It had been a good birthday for the herpetologist, she had a good time with her best friends, even more so considering how rare it was for her to see them nowadays. Sasha had insisted they visit a nightclub. Partly because she knew that Anne still loved to dance and also because she had heard a few of her older patients were planning to sneak in that night and Sasha decided to give her the fright of their lives.
Marcy then took them out to the movies, Love choice six was showing, It was pretty bad (the new love interest was just another cyborg, Anne was hoping for a Gillalizard man,) but despite that what they saw was fun to riff on.
The evening was to end at Thai-Go where the elder Boonchuys had already cooked the trio's favorite foods.
Anne stood there watching as her parents talked with her best friends. Eventually, her parents headed to their home in the suburbs, handing Anne the keys to the restaurant.
Before too long the trio was engaged in conversation about their lives, Marcy was discussing her latest Webcomic and how everything in it was not related to anything that happen in Amphibia, (Amber, Sandra, and Melody were unrelated characters, and that even if they weren't, they were different enough that she couldn't be sued for it.) Sasha talked about her personal life, mostly complaining about her love life.
Things took a turn when Sasha asked an innocent question.
"So, any plans for tomorrow?" said Sasha currently, finishing off a can of beer.
"Taking the day off hanging with you girls if you want, Oh and I have to see Terri about something."
"Not Jan?" said Marcy, eating some Pad Thai.
Anne smiled, it had been a discussion with Jan during her and Terri's wedding which had inspired her decision to go into her field, after that Jan had become a sort of mentor to Anne Boonchuy, She had helped her made connections that would be useful in her field.
Anne shrugged, "Probably."
"What do you mean, "probably?" Why are you interested in seeing your mentor's wife?"
Anne looked at both of her friends for a second and then shrugged, It couldn't hurt to tell them the truth.
"Terri's going to try and open a portal to Amphibia."
Sasha and Marcy stopped their respective eating and drinking and looked at Anne, Their mouths wide open.
"What?" said Marcy, confused.
"You've been trying to go back?" said Sasha sounding hurt, which quickly turned to anger, "Why you didn't tell us?"
Anne let out a nervous giggle. "Ha, Yeah, Listen, let me explain."
"Please do so," said Sasha, glaring at her.
Anne looked at Marcy, there was a look of hurt on her face.
"Okay, so I told you I gave my phone to Sprig, right?"
The two women nodded at her, they still remembered everything that happened that day.
"Well, around five years ago Terri came to me and suggested that maybe we could send out a signal, we might be able to open a portal big enough to send a message through, We have some telecommunications equipment and Mr.X is going to be there and… " Anne sighed, "Listen, I know it's dumb, but It's probably not even going to work, It's kind of pointless really, I didn't want to get your hopes up.
The two women looked at Anne at first curious a forgiving smiled appeared on Marcy's face, "It's not pointless, maybe it'll work," Said Marcy.
Sasha was quiet, and soon a small appeared on her face as, "Okay, but next time please tell us."
Anne smiled a little, "Thanks guys." she picked up her glass and started to drink.
"Don't worry, you can show us tomorrow," said Sasha.
Anne spat out the contents of her mouth on the table, "What?"
"We're coming to," said Marcy, "It will be nice to see Amphibia again, or at least a little of it.
Anne looked at both of them worried, "Oh."
Sasha and Marcy picked up on their friends' hesitation, after everything they went through they knew that it was a bad idea to ignore when any of them needed help.
Anne rubbed her shoulder, Sasha reached over to take her hand, "Are you going to be okay?"
A quick smile from Anne relieved Sasha, "I'm fine. Just don't get too excited, we've never really opened that big of a portal or even seen an Amphibian, it might not work."
"I've got a few days off saved up, would be fun to see," said Sasha.
"And I don't have to fly back for another week, we've got more to catch up on."
Anne smiled, "Great, So Sasha, how's your girlfriend?" The moan from Sasha was a sign that they were going to talk about this for a while.
They left around midnight, they drove back to Anne's apartment, by this point the three women were too tired, and they decided to stay at Anne's for the night.
Sasha and Marcy said they'd sleep on the couch, Marcy changed into her pajamas, and Anne lent Sasha a pair of her own, after saying goodnight she went to her room.
Her room was...mostly clean, she might have aged ten years, but one thing that remained the same for the awkward teenage girl was the state of her room discarded clothes lay about, a gossip magazine lay amongst Zoology papers, on visits from her mother she still got complaints, she walked to her bed and sat down, And she did her usual yearly ritual.
She started to cry.
The memories flooded her, Wartwood, her family, The friends she made, all of it.
Ten years ago, she spent the first week crying, it hurt The first week her parents had taken shifts to spend the night with her, she spent days in her bed just laying there, she knew she left them on the best of terms but the idea that she would never see them again still hurt.
Eventually, it got better. She started to hate just staying in her room, the first shift she worked at the restaurant after returning had been hard with several people asking questions about what happened, After that things went back to normal, She spent time with Sasha and Marcy before the latter moved, which had been hard, all three of them cried that day, Even the Wu's had joined in the goodbye hug.
Life just continued, and the pain faded, Sometimes she'd think about them and cry, but she just moved on, remembering that they'd want her to live her life in the most amazing way possible.
One day crying alone was fine.
"You too, huh," said a voice from the door.
Anne looked up to see Sasha and Marcy standing there smiling at her, tears also in their eyes,
Anne smiled a sad smile.
She nodded, "Yeah, sorry to bring the mood down."
Sasha and Marcy sat down, Marcy to her right, Sasha to her left.
" I cry around this time as well." Said Marcy.
"You want company?" asked Sasha.
Anne looked at her friends, she wrapped her arms around her friend's shoulders and pulled them in, they didn't get that much sleep that night they talked about their other home, the good the bad, and all in-between.
…
L.A. was warm this time of year, she wondered why the Boonchuy's wanted to live in such a place with a dry heart, the crowds of people around him kept bumping into him, His small statue made it feel like he was surrounded by a moving prison bars.
He kept trying to find her. She has to be here. "Anne?" He called, hoping she would respond.
"Hey Sprig," said a voice from behind him.
Sprig froze, he turned around to see her, hoping that she would be standing behind him.
Nothing, just more of the crowd.
"Sprig, what are you doing? I'm over here." said Anne sounding upset.
He turned again trying to spot her, again nothing.
He kept turning, trying to find her, she kept pleading for him to stop messing around and find her.
"Come on, Sprig, don't you want to see me again? Don't you love me?" said the invisible Anne her voice nearly crying.
Sprig kept looking for any sign of his best friend, trying to figure out where she could be.
"Sprig, why aren't you looking for me? Don't you love me?"
"I do it's just… it's just..."
"You're not even trying, you just don't care."
"No it's not like that I..."
"You've forgotten her," the voice changed, to the core's, It started to laugh, the mocking laughter was coming from everywhere now, taunting him, she was here somewhere he just needed to find her and save her and…,
…
Sprig opened his eyes and shot out of bed, he ran to the door, hoping that he could find Anne and rescue her. He burst open the door, only to see the open lake In front of him, He ran into the safety bar and looked around trying to remember where he was and what happened. Slowly it came back to him,
It all came back now, he was on a journey back to Wartwood on the lake boat.
He and Ivy had just returned from The continent after a few months away, They were about to see his family for a month before they set you again, Ivy had been insistent that they go back home.
He took a breath, and rubbed his face, he felt the goatee on his chin, all the women in his life seemed to have made it a goal to convince him to get rid of it, he disagreed and kept it out of rebellion.
It was the dream again.
When Anne had left they had been a constant presence in his life, nightly visits of the voice taunting him, condemning him for not having Anne in his life anymore, he would run to the basement only to find she wasn't there, he spent the night crying alone in the dark.
Eventually one night Polly walked down there. As it turned out she did the same thing once in a while.
They both spent the night holding onto one another, Polly was possibly the bravest young frog in town, (She had grown so much since Anne left,) heck braver than him, so it felt weird that he was the one who had to comfort her for once.
The next day Hop Pop found them, he waited for them to wake before asking them what they were doing. Afterwards they just talked about it, when they should have been farming they were instead holding each other and crying.
He thought about others the humans had impacted.
Grime had moved near to Wartwood after the human's departure, He, Ivy, and Maddie had spent a long time exploring the lost continent with the paladin, However he had decided to stay in Wartwood this time, stating that it was time for Sprig to take charge of expeditions, thankfully it had ended well for the frog with barely anything going wrong.
Yunan and Olivia had moved to Wartwood, though as one of the members of the Amphibia Ruling council Olivia was constantly called to New Newtopia to work on some sort of deal, leaving Yunan to look after their daughter, Marcy a small purple frog, When he was younger she was a little shy but with each passing year she grew more and more outgoing, Sprig however always was able to get her to open up a little. Of course this didn't change the fact that she was growing a little too opinionated, she always seemed to be dismissive when ever anyone talked about her namesake.
So lost in his own thoughts, he was shocked to feel a hand on his shoulder, he swatted at it and turned to see who was behind him.
Standing there was a yellow frog woman, she was wearing a vest and shorts, the look on her face told him she was surprised by his action. Shame washed over Sprig instantly.
"Oh Frog, Ivy, I'm sorry I…"
Ivy smiled, "Sprig, relax, the amount of times I've tackled you to the ground a simple slap to the hand is nothing."
The smile brought Sprig back his depression slightly, after ten years together and his heart still fluttered when he saw her smile.
"Sorry, bad dream."
"About her?" Said Ivy, concern creeping onto her face.
Sprig swallowed, "Yeah."
They both returned to their room, Sprig walked to his bunk, only to be shocked that Ivy followed.
"Ivy?"
"Come on Sprig, you need someone tonight," a cheeky grin appeared on her face, "Besides, it's not as if we haven't shared a bed before."
Sprig smiled, thinking of a month back, "Okay, but it's a bit cramped for one."
"I'll just get even closer," Said Ivy, with a purr, Sprig's smile grew wider, did it just get warmer in here?
They both entered the bed, Ivy put her arm around Spring's stomach.
"Do you still miss her that much?"
"A little."
"Running out crying is a little?"
Sprig laughed, "fair point."
"She wouldn't want you to be sad, you know that, right?"
Sprig sighed, "Yeah, I know, but… it felt like a part of me is missing, something that I don't think I'll ever fill."
Ivy winced, she looked at her stomach, she hadn't told him yet, the fear was still there, it was hard fighting against someone she'd never be able to match, even if he didn't think of Anne like that, it hurt that she couldn't help him, all she could do was comfort him.
"Sprig, I know it hurts but… I'm here, and I know that if Anne was here, she'd want you to be happy."
"I know."
"Well know this, you have dozens of people who love you in both worlds, one of them sharing a bed with you at this moment, and I know I'll never be her, but I promise I'll be here if you need to talk about it.
Ivy couldn't see the look on his face, she feared she had offended him or something, she just wished she knew what to say to make him feel better."
"Thanks Ivy," muttered Sprig sleepily.
Ivy smiled, she was going to respond but then heard light snoring from her boyfriend, she snuggled closer.
She was in competition with a memory, but she hoped she could win.
…
None of them, not Frog, nor Human knew they were being watched.
Somewhere in the multiverse, there was a being beyond time and space, it had no real form, for when does power need form, their duty was to watch the countless worlds of the multiverse. To make sure they were in harmony, to guard its powers.
One thousand years ago, it had made a mistake, and ten years ago it had done it again. It watched trying to figure out how it could make things right again.
Little did they know how big their newest mistake would be.