marcy say how cool she is. "But she is right."
Anne and Marcy's deaths were sort of like alkaline batteries. They were on full charge for most of their lives, but at the end their energy began to wane before finally running out of juice. Sasha's death, on the other hand, was more akin to a television being unplugged… and then destroyed.
"Let the master show you how it's done!" Sasha's grin wavered a little. "Well, Marcy was the real master. I was the apprentice but I am now the master in her stead."
Sasha dug around the basement and found the old Nintendo Switch and challenged Dom and Julie to a few rounds of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate when they visited her with their newborn. They played as Jigglypuff and Diddy Kong, and for people completely unfamiliar with the game and console they did surprisingly well. However this wasn't good enough to beat Sasha, who quickly got back into her old groove and easily defeated her grandson and granddaughter-in-law four matches in a row with Bowser, her choice character from back in the day.
"Yes!" she cheered. "I've still got it!"
"Good job, Grandma," said Dom. "Though I still don't understand how this ancient console works." He looked at the Joy-Cons in confusion.
"I don't know what you're complaining about, Dominic," said Sasha. "These controllers are simple to handle, a lot more than the virtual stuff everyone uses these days." Suddenly a haunted expression appeared on her face. "God, I sound so old."
Julie chuckled. "You are old."
Sasha could only smirk at that. "Alright, I'm old." She then stood up as fast as she could. "But that doesn't mean I'm down for the count." She raised her arms in the air in triumph. "I feel so alive!"
As soon as she said that, Sasha could feel something inside her shift. Before she had any time to process, she fell flat on the floor, all her usual energy simply gone.
She could faintly hear Dom and Julie frantically calling out for her and trying to lift her up, but she didn't register any of that. Sasha knew she was about to die. She managed to survive so many deadly perils in the past, but now she's going out in such an undignified way. Within seconds she lost all senses, leaving Sasha alone with her thoughts for her last few breaths.
Was this really the end for Sasha Waybright, First Lieutenant of the Toad Army, Co-Commander of the Wartwood Resistance, renowned children's psychologist, drummer of The Sharps, whatever other roles she didn't have time to think about?
It seemed that yes, it was.
Multiversal Rift Outside of Time and Space
"Sash?"
"Wake up, Sasha!"
Sasha jolted awake with a shout. "What just happened?" Her vision cleared and she saw she was lying in front of a small house. More importantly, she was also lying in front of Anne and Marcy.
"You died, Sash," said Anne solemnly.
Sasha stood up and looked at her wives, admiring their youthful appearance. "Anne! Marcy! You're so young."
"So are you," said Marcy with a smile. She snapped her fingers and a mirror appeared.
Sasha looked at her reflection and saw that indeed, she looked significantly younger, about a couple of years older than when they adopted the twins. "Huh. How'd you do that?" she asked, pointing to the mirror.
"We made it appear using our Guardian powers!" said Marcy excitedly.
"Oh yeah, Anne did say something about that," Sasha remembered.
"The previous Guardian appointed me to be its successor," said Anne. "And I can't do the job without you or Mar-Mar."
"We've been watching over you whenever we have time to," added Marcy.
"Hmm." Sasha seemed to be pondering something, and then pointed an accusatory finger at them. "Wait a minute… that means you did this!"
That really took Anne and Marcy by surprise. They both said "Huh?"
Sasha wasn't deterred. "If you've been watching me all this time, then you wanted to know when I would die. You just got so tired waiting for that, didn't you? I bet you called Death right up and said 'Hey it would look real stupid if Sasha died right after she said she feels so alive.'"
Anne and Marcy were shocked. "Sasha! We didn't kill you!" said Anne.
"Well then why did I die so suddenly? And in such an ironic way?"
Marcy shrugged. "Bad timing, I guess."
"Besides," said Anne, "sudden death at your age isn't that uncommon… I think."
Sasha's anger died down a little. "Alright, I shouldn't have been so quick to accuse you two of causing my death." She sighed. "But you were definitely messing with me whenever I could hear you."
Anne and Marcy did look a little embarrassed/ashamed at that. "Yeah…" "Maybe a little…"
Sasha continued giving them a harsh look, but after a few more seconds her bad mood disappeared entirely. "Oh, I can't be mad at you two." She closed the distance between them, wrapping her wives in a big hug. "It's so great to see you!" All of them had happy tears pooling in their eyes.
"It really is. We're finally together again," said Anne. "I mean I guess we were sort of all together whenever me and Mar-Mar were watching you and yeah that was kinda creepy sorry about that…" She said that last sentence very quickly.
"Eh, I guess it wasn't too bad hearing your voices from time to time," said Sasha, who stepped back from the hug. "Now how do I become a Guardian?"
Marcy's eyes lit up, as they often did whenever she began talking about something cool. "Ooh! Alright, so basically Anne will put her hand on your forehead and then… whoosh! Infinite magical power flows through your body, making you one with the multiverse!" A thoughtful expression appeared on Marcy's face. "Well, I could probably do it, but Anne should be the one to grant you powers."
Anne chuckled. "You make it sound like I've done this thousands of times." She looked at Sasha. "Are you ready?"
Sasha smiled. "Always."
Anne placed her hand on Sasha's forehead just like she had done with Marcy three years ago., and within seconds Sasha realized Marcy wasn't kidding. The blonde was flooded with untold amounts of cosmic energy, imbuing her with untold amounts of power and knowledge. She was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. She could see the entire multiverse, not with her eyes, but instead through an ethereal sixth sense. She knew from experience that this much power was too much for a mortal body to handle, but that's no issue for someone who's already dead.
After what felt like ages but was only ten seconds at most, things became somewhat normal. Outwardly Sasha looked the same as before, but internally she was now a Guardian.
"How do you feel?" asked Anne.
"Strong, powerful," said Sasha. "Like I can do anything."
"Well then, try it!" said Marcy.
"Alright," said Sasha. She concentrated for a few seconds and then released two blasts of pink flames from her hands into the starry void. "Fuck yes! These powers are awesome!" She did a fist pump in celebration which caused an explosion that almost caused her to fall over. "Whoops!"
Marcy laughed. "I kind of did the same thing when I first got Guardian powers. It'll take some getting used to, but we'll show you how to do cool stuff like this!"
Sasha blinked and suddenly there were two Marcys in front of her. "What?" The original Marcy kissed Sasha's left cheek and the duplicate kissed the right. Anne then did the same thing before both of them went back to being a single person.
"I could get used to that," said Sasha with a blush.
"Duplication is actually one of our most useful powers since it lets us do official duties and hang out here at the same time," said Anne.
"Yeah, that's probably the first thing you should learn how to master," said Marcy.
"Well we might as well get started now," said Sasha confidently. "After all, we've got a lot of catching up to do."
Mr. Littlepot sat on a smaller floating island in the rift near the Guardians' base. They would likely be seeing him somewhat frequently from now on, but he wouldn't make his presence known until a further date.
"Now the three destined heroes are all together again, maybe even for eternity." He hummed. "And while I didn't strike a deal with Anne and Marcy, I did do Sasha a favor. It was either collapsing to death today or something far more embarrassing three days from now."
I asked on Reddit what character Sasha would play as in Smash, and Bowser and Link tied for first place. I ultimately chose Bowser because one of the comments suggesting Link was deleted.