AN:Well, here is chapter 2. I was hoping to get this out a little earlier, but you guys know how life goes.

Anyways, not to much more to say up here, so I'll see you all down below.

Chapter 2: Family Ties

"So, I hear that Wartwood hosts some sort of Big Bugball Game every year, is that right Anne?"

This was the third conversation topic that Marcy had tried to suggest to Sasha and Anne as the two hit the ball back and forth, and it was starting to get on the blonde's nerves. There was certainly a bit of an awkward tension between her and Anne ever since the night before and so the two had mostly been silent during this hang-out, and Marcy's attempts to get them talking was not helping break that awkwardness at all. It didn't exactly help that being around Marcy kept bringing Sasha's thoughts back to what she'd learned about the box.

"Uh, yeah," Anne replied as she hit the ball towards Sasha, "it happens every Harvest Day."

"Cool, cool, isn't that kind of cool Sasha, some big sport…thing?" Marcy asked, very awkwardly.

"I guess?" Sasha replied with disinterest as she hit the ball back to Anne.

While Marcy had always been a bit socially awkward, Sasha couldn't ever really remember her being this bad at social interaction. For whatever reason, all the topics she tried to start conversations on were stuff that she clearly had no interest in. It was stuff that Anne and Sasha might have an interest in, and might have had some sort of interesting discussion for them, but Marcy trying to force the conversation just made those topics seem awkward, which really wasn't helping the already awkward atmosphere.

It also didn't help that Sasha was trying to focus on thinking about how she could try and convince the toads to stop the rebellion.

What if…what if I somehow get some kind of threat of an attack on the king sent out to Newtopia so that security gets beefed up and the Toads have to cancel the attack?

The ball came towards Sasha and she hit it back.

Ugh, no that won't work, they aren't going to have tight security for him meeting Marcy and Anne which is when the sneak attack is supposed to take place. Plus, it's just another delay to the rebellion, not an actual stop to it.

"I was actually part of this year's Bugball Game." Anne mentioned.

Sasha only half listened as Anne recounted the events of the game. It was one of the stories that Anne had told her while they were hanging out in the Tower, so it's not like she was missing anything new by not paying too much attention, especially when she had something more important to do like coming up with a plan to stop the rebellion.

…Still, she did make sure to half listen. She did like hearing Anne's stories, even if she'd heard them before, if only because she liked hearing Anne's voice and enthusiasm as she talked. Sasha found the way Anne told stories of what happened to her to be just one of the many adorable things about her alongside-

-NO! No Sasha, you have more important things to think about than how much you like Anne. I've got to stick to thinking about the rebellion. Maybe…maybe I could cause some sort of infighting between the Tower Lords? Keep them off the same page and unwilling to work together? Would that work?

"Since when are you interested in sports Marcy?" Anne asked. "You were never all that interested back home."

"Oh…you know, just…uh, trying to get interested in new stuff, you know?" Marcy answered back rather awkwardly.

"Huh, is that right?" Anne said, her tone sounding a little suspicious. "So, what makes it seem so interesting to you?"

"Oh, I probably wouldn't be able to explain it all that well." Marcy said, starting to sound a little nervous. "I'm sure Sasha would have a way easier time talking about sports, with all that cheerleading she did, right Sash?"

"I don't know, maybe." Sasha replied, still not interested in this topic.

Honestly, if anything had grabbed her interest so far, it was the suspicious tone in Anne's voice. To Sasha's knowledge, Anne had no reason to have any sort of suspicions about Marcy doing anything.

It's not like she has any hints about how Marcy tore the two of us away from Earth and trapped us in a world where we've both faced dangerous situations on a near-constant basis. It's not like Anne has any reason to suspect that Marcy had lied to us and tricked us and is still lying to us. It's not like Anne has any reason to think that Marcy had-

The ball hitting Sasha in the face and knocked her off balance so she fell on her but pulled the blonde out of her increasingly angry thoughts.

"Sasha, you alright?" Anne asked as she and Marcy ran over to the former cheerleader.

"I'm fine" Sasha said with a sigh.

"Do you need help up?" Marcy offered, her hand outstretched.

"I said I'm fine Marcy!" Sasha snapped, batting away the raven-haired girl's hand as the other two girls' eyes widened in shock at her outburst.

"Whoa, what was that about?" Anne asked.

It was being asked that question that made Sasha realize how she had just acted.

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," Sasha said quickly as she stood up. "I'm just, not feeling great right now, I'm going to head back and lie down for a bit or something."

Sasha quickly began walking away before Anne and Marcy could stop her, though she did hear Anne call something out after her.

"If you need to talk or anything, come find me, OK?"

Sasha answered back with a fairly dismissive wave of her hand, not even looking back as she continued walking away.

The blonde let out a deep sigh as she walked through the woods She really hated lying to Anne about what was wrong, but right now she wasn't ready to tell her the truth about what was bothering her.

I just hope I'm not just coming up with some excuse to fall back into my old habits.

As Sasha walked through the woods, she ended up stopping at a tree and sitting down next to it. She could have gone back to Wartwood, but she had a lot of thinking to do and she had a better chance of doing so uninterrupted out here.

Sasha hated this. She still had no idea how she was going to stop the rebellion and she couldn't talk to Grime about stopping it until she had a plan to bring to him that would work. And yet, she just couldn't get the time to actually think up a plan. She needed to do something to try and stop that future from happening, and yet her thoughts either went back to Anne, or they went towards that stupid box and what Marcy did with it.

She still couldn't believe that Marcy actually knew that the box could take them to other worlds and still tricked her and Anne into getting it. It was ridiculous that she'd do this. Sure she was upset by her parents deciding to move, but most of the time when kids have to move away from their friends they don't resort to kidnapping as a solution! And that's not getting into all of the times that Anne and Sasha and even Marcy have nearly died since they got to Amphibia. It's like she didn't care that she had no idea what would happen if the box worked and took them to some far-off world, like she hadn't even thought about how risky and dangerous it could be to them.

…Then again, it's not like Marcy was the only one of the three who didn't consider anyone's feelings. Was what Marcy did any worse than how Sasha herself had acted on Earth? It certainly isn't worse than how she's acted since she got to Amphibia…

…No, no what am I thinking? Yeah I've done pretty bad stuff, but just because I've done bad stuff doesn't mean I can't be angry about Marcy doing this to me and Anne….right?

This was perhaps the most aggravating part of learning about what Marcy did for Sasha, that her anger at the girl conflicted with her own guilt over her behaviour in the past and the future.

It's not fair. I…I should have a right to be angry at her, but I've…I've done worse to both her and Anne…But that still doesn't excuse what she did…does it?

Sasha groaned as her thoughts went in circles, making no headway on thinking up a plan to stop the rebellion or even figuring out what to feel about Marcy and the Box, even as that topic consumed her thoughts.

I guess there is some good that came out of Marcy doing this, I'm actually trying to change. And it is nicer having Grime around instead of Mom and Dad…but then again, it's not like I'm happy that I got torn away from home like that. My parents may have been shitty, but it's not like I didn't have anyone back home…

Sasha sighed as she sat on the couch in her Fathers house.

The night had started out fairly OK all things considered, with her Dad bringing her, her step-mom, Linda, and her half-brother, Bradley, to some sort of party that was being hosted by some people in her Dad's social circle. While Sasha wasn't particularly interested in being there and was a bit bored, she still had a good time texting back and forth with Anne and Marcy. It was overall, a decent night.

And then they discovered that her Mother had attended as well. Pretty much ever since the divorce started, her parents could not be at the same place without things turning into a screaming match within half an hour at most. Tonight, unfortunately, had been no different. Within about 10 minutes, her parents had taken each other aside and started yelling over whatever issues they had with each other that came to mind. Really, the only reason that they weren't all still there while her parents fought was that Linda had managed to find a break during the argument for her to convince Sasha's father that they should leave for the night, something that she had practically become of master of over these last few years once it became clear she couldn't do anything to calm the argument or prevent it from happening.

But, even with the yelling over, that didn't mean that the night returned to normal. The car ride back was silent as Sasha could see her father still fuming with anger over whatever he and her mother had been yelling at each other about this time. Really, it was a surprise that Sasha hadn't gotten used to these silent car rides by now, given how often they occurred. The only one in the car who wasn't uncomfortable with the silence was Bradley, the 3-year-old having fallen asleep shortly after he was put in the car.

And now, here Sasha sat on the couch in her Father's house, her night utterly ruined. Even with her Father having gone and locked himself in his study to fume away from everyone else, she still didn't feel any better. She didn't even feel like texting back to Anne and Marcy. The two might be worried by that, but Sasha didn't really care. Right now, she just felt like she wanted to be alone.

Which is why she was so annoyed by Stepmother coming into the room. Sasha knew why she was there, she wanted to try and offer some kind of support for Sasha, and on some level, Sasha could appreciate that. But right now, it was just annoying to her.

The brown-haired woman walked over to Sasha and sat down next to her, an awkwardness in the air.

"I've, uh, well I've put Bardley down for the night." Linda began, trying to do something to break the awkwardness "It's honestly amazing how easily he just falls asleep while in the car."

Sasha didn't respond, leading the older woman to sigh.

"Sasha," Her stepmother began, "I-I just hope you know that…that you know that none of that yelling is because of you. They just…your parents do love you, even if they don't love each other anymore. Them being mad at each other has nothing to do with you."

"Yeah, I know" Sasha replied bitterly.

She knew that she didn't have anything to do with why her parents split-up, or why they couldn't be in the same room as each other without screaming their lungs out anymore. If she did have anything to do with it, then maybe she could have done something to keep them together. To keep them from hating each other this much. But she didn't have anything to do with it, and so she couldn't do anything to stop all of this.

Linda sighed. It looked to Sasha like she wanted to say more, but no more words came out of her mouth. Probably because they had had this type of conversation so many times that Linda was just repeating things she had already said. Things that had already failed to comfort Sasha.

"I'm going to go to my room." Sasha said as she stood up from the couch.

"OK." Linda replied. "If you need anything, even just to talk, just come and find me OK?"

"Whatever," Sasha said, not particularly interested in her help.

The blonde walked to her room in silence and laid down on her bed. She checked her phone and saw texts from Anne and Marcy asking if she was OK. She briefly thought about writing back to them, letting them know that she was fine, but instead, she put her phone face-down on her nightstand. She didn't want to be around anyone right now. Nor her friends, not her family, not anyone-

"Sas'a" came a small, sleepy voice from the door to the cheerleader's room.

Sasha's head turned to see the small figure of her baby half-brother standing in the doorway, dressed in his pyjamas and rubbing some sleep from his eye.

"Hey squirt, what are you doing up?" Sasha asked.

"Story." Was the 3-year-olds only response.

Sasha rolled her eyes, even as a small smile appeared on her face.

"Alright." She said as she got off her bed. "But only one, then right to bed."

Sasha picked up her brother and walked to his room. It was rather amazing, she thought. When Bradley was first born, she hated him. Her Father who had been paying less and less attention to her ever since things with her Mom started to get really bad would fawn and dote over his son in a way that Sasha could only ever remember him doing with her. It had made her resentful. It had made her sick. And yet…as she spent more time around the little guy, she couldn't help but come to like him. He was this utter bundle of joy that was impossible to hate no matter how much Sasha tried. And so, she gave up trying to hate him. It certainly helped that he clearly looked up to his big sister, and looking up to her was a fast way to get on Sasha's good side.

And now, here Sasha was, taking this child she used to hate back to his room to read him a bedtime story, something she did most nights that she stayed with her Father.

"Alright, which one do you want?" Sasha asked as she entered Bradley's room.

He pointed to a book that was lying on the floor, a book that Sasha had probably read to him over a hundred times at this point.

"Alright, alright, we'll do that one." The blond said as she laid her brother down on his bed before picking up the book and sitting on the end of the bed.

The book was Bradley's favourite, a small and short story of someone going around looking for where his cow might be, and constantly confusing other animals for it. It was the sort of story meant to be read aloud to kids so they could hear people making all sorts of animal noises, and Bradley loved every moment of it. Really, at this point, Sasha was pretty sure she could recite the whole thing without having the book in her hands, though she hadn't actually tried yet.

As Sasha read through the book and made all the requisite animal noises, her little brother made all sorts of little giggles of approval, at least, until he finally seemed to fall asleep. Sasha hadn't actually finished reading when he did, but she continued the book until the end anyway, just in case he could still hear her. When she did finish, she closed the book, put it in it's proper place on the little bookshelf they had in his room, and ruffled his hair.

"Night, squirt." Sasha said as she got up to leave.

As she got to the door, Sasha could hear a very faint "Night Sas'a" coming from the bed. Sasha then exited the room and closed the door, only to find Linda standing outside.

"Oh, hey." Sasha said in surprise, not expecting her stepmother to be there.

She also didn't expect her stepmother to suddenly hug her.

"You're a good sister." Linda whispered to her.

At hearing, a small smile came across Sasha's face.

"Thanks." She said, returning the hug.

Linda may not be Sasha's favourite person in the world, but it was nice to have an adult in one of her homes that appreciated her.

After a few moments, Sasha broke the hug, said good night to Linda, and went back to her room. She picked up her phone and decided to finally respond to Anne and Marcy and let them know that she was alright.

"You alright there?"

Sasha turned towards the voice that broke her out of her reminiscing, only to find a small yellow frog with red hair sticking out from underneath a hat.

Note to self, stop going into the woods to be alone, people keep finding me out here.

"Uh, hi, you're the daughter of that Frog me and Grime are staying with, right?"

The young frog nodded in response. Despite being under the same roof as the young Frog, Sasha hadn't seen much of her yet, to the point that she wasn't even sure what her name was.

I think it was some sort of plant?

"What are you doing here?" the blonde asked.

"Well, I saw you run out of my house into the woods last night, so when I saw you here again, I figured it probably made sense to check on you."

"Oh, you saw that." Sasha said, a small blush of embarrassment appearing on her cheeks.

"Don't be embarrassed," The Frog said, "I've seen people around here do way more embarrassing things than run off crying into the woods."

"Well, I guess that's some comfort" Sasha replied.

"Soooo," The frog said as she sat down next to Sasha "you going to answer my question?"

"Oh, uh…I guess I've been better." Sasha admitted. Somehow, it actually felt easier to admit that to a stranger than to any of the people she was actually close to.

"Well, you can share what's bothering you with me if you want."

"…Seriously?" Sasha asked incredulously. "I kidnapped the entire town and nearly killed half the Plantar's and you're just going to offer to listen to my problems."

"Sure," The yellow frog replied, "I mean, yeah you've done some kind of messed up stuff, but we're sharing a house for a couple of days. Makes sense to me to at least try to get along."

"Oh, well, thanks for offering, um…Ivy, right?"

"Yup."

Sasha let out a small sigh of relief that she said the correct name.

"So, what's bothering you?" Ivy once again asked.

Sasha looked at the young frog, contemplating for a moment on if she'd actually take her up on the offer. She could probably talk to her in vague terms about all of this but…well, did she really want to talk to her about this stuff? She was essentially a stranger and it would feel weird to talk about this stuff with here…though than again, that meant that she wasn't involved in any of this stuff and that somehow made her a safer option to talk with. But then again, she was just a kid, it wasn't like she could offer up any sort of advice, right? So it would be pointless to talk to her…although it would be nice to have someone even just there to listen to her…

Sasha let out a sigh.

"Get comfortable kid, this might take a while."

"Kid? I'm only like, 3 years younger than you."

"That's definitely a big enough age gap for me to call you kid." Sasha said, dismissively.

Ivy shot the blonde an unimpressed look, a look Sasha found amusing enough that she had to hold back from snickering.

She almost looks like an angry Muppet

"Anyways," Sasha said, redirecting their conversation back to what it was supposed to be about. "I guess…there's been a lot going on recently. I…There are a lot of people I need to talk to and I don't know how to start doing so."

"…Is this about your crush on Anne or something more serious?"

"You knew too?" Sasha said as she face-palmed.

"Sasha I'm 10, not blind."

Sasha let out a frustrated and embarrassed groan.

"Well, things with Anne are part of it but…well, if anything I'd say talking to her is the part I've already figured out."

At least, she had it figured out in the sense that she knew when she'd be talking to Anne. As for how she'd actually explain anything about what happened…well, she had time to figure that out.

"If anything," Sasha continued, "It's stuff I need to talk to Grime about where I don't even know how to approach him."

This wasn't completely true. The stuff with Grime and how to approach him about stopping the rebellion was weighing on her mind quite a bit. But, in truth, the situation with Marcy might be weighing on her mind more, enough that it could distract her from focusing on her planning. A part of her wanted to talk to Marcy about it, to directly confront the girl over what happened and what she did to both her and Anne. But she couldn't. Not without risking the truth about the future getting out, and she wasn't prepared for that to happen yet.

And yet, she also couldn't just talk to Ivy about this stuff. Letting anyone know that Sasha was mad at Marcy would just lead to people wondering why she was mad at her and then possibly leading to stuff about the future getting out anyway. Even just talking about it in the most vague terms would probably still give enough for someone to figure out that she's talking about Marcy given how few friends she had here.

And so…the only thing she could talk about in a way that was vague enough to not lead to someone finding out about the future was the issue with Grime.

"What kind of stuff?" Ivy asked.

"Well…me and him have been working on some stuff together. And there's…a lot of stuff wrong with it. And I'm trying to fix it but…Grime doesn't see what's really wrong with it and I can't tell him what's really wrong with it and that we need to fix it until I already know how to fix it."

"…Well…why do you need to know how to fix it first?"

Sasha gave Ivy a look like she had just said complete gibberish.

"…Ivy, of course, I need to figure out how to fix it first. This is some major stuff and there are serious consequences if we screw up and don't fix it or if we screw up trying to fix it. Not to mention some personal reasons for Grime that we need to do this."

Personal reasons such as getting rid of that bounty on his head

"Those actually sounds like more reasons to talk to him about this." Ivy replied.

"How?" Sasha asked, confused.

"Well, if it's super important that this stuff gets fixed and fixed right and there's bad stuff that could happen if it goes ahead without getting fixed or without getting fixed right, then he probably wants to know before it gets far enough that you guys can't fix it anymore."

"But it's more than that, It's more like…our entire approach to this is what's wrong and needs to be fixed, but he doesn't see that."

"…Have you tried getting him to see that?" Ivy asked.

"….No." Sasha said, almost feeling embarrassed to say her answer.

"So, you have someone who has a good idea about whatever this project you have is, but you don't want to let him know what's wrong with it, even though he could probably help you fix what's wrong with it if you actually tried to talk to him about it."

"…Could you maybe phrase that in a way to not make me sound like a total idiot for not having talked to him already." Sasha said a little indignantly.

"Nope." Ivy answered back with a cheerful smugness.

"…but, with how serious this is…I can't just go to him and say that we need to change everything about what we're doing without having some actual solution."

"I still don't get why you can't?"

"Because then it will be easier to convince him to change things." Sasha answered back.

"And can you him convince without knowing that?"

"…I don't know."

"Well, then why not tell him now, and if he isn't convinced then you can still try to come up with a way to fix it and then take another crack at convincing him."

"That…" Sasha paused as she took in Ivy's advice, "…actually makes sense."

"Well yeah, sensible things make sense, duh." Ivy replied, rolling her eyes. "Besides, he'll probably listen to you if you actually explain stuff to him."

"What makes you say that?" Sasha asked, her eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Honestly, the way he was acting last night is totally how my Mom acts whenever it looks like I'm in danger. If he was that worried about you, then he's probably willing to listen to whatever you have to say, especially if it's bothering you this much."

"Really?" Sasha asked.

"Yup." Ivy's reply caused a small smile to form on Sasha's face. It had been a while since any sort of father figure had shown such concern for her, so hearing how worried Grime was…well, it made her happy.

"You know, I think this talk actually helped a fair bit." Sasha said as she stood up.

"Happy to hear it." Ivy replied. "If you need anyone to talk to again, feel free to come find me, I'll definitely be able to help you through it."

"Sounding a little big head there, aren't you? You might have just gotten lucky with giving advice today Kid, what makes you so sure you could help with other stuff?" Sasha said, a teasing tone to her voice.

"One, don't call me kid." Ivy began, "Two, I'm the only one of us who's actually worked up the nerve to ask out their crush."

The blush that appeared on Sasha's face was all that was needed to show that the Blonde had conceded Ivy's point…and that she was more than a little embarrassed that a 10-year-old apparently had a better romantic life than her.

"Well, I'm going to go have a chat with Grime that I should have had this morning." Sasha said as she began walking back towards town, trying to will away the blush on her face. "See ya around kid."

"Seriously, stop calling me kid!" Ivy called after the former cheerleader.

"No!" Sasha playfully called back in response.

As Sasha continued walking towards Wartwood, a determined look came across her face. She knew this conversation with Grime was going to be hard, but it was something that she would do, something that she needed to do. And after her conversation with Ivy, she was confident that she could get Grime to come around and see things her way.

"You want to what!" Grime shouted.

"Keep you're voice down; this isn't exactly something we want everyone to hear about." Sasha reminded him.

"Right, sorry." Grime said, his voice quieting down.

Grime knew that the rebellion was not a topic that should be getting shouted about outside of toad-populated areas, but he couldn't really help himself in this case. Sasha had just told him that they needed to stop the rebellion.

Not put it off to another time.

Not fix some sort of problem with their plan for it.

Just, stop it.

It was ludicrous!

She really must have hit her head when she came back through that portal!

"Look, I realize that this isn't exactly something you want to hear right now-"

"Well obviously," Grime said, interrupting Sasha. "You realize how much work we've put into this whole right?"

"Yes Grime, I was there when we put in the work." Sasha replied, a deadpan look on her face.

"Then-then why would you want to stop this from happening." Grime had to remind himself to keep his voice low even as he spoke. This was just…it didn't make any sense to him. "We've got an entire army ready to help us move on Newtopia, more than enough toads undercover to help subdue the guards in the city once we make our move…I just don't understand why you'd want to all of a sudden stop?"

Sasha sighed as she sat down on the bed.

"…Because what we're doing is…it's wrong. We can't just overthrow a whole government like this just so we can get ourselves some power."

A frown appeared on Grimes's face.

"…It's a little late to have that realization, Sasha. Besides, we aren't just doing it to get some power, there are a bunch of toads out there that think they'll be getting better lives if we come out on top form all of this. Not to mention, you know, I won't be a criminal wanted dead or alive anymore."

"…We can still probably get some of that stuff done." Sasha replied.

"How?"

"…Well…" A scowl appeared on Sasha's face. "We could get some help from Marcy since she's so close with Andrais."

Grime raised an eyebrow. Marcy's name had come up a couple of times this morning, but every time it did a scowl would appear on Sasha's face. Grime wasn't quite sure why but Sasha seemed to be mad at her friend. Of course, that didn't seem like a particularly important point right now.

"Maybe," Grime conceded, "But even if your friend can talk the king into giving the toads some more political power and better conditions, we could have just have all the power ourselves and the toads won't have to rely on whatever Andrias decides to give them."

"But that won't stop the future I saw from happening." Sasha countered.

"What does that have to do with this? We just need to keep Yunan from interfering and everything will be fine." Grime said, a little confused as to why Sasha would bring that up now.

"…But it won't." Sasha said, her voice so quiet Grime could only just barely hear her.

"What do you mean by that?" Grime asked.

"…It's not just because you and Andrias died…I…" Sasha started to sound choked up. "…the future was awful. It's…a giant war going on, people dying because they don't want to listen to the tyrant that murdered their king…I…I can't see that again. I can't."

Sasha sounded nearly on the verge of tears.

"Sasha." Grime began, his voice much softer, "just because things went bad in that future you saw doesn't mean that things will be that bad if we-"

"Yes, it does Grime!" Sasha shouted as she stood back up.

"Keep your voice down." Grime said in a scolding tone.

Sasha sighed and sat back down.

"People aren't just going to roll over and let us win Grime." Sasha said, a sadness in her voice. "They're going to fight us, and them and the toads on our side… they're going to die. All because you and me decided to go for some stupid power grab. We're going to hurt so many people and…I don't want to be the person that just keeps hurting people anymore."

Grime started at Sasha. He'd never seen her like this. Even after he saved her from the Tower, she hid whatever she was feeling about what happened between her and Anne, refusing to deal even acknowledge how upset their falling out had made her until Grime confronted her about it. And even then, she still tried to hide how much it had affected her as much as possible.

But now… now she was on the verge of tears and sounded so frightened of this future, of what she might do, or what she might be responsible for. Grime had never seen Sasha scared before and it honestly hurt him to see her like this.

…He couldn't just agree with her though. Sure, maybe they could use Marcy to deal with the whole "wanted criminal" problem, but there was no way some concessions from the King would tide over the army they'd built up. Even if he and Sasha did want out, it would be more likely for the toads to just name the two of them enemies as well and go on with the rebellion without them. It would be an absurd risk to take just to help make Sasha feel better.

…So why then did it feel like he should take that risk anyway? Well, the answer was unfortunately obvious to Grime. Somewhere along the way, Sasha stopped being his lieutenant and started being his daughter.

…I am so not ready to be a parent.

"Alright, fine. You win." Grime said with a sigh.

"…Really?" Sasha asked in a hopeful voice.

"Yes, but-" Whatever Grime was about to say was cut off as Sasha leapt towards the former Captain and squeezed him in a tight hug.

"Thank you so much Grimesey!" Sasha squealed out.

"OK, OK, that's enough hugging." Grime said in embarrassment as he pulled out of the hug.

"Right, sorry." Sasha responded, a big bright smile on her face that pushed away any lingering doubt Grime might still have about his decision.

"Yes, well, don't get too happy about this right now. It's going to take a lot more than your words to convince the Tower Lords to call the rebellion off."

"I know." Sasha said as she let out an exhausted sigh. "I've been trying all day to come up with a plan to stop the rebellion but I don't think any of them are going to work."

"Well…I'm sure it will be easier now that you have help." Grime said, smiling at Sasha.

"I know it will. Thanks." Sasha said, giving Grime her own gratitude-filled smile.

As Sasha began workshopping ideas with Grime, she felt far more confident about her chances of averting that disastrous future than she had all day. It was honestly amazing to the blonde how easy talking to Grime and telling him the truth had turned out to be.

She could only hope that it would also be easy talking to Anne and Marcy when that time came.

She still wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to say to Marcy, but she knew it would be best to do so after the rebellion was stopped and she could properly focus on figuring out her feelings on the situation, though depending on what plan they came up with, she might have to talk to her earlier in order to use her connections with the King.

As for Anne…well, Sasha still wasn't exactly sure what she was going to say when she explained everything to her but she knew for certain when she wanted to tell her everything. It would be when they were all back home on Earth. The Blonde knew that was the best time to talk to Anne because… because right now, Sasha still wasn't quite sure what happened with Future Anne in the throne room. She still wasn't sure why the girl who seemed to hate her so much suddenly decided to trust her, why she decided to believe that Sasha was still someone who wanted to help people like when they were little. But, she did have one idea about that. Sasha believed that it was only because she came across as far better than her future self when in direct comparison, Future Anne could see a Sasha who hadn't become a total monster yet and found it easier to trust her when the version of her that had become an utter monster was right there.

As such, she believed that if her Anne learned about what happened in the future without having Future Sasha there to directly compare them…well, her reaction would be more like Future Anne's had been when Sasha first met her in Wartwood. And that was why Sasha needed to wait until they were back on Earth. Right now, they had to stay together for a few more days until they could use the box and get back home, but once they were back, Anne would truly have the option to never see Sasha again. An option, that Sasha felt was the most likely outcome, no matter how much she dreaded it.

Hope you guys enjoyed that.

I was actually really happy with the flashback scene this chapter, it was a late addition but I think it ties things together really well in helping to explain why Sasha is so upset with Marcy taking her away from Earth. One trap that I, and I think a few other Amphibia fanfic writers, have fallen into is portraying Sasha's home life as so horrible that it makes you wonder why she ever wanted to go back to Earth in the first place or why she was so angry with Marcy when she learned the truth (something only made worse, I think, by how Marcy's journal showed that Sasha's parents were there waiting for her along with the other families when the trio finally returned home, showing that her parents weren't as bad as many people initially theorized). As such, I'm probably going to try and course correct a little with how I portrayed Sasha's home life, not to a giant degree or anything (especially since her home life-sucking led to that important moment of her falling for Anne) but at least to make it clear that it wasn't so bad that wouldn't want to go back or isn't very upset with being torn away from home.

Anyways, I appreciate any feedback you guys have, and I'll see you next time.