Anne gripped her sword tightly, her bright golden armour glinting in stark contrast to the sandy, barren wasteland that was the remains of Newtopia. Sand snuck into her shoes as she walked, clouds overhead threatening to block out the setting sun. Andrias had told them about the Core just before the castle fell from the sky; that it was all the greatest minds of Amphibia, but that it had betrayed him and gone rogue, intent on assimilating more minds. Andrias was dead, his castle in ruins behind her. Her family was still in there, but they'd be fine. Sasha was taking care of it.

"Help… god have mercy… please…"

Anne whipped around in confusion, before spotting a bedraggled newt with blood spilling from its slit throat, desperately clawing his way towards her.

His wet amphibian skin slid along the sand, and the newt let himself go limp.

"The Core has come to eat us…" he whispered to Anne using his last breath. "To eat our minds… I am sorry my liege… I have failed…"

The newt dropped dead, accomplishing nothing. As Anne walked over the hill, she saw more and more corpses, decorating the ruins of Newtopian meeting room that was buried in ash.

But behind a small rise just after the room, a tall, humanoid creature lay hunched over on all fours. It had no tail, which was odd; the Core had been described as quite lanky, so she assumed its host was a newt… but it seemed familiar, in a way. It was clad in a tight black jumpsuit with a, tattered burgundy cape torn beyond repair adorning its shoulders. Its steel black helm was missing a horn, but the bright, glowing orange eyes were untouched.

The Core pressed its hand against a dying newt's forehead, muttering some kind of incantation under its breath to assimilate its mind. The Core paused, pulling its hand away, before impaling the newt with a large, rusted and bloodstained sword.

It turned around, looking at Anne quizzically.

"What?" it asked, as if there was nothing out of the ordinary about their current situation. "Still here? Thought for sure you'd be dead by now."

Anne knew that voice. It was mixed with hundreds, even thousands of other voices to create this unsettling echoing rumble, but yet, she could still hear the voice of her friend buried deep within. She was at a loss for words; Marcy was dead. She watched Andrias kill her, but regardless, she recognised that face. She could only see the lower half of the face, but she could still tell.

"Submit to me," Darcy said. "Just as the others did."

Anne, still speechless, could only shake her head and grip her sword tighter in response.

Darcy's eyes narrowed, and she let out an inhuman, animalistic growl, lifting her frayed blade up and laughing the dead newt at Anne, before charging at her on all fours like a rabid dog.

Anne could only raise her blade to block Darcy's furious strike, but it knocked her off balance, sending her tumbling down a dune. After she landed, she rolled away just in time to avoid Darcy jumping down and plunging her blade at where Anne's chest once was.

That was only confirmation to Anne that Marcy was t in control, at least not fully. Marcy may have betrayed her, but she would never try to kill her. Not even Sasha would do that.

She jumped up as Darcy was recovering and decided that she would have to try and incapacitate her friend (even if that meant minor injuries), which meant aiming for the legs, arms, shoulder, or helmet. She aimed a strike at Darcy's sword arm, but a black metal gauntlet shot up to block it, pushing the sword back. Darcy slashed at Anne's stomach and missed, before letting out a growl of frustration and beginning to violently swing her sword around with no aim or care.

Blades rarely clashed, neither Anne nor Darcy landing any hits due to fear and rage respectively.

But when Anne finally went for a blow, it connected. She stepped back as a piece of Darcy's mask fell away, Marcy's left eye becoming visible. She looked scared. Anne's sword had only grazed her cheek, but as Darcy fell to the ground, some scarce drops of blood dripped onto her sword.

"Impressive…" Darcy sneered, newfound resolve creeping into her tone. "Didn't know it was red."

Suddenly, Marcy's eye flowed a bright lime as the Core channeled what was left of her calamity powers, releasing it in a glowing green aura that enveloped her as she stood up, assuming a battle stance with her sword at her side, her ragged cape flailing in the wind as the weather worsened.

Darcy let out a battle cry as she charged towards Anne – this time on two feet – but this one was more distinctly human, less animalistic, which mirrored her change in fighting style. Now, she placed her blows carefully, making sure to never over swing and always transitioning the end of each strike into a guard position.

Anne struggled to keep up; Marcy's precision combined with the Core's ferocity was a dangerous combination. Darcy seemed to have almost superhuman speed, jumped around Anne like an annoying fly, seeming to even float in midair on occasion.

Blades clashed once more, and this time the two locked them together; Marcy may be smarter, but Anne was stronger. She pushed Darcy's Sword away and jabbed at her thigh, but missed.

Darcy grinned, grabbing Anne's arm and tossing her to the floor.

"Tell Sasha that Marcy sends her regards," Darcy said as she slowly walked towards Anne, her sword glinting through the rust.

"Tell her yourself, Marcy!" Anne lunged at her friend, but Darcy simply sidestepped it, letting Anne careen down a sand dune.

"So predictable," Darcy laughed, sliding down the dune, "so tenacious." She chuckled and kicked sand into Anne's face. "How could such a bull-headed child survive this long?" She raised her sword, ready to strike down on Anne's neck. "It's my own conceit, I suppose. But either way, pick your battles. Know when you're beat."

"… funny," Anne coughed, her eyes fixated on the floor.

Suddenly, her hair burst into bright blue flames, and she looked up, her eyes much the same.

"I could say the same thing to you."

A wave of blue energy burst from Anne's body, knocking Darcy to the ground. As Darcy sat up, she saw Anne jump from the trough of the dune and fly towards her. She barely got up in time, dodging the attack with a well timed roll.

Anne was more aggressive and purposeful with her strikes, but Darcy could still keep up. Even as the weather worsened and lightning struck the ground around them, they fought their final duel; two nobodies fighting over nothing in the ruins of a once great kingdom, now reduced to rubble.

They fought for what felt like an eternity. As the battle neared its end, Darcy pulled her sword back and thrusted it towards Anne's stomach, but she missed, and Anne grabbed her blade from her hand, throwing it away.

Anne charged at Darcy one final time, discarding even her own sword. They grappled with each other for a short while, Anne desperately grabbing at Darcy's helmet. It was only once she got her friend in a headlock that the Core spoke, keenly aware of its fate.

"Damn humans…"

That was the last thing the Core said before Anne ripped the shattered helmet from Marcy's head, letting her limp body drop to the ground. Anne breathed a sigh of relief when she felt a pulse. So, Anne picked her up, heaved her over her shoulder, and trudged back to the wreckage of the castle.

Behind her, the Core's broken mask sat half buried in a thick sand dune, horns cracked and chipped, eyes unlit, destined to be buried by the sands of everything.


This was basically just an excuse to write a boss fight between Anne and the Core. Or, how I think a fight between these two could play out if Amphibia was a little more violent. It'll definitely be contradicted by canon, this is just something I thought up that I thought would be fun to write.