Sasha has been in Amphibia long enough to know how dangerous this world is and how to use all of her in a fight to protect not just her life, but those around her. Almost every day, in one way or another, she ended up in some kind of near-death danger along with her frog family. And she almost always ended up with one of them hurting or nearly being eaten before she managed to save them, and this triggered a shift in her way of reacting to things around her, forcing her to be more physically aware of any plausible threat. Marcy's near-death in the Toad Tower only fueled and enhanced these changes.
That's why when King Andrias showed his true colors of being a crazy conqueror who wants to control her world, Sasha wasn't discomforted and annoyed like Marcy, nor was she crushed and betrayed like Anne. No, her head didn't have time to process all these complex feelings that wanted to flood her like her friends. Instead, as always, her body and instinct were much faster than her mind or heart, and she focused on a single thing, a single sentence.
Protect them!
What was once a conscious action to take care of her friends on Earth from the idiots who tried to intimidate them, was now an uncontrollable instinct that commanded her entire being at the slightest sign of danger to those she cared about.
It was also why the moment Andrias, after crushing Anne's heart by confessing that he would never have been able to invade her world if not for her help, turned away from them to go to his chair in an obvious display of pride and superiority against them, Sasha didn't hesitate to take Grime's Warhammer and use it to smack him right in the heel.
The king's cry of pain and surprise was as gratifying to Sasha's ears as Grime's cry, when she used his own weapon against him when he tried to stop her and Sprig from closing the gates. Or all those monsters that attacked Sprig, Polly or Hop Pop.
Sasha is now sure she has some sick fetish of seeing the suffering of those who hurt people she cares about. Maybe she will try to change that someday, as she is doing with her manipulative tendencies...
Or maybe not. She's trying to be better, but a bad tendency here and there shouldn't make much difference, right?
Andrias staggered and nearly fell before turning angrily at the human, who just threw the heavy hammer in Grime's direction and wielded her scythe, a sound like a growling coming from the back of her throat. Sasha heard the sound of swords being unsheathed, ropes snapping and Marcy's crossbow being carried, so even without looking, she knew her friends and allies were ready to fight too. And she wouldn't allow any of them to get hurt, not when she was here to take care of them.
(Inside her, something resonates, talking, screaming, commanding her to have more power. Something that has always been there because of her upbringing, and that has turned into something more controlling and protective since she met her best friends in that playground. And now, after arriving in this world, it became a possessive voice that echoed in the back of her mind, a beast roaring at anyone who dares to hurt those she loves, who keeps ordering in a loop in her subconscious.
More strength... It needs more strength.
Only then will they be safe. Only then will they be protected.
More strength, to protect them. And so nothing will hurt them.
Strength...
PROTECT THEM!
Without anyone in the room noticing, the pink gemstone's glow flickered.)
"I see I can't have fun with you here... Okay." Andrias turned and pulled a sword hilt from his belt that created a giant blade of energy, the robotic frogs under his command readying their weapons. "Then I will finish you all now!"
"Leave them alone, you over-developed lizard!" And with that battle cry, holding her personalized scythe, she charged the Tyrant King of Newtopia.
The robots began to attack the group, which was fighting back against them with some ease. The Plantars may not be fighters like the others, but they knew very well how to face deadly threats, though Hop Pop is a little worried about the amount of happiness on his youngest granddaughter's face as she watches the destruction Frobo wreaks on enemies. Grimes' hammer blows and Yunan's switchblades easily destroyed any enemy robots that approached them, as did Priscilla's combat spear. No matter how many opponents, with the strength that group had, it wouldn't take long for them to reduce the number of enemy robotic frogs to zero.
And Marcy quickly noticed that.
"ANNE!" Anne turned to Marcy, whose arrow had just pierced one of the robots. "We'll take care of everything here, go help Sasha!"
Anne hesitated for a second, wanting to help the blonde against the mad king, but not wanting to let her friends fight an army alone, after all it was her fault that Andrias had the box and the power to have that army. She should have at least realized how insane he is, he let an out-of-this-world stranger who knew nothing about melee fighting become his champion after two weeks of living together, for frog's sake!
It was a stupid plan from the start, why the hell did she think it would be a good idea to force her friends to stay to be 'heroines' in that world? Mainly because it was this whole thing of forcing her friends to be together that ended up tearing them apart in the first place. The only thing Marcy wants now is to go home and try to make it up to the two of them for sending them all to an unknown world without their knowledge, and as heroic as Sasha has become, her desire to be seen and admired, or feared, it's gone down so much by living with the Plantars that you'd think Sasha then and now are two completely different people.
If she had placed her loyalty to her friends above her loyalty to the king, none of this would have happened...
The other human's glare at her hesitation, however, quickly made her obey.
It was kind of hard to reconcile the adorable, nerdy, clumsy Marcy she'd known since her childhood with that cold, paranoid, merciless soldier she'd become after living with the toads. Anne's body shivers at the thought of what kinds of things she was forced to see and do to become like this.
The battle between Sasha and Andrias was…surprisingly going well on the human's side, even with the scratches her arms and legs were getting from so much rolling and dodging while holding her scythe. Andrias is strong, and he probably had several years of combat experience, but if there was one thing Sasha knew very well, it's how to fight is when she was at a disadvantage. So she was mostly dodging blows, using her size and agility to her advantage, waiting for the right moment to attack.
The right moment came when Anne joined the fight, trying to slash the King with her sword. The moment of distraction to fend off the blow gave Sasha time to roll behind him, raise her scythe, and descend with all her strength at the base of his tail.
Strange... His blood appeared to be red, but a darker hue, and it was thicker, with a texture a little like goo.
The scream of pure agony, however, was just as Sasha had expected.
But it wasn't enough. Not even a little. Not when he hurt her friend like that.
She'll make sure Andrias will feel the same pain he caused Anne, even if it's a physical equivalent.
(She didn't notice how her own blood seemed to boil unnaturally, or how her scythe suddenly felt lighter and easier to handle. Much less how the pink gemstone flickered again, seeming to resonate with the wrath of it chosen one.)
With a war cry, she pulled the scythe until the tip, creating a severe tear in the king's tail. The pain ended up making Andrias fall to his knees, trembling as he tried to compose himself. A part of Sasha wanted to inflict even more blows like that, she wanted to make that being suffer for everything he did. Another part, one that screamed louder, had the blonde human turning to Anne, who was staring stunned at the blood and exposed flesh, to look for any evidence of a blow that had managed to penetrate her armor.
"Are you okay?" Anne blinked out of her stupor and turned to another human, her eyes also scanning the blonde's body for injuries.
"I should ask you that! I wasn't the one fighting him alone for a while!" She screamed indignantly. Sasha scoffed, straightening the grip of her scythe.
"I'll get better once we foiled his plan. Do you know how to use the box to activate the portal?" Anne hesitantly shook her head, which made Sasha sigh. "Of course he wouldn't teach you how to use the portal, it would be too easy for us to just get out of here if you knew... Alright then. Let's get out of this place and find a way to activate the portal, and when we get through, we'll destroy this thing. Or at least hide it in a place no one will ever find again."
"OK. I think I hear Joe singing, so…"
"ENOUGH!" Andrias's scream seemed to shake the room. Before anyone could do anything, he slammed his sword into the ground, causing a shock wave that knocked everyone off balance and knocked the two human girls away. Sasha's back and head hit the wall hard, some blood staining the wall, and she ended up dropping her scythe, her head buzzing with the impact and she grunted in pain.
The tyrant king gasped as he struggled to his feet, his balance shaken by the damage of his tail. Slowly, he started walking towards the blonde human, who had her head pounding and her vision a little blurry, wanting to finish the one he considered the greatest threat. Before Andrias could get too close, however, mechanical arms wrapped around his limbs, preventing him from getting any closer. He looked back and saw the little pink polliwog on the shoulder of the robot that the Plantars had somehow acquired.
"Stay away from our sister, you bruiser!" Polly screamed and Frobo tightened his grip on the king, doing his best to keep him away from Sasha. Andrias growled and tried to land a punch on both of them, but Frobo dropped him just in time, knocking him off balance again and missing the blow. Furious, he used his sword in a horizontal cut, and when the Plantars robot dodged, he landed a punch that broke him and sent his pieces across the room and ended up knocking Polly out of him, Andrias prepared to step on her to the death.
Sasha heard a scream, and when she managed to focus her vision, Andrias stomped to the ground. When he lifted his foot, however, there was nothing but a broken floor.
"What the-."
"Over here, you big bozo!" When he turned around, he found the little pink polliwog with a smug expression and a pair of legs that had definitely not been there a few seconds ago. "Guess who got legs... Woah!" She took an unsteady step back, still not fully used to her new members.
"MY LITTLE BABY GOT LEGS!" Hop Pop exclaimed, happy that his granddaughter is growing up.
"THIS IS WEIRD!" It was Sprig's turn to exclaim, feeling mixed with that, and a part of Sasha felt the same way.
When Andrias went to react, a sharp pain shot up his spine, making him lose his balance again. Anne had recovered enough, and now her sword was stuck in his tail, creating a new wound. The human girl turned to the polliwog with a determined expression.
"Polly, get the box, quick! I don't know how long I can hold him!" Polly nodded before running, at surprisingly high speed for someone who had just gained legs, toward the plinth that held the Calamity Box.
Andrias roared before he managed to get Anne out of his tail and began aggressively attacking her with his sword, and she could only desperately dodge, fearing what would happen if that sword managed to stab her. Sasha tried to get up, but the pounding on her head was harder than she expected, as she barely moved and everything seemed to spin again, just as her headache got worse. She fell back into a sitting position, her face a mixture of pain and frustration, frustration at her weakness, her lack of strength when she most needed to help her friends.
She needs to be stronger, or they're going to get seriously hurt.
(As she dodged another robot controlled by Andrias, Polly quickly wondered if the pink gemstone actually sparked a bit, or was it just her imagination.
It was probably just imagination.)
Priscilla approached the fight between the two and began to help Anne in the distraction, serving mainly to resist the punches that Andrias sometimes gave long enough for the human to hit some vulnerable spot on him. By the time Polly managed to get the box, the flying castle lost power and began to slowly fall, leaving the tyrant king even more desperate, seeing his plan and his master's failing, even without the girls having their powers. Marcy looked at the broken window with a thoughtful expression before turning to the young frog beside her.
"Sprig, did you learn how to fly Anne's bird?" Sprig blinked, not understanding the reason for the question, before answering.
"Er…sort of? I think I know enough not to fall from the sky to the ground."
"Close enough for me." She took him out of the way of a laser beam and they both used their weapons to destroy the robot that attacked them. "I want you to take Hop Pop, Polly, and the box and use Joe Sparrow to get out of here. Not too far away that Joe can't come back quickly for us, but enough for you guys to stay a good distance away from this lunatic. I'll take Frobo's head on the next trip, as long as his motherboard is intact, I think I can create a new body for him."
After everything she'd done, after hurting and betraying Sasha not once but twice, the least Marcy could do was make sure Sasha's family came out of this fight well and unharmed. Then she would find a way to make Yunan and Priscilla leave when Joe returns, they seem to be important to Anne, so they are also important to Marcy. But they're warriors like Grime, and they can fend for themselves, so Marcy's current focus is now on the Plantars.
Without her permission, as always, her mind went back to a few hours ago when she ended up betraying her friends out of a strange mix of fear and loyalty for Grime. The confusion and sadness of the Plantars and Priscilla, as well as the anger and pain of Anne she could handle, she deserved any and all negative feelings from them after what she'd done. But nothing, nothing at all compares to the way her heart and soul shattered into a million fragments at the sight of Sasha's expression.
It wasn't an expression of hate, anger, betrayal, contempt. None of that.
It was just a disappointment.
As if Sasha knew of her plans and hoped she did the right thing, but wouldn't be surprised if she betrays her. Again.
As she had just done.
Marcy had never wanted her to die in the fall of the Tower as much as she did at that moment.
She'd seen Sasha's look of disappointment a few times on Earth, but most of the time it was for them to do something Sasha wanted, or toned down by some joke or innuendo she threw right away. It took a few seconds for her to understand why that had hurt so much, more than any other reaction.
On Earth, it was usually pretense, a way of manipulating her and Anne. A way to control them and anyone around them. At that moment, it was for real. No ulterior motives or anything like that. Sasha simply expected the best from Marcy, and Marcy ended up doing the worst.
That was the first time she saw in her friend's eyes anything but genuine disappointment at her actions. And that hurts more than all the hell she went through living with the toads.
Marcy shook her head, now was not the time to let her head wander. This is war, or she focuses, or she and her friends die.
They don't need a guilt-ridden, and probably traumatized, teenager. Or a strong but uncontrolled beast driven by her feelings. They need a soldier with a quick mind to strategize. And that's what she's going to be.
"What are you waiting for? HURRY UP!" She yelled at Sprig, who jumped at the girl's sudden change of emotion, but quickly went to join his grandfather and younger sister to get out of there. The king soon noticed when the three frogs had gathered, starting to run somewhere with the Calamity Box with them.
"THE BOX!" In a desperate attempt to retrieve that precious object, Andrias shifted his grip on his sword and hurled it toward the frogs. Hop Pop yelled and stood in front of his grandchildren, trying to protect them with his body.
Something pushed the three of them out of the way, and Polly ended up slamming the box against the wall before the sword hit its target.
The room was suddenly silent.
The older frog grunted as he tried to get up, noticing his two younger grandchildren safe in front of him. He almost sighed in relief, but the way Sprig and Polly turned pale, their eyes wide with terror, and began to shiver as they looked at something behind him, made Hop Pop turn slowly, dreading what he would see.
A few feet away from them, pinned to the wall by the flaming sword impaling her chest, was his adopted granddaughter.
(The moment her vision managed to focus, she realized the way Andrias angled his sword, he was going to throw it.
Her eyes widened when she noticed their target was the Plantars.)
Sasha stared at the sword across her in shock, no other reaction for a second, as if even she couldn't believe what she saw.
(The Plantars would be hit by that sword. Her family would be killed by that sword.
She saw red. No.
Pink.)
Her breath hitched, her vision blurred as her body began to falter.
(With superhuman strength that suddenly surged through her, her body reacted without her command, rushing to them and pushing them out of the way.)
Trembling, her hand reached for the hilt of the sword, touching a spot that caused the blade to disappear and the hilt to fall to the ground.
And then...
(And then...)
With one last gasping breath, Sasha's knees finally gave way and she fell motionless to the ground.
"I'm sorry."
The two humans simultaneously stopped walking and turned in confusion to their other human friend, who was looking away as she ran her hand over the back of her neck, a haggard expression on her face. Anne tilted her head in confusion.
"Sorry about what? It was also our fault that we almost failed in this temple." she asked, with Marcy nodding her head in agreement.
"It's not about the temple... At least, not exactly." Sasha sighed and turned to her friends. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you back on Earth." She noticed how her friends tensed, but kept talking. "I can't exactly say why, but at some point, it felt right for me to have full control over what we did. I thought I was protecting you guys... But now I know I was just being a control freak."
"...I wouldn't use the term 'Control Freak', maybe just a little... Power-hungry?" Marcy cringed at her own choice of words, as did Anne. Fortunately, all Sasha did was let out a small laugh, not feeling the least bit insulted.
"Of course, use whatever term you like." Her expression turned serious again. "It doesn't change the fact that I ended up using and hurting you because of that attitude, directly or not. And being completely honest? I've always liked the person I am, but I think now that I know how to be what I like about myself and still be a good friend, I'm starting to really love being myself."
Gently, she took her friends' hands, a small smile forming on her face as she watched her thumb caress the gloves the other two humans wore. Because of that, she didn't notice the way Marcy and Anne looked at her in a stunned way and blushed at the touch, even though they couldn't quite feel it.
"And I guarantee you that I will do everything to be my best version. For you, and for myself."
Shaking her head slightly to get out of her dazed state, Anne smiled too and placed her hand over Sasha's.
"I wasn't much better either. I should have tried to talk more about how I felt about doing certain things or not. 'Trying to impose my choices', as you say." Also coming out of her dazed state, Marcy gripped the blonde human's hand tightly, looking away.
"I think…I should have listened to more people. Stop trying to be just the mediator and do something for me." She commented, Sasha lifted her gaze to the girls.
"I think we all got it wrong in the end, didn't we?" She gave a small laugh. "So, what do you think we try to be better from now on? So that something like that doesn't happen anymore." She looked up at her friends with a warm little smile, a spark of hope shining in her eyes.
The other two humans blushed slightly and nodded, soon the three were hugging, Sasha letting out a sigh of relief in the process, feeling lighter than ever.
Anne and Marcy, on the other hand, felt as if the weight of the world had suddenly fallen on their shoulders. Especially when they realized they were taking advantage of their friends for their own selfish goals.
How, and when exactly, did things change so much between them?
'... I'm sorry, Sasha, Marcy… I'll find a way to make it up to you after I deliver the box to Andrias…' Anne's grip tightened at her thoughts.
'... I'm sorry, Anne, Sasha... But after Captain Grime takes over Newtopia, I guarantee I'll do everything to try and regain our friendship...' Marcy closed her eyes tightly, leaning her head on the blonde's shoulder to prevent them from seeing her expression.
'I won't let anything happen to you two. I promise.'
Andrias gasped slightly before giving a small laugh, satisfied with his blow. It wasn't the target he was aiming for, but at least he finally got rid of the blonde human, and with the frogs in shock, it would be easy to retrieve the Calamity Box.
The Calamity Box... In which the lid now had a small crack and two of the three gemstones were blinking.
The king's eyes widened, but when he tried to react, something went up his back and narrowly missed his eye, making a cut on his cheek. He took a desperate step back as he placed his hand on the wound, turning to face his attacker who had landed on the ground and turned to him as well.
Anne's entire body shook with barely contained rage, the blood staining her sword and parts of her armor giving her a deadly look she'd never had before. She snarled like a wild animal, tears of fury running down her eyes.
Her eyes, whose irises were now bright blue.
"How dare you…" Anne took a step forward, the tears falling even more heavily. "HOW DARE YOU DO THAT?!"
She let out a scream of fury before lashing out at him again with her sword, and Andrias had no choice but to activate the shield that was embedded in his armor. The sword's blows ricocheted as they hit the shield, but that didn't seem to discourage Anne. On the contrary, it seemed to make her more determined to hurt him, each blow slowly becoming stronger and faster than the previous.
At that moment, Anne's head was no longer functioning in the same way, she couldn't even think straight, all she could process were her intense emotions and their target. She felt affliction, grief, despair, agony, a deep pain in her chest that she had never felt before. All born of a strong love and affection that was brutally taken from her in a matter of seconds by someone whose devotion turned to contempt and anger.
The being she trusted and admired upon arriving in this world took advantage of her feelings to use her as a pawn, and now he has taken away one of the people she loved most in any existing world. And with her mind currently unable to process all that, she could only hear her heart.
And in that moment, her heart roared in pure rage and unrestrained hatred.
"I TRUSTED YOU! I GAVE MY LOYALTY TO YOU, AND YOU USED ME!" Andrias was forced to take a few steps back with the intensity of the blows, blue rays seemed to come out of the human girl's eyes. "YOU DECEIVED ME, MADE ME BETRAY MY FRIENDS AND TRIED TO DOMINATE MY WORLD! AND NOW I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO APOLOGIZE OR REDEEMED WITH SASHA BECAUSE YOU TOOK HER FROM ME!"
With that scream of fury, she raised her sword again, but this time the blow came from a spear that cut into the king's arm. The tyrant king shuddered in pain, and as he tried to turn around, he was met by a hammer blow to his leg that knocked him off balance. Anne stopped her blow for a second with a confused expression, a faint green sparkle in her blue eyes, before turning back to rage and fury, lashing out with Grime and Priscilla, this time aiming for the king's arms.
The sound of battle brought the Plantars out of their shock, just in time to see two frog-bots that were approaching being destroyed by arrows. Marcy quickly approached them with Frobo's head and knelt to pick up the box, her back to the frogs.
"…You three, continue with the escape plan, and take Frobo with you. Leave Joe Sparrow around so that Grime, Priscilla and Yunan can leave right away. I'm going to open the portal to get me, Anne and the box out of here." She said in a completely neutral tone as she stood up, seeming to stare at the battle.
"But... Sasha..."
"There's nothing we can do for her." Marcy cut off Sprig, who had now glared at her at the coldness in her voice.
"Are you…Are you serious?! After everything that's happened, are you just going to leave her like that?" He screamed. "There has to be some way! Maybe if you use this magic box, it can..."
"I said there's nothing we can do." Marcy finally turned to them. Despite her neutral expression, her irises were bright green, filled with tears of pain and suffering spilling silently down her face. "Unless her gemstone reacts to the damage it chosen one took, that was a fatal blow. By all means, Sasha…" She trailed off, seeming to contain something even she didn't know what it was. "...Sasha is dead..."
Unlike Anne, whose emotions are dictating all her actions now, Marcy felt… numb. She knew she was hurting, she knew from the way her chest ached, but there were so many emotions coming so abruptly that she couldn't properly process them, so her mind decided to just…not feel.
If not for the pain in her chest and the tears on her face, Marcy would have sworn that losing Sasha had taken away her ability to have emotions too.
On the other hand, her mind was never as active as it was at that moment. Or so suddenly aware of what she was capable of doing now.
'He is leaning more on his right leg than his left. Use it to your advantage.' She thought as she turned her attention to the battle, directing that thought to Anne. Almost instantly, Anne stopped for a second before starting to try to cut the king's leg. That done, she turned her attention to the box, looking intently at the small crack between the places where the gemstones was.
This wasn't normal, the gemstones' powers shouldn't be with them, not after the temples drained their powers to recharge it. Yet here she is, knowing full well that the gemstones had powers that were passed on to them when the three of them fell into this world, and that each of them had their own attribute and it was that attribute that awakened the gift that the gemstone gave to the human beings. And that these attributes were the reasons why the three temples are so different from each other, to adapt to the chosen one by the gemstone, and for the chosen one to adapt to its element.
She's not sure if the temples really should completely sever the current carrier's connections to the gifts in the box, or Andrias or some of his ancestors modified the temples to do something they shouldn't, or something like that. What she does know is that, somehow, Marcy and Anne managed to reconnect with their gemstones when that crack appeared in the box after its sharp hit with the wall, and that even though the connection is still weak and shaky, they are now able to access again a fragment of the gifts that the Calamity Box gave them.
(In the third temple, as she and her human friends raced desperately to the exit, carrying the withered bodies of the Plantars and Priscilla, there was a part of Marcy that whispered in her ear, the cold and eerily pragmatic part that was born after so much time in this danger world. This part wondered if it was even worth continuing the performance of being nice to the inhabitants of this world, to the point of letting Sasha interrupt the gemstone's charge when it was so close to complete, just to save those amphibians who were dying of dehydration. The rest of her used a mental hammer to force that part to silence and concentrated on running faster, protectively holding the pink pollywog and Anne's backpack in her arms.
At least now that side will be silent in shock for a while, realizing that what they once thought was a waste of time and valuable resource could actually be a blessing in disguise.)
Marcy heard the Plantars ask something, but she was too focused on touching the box in the right places and sequence to pay attention. What she needed to do to activate the portal was running frantically in her head, as if she'd recently read a manual on how to defeat a boss, and she wasn't going to waste that precious time. A few touches here, another there, turn the key here, touch the gemstones in the correct order and...
A white glow appeared in the air from her side, and slowly a portal began to appear, the edges glowing the same colors as the gemstones. Surprised gasps echoed as the portal tried to grow past a small fissure in the air, and Marcy lightly bit her lower lip, mentally begging it to work.
'Please work. Please work. Don't let Sasha's fall be in vain!'
Her prayers seemed to work as the portal started to grow to a reasonable size, but just as the human soldier began to get her hopes up, she heard Anne scream. She turned just in time to see Andrias holding his friend in one hand, running toward them and charging with all the fury of a giant-sized aggressive football player.
Andrias' blow knocked them several feet away from the growing portal, and made Marcy drop the box in her hands. Anne tried to break free of the king's grip with more vigor, especially when she noticed he was walking towards the Sprig with a murderous expression. The king lifted his foot, ready to step on the young frog, and in a desperate attempt to save him, Marcy pulled him to herself as Andrias made the move.
She narrowly managed to save him from certain death, but unfortunately, because of the angle she pulled him from, something else ended up being crushed in his place. A pain Marcy couldn't even describe echoed in her brain, and reflexively, she turned toward the fountain, wondering if she could minimize the damage.
And even though she couldn't quite see the damage, she knew that her right arm being crushed by the king's boots wasn't something she could easily fix.
"Look well, Anne. Pay close attention to this." Andrias began with a growl, looking directly at the human knight in his hand, whose bright blue eyes were wide with terror as she stared helplessly at her friend pinned to the ground. Sprig was being protectively held by Marcy's other arm, the young frog trembling in fear for the human. Marcy, on the other hand, despite the obvious pain in her expression, couldn't help but stare at the king with her green eyes gleaming with defiance. "None of this would have happened if you just surrendered to me."
Andrias pressed the human's arm harder. Marcy closed her eyes tightly, biting her lip to stop herself from screaming, not wanting to give him the satisfaction.
"And now..."
He lifted his leg slightly, but not enough for Marcy to be able to remove her arm.
"Look what you made me do."
Without any pity or hesitation, he suddenly stepped on her arm harder.
Something snapped, and this time, the pain spoke louder and Marcy couldn't help it.
She screamed in agony.
Anne's tears flowed harder, unable to do more than scream along with her friend.
Screaming in despair.
Sprig gripped Marcy's hand holding him tightly, shouting Marcy's name.
His scream was full of fear.
Andrias again lifted his foot a little, about to do the same thing, when he noticed the glow coming from the box. A strong glow emerged from the pink gemstone and began to emanate energy that quickly moved in one direction.
Towards the blonde human's body.
(The darkness that enveloped her was eerily calm and peaceful, enticing her to relax and just stand there, in a peaceful place where she didn't have to worry about a thing.
However, as darkness began to envelop her body, she heard screams that made her become alert again. And it didn't take her long to understand why.
The screams were cries of suffering, and coming from voices she knew all too well.
Marcy. Anne. Sprig.
They are in danger... Her friends are in danger.
A spark of pink light appeared in front of her, and she knew instinctively that this was her only way out.)
"No... It can't be..." The king's startled whisper made Marcy open her eyes again, tears of agony streaming down her face, and she tried to turn her head to know what was going on.
The pink energy began to surround Sasha, wrapping around her like a protective layer, Sasha's fingers began to move.
Marcy's gasp had nothing to do with the pain she was feeling.
(She growled, jerking her body to reach the spark of light, trying to get rid of the darkness surrounding her, which had suddenly become something suffocating. She couldn't fall now, not when those she cared about most were in danger. She had to go back, ever if only long enough to help them.
Her body began to heat up as she held the spark in her hands, and soon it began to glow. The darkness began to pull away, the pink glow growing brighter and warmer.
Then hot...
... Hotter...
Too hotter.
She felt her hands start to burn and choked back a moan of pain. If she continued like this, she would probably combust altogether or melt. She needed to stop, just for a second...
NOT! Not yet!)
"...Sasha...?" Anne whispered in disbelief, not sure if this was real or some kind of hopeful hallucination.
More by instinct, the three warrior amphibians took a few steps back when they felt the danger emanating from the fallen girl. The Plantars couldn't stop staring in shock as Sasha's left hand closed and opened twice, her hair beginning to float.
She suddenly punched the ground, creating a small crater, repeating the same process with her other hand as she rose to a kneeling position, a flame surging and burning her chest. The energy around her began to take on a fire-like form, the very temperature of the room beginning to rise, along with the sudden increase in gravity.
(Forcing her body, she held the glow with everything she had on her chest, feeling her skin melt and burn her flesh, starting to reach her bones. She had failed them before, her friends on Earth and her new family here. She couldn't fail again.
It doesn't matter if in the end it would burn to ash, what matters is that she has to come back now!)
Sasha's hair had taken on a reddish-pink color and also taken on a fiery look, the branch holding her ponytail had grown out into a star shape. She stood with her head down, the flame that had come from the hole that now existed in her armor gone out, showing a long burn in its final stages of healing.
(She is their shield, their guardian! And no matter how strong the enemy is, she will be stronger and will protect them from anything that threatens them! She needs to be stronger! And she will be stronger!
So strong none of them will be hurt again!)
She moved her arms back, and purple flames engulfed her hands. A growl began to come out of her throat, her voice taking on a second deeper, older tone.
(And for anyone who still dares attack them, she'll only let them know once...)
"Leave them alone…" She lifted her gaze, pink eyes burning like two raging suns. "LEAVE. THEM. ALONE!"
Energy exploded from her body, decimating any frog-bots still close to her, and she disappeared from the king's sight. He could only gasp in terror before Sasha reappeared in front of him and punched him hard in the chest. His armor cracked, along with some of his rib bones, and he was flung across the room, dropping Anne in the moment of impact.
Anne fell to the ground and quickly walked over to Marcy, who was now whimpering in a crouch and holding her crushed arm against her chest, ignoring her shattered crossbow and the blood that now stained her clothing. Both Sprig and Anne sat beside her with their hands hovering in the air, not sure what to do to help or ease the pain she was feeling.
Sasha turned to face them, and as if they felt her gaze, they also looked up at her. Those flaming pink eyes watched the three of them intently, their expression growing even more annoyed at the sight of Marcy's blood and limp arm, the flames getting bigger and the gravity heavier. She approached her huddled friend and grabbed her crushed arm, forcing the bones back into place and causing her to choke back a scream. This almost made Sprig turn to yell at his older sister, but Anne quickly put a hand on her shoulder to stop him.
Her heart was telling her not to be in the way, telling her that Sasha wasn't making the situation worse, she was helping. And if before Anne trusted her blonde friend for many things, now with her heart dictating her being and throbbing with relief and devotion, Anne was sure she would follow Sasha to hell and beyond if she asked.
Because Sasha and Marcy are the only ones who her loyalty and love is worth to fully surrendering, her heart will always belong to them, and only them.
The flames in Sasha's hand wrapped around Marcy's arm, and she bit her lip again to keep from crying out, her green eyes glowing brighter as she focused on the fire. It was then that the purple flames took on a green hue and grew weaker, but still completely enveloped her arm, stopping the bleeding and slowly closing the wounds. That done, Sasha gently released her arm, turning back towards Andrias, who was spitting blood from where he was kneeling, a mixture of fury and despair on his face as he faced the blonde.
"How... How can it be...? You should have lost your connection to the stones, you should be dead!" Sasha's only reaction was to growl, sounding even deeper than the first, and taking a step towards the tyrant king, who nearly lost his balance as fear took over his being.
He knows how dangerous and powerful the gifts in the box are. He'd seen once what the Holders are capable of, and even that day he didn't seem as threatening as this moment.
Because he knows that if there's something more dangerous than a Holder who's angry at someone for taking something important out of them, it's a Holder determined to do what they has to do to protect what matters to them.
And those flaming eyes promised him something worse than death for hurting her friends and family.
"F... FIRE!" At his command, the frog-bots started firing, with more of them still about to arrive due to the last command Andrias made using the box. Before they could get close to Sasha, however, she slammed both hands to the ground, the flames turning pink, and a wall of fire erupted between them, the robots' attacks being consumed as they touched it.
Having created the barrier for those behind her, she leapt over and landed right between the frog-bots, some being destroyed by the impact of the landing. She ignored them and went towards the tyrant king, who tried to defend himself with his shield, but to no avail as a single elbow strike from Sasha completely destroyed it. Wasting no time, she grabbed Andrias' arm and hurled him against the wall, which with the force of the blow ended up cracking and breaking, almost creating a hole.
Andrias shuddered in pain, and as he looked around, he realized that the hilt of his sword was close to him. He tried to reach out and try to fight back, but as soon as his fingers brushed the weapon, Sasha grabbed him by the injured tail, which made him scream in agony, and pulled him hard to throw him to the ground on the other side of the living room. The entire ground shook, causing some to lose their balance, and the tyrant king vomited blood, his internal wound growing worse as the fight progressed. He tried to get up to do something, anything, only to be forced to remain on the ground by gravity that grew much stronger where he lay, the ground itself cracking with the weight it was being forced to bear. Sasha started to move closer, walking like a predator about to pounce on its prey.
The king had never been so terrified as he was now.
Meanwhile, Anne approached the nearest window and whistled outside, and quickly she heard the singing of her loyal bird close by, ready to take whoever fell. Without hesitating, she sent the warrior amphibians to jump for Joe Sparrow to take them away, Grime, Priscilla and Yunan quickly obeying her, not before Yunan gently ruffling Anne's hair. Marcy was about to ask them to leave soon so Joe could return and take the Plantars to safety when she noticed the portal began to spark, its size seeming to shrink slightly as it blinked.
The portal was failing.
"S-Sasha, Anne! The portal! We need to go now!" Marcy screamed as she got to her feet, the green flames starting to go out along with the fire barrier, leaving them vulnerable to the robot army. She notices Sasha stop her walk and Anne starts to approach before turning to the Plantars. "Quick, go with the others at Joe's back! Hopefully, you'll only have a kind of bumpy landing."
"B-But what about the box?!" Hop Pop exclaimed, pointing to the box right behind the army that had started to gather near them. Anne quickly unsheathed her sword and slashed at those nearby, her irises sparking again.
"No time! We'll have to solve it when the time comes!" As much as Marcy wanted to argue, she knew Anne was right, especially when Marcy noticed new frog-bots arriving on the horizon, weapons ready to take down anyone who got in their way. They wouldn't be able to take on this army the way they were, and if they were really lucky, the crack in the box would prevent Andrias from making new portals or limit the amount.
Those in the room continued to try to surround the two girls, Anne grunted as she brandished her sword, being Marcy and the Plantars' current only defense considering her friend's crossbow was completely destroyed and her other weapon was defective. The human soldier looked back where the portal started to close, then back to where Joe was with the other three amphibians, where she also had some robots in the way, in addition to the ones that were quickly approaching by flying. If Anne managed to destroy those in the way, the Plantars would be safe to run, and then it would just be a matter of calling Sasha and the three of them could leave.
The room suddenly got hotter, and a flaming pink star decimated the robots in front of Anne. The two humans perked up with her appearance, with Sasha's powers, it would be easy to make way for both the Plantars and the box...
(But Sasha had other plans.)
Before anyone could react, Sasha grabbed Anne's arm and threw her against the small group, who, thanks to the force of the blow, were also thrown back. Straight to the closing portal.
At that moment, for the three humans, everything went slow motion.
Flaming pink eyes softened, a small satisfied smile appearing on her face.
Bright blue and green eyes widened in terror as they realized her friend's plan as they watched helplessly as she stood among the robots.
Powerless against the knowledge that they were being forced to leave the one they most admired and loved a full dimension away from them.
By herself.
"SASHA!"
The portal's glow intensified, brightening the entire room and temporarily blinding anyone looking.
When it went out, the portal was gone.
Sasha took a deep breath before sighing, then shuddering and falling to her knees, starting to cough to the point where she felt a metallic taste in her mouth. She quickly recovered, some blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, and looked to where the other three warriors had gone. Joe was already flying away, having realized that no one else would come to him or just been scared by the glow. That done, she turned back to the frog-bot army and Andrias, who was managing to pull himself up to a kneeling position now that gravity was no longer strong, a fearful expression on his features.
Mostly when he noticed he was stuck with her.
"W… Why didn't you leave too? You could have gone with them, so why not?!"
Sasha did nothing for a while, ignoring the robots who were pointing their weapons at her and simply staring at Andrias blankly, her pink eyes still burning, but not quite as intensely as before. Slowly she extinguished the flames from her hand, lifted her arm and wiped the blood from her mouth, looking at the new color that now stained her hand.
(As she imagined, Andrias blood is still red, but a much darker shade, and not as liquid as human blood.
She wonders which one will end up staining the place the most, considering their differences.)
"I'm already dead..." was her reply, much to the surprise of the tyrant king, both at her speech and the fact that she had casually managed to burn the blood on her hands with her flames.
(Sasha knew, somewhere deep inside she felt that as soon as she deactivated her powers, she would die. Whether from the severe damage she'd taken earlier, or from overusing her powers, or a mixture of the two. What matters is that when this was over, she would fall dead to the ground.
Maybe that was supposed to be a terrifying and frightening thought, but for some reason, Sasha was calm. After all, before that happened, she could wreak as much chaos on enemy lines as possible, maybe if she didn't manage to kill him, at least she could hurt Andrias to the point that he'll be unable to move for a few years. Enough time for him to rethink his plan or that Earth is already prepared for an invasion.
But the most important...)
"... And that way, they will live."
White.
For a while, white and silence was the only thing they saw and heard.
And right then, pain, loud noise, and the smell of smoke flooded them senses.
The three frogs and the two humans grunted, trying to get up into a sitting position, quickly noticing that they were on something metallic and warm.
When they looked back, they saw two adult humans and a baby behind glass, looking at them in shock. Even in shock, the man still took a picture of them with a cell phone.
It took two seconds for that information to be processed in the heads of the five.
Quickly they looked around. Cars of all kinds stopped in a traffic jam, some drivers even honking in frustration. Smoke filling the surrounding air. Signs and light poles on both sides of the road. Some trees, but still full of tall buildings as far as they could see.
"What the...?"
"Oh my frog..."
"What is this place?"
The two humans had no more doubts.
They looked at each other, dark blue eyes meeting mismatched brown and green eyes.
In a single breath, the two whispered together:
"Home."