Familiar Faces

"So where are we going?" Athena asked Andrias as they walked through tall grassy plains.

"To Wartwood." Andrias replied. "A lot of the old Resistance still resides there."

"Ooo! Like Sprig and Polly and Grimes and-?" Athena rattled off a list of names. Andrias nodded.

"Perhaps we may even find one or both of your siblings there." He said with an optimistic smile.

"Yeah!" Athena said cheerfully. Andrias nodded again but his expression slowly became more stony. He didn't want to alarm Athena but he was deeply concerned about what they had just experienced. There should have been no way that his father, the Core, should have survived. It bothered him even more that they seemed to be in control of a small army of hidden frobots. He closed his eyes as he got lost in thought. He needed to consider everything he had just learned.

The Core was back but it didn't seem to be at full power. Otherwise why wouldn't it have launched a full out attack on the city? Athena had told him exactly how many frobots she had seen fly overhead. It was a worrisome amount for sure but not enough to take on New Newtopia. They also seemed to be flying in the direction of Wartwood from what Athena described. He had confidence that the citizens and former Resistance members that resided there would be able to handle themselves.

Another thought came to mind, the puzzle box Athena had told him about. The one he and the Core tried to make all those years ago when he searched fruitlessly for the music box. They had never completed it. Apparently the Core had been busy since its defeat. But how had it finished the box on its own? They had tried for centuries without success. What had changed?

"Master Athena, you spoke of a box, a box that sent you here. What more can you tell me about it?" He asked carefully. Athena chewed her lip as she thought.

"You mean what it looked like or the puzzle or where I found it?" She asked.

"No, no. But those are excellent questions I'll be sure to ask later." He said as they walked. "I'm not sure how to put this." He paused and closed his eyes for a moment. "How was it powered?"

"Like a battery?" Athena asked as she kicked the grass.

"Yes." Andrias said as his mouth felt dry.

"I'm not sure." Athena admitted. "Where would the battery be?"

"Possibly on the outside. But it wouldn't look like a battery. It could have the appearance of something else. Something simple, like a gem." Andrias tried to explain. He couldn't imagine that anything other than the gems would be powerful enough to open a portal between worlds.

"I don't think so." Athena said, frowning as she tried to remember. "It just had all those eyes." Andrias sighed. The Core had probably learned to be more discreet in hiding its power source after everything that happened with the music box. "Would finding the battery help?"

"Yes…" Andrias said slowly. "I believe so." A wind suddenly began to blow and Athena shivered. Andrias turned to face the wind. "It feels like a storm is coming on. We should take shelter."

"It looks like there's a town up ahead." Athena said, tugging on his robe.

Marcy nervously poked her head into one of the tents Mr. X had set up around the camp. Her heart leapt when she spotted who she was looking for. Sasha was sitting on a cot with her head in her hands. Marcy cleared her throat quietly and Sasha looked up.

Though they were only a few feet apart it felt like they were miles away from each other. Marcy steeled herself and hesitantly took a step forward. She wanted to bridge the gap, to close this sudden valley that had come between them.

"Stop. Please." Sasha said in a cracked voice. Marcy's stomach plummeted. Their eyes had met. Sasha's eyes were red and bloodshot. It looked like she had been crying. Marcy's own eyes started to fill with tears. The way Sasha was looking at her… It was more painful than anything Sasha could say.

"Sash-" Marcy said shakily as she tried to fight back tears.

"I need to know." Sasha said seriously. "Are they in your head right now?" Marcy hugged herself.

"No… but it comes and goes." She said, looking away. "And I can only hear whispers."

"Can they hear us?" Sasha asked warily.

"I don't think so." Marcy said uncertainly.

"What makes you say that?" Sasha said, as she watched her closely.

"They haven't tried talking to me." She said, glancing back. Sasha furrowed her brow and Marcy continued. "Why wouldn't they try talking to me if they knew I could hear them?"

"I don't know." Sasha said slowly. Marcy had a feeling Sasha wasn't sharing her thoughts out of caution.

"They're talking to someone but I don't know who." Marcy said, fidgeting with her hands anxiously.

"And why don't you think it's you?" Sasha said, narrowing her eyes.

"Because they're talking about things happening in Amphibia right now." Marcy tried to explain. Sasha gripped the sides of the cot. Marcy noticed and started to become frustrated that she couldn't explain better. "They were at the ruins of Toad Tower, they told someone how to find some frobots hidden underground and turn them on."

"Hmm." Sasha grunted. Marcy stomped her foot.

"I heard them talking about how they needed to find-" She stopped herself. Sasha was already mistrustful of her right now. Sharing that she heard that the Core had gone after Grime wouldn't help. "-the old Resistance members."

"I see." Sasha said as she felt something inside her tense. She knew Marcy had just lied to her about something or at the very least hidden something important.

"Stop looking at me like that!" Marcy snapped suddenly. She didn't need her wife psychoanalyzing her right now. Not when their children were missing and the nightmare of what had happened to her in the past was suddenly back and tormenting her. "We're on the same side!"

'Do you want to know what she really thinks of you?' Darcy's haunting question came back to the surface of her mind. Sasha's heart winced. 'She always thought you were a bit of a brute.'

"Mars…" She said weakly.

"Please stop treating me like I'm the bad guy!" Marcy said as angry tears began to roll down her face. Sasha opened her mouth and closed it. She couldn't argue the fact. She couldn't definitively confirm that Marcy wasn't a potential threat right now. What if the Core was using her to spy on them right now? What if it was planning to use what she shared against them? Against their kids? She couldn't take that risk.

But she also couldn't hurt Marcy like that. However, she had a plan. If the Core was listening she might be able to trick it into admitting it.

"Marcy." Sasha said, getting to her feet. She closed the gap between them and put her hands on her shoulders. "Do you remember what you asked me before we fought on Andrias's ship all those years ago?" Marcy frowned as she searched her face.

"I don't understand-" She began.

"When you were being controlled by the Core you asked me something." Sasha persisted. "I want to know the answer." She stared hard into Marcy's eyes. The Core wouldn't pass up the opportunity to hurt her and hurt her badly right now.

"Sasha I couldn't remember anything when it was- when it was-" She shivered and shook her head. She hugged herself tight and closed her eyes. "When I rejected its fantasy, its invitation to join, it threw me into darkness. I thought I lost everything. I thought I lost you and Anne." Sasha pulled her into a fierce hug. This was her Marcy, not the Core masquerading as her. Marcy blinked in surprise and hugged her back as she started to sob.

"I'm sorry and I believe you." Sasha whispered as she squeezed her tight.

"Sasha, I wouldn't come find you if I thought it was listening." Marcy said, pushing her back and glaring at her with hurt eyes.

"I know - I mean I should have known." Sasha apologized. Marcy huffed. "Marcy…" Sasha said, cupping her face. "Marcy, I'm so scared of her, of losing you again."

"Then don't push me away." Marcy scolded as her eyes burned with tears.

"I won't but-"

"I'm scared of her too." Marcy said quietly and kissed Sasha on the cheek. "But I also understand that you were hurt badly."

"The scar? Marcy that-" Sasha started.

"Psychologically." Marcy interrupted. "And I don't expect you to trust me fully right now. Or to act like you feel safe around me. I can't ask you to."

"Marcy I-"

"I'm just asking that you still love me."

"…Marcy." Sasha said in a broken voice. "I could never stop loving you."