After how Amphibia was devastated ten years ago, It was only fitting that nature would reclaim the castle.
The open door had caused the water around Newtopia to flood inside it.
Andrias looked at it, The former king was filled with a bittersweet feeling, he had spent years living there, at one point he was proud of it, it was the place where he first met the frog and toad who he considered his friends, so many days running around having adventures.
Then came the betrayal, and he started to accept the darker parts of it he ignored, the experiments, the dark chambers beneath it, all of it no longer filled him with a distaste, now he embraced them.
Seeing it like this, however, felt fitting, the end to his hate and rage.
"Are you ready?"
Andrias turned to Olivia standing there, looking at him concerned, next to her was a newt in armor, General Rak, the general had always had a problem with authority even before the Civil war, the day the castle went into the sky he had deserted the army to wage a one man was against the robotic forces. Depressingly he never met up with the resistance that saved the world, when the war was over he returned to duty.
The king nodded, "I am."
"Good," said Rak, "everyone's waiting at the lakeside, let's go."
The king watched as the two turned and started to walk towards the lake, on the shore up ahead he saw five boats resting there, this would allow his escort of twenty, (Olivia, Rak, The three B's and fifteen guards.) to reach the castle.
He was expected to walk across the lake to the castle, he looked down at his hands, a pair of cuffs made from the core's technology, they had been reversed engineered.
As they reached the lake bed, he noticed the three B's were wearing life jackets, and a sailor's caps.
"King Andrias!" said Branson, "So what's the plan? Lose these jerks and go find the newest world conquering device."
"No," said the king, "We're going to find the core's database, I need you three to access it."
"As much as I appreciate your faith in us, your highness," said Blair disappointed, "why? Can't you do that?"
"No, I need to keep these rather dull bracelets on at all time.," he said, raising his wrists, "They'll kill me the moment I take them off."
"But you can take them off right?" said Bartley "We'll help you in fact."
Suddenly countless spears were pointed in the direction of three newts, the Bartley gulped, "Okay, we'll wait for the right moment."
As the group boarded their boats, Andrias started walking, the rest of the group followed
Taking one step into the water he slowly walked, towards the castle, the rest entered their boats and slowly followed him, he could hear the three B's complaining how hard this was.
Turning around he could see the boat Rak and Olivia were in, Rak was rowing alongside another guard, the general refused to avoid hard work.
He looked at the castle, as he neared the castle he saw a newt standing there.
Discovering that the original creator of the box was now a ghost was not as shocking as he thought, in a world where teenage girls could destroy the moon and the frog he thought had betrayed him still cared… well, anything was possible now.
"I see they're treating you, vell," said Val, grinning.
Andrias didn't react to her barb, "Have you found anything?"
The rest of the boats arrived at the shore, Val shock her head, "I vas vaiting for you."
As Olivia steeped off the boat, she looked at Val then up at Andrias, "Where to?"
"To the box chamber," said the king.
Rak walked over, "Why there?"
The former king said nothing, he only started walking forward.
The group slowly followed him.
They walked through the empty halls, hallways which had been full of artwork, statues furniture had been stripped away by looters, explorers or just the occasional wild animal.
Occasionally, they would pass by the remains of a robot, twice a guard claimed to hear something, a ghastly cackle.
After an hour or walking, they arrived at the Box's old chamber.
Andrias pushed the door open and looked around.
The group followed him, each holding a weapon at the Newts back.
"So, where is it?" asked Rak.
The king stood in the center of the room and pressed down on the stone the box was placed upon.
The stone surrounding the box started to descend, they started to form steps, after a minute they stopped.
"Why did you mention this ten years ago?" demanded Rak.
Andrias didn't respond, he started to walk down the stairs.
The group kept following, Rak was silently fuming, Val didn't display any emotion, Olivia looked at the king concerned, she didn't know much about him, but knew that there was something off wrong, he seemed to be keeping to himself.
At the bottom was a dark room, in the other end of it was a large computer, there was a slab covered in blood, to the side were a cluster of mechanical arms.
Val sighed, "So that's vow they did it,"
"What?" said Rak confused, "What is this place? A lab?"
"Do you know how much of me is still biological?" said hermit king.
"What I don't-"
"Sixteen percent."
The king took five steps towards the slab, "The first procedure was done when I was seven, They replaced by bones with steel, I was in a coma for a month, the procedure had to be done without antiseptic."
Rak looked at the slab, his eyes wide, "Frog, I-"
"When I was ten they noticed I inherited my mother's breathing difficulties, and they replaced my lungs, my eyes started to fail when I was thirty, then they replaced my eyes, by then I didn't really care what they did."
The room was deadly silent, Olivia stood there looking at the king worried.
"I'm sorry."
Andrias turned to see Rak standing there, a sympathetic look on his face, "your crimes are inexcusable, but what happened… He was worse."
"No," said Andrias seriously, "No he wasn't."
The lab was quiet for a second, When Blair raised his hand, "Um, so can we start looking?"
"Go ahead," said General Rak agitated.
The three small newts rushed towards the monitor, powering it up, they tried to contain their excitement.
Minutes passed as the three scrolled through the screen, Andrias and the guards stood there watching the screen, Olivia kept looking at the king worried, Rak kept an eye on his soldiers, usually barking out at one of them for not standing straight properly.
After twenty minutes, Bartly turned around to the king, "Hey, this is interesting, some notes about mind transfer."
"That's it," said the Andrias walking over to the screen, "What does it say?"
"A lot, detail plans for mind transference, digitizing brain patterns… huh?"
"Vhat?" said Val walking up to the screen.
"Well, I once asked his majesty why did the core choose Marcy?"
"We know that," said Olivia, "Because she was smart enough to beat the king at flip wart."
"He said the same, but from what I'm reading here… That wasn't true."
The room went silent.
"What?" said the king quietly.
"Yeah," replied Branson, "From the looks of it anyone could have been the host of the core, heck if anything having an empty mind would be better, So why Marcy?"
Andrias stood there for a second
Then let out a primal roar.
Despise his chained hand he grabbed the base of the bloody slab and ripped it off the floor, he tipped it over, Next came grabbed the arms and pulled from the ceiling, sparks fell from above.
The guard all turned their spears towards him, terrified that he would attack them next, Rak held out a hand silently commanding them to hold back.
The former king stood there breathing, angrily.
"HE LIED," shouted the king.
"You sound shocked," said Val flatly.
Andrias stomped out of the chamber, causing the floor to vibrate, Rak was about to chase him, but Olivia stepped forwards, "I'll follow him."
The general wanted to argue, but he decided to let her go instead.
Following the king up the stairs, she made their way to the old throne room.
She still remembered the first day she meet the king, she had told by her predecessor to remain vigilant to make sure he did his job, she didn't believe the older newt, how irresponsible could the kind be?
As it turned out very, the first thing he tried to do was to blow off a meeting with the toad lords, Olivia had almost been tempted to call the meeting off however she found the will to tell her king to attend the meeting.
After that they had fallen into a routine, He'd try to ignore his duties, and she'd have to for him to stick to them, for a while she wondered was this the leader of Amphibia?
Then came the day it all changed, the day she saw the real king, the monster who had stabbed a child and had planned to conquer earth.
She had willing helped him for a time, that was before she had seen what had happened to Amphibia, before she saw that he was truly mad, she and Yunan had tried to stand up to him, but they had failed, only with the help of the other humans had they been able to stop them.
Since his dethroning however the king had changed again, he seemed smaller, more quiet, the only times she had seen him was with her daughter, she had been terrified for her small tadpole, but with time she saw that the king seemed gentler, wiser, in way a king she would have loved to have worked for.
However, there always seemed to be something missing.
Olivia watched as the king stood there looking at his old throne.
"Andrias?" she asked.
"... I could have killed him."
"What?"
"I could have killed him so many times over the years, I could have prevented all of it."
Olivia stood there, "Why didn't you?"
"Because he always promised me the future, He promised me what I have lost," the king laughed, but there was no humor in his voice, "The truth is that he kept taking."
"Marcy?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Control, He could have had anyone, He could have had me, But no, he needed her because he knew that I cared for her."
Olivia stood there, she wasn't shocked, from what little was known about the core all that was known was that its cruelty had very little limits, she stilled had nightmares of being controlled by that thing.
"Well, what now?" she asked.
The king just stood there, silently.
"Andrias, What are you going to do, know?"
Still nothing.
"KING ANDRIAS!" she called.
The giant newt turned to her anger on his face, whatever he was going to say, she wouldn't let him.
"You do not get to stand here and wallow in guilt, you are the former king of this land, you owe it to all of us to set this right, I took a huge risk on allowing you to come here, Do not let me down."
The stunned king stood there for a few seconds, before a weak smile appeared on his face, "You're right, thank you, Olivia."
"Don't thank me, just got back down there and find what you need."
The king nodded, and walked back to the underground chamber, a few minutes later they were at the back, the Three B's were still reading the computer screen."
"So the Core was thinking about using Zombies, Great minds do actually think alike." said Blair happily.
"Weren't the mind control the zombies?" said Branson.
"Pretty much." said Bartley
"Have you found anything about data storages? Or backing up memories?" barked the king.
Blair nodded, "Yeah, just after you left, He created around four of them."
"And did he upload anything to them?"
Branson looked at the screen, "Ten years ago, and they were ejected from the bottom of the castle.
King Andrias, "Where was this?"
The Three B's turned and looked at him, "On earth."
"I'm sorry," said Rak "does mean they sent their minds in these data things?"
"Yes," said the former king.
"Okay, but there's every chance no one found them," said Olivia, "For all we know they were destroyed."
"I'd agree with you," said Val, "But the portal opening, the girls returning, something doesn't add up."
"So what do we do?" asked Rak, "Send an army to earth? Send a message to the authorities over there, for all we know they have the core already."
Andrias shock his head, "No, that world might be primitive, but if he was with the authorities of that world would have been used by him in some fashion, They'd either tell us or The core would have taken over."
"So what have they been doing then?" asked Olivia.
"The core tried to destroy the world once, he might be up to it again."
"So what do we then?"
"Ve get to the Vartwood and warn the humans," said Val.
"Lady Olivia!" shouted a voice in front of the group."
The group saw a newt page came running down the hall, her clothes were wet, She stopped in front of them panting, then gave a small salute.
"Messages from Wartwood," said the Newt recomposing herself, "The town has been attacked by Kill-A-Moths, Love Yunan."
"Oh, frog is everyone-"
"Another message, "Our daughter has been kidnapped, But she also punched that Monty boy, Hugs and kisses, Yunan.""
"WHAT?" shouted the finely dressed Newt.
"Another message, "It's okay. She's back home safely, No one died, Love your wife, Yunan.""
Olivia pinched her eyes, and sighed, "I've got to get back to Wartwood,"
"Don't tell either Marcy what's happening," said Andrias worried, "I don't want them to worry about this."
Olivia nodded, then she turned to Rak, "Get Andrias flying chariot out of storage."
Rak looked shocked, "You mean that flying platform thing? It's been disarmed but why would we-"
"Don't argue, do it, he needs to get back to Wartwood and fast."
Olivia walked off, followed by Val, "I'll come vith you, I must varn the chosen ones of the potential threat that's coming."
Andrias watched as they walked off, hoping they would be fine.
There was a small polite cough from below him, looking down he saw the three B's looking up at him, "So…now that's over do we start the evil plan."
The king nodded for a few seconds, then smiled, "How about we work together to take down the core."
"Oooh," said the three ambitious newts, "Nice."
…
From above the tower it watched, they hadn't seen it during the past hour, it let out a silent cackle as it watched the boats float backwards to the city.
A small portal opened next to it.
"Report," said the woman on the other side.
Invisible predator played back the video of the group in the basement.
"Keep an eye on them," said the woman sternly, "Go to that town and try and stop them."
With that, the portal closed.
It jumped off the roof and followed the group, it would need to take a few moments to dry the water from its invisible body, but then it would follow theme to Wartwood.
Montgomery was annoyed, Things had not been working out for him recently.
After Marcy had beaten him yesterday, his parents went to the Yunan's house to demand that their daughter apologize.
An hour later they returned slightly embarrassed, claiming that they would try again later, once the General had calmed down.
He had spent the rest of the day happily planning revenge on Marcy and her friends, including that stupid human.
Why was Marcy keeping that thing around, after his actions yesterday everyone should have hated him.
It was probably just charity, giving the poor dumb animal the same sort of treatment she gave that toad boy.
That's when he heard the dinner gong.
Montgomery stood up and walked towards the door he opened and walked downstairs, he wondered what cook had prepared today.
The moment he entered the hall, he froze.
Laying there on the floor were all of his families guards.
His parents already hired the toughest strongest toads they could find, they were vicious brutal thugs, who would do whatever was commanded of them.
Looking at them now, however, he wondered if they were being overpaid, he stood in front of one of them.
"Roster? Wake up, you're sleeping on the job."
Roster groaned, "My names Runener, Roster's over there and-"
"You're not paid to remind us of your names, you're paid to protect us."
Montgomery almost laughed at that, his family never needed protecting, he had been kidnapped three times in his ten years, and they had let him go every time, The kidnappers usually returned him, tears in their eyes, pleading for his parents to take them back.
They would do so…after the reverse ransom had been paid.
"We didn't see her coming, she took all of us out and…" spluttered the toad terror in his eyes, "She's in the dining room."
Rolling his eyes, Montgomery stood up and walked to the dining room door, flinging them open, he saw his parents sitting there looking…looking terrified.
Sitting across from them was an old frog woman, she had white hair, and an old dress, her eyes looked weird.
"Mother? Father? What's going on?"
"Ahhh," said the old frog in that overly happy way the more stranger inhabitants of this town acted like, "You must be Montgomery."
"It's Montgomery to the likes of you," replied Montgomery.
The frog woman then gave him a withering look, "Well, it's nice to know that you have an attitude."
"Monty," said his father, his voice now a quiver, "This is Ms. Croaker, You'll be working for her for the next month."
"WHAT?" shouted the bratty newt, "Work for her doing what?"
"She-" his mother started to say, but she hesitated, a brief glance from made her speak again, "She works on a farm."
"YOU WANT ME TO WORK ON A DISGUSTING FARM?" yelled Monty, he was livid, he wasn't going to stand for this, he turned around.
As he turned to walk off, he felt two hands grab him by the shoulder and turn him around.
He was about to scream when he saw a pair of eyes full of anger and rage, these weren't normal eyes, these were the eyes of someone who had killed, someone who had destroyed, someone would not back down.
"Now, you listen here Monty," growled the old frog, "I've been asking around town about you."
"And…" said Monty, terrified.
"I haven't liked what I've been hearing, Bullying others, Lording it around other people, Harassing that nice Yunan girl, I think it's time you learned something."
"And that is?" Monty Whimpered.
"The value of a hard day's work, respect for your elders and common decency. You can learn all of this by working at my farm.
The newt boy swallowed, "What if I say no?"
Ms. Croaker's grip tightened, "You saw the bully boys lying on the floor outside. You tell me."
Monty swallowed, he looked at his parents, His mother was weeping, his father mouthed "Take the deal."
Monty looked at her terrified, "Yes, Ma'am.
"Good," said Ms. Croaker, releasing him, she started to walk to the door slowly, "Look forward to working with you."
The Newt boy stood there terrified, he turned to his parents.
"I'm not-"
"You will," said his parents in unison, this is where it gets dumb.
…
Parasia glided towards the chamber, the path ahead of her was dark, she could make out what was head.
Here she was on her monthly visit.
She didn't mind doing these, if anything they were better than visiting the council, She didn't want to tell them that more Olms had left the city.
A recent wave of exploration had taken over the Olm's, many of them were now exploring Amphibia, many of them had gone deeper into the tunnels, but the majority had another place in mind, above.
Many had moved to the above world, setting up small towns, now there was a section of New Newtopia built for Olm habitation, an underground city.
Each Olm that left felt like a failure to her, like Protues was no longer their home.
The worst thing was that now outsiders had started to make this place their home.
Thousands of outside Amphibians moved in, many were there to try starting up a mining company, thankfully there had been a settlement claiming that anything valuable that could be found in the caverns half of it would be given to Proteus.
Parasia still hated it, but the city was still surviving, even if it was in a way he didn't like.
The moment she reached the door, she turned to the two guards, "Anything to report.
"Nothing," said the guard on the left.
"Do you still want to see her?" added the guard on the right.
The general nodded, she had to see this.f.
The giant door slowly opened.
Parasia slithered in.
In front of her was the giant form of mother old, slumbering, Two olms, sharing one body, were currently washing her skin, both were wearing the official prophecy shirts, one pink, one blue.
That was another thing that had changed, Mother's words had basically become a part of Amphibia culture, nowadays, one could find the prophecy anywhere, on shirts postcards, and even novelty toilet paper.
Some olms had objected to their culture being commercialized like this.
That was before they received the first paycheck, Parasia had donated her portion to paying the two Olms in front of her.
"Anything?" said the general as she stopped in front of them.
The two Olms with one body stopped wiping the giant and looked at her.
"Nothing," said Lysil
"Same as the last ten years," added Angwin.
The last thing Mother Olm had done after telling the above about the threat that was coming to them was to slither to her den, then fall asleep.
Parasia had wondered why she had done this, a sickening thought was that the mother of us all had gone there to die, either because she knew the world was doomed or just because…
The leader of the olms, shook her head, Ten years without moving, other olms had given up on their mother coming back. Not her though, she knew she would wake one day.
To their credit, the colossal mess-ups know as Lysil and Angwin had also remained loyal to the mother, and had spent the majority of the last ten years acting as her cleaners.
"Do you think she'll wake up ever?" said Angwin.
"She had to," said Parasia.
"Why?" replied Lysil, "I mean we're not in danger anymore, she could just be sleeping forever."
Parasia wanted to grab the olms and smash them against the wall, but no, it was a reasonable question, and one she needed to hear once in a while.
"She's our mum," said the general, "She deserves better than this."
"Yeah but I mean why should she wake up there's no more threat to Amphibia, Heck she might not wake up for another ten, Hundred, thousand years" said Lysil.
That's when Mother's eyes opened, "A NEW PROPHECY," cried the giant Olm.
"So she could just do that and make me look like an idiot."
"Mother?" said Parasia, slithering towards the giant matriarch, a part of her wanted to cry, but she kept Stoic "You're awake, after everything that happened I-"
"PARASIA," bellowed the giant Olm calmly, "I'M GLAD TO SEE YOU, BUT I NEED SOMEONE TO GET A MESSAGE TO THE ABOVE WORLD."
"Certainly mother," said Parasia bowing, "What is it?"
The giant Olm knelt and whispered something into Parasia's ear.
Mother Olm had three tones, the first was her grand theatrical announcing voice, this was used when announcing a prophecy.
The second was the usual grandmotherly tone, gentle and sweet, it was the one most Olms new and all loved.
The third however was rarely used.
It was a whisper, quieter than others, one that only the person she talked to could hear.
Parasia heard the worlds and looked at her mother.
"Really?"
"YES."
Parasia dashed out of the chamber, She needed to get to the surface and warn the above world, there was only one place where she could possibly go.
Wartwood.
Angwin and Lysil looked at the mother, "So about that prophecy, Would it fit on a shirt?"
Mother looked at them, "YES, DO IT."
"You knew?"
"YEAH, AND I LOVE THE FANCY MOISTURIZER, KEEP AT IT."
…
Tim Treller was trapped.
A part of him had expected, but now what the kill-a-moth had done was worse, it was had him wrapped up in its paws, the large creature's head was laying on his body making him unable to move, around him were dozens of other members of the secret Circus trapped by these beasts.
They were toying with him, they were going to at him and the others, in the morning the only thing remaining of him would be bones.
"Hey, you all right?" whispered a voice next to him.
He turned his head to see a large frog with a long, scraggly beard standing there looking at him with a smile on his face.
Tim wondered why this frog has being so insane to come close to a kill-a-moth, Tim shook his head.
"Okay, is that because you're scared or because you are bleeding from the Kill-a-moth's massive, massive claws?"
"The first," whimpered Tim.
"Oh in that case you'll be fine, these guys won't actually kill you, they'll keep you here and probably play with you, hopefully they won't claw you too badly.
"But I-"
"That fancy speaking newt is coming to take you away tomorrow, have fun."
With that, the strange frog walked away.
Tim tried to call out to be rescued, but no, the giant Cat drew him closer.
It felt like he was drowning.
Tim lay there being snuggled by the cat.
"Crap," he whispered.
...
Indoraptorman101: Yeah Killing off Tim might have made sense but he's not my O.C. He belongs to Fruitdragon1A, (whose fic, Fighting the Stars is one everyone should read.. Killing him off would have been rude. Also, what do you mean we'll get chapter 17?
Mando Whisky: I already messaged you about this, but I think I should explain what I'm doing here. To me this is the natural progression on Marcy's arc, this is her realizing that she was wrong, and now it's about her opinions on humans, I can see why some people aren't going to like this but Eh. Also, it's still just a crush, You don't know what I have planned for these two.
Yellowpikmin88: Ohhh buddy, you have no idea.
Thanks for reviewing folk, the next chapter is Interlude 2.2