It was the second time Anne had been in Thai-Go since she had returned to earth.
The first time had been a month ago and… it had not gone well.
This time, however, she was in her element. She was taking orders, preparing meals and then serving them.
She knew her parents were keeping an eye on her, (secretly, of course) but she was willing to indulge their protective natures.
Around eleven, she heard a buzzing and looked at her phone. There was a single message:
"Leaving for the airport soon."
Anne placed the phone back into her pocket and sighed.
There was the reason she had picked today to go back to work.
Marcy was leaving for her new home.
They had said goodbye yesterday, there had been tears and hugs and presents.
It reminded her of her goodbye to Sprig and the Plantars.
Was this her future, saying goodbye to the people she loved?
"Anne?"
She turned to see her mother sticking her head from behind the kitchen door, looking worried.
"Yes, mom?"
"The people at table three left a few minutes ago, could you go clean it up please?"
Nodding, Anne entered the Restaurant area. A few minutes later the table was cleared, and the table cloth had been replaced with a clean one.
As she returned from the kitchen, she was surprised to see Sasha leaning on the counter. Anne could see a worried look on the blondes face, in her right hand was a book.
"Sasha, what's wrong?"
The former soldier lifted the book, so Anne could see it, it read: 'Caverns and Creatures Player's guide'.
"I forgot to return this to Marcy," said Sasha, annoyed.
"Crud," said Anne sympathetically, "So are you going to mail it back to her?"
There were a few seconds of awkward silence between the two. "I mean, that's an option," said Sasha casually.
"What's the other one?" asked Anne, looking at her friend suspiciously.
"Well I was thinking, it doesn't feel right for us not to see Marcy on the last day, So why not…make a dash to get to the L.A.X and give it back to her?"
Anne just looked at her for a second. The old Anne would have just agreed with her, but this Anne knew she needed to think things through before she did something reckless like driving across town to say goodbye to her friend.
It would be nice, but she had to work, and she couldn't just shirk off her responsibilities like that.
She turned to Sasha, a sad expression on her face, "Sorry, but I have to work."
Sasha looked shocked for a second but swallowed, "Okay I-"
Anne's mother poked her head out of the kitchen, "Two-hour break, Anne."
"What?" Anne asked, confused, "But it's an hour early I-"
"You're overworking yourself," came her father's voice over the sound of something steaming, "You should take some time and visit your friends."
Anne stood there and looked at Sasha, the blonde was smiling that smile she had, whenever she had an idea, and which despite everything Anne had gone through, was hard to say no to.
"Okay, but I have one caveat."
Sasha raised an eyebrow, "A Caveat?" surprised at her friend's linguistic choice.
"Yes," said Anne, choosing not to reveal she had just heard the word on TV last night, "A Caveat. If Marcy has gone through Security, we give up and mail it."
"Deal," said Sasha.
"Okay," said Anne, beaming, "Let's go."
…
As Marcy sat in the airport, she couldn't help but feel a little anxious.
All around her, dozens of people were walking to get to their planes, each about to go on some sort of adventure, or trip to a different place.
She wondered how many of them were not going to come back to this airport. How many would just be leaving to start new lives somewhere else.
A part of her felt stupid for thinking so melodramatically, but it was true, she was leaving the best part of her life behind her.
Her mother and father were talking about their house in Hopkins. Marcy had seen dozens of pictures of it already. It was nice, but it was still terrifying to consider that her new home.
She wasn't going to run away this time, she was going to this new home, and would brave whatever was there.
Despite this, she was still scared.
What would happen if she got there and no one would like her? Would Anne and Sasha forget her? Would she forget them?
She was starting to panic, so she closed her eyes and looked at her parents.
"I have to go to the bathroom," said Marcy.
"Be quick," said her father, "We're going to start queuing up for Security."
"Okay," said Marcy, quietly, and walked away.
She didn't need the bathroom. She just wanted to do some thinking for a few seconds. Hopefully, she wouldn't cry.
"MARCY!" shouted two voices in unison.
The girl froze and turned to see her two best friends come running towards her. She smiled the biggest smile she had ever smiled.
"ANNE, SASHA?"
The two enveloped her into a hug, Marcy hugged them back, tears appearing in her eyes.
"What are you guys doing here?"
"You forgot your book," said Sasha, pulling the now bent copy of the players guide from her pocket.
"I knew I forgot something," said Marcy, laughing, "You came all this way to give me this."
"Yeah,"
"You know they have mail in Hopkins, right?"
"I TOLD HER." said Anne loudly.
The three kept hugging. A part of Marcy wished it would never end, but she knew it had to, she was being stupid again. Of course, they wouldn't forget her, they had saved her from the core, and now they were here to say goodbye.
All of her fears vanished instantly.
"I love you girls," she said through the tears.
"Don't you dare forget us," said Sasha.
Anne didn't respond, she just kept crying.
Marcy released them, and turned, she didn't look back, she didn't need to anymore.
This was an ending, that much was true.
But endings always gave way to new beginnings.
Whatever was waiting in Hopkins didn't scare her anymore. She could do this.
And whenever she thought it was alone, she'd know she never was.
…
Marcy stood there looking at the evil version of herself sitting there, smiling. Marcy was leaning against the door, terrified.
The newt sat there, looking at her confused.
"Um…Marcy, is there anything wrong?" asked Javi.
"You…you can't see her?" asked Marcy stuttering, pointing towards her counterpart.
"See who?" asked Kettle.
Marcy looked at both of them, then back at Darcy, who now had their feet on the table, humming to themselves.
The newts hadn't seen them, which meant one of two things. The first was that only she could see Darcy, the second was that they knew, but were pretending not to see them.
She might not have known if her fellow rangers had changed over the past ten years, but she had to believe that they weren't evil.
Clearly she was seeing something, what had she ingested over the past few minutes.
Anne had told her something about tea that made her hallucinate, clearly that tea that had drunk was responsible.
She didn't want to worry the three newts so she decided to lie, Anne did say the effects were temporary, all she had to do was to ignore the nightmare that she had been for a few weeks.
"Oh, I thought I saw a poisonous spider," she said, trying to sound convincing.
"Really, a spider," said Darcy with a laugh, "You really think they're-"
Before she could finish that sentence, femur was next to her and moved the chair, Darcy fell to the floor with an "oof." Femur looked back at Marcy and shook his head.
"Nothing? Darn." said Marcy, trying to resist the urge to smile at seeing the pratfall.
The woman walked to her chair, ignoring the glare from her doppelgänger. Marcy reached out to touch the doppelgänger, her finger passed through Darcy.
"You're not real," whispered Marcy, inwardly she was glad that her suspicion was correct.
"Oh, I'm real alright, just not physically here."
"Why are you waving like that?" asked a concerned Javi.
"Weird human things," Marcy shot out.
"Ah," said Javi, confused.
Without another word, Marcy sat down on her chair.
"So, Marcy," said Kettle, "Did you find your friends back then?"
Marcy tried to open her mouth, when all of a sudden she realized she couldn't.
She looked at Darcy, who was standing in the corner smiling, the only thing they did was to point to the table
Laying there was a d20, a twenty sided die.
Something was wrong. She knew that this couldn't be real, yet for some reason, she was forced to play along.
Picking up the die, she rolled.
"Let's see," said Darcy, "if you pass your CHR save to not say something stupid."
The dice landed on a 20.
Marcy beamed at the natural 20, and did a celebratory fist pump.
The newts politely ignored her strange behavior.
"Yeah, I found them. They both landed near this town actually, Anne went to Wartwood, and Sasha was captured by toads."
"Toads," laughed Javi, "she ended up with those brutes. And living in this small town, who could cope with that?"
"Oh, don't worry about that," said Kettle, "The real problem is the fact that they were stuck with a friend like Marcy. I mean, can you believe how selfish she was?"
Marcy sat there, shocked that the small newt had said such a hurtful thing.
"Roll Persuasion to try and challenge your friend," Darcy called.
Marcy rolled again, but landed on a 3. Ignoring the result, she tried to speak.
"I… It wasn't…I."
She could barely finish the sentence.
"That's right," said Javi, "I mean, can you believe that Marcy never even told us about them?"
"I…I didn't mention you to them because we… I didn't…"
She tried to think of the reason why she didn't tell Anne and Sasha about them.
"Roll insight to come up with a good reason," Darcy commanded.
But there was no good reason, even if she did a perfect roll. How selfish was it that she didn't tell them? Predictably, despite picking up the die and rolling a 12, it didn't matter.
"Why? Was it because you didn't consider some lowly newts your friends?" Said Javi.
"Was it because you saw the world as a game?" accused Kettle.
"Did you even care for us?" Said Femur in a voice deeper, the darkest cave.
Marcy tried to remain calm. She saw Darcy standing behind the counter, grinning wickedly:
"Roll wisdom save to keep your composure and avoid being frightened."
She rolled. A 15, not bad.
"With disadvantage," Darcy added cruelly.
Her second roll landed on a 5.
It was too much.
Before any of the others could respond, Marcy stood up and ran from the table, dashing out of the tearoom.
Anger welled up in her, she wasn't going to let this dark version of herself win.
"I don't know what's going on, but I know you're behind it, and I won't let you win."
With that, Marcy ran into the streets of Wartwood. They were darker now, and in every shadow she could see dozens and dozens of glowing red eyes.
She had to find Anne and Sasha, they'd help her.
Unless they had turned against her as well.
…
Tsnre stood behind the counter terrified. The scream, was it some sort of human war chant before they attacked?
Part of him just wanted to run, but another part still hoped he would be safe.
That's when she ran out of the side room, spotted him, and glared, "I don't know what's going on, but I know you're behind it and I won't let you win."
And with that, she ran off. Tsnre just stood there, his hand holding on to his heart, terrified.
"Excuse me?" said a voice in front of him.
He looked up, and his heart beat faster.
Javi, Kettle and Femur were standing there.
Visions of the past flashed through his head. He remembered watching Javi beat the training course in the fastest time possible. He remembered seeing Kettle take down a newt three times her size by sheer determination. He remembered Femur finding and healing that wounded Water snake.
Many would see their flaws, Javi's snobbishness, Kettle's size and Femur's quiet nature, but he saw through them.
He decided to turn them into the best rangers the Night Guard had ever seen.
And then he had betrayed them.
"Are you alright, sir?"
Tsnre nodded, they hadn't recognized him yet, his heart rate dropped slightly.
"Yes," he said, "Yes. Sorry, that Human who just ran out the door, she… scared me."
"Did you see where she went?" said Javi, concern in his voice.
He never knew Javi could be concerned for anyone, (Other than Kettle, that is, it was so obvious)
"No, I'm sure you can find her."
The three rushed out of the door, Tsnre swore that Femur gave him one last look before he left.
Tsnre's life ended there, he stood there for a few seconds then sighed.
There was no other choice.
He walked through the Tea shoppe one last time, even went upstairs to see if the other members of the Sundew family were gone, they were.
With that tidied the kitchen, and the dining area, walked out the door and turned the open sign to closed, he placed his keys underneath a flower pot.
It was a nice life he had, but now it was gone.
He walked slowly to his home, a small little cottage in the middle of town. The streets were empty, everyone busy with other things. There was a party somewhere in town.
Opening the door, he passed a table where a book on zoology lay, the picture of him in better days standing next to the three newts he had seen just minutes ago.
Stopping in front of a chest, for a few moments, he wondered if he could really do this.
He sighed, inside there was the payment for his sins.
As he opened it, he had to shield his eyes from the shining golden armor, glinting in the moon light.
He undressed and started to dress in the armor.
Walking towards the mirror, he realized just how old he looked, here he was standing in this expensive armor.
Gold was a weak metal, soft, but he had asked for it for two reasons.
The first was because he demanded it as payment if he was going to betray everyone, he wanted something big. The second because even with the weight, he was always fast enough to dodge any attacks.
He looked at the chest again, and pulled out his old sword. It was still dangerous, he had made a point to keep it clean and sharp.
Attaching it to his side, he walked to the door, then looked back at the cottage behind him. It was a good life, but he knew he couldn't live it forever.
Tsnre was gone.
In his place was Amphibia greatest traitor.
And he was not going down quietly.
…
Lucian's world had turned upside down.
Not figuratively, like a few days ago when he discovered his parents were not just friends to Sasha Waybright great hero of the toads, and they were cowards but also brave, no this time it was literally.
He was balancing upside down on his head, watching his friends look at him with smiles on their faces.
It was his first dare. Max had already had to burp the alphabet, Nicole's dare was to steal and wear one of Lady Olivia's nicest dresses. She was currently wearing it; she looked quite strange with her head sticking out where Olivia's neck should be, the dress straps danging off her small arms.
Lucian's dare had been to balance on his head for a minute.
"Sixty," said Max, finishing the count-down.
"WOO," shouted the toad boy, "IN YOUR FACE GRAVITY!"
Lucian then fell forwards.
"I didn't know he had such good balance," said Max.
"Yeah, it's why I always get him to do the heavy lifting." said Marcy.
Lucian stood up and spun the bottle himself.
Marcy watched the bottle as it spun, it stopped directly in front of her.
"Okay Marcy," said Lucian smiling, "Truth or-"
"Truth," she said.
Lucian smiled, That's when Marcy realized her error, she knew Lucian as one of her best friends the person who she trusted the most, who would be by her side no matter what.
But there was one thing she had forgotten.
Their rivalry.
When there was a contest, they had to see who the best was, who would be tough enough to last the longest.
It was strange, but in a way it was the foundation of their friendship.
Their contest could be over something like Who was better, Frogs and Toads, Boys or Girls, The Newtopian art period to Modern art, (This was one of the odder arguments they had, but still.)
However, Lucian probably had a question that would try to test Marcy.
Well, let him try, there were no questions that could break her, that could make her refuse to tell the truth.
"Who do you have a crush on?"
Marcy's eyes widened. That no good son of a slug!
She looked at Max, who was sitting there with a smug smile on his face.
Oh, that smile, that annoyingly smug smile. Where she enjoyed her rivalry with Lucian, her relationship with Max was harder to ignore.
The worst part that he probably wouldn't even be smiling if he knew.
She swallowed, she needed to think of something.
"Umm, No one."
They all looked at her, "What?"
She started to smile, "Crushes are stupid, it was a stupid question, you're stupid."
The group looked at her.
"She's lying," said Nicole.
"I'm not," said Marcy, annoyed.
"You are, you've got a tell."
What?" asked Max.
"Her smile, it's slightly wider."
"My smile isn't wide," responded Marcy, offended.
"I don't know, it's pretty large," said Max just before a pillow hit him in the face.
"I always said she did have a big mouth," said Lucian, before another pillow hit him in the face.
Marcy sat down, pouting, "I can guarantee it isn't one of you two."
Nicole kept quiet but noticed that Marcy was avoiding looking into her friend's eyes slightly more than usual.
"So what is your perfect man then?" laughed Max.
"I don't have one…but if they were real, They'd be handsome, kind of brave, not like you guys."
"Oh, so I'm not brave," said Max, "So what was jumping at a crazy newt who was holding you hostage?"
"I already told you last night, Stupid."
Aha, friendly insults," said Lucian, "Now we're ready."
"For what?"
"The highlight of the night, The scare Dare."
The three friends look at him, "So what is it then?" asked Max.
"Tonight, We're going to go out and steal a stone from the grave of Jonah Grouper."
Nicole and Marcy gasped, "You mean the cursed grave?"
Max looked at them, "Huh, that's the same name as that old frog in town."
"Oh, that's his grave," said Lucian casually.
"Really? Kind of defeats the purpose of a grave."
"Yeah, he tried to lead Ms Croaker into a deathtrap, but it didn't work, so in his anger he cursed it."
"Really?"
"Yeah," explained Lucian, "Like this guy picked a stone from it, and he died."
"What really?"
"Yeah…three years later, after a heart attack…at the age of ninety-six."
"Truly a mystery," said Max in a dead-panned fashion.
"Well, whatever, we're going to desecrate a grave tonight."
"I don't think we should," said Max.
"Yeah, Good to see you're ready and-What?"
The room was looking at Max, all shocked at his refusal.
"I mean, it's dangerous, maybe we could go a night without danger?"
"Are you okay, Max?" asked Marcy, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just-"
That's when the bedroom door slammed open. General Yunan was standing there, she coughed, and looked at Max, "Can I have a word with Max please?"
Max sat there and looked at his friends. They looked worried. Max swallowed, stood up and exited the room.
General Yunan closed the door behind and her and looked at Max, "Why are you trying to bring down the mood?"
"What?" asked Max confused.
"You heard me, why are you trying to spoil the evening?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Glad you're apologizing, but quite frankly you should be helping to make this sleep over perfect"
"I'm sorry, are you encouraging me to break the rules and potentially put your daughter in danger?"
The next nodded, "Danger? There's no danger I'm going to be following you, stealthy, of course."
Max stood there growing more confused, "Okay, I need you to explain everything firstly: Why are you listening in to us?"
"Simple," said the newt, "Sasha sent me a fly talking about the scare dare. She told me some of the stuff her and the other humans got up to and wanted me to keep an eye on them. Besides, it sounds fun. Secondly because I don't like you."
"I think we established that."
"I don't, but my daughter does, and I'm going to change her mind on this, I want her to see how bad you are for herself so she'll drop you on her own."
"Again, Thanks, but-"
"But I'm not about to let you do that on your own, You're going to make this night great, You're going to the grave and-"
Max couldn't take it anymore, this insanity was dangerous.
"What happens if something bad happens again? What happens if there's a cult that sacrifices kids, or the Secret circus is still around, or a monster or something else that could get them killed?"
Yunan stood there for a second, "What exactly are you worried about?"
Max sighed, "I'm scared I might get them hurt."
"Listen," said Yunan softly as she knelt to Max's level, "You led a rescue to mission to save her, and you stood up to that obnoxious Monty, If anyone's going to keep her save it's you."
Max stood there surprised to hear this, "Okay but-"
"No questions, take my daughter to the graveyard and have fun."
Max just looked at her, then walked back into the room. Adults were crazy.
Stepping inside, he looked at the group, "Looks like we're going to the graveyard."
"What changed your-"
"Let's not talk about it," said Max, raising his hand, "Just get something to wear, and we can go."
…
Sasha stood in the outside gymnasium, all around her the frogs dressed as teenagers walked around, drinking, dancing, in some cases fighting. It reminded her of a movie she saw with her mother, about pink girls and a guy with a girl on a beach.
She shook her head, "This is a nightmare."
"What's a nightmare?" said principal Grime.
"Ugh, The whole party looks like a high school,"
"What?"
"It looks like a high school Grime, did you change something?"
"It's still the same as when you left," replied the toad faculty member, "Sasha, are you feeling well?"
"Yes… I think, I went for drinks with girls and I drank some sort of tea and-"
"Maybe the tea has some sort of effect on the biological make-up of humans, so that when you drank, you started to hallucinate."
Sasha stood there for a few seconds, shocked at what Grime had just said, "That…no offense, but that was far more intelligent than anything you've ever said."
Grime shrugged, "I might be a hallucination, that would explain a lot."
"So, does that mean you're real?"
"Are any of us real in the cosmos, I mean-"
"Just say yes or no."
"Yes, I'm just messing with you."
"Thanks, I have to find the others, Who knows what kind of nightmares they're seeing."
Sasha was about to turn away when all of a sudden, there was the sound of someone tongue, clicking, "Really, you're turning your back on all of this?"
Sasha turned, standing there was the image of a girl wearing a SJMS school outfit. She had a pink skirt, her blonde hair was in a ponytail, her face was a mixture of confidence and arrogance.
The psychiatrist sighed, "Of course you'd be here."
"Did you really expect someone else? Not the old better you."
"No, I knew you were still around, You're the part of me that I bury deep down who only comes out when someone cuts me off in traffic."
"Or when a date goes wrong, or when someone steals your lunch, or when a parent calls in blaming you for their kids' problems and "it's not their fault they're weird," or "a good hit will fix 'em.""
Sasha stood there listening to her younger self listening off all the things she hated.
Grime was looking at his former lieutenant worried, "Sasha, are you there?"
"Yeah, Grime, I'm just arguing with my younger self."
"Ah," nodded the former tower commander, pretending he knew what was going on.
"Tell Grime he pulls off the principal look well," replied the younger Sasha.
Sasha shook her head, "This is stupid, you're not real, I should just ignore you,"
"Fine," said the younger doppelgänger, "Hey Percy, come over here for a second."
Percy ran over wearing a dorky sweater and glasses, "Yes, queen Sasha?"
"I need a seat, do you mind?"
The toad got on his hands and knees, the younger Sasha sat on him.
Sasha tightened her fists.
"That's not Percy."
"But is it wrong? This is how you treated him, Braddock, Marcy, Anne."
Sasha turned, fury in her eyes.
"In case you haven't noticed, I've changed, so what ever you have to say isn't going to affect me."
"Changed," said the younger Sasha, "Please, your job is manipulating people, you just do it in another way."
"Yeah, I try to prevent them from becoming jerks like us."
"She's not wrong," said the hallucination of Percy.
"Thanks Percy, speaking of which, hey cheerleader Braddock?"
Braddock cartwheeled next to Sasha, "What is it, Sasha?"
"Firstly, awesome cartwheel," said Sasha, "you're promoted to my number two."
"Yes," said Braddock, fist pumping.
Sasha shook her head, she remembered this technique she had done many times back in middle school, there were probably three other cheerleaders who thought they were her second in command.
"You're welcome. Secondly, I'm hungry, start feeding me grapes."
A bunch of grapes appeared in Braddock's hand, she started to pluck from them and moved them to the cheer captain's mouth.
"Sorry, what's going on now?" asked Grime, who was so confused.
"She's using Percy as a stool and getting Braddock to feed her grapes."
Grime stood there for a second and nodded, "Well, Percy was the most comfortable person in town."
Sasha glared at him for a second, then turned, "I'm going to find Anne and Marcy, they drank the tea as well, and I'm going to save them."
The other Sasha sighed, "Well I knew we couldn't do it the easy way," she snapped her fingers.
All of a sudden a cheerleader toad jumped in front of her, one leapt at her, Sasha ducked the attack, for a brief second she wondered why she was doing this they, weren't real."
That's when she felt something grab her arm, grabbing whatever it was, she threw them over her shoulder.
Grime slammed into the ground.
Sasha covered her mouth, guilt taking over instantly, "Oh frog, Grime I…"
Grime the vanished only to be replaced with more attacking Toads.
"Well, looks like you've even hurt Grime now," said the younger Sasha, whose school uniform turned into her old armor., "Let's be honest, it was only a matter of time."
Sasha knew she was in trouble, she needed to get away from this, so she wouldn't hurt anyone else.
She turned and ran, hoping the others were waiting at the nightclub, her younger doppelgänger laughing behind her.
…
Grime lay on the floor, he groaned, Sasha had just thrown him over her shoulder. On one hand, he was annoyed by the pain, on the other hand it was a good throw so he couldn't be too mad at her.
As he opened his eyes, he saw Percy was standing there, offering his former commander his hand.
The entire party were looking at them, confused. This was going to make Sasha look bad. He'd have to do something that was usually against his nature.
He needed to tell the truth.
Taking Percy's hand, he allowed himself to be lifted. He had come to terms with the fact that sometimes he just needed help.
"Everyone, Sasha's under the influence of a psychological compound."
The party just looked at him, confused.
"She's been drugged and is seeing weird stuff."
"OOOOOHHHHH,"" replied the entire hall.
"It's weird that he knows what that is," said a small voice in the distance.
"Yes, We need to stop her before something bad happens. Let's go." he turned and ran in Sasha's direction
With a boisterous cheer, the toads ran after their captain. Caught up in the moment, the wait staff joined them.
The town center was quiet for a few seconds.
However, it only lasted for a second.
It was ruined by the sound of the volcakeno cracking.
…
Anne still laughed at the experience with the gourd tea ten years ago. Looking back on it, the trip wasn't as bad as it could have been, and it had allowed her to grow closer to Hop-Pop.
However, seeing the inside of Toadie's mansion as a wash of various bright colors, and the inhabitants looking weirder than usual, she had to admit that maybe her fondness was misplaced.
"Anne," said the demonic scarecrow that was formerly her froggy best friend, "what's wrong?"
"Gourd tea," replied the human, "I drank it with Sasha and Marcy."
Her mother's hair turned a green color, "Tea, what tea?"
"Anne's been seeing Sasha and Marcy on the side during this party," said Polly, with her ball head inflating.
"Like a bad sitcom," said her father, his hair now yellow.
"Exactly," said Hop-Pop, steam escaping from his kettle head.
Anne groaned, all these bright colors were starting to hurt her eyes, "Guys, Don't worry it'll only last a few minutes, I just need to sit down and relax."
A large brown frog walked towards her holding a chair, he placed it next to Anne, "Here you go Anne," he hissed.
"Thanks…mysterious frog."
"I'm Frobo,"
"Oh, well, you're now a frog."
"What do I look like?"
"Basically…you look like you as a frog."
Before he could respond, Anne sat down and closed her eyes, "I'm just going to sit here for a few moments, can you guys mingle and try to keep people away from me please?"
Her family looked at each other for a second and then started to leave.
"You want me to stay?" asked the upper half of the nightmare scarecrow.
"No, it's fine, you can go."
The scarecrow crawled away, Anne took a breath and closed her eyes.
Inside the darkness of her head, there was only peace.
'Well, at least things can't get weirder.' she thought.
That's when she noticed something in the distance, a white speck.
She opened her eyes again, no one was standing in front of her, she looked at Sprig who was talking to the Mayor who was dressed as the monopoly man. Which may or may not have been a hallucination.
Closing her eyes again she saw the white speck, however now it was bigger, and growing bigger by the second.
"What that?"
This was worrying, was she losing her mind?
No, it couldn't be that, she was just seeing things.
However, the speck got closer and Anne swallowed.
It was a human being just slowly walking towards her, their body was white.
White clothes, White hair, White skin.
Her heart beat faster, as she saw the figure get closer.
They stopped in front of her.
"Hey, How's it going?" asked the white girl softly.
Anne could see the cracks in her skin, the leaves in her hair, all of those would have been fine, but the thing that scared her was the eyes.
They were full of kindness, acceptance, love.
Anne opened her eyes, hoping to banish this dream from her eyes.
The gray figure was still standing there.
"Hey," she said.
Anne just sat there, paralyzed by fear.
"So… How's my life?"
How could she respond to that question?
For years, Anne had wondered what had happened to her that day. The guardian had said they had made a copy of her. Sometimes she had laid awake in her bed, wondering what the guardian meant.
Was she the original Anne, was she a copy, was the original version of her dead?
"You're not real."
"Probably," said other her, looking around, "Oh look, there's mom and dad."
Anne turned to see them talking to Stumpy, the large frog was smiling.
"Nice to see they're not killing each other anymore."
"Stop it,"
"I just wanted to say…Thank you for looking after them."
Anne looked at her counterpart shocked, "What?"
Grey Anne gently took her hands "Thank you, It would have hurt them if I just died, you kept them happy, and safe, and Just wanted to say…Thank you."
A sense of calm washed over Anne, "Oh, you're welcome."
"Yes, and now I can reclaim my life."
"Yeah, that's great, and…what?"
"My life, I want it back," said the doppelgänger her voice growing more urgent, she tightened her grip on the original, Anne tried to pull away, but it was too tight.
"Please stop, I…"
"No, you've done well, but now I'm taking back my life."
Anne stood up, and ran to the door, the copy followed.
As she burst out the door, she saw that Wartwood had changed,
She was back in that place where she had woken in when the other her… when she died. There are stars everywhere.
The only path in front of her lead to the dance club, her friends, they'd be able to help her.
That's when she turned her head
Looking at her was her counterpart, looking her directly in the eyes.
"You won't get away, Anne," said the doppelgänger, "I want my life back."
…
Sprig was standing there talking to former Mayor Toadstool.
"So she's got a stomach bug?" said the toad, peering over Sprigs shoulder with genuine concern.
"Yes, but don't worry it'll be over soon." said Sprig moving his head so he could block the toad from seeing her, "She'll be ready in a few minutes.
The Former mayor looked at the then shrugged and walked away, Sprig let out a sigh of relief, it was safe for now.
"Hey, Sprig."
Sprig looked up to see a vision of beauty standing there.
Ivy was wearing a green dress, nothing too fancy, but it caused Sprigs heart to skip a beat nonetheless.
He felt like trash for not giving her attention over the last few days, but considering everything, he was starting to worry.
"HeY iVy," he said his voice acting weirdly, he coughed and tried to appear cool, he failed, "Hey Ivy."
The frog woman laughed, "What was that?"
Sprig blushed, "Me trying to be cool."
"We both know you don't have to try and do that," giggled the girl, "So umm, What's with Anne?"
"Oh, nothing, she's just got a stomach bug,"
"So, is that why she's giving Mayor Toadies wall paper the thousand yard stare?" said Ivy.
Sprig turned around to see Anne sitting there terrified, "Umm, it's a very rare bug."
Ivy nodded, "Okay with that out of the way" Ivy paused for a second wondering what to say, "We need to talk."
"Oh? About what?"
"Well, Sprig remember what happened…" she froze, it was awkward to talk about, she lowered her voice to a whisper, "What we did on your birthday?"
"You mean the romantic walk through the woods, on the continent?"
"Kind of but…" Ivy was looking awkward, like she was holding back something, Sprig started to worry, what could be the problem?
"Sprig…Anne just ran out of the mansion."
The young frog man turned to see Anne's back shoot out the door.
"Where's she going?"
Sprig turned around and sighed, "Oh no, GUYS, SHE'S RUN OFF."
The entire hall looked at Sprig.
"Anne ran off," called a frog.
"What is she up to?" replied another,
"Doesn't she know running away from the mayor party is punished by Tar and feathering?" asked Loggle.
"We banned that years ago," said Mayor Taodie.
"I know, but I'm still hyped after yesterday's mob, I want another."
The entire hall murmured in agreement.
"Okay," said Mayor Toadie loudly, We're going to chase Anne-"
The hall cheered
"BUT," shouted Toadie for emphasis, "But, We won't tar her."
What about feather her?"
"Okay, but it'll create a mess"
The town murmured a somewhat disappointed acceptance and moved towards the door.
"Come on Ivy," said Sprig, taking her hand, "We've got to help Anne."
Ivy followed, feeling ashamed that she couldn't tell him the truth but also glad for the distraction.
….
The Wartwood Dance club was one of the many things that had been built in the ten years since the girls had left.
It had started when the girls had performed during talent night, that night when Anne, Marcy and Sasha, had almost won.
However, in some of the younger frogs something took hold, seeing the girls rock their hearts out inspired them to celebrate.
After the war, thousands of young Frogs, Toads, Newts, Axolotls, Salamanders, and Olms, had decided to listen to this strange alien music.
Sprig was constantly chased by younger Amphibians, just to hear some more of that strange otherworldly music, many danced to it, others tried to replicate it.
The older generation condemned it, saying there was no beat to it, or they couldn't hear the words to it.
One bizarre toad thought they could hear messages in the songs, believing them to be messages from a mad god in the midst of a deep slumber. He was crazy, though, so everyone ignored him.
There was of course the odd exception. Miss Croaker could be often found partying into the night.
Soon fights started to break out over the music, on one side were music lovers who wanted to defend this new music, on the other those that thought this music was artistic trash
After a week of intense fighting, Mayor Toadie came up with the perfect cure.
Build a place for them to listen to their music.
It had worked now, the young amphibians had somewhere to dance, and the older generations would accept it.
The large square building stood near the outskirts of town, built there under the same circumstances as Polly's warehouse.
Inside, dozens of Amphibians were currently dancing their problems away, they would not notice the chaos outside until it was too late.
Marcy kept looking around her trying to spot the evil Darcy, they were following her; she knew it, somewhere in the shadows of her mind.
Sasha kept trying to keep ahead of the army chasing her, led by the worst version of her.
Anne knew the other her was attached to her, still trying to take over her body.
Each of the three stopped the moment they saw the others.
Relief washed over them.
"GIRLS, DARCY SHE'S BACK, SHE'S-"
"ANNE, YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, TEENAGE ME HAS AN ARMY OF HIGH SCHOOL TOAD AND-"
"I'M BACK, THE ME THAT DIED SHE'S TRYING TO TAKE OVER MY BODY AND-"
The three girls stopped, each wondering what the other two were talking about.
Suddenly, then, from around the corner, a blonde teenager in armor came into view.
From a nearby shadow out stepped Darcy, smiling at the group, especially Sasha.
A White skinned version of Anne poked her head from behind Anne's.
"Well, this is unexpected," said Darcy she turned to the teenage Sasha, "Oh Hi Sasha, Remind me to kill your first girl?"
"You and what army?" replied young Sasha.
"Calm down everyone," said Anne, "I'm sure that when I get my body back, we can talk this out."
Sasha instantly ran over to Marcy, "Stand back," she said to the monstrous version of her friend.
Darcy chuckled, "Well Sasha, looks like you finally care about your friends.
"I think I proved that the last time I took you down," said the older blonde.
"Or do you just want to protect her because you want to keep her under your control," said the other Sasha, "It's all your good for."
"Shut up," said Sasha.
"She's not wrong," said Anne's conjoined head, "You were pretty terrible, I mean I forgave you, but it's always possible you could have slipped back into old habits."
Sasha stood there trying to deny their accusations they were just hallucinations, they weren't real.
"Heck, that's her job now, manipulating kids into being better, she's just allowed to do it now and-"
"Hey, younger Sasha," said Anne.
"What?"
"Shut up," said Anne aggressively.
The blonde stood there shocked at what her older best friend had just said, a look of rage appeared on her face, "What did you just say?"
"I said SHUT UP" said Anne smiling widely, she then turned to Sasha, "No offense but that felt good."
Sasha was surprised to find herself smiling as well.
The therapist felt a hand rest on her shoulder, she turned to see Marcy standing there smiling, "You still blame yourself for that?"
"Yeah, and I'm guessing you blame yourself for her?"
"She should," started Darcy, "she exactly like-"
"Yeah, they're wrong," said Sasha, ignoring the copy, "We don't blame you at all."
"I know…but It's worse than that, I made friends when I got here."
"What do you mean Olivia and Yunan," she paused for a second, "Wait do you consider Andrias your friend?"
"Well yes, but I'm not talking about them," said Marcy shaking her head, "I mean… I had these newt friends, and I never told them they were my friends
"And that makes you the same as them?" said Sasha, pointing to the armor-clad hivemind in a human body.
"No, it's the fact that she's selfish and cruel and will never-" Darcy started to say.
"Hey, remember what happened last time you insulted our friend," said Anne, "Remember being blown up?"
"And me literally cutting your cord, Still remember the massive freak-out." added Sasha.
"How dare you," growled Darcy, "I…"
"Get lost," said Sasha before she turned to Marcy, "Why don't we see them, you can tell them how you feel."
Marcy looked at her for a second, before a small smile appeared on her face, "When did you start giving good advice."
"I've always given good advice," Sasha replied.
"That's great guys," said Anne's new head, "It's good to see that you've changed, We can hang out when I've replaced her."
"Okay, I'm sorry," said the doppelgänger Sasha, "What's with the extra head? It's scary as hell."
"I'm an amalgamation of ancient newts and yeah, That's messed up," replied Darcy, nodding.
"Oh," said Anne, "Well, it's a long story I-"
Before she could finish, a bright light filled the area.
From where Marcy had run from, a golden figure came walking towards them.
"MARCY WU," they bellowed, "PREPARE TO MEET YOUR END!"
The three girls and two and a half hallucinations stood there confused.
"Um…Are you an angel?" asked The non-white Anne.
"What?" said the confused golden figure.
"Because if you are, I should probably tell you, I'm Jesus."
Everyone looked at Anne confused.
"What?" they said in unison.
"Well, I died and came back to life…and I did die for your sins."
Silence returned for a few moments.
"Okay, I just want to point out that if I said the same thing, I'd be treated like the villain," said Darcy.
Without another word, the golden figure charged towards them.
Indoraptorman101: Never heard of Bride of Discord, But Darcy is back in a fashion, and she will be back in a later arc.