She felt someone put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Grime.

"I know how you're feeling." He said, "You feel like there's no way to win, that every option leads to death and loss."

Anne wiped the tears away.

"How did you know?"

"I've felt that before." He said, "Several times actually. Just know, that even when every option seems like it will fail, there's always a winning strategy."

"I know but-" Anne was cut off as Grime held his hand up.

"The worst thing you can do right now is only think of the negative outcomes instead of the positive outcomes." Grime said to her.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Anne asked.

"Believe in yourself and believe in your allies. Sasha told me the buttering people up would bring out the best in them, I believed that was just a way to get what you wanted but it helped me see the true value in my soldiers that may frustration blinded me too." Grime said to her.

"Thanks, Grime. I needed that." Anne said.

"Glad I could help." Grime said before holding his hand out to Anne. "Now, are you ready to face your troops, town, and family?"

"…Yes, yes I am." Anne said as she took his hand, getting up from her bed.

"Just a fair warning, Frobo has been given his new body and the rest are being reprogrammed by Polly." Grime said as he lead Anne out of the medical tent.

"With how much she was tinkering in the Human world, I'm not surprised." Anne said.

The two chuckled as they saw everyone in the town happy to see Anne while some were voicing that Polly was going mad!

'They better not be right.' Anne thought, 'Okay, I can do this.'

The two of them followed the sound of machinery and people mumbling as they came upon Polly, Sasha, and Frobo making alterations to one of the minion bots.

"Move that here. Rewire this." Polly said to herself.

"This servo is to be removed and reinserted." Frobo commented while helping Polly.

"Everything going alright, Polly?"

"You bet it is! This is the third robot I've reprogrammed and there's still 17 left!" Polly said as she jumped off it, the minion bot soon turning on. "By the time we're done, Wartwood II is gonna have a small army to protect it with Frobo as their leader."

"Well, that's good." Anne said.

"Very good. Frobo will show you his weapons system to protect Wartwood II." Frobo said as he showed the rocket launchers on his back, the arm blade from his left arm, and the machine gun barrel on his right arm.

"WHOA! They had these thing?!" Anne asked in shock.

"Yep. We got lucky to have taken out of the big one before they used them." Sasha said to her, "They look like they were designed to... elimanate everyone here."

"And they would've if we didn't stop them." Anne said in relief.

"Yeah but now, they can be put to good use protecting Wartwood II if we are ever away." Grime said with a nod.

"Which will be soon." Anne said, "Because Sasha and I are taking the fight to Darcy in a week."

"What? So soon?" Grime asked in surprise.

"We have to if we don't want another attack like this one to happen." Anne said, not revealing her linked dream with Marcy and Darcy, "The sooner we take the fight to Darcy, the sooner we can bring everything back to normal."

"And the sooner we get back Marcy." Sasha said in agreement.

"But we need a plan of attack. We don't know if Newtopia is the same as when we left." Grime said.

"Which is why I have a stealth plan."

"Stealth?" Hop Pop asked.

"Yeah, me and Sasha are going to sneak into Newtopia and take on Darcy. I remember seeing a few cracks in the city walls that are big enough for us to squeeze through." Anne said.

"This is dangerous, remember that." Hop Pop said, "Be careful."

"We will." Anne said with a nod.

"But what about Wartwood?" Sprig asked.

"I've seen first hand you frogs can fight like warriors. Plus with the new guards, you'll be alright." Sasha said.

"Yeah, I'm sure everything will be alright." Anne said, "Come on, Sasha, let's go."

Sasha nodded to Anne as they went towards to prepare, the Plantar family having been given a tent to act as their home for some time now.

"Sasha." Anne said, stopping inside the tent.

"Yeah?" Sasha asked.

"I've got something to tell you. Some VERY important about Marcy." Anne said before explaining the linked dream she had.

"Wait, you mean we can't hurt her?" Sasha said, "That is unfair."

"I know but there has to be a way to beat Darcy without hurting Marcy." Anne said to Sasha.

"Yeah, maybe we can find a way to separate her from that... thing."

"Yeah, from the dream, it looked like that helmet and suit were the moan issue. If we can get those or just the helmet off Marcy, it should help." Anne said.

"The big question is how do we get it off."

The two thought for a moment as they listed all the ways they could stop Darcy without hurting Marcy. Restraining her would be their best option either by grappling or by ropes and chains. It seemed to be the only option. But how could the my to do that without hurting her?

"Do you think Maddie has any capture spells? It would be hurting someone, just restraining them." Anne suggested.

"I can go ask her."

Sasha left the tent to go find Maddie, hopefully she could have something to restrain someone. Anne just leaned against the wall. This is far worse than she thought. Marcy was held prisoner in her own body, Darcy was diabolically in control, Wartwood II was caught in the middle, and Anne was near her breaking point. If it wasn't for her friends and family, she might've broken from the pressure long ago.

Before she knew it, Sasha was back.

"Alright, I got something to keep her out while we try and free Marcy."

"Alright... it's go time."


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