Sasha Waybright had faced many terrifying things over the last few months, from monsters, to her friends.

Hell even a killer moon.

However, she would rather face any of those again instead of facing two figures far more evil.

Her parents.

"Of course we looked for you the day you disappeared," Said her mother effortlessly making Sasha's disappearance sound casual, "of course we had no idea you'd be well…"

"We had no idea you were in another world," said her father interpreting her mother.

"I was about to say that," Her mother said bitterly.

Sasha rolled her eyes here it was, the bickering.

From the age of five she knew her parents weren't like her friend's parents, Unlike the Boonchuys or the Wu's they fought all the time, part of her thought that was what all parents were like. But unlike hers, they always said sorry or just moved on.

When she was seven her mother walked out of the house and didn't come back.

A week later they both told her that they weren't married anymore.

Of course, they said they loved her, and for a while Sasha believed that.

The first time she started to doubt that was during their first Christmas apart, She had to chose which parent she wanted to stay with.

The choice was hard because she loved both of them back then.

Her father promised her horse riding lessons. In retaliation her mother promised her a brand-new doll's house and a puppy.

In time the rewards ramped up and more and more new things were offered, vacations, toys, days out, anything just to convince her to like them more that the other.

On Christmas Eve her parents finally decided to force the issue and make Sasha choose, She chose her mother.

Her father said it was okay that he still loved her.

That night she snuck downstairs for a glass of water, they were still there and fighting again, however this time she listened.

"So what did you do to turn her against me?"

"I don't know William, Maybe I was just a half decent parent."

She heard her father laugh bitterly, "So that's what you call the bribes."

"That's rich, When's her first horse riding lesson, or is that off the table now. "

"Of course not, I don't see her as just a trophy."

"How dare you!" her mother shot back, "At least I was there for her last birthday."

"I had a business trip, I didn't complain when you were gone for Christmas, two years ago."

"That's because I hate everything about you."

"Including my daughter."

"Don't you dare say that."

"Oh, please you just view her as a trophy, just something to turn against me."

"You goddamn Hypocrite."

Sasha remembered running upstairs tears in her eyes, suffice to say it wasn't a merry Christmas that year.

Her father married again, this time to a woman called Tracy.

She was nice though annoyingly she tried to be Sasha's friend, to her credit she tried to keep Sasha away from her parent's fights with a trips to the spa or shopping.

Her mother started dating again, eventually she met Kevin, he was a nice, but he had some baggage, a daughter.

They wanted the two to get along, to be sisters.

Sasha didn't.

"Maybe she should come to my home, Tracy will want to see her."

"Tracy can come and visit my home," said her mother with faux politeness, "Kevin and Mo…"

"We're here," said the limo driver interrupting her mother.

Sasha looked out the window of the limo and looked at her mother's house, big, large, pristine, anyone not living there would be jealous.

For years, she had used her parents' houses as a status symbol of her power and her popularity (both of them owning pools helped with that.)

But the truth was that she never really cared for them, they were just places she slept in and kept her stuff, truthfully she enjoyed spending time at the Boonchuys or the Wu's

She opened the door and was welcomed by the L.A. heat, Amphibia had been cooler than this.

Her parents followed, their argument halted for a second, both watching their daughter, She didn't see the shared look of concern on their faces.

The front door opened, standing there was a man of average height, brown hair with a hint of gray, he was wearing a galactic voyage shirt and jeans, on his face was a warm smile.

It was Kevin, she walked towards her.

Sasha smiled back.

"How you are doing kid," he said, going in for a hug.

"Great, it's good to see you again," Sasha hugged him back.

Her father coughed behind them.

Kevin let her go, "William, how are you holding up?" He said politely

"My daughter's alive and well, how else would I feel."

Kevin nodded, Sasha rolled her eyes.

"So Sashey," said her father, "are you going to be okay here? You can stay at my house and…"

"William, she's fine here." Said her mother with a hint of acid in her voice.

Sasha just stood there not even reacting to her parents, she had long stopped caring about their fights.

"Maybe she'd like her room in my house, I…"

"Hey Sasha, you want some ice cream?" said William.

Sasha followed him into the house, grateful she was getting away from the argument.

"They were both really worried about you," said Kevin quietly, "We all were.".

Sasha did respond, she just wanted to rest.

Five minutes later she was in the kitchen eating strawberry ice cream, her favorite flavor, eating like there was no tomorrow.

"Sooo, Sasha there's been some changes around here," Said Kevin hesitantly.

Sasha looked at him nonplussed, she knew that things might have changed at home, hell she had changed.

"Well firstly I'm no longer your mother's boyfriend."

Sasha eyes widened, "What?"

"I'm her fiancé," he said flashing her a ring.

Sasha smiled "Congratulations… oh god, You're going to be my stepdad."

"Looking forward to it, next about your room."

Sasha could help but smile, "Have you turned it into a man cave?"

Kevin bit his lip, "I wanted to, but your mother said one pool table in the garage was enough."

All of a sudden the back door opened, a young girl entered. She was wearing a skirt and a sweater vest, her blonde hair had dyed stripes of green and pink.

"Dad, the Wi-Fi's down and…" The girl stopped when she noticed the other blonde, "Sasha?"

"Hey, Molly-Jo."

Molly-Jo Otto, Sasha had known her for a few years now, She still remembered when she was introduced to her, she was only six then, looking forward to meeting the girl who would be her new sister.

Of course this was a Sasha who had a grudge against the world, so Molly Jo was not someone who Sasha wanted to be around, she just ignored her…or worse.

She didn't even mention her to Anne or the others.

The younger girl just stood there, "You're back," she said her voice showing neither surprise nor disappointment.

"Yeah," said Sasha, embarrassed by how awkward this was going.

"So," said Kevin, deciding that he might as well be the one to break the silence, "You're going to be sharing a room with each other for a while."

Sasha turned to look at him "What?"

"We were redecorating Molly Jo's room and well there was a spare room going so…" he trailed off.

Sasha looked at him annoyed, she was about to say something when she realized that she needed to calm down, she took a breather.

"Fine," she said.

"Thanks." said Kevin who had been expecting a larger outburst but grateful that it didn't occur, "It'll only be for a few days."

"Fine." she said finishing her ice cream, she left the bowl on the counter, "I'm going to my room, I just need to be alone for a second."

Kevin looked at her concerned and then nodded, "If you need anything, talk to any of us."

Sasha stood up and walked away, she felt Molly Jo eyes follow her as she exited the room.

She walked the familiar route to her room, in seconds reached the door, there was a sigh saying, Sasha the sharp, Keep out." another sign below that said Diva in training."

Inwardly cringing at those signs she opened the door.

Her mother had tided, it made her feel worse, her magazines were neatly sorted, her soft toy collection were arranged, on the top shelf there was an old action figure of tarantu-lad a gift from Anne's dad.

Between the two of them her mom's house had the bigger room, she could understand why they moved Molly Jo to that room.

She walked to the bed and sat down.

She was sitting on something soft and comfortable, something she'd be sleeping in that month, an actual bed.

It had been months since she had done that, the last few months had been sleeping in an underground cave.

It was going to be strange, especially the idea that no one would be watching out for trouble as, the flicker of a smile appeared, Grime always offered to take watch first when they were on the run.

She never realized how nice to have someone watching over her, she could defend herself but still.

She lay down, here she was dressed in her armor, surrounded by her old life, wondering if she would ever belong there again.
…

"So is she dead?" said an annoying voice.

"Nah, she smells too nice to be dead," said another voice.

"You guys know what dead humans smell life?" said a third finishing the trinity of annoying.

"Probably not that far off from frogs." said the second.

If this was the conversation Sasha Waybright was going to wake up to she wanted to go to sleep again, she opened her eyes and gave the two frogs and human boy a glare.

"Morning Dr. Waybright," Said Max smiling trying to look innocent

Sasha grumbled, and slowly got off the couch, a familiar smell wafted in from the kitchen.

"Coffee," she mumbled.

Standing up she slumped over to the kitchen, she saw Anne and Hop-Pop cooking breakfast.

"Morning Sash," said Anne.

Sasha didn't respond she picked up a mug and the pot of coffee, she ignored the insects in it.

She took a sip, how could something bitter be so wonderful.

Now she was willing to pretend to be alive.

"Morning," she said to everyone.

The younger members of the family entered their room and sat by the table.

Sasha took her coffee and sat on the coach, Anne and Sprig followed.

"Hey Sasha, are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, I just discovered that the two people I hurt the most ten years ago are living in town and Grime lied to me, my entire world view has been turned upside," she paused for a second, "How are you?"

Anne was taken aback by what Sasha said but put on a kind smile, "I know it hurts, but maybe you should talk to him?"

Sasha looked at her and sighed, "I know what you're saying, but he knew how much that hurt me, why would he lie?

"Sorry, I'm lost, how do you know Percy and Braddock?" Asked Sprig.

"They were with me at the tower, even after it fell, eventually it was just me, Grime and them on the run."

"Huh," Said Sprig, "I don't know them that well but how do I put this nicely, they're nice, not the type to hang around with evil."

Anne shot Sprig a glare, Sasha however just smiled.

"Yeah, I thought that too at first but even when we were being chased by newts, toads, and monsters they stuck by us."

"Then what happened?"

Sasha rubbed her arm, "They were smart enough to get away from me."

" Sasha…" said Anne her voice full of pity.

"Well it's true. I endangered their lives when we went up against a monster and I didn't listen to them, they left, and I never saw them again."

"Did you try looking for them?"

Sasha nodded, "Of course, We sent people out during the war, but we couldn't find them, like they were hiding… or dead, I told Grime to find them but…"

Anne saw her friend was hurting. She sat down next to her with a sympathetic smile, "Well look on the plus side, you have the chance to apologize to them now."

A smile appeared on Sasha face, she stood up from the coach, "Yeah, I can finally just apologize to them, I just need to go to town and find them."

Anne nodded, "I'll drive you-"

All of a sudden Hop-Pop, Polly and Frobo entered, each with a bag of snacks in their arms.

"Who's ready for Suspicion Island?" Said Hop-Pop cheerfully.

Anne's eyes widened, she forgot that she had promised to show them the latest season of the Suspicion island reboot, "Oh, No."

She turned to see Hop-Pop with a nervous grin, "Umm Hop-Pop something's…"

"Anne don't worry," said Sasha, "have your thing, I'll just walk to town."

"I can drive you there," Said Max walking into the room.

Sasha looked at the boy standing there, "What really?"

"Please, I can drive better than you can." said Max arrogantly.

"He's actually pretty good at it," said Hop-Pop, "But maybe I should just in case-"

"Season 2 of Sus island has a character who wants to be an actor redeeming himself," said Max.

"SON OF SLUG WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR!" shouted Hop-Pop, he ran to the coach, Anne looked at Max disapprovingly as the rest of the family dragged her to the couch.

Max rushed out the door before anyone could stop him, Sasha reluctantly followed.
…

Grime was sitting in his living room. All around him were packets of Sugar beetles, he was dressed in an old shirt and boxers.

He looked at the various weapons he had hung on the war, the awards, his old harp and sighed.

It had going so well, He was hoping that Sasha would have left before she could find them.

Clearly luck was not on his side, he stood up and walked to the kitchen, opening a cupboard he pulled out another bag of sugared beetles, holding one side of the packet in one hand he used his teeth to open the other.

Grime then started to walk over to the couch, he slumped down onto the sofa again and poured the contents of the bag down his mouth.

He had been in this place before.

After the tower fell he had no where left to go, he had retreated to his cabin in the mountains of Amphibia.

He would have been content to hide there and wait for things to blow other, however Sasha wouldn't allow that. The young human was determined to get him back into shape and get back to the valley and get their power back.

In the end though it turned out they needed each other.

Grime sighed, he knew that he was going down the self-destructive path, but dang it there was no reason to turn back, Sasha now hated him, he had lied to her.

He sighed, they couldn't know what he had been like when he found them.

Looking in the bag he saw one last sugar beetle that had gotten away from him.

Picking it up he looked at it, squirming between his fingers, pathetic and small.

Something clicked in him, "No." he said out loud.

He would not be like this small cowering hiding from danger like this bug, he would go out into the world and confront Sasha. He threw the beetle in his mouth, (Which kind of ruined his analogy, but whatever.) and stood up

Wiping the crumbs from his vest he walked to his room, "I will not just sit here and do nothing, I'm going to tell Sasha the truth and just admit what happened, and if she thinks lesser of me… Well so be it." he said to no one trying to sound impressive and kind of succeeding, this lasted all of five seconds when he saw his discarded armor on the floor, he was going to have to put that on, with one arm, and no help.

He walked to his armor and sighed, this might take a while

Lucian usually would have helped him, but he hadn't arrived today, Grime was worried but more caught up in his own drama to notice.

…

Lucian had been sent to his room the moment he got home last night, his parents had asked him how long Sasha had been there, They had been away on a small vacation and well they decided to leave him there, they considered him responsible enough to look after the house.

When he told them that Sasha had returned a few days ago they looked worried, his father then put on a smile and said that they'd be spending the next few days to make up for them being away so long, It was an unofficial grounding.

Lucian had complained but to no avail.

Why were they acting so weird, and what had one of the Amphibia's greatest heroes done, to them.

Looking back on it there had been some signs that maybe something was wrong.
…

Lucian was playing with his three homemade toys. They were miniature versions of the saviors.

"Hey Luci, what are you playing with?"

He frowned, he hated the nickname his parents gave him, "I'm playing with my savior replicas."

"Oh really." said his father, his jester hat slightly askew, "Which one's your favorite?"

Lucian picked up the one with a golden leaf on top of it and showed it to his father, "Sasha."

His father gave a little yelp and slapped it out of his hand, and landed in the lit fireplace

Lucian was terrified, had he done something wrong, his father noticed the look and coughed, "Sorry I thought there was a poisonous spider on your doll."

…

What are you drawing honey?" said his mother as she stood behind him. As he used his crayon to draw a red flamed haired human

"Oh it's a picture of my favorite hero Sash…."

His mother gave a yelp and poured a glass of water over his picture, ruining it.

He turned to his mother, who blushed, "Um, there was a poisonous spider on it."

The picture then went up in flames.
…

The family were eating nachos while on a vacation to Newtopia.

"So what's this tangy sauce called?" asked Lucian.

"Sa…" started the Axolotl woman,

His parents started to gasp."

"...lsa""

His parents sighed in relief

"Yeah, I learned how to make if from the human Sasha."

His parents threw the nachos on the ground.

"Let me guess," said Lucian, "Poisonous spider?"

"No," said his father, "A venomous spider this time."

The nachos then exploded.
…

In retrospect, he should have noticed it earlier, and just how flammable things seemed to be.

He just thought it was part of his parent's strangeness.

His father was a comedian who was quite popular in Amphibia, nothing big but still people hired him to entertain them.

His mother was a somewhat famous gardener/landscaper, while not considered the best she had been invited to New Newtopia to help redesign some of the poorer districts.

He loved them, but he would be the first to admit that they could be embarrassing, his father's jokes were kind of lame, and he didn't care for flowers.

They were fine with him helping Grime saying that he was an old friend of theirs, but they never went into how they knew him, neither did Grime, who just said they were old friends and left it at that.

They never really talked about their past. He had no idea what they did during the war, they claimed they were out of the way of the fighting.

He always feared that they might be cowards, that they hid away from danger.

If they were cowards then what was he?

"Lucian, Breakfast." called his mother.

Lucian stood up and walked down the stairs to the kitchen, around the table where his parents looking at him with wide forced smiles on their faces.

"Morning Luci." said his parents in a way they didn't realize was extremely creepy.

"Morning mom, morning dad," said Lucian half-heartedly he walked over to his seat.

Well I hope you're up for a fun day with us." said his mother.

"Yeah and not see certain blonde haired being from another world." said his father.

His mother gave his father a look before smiling again, Lucian just sat down.

He looked at his breakfast of Maggot sausages and Beetle bacon, the meat was arranged to spell out, "Don't hang out with Sasha anymore."

Lucian looked up and at his parents, "This might be a little too much meat?"

"Well, why no have a pancake?" his mother placed the plate underneath him, on the pancake was a picture drawn with strawberry sauce of a young human's face with a line going through it.

Lucian looked at them, "You're not being very subtle."

"Your father wears a jester hat, we're not big on subtlety here," said his mother, "Now come on I need you to help me in the garden today."

"Um, Actually I wanted to go to the town."

His parents looked at him terrified, "NO." they blurted out together.

"Please? I just want to hang out with my friends and Sas-"

"Lucian, I'm sorry but… you can't spend any time with her…ever."

"What?" said Luian shocked, "Why not."

"Because she's dangerous and …" his father trailed off realizing he had just said more than he intended to.

The room was silent for a few seconds, the look on his father face was abject horror.

"How do you know she's dangerous?" demanded Lucian

His parents looked at each other exhaled, "We knew Sasha ten years ago."

Lucian's jaw dropped, like many children he figured his parents lived boring normal lives, okay one was a comedian and the other was a popular landscaper but still.

This changed everything, they knew one of his heroes, and they didn't tell him, admittedly he should have picked up on it earlier from how they behaved int he past but still.

"You… You knew Sasha?"

He watched as their looked turned to guilt, "Lucian, you need to realize, We used to be at the tower, and after it fell we…"

"She wanted us to do something thing we didn't want to do and when we told her not to she didn't listen."

"It was riding on a giant monster and…"

"We left her." said his father, "She was selfish and well, We should have seen it sooner."

Lucian looked at them shocked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You loved the heroes so much we didn't want to break your heart."

Lucian just sat there for a few more second before he stood up and started to walk upstairs, "I have to go upstairs."

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked his mother,

Lucian ignored her, he just continued walking upstairs.

As he entered his room he closed the doors.

This confirmed it, they were cowards, they were willing to desert Sasha when things were too scary, He should have known this from the start, he walked over to his bed, took the sheets off them and tied them into a rope, he opened the window facing into the Wartwood streets, he tied one end to the bed legs and threw the rope out of the window, he climbed down, he couldn't be there anymore, his parents were cowards, and he might be one too if he didn't change that now.

He ran away looking for a way to prove himself.