What would be the correct definition for a leader?

In reality there is no one answer that everyone could agree on, someone like Anne would consider it as somebody who leads their people down the right path, Leo would think of it as the person who gets the job done the quickest and without any issues. Whilst a young frog like Sprig might view it as a strong frog who could take charge, not taking anything for anybody.

Sasha, however saw it is as whoever wielded the most power, the ability to manipulate not only your enemies but your allies, to seize control and use to your unruly benefit.

So, if you were to ask her on whether or not she was feeling guilty on the situation than it would have to be a no, executing a terrorist like Hop Pop was needed to maintain peace within the valley – all she could feel bad about was what she had done to her childhood friend, but it would never have happened if she'd just seen the bigger picture.

There was nothing to do about it now, Anne would be let out long after everything had been dealt with.

"Move it frogs, I don't wanna see any of you lagging behind, we'll need you to partake in our final party activity..." Sasha spoke with a warped tone, at this point she held no want to keep up pleasantries with the amphibians, killing one frog and setting an example with the rest was all that had to be done.

Sprig clicked his tongue, moving his eyes back down to the cracked cobble stairs, "...You're a horrible person,and you won't get away with this, even if you do...it won't change anything! The valley will just rebel against the toads even more once we tell them what happened," He threatened, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes.

Even if they hadn't been told in detail on what was happening, it was easy to tell what they were planning to do. They were going to execute Hop Pop for standing up to the toads.

Not showing an inkling of interest at his words, Sasha continued up the stairs, that was until he spoke up again, "How is Anne friends with someone like you.."

Polly and Hop Pop watched as Sasha shifted her posture in the blink of an eye, her sword now directly in front of Sprig's face, a step away from ending the conversation right then and there.

"Keep talking and there'll be two frogs to make an example out of.." Clearly done with the act, Sasha resorted to a simple yet effective threat, giving no sign that she was bluffing, speaking as if it was more of a promise.

Seeing that the rest of the town were all but ready to square up against her, Hop Pop called his grandson down, "Sprig, it's best not to start a fight now, we can't change anything, don't go getting yourself killed for me.."

"But Hop Pop, we can't just give up...we have to fight back!" Sprig argued, furious at the idea of just letting him get fed to some creature.

"Fighting back is the reason we're all in this situation, why I'm being executed. I still want to go on and protect you and Polly, more than anything. I was even looking forward to getting Anne and Leo home, exploring outside of the valley, where no Plantar has gone before, but...keeping you safe is my priority right now..." Hop Pop finished, nodding for Sprig's silence, which he reluctantly received.

Sasha could only roll her eyes at the moment, holding no remorse or sympathy for either one of them, this was for a good cause, Grime got what he wanted and she could prepare to get her girls home, where everything could go back to normal.

How it was meant to be.


Leo and Anne and raced down to the banquet hall as quickly as possible, adrenaline getting them to ignore any of the previous exhaustion they might've had, "No, there not here, we're too late," Anne gasped, darting around the room for any sign of the frogs.

"Sasha must've taken them all, that way none of them could come rescue us, or she might just want them to watch the execution, that was the whole idea of killing Hop Pop, right?" Leo asked once more, making sure he was caught up on everything.

"Where is that though, where are they going!?"

"Top of the tower I'd guess," From a sewer lid on the ground, one-eyed Wally briskly popped out, wiping some of the sludge off from his shoulder.

"Wally!" Anne shrieked, wanting to both hug and rip into the frog, "What the heck are you doing in the sewer? You weren't trying to run away, were you?"

"No, I may be a vagabond but my morals are a little higher than that, not by much but still. I was just taking care of some affairs that'll come in handy later, it's my own present to the toads for generously hosting us tonight."

"Why do you need to be so cryptic you could just tell us," Leo sighed, shaking his head and tightening the grip around the katana, he didn't know why but it had become loose for some reason.

That was a lie, he was completely aware of what it was. He was scared of what was ahead, saving Hop Pop, getting the entirety of Wartwood (minus Wally) to safety and conquering Sasha so they could get out of there without much hassle.

Leo wasn't that much of a positive thinker though; something was bound to go wrong.

Anne, on the other hand looked confident, looking at Leo with more determination than he'd ever seen her display, "You ready?" She questioned, already making her way up the tower.

Somehow, he felt a little at ease despite the deadly consequences awaiting them, "I should be asking you that.."


Well, it had all gone just swimmingly.

Not even a moment since they unlatched the wooden trapdoor leading to the open roof of the tower, were they surrounded by a legion of toad ushering them over to the rest of the crowd, watching helplessly at Hop Pop being slowly inched to the edge, where a carnivorous Venus flytrap looking plant sat.

"Hm, how did you two get out of your cell, probably my b for putting you in the same one," Sasha chastised herself, still talking as if she was above the two.

"It seems your follower has grown a conscious, rebelling against you and now coming all this way just to stop all of this, here I thought you had control over everyone," Grime taunted, trying to egg her on and give her the push she needed to stomp it out and regain what she'd lost.

Safe to say, it had worked. Sasha was boiling with rage, it had to be him ever since Anne had been around Leo, she'd been acting totally different from how she was back home, no longer was she the same docile person she used to be, taking orders at the drop of a hat.

She'd already threatened him once, she wouldn't do it again.

"Sasha, please! There has to be another way, you can stop this, I don't want to fight," Anne tried to reason, as angry as she was, fighting her decade old friend wasn't what she wanted, who would.

Leo was busy eyeing the toads surrounding them, the leader of which was at the center guarding Hop Pop as if his life depended on it, snarling at their arrival. So, not only would they have to get through a practical wall of toads but take down a reasonably well-versed in combat human and lethal toad.

Polly would probably see it as nothing more than a handicap.

The second Grime moved towards Hop Pop, so did Anne. Snatching away a toads shortsword and pushing through the rest of them, she wasn't about to watch the frog who'd given her a home get tossed in the belly of the beast.

Her charge was cut short by Sasha, prepared to bite at her if she were to come any closer, "Anne, what are you doing? This isn't gonna help us get home, especially if you follow him, it's just one measly frog, is that really worth getting stuck in this crumby world?"

Squinting with slight glare, Leo could see what she was doing.

"Well, yeah. But this is different, I have to.."

"Then put your sword down now! End. Of. Discussion!" Sasha's word cut sharper than any sword could've. Tensing up her body to the point that her sword began to slip from her hands, even when Leo had convinced her to stand up to her after the years of control, she still felt just as weak.

Saying and doing were to vastly different aspects, she had the instinct to nod her head like she always had and comply with her words, even despite the fact that she knew it was wrong, Hop Pop was going to die for god's sake.

She couldn't look back to Leo for help, for his eyes to steer her right. She was going to follow orders just like usual, she had to.

She had to; it had always been like that. Anne needed to follow Sasha no matter what.

Both Sprig and Leo watched with pains in their eyes as Anne dropped the sword, no longer bothering to put up a fight, she had no control over her own actions, it would and always had belonged to Sasha.

"There we go, that's my girl.." Sasha praised as if she were speaking to a dog, "See, that wasn't so hard was i- WHAT THE HECK!"

A clomp of mud suddenly came into contact with her face, splattering all over Sasha, keeping her quiet.

The preparator of the shot was Sprig, standing proud with another ball prepped and ready to fire, "For someone who's Anne's best friend, you sure don't know her very well! She's brave, she's smart, someone who'll step in when you're in trouble without hesitation, if she's messes up, she'll do whatever she can to fix it.."

"That's who Anne Boonchuy is, and I refuse to believe that she'd be pushed around by a bully like you!"

Anne could only stare motionless at her froggy best friend that had stood to defend her when she could not, without a single thought against it. Was that really how she was seen into younger frog's eyes? Was she really that type of person.

It was true, for all of the good deeds she'd done in Wartwood, there were a hundred ore mistakes over top of them, but she'd always done what she could to fix and make it right.

Everyone in the town that she had surrounded herself in had made her better, changed her into a person that she could start to be proud of, happy to look at herself in the mirror again with no looks of guilt, shame or disgust masked behind it.

Leo was right, she could stand up to Sasha unlike all the other times beforehand, she'd live up to who Sprig thought she was.

"Uh, I think I've had enough of you, squeaky toy.."

Wanting to save him Anne watched helplessly at the sword she'd dropped, which was now just out of reach, with no way to stop the incoming blade swinging down onto her best friend, after all of his words, Sasha was going to cut through them like she always had.

"What...you again," Sasha spat venom right at Leo's face, her eyes may as well have snarled back at him.

"Me again," Leo repeated, swishing the katana around in small flick of his wrist, knocking Sasha off her center of balance and to the ground.

That was only the beginning though, seeing nothing but red, Sasha kicked herself up before he could react; the pink blade attached to her palm coming close to snipping off his ear right away. At a sudden standstill, Leo batted the sword linked to his cheek away with a slap of his own, a trail of blood following down.

Spinning the sword with a suave like fashion, Sasha pierced through any kind of defense Leo could have uphold and deepened the cut on his cheek. A wound like that wasn't enough to stop any kind of motion the fight was already in, meeting their two sword together, pushing her away from him with his raw strength alone.

Taking a breather, Sasha resumed her assault, swinging her blade with a brash yet contained rage, with Leo only able to perform the bare minimum and hit it back and away from him. Until, with what seemed like the last of her combo of thrusts, Leo parried the metal back, loosely slithering her sword from her grasp.

It didn't last though, as the blonde kept hold of the handle swishing the sword in unkempt like fashion, not even close to him, "Why are you getting in the way, you barely know her! All you are is some freak who crawled out of the woods!" Sasha belted, pushing back some stray strands of hair.

Sasha was definitely a lot stronger than he'd given her credit for, you couldn't really blame him. She was scrawny like Anne, yet she packed much more of a punch than her appearance would let on. Not to mention her tenacity, constantly driving at him with no indication that she was going to stop.

And even amongst her fury, there was a method behind the madness, as she tactically forced her blade towards him, dodging from side-to-side to counter his own swipes.

"..." Leo gave no reply, simply readjusting the hold on the katana, pushing right back at her.

"RAH!" Sasha growled animalistically, flicking her cloak overhead, planning to mask Leo's vision for enough to given time for her to close in and knock him out. For good this time.

No such plan came to fruition, as Leo snipped straight through the black robe. It would've led an opening for either one of them, but due to her own shock in the moment, Leo charged ahead, locking arms with his opponent, dragging the both of them to the ground.

"GAH..." Sasha felt the wind get knocked out of her, still in a state of shock. How could she lose like this, falling short just because one of her tricks had been quite literally sliced through, after how far she'd risen up the ranks in Toad Tower; she was going to lose it all because of some nobody she'd never met till today.

He was too strong to push back up on, there was no way to reach for the dagger tucked behind her back - she needed to get up and win. Sasha Waybright hadn't given in before and she wasn't about to start now, she needed...she needed!

Power.

"How was Anne friends with someone like you," Leo said his first words since their confrontation had begun, his eyes boring into her own. Unknowingly repeating the words that Sprig had spoken earlier.

Sasha could feel an enormous surge of pressure pour into her, "GET OFF ME!"

Leo could swear that Sasha's eyes flickered pink as her own strength propelled them both upwards, Leo being caught in the receiving end of the instantaneous power, throwing him up a fair few feet in the air and slamming him down into the concrete.

Struggling to stand, Leo clambered back up on two feet, watching as Sasha directed her assault towards him once again. A strange sense of fear welled up his body, screaming for him to run, to get away from whatever had awoken inside of her.

ignoring it, the two swords clashed for the final time, unlike before where it had only ended up in small scuffle. This time it ended in a clear victor.

Thunder seemed to crackle all around them, Sasha almost breaking the katana in pieces as she hurled Leo back with an alarming amount of force, ramming him into a loose brick wall that was attached to the top of the tower, silence elapsing over all of them.

Sasha stood confident, not sure what had transpired but proud that she had won. Watching Leo's lifeless and bloody body droop even lower, his body no longer rising and falling.

Wait...was there supposed to be that much blood.

No, this isn't what she'd wanted, she just wanted him off of her, she just didn't want him win. She had never wanted to kill him, that was never her intent.

A twisted knot locked her stomach shut, swearing she was going to throw up at any given moment, 'Please...get back up.'

Grime appeared to quell her worries, gently placing his hand on her back as a way to calm her, "You must breathe lieutenant, panicking will get you nowhere," He advised, managing to catch her attention and slightly soothe her.

"B-But I just, I never wanted to. I'm not a m..." Sasha choked on her words, she didn't want to say it, admit to herself what she now was.

Looking back at the bloodied and still child, Grime could understand her internal quarrel, "You did what you must, to protect your honor and to stand your ground," His words were empty though, she felt absolutely horrible, nothing was going to change that.

"Give him back..." A low, stern voice demanded, breaking the unkempt silence, whirring Sprig's, Hop Pop and Polly's tearful eyes towards it.

Anne, now stood with a piercing blue glow around her, some kind of defying force swaying about her bushy, brown hair, shadowing the color shift within her pupils, "I couldn't do anything against you and this happened. So, now I'm going to stop you, and take Hop Pop and Leo back home, NOW!"


With a single step, the pain felt in Anne's heart was entangled with them all, erupting a mass of blue from the floor, ripping at the roof and pressuring the shell-shocked Sasha to her knees, "You've pushed me around my whole life, how does it feel!" Anne barked, tears mixing with her words.

Sasha couldn't reply, too stunned to utter a word. Outwardly, Anne looked normal, par you remove the blue aura vividly floating around her.

It was the obvious ocean blue eyes that were staring back at her, with no ounce of emotion for her within, she was looking at Sasha in a whole new light, figuratively and literally; the person she'd been so scared to stand up to was now shaking at her feet.

She clenched her fist, a bright glow collapsing around it ending off at her wrist, "W-What are you doing...Anne!" Sasha yelped, seeing that she wasn't getting a response.

"Something I should've done long ago... what Leo told me to do." Casually picking up one of the swords that a toad had dropped when Leo and been thrown back, Anne's words hit so much harsher than she ever had.

"Standing up to you!"

The sword dug through the stone as if it were just mere dirt in her way, Sasha tried to block, now glad that she had, as the bird-handled sword shattered on impact, buffering the blow and only allowing for a deep cut to be left along her cheek, gushing crimson down it.

Toad Tower, which had been standing for almost three centuries and was a practical monarch of fear and order throughout the valley was cleaved right down the middle to the bottom of the foundation, crackling under the weight of the girls' mysterious new powers, beginning to crumble underneath it.

A chain reaction was soon activated, detonating the boom shrooms that Wally had planted earlier than expected, properly obliterating any standing the tower might've had left toppling it over, finishing the job Anne had started.

Each and every toad that had been present atop the tower was quickly taken care of, either falling or opting to jump of the tower, as to not bare fate to whatever else the creature had in store.

The flytrap at the bottom of the tower, which just a mere couple of minutes ago was seen as a deadly threat was crumpled underneath a single bit of falling debris, killing it upon impact.

Grime could only watch helplessly at the seemingly omnipotent girl, still staring at Sasha as the whole tower fell before them, it would soon be nothing but ruins. He wouldn't get a chance to pull his lieutenant away from the danger she was currently in, the flooring beneath him snapping off the building as if it were a branch attached to a tree.

With a new piece of the tower falling above and below him, Grime stabbed his dagger into what was left of it, breaking his descent with the grace of a dead swan, leaping off the wall and onto a falling loose brick and safely to the ground, where others toads were waiting.

There he could only wonder what awaited Sasha back up there.

"Anne, please. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. You saw me, something just erupted out me, something I've never felt before, you're the same! Whatever this blue deal is, we both felt it and used it, I...I didn't mean to!" Sasha berated, not at Anne but herself, angry and disgusted that she'd let this happen.

Yet again, Anne stood silently, seemingly judging what her next move would be. It would never come as the lane of brick beneath them began to crack, shaking so intensely that Sasha lost balance of where she was, spiraling back and only barely clutching on to some unsteady stones hanging out.

Within seconds, the power that had been used to level a tower dissipated and Anne's eyes returned to their natural shade, now finding it difficult to stand. Observing Sasha right below her, about to fall.

Hop Pop reconvened with Sprig and Polly, who were struggling to carry Leo to the open hatch, the latter tearing up as his legs dragged lifelessly along the floor. "You two, get him down there. I...I know it'll be hard, but we can't leave him here," Hop Pop ordered, getting a firm nod from the tadpole who pushed him alongside her brother.

"What about Anne, she turned all freaky and blue and now she's..."

"SASHA!"

Turning to his best friend's shriek, Sprig watched in horror at Anne beginning to slide off the tower, helplessly holding onto Sasha, refusing to let her fall.

Knowing what they had to do, the Plantar family hurried over to Anne. Taking the time to gently place the white-haired boy down, Polly followed after her brother and grandparent, arriving just in time as Anne's legs finally gave way.

Bill Withers – Lean on Me

Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow;

But, if we are wise, we know that there's...always tomorrow.

Lean on Me!

When you're not strong, and I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on;

For it won't be long, 'til I'm gonna need...somebody to lean on!

Sasha stared up at Anne in utter bewilderment, it wasn't even a second ago that she was trying to do to her what she had done to Leo, cut him down without a second thought.

Honestly, falling to her death seemed fitting for what she had done, killing Leo, driving Anne to the point that she would want to do the same to her, she would welcome such a punishment right about now, it was fitting. But the instant Anne saw her in peril she dispersed the strange power that had encapsulated them both, all to rescue her, even the frogs, two of which she'd tried to kill where helping, risking their own lives to save hers.

It was something she didn't deserve, the searing splice eating her up inside wouldn't allow for it, not if it meant Anne was going to die to.

Looking up to her, with eyes shaky and willing, Sasha smiled a sad, somber smile. As if to try and say everything was going to be alright, that she would fix it, not like she had back home.

She would fix it properly this time, by removing herself altogether.

"Hey, Anne. Maybe you're better off without me," With that, Sasha made no effort to hold on, letting her grip go completely, plummeting to her presumed death.

"NOOOO!"


"Get up you've still got a job to do...don't forget it."

"What is it?"

"You'll be tasked with..."

"...Make sure it's done."

"I will."

A memory, a weird, directionless misshapen memory snapped Leo back to reality, he had no way to piece whatever it was or if it was even chronological and if every gap and been filled with what they'd said.

Leo felt cold, his body had gone numb; by all accounts he should be dead, who could've survived a blow like that.

Everything hurt, his arms and legs were buckling underneath each other and refusing to stand. His back especially felt absolutely ruined and beyond repair, he honestly hoped he could've actually died to get rid of the unnerving pain.

So, why wasn't he?

Blinking, the once black landscape was taken back by an ever shifting red one, caped by the moon backlighting over all of them.

He could even make out the blurry images of Polly, Hop Pop and Sprig, all desperately holding onto something, maybe it was Anne, he hoped it wasn't, because then he would have to force himself to stand, refusing to let her die if it was within his power to do so.

As some time passed, the rest of Leo's senses returned to him no able to hear the grunts of the three frogs he had previous caught sight of, and the mixed voices of Anne and Sasha, the former sounding much closer than the other.

Did that mean they were all holding onto Sasha? The person who he had previously duked it out with and almost killed him, or would, given his current circumstances.

Normally, or at least maybe a while back, he would've been fine with letting someone who had tried to kill him die and get what they deserve, but for some reason he just couldn't do it, if it were Sasha that they were clinging to, then he had to help where he could.

The roof around them only continued collapse, bricks falling apart wherever you looked.

Stabbing his eyes open, bleeding palms against the cobble; Leo grit his teeth and pushed himself to get up, he had to be better than before and do what was right, whether it was Anne or Sasha in danger, either one deserved to be saved.

With his blood pumping, invigorating every muscle in his body, and spike of adrenaline pushing at the nerves at the back of his neck, Leo shot up like a bullet, his heart thumping as if it were about to burst, every wound in his body begging for him to stop.

He wouldn't though, running and reaching for his blade in the same motion, leaping off of the tumbling rooftop, reaching out for the unconscious Sasha, wrapping his arms around her, the shock of the fall had most likely knocked her out.

Not having more than a second to react, Leo copied the same movement that Grime had; digging the katana into the even worse state of the tower and managing to break both of their falls.

It didn't last long however, Leo's beaten and tired body finally getting the better of him dropping himself, Sasha and the sword off from the wall and dropping them only a couple meters off of the ground. He had preoccupied on keeping the blonde tucked away safely as he broke the fall, probably doing even more damage to his back.

Now that his job was done, he'd somehow cheated his own death, which he would worry about much later, after all of it, Leo just wanted to sleep and finally rest.

As he closed his eyes, he didn't take note of the crowd of toads approaching them, Grime being at the forefront, delicately picking up Sasha, he did ponder for a moment on what he should do with the boy, but after witnessing what one human could do if provoked, he didn't want to find out what another would do, especially one who should be dead.

Perhaps it was some twisted string of fate that had pulling them along, like the ones in tv shows that Anne had explained in detail to Leo during the late nights they would spend awake in the Plantar basement, but they had all survived, in a lot of sorry states for sure, but alive nonetheless.

Hearing the faint sounds of someone calling his name, Leo finally fell asleep. Dreaming a foggy and repressed memory that he thought had been lost.


A week passed since the events of Toad Tower, with the entirety of Wartwood in a riot over the fact that they'd witnessed Anne become a practical god for a few minutes, wasn't easy to ignore when you'd watched an entire tower being brought to its knees in matter of minutes.

Lethargically glazing his eyes upon the familiar looking roof, that sometimes dripped with a weird substance that Hop Pop said made the house feel 'unique'. Leo could immediately tell where he was, the Plantar household, one that he had grown fairly accustomed with, even if he had been living in a stable for most of the stay.

It was pretty difficult to move, even something as light as turning his neck to side sent a shock of pain up his back, he was glad he had though, now looking at a slightly better Anne, who was engrossed with whatever she decided to do on her phone.

That was until, at the sound of rustling she glanced briefly to side and then back at her device, "...Huh, wait Leo, you're up!"

Wincing at the pitch, Leo weakly waved back, barely even raising his hand, "..Hey." Coughing, he found his throat unnaturally dry, now pleading for water.

Anne did so, handing him the bottle she'd been given once she had woken up, "Drink, you've been out for a while and have only been given so much water when you were asleep," She explained.

"You actually sounded smart there," Leo praised, before swiftly chugging most of the bottle's containments, tasting it like it was the sweet nectar he'd been longing.

"Well, it was something Hop Pop told me when I woke up," Anne admitted sheepishly.

"How long was I out, and what even happened! When I woke up, the tower was falling apart and Sasha was falling off of it!" Leo spoke in chunks, everything from that night flooding into him all at once, his plain voice now full of excitable energy.

Anne mood quickly shifted, placing her phone down and scrunching up her sheets, looking to Leo a last time before describing everything that had happened, not scrutinizing on any of the minor details, how Sasha had awoken some kind of power and slammed him into a wall, where they all thought he were dead.

An even the fact that she had done the same, glowing blue as Sprig had expanded on some of points that even Anne had forgotten.

"...And then, the blue energy or whatever, set off all the boom shrooms Wally had planted in the sewer earlier than expected, blowing the tower all to heck, then you woke and arrived in time to save Sasha.."

"So, that's what Wally was doing, guess it all worked out in the end...sort of," Leo cringed internally, groaning as he managed to lift himself off the bed so that he was now sitting up.

"Thanks for that, saving Sasha I mean. I know that she's a bad person and I'm not sure if I can forgive her for what's she done, at Toad Tower and before...but I couldn't just let her die."

"I couldn't either, if I did then what kind of person would I be. Even if she did barrel me into a wall, lucky that was there or else I would gone flying off the building," Leo bluntly stated earning him a grim and heartbroken expression from Anne, "Sorry."

There was small silence between the two of them, Leo knew how to break but was slightly cautious on how to say, he was dense not stupid.

"Are you ok? With everything that happened I mean, that couldn't have been easy, maybe I shouldn't have got involved."

"No! I mean you did get hurt because of it, but I'm glad you stood up for me, it gave me the courage to do the same, even with magical superpowers," Anne scratched her cheek meekly.

"Really wish I could've seen that, you with superpowers, can't imagine anything better," Leo complimented, unknowing to what he'd just admitted, streaking red across the Thai girl's face.

"..Idiot."

Small footsteps creaked against the basement stairs, until they sped up upon the sight of Leo up and awake, "LEO!" Sprig didn't hesitate to crash into the boy, his small body tightly hugging around his bruised and aching one.

"Did you get this wakeup call as well?" He grunted towards a giggling Anne, weakly wrapping his arms around the frog.

"We saw you; y-you weren't breathing and there was so much blood! I thought you were..."

"So did I, but I'm here. Definitely in a lot of pain but here nonetheless," Leo calmed him down lightly patting Sprig on the head.

"Wait, that's right I came down here because Hop Pop was asking what you wanted for dinner, and me and Polly really want you to cook," Sprig lowered his voice, so his grandparent upstairs couldn't hear him.

"Right, I'll be up in a minute dude," Anne answered, watching her best friend happily march back upstairs, cheering something about 'HE'S AWAKE'.

"You go, I think I'm gonna take a nap, everything hurts and no offence to Sprig I think he made it a little worse," said Leo, holding onto the multitude of bandages covering his upper body, "Save some for me, unless Hop Pop ends up cooking, then I'll just starve."

Laughing to herself, Anne nodded taking a few seconds before she got out of bed, taking a step at a time to get out of the basement, before she could she turned to Leo one last time, "Hey Leo, you know what Sprig said about me, to Sasha do you think that's true, am I like that?"

Slowly meeting eyes with her, Leo thought it over for a few seconds, "I wouldn't say your exactly like it, but your definitely partly everything he said, I know that if you made a mistake today, you'd fix it before tomorrow, that's just the kind of person you are. I'm sure you keeping changing into a better person no matter what happens."

"...Into the kind of person, I admire," Leo mumbled, drifting off to his own slumber.

"Thanks, Leo," Anne spoke to herself, staggering back upstairs.

She didn't know what was awaiting them in the next few days, leaving the valley, going to all kinds of unique locations outside of Wartwood, what would they encounter and who would they meet, maybe they could even find Marcy.

Mending things with Sasha, as crazy as that might've sounded and finding them a proper way home.

It would be fine though, Anne had everyone she needed with her.

...

Definitely the longest chapter I've written, so sorry if you don't like these kind of lengths. I'm actually fairly proud of how this chapter turned out, everything I wanted to include was placed in with no trouble, my main concern was that Leo would take too much attention in this chapter and overshadow Anne, but I feel with the fact that she split Toad Tower in half and ended the whole confrontation pretty quickly is enough to justify that.

Regarding Anne this chapter, I wanted to explore her fears over Sasha and standing up to her, I still love the moment in the show but I feel if it were real it just wouldn't be so easy to get over practically a decade of control, hence where Leo come's in and get's bodied. Speaking of powers, I'm planning to make them work a tad differently, not so much that their nothing like in the show, but I want to have them work a little more docile at first and slowly grow to what we see in True Colours. Anyway, the next chapter might not come out for a while, not that I've lost motivation to write; I just wanted to let the story simmer for a while, and not immediately rush into season 2 even if I have a big plan for the first half of the season, until then, see yah!

Thanks to everyone who reads and review's this story as well!