Chapter 2: If the Price is Right!
'After capturing the resistance, Darcy finally obtained the one thing she was after, but at what cost will Darcy be enjoying her new prize?'
Previously
"You will be a fine asset to the core my dear, but you must watch that temper of yours." Darcy softly spoke as she kept her hand on the girl's cheek. "But do look on the bright side of this, you just saved an entire planet. What's one life when you just saved thousands?"
Keeping her vision turned away from Darcy, Anne closed her eyes and squeezed them shut as a tear escaped her eyes at the thought of never seeing anything or anyone familiar ever again so long as Darcy was involved. Fighting against such a cynical maniac was pointless at current so what other choice did she have but to go along with her plan? At least for now?
Finally breaking her attention away from the amphibian guardian, Darcy turned her attention to her robot who apprehended the rest of the resistance.
"You! Take the rest of them to be fitted for collars immediately!" Darcy sternly commanded. "And Andrias, prepare the chamber for our newest resident. I want to make her as comfortable as possible."
"Yes my lord." Andrias complied without argument as he began walking towards entrance of the throne room, the robot holding the other members of the resistance hostage following closely behind the newt king.
"This isn't over Darcy!" Sasha shouted as she did her best to kick the robot that was carrying her out of the room. "When we escape, I'm going rescue Anne and Marcy! I'm going to take you and the rest of the newtopian scum down and enjoy every minute of it! Do you hear me?!"
Sasha's threats and screaming fell on deaf ears as she and the rest of the resistance were escorted out of the throne room, Anne and Darcy disappearing from view as the throne room's doors closed behind the robot and Andrias. The sound of the closing doors behind the party echoed through the silent room, the sound replaying in Anne's ears as prison doors closing, a prison she knows she won't be able to escape from, not without assistance from Sasha and the rest of the resistance.
"So my dear, shall we continue?" Darcy inquired with a sing-song tone as the calamity warrior turned back to her.
Currently
Song Played: Dreams of an Absolution by Lee Brothem
A flawless sapphire stone in the shape of a frog set on a sterling silver band gleamed as what light shined in the dark hall hit the gem while Anne begrudgingly trailed behind Darcy with the help of Darcy's main frobot. The heavy footsteps of the robot and the shackles attached to Anne's ankles and wrists played a moderately joyless tune as the three made their way down the long winding hall of the castle. The guardian did her best to keep her eyes off what was now a part of herself while also trying to tune out what Darcy was saying as she walked ahead of the guardian.
"And just think of it Anne." Darcy excitedly stated she continued leading the way down the hall to an unknown destination, not bothering to look back at her betrothed. "When we both say I do, you will add your personal touches to the castle too, so long as I approve that is. I had this entire castle redone when I came into power and just knew something was missing. The perfect touch of that perfect someone."
Anne shifted her eyes from her hand and to the back of Darcy, watching as the dictator walked with ease while her hand gestures flung about as Darcy spoke about the castle and their soon to be union. Anne felt her stomach twist in knots as she eyed the mechanical tentacles that were spread about the once beautiful ocean blue crystalline tiled walls and floors of the Newtopian Castle. The "new look" Darcy stated regarding the castle looked more dreadful and like a dungeon than anything else, a place Anne, if she had a choice, would refuse to frequent.
"I know you will love our personal living quarters." Darcy sung as she happily clasped her hands together as she looked back at Anne, taking note of the expression the young woman had on her face. "Especially our family and bedroom."
Briefly catching with Darcy's vision, Anne turned away as her attention returned to the ring on her left ring finger, the sight of it made the warrior inwardly cringe knowing that the ring was linking her and Darcy together for life, a thought she did not want to think about, but had no choice. Her life and any decisions she had were no longer her own, but more her soon to be partner in life.
"13 years old and I'm already engaged?" Anne inwardly stated to herself as she shifted her hand to view the stone shine in the light of the candles that lined the castle wall. "My mom and dad would freak and blow a gasket for sure if they found this out!"
"And here we are my dear!" Darcy sang as she, the frobot that was escorting Anne, and Anne herself stopped in front of large double doors that were made of metal. "This is where the fun begins."
Facing the door, Darcy swiftly moved her right hand to her right side as both doors began opening with a slow and eerie creak. Opening just enough, Darcy walked in followed by Anne and the frobot. Walking further into the room, Anne turned her attention to the ceiling and walls of the room, noticing that the walls and ceiling blended in with the darkness of the room, giving the room the look that it was an endless void of pitch black. Continuing to follow Darcy, Anne stopped short as Darcy suddenly stopped in her tracks as the floor beneath Darcy's feet lit up like tiny tea lit candles in three small circles.
Darcy's attention suddenly turned to the wall in front of her as all ten of the orange orbs on the helmet simultaneously became still as if becoming synced with something or someone in the room. Anne felt her blood suddenly run cold as a low throaty growl echoed through the room. Soon after, ten large orange eyes opened right in front of the three as Darcy's mouth formed into a devious smirk at seeing the beast awakened in her presence.
"Why hello to you too my pet." Darcy calmly spoke as she took two steps closer to the wall towards the creature. "I know you're hungry my dear, but not to worry. I have the perfect meal for you, but remember, same some for mommy too."
Turning her attention to Anne, Darcy's grin grew wider.
"Oh my frog!" Anne choked out at eyeing the creature that was focused on her. "What is that thing?! Never mind! I don't care what it is, I'm not going anywhere near it!"
"And you believe you have a choice Savisa?" Darcy replied with a taunt as she took a step close to Anne, who backed up into the frobot behind her. "Baby has been hungry for quite sometime and it would not be wise to keep her waiting. Hangry is not a good look on her."
"Then let it eat you!" Anne spat as she tried to flee, but was held firmly in place by the frobot. "I'm hardly an appetizer let alone a whole meal!"
Having heard what Anne stated, Darcy's eyes widened, but quickly closed as Darcy laughed a small bit.
"Eat?" Darcy replied with a demented chuckle as she approached Anne, leaving two inches of space between them. "Oh, she won't eat you Savisa. She just wants to get to know you as her new host. Please allow me to explain."
Turning her attention away from Anne, Darcy turned back to the creature that dwelled within the room's walls.
"As you know, we are a collection of Amphibia's greatest minds uploaded into a unified consciousness." Darcy began as she walked up to the wall and placed her right hand on the eye that was closest to her. The eye gently closed as Darcy lightly stroked the eye's lid with her thumb. "Being that we are made up of those who were glorified geniuses past and present, we always felt that something was missing, something that could really make us whole."
Taking her hand away from the eye, the eye reopened and focused its attention on Darcy as she turned back to Anne.
"To become whole, one needs not just a mind, but a heart as well." Darcy continued as she approached Anne once more. "Then a consensus was reached and that is why we chose you, Anne, to join our ranks. That and Marcy's incessant whining."
As she completed that sentence, Darcy rolled her eyes and waved her left hand dismissively.
"I was able to painstakingly recreate the very thing that is in control of this vessel with hopes that once we had the very thing needed to conquer various worlds successfully, our plans would truly be complete!" Darcy proudly finished her explanation. "Now that we have you, we can finally put our plans into motion! Obtaining strength and wit was nothing, but obtaining the heart is everything."
The frobot behind Anne hiccupped, sounding as if it were moved by Darcy's speech.
"Dude, not even." Anne stated with an eye roll, completely unphased by Darcy's speech.
"Shall we begin?" Darcy inquired as she positioned her hands in front of her like she were proudly displaying the creature on the wall. The ground beneath them began shaking and taking a step out of the light circles in the floor, a trap door opened inside the first inner circle as a metal chair arose in front of the three. The chair was placed firmly on the floor as the trap door closed at the feet of the chair.
Before Anne could protest, the frobot escorted the shackled thai teen to the chair, roughly placing her into it. Wrist and ankle locks then emerged from the chair, immediately locking Anne into the seat. Fighting fiercely against her bonds, Anne's hair and eyes quickly flickered between brown and cyan out of fear of what was to take place next. Darcy chuckled at the sight of seeing her prisoner fighting a losing battle.
"Darcy! Let me out of here!" Anne screamed as she continued trying to free her wrists from the chair. "What are you trying to do to me?!"
"Trying?" Darcy mocked as she approached Anne, roughly cupping the teen's chin between the index finger and thumb of her right hand. "Don't be confused my love. It is what I will do to you! Like I said, baby is hungry and it is not wise to keep her waiting!"
The eyes on the wall became a lighter orange as a compartment in the ceiling suddenly opened above Anne. Darcy's grin grew into a twisted smirk at seeing the helmet above Anne's head begin to descend onto the teen. Turning her attention to the ceiling, Anne's eyes changed to the color of her gem as she continued trying to escape the chair.
"It's useless to fight Anne." Darcy continued as the helmet drew closer to Anne. "You gave us your answer to our proposal so there's no turning back. We will keep our end of the bargain to keep everyone you hold dear alive so long as you keep your end to be ours forever."
Firmly gripping the teen's chin once more, Darcy turned Anne's attention back to her as Darcy's thumb landed on Anne's bottom lip while the orange orbs on the helmet caught with the vision of cyan blue.
"Now let's discuss the terms and conditions, shall we?" Darcy eerily requested as the fang in the left corner of her mouth became visible via Darcy's iconic psychotic smile.
Newtopian Castle Dungeon Hall
The bottom of Barrel's Warhammer slammed against the wall of the medium sized prison for the third time as the magenta glow of the amphibian alphabet appeared on the head, rim, and handle of the Warhammer. Grime growled deeply as he looked to the wall for the third time to notice that the hammer did not make even a scratch on the bricks.
"I will have this wall knocked out before you know it!" Grime declared with a heavy pant as he raised the hammer once more, the magenta glow returning to the weapon. The Warhammer slammed into the wall once again as everyone in the cell moved to the other side in the event the bricks shattered from the weapon slamming into it. Olivia, who had her fingers firmly pressed against her temples in frustration, flinched from the sound of the weapon hitting the wall. The sound of Grime panting and declaring everyone's escape further frustrated the newt.
"Grime, it's useless!" Sasha stated to the toad as she rubbed her own temples in frustration. "These walls are made from some sort of reenforced material that is hard to shatter."
"Nothing is too strong for Barrel's Warhammer." Grime declared as he raised the weapon once more. "I just need to find this wall's weakness and we'll be back into the city in no time!"
"For the love of NEWTS!" Olivia shouted, which caught everyone's attention and paused Grime's attempt to shatter the prison wall once again. 'Will you stop slamming that incessant brute of a weapon against that wall?! These walls are made from ancient Newtopian tiles that are indestructible! Nothing will shatter them so PLEASE LOWER YOUR WEAPON!"
Everyone stared at the normally quiet and solemn newt, having never heard her raise her voice or ever display her frustration and was taken back at the fact she did. While Sprig and Polly encountered an angry Olivia once before, this was the first time they have heard the newt become that angry. General Yunan clearing her throat took the attention away from Lady Olivia and to the general.
"Ma'Lady's right." General Yunan chimed in. "All of Newtopia was built with the most indestructible material known to the citizens of the city, especially this castle. While the city is as old as time itself, the maintenance of the city is what helps keep it looking so glorious."
"Well that'll help us with escaping this death trap!" Polly sarcastically stated. "You wanna share any more history lessons to bore us to death with?!"
"That's enough Polly!" Hop Pop scolded the young pollywog. "Your attitude won't help the situation any more than Grime trying to tear down the wall with that ancient mallet."
"It's a war hammer frog!" Grime snidely replied.
"Hey, what about Frobo?" Sprig excited stated which perked Frobo up as well, the decapitated robot's car wheels spinning beneath him. "Maybe he can find the weakness in the wall to get us all out of here! He's stronger than that hammer will ever be!"
"Watch it pink frog!" Grime growled as he turned to Sprig with the hammer, resting the upper half of the handle of the hammer in his right hand as the hammer hummed with magenta energy. "I still have plenty of strikes left in me and I saved one especially for you!"
"Don't you go threatening my grandson with that mallet you big green bully!" Hop Pop stated in defense of Sprig. "You may scare him, but you can't scare me!"
"I've always enjoyed a two for one special." Grime menacingly stated as he then turned his attention to Hop Pop while tightening his grip around the handle of the war hammer.
"Enough you two!" Sasha sternly spoke as she placed herself between Grime and Hop Pop. "We already have enough going on without you two starting a war of your own! Separate corners!"
Grunting in the other's direction, Grime and Hop Pop turned their attention away from the other.
Sasha then walked up to the wall and placed her right hand against the area of the wall Grime struck several times.
"If what Olivia and Yunan are saying is correct, there's no telling if we will escape in time to save everyone, but we can't let this stop us." Sasha confidently stated. "We must rescue the girls, snatch the music box, and defeat Andrias and Darcy!"
"But how if the wall is indestructible?" Hop Pop curiously inquired. "Not even Grime could make a dent in it."
Before Sasha could answer the elder frog, her vision caught with two bright red beamed circles on the wall in front of her. Confused by what she saw, Sasha turned around to see Frobo was charging his eye lasers to try to penetrate the wall of the cell. The wheels beneath him spun with anticipation and encouragement.
"Frobo! Don't ev…" Sasha began, but was cut off as the beams headed towards the wall which made everyone duck to avoid being hit by the high temperature lasers. The beams impacted the wall, but bounced off and began bouncing off the adjacent walls of the cell. The lasers then slammed into the bars of the cell, slicing right through the middle of the four thick bars with ease. The bars to the cell then fell to the floor with a loud clang, which caught everyone's attention as glances were exchanged.
"The walls may be indestructible…" Yunan began as she stood along with Olivia.
"But the bars to the cell weren't." Sasha finished as everyone else got to their feet. "Looks like not everything in Newtopia was built the same."
"Great work Frobs." Polly praised her robot as Frobo closed his eyes and widened his smile at Polly's praise. "Told ya'll he was the bomb."
"Did I ever officially welcome you to the family Frobo?" Sprig excitably stated to the robot.
"Ok, enough chatter everyone." Sasha spoke up. "We can regroup and come up with a new plan once we re-enter the city, but for now lets book it before Darcy's henchmen finds us!"
"Wait! why don't we just go save Anne and Marcy now before we head to the city?" Sprig suggested. "You saw what Frobo did to the bars of this cell. He can help us save Marcy and Anne before we take down Andrias."
"Because Frobo won't be enough to get through Darcy's traps even with the help of the resistance, who already have their hands full with Darcy's army." Sasha calmly replied to Sprig. "And Darcy likely has Anne where we can't reach her while under heavy surveillance. Once we have a better layout of this place, we will know when and where to strike next. We can't afford to make any mistakes as this was already an unexpected setback. Now let's hurry before we're discovered by Darcy or worse, her henchmen."
Without a word or protest from anyone, everyone followed Sasha's lead out of the cell and into the hall. In the ceiling of the hall above the cell where the resistance were being kept, a camouflaged frobot appeared as it's eyes scanned the resistance's body heat signatures….
The Core's Chamber
The helmet above the chair continued descending on Anne as her calamity powers appeared to assist the guardian with escaping, but just as quickly weakened under the core's control. Anne felt herself becoming exhausted with each attempt to fight against her bonds as Darcy observed with a wicked grin.
"Resistance is futile my dear." Darcy calmly stated to Anne as the helmet was a mere two centimeters away from landing on the teen. "Once you become one with the us, you won't have felt a thing. You'll even have forgotten all about those silly childhood friends of yours!"
"You leave my friends out of this you ancient dung beetle!" Anne snapped as she felt her eyelids become heavy from exhaustion, but continued to fight against it. "Sasha and Marcy will always be better than these soulless robots you call your army!"
Running her left index and middle fingers under the girl's chin, Darcy darkly chuckled in response.
"You are so cute when you're angry." Darcy continued chuckling.
Darcy's laughter was suddenly cut short when a voice within the helmet grabbed Darcy's attention. Closing all ten eyes on the helmet, Darcy erupted in a maniacal laugh at what the voice stated to her. Darcy then gathered herself as she turned her attention back to the thai teenager.
"Well, it appears your friends are smarter than I gave them credit for." Darcy stated as the helmet above Anne stopped just mere inches from landing onto her hair. Noticing the helmet was no longer a threat to her, Anne released a heavy sigh of relief. "They may have escaped the castle, but they left behind something very valuable that I know they will return for and when they do."
Placing a hand on each side of her helmet, Darcy removed the contraption with ease as her shoulder length hair gracefully landed in place on her shoulders and her eyes' glowed a brightly muted orange and red. Staring at the hollow shell that was her childhood friend Marcy, Anne felt all color drain from her face as the souls of depraved demons occupying the vessel stared back at her.
"They'll be in for not just one, but two surprises, especially if the price is right." Darcy continued as she placed the helmet under her left arm. "I DO believe it's time to put on one of the best shows Newtopia has ever seen! Don't you agree Savisa?"
A/N: I would really love to thank everyone who gave a kudos/reviews and bookmarked/favorited chapter 1! That kind of support will ensure I continue to crank out quality work for all to enjoy (and keep providing a *cough* distraction from work *cough*). Anywho, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter with chapter 3 likely coming at the end of the month into March. Please continue to show your support! Onwards to chapter 3!