AN: It's always funny when I sit down to write what I think is going to be a chapter that's on the shorter end, and then it ends up being the longest in the fic so far (seriously, this has happened like, 3 or 4 times between this and TBAtP)
Anyways, told you I'd get this one out faster then the last, though it would have been even faster if it hadn't been for some other distractions (though thankfully those distraction weren't stress in the job and personal life, and were instead reading through the entire comic history of my new favorite X-Man and playing the new Gundam Breaker game).
And with all of the out of the way, I'll see you all down below.
Chapter 5: Band of Rebels
"So, what song should we play at the battle?" Marcy asked her question aloud, slumped over her drum set as the three girls recovered from a giggle fit during their practice session.
Sasha was beginning to think that maybe this wasn't that terrible an idea after all. The three of them had only been warming up so far, but already Sasha had had more fun than she'd had at all in the past several days. Then again, that wasn't a particularly high bar to clear as she hadn't had any fun in the past several days. Still, that shouldn't take away from the joy that she was feeling right now. It was nice that she could finally enjoy herself again with her and Grime having finally come up with a plan to stop the rebellion. Heck, she wasn't even snapping at Marcy like she had been since she got back, even though she still hadn't sorted out how she felt about the girl knowingly bringing them here.
"We should definitely play my song, Heart Stomper; it was always a hit back home." Sasha said, answering Marcy's question. While what Sasha said about the song was absolutely true, there was another reason she suggested it: it was the song that the girls knew the best, meaning they wouldn't have to spend much time practicing it. They could go through the song a few times together, see that they all totally still have it, and then Sasha could make some excuse to leave early to go fly to Beatrix and Bufo's camp, convince them to stop the rebellion, and then fly back in time to perform. They had 12 hours before the battle would start, and they already learned that they would be going last, so Sasha was certain that she could do all of this with plenty of time to spare. It was perfect really.
"Ooh, I'm into that." Marcy said before turning her head to Anne, "Anne?"
Anne, however, didn't respond right away. The girl actually had an apprehensive look on her face. Instantly, Sasha's good mood disappeared and was replaced with a near panic.
Did I screw something up? What's wrong? She loved that song right? Did she actually hate it and only go along with it because I pressured her to?
As various similar thoughts raced through Sasha's mind, Marcy once again prompted Anne for a response.
"Actually," Anne said as she began rubbing her arm nervously, "I wrote a song about Amphibia and I was hoping that we could play it together."
"You didn't tell me you were writing a song." Marcy said, enthusiasm evident in her face and voice, "Let's do it!" And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the enthusiasm left the raven-haired girl's face and voice. "I mean, if that's OK with you, Sasha."
Sasha could feel her right eye twitching in frustration. This was not supposed to be happening. They were supposed to do one of the songs that they already knew and could rehearse quickly. They were not supposed to play something new. They were not supposed to play something that would take time to learn and get right, time that Sasha did not have. She had way too far to fly that day to start learning and practicing a new song.
There was only one thing that Sasha could do here. She would have to say no.
Sure, this was something that Anne clearly wanted to do a lot, the look on her face and how nervous she was to bring up the idea told Sasha that, but she really couldn't do this today. She'd already put herself on a time crunch because she didn't want to disappoint Anne, she couldn't put herself on an even tighter one for the same reason. She'd just have to tell Anne that they were sticking to something they already knew, and that they could just do it some other time, which may or may never happen. Just one of the many tricks in her bag that she used whenever she wanted to get her way over something that Anne or Marcy really wanted to do…
…Frog damn it.
"Sure Anne, that sounds like a great idea." Sasha said, hearing how forced the enthusiasm in her voice was.
"You sure?" Anne questioned.
Why have I gotten so much worse at lying and deception?
"Totally sure, Anne."
Totally sure that if I mess things up that it is completely my fault for something that was totally avoidable.
The trio ran through the song Anne had written, and to Sasha's surprise, it was actually really good. A part of her had actually been hoping that it wasn't so there would be an excuse to go back to playing Heart Stomper, but Anne's song was actually really amazing. It was easy to tell how much work the girl had put into the thing, and how much of herself she'd put into it as well. While Sasha figured Anne writing a bad song was a long shot, she'd assumed that the song would just be fairly average, not this good. Sasha briefly wondered how she'd never known that Anne had a talent like this, but her own mind quickly answered that question as memories of all the times that she took charge of any sort of project she and Anne worked on together flashed through her brain.
Still though, however good the song might be, it was still a new song. And that meant that the girls weren't used to playing it yet. And so they needed to practice it again. And again. And again. And Again. And Agai-
"Sasha is something wrong?" Anne asked, sounding a little worried.
"Huh? No, of course not." Sasha's response to Anne's question was unfortunately tinged with frustration from the new delay of them stopping their practice session just to ask Sasha what was wrong. That, of course, meant that Sasha's response was completely unbelievable.
"Well, you're very clearly frustrated about something, it's been written all over your face since we started practicing my song." Anne said, annoyance showing in her own voice.
"Plus you're messing up way more than normal." Marcy added. "Usually it's me or Anne that messes up on a new song, not you."
"That's because I usually write our songs, so of course I don't screw up on them as often." Sasha replied dismissively.
"You also screw up less often when we're covering other bands' songs." Marcy countered.
"Whatever." The Blonde said, not even bothering to try and hide her frustration at this point. "Let's just get back to practicing the song."
"Sasha, do you not like my song?" Anne asked.
"What? No, that's not it." Sasha said hurriedly.
"Then what is the problem!?" Anne asked in frustrated exasperation. "Something is clearly bothering you. You're scowling, you got your face all scrunched up like you're annoyed at something, and Marcy is completely right that you're the one of who messes up the least on new songs, but the last 5 times we've run through It's No Big Deal you've either been getting the chords wrong or falling out of synch with Marcy and me."
"And those 5 times aren't the only times that you've gotten stuff wrong while playing today." Marcy noted.
"Exactly." Anne said. "It's so clear that something wrong, why won't you just tell us?"
"Nothing's wrong, I just need more practice." Sasha said forcefully. "So let's just get back to playing the stupid song so we can be ready for tonight."
"So you do think it's stupid?" Anne asked, very annoyed.
"That's not what I meant!"
"Uh, guys?"
The three girls turned to the corner of the room where Polly and Frobo were standing. The two had been down there with the girls as they were supposed to help with the special effects for the performance. Now, however, they were just witnessing the practice session devolve into an argument.
"If it's cool with you guys," the pollywig began, "me and Frobo are going to take a bit of break upstairs, I mean we've been down here for two hours already and things are getting pretty tense-"
"We've been down here two hours!?" Sasha exclaimed. With her mind split between practicing the new song and her frustrations over practicing it instead of just doing one of their old songs, Sasha had somehow let herself lose track of time.
"I've got to go." Sasha said hurriedly as she took off her guitar and set it down on Anne's bed.
"What?!" Anne and Marcy both exclaimed as the former cheerleader rushed up the stairs.
"I promise I'll be back in time for the show." Sasha called out as she exited the basement, not bothering to wait for a reply from the other two girls.
Argh, I would have been better off if I'd just listened to Grime and not tried to do this stupid battle of the bands! Now, both of them are upset with me for how I acted in practice, and they're going to be upset with me for ditching them!
Sasha quickly made her way to the snail pen where Joe Sparrow was staying while Marcy was in Wartwood, only to find the giant bird missing. After a second of panic, however, Sasha began running again. Last night, she and Grime had discussed that there was a clearing in the forest near Wartwood that would be the best spot to take off from with as few people as possible from noticing. Sasha hoped that Grime had already grabbed the giant bird and was waiting for her so they could take off as soon as she was done.
And as Sasha entered that clearing, she found that, for the first time in several days, her hope had been rewarded.
"There you are." Said a very annoyed Grime standing next to the giant bird. "You're-"
"Yeah, I'm Late, I know." Sasha said as she wasted no time jumping on the bird. "I also know it was a terrible idea to try and go do band practice this morning, and that you were totally right. So can you just get the "I told you so" over with so we can get going?"
"Well, uh" Grime began as he climbed on to the bird. "It seems like you already know that you should have listened to me, so we can probably skip the "I told you so" and just start flying."
At those words, Sasha took hold of the reigns, and Joe Sparrow took to the air.
"But I did tell you so."
"Arrgh!"
Anne let out an unintelligible grunt of rage as kicked her bed in frustration. It had been half an hour since Sasha had run out on her and Marcy, and after a few moments of stunned silence that she would just ditch them with no explanation like that while they were having their argument, she and Marcy had followed after her. Or rather, they had tried to follow after her, but the blonde had enough of a head start on them that they hadn't been able to find her despite spending all this time searching.
Now, all that was left for them to do was return to the basement and for Anne to take out her frustrations on her poor, innocent bed.
"I cannot believe she just ditched us like that!" Anne said as she kicked her bed again.
"After refusing to be honest about what the heck is bothering her!" Another kick.
"Argh!" with yet another yell of frustration, Anne kicked her bed one last time before the physical and emotional exhaustion of the morning finally caught up to her as her shoulders slumped forward and she ran out of breath.
"You uh, feel any better now?" Marcy asked awkwardly.
Anne let out a noncommittal groan as she let herself fall forward onto her bed face first.
Anne felt her bed dip slightly, her head turning to confirm that the dip was from Marcy sitting down next to her.
"You want to talk about it?" Marcy asked.
Anne let out a sigh before turning over onto her back, her view fixated on some random spot on the ceiling above her.
"I really thought things were getting better with Sasha." Anne said aloud, all of the frustration, anger and annoyance that had been in her voice earlier gone, replaced with a melancholic tone. "I really thought she was starting to be OK with opening up to me again."
"I mean, it's not like her being closed off and not talking about what's bothering her is new." Marcy offered.
"I know," Anne began as she sat up on the bed. "But after that night in the forest it…it really felt like she was starting to change. Like she was OK with trusting us and letting us in again. Like she was OK with trusting and letting me in."
Anne felt Marcy's hand land on her shoulder, an attempt from her oldest friend to help comfort her.
"I always hated how she just shut us out from any problems she was having after her parent's divorce got really bad. I wanted to be there to help her. I still want to be there to help her. But she won't even bother talking to us about this stuff, and it's just so frustrating. I was actually kind of happy when she started opening up to me a couple of nights ago, but it's like ever since then, she's started shutting us out even more, and it's pretty clear that whatever happening is bothering her worse than her parent's divorce ever did."
"Well, maybe it's something she can't share with us." Marcy suggested.
"Huh? We've been friends with her since we were 7, what couldn't she share with us?" Anne asked as she turned to the black-haired friend.
"Well…I don't actually know." Marcy said, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. "But, you know, maybe it's a…really delicate topic or…something like that. Maybe it's something she just…doesn't feel that she can share."
"I guess that kind of makes sense…" I said pouting. "But even then, if it's bothering her this much, it's probably something that she needs to talk about. Trust me, I've seen it happen enough here that not talking to someone about your problems, leads to making really stupid and reckless choices that end up hurting people."
For a split second, Anne could have sworn that a guilt-ridden expression came across Marcy's face before the girl turned to face a different direction.
"Well, I guess we won't really know until she does decide to tell us." Marcy said, her face still turned from Anne. "And you know, maybe sometimes we just have to be there for her when she does decide to talk to us."
"…Are you OK Marcy?" Anne asked, a bit worried over how her friend was suddenly so unwilling to look at her.
"Yeah totally." Marcy said as she turned to look at Anne again, a smile on her face that almost seemed forced. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You just…don't seem totally OK." Anne said, still a bit skeptical of her friend. "You kind of seem like you're bothered by something, too."
"Nah," Marcy said dismissively. "It's just that uh…you know, all that talk about people doing something "stupid and reckless" brought up some not-so-great memories of stuff I saw in Newtopian before you and the Plantars got there. It's not a big deal"
"Do you want to talk about it?" Anne asked.
"Nah, I'm good." Marcy said as she got up and walked towards her drum kit. "Anyways, let's get back to practicing. Sash said she's going to be back in time for the contest, right? Better make sure we're in top shape for that."
A part of Anne wanted to press Marcy further on what was bothering her if just those memories she mentioned could cause such a pained expression to come on her face. But the other part of her remembered the girl's words about how sometimes you just need to be there for someone when they're ready to talk to you, and decided against pressing any further.
"Yeah, let's make sure we're good enough that we blow Sasha away when she gets back!"
As Joe Sparrow landed on the ground, Sasha began to worry. It had taken them hours to fly to where they knew Beatrix and Bufo were gathering their forces, and the sun was already beginning to set. The chances of them getting back to Wartwood in time for her to make the show were close to 0, and getting closer by the second.
As the Blonde and Grime began to dismount from the bird, she started to admonish herself for being more worried about disappointing Anne then actually talking to Beatrix and Bufo and getting them to agree to stop the rebellion. That was what she needed to be focused on right now, not how she was once again going to let down and disappoint Anne because Sasha Waybright was the worst friend to ever-
No, no, I do not have time for those thoughts right now!
Sasha and Grime ran into the woods that the toads were using to hide their camps for the night. Luckily the tree cover wasn't particularly great, meaning that the two could see from the air that it could keep air a noticeably larger tent usually saved for Captains to use while out on missions, meaning that they knew exactly which way they needed to head.
As they approached the small clearing where they could see a camp with the very tent that they were looking for, a pair of toad guards stepped forward from the edge of the clearing and into their path.
"Halt, who goes there?" The taller of the two guards asked.
"Captain Grime and Lieutenant Sasha, we need to see Captain Beatrix and Captain Bufo urgently." Grime answered.
The two guards looked at them suspiciously.
"And how do we know you're who you say you are?" the taller guard asked, his eyes narrowing at the pair. "You could just be some other toad and hu-uh…hu-something pretending to be them."
"Are…are you being serious right now?" Sasha asked in a combination of fury and disbelief at this. "You're asking if we're- How many other humans and one-eyed toads that hang out together, do you know?!"
"Th-that doesn't prove anything." The shorter of the two guards said, backing up every so slightly at Sasha's outburst.
Grime let out a frustrated sigh.
"Look, just go grab one of the captains and they can verify we're who we say we are." The old toad said.
"Well…maybe I don't want to." The taller guard said, "Not without getting an apology for how rude your friend just was."
"A-apologize? You want me to apologize to you?!" Sasha was absolutely infuriated over this. This moron was delaying them because he somehow believed that the only human/toad pair that could be found on this whole planet wasn't who they said they were when they were telling him that they were the only human/toad pair on the planet. "You listen here you little-"
"Grimothy? Is that you?"
The arguing group all turned their heads to look further into the camp to see Beatrix walking towards them, a plate of food in her hands.
"It is you," The West Tower Lord began, "what are you and Sasha doing out here?"
"Wait, this actually is Sasha and Grimie?" the taller guard asked.
"Yes, obviously." Beatrix said before a confused look came over her face. "Wait, did you think this wasn't them?"
"Well, I mean, uh" The talelr guard stammered, "You know, it was possible that they could have been imposters."
"Imposters?" Beatrix asked incredulously, "Who would be impersonating them? How would they impersonate them? Do you know any other humas's and one-eyed toads that hang out together?"
"I told him he was being ridiculous." The smaller guard lied.
"No you didn't!" The taller one said.
Beatrix let out an annoyed groan as she face-palmed. Out of the corner of her eye, Sasha could see Grime shooting his sister a sympathetic look.
"OK, you two," Beatrix said as she pointed to the guards, "can go let Jermethy and Nikklia know that they are covering your posts, and then you can spend the rest of the night on dish duty."
Both guards let out disappointed "awws" as they moved into the camp to carry out their captains orders. As they did so, Beatrix turned to back to Grime and Sasha.
"So, like I was saying, what are you two doing out here?"
"We have some urgent news to share with you." Grime answered.
"You didn't do something to screw this all up did you?" Beatrix said, her eyes narrowing at her brother.
Grime opened his mouth to let out what Sasha knew would be some angry retort, and so she put her hands over his mouth to forcefully close it and not let him ruin things.
"We didn't do anything Beatrix." Sasha said, "But we do have something very urgent to tell you and Bufo."
"Huh, well you guys timed this perfectly then, Bufo just arrived from his camp for us to go over some last-minute details about our troop movement before we head out tomorrow." Beatrix turned around and began to walk into the camp. "Follow me to the planning tent." She then pointed over to her left. "Oh, and foods over that way if you want to grab something before we get into whatever you came to tell us."
"We're not hungry." Sasha said as she began to follow Beatirx, grabbing Grime by his cape to pull him away from the food that he had begun taking steps towards.
As they walked towards the tent, Sasha felt a sense of relief wash over her. Not only was the only trouble they had due to the idiocy that seemed way too common amongst the toad army's rank and file, but the trouble was resolved quickly and they found out that both of the toads they needed to talk to were in this very camp. Everything was going surprisingly smoothly so far.
And yet, despite how well this had gone, Sasha had a small feeling of dread. Things lately did not go smoothly for her, or if they did, they go smoothly for long. As well as this was all going so far, there was a part of Sasha's mind that was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The three entered the tent to find Bufo sitting with his own plate of food at a table covered in a map that showed Newtopia and the surrounding area.
"Grime, Sasha, what are you two doing here?" He questioned as the other three moved to take seats at the table.
"Apparently they have some sort of urgent news for us." Beatrix said, picking up what looked like a deep-fried scorpion leg.
"We do." Grime said, his tone blunt. "To cut right to the chase, Andrias knows about the rebellion."
Both Bufo and Beatrix's eyes widened, and jaws dropped in shock. For several seconds, the only sound in the room came from the scorpion's leg slipping out of Beatrix's hand and onto the table.
"I-I'm sorry, what?" Beatrix asked, shock and anger mixing in her voice. "How is that possible?!"
"We're not totally sure how he found out." Sasha said, "We just know that he did."
"And how did you find that out?" Bufo asked, sounding both curious and suspicious.
"You know those other humans that are here?"
"Yeah," Beatrix responded, "They know the king and you were going to use them to get close enough to him to take him hostage. What about them?"
"Well, one of them, Marcy, is really close to the king." Sasha began. "I was passing by the window of the place she's staying at right now when I heard her talking with the other human that's here. Marcy was giving her a heads up about Newtopia being dangerous, and that they've gotten some information about a toad uprising that's supposed to be marching on the capital. Apparently, they're trying to keep the information confidential so that no one freaks and we don't catch on to it; she even mentioned that they've been quietly moving more of the military into the city in preparation and have even been recalling some of the Night Guard from other missions."
Sasha suppressed a smirk as she looked at the table. Beatrix had her head in her hands while letting out an annoyed groan, and Bufo had his elbows on the table, and his hands were overlapping each other while they were held in front of his mouth. They were taking this seriously. They were buying it.
"Great, so he knows what we're planning." Beatrix complained aloud. "Now what do we do?"
"A good question," Bufo replied. "We could abandon the rebellion entirely and hope that when Andrias doesn't see any toad army marching on the capital, he dismissed it all as some rumours that got out of hand and not something worth looking further into, or…"
"Or we skip the subterfuge and launch a direct attack on the city." Beatrix said, completing the other lord's sentence.
"Actually, there is a third option." Grime interjected.
"Really? And what would that be Grimothy?" Beatrix asked, her eyebrow raised in curiosity.
"Sasha's the one who came up with it, so I'll leave the explanation to her." Grime said as he gestured to the blonde, a hint of pride in his voice.
"Thanks, Grimsey." Sasha said with a smile before turning to face the other two toads in the tent, her face morphing into a more serious expression. "The third option only works thanks to one key detail: They don't know who's part of the rebellion."
"Really?" Beatrix asked.
"The information they had said nothing about that?" Bufo said, sounding confused.
"No, apparently not." Sasha answered shaking her head. "They know a bit about the plans for the rebellion, but most of the finer details never got to them. Heck, the only reason that they haven't locked up Grime and me yet as part of this whole thing is cause they think we've been hiding out in the woods this whole time and haven't even had contact with any of you."
"Alright then, how does this give us a third option?" Beatrix asked.
"Easy," Sasha replied, a small smirk appearing on her face, "We pretend to be "oh so loyal" subjects of the crown, who have found out that some toad is planning a rebellion and foolishly thought that we would betray the crown and join him."
"Pin it all on a fall guy. Huh?" Bufo said, seeming more like he was talking to himself. "That's…certainly an interesting plan."
"But who would be taking the fall?" Beatrix questioned. "I'm not exactly going to volunteer someone from my part of the army, and I don't think Bufo or Aldo would do so either."
"Oh don't worry, I picked someone no one is going to care about." Sasha said, as she rested her hands behind her head and put her feet up on the table, a confidence she hadn't felt in days surging through her whole being.
I've got 'em.
"The toad who will be taking the fall is Bog."
"The guy who got Grimothy's job? I guess that could work, it would mean me, Beatrix and Aldo won't have to give up our own men." Bufo stated.
"You think that they'll buy that he was behind this?" Beatrix asked, sounding less confident that Bog would be a good fall guy.
"Absolutely." Sasha said, standing up with a confident smirk on her face. "He was acting as some kind of bandit lord when they made him a Tower Lord, so he was already up to some sketchy stuff. Plus, it does not sound like they did any kind of background check on him when they promoted him." Sasha began walking towards the other side of the table where Beatrix and Bufo sat. "And he also convinced pretty much everyone from the South Tower to abandon Grime and what was left of their post to go be bandits with him."
As Sasha came up behind the two toads, she placed her hand on their shoulders and leaned her head down between them before continuing.
"So, with us providing such a glowing assessment of his character and telling the King about how Bog's offer had him at the center of the post-rebellion government, what do you think Andrias will think about Bog?"
"Well…" Beatrix began, "He'll probably think that Bog is someone with enough charisma to get some toads together to form a rebellion, isn't particularly happy to live under the king, and might even be someone who's interested in climbing the ladder as high as he can now that he's gotten a taste of power with no one above him from his time leading those bandits." The one-eyed toad grinned. "Guess he would be believable as the ringleader after all."
"Obviously, I wouldn't have suggested him otherwise." Sasha said, standing back up. "So, sounds like you guys are pretty convinced on this."
"Well hang on there," Bufo interjected, "we haven't actually decided that we're going with that option yet. You've given us a third, and it's certainly a good one, but there's only one option that will actually change things and get us out from under the King."
"He's right Sasha." Beatrix said, nodding in agreement. "While your plan's good at keeping us out of danger, it's not going to get us any kind of change. Launching an attack on Newtopia would."
"I can't believe you guys still doubt me." Sasha crossed her arms, that confident smirk still on her face. "Obviously my plan worked something in for that as well."
"Oh really? And how do you plan to change a system that has been in place since early into Andrias's millennia-long reign?" Bufo asked in rather evident disbelief.
Sasha hoped her smirk still showed confidence rather than any form of condescension. It was clear that Bufo was less trustful of her than Beatrix, and might even have some suspicions about all of this suddenly happening, but he clearly didn't have the same mind for scheming that she did. Otherwise, he would know that if this were a trick, she wouldn't come here without having all of the answers.
"We can change it because of the very person I overheard talking earlier." Sasha explained. "That other human works very closely with Andrais and has pretty much singlehandedly restructured the city. She absolutely has his ear, and I've known her long enough to know exactly how to convince her to convince Andrias to give you guys a lot more political power and autonomy, especially since you'll now be heroes who stopped a rebellion rather than betray your king."
"But we wouldn't quite get everything then." Bufo pointed out.
It took quite a lot of Sasha's willpower to not let her confident mask slip at that.
"No, but you would get quite a bit without having to risk the rebellion failing." Sasha countered.
"You certainly present an interesting option Sasha…" Beatrix said. That Beatrix was considering the plan more than Bufo was an absolute positive. Even if he still had reservations about this, convincing Beatrix would probably be all they needed. Aldo was too far away for them to consult, and it was pretty clear that when he wasn't around, Beatrix had the most authority of the Tower Lords. Convincing her might not be enough to fully convince Bufo, but Sasha did not believe he would actually go against Beatrix if she called the rebellion off, especially since his chances of winning a rebellion with just his forces was essentially 0.
Still, she did have one last point to push to both of them, thanks to Grime.
"Before you two make your decisions on this." Sasha said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. "There's something you should see."
"What is that thing?" Beatrix asked.
"This is a phone," Sasha explained as she set the phone down on the table. "It's a bit of technology from my world; it lets you take pictures of things instantly."
Both Beatrix and Bufo looked over at the phone's screen. As they did so, Sasha quickly glanced at Grime. He had said that this was Sasha's presentation, but she was still somewhat surprised by how quiet he had been so far. From the glance, however, she could see that he was smiling. In fact, he looked proud. Proud of how well Sasha was handling this. The confident smirk she had been wearing throughout this meeting morphed into a smile filled with warmth. Sasha herself felt proud to have made Grime proud. That smile, however, quickly morphed back into a smirk when she heard Bufo and Beatrix's reaction to what was on her phone screen.
"What is that?" Beatrix asked, sounding both nervous and utterly confused.
"That is the other news that me and Grime had for you." Sasha said as she tapped on the phone's screen. "They're calling it a frobot."
The picture on the phone's screen was a simple picture taken yesterday of Frobo. It took a fair bit of begging for Polly to let them take the photos they needed of the robot, but it was quite clearly worth it based on the faces the two lords were making.
"These frobots are apparently some sort of new weaponry they're planning to start shipping out to the armies in the next few weeks." Sasha swiped on her phone screen to move onto a picture of Frobo firing its laser eyes. "It comes with a lot of new built-in weaponry." She swiped two more times, pausing after each to let Beatrix and Bufo observe pictures showing Frobo's laser arm cannon and net cannon. "Oh, and they can fly." Sasha swiped again, now revealing a picture of Frobo hovering in the air with his jetpack.
The picture did not show it too far off the ground. Polly apparently was not willing to let it do more than hover a couple of feet in the air after the last time it used its jetpacks, but that was enough for Sasha to grab this picture.
"I-I don't understand." Beatrix said, still utterly confused. "How did they-what are these things?"
"They're a sort of metal frog, I guess you could say." Sasha began her answer. "They're able to move on their own and have these limited artificial minds."
"Metal soldiers…" Bufo whispered, his voice filled with despair. "And they can just make them? And they're making more of them."
"Um-hm." Sasha replied. "Apparently they've got a small factory set up for making them. It's not exactly being mass-produced, but they'll be able to make enough for every division of the army to have a couple."
Sasha didn't have that much knowledge on where the Frobots had come from, other than a mention of the future Marcy had made about some factories. Much to her disappointment, Polly didn't know where Frobo came from either, with her only able to say that Anne and Sprig had come across some kind of factory out by the Ruins of Despair, which might have been where Frobo came from. While Sasha would have liked to have had a photo of this factory to back their story up, she didn't want to have to borrow Joe Sparrow two days in a row as Marcy might start getting suspicious, and it was too far away to make it by snail and back without raising questions about where they were going for so long two days in a row.
Thankfully, as Sasha looked upon the two toad Captains absorbing the information, she was very certain that they didn't need proof of this factory to believe her.
"Are these…things going to be at Newtopia?" Beatrix asked.
"Marcy had mentioned that they were stationing some in the city to me before, and with what I overheard her say about them moving in more of the military to prepare for the rebellion, I'd assume there's even more in the city now."
Beatrix quietly contemplated Sasha's answer, while Bufo looked like he was in despair over it.
"…An attack on the capital would be impossible now, wouldn't it?" Bufo asked aloud, turning to Beatrix.
"Unfortunately, you're right." Beatrix responded. "Honestly, at this point, I'm not even sure the original plan would have worked with those things in the city."
"Well then, it's a good thing you have another option, right?" Sasha knew what the two would respond with. There was only one thing that they could respond with at this point.
"Yeah, I think this new plan you've come up with is our best option." Beatrix said.
"It's our only option really." Bufo added bitterly.
"Perfect." Sasha picked up her phone as she continued talk. "I'm heading back to my world tomorrow, but I'll be back soon. I'll start laying the groundwork with Marcy for bringing a proposal to Andrias about giving you guys more power and start drawing up some fake letters from Bog to pin this all on him. I'll need you two to head back to your towers and go about normal business, but make sure that Bog thinks that we've just delayed things so that he's still set up for a rebellion when Newtopia acts on the fake info we give them."
"Gotta say Grimothy," Beatrix said as she turned to her brother, "you might have found the best second in command possible. Seriously, she's smart enough to be in charge of you."
"Funnily enough, I would agree with you." Grime said as he stood up from his chair. "That should conclude our matters here, so if you don't mind, me and Sasha need to get back to Wartwood before any suspicions get raised."
The pair said their goodbyes to Bufo and Beatrix before leaving the tent and walking out of the camp, past the two replacement guards. Once they were out of sight of the campsite, Sasha felt Grime give her a light slap on the back.
"You were amazing back there!" Grime's voice was filled with nothing but absolute pride. "Seriously, you handled that perfectly! I've never seen anyone dominate a conversation with my sister like that."
"Thanks Grime." Sasha said, as she rubbed the back of her head bashfully. "I'm honestly surprised by how easy that went. Feels like, for the last while, something about whatever plan I come up with goes stupidly wrong."
"Well it went perfectly this time, that I can assure you."
There was a part of Sasha that had a very difficult time believing Grimes words. She wasn't exaggerating when she said that it seemed like plans kept blowing up in her face lately, from her disguise in future Wartwood falling off, to the infiltration of the palace resulting in her and future Marcy getting caught, to Queen Sasha destroying the weapons that were keeping her distracted from her fight with future Anne, to any of the plans to stop the rebellion she came up with before this once, to even her attempt to try and make nice with the Plantars. Over the last several days, things going right had felt like an impossibility to Sasha and yet now they…now…
…Wait what time is it?
Sasha looked up and realized that it was dusk. Their band was supposed to be on in only a couple of hours.
"Grime, we've got to go, or we'll be late!" Sasah began running back to where they had landed Joe Sparrow.
"Can't help but feel like you are panicking more about this then the whole 'stopping the future' thing."
"I am not." Sasha said as she climbed atop the giant bird.
"Sasha you almost put the plan in jeopardy by practicing with Anne this morning." Grime said as he took the seat behind Sasha. "Seriously, I get that you're head over heels in love, but you need to make sure you've got your priorities straight."
"Whatever, can you shut-up so I can get us in the air." Sasha pulled on the reigns and Joe flew into the sky.
Sasha looked to the horizon again. They had so little time to get back for the battle of the bands. They were going to miss the opening acts for sure, but they at least had a chance to get there in time for her, Anne and Marcy's performance.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
Oh, who am I kidding? We are not going close to fast enough to make it in time!
Sasha whipped the reigns on Joe Sparrow to try and get him to move faster.
He started flying a bit faster...
…But still not fast enough!
Sasha whipped the reigns again. This time, Joe did not speed up, but instead turned his head around and gave her a dirty look. Sasha shot him a dirty look right back, before the sparrow turned his head forward again.
Sasha again whipped the reigns, but Joe still continued to fly at the same speed.
"C'mon you stupid bird, you need to fly faster, now!"
Instead of listening to her, the giant sparrow seemed to actually start slowing down a little.
"Why is this stupid thing going so much slower?!" Sasha asked, her frustrations boiling over.
"You know I'm not sure," Griem began. "I mean, you're treating him like I treated the toads at the tower before you came along, and we both remember what a model of efficiency and morale that was."
Sasha turned her head around and shot a scowl at the smugly grinning toad.
"I really don't need the sarcasm right now."
Sasha turned her head back around and took a deep breath to calm herself, before leaning down closer to Joe's head.
"I'm sorry about what I said before." Sasha said in a gentle voice. "You're not stupid, you're awesome and a super great flyer, maybe the best flyer around. Can you please try to get us to Wartwood in time so I don't screw up Marcy and Anne's performance?"
The bird let out a call as it began to speed up. Yet as it did so, Sasha couldn't help but grimace.
We're still not moving fast enough, we're going to be soooo late. Ugh, there's got to be something I can use to convince this thing to move faster. Think Sasha, think! Is there some kind of food it likes? Maybe worms. I really wished I'd paid more attention to this thing back in Wartwood. All I really know about it is that spends a lot of time around the Plantar's snail…
A grin appeared on Sasha's face as she leaned down to talk to the bird again.
"You know, I bet if you could fly fast enough to get us back to Wartwood in time, the Plantar's snail would be super impressed."
The birds eye's briefly widened at that, before narrowing into a look of determination as he began to flap his wings harder and faster.
Perfect.
The moon was high in the sky as the giant bird approached Wartwood, and Sasha was beyond amazed at how fast he flew. The now clearly exhausted bird was still flying as hard as he possibly could after cutting their return time down by well over an hour. With any luck, Sasha figured that they'd make it back at least a few minutes before their band was supposed to start playing.
But as they approached the town, Sasha could hear the song of the band currently performing in the contest. And it was a very familiar song.
"Now I'm stuck, got no plans, just my luck, I'll do the best that I can"
It was Anne's song. She and Marcy were already playing. She was late!
No, no, so long as I can at least get there for the guitar solo, I can still join them. I will not let them down.
"Joes, can you please, please move faster." Sasha desperately called out to the bird.
Perhaps moved by the desperation in Sasha's voice, Joe flapped his wings even faster. Very quickly, they approached behind the stage of the battle of the bands, just as Anne and Marcy were hitting the chorus.
"It's no big deal; yeah, no big deal."
As Joe descended to land, Sasha jumped from his back before he actually hit the ground and took off running so fast that her hair tie fell off, her ponytail coming undone without her even noticing.
"Find a way to start again, brush off the dirt and make some friends."
The blond climbed up the short staircase to the backstage area and whipped her head around, looking for her guitar.
"It's no big deal; yeah, no big deal."
She found it all ready to go, like the girls actually had faith in her that she would make it in time.
"I feel at home in a place that shouldn't be real, crazy strange but it's no big deal."
Sasha bolted onto the stage, just in time for her to launch into her guitar solo. One that she performed perfectly.
Sasha glanced over to her right to Anne and Marcy, both of their faces filled with joy and amazement at Sasha having returned in time. At seeing that, Sasha couldn't help but let out the most joyful smile she's had in days.
"Ooooooooh, it's no big deal. Yeah no big deal"
The song continued, now with all three girls present to play all of their parts. To Sasha, it was one of the most amazing moments of her life. They had played together before, and they had played together in front of crowds before, but she could never remember a time when they played together being this exciting and joyful and amazing.
It was a moment she wouldn't trade for anything in the world.
"I am so, so sorry for running out on you guys like that and being late."
The three girls were now back behind the thrown-together stage, the Plantars and Grime standing there with them, watching Sasha apologize to the other two girls who were still in their band outfits.
Apologize for the third time that night, that is.
"I am never going to get used to hearing that word from you." Marcy commented.
"Not the time Marcy." Anne said, before turning to Sasha. "And thank you for apologizing Sasha. I'm also sorry for losing my cool a bit when we were practicing."
"Hey it's fine, really I'm the one who should be apologizing, seriously I am-"
"Sash, please don't apologize again." Anne said, placing her hand over Sasha's mouth to shut the blonde up. "Seriously, yeah it kind of sucked what happened earlier, but me and Marcy have already accepted your apology."
"Plus…" Marcy said as she lifted a trophy, "We still won in the end."
"You girls did put on a pretty good performance" Hop Pop said, chiming into the conversation. "It was definitely better playing than anyone here could do."
"Hey" came an offended sound from Sprig…and surprisingly enough, Grime.
"OK, Sprig being offended I get with his fiddle playing, but why are you offended, Grime?" Sasha asked. "I mean, come on, it's not like you play any instruments."
"I will have you know I am classically trained." Grime stated indignantly.
"Really? With those big claws you've got for hands?" Sprig asked, sceptically.
"I will have you know that there are many a great toad musician with clawed hands like these." Grime fired back. As Sasha watched the argument beginning in front of her, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. Sasha turned her head to see that it was Anne who was prodding her.
"Hey, can we talk over there for a minute?" Anne asked as she pointed to a spot a few feet away from the rest of the group.
"Uh, yeah, sure, Anne." Sasha said before the two began to walk over to the indicated spot. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"
"I just wanted to say that, I know that something is bothering you."
At hearing that, Sasha opened her mouth to object, but Anne cut her off before she could speak.
"And before you try to say that everything's fine just let me finish."
At hearing that, the blond closed her mouth and nodded at Anne to continue.
"I just want you to know that while I think you should absolutely talk to someone about this, I get if maybe you aren't ready to talk to anyone yet. You've been pretty closed off for a while about emotional stuff, so if it takes a while before you're ready to talk about anything, then I get that. But when you are ready to talk about whatever's been going on, I'll be there to be the person you talk with. You know, if you want me to be there."
"Anne, I…" Sasha tried to figure out how to respond to something like that, but she had a hard time doing so. A part of her wanted to spill her guts about everything right then and there, but she knew it would be a bad idea to confess everything before they got back to Earth. That's partially why she had been doing all of this running around in secret lately. No, she had to keep things under wraps until they got back home, where Anne could actually decide if she ever wanted to see Sasha again.
But that didn't mean Sasha had to just blow off her concerns.
"You're right." Sasha said with a sigh. "Something has been bothering me lately. Bothering me a lot actually. But I'm not quite ready to talk about it."
"OK." Anne said as she pulled Sasha into a hug. "When you are ready, just call me OK."
"I will." Sasha said, as she returned the hug. "Honestly Anne, you're the person I want to talk with about this emotional stuff the most."
"Tha-that's really nice to hear Sash." Anne said as she pulled out of the hug, just enough that Sasha could see the faint blush on her face. "I'm…I'm really glad that you want me to be that person."
"Maybe…" Sasha began, "Maybe when we get back home tomorrow, you could be that person then?"
"Of course, Sash." Anne said as she nodded her head.
The two friends smiled at each other and then walked back to join the rest of the group, both fully understanding that they had said all that needed to be said at the moment.
"-and you don't get into the top gladiatorial college in Amphibia on a music scholarship if you aren't one of the best!" Grime all but screamed, his and Sprigs faces pushed right up against each other.
"Having a music scholarship for a gladiator school doesn't even make sense!" The pink frog replied, "Seriously, all it does it make it sound like your school was desperate for new students-"
"Are you guys seriously still arguing about this?" Anne asked and she and Sasha rejoined the group.
"Yup." Polly replied as she watched the argument while eating a bag of popcorn.
Wait, where in the world did she get that? Does she…does she just have popcorn, like, stored in Frobo or something so she can have it for moments like this?
"OK guys, knock it off." Anne said as she got between the arguing pair and pushed them away from each other. "It's mine, Sasha and Marcy's last night here and we should be spending it celebrating, not arguing."
Both the old toad and the young frog had frowns on their faces, but they both did cease their dumb argument.
"So, now that that's over," Marcy said as she turned towards Sasha. "where were you all day?"
"Oh, uh, I was…" Sasha began as she realised she really should have prepared a fake answer for this type of question ahead of time.
"Were you getting your hair done or something?" Polly asked.
"My hair?" Sasha asked, her eyebrow raised in confusion.
"Yeah, you've been wearing it down since you got on stage." The pollywig replied.
Sasha reached up to her hair and could indeed feel that it was down and not up in its usual ponytail.
"Oh shoot, my hair tie must have fallen out when I was running to get on stage." Sasha said as she turned to face the stage. "Geez, my hair must look like a mess right now."
"No it doesn't." At hearing those words, Sasha turned back to the group to see a blushing Anne.
"Huh?" Sasha let out a confused sound, not quite sure she heard the Thai girl right.
"I just…you look…really good with your hair down." Anne said, her blush deepening.
"Oh." Sasha squeaked out, as she felt her own face turn bright red.
A few seconds of awkward silence then followed, before it was broken up by some snickering from the youngest two in their midst.
"Sprig, Polly!" And said harshly as her head whipped around to face the snickering duo.
"Sorry, don't mind us." Polly said.
"Yeah, you two just keep staring at each other awkwardly in silence." Sprig added.
"Oh come on dude," Anne said, "I never poked fun at you in front of your crush, can't you do the same for me."
"Wait what?" Sasha said, her eyes widening in shock. "What did you just say, Anne?"
Anne turned back to face Sasha a look of confusion on her face.
"Huh? All I said was that…" Anne trailed off as her own eyes widened, as though she only just realized what she just said herself.
The awkward silence now fell around the entire group with no one knowing quite how to react, least of all the two people most involved in this awkwardness.
Both Sasha and Anne stared at each other, the shocked expression on their faces matching. Sasha had no idea what do or say. It was like her brain had shut down, and all she could do was stare slack-jawed at Anne. Given Anne's own silence, a part of Sasha wondered if Anne was going through the same thing. Well, a part of her would have wondered if it wasn't for the aforementioned "brain shutting down" thing.
Finally, the silence was broken by a particular pink frog.
"Just for the record Anne, if I'd known poking a bit of fun at you would cause you to accidently confess, I totally would have kept my mouth shut."
And with that one comment, Sasha's brain fired up again, a million thoughts going through her head.
I must have misheard her. She must have meant something else. Why would she like me? I'm me! When did she get a crush on me? Did the Plantar's know? Was she as obvious about her crush as I've been with mine? Why did no one say anything? Why does she look so cute when she's blushing that much?
"It's finally happening!" An excited Marcy squeaked out from next to Sasha.
"Well, uh, we should probably leave you two alone to sort this out." Hop Pop said awkwardly as he began to shoo away Sprig and Polly.
"But Hop Pop, I want to see what happens." Polly protested.
"Don't worry Polly, I'll give you all the deets latter." Marcy said, winking at the youngest Plantar.
"No you won't." Grime said as he grabbed Marcy's cap and dragged her behind him as he walked away with the Planters.
"Noooooo! My Shiiiiip!" Marcy cried out as she was dragged away, her heels digging little trenches as she futilely resisted while reaching out to Sasha and Anne until she, Grime and the Plantars were out of sight.
And thus, only Anne and Sasha were left behind the stage, still staring awkwardly at each other, neither really aware of what they should do now.
"So uh…you have a crush on me." Sasha said, not sure if her own words were meant to be a statement or a question. Really, she just wanted to say something in the hopes that they might move past the "stare awkwardly at each other in silence" thing they had going on.
"Uh..yeah." Anne replied.
Another silence fell across the two before Sasha made another attempt to say something.
"For…how long?
"…A while. Since a few years before we got here."
"Oh…OK." Sasha really had no idea what to say at this point.
Or rather, she knew exactly what she wanted to say at this point. She knew exactly what she should be saying. But she also knew that it was the one thing she couldn't say at this point.
"Look, Sash, this is pretty awkward, and I realize this is coming at you out of nowhere, so if you don't want to say anything, I totally get it." Anne words were the first real thing she'd said since she made her accidental confession. And in those words, Sasha could sense a lot of disappointment and embarrassment, and heartbreak. "So, I'm just going to get out of here then."
As Anne turned to leave, Sasha reached out her and grabbed her arm.
"Wait." She said the Thai girl, who turned back to face her.
It was clear from Anne's face that she had assumed that Sasha's awkwardness and questions and silence were her rejecting Anne. That her feelings were unanswered. And why wouldn't she? Obviously, if Sasha liked her back, then she'd say so instead of standing there awkwardly. At least, that's what Anne would think. And that's becuase in any other situation, Sasha would be answering those feelings. She'd tell Anne that she was in love with her, really she'd probably start rambling uncontrollably about it like an idiot.
But this wasn't any other situation. This was a situation where Sasha was keeping a very big secret from Anne. Several very big secrets. Secrets about how she had planned to betray Anne, secrets about what their futures were supposed to be, secrets of how much worse Sasha could be.
If Sasha were to return Anne's feelings now, if she were to confess her own feelings, then what came next for them would be built on a lie that she'd reveal the very next day to Anne when they got back to Earth. She couldn't do that. It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair to Anne.
"Look Anne I…I know you didn't mean to confess, but I really want to give you a proper response. A real response." Sasha's head was cast downward to avoid looking at that heartbroken expression Anne was wearing. It wasn't a look that Anne's face should ever have. "But right now I can't. I…the stuff I'm going through, the stuff I want to talk with you about when I get home, I…I feel like I need to get through all of that first. Like if I don't tell you first, I'll just hurt you. And I care about you too much to keep hurting you like I have been for the last few years."
Swallowing the spit that had begun to gather in her throat, Sasha dared to look up again. Anne's face was no longer heartbroken, or disappointed or embarrassed. Instead, she wore a curious expression. And in the adopted Plantar's eyes, she could see a glimmer of hope.
"After I talk with you about all of that stuff, then I will give you a proper response."
"…Really?" Anne asked, that glimmer of hope now present in her voice as well as her eye.
"Anne, I promise you that I want to give you that response more than anything."
"Right, so…then tomorrow, I guess." Anne replied.
"Yeah, tomorrow." Sasha said, nodding her head.
For a second that silence that awkward silence returned, but only for a second until a small grin appeared on Anne's face.
"Boy, Marcy's going to be disappointed by this."
Immediately as soon as the words left Anne's mouth, both girls fell into a fit of laughter. After these moments of awkwardness, Sasha was relieved at how good it felt to laugh with Anne like this.
"Wait, so did you know that she's been shipping us?" Sasha asked between her laughs.
"She told me a few days ago, you?" Anne said, returning the question.
"Let's just say I found out not long ago, too." She said, a coy smile on her face as remembered one of the few good moments of her time in the future.
"Oh geez, so I guess you figured out what she was doing a couple of days ago, huh?"
"What do you mean?" Sasha asked as the laughter started to die down.
"Wait did…did you not notice she was trying to get us together?" Anne asked in an incredulous tone.
For a second, Sasha wondered what in the world Anne was talking about…and then the pieces all started to fall into place in her mind.
"Oh my Frog, she was trying to get us to talk during that stupid ball game and then had us sit at a table separate from her at the diner, she was totally trying to set us up! I can't believe I didn't notice, I'm such an idiot!"
"You're not an idiot Sash." Anne interjected, "Just a little oblivious. Which is totally common and really isn't something to be ashamed of." Sasha couldn't help but notice the embarrassed tone Anne took as she rushed through that last sentence.
"Ugh, I cannot believe she'd pull something like that…" Sasha paused. "Actually, on second thought I totally can."
"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad an idea." Anne replied
"I don't know Anne, things went pretty sideways both of those times." Sasha noted.
"True" Anne agreed, "but she also did help me work through some of the….issues I've had with my feelings for you. Really, she was just trying to help out her friends in her own way…even if we hadn't asked for her help and were a little annoyed by some of it."
"Yeah, I guess that's what friends do sometimes…." Sasha trailed off as a thought occurred to her, one that stopped her mind right in its tracks.
Marcy was her friend.
This shouldn't have been some great revelation; it was something that had been true for years …except this was the first time she'd actually thought of Marcy as her friend since she found out the truth about the box.
"Our friends trying to help us…" Sasha whispered to herself.
It was odd, in all the time that she'd been thinking about how she felt over what Marcy did with the box, she never really remembered that Marcy was trying to help them get back home. She never really thought about how Marcy was trying to fix her mistake.
"Did you say something Sash?" Anne asked, bringing Sasha out of her thoughts.
"Huh, oh no I uh…I just realized that I've been kind of a huge jerk to Marcy the last couple of days." Sasha responded, shame evident in her voice.
"Yeah, you have been pretty harsh on her." Anne said in agreement. "Is it alright if I ask just what the heck has been going on with that?"
"It's…kind of private," Sasha answered, hoping to dodge that question for now. "…But I think I need to go make another apology tonight."
"Hey if you got to go talk to her, then go right ahead." Anne replied.
"You Sure?" Sasha asked. "I don't want to ditch you twice on the same day." Sasha then thought about what she said more. "I mean, I don't want to ditch you at all, but-"
"I know what you mean dude, and it's cool." Anne said, shooting Sasha an understanding smile. "It seems like what you need to talk to Marcy about is pretty important, and so I'm not going to stop you."
"…All right then, I guess I'll see you tomorrow Boonchuy." Sasha said as she began to walk away to go find Marcy.
But then she stopped in her tracks and turned back around to face the Thai girl.
"Oh uh, by the way, Anne…" a blush crept up on Sasha's face, "…I just wanted to say that you look really cute in that outfit."
A major blush appeared on Anne's face at Sasha compliment, and she immediately started nervously playing with her hair.
"Oh, uh, thanks, Sash. That's really…thanks."
Sasha grinned as she turned away and began walking back into town, with the only thought on her mind being to find one of her oldest friends and clear the air with her. Well, technically it was two thoughts on her mind, if you counted how cute she thought Anne looked when she blushed.
Sasha decided to start with the wagon that Marcy was staying in, a wagon that Sasha refused to call by the name the Plantar's gave it. She may be trying to be nicer to them, but there were some lines she would never cross.
She knocked on the wagon's door which soon opened, revealing that Marcy ended up being in the first place Sasha decided to look.
The moment Marcy saw Sasha, the raven-haired girl let out a loud gasp before pulling her inside and slamming the door shut.
"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, you have to tell me what happened!" Marcy said as she held onto Sasha's arms, a look of excitement on her face that Sasha had never seen on her before. Not to this extent at least.
"Calm down Marcy." Sasha said, suppressing a chuckle, as she moved Marcy's hands off her arms.
"Oh come on, I can totally be excited right now." Marcy began, that excitement still not wavering. "Anne just confessed to you, and the two of you are about to get together; this is the time to be freaking out in excitement, not the time to be calm!"
"You sure about that?" Sasha said, smirking a little at the sight of her oldest friend, who was literally shaking with excitement.
"Of course, why wouldn't this be something to be totally stocked for?!" Marcy asked.
"Because I didn't tell Anne that I like her back."
Sasha had never seen someone's face and mood deflate so much, so fast. It probably wasn't even a millisecond for Marcy's ecstatic face to turn into one of shock, disappointment and confusion.
Wow, it is so hard to not laugh right.
"Wh-wha-what?!" Marcy stammered out.
"I didn't tell Anne that I-"
"I heard you the first time!" Marcy almost yelled. "I just-I just don't understand! You're you! you're super obv-
"Super obvious about my crush on Anne," Sasha interrupted. "Yeah, I know, I've been hearing that a lot lately."
"So-so-so, then why?" Marcy asked, seeming utterly befuddled by Sasha's seeming nonchalance over the whole situation.
"Because," Sasha began as she sat down at the table that was set up in the wagon, "there's a lot of baggage between me and Anne. And there's a lot of stuff that I need to talk to her about before I'd feel right saying that I love her."
"But-but-but-"
"Marcy, I know this is disappointing to you. But you don't have to worry too much, I want to talk to her about this stuff as soon as we get back home, so you won't have to wait too long."
Assuming she wants anything to do with me, let alone date me, after I tell her everything.
"…Fine, I guess." Marcy said, pouting.
"Geez Marce, you seem really invested in me and Anne getting together." Sasha said, a knowing smile on her face. "It's almost like you've written mountains of friend-fiction about us, or something."
"I mean…maybe I wrote one or two." Marcy said, averting her eyes from Sasha and seemingly missing the "knowing" part of the blonde's knowing smile.
But then, a more serious and thoughtful look came across Sasha's face. As nice as it was talking to Marcy like this, and how fun it was to tease her friend over how much she shipped her and Anne, and how relieving it was to just be around Marcy and think of her as a friend again, she had something more important that she needed to do.
"Hey Marcy, I also wanted to say that I'm sorry."
"Huh? Geeze, again? Me and Anne are both totally over you ditching us this morn-"
"No, I mean how I was acting a couple of days ago." Sasha clarified.
"Oh." Marcy replied, seemingly surprised to get that apology. Even if Sasha had been repeatedly apologizing for her behaviour from that morning, it still seemed like it was going to be a shock when she apologized for anything new. And given her refusal to ever apologize for the last several years, Sasha really couldn't blame anyone for being shocked.
"Well, uh, thanks, Sasha." Marcy began, still a bit awkward about actually hearing an apology from Sasha Waybright. "You kind of were a really big jerk the other day." A curious look then came over the Taiwanese girl's face. "Why were you so on edge with me?"
"…It's…complicated." Sasha said after a moment. "And kind of a long story. Maybe you and I can have a chat after we get home too."
"Yeah, sure Sasha." Marcy responded.
"….You know Marcy, I've actually been thinking about something lately."
"Like what?" Marcy asked.
"Like…how we all make some really bad mistakes." Sasha mused. "Some of us worse than others. Case in point." The blonde pointed to herself as she spoke. "But…at the end of the day, I think what I've learned from being here in Amphibia is that it's never too late to start trying to fix those mistakes, or to try and make up for them. Even if you think you're never going to be forgiven for them, trying to fix those mistakes is still the right thing to do. And who knows? Maybe in the process, you'll learn to stop being the person who makes those mistakes."
"Oh, that's um…that's really mature of you Sash." Marcy said, looking a little uncomfortable. And Sasha had a pretty good idea about why she'd seem so uncomfortable. After all, as far as Marcy knew, Sasha had no idea about the box. The black-haired girl still believed that her knowing what the box would do was still just her secret and that she was the only one who knew that she was trying to help put right something she made wrong.
And for now, Sasha was going to let it stay that way. Marcy had messed up and was trying to fix it, and that was what mattered. Sasha was sure that her friend would eventually come clean to her and Anne, but Sasha would let her do it when she was ready to fess up to the truth.
However, if she took a really long time, Sasha would start pushing her to confess the truth. After all, Anne did deserve to know what really happened, and Sasha couldn't just let Marcy keep the truth from the Thai girl forever. But in this moment, Sasha believed that this was Marcy's secret to tell, and no one else's.
"Well, I should probably go turn in." Sasha said as she stood up, stretching as she did so. "We've got a pretty big day tomorrow."
"Plus a pretty long flight." Marcy added as she led Sasha to the door.
As Sasha opened the door to exit the wagon, she paused and turned back to Marcy.
"Hey, Marcy. I know I don't always act like it, but I really am thankful that you're my friend."
"Oh, wow, Sashy, thanks, that means a lot." Marcy said clearly taken aback. "I'm glad you're my friend too. Even if you can be a major jerk sometimes."
"hmmmm…" Sasha sounded in mock thoughtfulness, "you know, if I am such a jerk then maybe I should just keep putting off that important conversation I was going to have with Anne tomorrow-"
"Don't you dare!" Marcy yelled as she pulled Sasha towards her by the collar so that she was in the blonde's face.
After a second of shock, Sasha let out a laugh at her friend.
After her own moment of shock, Marcy frowned.
"Were you teasing me?" She accused.
"Duh." Sasha replied.
"Oh, get out of here you." Marcy said as she lightly pushed the still laughing Sasha out of the wagon.
"I'll see you tomorrow Marce." Sasha called out as she walked away.
"Yup, 'night Sash." She heard Marcy call back.
As Sasha walked back to the Sundews residence, she couldn't help but go over the day's events in her head. They didn't feel real. The morning went like how she expected, everything going wrong, but from the moment she and Grime arrived at the Toad's camp…it was like all of the bad fortune from the last few days was building up to the burst of good fortune that she had today.
The meeting with Beatrix and Bufo went perfectly, she got back in time to help her friends win the battle of the bands, Anne confessed to her, and she made peace with Marcy.
It was so unbelievable that some part of her was still expecting something to show up out of nowhere and ruin everything. Even as she opened the door to the Sundews residence, she was almost more surprised to find that it was normal than she would have been if she saw that her future self had suddenly appeared in the present and was going to destroy everything.
As she climbed the stairs to the upper floor and walked through the hallway to the room she and Grime were staying in, she continued replaying all of the day's events in her head, and as she did, they began to feel more and more real to her.
Finally, as she opened to the door to her and Grime's room, Sasha could think only one thing.
This…this all really happened. Everything is going to be fine.
As Sasha closed the door to the shared room, her shoulders slumped. It felt like the weight she'd been carrying around for the last week had finally been lifted. Several weights really. She couldn't really remember any other time in her life she would have felt such a level of relief.
"Well, you're looking better than you have the last few days."
Sasha turned to face Grime who was already in the room and sitting on his bed.
"That's probably because I'm feeling better than I have in than I have the last few days." The Blonde replied.
"And I think you're about to feel even better." Grime reached behind him and pulled a box forward into view. "I meant for this to be a 'congrats on your first successful coup' gift, but since the rebellion isn't happening and you apparently already know about the gift anyway, I thought now would be a good time to give it to you."
For several seconds, Sasha could only stare at the gift-wrapped box that Grime now had on his lap before a manic grin appeared on her face as she grabbed the gift and began opening it in earnest. If there was one thing that Sasha Waybright could not resist, it was a present.
As Sasha tore open the box, she could see that it contained exactly what she believed it did; an exact copy of her Rubanium sword but made of silver. It was the same sword that she was only supposed to find after Grime died and she was going through his things. It was the sword that she would never wield and instead merely use as part of her banner. But now that wasn't the case. Now it was a sword that she would take back to Earth and wear on her hip for trips back to Amphibia. Now it was a sword that she would use in battle against the dangers of this world when she returned to see a very much alive Grime. This sword was the same sword that the Queen was supposed to find, and yet now she never would. Because Sasha would never become Queen Sasha.
I…I did it. I really did it.
"Are you alright?"
Grimes's question broke Sasha out of her thoughts.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" She asked, confused.
"Well, you're crying for one thing." Grime responded.
Sasha brought a hand up to her face and felt her cheek, a cheek that was wet with tears.
Without even realizing it, Sasha had begun weeping out of sheer joy and relief.
"Of course I'm OK Grimsey." Sasha said as she hurried over to the old toad and brought him into a hug. "I've never been happier. Thank you so much for this, and for helping me these last few days, and for making me your lieutenant and, and, and thank you for everything."
"I-uh, you're welcome, lieutenant," Grime said, returning the hug a little less awkwardly than he had in the past. "And uh, thank you for being my lieutenant."
This day had really gone far better than Sasha could have hoped for. The rebellion was stopped, Anne was in love with her, she had salvaged her friendship with Marcy, they were going home, Grime would live past tomorrow, and Sasha knew for certain that she would never become Queen Sasha. For the first time since the night she danced with Anne, she knew that the future was changed.
There were still things that were to come, and Sasha knew that. She was going to have to tell the truth to Anne and Marcy, and she was going to have to get Marcy to help her make sure that Andrias gave some concessions to the toads. Those would be their own challenges. But at that moment, Sasha couldn't bring herself to care. All she cared about at that moment was that she had turned the future around. All she cared about, was that she could wake up the next morning and know that everything was going to be fine.
Oh Sasha, you sweet summer child...
Anyways, how many of you were expecting a confession this early? Probably not a lot. I've got a lot of ideas for how I want to play with that going forward, especially in the next chapter and in Arc 2.
I have to say that I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, especially the scene in the tent. Writing a confident Sasha who has full control of the room was really great, especially after writing her being so angsty and unsure of herself for...well, I was going to say the last few chapters, but I feel like I haven't written a truly confident Sasha since like, chapter 3 of Time Brings All to Pass. I will note, I actually was going to have them fly to the ruins to get pictures of the robot factory in my initial ideas for this chapter, but I thought it would be too big a detour for Sasha and Grime to take, especially since they didn't have anything solid that the ruins were actually factories.
Overally, I'm actually pretty happy with how this chapter turned out, and I hope you all are as well.
Unfortunatley, I'm going to have to warn you guys to not expect the next chapter too soon. For several reasons (covering the events of Ture Colors, being the Arc finale) the next chapter is going to be big, to the point that I'm wondering if I might need to split it into two chapters. Either way, it's going to take a while to write, and thus a while to come out. But, I do intend to have it up before the New Year, so look forward to something big in December.
Anyways, I appreciate any feedback you guys have, and I'll see you next time.