Learning from the Past

"Excellent form Lieutenant!" Grime cheered as Troy attacked a pair of training dummies with his sword. He turned to see Grime giving him an approving look while Polly crossed her arms. He wiped the sweat from his brow and walked over to her.

"What?" He whispered to her.

"We've been trying to lay low the past week and find a way to get you home and all you've done is play with swords." Polly said, chewing her lip.

"What else am I supposed to do while we wait?" Troy argued, "We can't leave the mountains until the robots clear out and you said it'd be safer to stay here for a while longer."

"I know, I just-" She tapped her foot impatiently, "I don't like being stuck here. I want to get you back home."

"We could go back to town and-" Troy started hopefully.

"Absolutely not!" Polly said putting her foot down, "It's overrun with frobots."

"But I can help now." He said excitedly. "Captain Grime has been teaching me how to sword fight. I could hold my own. We could bust in and save the town together!" He said striking what he assumed was a heroic pose.

"What!?" Polly demanded, "You've been playing with that sword for only a week and you think you could take on an army?"

"Well, Grime thinks I-" Troy started but he felt a clawed hand on his shoulder.

"She's right, Lieutenant, it would be too dangerous at the moment. Plus you haven't seemed to recover your full combat capabilities." Grime interrupted. "It's best we wait and continue to do reconnaissance." Troy sighed.

"But I want to help." He groaned. Grime laughed.

"I know you do! You really want to impress those two friends of yours." He said with a wink and a nudge.

"What?" Troy asked in confusion. Polly rolled her eyes.

"I'll explain later." She said waving a hand, "Ugh. That makes so much sense now."

"That reminds me," He said, sheathing his sword and whispering to Polly, "Who were the other humans that came here? You mentioned the one human friend you and Sprig had but not the other two Grime keeps bringing up."

"Yeah, well, we didn't meet them till later." Polly said avoiding the question. Troy grabbed Polly's hand and stared at her with wide sad eyes. "Fine! But I'm telling you I didn't know them that well." She tapped her foot as she considered what she should share. Troy sat down and looked at her expectantly. "There was the, uh, Lieutenant, obviously." She said as she began to pace. "And the, uh, Ranger." She snapped her fingers.

"Okay and who were they?" Troy pressed curiously. Polly looked him up and down. He still looked like Anne but the addition of Sasha's old armor and the sword couldn't help but strongly remind her of Sasha. She cautiously wondered who he took after more.

"Hm," She said as she thought about it, "Let me go back to the beginning." Grime wandered over and sat next to Troy. "So the music box we keep mentioning, it was a powerful artifact from our world that somehow ended up in yours. I guess at some point the three humans from before took it and were transported here. They ended up separated and spread out across the land. Sprig and I had our one friend, another was sent to Newtopia, and the other-" She trailed off.

"We found you outside Toad Tower." Grime chimed in, "You were our prisoner, remember?"

"Wait, she was?" Polly asked confused, "But she was your Lieutenant? She led the toad army? She tricked everyone in Wartwood into-"

"Are you saying he thinks I'm a girl?" Troy interrupted as he pointed at Grime. "Do I look like a girl?" He looked down at the armor Grime lent him self-consciously.

"Lieutenant, we've talked about this. It's not what's on the outside that defines us but the inside." Grime said, patting him on the back.

"That was surprisingly wholesome. We will have to address the whole girl thing at some poi-" Troy began.

"As I was saying" Polly tried to get back on track, "Everyone was spread out. We, Sprig and I, met our human friend and then the Lieutenant…" She trailed off and glanced at Grime awkwardly.

"That's right. We were going to kill your Grandpa in order to crush the frog rebelion." Grime said unabashedly, "A simple misunderstanding."

"I'm sorry, what?" Troy interrupted again as he glanced between the two in shock.

"You're saying that the human friend of your human friend tried to kill your family? Also can we give your human friend a name or something? This is going to be confusing." Troy said as he tried to process everything. Polly considered him a moment.

"One-shoe." She shrugged.

"I'm sure there's a very interesting story behind that-" Troy began slightly confused.

"There really isn't. She literally just walked around with one shoe." Polly said dryly.

"Okay?" Troy frowned as he thought about how uncomfortable that would feel.

"Yeah, we didn't get along with the Lieutenant at first. She kinda had this manipulative evil agro vibe about her." Polly said, pulling a face.

"She was not evil!" Grime said defending her honor, "She was mistrustful and deeply misunderstood. Her human parents sounded awful."

"Right." Polly said unconvinced, "I mean, she did help us at one point, after betraying us twice."

"I don't think I want to be mistaken for the Lieutenant anymore." Troy said uncomfortably.

"Now, the Ranger on the hand, she was cool. A huge dork, but cool. She was super smart and had this arm crossbow." Polly recalled fondly, "Why didn't I ever make my own?" She thought aloud. "Anyway, she helped our friend get back, no wait, I think she double-crossed us too. Huh." She stopped again.

"So what you're saying is One-shoe had terrible friends?"

"Not exactly." Polly said, waving her hand, "They were more like dumb teenagers doing dumb teenager stuff."

"How old were they?"

"Uh, thirteen I think." Polly scratched her chin.

"But I'm thirteen!" He said suddenly, "Who would threaten to kill their friend's frog family? Why would they still be friends with someone who would do that?" He asked bewildered.

"Yeah, I'm kind of shocked how everything turned out." Polly said, staring at Troy, "How the frog did that happen?" She muttered to herself. Maybe Sprig was right about some things. Why on Earth would Anne have a kid with someone who did that? It might explain why she didn't talk about her frog family anymore, Polly thought. She closed her eyes and frowned. No, that was the old Sasha. She had changed and helped them in the end.

"It was one time." Grime argued. "Besides, you wouldn't have found out about King Andrias's plan if we hadn't tried to overthrow the monarchy."

"You what?!" Troy asked in surprise.

"No, no. He has a point. It was really shady at first but it turned out that our former King was crazy, knew about and possibly used the music box before, and wanted to invade Earth. It's a long story." Polly shrugged.

"I figured you weren't telling me some things but this is a lot!" Troy frowned at the two of them as he stood up.

"Kid, we've only known you for like a little over a week. I don't usually go telling my life story to strangers." Polly said weakly. "Well, part of it anyway. That was certainly the most exciting part."

"But it's relevant to me!" Troy said with an angry blush, "There could be part of your story that could help me find a way home and you've been hiding it!"

"Listen, I-" She said, trying to calm him down.

"That's all I've wanted to do but you won't tell me anything!"

"I didn't bring it up because the music box doesn't exist anymore. How could we send you back with something that doesn't exist?" She argued back.

"Well, what if your crazy king knows how to make another one?" Troy retorted. Polly froze as the thought struck her. She opened and closed her mouth before beginning to pace.

"A fine idea Lieutenant!" Grime said, clapping him on the shoulder as he stood up. "Newtopia did keep extensive records in their hidden archives."

"If they were smart they probably wouldn't have left their only records of how to make one with the Core alone." Polly thought quickly. "We might be able to find something useful in the ruins of the former castle."