AN: Welcome to the end of Arc 1 everyone!
I'm so excited to finally make it here, there is a lot that has been leading up to this and there were so many scene and parts that I happy to finally get down. But, I'm sure you've all been waiting to see what exactly would happen when everyone finally got to Andrias and we dealt with the events of True Colors, so I won't keep you guys up her any longer. I hope you enjoy, and I'll see you all down below.
Chapter 6: Off-Color
The flight to Newtopia was, for fairly obvious reasons, rather awkward.
Everyone had gotten up fairly early that day to pile onto Joe Sparrow and fly over to the capital for the big return home. Honestly, Sasha had never been sure why they had to go to Newtopia first for this. Sure, the king would obviously want to have an ancient powerful artifact kept in a safe place, but the Plantar's could have easily brought it to Newtopia for him after she and the girls used the box to go home, or he could have even sent some of his guards to retrieve it.
Before, Sasha hadn't really bothered to question why they didn't just head home immediately since it had worked into her planned coup, but now she was left to wonder that. It also made for a good distraction, which she needed right now since having to sit next to Anne after she left the Brunette hanging over her love confession the previous night made things soooo much more awkward than they ever had been, especially since she still had yet to tell her about what happened in the future. The amount of times that the two had been awkwardly staring at each other, or awkwardly refusing to look at the other, or awkwardly pausing when talking to or about the other had been far too much already and she really just wished that they were home and she could start working up the courage to tell Anne everything.
Thankfully, though, that awkward flight had come to an end. A rather watery end with Joe falling into the water outside of Newtopia, but Sasha felt that being a little drenched was worth the flight finally being over.
"OK, for Joe's sake, no one else is allowed to join our party." Marcy said as everyone began to get off of the giant and clearly exhausted Sparrow. "Seriously, I did not realize how bad carrying this many people was going to be for him; we're way later than I thought we'd be. It's almost like he already exhausted himself yesterday or something."
"Yeah, that is kind of weird; maybe he was getting some workouts in or something." Sasha suggested. At that comment, the bird shot the former cheerleader a dirty look, and she simply flashed him an awkward and apologetic smile before she turned her gaze to the gates and what she could see of the city behind them.
This was the first time she had the city herself before. The toads had provided some models and diagrams for planning the coup, and she had been to the floating palace in the future, but there was something about seeing the whole of the place in person that actually made it seem rather wonderful to Sasha. She wasn't sure if it was because of the design of the city itself, or the light from the sun that was just beginning to set, or perhaps even seeing the palace in the spot that it was supposed to be, or maybe all of those things put together, but she found the city to be rather beautiful. It was no wonder that Marcy spent so much time here.
"Woo, back to Newtopia." Marcy exclaimed as she ran up to the main gate, before turning back to face the group. "All right, let's go over the plan one more time."
Marcy's plan was that she would get them into the city, Anne would hand the music box over to Andreas, and Sasha and Grime would keep their hoods up until after Andreas got the music box, and Marcy would use how much the two helped in getting the strength gem powered up to convince Andreas to clear Sasha and Grime's names. It was a good…set of things they were planning to do. Sasha, however, would not really call it a plan. It barely counted as a scheme to her, let alone being an actual plan. Perhaps that was being a little judgmental, but given that the blonde had put together a trap for an entire town, planned out a coup, planned out a way to infiltrate a floating palace, found a strategy to fight her super-powered future self, and then found a way to engineer the end of her own coup attempt with none of the co-conspirators being suspicious, Sasha felt that at this point she was the group's authority on plans and could judge other plans all she wanted.
After everything I've been through over the past week, I have at least earned that much.
Of course, she wouldn't actually voice this judgment to her friend, but she would still think it.
As they walked through the gates and into the city, Sasha listened as the others all began talking about different things; Marcy about how she wished their adventure didn't have to end, Anne and Sprig about visiting each other after Anne went, and Polly about how much her butt itched.
…Guess they can't all be sentimental
Sasha, however, didn't have anything sentimental to say. She and Grime had said all that needed to be said last night, and even then, she knew that she would be coming back soon in order to help make sure things went smoothly with the other toads. Still though, as she walked through the city and listened to everyone talk about going home, Sasha couldn't help but feel a bit melancholic about the whole thing. Up until a week ago she had thought she would be staying in Amphibia and helping Grime rule the place. Even after she had decided to change, her every waking moment had been consumed with trying to stop the rebellion from happening. Now though, Sasha had no choice but to start contemplating how every single step through the city was a step closer to home.
"You OK?"
Sasha turned to look at Anne, confused over the Thai girls question.
"Yeah, why?"
"You look kind of nervous." Anne noted.
Sasha opened her mouth to express some sort of dismissal of Anne's concerns, but then she thought about what Anne had said.
Am I nervous?
The idea that she was nervous about gong home wasn't one that Sasha was all that comfortable with having. After all, she had helped the toads further subjugate the valley, kidnap all of Wartwood, try to execute Hop Pop and had a full-on sword fight with Anne, all with the justification that she was trying to get the three of them home. She knew, of course, that she had gone much too far to be justified in her actions, and a lot of those actions were also fueled by her desire for control, but even with that in mind it still made her stomach turn that the very goal she used to justify her earlier actions now actually made her nervous.
And yet…she couldn't help but think that Anne was right. A lot had happened in the half a year that they had been in Amphibia. She'd gone from letting her worst impulses run absolutely wild to realizing how screwed up she was and how much she needed to change. She'd found new people that she cared about, and who felt more like family to her than her actual parents. She'd seen and experienced things that, no matter how much she might deny it out loud, still haunted her nightmares and would likely continue to haunt her nightmares for years to come. How was she possibly going to adjust to her old life after all of this? What was it going to be like just going back to school after helping to run an army and plan a rebellion? What about seeing Anne's parents? She was going to have to apologise to them for how she treated Anne, assuming she and Anne's relationship survived Sasha telling her about the future. And of course, she knew from Future Marcy that her family was planning to move. Was that still going to happen after they got back? Was she about to lose one of her oldest friends?
And then there was her own family. What in the world was she supposed to tell them? What would be their reaction to her suddenly showing up after all this time? She was sure that Linda and Bradley were worried about her, and that thought sent a pang of guilt through her heart given that she had been prepared to stay in Amphibia and rule it instead of going home, but what about her Mom and Dad? Were they actually worried that she was gone? Did they care that their "mistake" wasn't around anymore? Despite everything, Sasha genuinely did miss her parents. But with how bad her relationship with both of them had gotten over the years, the idea that they might not have missed her, or been worried over her, started to creep into her mind. And it terrified her.
"I…I guess I am a little." Sasha said, finally responding to Anne's concern after a long pause. "It's been so long, and so much has happened, and…I guess there's a lot for me to be nervous about."
Sasha's eyes widened when she felt Anne's hand wrap around hers.
"It's OK to be nervous Sash." Anne said reassuringly. "And if you need help getting through anything, just let me know and I'll be right there with you."
Sasha fought to keep a very noticeable blush from consuming her face as she looked at the hand that was wrapped around hers. How she had ever been so lucky as to spend so many years together with a girl as wonderful as Anne was something Sasha would never understand.
"Thanks Anne."
The effect that Anne had on Sasha was rather amazing. Even something as simple as the brunette taking her hand and reassuring her was enough to calm the blonde's nerves.
At least, until they actually approached the throne room.
As they walked through the Palace's halls and approached the giant doorway leading into the throne room, Sasha couldn't help but remember the last time that she had been there. She couldn't help but remember what had happened in that room. Couldn't help but remember what she…what her future self had done. As she felt Anne give another reassuring squeeze to her hand, Sasha knew that her apprehension was once again visible.
It's OK Sasha, you just need to be in there for a few minutes, and then everyone's home free. You can do this.
The doors to the throne before them opened and the group walked inside. For the first time, Sasha saw the room as it was before Queen Sasha had taken over Amphibia. It looked more or less the same, but there were a few differences, mainly in the décor. There was more of a sea-animal theme to a lot of the room than Sasha's future self had, plus there were a few murals of Andrias himself, and of course, the Queen's banner was nowhere to be seen. The biggest difference though, was the throne was far bigger, an obvious necessity for the giant that sat on it in this time.
"My friends, wonderful to see you." Andrais said in a rather jovial tone as he stood up.
It was rather strange, Sasha thought, to finally meet King Andrias. To the blonde, he had always been "the King", a distant figure who ruled over the land and was either Grime's boss or the person they needed to overthrow. Seeing him in person, though, and hearing such a welcoming tone, he seemed far less distant. He seemed less like "the King" that she had been planning to overthrow and more like "Andrias", a friend of Marcy's she hadn't had the chance to meet yet.
When the group entered, Andrias was not the only person in the throne room. Several guards were also present, in addition to Lady Olivia, the Newt who had helped them escape Queen Sasha's dungeon.
"I trust you were successful." Andrias continued. Or at least, Sasha was pretty sure that's what he said.
The blonde couldn't help but look around the throne room, and as she did so, it seemed like everything around her was growing more distant, both the sights and the sounds. She thought she saw the glowing light of the music box as someone pulled it out, but she couldn't even be sure of that.
All she could be sure of was her own breathing getting heavier. All she could be certain of was a phantom pain appearing in her left eye. All she could be certain of was a flood of memories rushing back to A horrible scream tore through the throne room. A scream of pain and horror. A scream that came hey Anne.
The hammer had come down.
It had embedded itself maybe you're the floor of the throne room.
And Anne's left hand was underneath it.
Marcy's mouth had fallen open in shock and horror at what she was seeing.
Sasha, on the other hand, fell to her knees. From where the two of them were situated, it was a horrible sight. But Sasha also had to see what was done to Anne through the eyes of the person that swung that hammer. She saw up close as the hammer came down, and Anne was just able to get most of herself out of the way. She saw better off as the hammer came down and crushed Anne's hand. She could still see up close as the end of Anne's arm disappeared underneath the hammer.
And then the hammer was lifted, and she could truly see without me her future self had done.
In the small crater left in the floor by the hammer, was Anne's hand…no.
No, that's not right.
That thing still barely attached to Anne's armwasn'ta hand anymore.
Hey Anne? Maybe you're better off without me.
It was more like some kind of horrifically deformed parody of a hand. It was a pile of broken flesh and bruised skin. Shattered bones could be seen peeking out in spots. It sat in a pool of blood, a pool that was growing "Sash"?
Sasha turned to face Anne, shaking. She saw worry on her friend's face and felt the girl's hand holding her own tightly. Felt the girl's whole and unbroken hand holding hers tightly. Anne was worried for her…no, it was more than that. Anne was scared for her. And that, for some reason, was actually a comforting thought. Anne cared about her enough to be scared for Sasha when she was clearly not OK. She cared enough to be scared for Sasha when she was experiencing these weird flashbacks, that even the blonde couldn't pretend didn't mean anything anymore. And that reminded Sasha that she hadn't screwed things up with them yet. It reminded her that she wasn't in the future anymore. It reminded her that she hadn't become the Queen. It reminded her that she had changed things. And as those thoughts entered her mind, she stopped shaking, her breathing steadied itself, and that phantom pain left her eye.
"I'll be OK, I promise." Sasha whispered to the girl across from her, shooting her a reassuring smile as she squeezed Anne's hand back.
"And before you use the box" Marcy's words snapped Sasha and Anne's attention to the Taiwanese girl as she pointed to Grime and Sasha, the blonde only now realising that she was so distracted by her flashback that she missed the box being handed over to Andrias. "I want to introduce two people who made it possible for us to finish charging the box."
At hearing their cue, Sasha and Grime removed their hoods…only for the guards in the room to immediately point their spears at the wanted criminals.
"Oh come on guys, they're with me, cool it!" Marcy said in frustration.
The guards looked at each other quizzically for a moment before turning their gazes to Andrias, looking for direction from the king.
"Yes, obviously listen to Marcy on this." Andrias said, rolling his eyes in obvious irritation.
The guards shrugged their shoulders and lowered their spears.
"Now then, you are captain, well, Ex-captain Grime, right?" Andrias asked looking at the one-eyed toad.
"Yes." Grime said, very obviously irritated at having the fact that he was no longer a captain shoved into his face.
"And you're Sasha then?" Andrias said turning to the lieutenant. "Or has a fourth human showed up out of nowhere?"
"No fourth human, I am Sasha."
"Well, it's good to meet you, Marcy's talked a lot about you, both you and Anne really." Andrias noted before turning his attention back to Grime. "Now, as I recall we fired you for deserting your post and sent General Yunan to hunt you down."
"Yes, you did do that." Grime said, his one good eye twitching in irritation.
"And despite all of that, you go and help get the box charged. I'm starting to think I might have been a bit too harsh on you." The King said before turning back towards Olivia. "Olivia, send the word out that Grime has officially been pardoned and Yunan doesn't need to worry about hunting him down anymore."
"Of course, your majesty." Olivia said as Andrias turned his attention back to the group.
"Hope there's no hard feelings over this Grime, I'd hate to lose someone who just showed so much loyalty to the crown."
"Well, I did it more to help out Sasha than the crown." Grime said, folding his arms in irritation.
"What he means by that Andrias is-" before Marcy could give her attempt to excuse Grime's comment, a comment that Grime seems to have chosen the absolute worst time to make in Sasha's opinion, the King raised up a hand as a sign for her to stop.
"No need to worry Marcy." Andrias said. "I'm not going to take away his pardon over something like that." At that comment, Andrias let out a soft yet dark-sounding chuckle, causing everyone in the room to look at him worriedly. "Inside joke." Andrais said, dismissively.
At this point, Sasha wasn't really sure what to make of the giant Newt. He seemed fairly friendly and jovial, but he almost seemed to be deliberately pushing Grimes's buttons about losing his title and being made into a wanted criminal. And that weird "inside joke" of his, even the guards and Lady Olivia seemed to find it odd, and they would have known him far longer than anyone else in this room. At this point, his pardoning Grime without needing to be asked was the only thing that gave Sasha any confidence that her plan to get the toads more power and autonomy was still going to work.
"Well, with that all figured out," Anne began, breaking the silence that the room had fallen into, "guess it's time for you to send us home."
"In good time my dear." Andrais's response filled Sasha with dread...that she was going to have to stay in this stupid room even longer. People only said that type of thing when they were about to launch into some sort of big, prepared speech, the kind that would keep Sasha trapped in a stupid throne room that she never, ever wanted to be in again. The type of speech that would just further delay things and leave Sasha to further stew in her own nervousness about going home and telling Anne about what had happened. The thought crossed Sasha's mind of just interrupting the King, and telling him to send them home, but she didn't want to be rude to him as she frankly had no idea if doing so might hurt any standing with him that she would need for her plan with the toads. Plus, Grime had just gotten pardoned by him, and she really didn't want to risk him being temperamental enough to take that back.
"I'm going to let you all in on a little secret, there was a time when Newtopia was truly great." Andrias's face had a look like he was reminiscing on something, before his expression shifted to a more solemn one. "But that greatness was stolen from us."
…Wait, is he…is he talking about all that ancient technology lying around here?
"Centuries of prosperity brought to an end because of me." The giant continued, "I was weak, trusting those who said they were my friends, and because of that the music box was taken under my watch."
Every word that came out of Andrias's mouth made Sasha feel more and more like something was wrong. He wasn't just some King reminiscing on the good old days, and he wasn't even just revealing to everyone that there was more to Amphibia's history than they knew. It was like, there was more to him than they knew. Suddenly, a memory flashed in Sasha's mind.
"Oh, hey there's been something I've been meaning to tell you. It's a fun little thing I learned about that King you guys freaked out sooooo much about me overthrowing. Turn out he-"
As the memory of that sentence the Queen never got to finish went through her mind, Sasha wondered in horror about what she would have said had the blonde not interrupted her.
"It cost us everything, and after a thousand years no one even remembers our legacy." Andria's voice grew louder as his tone became more and more aggressive. "But now, at long last, the box is back, and with its power, Newtopia will be returned to glory."
Every word that came out of the King's mouth made Sasha feel more and more like she was stuck listening not to some jovial king that Marcy had befriended, but to her future self.
He…he can't be that bad, right? This...can't be going where I think it's going, right?
"Oh, well that's nice." Hop Pop said, failing to read the room and notice how uncomfortable Andrias's speech was making everyone else.
"Something's wrong here." Anne said, taking a step back from the King.
"For you see, my ancestors weren't frail explorers."
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, please no!
"They were glorious conquerors!" Andrias shouted these words in triumph.
Before anyone could even react, Andrias stepped on a plate in the room's floor, a plate that Sasha realised to her horror was where the podium that held the box in the future was located. Right on cue, the podium rose up as Andrias removed his foot from the plate.
"We have to get the box." Sasha shouted. Or rather, attempted to shout. She was so stunned by what was unfolding before her that her voice came out as little more than a shaky whisper.
Andrias placed the box on the podium before anyone could react, if anyone else even realized what he was doing, and the moment the box touched the podium that ancient power began to course through it, and the palace then began to shake.
No! No! No! NO!
As the windows began to shatter, Sasha realized exactly what was happening, even before she felt the palace shake even harder than before. She hadn't been there when this happened in the Queen's timeline, but Sasha understood that the palace was tearing itself from the ground and rising into the air.
It's…it's all happening again! I let it all happen again!
As those thoughts entered her mind, so did a sense of panic as she heard a familiar sound. The sound of frobot jet's. Before she had time to warn anyone about what was coming, a large squad of the mechanical soldiers flew into the room through the broken windows, surrounding everyone.
Sasha saw the various newt guards running out of the room, hearing one shout about how they weren't getting paid enough to deal with this insanity.
"I'm sorry Anne, but I'm afraid you and your friends can't go home just yet." Andrias said in a mocking tone. "Wouldn't want you telling anyone about the coming invasion."
"What?"
"Now that I have the box back, I can finish the work my ancestors started. From this castle, I will not only rule over this world, but all worlds." At that, Andrias let out a laugh, one so loud that coming from a giant like him, it almost shook the room.
And yet, its loudness still couldn't be compared to the shout that followed.
"You've got to be F !* kidding me!"
Everyone briefly turned to look at the utterly enraged Sasha. She may not have the cleanest of mouths, but even she tended to stay away from language that strong.
"Look kid," Andrais began, smirk on his face. "I know this whole is upsetting for you, but it really doesn't call for that sort of language."
He was…he was mocking her. He was talking about taking over her and her friends' world, invading their home…and he was mocking her for being upset about it.
"Do…do you think this is all some big joke?" Sasha said in a mix of anger and disbelief.
"On no, it's all very serious." Andrias said with a grim expression on his face, though one that quickly gave way to a very satisfied smile. "Though it is still pretty amusing."
He was a psychopath. There was no other way Sasha could describe it, the Queen was…the King was a psychopath.
"You can't think we'll ever let you get away with this!" Sasha shouted, her anger beginning to reach a boiling point.
"Sasha's right." Anne said, "We'll stop you."
"Stop me? I can see a demonstration of my power is in order." Andrias smirked as he began tapping on the music box in some sort of sequence. It seemed almost random to Sasha, there were no buttons on the box or anything, so it wasn't like the box could be used to control anything right? Except Andrias knew the box. He knew what it could do. Sasha realized that he was far more dangerous with the box than Queen Sasha could ever hope to be. "Behold."
A sound shot into the room from the windows to the left side. Everyone turned to see a blast of energy streaking through the sky, away from the palace…and towards the North toad tower.
"No!" Sasah and Grime shouted as they saw the energy hit the building and, in a flash of light, destroy it utterly.
Sasha had no idea how many toads were in there, or how many might have had the chance to leave it before the blast hit. There was no way that Aldo, decrepit as he was, could have possibly made it out. She had no idea if Beatrix and Buffo had gone back there before heading back to their own towers, and if they may have been caught up in the blast. And then, there was a part of her that remembered that the North tower was the last place she had seen Percy and Bradock. Sure, she knew that they had left and there was no reason for them to have returned to the North Tower, but remembering that they had been there and that it was the last place she had seen them, the more rational part of Sasha's brain could do nothing to stop the fear that even those two had been caught up in the blast.
"You-you-you sick freak!" Sasha snarled.
She wanted to kill him.
Sasha had never killed anyone in her life, but right now she wanted more than anything else to be able to take Andrias's life. The blonde glared at him, and she hoped that he understood exactly what she was feeling as he saw. She hoped that he felt fear.
But when his eyes briefly focused on her glare, it just seemed to make the smirk on his face grow even smugger.
"I don't believe this." Anne said, so quiet it was almost a surprise that Sasha heard her. "We were so focused on getting home, we couldn't see what was right in front of us.
"Focus Anne," Hop Pop said, getting in a fighting stance. "if we can get that music box away from him, maybe we'll stand a fighting chance."
"Right." With that last word from Anne, everyone pulled out the weapons they had. Sasha, of course, pulled out her two swords out of her scabbards, Grime took Barrel's Hammer off of his back, Anne pulled out her own sword, Sprig retrieved his slingshot from his pocket, and even Frobo activated his laser cannon.
At seeing this, Andrias snapped his finger, and the frobot army began to point their laser cannons at the group. They were surrounded, but Sasha knew these things didn't have the best aim, and could be fairly slow. Things might not look great, but they had a chance. They just had to move quickly.
But the person who moved first was the only member of their group not prepared for a fight.
"Stop!" Marcy desperately yelled, as she got between the group and Andrias before turning to face the King. "Andrias, this wasn't the plan. You said no one would get hurt."
Plan? "no one would get hurt"?
Sasha's hands gripped her swords so tightly that they began to hurt.
What. Did. You. Do?!
"I would've said anything if it meant you delivered the box to me fully charged." Andrais said, that smug smirk somehow finding a way to grow even more smug and condescending. "Hate to break it to you kiddo, but you've been duped."
"But…but…"
"Marmar, what's he talking about?" Anne asked.
"Yeah, what plan?" Sasha's question came out a growl, knowing that whatever answer was coming, it was one that she was going to absolutely despise.
"He promised he'd take us with him to the new worlds," Marcy said as she turned around to face everyone, almost like she was pleading with them to understand. "that-that we could have amazing adventures just like this one, forever and ever."
"HOW COULD YOU?!"
Sasha did not understand. She would not understand. All that she could understand, was that she was wrong last night. Marcy wasn't trying to make up for her mistake. Sasha didn't even think that she thought of bringing them here as a mistake.
"How could you do this to us?!" Sasha snarled as she began to approach Marcy.
"S-Sashy?" Marcy stuttered out, very clearly afraid. And why wouldn't she be? Sasha wasn't sure she had ever been this angry in her life, and she knew that anger would be obvious to everyone else in the room. Thinking on it, Sasha had seen that look of fear on Marcy once before, back when she first got to the future and Future Marcy first saw her, and thought that she was looking at Queen Sasha. The girl was as terrified of Sasha as she had been of the Queen.
And yet for some reason, Sasha couldn't find it in herself to care.
"Wow, you're mad." Andrias said with a chuckle, "But if you think that's bad, then-"
"Shut it you overgrown trash bag!" Sasha's shout actually seemed to catch Andrias off guard, a look of shock on his face before he rolled his eyes and took a step back from the confrontation.
"You seriously were going to keep us here!" Sasha said as she shifted her glare back to the Raven-haired girl. "You weren't going to let us go home!"
"I-Sasha it's not-It's not-"
"Not what Marcy?! "Not that bad"? "Not what I think"? As Sasha continued to approach Marcy, the other girl began stepping back, until she was backed up against a wall of frobots.
"And after what you did?! Here I thought you were trying to fix things, but you were just trying to break them even worse!"
"Fix?" Marcy asked; the terror on her face gave way to a small amount of confusion before her eyes widened in realization. "You…you couldn't…"
"Couldn't what Marcy?"
"Sasha that's enough." Anne said as she grabbed onto the blonde's shoulder and pulled her way. "I know that what Marcy did was messed up, but just give her a chance to explain. We don't even know that she going to force us to go with her."
"Why wouldn't she? She's already done it before." Sasha snapped.
"What are you talking about?" Anne asked.
Sasha's mind turned to what she had thought about last night. About how she wouldn't tell Anne about what Marcy knew. About how this wasn't her secret to tell, but Marcy's.
And then Sasha realized that she had found another thing she didn't care about anymore.
"She knew what the box would do!"
"What?" Anne said, a look of disbelief crossing her face, "No that can't be." Yet, as she turned to look at Marcy, another look came across Anne's face. Marcy's face wasn't one of shock or confusion or anything else that would indicate that the girl had no idea what Sasha was talking about. Rather it was a look of horror, the kind of look that one might have on their face if a terrible secret of their had just been let out into the world. At seeing that, the look on Anne's face changed from disbelief to a disappointed and shocked acceptance.
"I…I did it for us." Marcy said, in a shaky voice.
If there was any doubt left in Anne's mind over what Marcy did, Sasha was certain that that finally ended it.
"Oh of course you did!" Sasha said as she wrenched herself out of Anne's grip, her voice filled with venomous sarcasm. "Of course you did it for us! That's why refused to say anything to us for HALF A YEAR!"
Sasha once again approached Marcy, her gaze filled with disgust and hatred for the girl.
"And, of course, that's why you teamed up with a wannabe dictator!" Sasha emphasized her point by pointing towards Andrias with her sword. Marcy flinched as the weapon came near her face. Once again, Sasha didn't care. "For us!" Sasha pulled her weapon back so that it was by her side. If this made Marcy any more relaxed, the girl certainly didn't show it. "And not because you were upset that your parents were making you move!"
For however scared Marcy looked, one could tell that the girl was also very confused as to how Sasha could have possibly known so much. Looking at her face, it almost seemed like her confusion made her even more scared.
Good.
"I cannot believe you would do this! All you had to do to fix this was get us home!" Sasha poked Marcy in the chest with far more force than necessary to get her anger across. "But no, that was too much for you!" Another poke. "Here I am running myself ragged trying to sort out my stupid rebellion, but here you are-"
"What rebellion?"
Anne's words all but turned Sasha into a statue. All feeling in her seemed to drain out. Not just in terms of her emotions leaving, but in terms of sight and sound and her other senses as well. There was nothing inside of Sasha and there was no world around her either. It was like she was nothing but a void floating inside of another void. And in that void, a single thought screamed through her mind.
I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I…I didn't…
As quickly as the feeling drained out of her, it all returned. The throne room came back into view, the sounds of the world returned, and wave after wave of conflicting emotions rushed through her. But the most prominent of those emotions was fear.
This is…this is just another nightmare. I'm-I'm going to suddenly find myself at the top of the tower, and-and some giant version of Queen Sasha will be there, and I-I'll scream, I'll wake up and-and everything will be fine again.
But as Sasha turned around to face Anne, to face the person who had seconds ago all but shattered her entire world, Sasha was faced with the horrifying truth. She couldn't wake up. She was already awake.
"Sasha, what do you mean "sorting out your rebellion"?" Anne asked, a serious look on her face.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. She wasn't supposed to find out like this. I was supposed to-we were supposed to be home, I-I could tell her everything, I could prepare!
"I…" Sasha didn't know what was wrong with her. She kept trying to think of something to say, trying to remember one of the many ways she had run through in her head about what she'd tell Anne when they got home, but it was like none of them could stay in her mind long enough for her to actually say them. Though it wasn't like she couldn't communicate at all. The guilty look on her face certainly told quite a few things to Anne.
"You…you were trying to plan some sort of rebellion…and you were going to use us for it." Sasha could see the gears turning in Anne's head as the honorary Plantar turned over the events of the last few days in her head. "That's why you suddenly showed up at the third temple; you were just trying to use us as a way to get in here, weren't you?"
"I…I…" As Anne's accusations hit home, Sasha found her breathing became rapid and deep, preventing her from explaining anything to Anne. Worse, Sasha realized that she had no way to get it under control. All she could do was keep drawing in these deep breaths far quicker than she should be. It was then that Sasha realized something; she was hyperventilating. It was odd, really. Both the feeling of hyperventilating and the feeling of knowing that she was hyperventilating. She wasn't supposed to be hyperventilating. She was Sasha Waybright. She was someone who took every challenge before her head-on, who had no fears, and who was determined to push through any obstacles in her way. She wasn't supposed to be hyperventilating. And yet…she was. She was hyperventilating because she was terrified. So terrified that she couldn't control her breathing and could barely even think.
This can't…this isn't…why is this…
As Sasha collapsed onto the floor, it seemed again like the world around her was disappearing into a void, but there wasn't a void inside of her this time. No, this time she could still feel every ounce of fear inside of her, all while the void loomed around her. It seemed like she would soon be consumed by that void, and left with nothing but the feeling of terror and her uncontrolled breathing to keep her company.
Hey Anne? Maybe you're better off-
And then a loud, uproarious laugh broke through that void and brought Sasha back to reality.
Everyone looked to the throne, to see the laughing figure of Andrias.
"Oh wow, I-I really don't there are any words that could possibly describe just how cathartic the last 10 minutes of my life have been."
"You…you really are treating this like it's all some big joke." Anne said as the glared at the King.
"Oh Anne, let's be serious for a moment. The real joke is that you trusted those two." The giant replied.
Anne's gaze shifted down to Sasha, still on the floor, who then turned her own face away. The blonde couldn't handle seeing Anne's face, not after everything that just happened.
"The three of us may have made some mistakes," Anne's voice was serious and determined…but Sasha couldn't help but notice that there wasn't any anger in it. At least, none directed at her or Marcy. "But you? You're evil"
"Here we go." Sasha could practically hear the eyeroll in Andrias's voice.
"And I'm going to stop you," The sound of a sword being pulled from its scabbard filled the room. "Right here, right now."
"Sasha?" The blonde had continued to avert her eyes away form Anne, looking down on the floor. Not daring to look at the girl she had once again hurt. At least, until she heard that question from her, and saw Anne's hand had reached down in front of her. Only then did the lieutenant look upwards towards Anne again. On Anne's face she saw a look of concern. Concern for her, or concern over trusting her, Sasha didn't know. But she did know that she saw a willingness to trust her on Anne's face.
Sasha had no idea why Anne would be willing to trust her. After everything, she had no reason to. No reason to believe that Sasha was actually trying to do good this time. That she was trying to be better. And yet, Anne was willing to trust her. Then again, did Sasha need to know right now why Anne was trusting her? No, she really didn't. What mattered was that Anne did trust her. What mattered was that when Sasha was drowning in an ocean of fear, someone finally threw her a life preserver. What mattered wasn't why they threw it to her; what mattered was that they did and that Sasha did everything to keep it.
Sasha took the hand offered to her, and she could suddenly remember how to control her breathing again.
"I've got your back." Sasha said, looking Anne in the eyes, hoping that she could communicate to her just how much Anne being willing to trust her one last time meant to her.
"And I've got yours." Grime said as he came up from behind Sasha.
Once again, everyone was ready to fight. Though unlike last time, even Marcy seemed ready to join the battle, aiming her wrist-mounted cross-bow at the army of frobots surrounding them.
"We're with you Anne." Sprig said, saying aloud what all of them were feeling. "Till the end."
"You guys are serious." Andrias said, sounding far more like he was amused by them than threatened. "OK." The giant pulled out an object from his belt that looked like the hilt of a sword. As he pressed a button on the object, it soon became clear that it was the hilt of a sword, a sword made of what seemed to be energy or controlled fire. As the blade lit up, the giant got into a battle stance. "Let's have some fun."
Sasha was the first to move, springing forward towards a pair of frobots and slashing the arm cannon off one with her rubanium sword before stabbing its metal chest with her steel sword. As the other frobot fired its laser cannon from behind her, Sasha placed both of her feet on the metal chest of the frobot in front of her and pushed off of it with all of her might, freeing her sword and sending her leaping through the air, just in time for the laser to miss her completely and finish destroying the frobot she used as an impromptu launch pad. The second frobot tried to take aim at her again, only to find that the blonde moved first, throwing her rubanium sword so that it pierced the automaton through its face, shutting the thing down and causing it to begin falling backwards. As Sasha descended, she could see that behind the now eliminated second frobot was a third that was taking aim at her. Sasha twisted herself through the air to just barely avoid its laser blast while also spinning fast enough that as she landed, her steel sword cut through the thing's chest and caused it to explode. As Sasha finally landed on the ground, the second frobot finally finished falling, in the perfect position for Sasha to grab her other sword that was still stuck in Its face.
Sasha worse a proud smirk as she went to slice up another frobot. She had taken down dozens of these things at this point. She knew what their weapons were, she knew how easy they could be to trick, she understood the range and arcs of their blasts, and she knew how fragile their armor could actually be. At this point, fighting these things was almost too easy for her.
Though, just because she had the most experience among the group in fighting these things, didn't mean the others weren't pulling their weight in the fight.
Sasah saw as Anne slashed apart a frobot in front of her, before rolling backwards to dodge the attack of a frobot behind her, and then spinning around to slice off it's legs, causing it to collapse and deactivate. She saw Grime smashing frobots with Barrel's hammer, and using it's jets to bounce across to one further away in order to break it apart with the jet-propelled hammer strike. As a pair of frobots next to the one that Grime took down flew into the air to try and gain an aerial advantage, Sasah saw them fall to a pair of well-aimed crossbow bolts from Marcy.
Even Hop Pop, as old as he may be, got in on the action by landing a punch that managed to knock a frobot over. His hand was clearly in excruciating pain after that, but at least he was trying. Sprig was certainly doing a lot better, as Sasha saw several frobots lasers backfiring after being covered in mud from his slingshot, which was either destroying limbs of the frobots or the frobots themselves, and as for Polly…
"BWAHAHAHA, I AM THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION!"
…she was having the time of her life, flying on Frobo's back as the robot used its own laser canons and laser eyes to destroy the frobots under Andrias's control. Frobo alone seemed to be taking out more of the frobots than the rest of their group combined.
"That is so cool!" Sprig said as he watched his baby sister and her robot friend flying around, before turning to look at the other two members of his family. "And it's totally something we're going to regret her learning about later."
"Definitely." Anne said bluntly.
"Oh my, yes." Hop Pop said matter-of-factly.
Frankly, the fight was going far better than Sasha thought that it had any right to. 5 minutes ago, they were a disjointed mess, with secrets being unveiled and trust being broken. Now, they were taking down Andrias's army. Really, the only thing that was worrying to Sasha was the thought the giant himself joining the fight. With his size, his knowledge of Amphibia's ancient technology and his access to advanced weaponry, he could very well prove to be far too big of a challenge for them to take down. But, the fact that he hadn't started fighting himself yet raised Sasha's hopes. Perhaps that fire sword, and his comment about "having fun" were nothing more than bluster. Perhaps the giant newt was really just a paper tiger.
That hope was dashed only seconds later.
As Frobo flew through the air, Polly directed it towards Andrias. Frobo fired its laser canon and eye beams at Andrias, but he just simply dodged the blasts with far more grace than Sasha would ever expect from anyone of Andrias's size. Frighteningly, he almost seemed bored while dodging the attack. Sasha could swear that she had even seen him roll his eye when Frobo started firing on him. And as Frobo flew past the King, he swung his sword made of flames and cut Frobo in half at the waist while still in mid-air.
"Polly!" Anne, Sprig and Hop Pop all screamed in unified horror as the polliwog fell, clinging to the top half of the destroyed frobot. Polly herself screamed in terror as she fell. By some bit of luck, Frobo's top half was still functional enough that it could reignite its jet enough to slow Polly's fall, but the impact was still hard enough that she was sent bouncing along the ground, the impact also causing Frobo's head to disconnect from what remained of its upper torso.
Polly managed to use her arms to pick herself up and looked over at the remains of her robotic friend.
"Frobo…" The little girl whispered out, sounding on the verge of tears.
"Aww, did your little friend get broken?" A mocking question came from the king as he approached the young polliwog, his fist raised in the air. "Well don't worry, you won't be sad for much longer."
To the horror of everyone in the room, the king brought his fist down on Polly. Everyone seemed to try to move to try and save her, but Andrias's fist was far too fast. None of them even made it a step before his fist made a crater in the throne room's floor. As Andrias removed his fist from the crater, Sasha braced herself to see a scene that resembled what her future self had done to Anne's hand, all while a familiar pain started to appear in her eye. Except, when Andrias's hand was removed from the crater, there was nothing there. No body, no pile of goop, not even blood. The pain in Sasha's eye dissipated and her apprehension and fear gave way to confusion.
"What the-?" Andrias asked aloud, seemingly just as confused as everyone else in the room.
"Over here you big bozo!" The room turned to look where that voice came from, the cloud of dust kicked up from Andrias's attack dispersing enough for them to see Polly, standing on her newly grown legs.
"My little baby's got legs!" Hop Pop shouted with the kind of proud glee only a grandparent can express.
Obviously, Polly's legs had given the polliwog the opportunity to run from Andrias's attack, which meant that she was very fast, far faster than Sasha would have thought. Which meant, she would be the perfect one of them to go get the music box. It's like Hop Pop had said earlier, that would be their best chance to get an advantage over Andrias, depriving him of his means to power his factories or the palace. But Sasha couldn't yell to Polly to get the box. The only thing holding the Palace up was the box, and if it was removed, the whole place could come down, and who knows who would get hurt if a palace just suddenly crashed into the ground? Who knows who could die if that happened?
Still, there had to be some way they could turn the tide against him, maybe they could figure out how he was using the box to control things? Or maybe they could…
Maybe she could…
No, I-I can't do that!
The idea that popped into Sasha's head in that moment was an absolutely awful one. It was a memory of something that Future Marcy had told her, and that Sasha had mentioned to Grime. It was how Queen Sasha got her power back from the box.
I…I just can't.
Gaining back that power from the box and activating it would certainly let them beat Andrias, there was no doubt about that in Sasha's mind but…
…I can't become more like her.
The single thing that had been driving Sasha these last few days had been the hope that she could avert the future she saw. That she could keep herself from becoming that monster she saw in the future. Yet so much of the future had already come to pass despite her doing everything in her power to stop it. The only solace Sasha had was that she was keeping herself from becoming like the Queen. Even if Andrias was just taking Queen Sasha's place in the future, Sasha could at least be assured that she was moving further and further away from being her future self. And yet, in this moment, the only idea she had for how to stop all of this, for how to beat Andrias and save the day, was to become more like the Queen.
This can't be right. This-this can't be the only way to stop him.
Yet Sasha's mind couldn't think of any other solution.
No, no, this is exactly what I always did. Whenever the idea to do something terrible came up, I'd always, always, justify it like that, that there was nothing else I could do, that it was the only way, or the best way. I…I've changed. I can't…I can't keep thinking like that, I…
"Enough!"
That shout from the King knocked Sasha out of her thoughts just as Andrias plunged his sword into the floor, sending a wave of energy forward that knocked everyone down, while the frobots used their jets to fly above the energy and avoid it, before landing back on the ground with their weapons pointed at everyone.
Sasah looked behind the row of frobots, behind the giant King, and at the pedestal with the box sitting on top of it.
Sasha then briefly looked around at all the people surrounding her, who could very well die now that the battle had started to turn against them.
And then she thought of those last words that Future Anne had said to her.
"I guess…I guess you made me believe that somewhere inside you…that little girl who wanted to help people no matter how bad the odds are is still in there."
Future Anne had, after everything, made one last choice to put her faith in Sasha. That she wouldn't turn out like the Queen. And yet…
…I'm so sorry.
"Cover me!" Sasha yelled at, as she sprang forward, swords drawn as she made a dash towards the box.
Behind her, everyone seemed to realize that she was going for the box, even if they didn't realize what she intended to do with it. Very quickly, frobots started falling around her as everyone else sprang into action, the robots falling to Anne's sword, Grime's hammer, Marcy's crossbow and even Sprigs slingshot. For her part, Sasha practically turned into a whirlwind with her blades as she sliced through any frobot in front of her, dodging their laser blasts all the while, continuing to make her fights with these metalic soldiers look easy.
But of course, there was a far less easy fight before her.
Andrias's giant form loomed in front of her, his sword ready in one hand, and his other free and ready to swipe at or punch Sasha. As Sasha continued her charge forward, she looked into the giant's eye's and glared at him, challenging him. Andrias only smirked in response. She positioned her swords to be ready to swing at Andrias as she took her next step forward, the force she placed into that step, combined with her challenging glare, made it clear that she intended to leap at the King. Andrias, for his part, saw exactly what she was doing and began swinging his sword, aiming for just above where Sasha was, intending to hit exactly where she was going to be.
He fell for it!
As Andrias's sword began its swing, and Sasha's foot was coming down, she leaned downwards so that when her foot pushed off the ground, she shot forward rather than upwards. Andrias's eyes widened in surprise at realizing Sasha's feint, the blonde now turning her leap forward into a roll, her momentum carrying her under his legs and behind him. Andrias tried to swing at her with his tail, but Sasha had anticipated that this would be his response and was jumping over the tail the second it started to swing. As she landed on the ground again, she bolted to the pedestal.
"The box! No!" Andrias shouted as he moved after her.
While Andrias may be far quicker and more graceful than Sasha had anticipated, his size still ensured that he was quite a bit slower than Sasha and so she made it to the box first, sheathing her swords as she approached it.
She placed her over the pink gem, the one tied to her ready to make what she knew would be the biggest mistake of her life…and nothing happened.
No, no, no, no!
Nothing continued to happen as Sasha looked at the box, never feeling any sort of energy flowing into her, or seeing it's colour drain, or any other sign that would suggest that the power had returned back to her. And then she remembered how Future Marcy had theorized that it was great emotional stress that allowed their powers to activate. As such, Sasha theorized that maybe she needed to feel that stress in order for the power to come back to her as well.
Briefly glancing backwards, Sasha saw Andrias rushing towards her, and she heard the rest of the group screaming at her to get the box, seemingly not having realized the consequences of the palace falling. Sasha looked back to the box, a determined look on her face, and began to remember…
She remembered the things that haunted her.
In an instant she flew down to the newts, the hammer now glowing pink itself like its wielder, and Sasha watched as her future self slammed it down right on top of a newt.
She remembered the things the things thar terrified her
"Please don't kill Me!"
She remembered the things that hurt her.
"I'm pretty sure I would happier with my life if I never saw you again!"
She remembered how she hurt others.
"Why couldn't you just listen to me?!"
She remembered the feeling of falling.
"Hey Anne? Maybe you're better off without me."
She remembered her nightmares
"I don't want to be like this anymore."
"Now we both know that's impossible, don't we?"
"NO!" Sasha screamed as she pushed the box away from her.
The palace lurched as it began its descent, its power source removed. The movement caused Sasha to fall over, the girl so distracted from her memories that she barely realized what she had done. On the ground, Sasha briefly wondered why exactly her cheeks felt wet, and then immediately realized she had no time to wonder that. She needed to get the box. She tried to scramble to her feet, but before she could properly get up, a giant hand wrapped itself around her, and the former cheerleader saw as that hand plucked the box from the ground.
Andrias placed the box back onto its pedestal, halting the palace's descent, before bringing Sasha up to his face. Neither noticed that the light of the pink gem seemed to flicker for a moment.
"Really? That's the best you could do? Hold onto the box for a few seconds and hope something happens?" Andrias actually seemed disappointed in Sasah. "Seriously, Marcy said you're supposed to be smart. Or were supposed to be smart."
The giant moved his thumb over the diminutive Sasha's head and then began to lower it.
As the appendage came down, for a brief moment, the blonde saw Queen Sasha rather than King Andrais.
"Ahhhhh!"
To Sasha's surprise, that was not her scream of terror or pain, but a battle cry of someone else. She swivelled her head to see Marcy and Anne charging at Andrias, their weapons drawn. The giant's thumb moved away from Sasha's head as he dodged out of the way of a pair of crossbow bolts that Marcy fired, at him, before he spun around in order to knock both Marcy and Anne away with his tail, far too ready for the two humans to make their attempt to stop him. However, when he turned back to face the rest of the group, he was not ready to see a toad flying at him with a jet-powered hammer.
"RAGGHHHH!" Grime yelled as she swung the hammer, striking Andrias directly in his chest.
The giant let out a grunt of pain as he staggered backwards, so taken aback by the strike that he let go Sasha, the girl dropping to the ground. And yet, despite the direct hit, Andrais was far from beaten. He quickly found his footing and used his hand to swipe at Grime, still falling from his aerial attack, hitting the old toad and sending him streaking towards the ground. The impact from hitting the floor caused a small crater to form around Grime, who could only groan in pain.
"Girme!" Sasha called as she dashed over to the crater that held her friend.
"SASHA! BEHIND YOU!" The blonde wasn't certain if that scream came from Marcy or Anne, but what she was certain of was that it made her turn her head back to see what was so worrying. Her eyes widened in terror as she saw Andrias, his sword stabbing toward her.
Sasha felt the world around her slow down. The sword coming at her, her own bodies movements as it ran, and even the screams from Anne and Marcy, all seemed like they had been slowed down. It almost didn't seem real to Sasha, and she briefly wondered if this really was just another nightmare, if any second now she'd wake up just as she was about to die as so often happened. She wondered if, after that sword stabbed through her, maybe the nightmares would finally end? Or perhaps she would be trapped in them, living out her own nightmares for the rest of time. A final hell of her own making.
And then she felt a hand pushing her. Sasha briefly found herself in the air, the strength from the push so great that it sent her flying for a second before she fell over onto the ground, time finally moving at its proper pace again. As Sasha looked back, she saw exactly who had pushed her.
Sasha looked on in horror as she saw Grime, his right arm still outstretched from pushing her away, with Andrias's sword sticking through his chest, front to back.
"Sa…sha…" Grime was trying to say something, one last thing, but whether it was from the damage to his chest or from his body going into some kind of shock, he just couldn't get any sort of words out.
Sasha wanted to say something back, tell him to conserve his energy, or that they would get him out of there, or even ask why he would throw his life away for her like that. She wanted to say something like that, but she couldn't. The words ran through her mind, but her body simply wasn't responding to the command to say something.
And then, that outstretched hand went limp, along with the body attached to it.
"Grime…" Sasha whispered out, her mouth finally able to start following her brains commands again, but only when she Grime would never be able to hear her again.
Sasha didn't want to believe what she saw, tears beginning to well up in the Blonde's eyes. She was devastated at the sight of his limp body, and even then, devastated might not be strong enough a word. And how could it? Grime had been more of a parent to her these last few months than her parents had been in what seemed like forever. Devastated was the only word that Sasha knew of to describe what she felt, but she also knew the word wasn't strong enough.
He's gone…Why? Why is he gone? He's not supposed to be gone.
Grime was dead. They were in a room surrounded by enemies. Their only hope hadn't worked. And Grime was dead.
Strength…what a joke. I'm not strong. I'm not strong enough to protect anyone.
Sasha closed her eyes, unable to look at the image of Grime impaled on that sword any longer. But that very image simply flashed through her mind instead of her eyes.
I'm not strong enough to keep the people I love from dying.
Again and again, that same image.
I'm worthless. I'm useless.
It felt as though she would see that image for the rest of eternity.
"Hm, didn't quite get who I was aiming for." Andrias said as he pulled his sword out of Grimes's chest, the body falling to the ground as the giant turned to Sasha. "But I can take another stab at that."
But as the newt spoke, Sasha's focus shifted from her own pain and despair to him.
You…you did this!
Her eyes began to narrow at the newt.
You stopped us from going home!
The devastation she felt gave way to anger and fury.
You killed Grime!
The blonde's whole body began to shake from the rage that had taken hold of her, a rage so all-consuming that she couldn't even make out what anyone else was saying anymore.
You'll pay!
Those words continued to echo through her head, again and again, drowning out all noise in the room, and any other thoughts in her head.
You'll pay!
A pink glow consumed Sasha's irises.
You'll pay!
Once again, the pink gem on the box flickered, before a stream of pink energy came out of it and moved towards the blond.
You'll pay!
The pink glow surrounded Sasha.
You'll pay!
A sensation began to take hold of her.
You'll pay!
A feeling of pure power poured into her every muscle.
"You'll pay!"
A feeling of pure strength.
"You'll pay!"
Sasha looked at the thing that enraged her so.
"YOU'LL PAY!"
Sasha flew towards the creature in front of her, landing a punch on its face. Before, the most their strongest attack could do was stagger this creature a little. But now, Sasha's strike did far more than that. The flesh on the monster's face rippled from the impact, and a tooth came loose from its jaw. That strike was strong enough that the creature was not merely staggered by the impact, but sent flying through the air until it collided with a wall, cracking it. Part of the thing's armour was cracked from the collision, and the crown it wore on its head shattered apart. Sasha couldn't help but enjoy the look of shock and terror on the thing's face.
As she flew forward for another strike, a swarm of metal insects appeared in front of her, their weapons at the ready. She paid them no mind, flying so fast past them that the energy she left behind in her wake destroyed them without her having to waste time touching them.
The thing she hated just barely ducked before her fist could hit it. The timely dodge instead caused her fist to hit the same wall the creature had crashed into. The impact of the monster's collision made a small crater in the wall. The impact from Sasha's fist destroyed the wall completely.
The creature moved further into the room and pulled out its sword, taking a swing at the girl. Sasha struck out at the weapon with the back of her hand, the force of her strike being so great that it sent the sword flying out of the creature's hand. It looked at Sasha in terror before she launched herself at it again. The monster lifted its arm and made some sort of energy shield that Sasha collided with, blocking her path to the thing.
But she kept pushing herself forward, putting all her might into shattering the barrier so she could get at that thing.
She would not rest until it had paid, until it was dead.
The thing roared at her in defiance.
She roared back in furry.
Finally, the barrier broke under the strain of Sasha's power, and her strike landed, sending the creature careening backwards until it smashed into its own throne.
Sasha landed on the ground next to the pedestal with the box, not far from the creature. The thing attempted to stand amidst the rubble that was once its a throne, its armour broken, its flesh bruised and cut, its blood on the floor, and wires sticking out of its wounds.
"You'll pay!"
Sasah began to walk towards the thing, fear in its eyes. The fear that showed the thing was certain it was about to die. Sasha enjoyed seeing that look on its face, too.
"You'll…You'll…"
Suddenly, Sasha lost that feeling of strength. That feeling of power poured out of her muscles. That sensation left her as she collapsed onto the ground
She let out a groan of pure exhaustion. She barely understood what had just happened. Somehow it managed to both feel like a blur in her memory and as though every detail was burned into her mind at the same time.
"Ha, ha, looks like she can't control it." Sasha recognized the voice as being Andrias's, but she could barley summon the energy to open her eyes, let alone look to see what he was doing.
"Sasha!"
The blond certainly did have enough energy to open her eyes for that voice, though.
"Anne?" Sasha whispered as she opened her eyes.
The Thai girl had run over to the blonde, the Plantar's in tow, and leaned down to try and help the former cheerlead upper.
"Are you OK dude?" Anne asked.
"I…I think so." Sasah said, still trying to come to terms with exactly what she just did.
"I have to admit," The voice of King Andrias broke into their conversation and drew Anne and Sasha's attention away from each other. "Somehow you've still got the gift kid." As the giant spoke, a pair of frobots floated over to him and handed him the sword that Sasha had knocked away. "Which means I can't let you live."
Andrias pulled back his sword, ready to strike at the group before those very frobots that had returned his sword exploded right next to him as they were hit by a pair of crossbow bolts.
"Argh!" Andrias yelled in rage as he lifted his arm up to shield himself from the blast.
"Brace yourselves!" Sprig yelled as he pulled out his slingshot and fired a rock at the nearby box.
Sasha and the others had only a second to understand what he meant as the rock knocked the music box off the pedestal, and the palace once again lurched from the loss of its power source. As the rocking of the palace threw Andrias off balance and sent him staggering backwards, Anne and the Hop Pop used the moment's distraction to get Sasha back to her feet and helped her run over to a window where Marcy was waiting, with Joe Sparrow hovering outside.
"Come on guys!" Marcy yelled as the group went to make their escape.
As they got to the window, Sprig and Hop Pop hopped into Joe's saddle first and then turned around to help up Polly, who was carrying Frobo's head with her. That just left Sasha, Anne and Marcy to get into the saddle. Except…
"We can't go yet." Sasha said as she turned back to the center of the room.
"What are you talking about?" Anne asked utterly confused. At least she was until she looked to where Sasha was looking. "Sash…" Anne started, but she trailed off, seemingly unsure of what she should.
"I can't leave him." Sasha declared as she reached her hand out in the direction of Grime's body.
"Sasha…" Marcy began. "He's…"
Marcy stopped her sentence as the palace stopped falling once again. The footsteps of a giant could be heard rushing towards them.
"We have to go, now!" The Taiwanese girl shouted as she moved to pull Sasha back to the window, Anne joining her.
"No! No, I can't leave him!" Sasha yelled as the two girls pulled the exhausted blond out of the window and into the bird's saddle.
"Grime!" Sasha yelled, reaching out to his body one last time even as Joe Sparrow began to fly away.
Even as the bird flew further and further away, Sasha held her arm out, reaching for the toad's body, for minutes before she finally let her arm drop.
She thought she heard someone ask her something, but she didn't care enough to listen to the words or even try to sort out whose voice that had been.
Instead, her mind was focused on how it had all happened again.
The palace was in the sky.
The robot army was ready to stamp out any resistance.
A tyrant ruled over Amphibia with the power of the box.
Grime was dead.
And Sasha had taken those damned powers again. And taking them back hadn't even amounted to anything! She hadn't been able to use them to stop Andrias. All she did was…all she did was become more like Queen Sasha.
I failed.
The future can't change.
I can't change.
And as she sat there, curled up into herself and crying her eyes out, a familiar pain appeared in her eye, and a very familiar phrase echoed again and again through her mind.
Hey Anne? Maybe you're better off without me.
I am actually pretty proud about how this chapter turned out. I can't take all of the credit, of course, True Colors provided a pretty damn good base for me to work off of after all, but still, I think I did a pretty good job with this chapter.
It was so nice to finally write the confrontation with Marcy and Sasha, accidentally letting slip about the Rebellion, and Sasha just being completely at the end of her rope and then getting her powers; it's been a long time coming for all of those. I also ended up redrafting the scenes of Grimes death and Sasha attacking Andrias to really make sure that they felt right (honestly, when I looking over my initial draft of this chapter I suuuuper disappointed with how I wrote those scenes, the current version are way better)
Now, I will note that the original idea for this chapter was a fair bit different, and it's definitely caused some big changes with the rest of the story. First, when I was originally writing TBAtP, I could never decide if I wanted to go back to earth or stay in Amphibia once the sequel got to True Colors, but I finally decided on keeping things on Amphibia since I think it provides the more interesting setting.
The next change came after the last chapter of TBAtP had been written. I was originally going to stick much closer to True Colors in general in this chapter, including having Andrias drop someone out of the palace to trigger a calamity transformation (he would have dropped Anne, which would have triggered Sasha's powers while Marcy saves Anne like she does Sprig in canon) and Marcy was going to get the stab treatment as per usual. I was never fully satisfied with this though, and then Fei_Canaym made a comment on the last chapter of the AO3 version of TBAtP theorizing that Grime would get killed by Andrais, and I started struggling to decide if I wanted to go that route, especially since so many people seemed to like that Marcy had a very prominent roll in what was officially a Sashanne fic. Ultimately, the thing that made me realize that I couldn't have the Marcy stabbing was that it would make no sense for Anne's own powers to not trigger if Marcy was stabbed in front of her. In canon, they had already been activated by Sprig falling and I have to imagine that if that didn't happen and Andrias still stabbed Marcy that that would activate her powers instead. As such, I had decided to go with the Grime getting stabbed route. Now, does this mean that Grime might be revealed to have survived latter like Marcy? And will this mean that we won't get Darcy in the future? Now, those are questions that you'll have to wait for answers to.
The last big change came courtesy of a very recent comment on the last chapter of the AO3 version of this fic from Raptor16m. Originally, I was just going to have her go for the box and not have any angst about taking the same power as Queen Sasha, but reading Raptor's comment made me realize that she should be angsting over that, especially with how I've been writing her. As such, I altered my plans for how she was going to decide to go for the box, and took a fair bit of inspiration from Raptor's comment for the part about her pushing the box away. This is definitely something that is going to cause some changes for what I have planned out in the future, but I definitely think it will be for the better.
Now with that all said, it might be a while before you see another chapter. I need to sit down and outline how the whole next arc is going to play out, and then consider any effects that might have on what I already have planned for future arcs, and I'm going to be honest, I have this first arc mostly planned out in my head already so it's definitely going to take some time to plan out the new one. But I am going to be working on it, and I will try to make sure that I have chapter 7 ready to go fairly soon (hopefully it won't be another 8 month break like between chapters 3 and 4).
And as always, I appreciate any feedback you guys have, and I'll see you next time for Arc 2: Broken.