Chapter Text
Sasha strode through the castle with pride. It had been close to two months, but the high of victory was still with her. Even now, the castle was filled with people cleaning things up for a celebratory gala in a few days. A part of her was impatient to get back home, but with the music box broken as it was, there was little she could do about that.
In the hall, she recognized members of the rebellion she helped lead. The toads saluted,the newts gave a respectful nod, while several of the frogs saddled alongside to ask her about her day. She may not have ended up queen of this world, but eh, being a national hero was growing on her. Anne definitely had the right idea on that.
Speaking of Anne she was heading off to see-
“General! General!” a voice called out.
Sasha, waved generously at the voice not bothering to look “yes yes, keep up the good work, you're doing a great job.”
“Wha- well, thanks, but no I need to consult you on something.”
It took Sasha a moment to recognize them, but they were the newt sculptor the provisional council had hired to carve a big stone relief to commemorate the victory. “Ah, yeah, Leonewto right? What’s up?” she asked curious what business they could have.
The sculptor had a fancy hairdo and clothes both covered in Newtopian marble dust “Well General, I was hoping to get some guidance on the statue” he fumbled into his back for a pair of scrolls.
“Yeah, uh, I’m not really like the creative sort? I think Lady Olivia would-”
“Yes, yes,” he agreed. “I did go to her first, but she said you might have some better insight into this, well, conundrum.”
Skeptical Sasha took the first of the rolls of parchment and unfurled them. On display was a detailed sketch of stone carved relief of the heroes of Amphibia. Grimes, Yunan, Olivia, and even The Planters, were on the flanks.In the center was Sasha and her friends. Center right was Sasha, dressed in her armor, both swords drawn. She nodded in approval, if this was going to be on display for a thousand years she wanted it to look good. Center left was Marcy, dressed in her old ranger outfit. It wasn’t exactly accurate to the day, but it definitely left a better impression than the outfit she had worn that day. Then in the center of course was Anne, sword held aloft with her signature breastplate and t-shirt . Sasha respected Anne’s casual style, it worked for her, but Sasha still couldn’t believe she showed up to save a world in a t-shirt . Their Junior High crest was going to be immortalized on an alien world.
“And this was the alternative.” he said, handing over the second.
Sasha opened the second scroll and squinted in confusion. There was a slight difference in the pencil strokes, but by and large it looked identical to Sasha. No one was missing, everyone’s outfits (especially hers) were on point. “Uh, is there something I should be-” The newt looked away awkwardly before tapping his arm.
Sasha looked back at the picture and it dawned on her what was different.
In the first sketch Anne’s right hand rested on her hip. In the second Anne’s right hand was missing, along with the rest of her forearm.
Sasha felt her breath get knocked out of her body as the thing controlling Marcy struck her with some kind of high-tech gauntlet. She crumbled on the ground trying desperately to catch her breath. Every part of her muscle memory was trying to get her to dodge back, get distance but she just couldn’t move.
Marcy- the core- whatever looked down at her with a mocking smile, “Ah Strength, its been fun matching wits with you and your little rebellion.” it raised its sword, a smaller replica of Andrius’, heat pouring off of it “Good game.”
Sasha braced herself, but didn’t give the thing the satisfaction of flinching. one eye before feeling a shove on her shoulder, hearing a cry, and a flash of blue. She recovered a few feet away and looked back.
Anne was stumbling back, clutching at the end where her forearm was supposed to be, staring daggers at the creature.
“Heart, come now, don’t drag this out…” the creature asked in Marcy’s voice. “Your upsetting Wit”
Anne took a ragged breath, hair glowing “I Am Not Letting You HURT EITHER OF THEM”
“General? What do you think?”
Sasha snapped out of it looking back at the newt, patiently awaiting her answer.
“Usually us newts would opt for how it would look after the limb grows back, but I figured you humans might have a preference?”
“Oh… our limbs, uh, don’t grow back.”
The newt flinched “ah, that is, most unfortunate…So…”
“I really don’t think I’m the best one to ask, have you asked Anne?”
“Yes, she seemed, well… I guess I would describe it as aggressively disinterested. Which I suppose I now better understand” he admitted.
“Marcy? No, wait, that wouldn’t be a good idea.”
The newt nodded, “yes, that was Councillor Olivia’s feeling, so” he gestured back to Sasha.
“Right…” she took a deep breath. She may not be the leader of their little squad anymore, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t take these little burdens from her friends. “Okay, so maybe a pose like this?” she stepped back, drawing her sword in her left hand and tucking her right arm behind the small of her back. “That it could be read either way.”
“Ah!” the sculptor looked inspired “wait one moment!” he implored as Sasha started to relax. So she returned to the pose long enough for him to get a rough sketch before excusing himself back towards the main hall, “humans have such weird proportions,” he grumbled to himself.
Sasha let out a small breath before heading off to her original destination. Marcy had taken up residence back in her room of the palace. Sasha had thought she had done fairly well for herself in Toad tower, but you couldn’t beat royal accommodations. Especially if those accommodations were part of a long con to gain your trust. She pushed open the heavy wooden door.
“Anne, please hold still,” she heard from inside the room.
“Sorry.”
Marcy and Anne were sitting on the bed. Marcy had a tape measure and a notebook and was carefully taking notes of Anne’s left arm.
“You know people think that prosthetics are all a modern invention but they’ve actually been around for a long time! And I don’t just mean like peglegs and stuff” Marcy rambled in her normal way.
“Hey, peglegs aren’t too bad, my buddy stumpy gets by fine with one” Anne interrupted.
Marcy nodded “Well sure, but I mean that they’ve actually had pretty advanced ones even back in the 1500’s. There was this noble named Gotz Iron Hand. He commissioned a prosthetic that was able to close and hold onto his weapons-”
As Marcy continued to ramble, she took delicate hold of Anne’s hand measuring each digit with care. While she info dumped about old dead guys and their fake body parts, Anne looked down at her with a whole cocktail of emotions. Relief that Marcy was safe. Amusement at her earnest rambling. Then, finally, of course the genuine lovey dovey look Anne got when Marcy wasn’t watching.
Sasha leaned against the door watching the two dorks with a smile. It was a long road, but the three of them were finally back together. Admittedly when she heard the two of them had found each other first and were on adventures she may have reacted a little… rashly. But seeing how much closer they had gotten it was all for the best.
Now all that was left to do was wait until the most embarrassing moment to make her presence known. She may have turned over a new leaf but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little fun.
That was the plan, but as Marcy finished the ring finger, her little rant trailed off. For a few moments she was just admiring Anne’s digits with a sappy look of her own. This was exactly the moment Sash had been waiting for but something stopped her.
Anne’s face had turned, first to one of guilt, then to shame. She pulled her hand away “S-so did you get everything?”
Marcy pulled back, suddenly aware she had zoned out. “Oh, uh yeah, I have all the measurements I need.” she says, forcing a chipper tone. “I’ll get to work on it in a jiffy.”
“Great! I promised Sprig I’d- oh, hey Sash” Anne said, turning to find their friend in the doorway. “You guys got a meeting?”
“Yeah, Marcy wanted to pick my brain about-”
“Great, cool I’ll get out of your hair, later Sash, thanks Mar-Mar” Anne said leaving before Sasha or Marcy could say their goodbyes. Faintly Sasha could hear bitter admonishments of ‘stupid Anne, stupid Anne’ as she retreated.
Sasha felt a knot of guilt tie up in her gut as she watched Anne walk away.
1 Years Ago
Sasha let out a breath of condensed air as she watched Anne pace from side to side. They were in the middle of a mostly abandoned park between their houses. She was asked to meet out there and to not invite Marcy. She thought it was so they could go gift shopping or something but she’s been sitting here for five minutes now watching Anne pace back and forth fruitlessly.
Her patience spent she spoke up “Anne, girl, If you don’t start talking soon I’m gonna ditch you to warm up in a cafe.”
Anne nodded “S-sorry, I'm just trying to find the words.”
Sasha rolled her eyes “How about you just start and we’ll see where that takes us?” she suggested.
Anne nodded “Okay, so like, you know how you grow up thinking one thing all your life and you just think that's the norm? Then one day you think about it differently and suddenly everything is just different?” Sasha nodded more to keep her talking than anything else. “Like all my life I loved yellow, wore yellow everywhere, couldn’t get enough of it and then one day, BAM! Basically never wear yellow again, just totally different tastes you just start loving- green.”
“Sure?”
“But then what if green doesn’t want to be worn, what if it just wants to be around you but not with-you, with-you, you know?”
Sasha took a deep breath “Anne…”
“I mean sure I really like green now but what if I just like this one green shirt? Does that matter?”
“Anne!” Sasha said, a bit of bite in her tone. Anne stopped her pacing to look at her “girl you are giving me a novel, I need the cliff notes.”
Anne swallowed, squatting down, curling into herself, and staring at the ground. Her finger traced the little clumps of dirt that had dried on the sidewalk. She mumbled something.
Sasha, feeling like they were at the real point of it, asked gently “one more time? I couldn’t hear you…”
“... I think I like girls.”
...Huh
Well she hadn’t expected that. Though in retrospect maybe she should have? It did explain why Anne tended to zone out whenever she brought up cute boys.
Sasha tapped Anne on shoulder, then offered a hand up. Anne took it and Sasha sat her down next to her. Anne looked really shaky.
“Well, I can’t say I’m not surprised Anne, but it’s nothing to shiver and shake about. I’m not gonna judge you!” Anne looked at her with relief, “Do you need like a hug or-” Anne took her up on that almost immediately. Such a softy. Sasha rolled her eyes, patting her friend on the back. “Geez you were really worried huh?”
Anne laughed in relief and pulled away, eyes a little wet. “Yeah.”
“So who is your crush? I hope it isn’t me, otherwise things are gonna get awkward.”
“Oh, no, not at all” Anne assured… a little too quickly.
Sasha crossed her arms, “Wow, ouch, don’t hold back Anne”
Anne got wide eyed, “not that you aren’t pretty! But uh, you’ve made your preferences pretty clear?” Anne amended.
Sasha mulled it over. Acceptable. “Fine, then who is the lucky girl?” Sasha asked. It wouldn’t be easy, but Sasha had a big enough gossip circle that she could find if her crush was gay.
Anne’s face flushed as she started to avoid Sasha’s gaze, twiddling her thumbs. “That’s actually what I wanted your advice with.” a little smile appeared on Anne’s lips “I want to ask out Marcy…”
Oh.
Yeah that wasn’t gonna work. Sasha liked their little group dynamic the way it was. She was not gonna become some third wheel on this bike. Still she would have to play this cool if she was going to nip this in the bud.
“Oh!” Sasha said, false-concern leaking into her voice.
“Oh?”
“It’s- It’s nothing. So what were you thinking like chocolate or…”
“What is it Sash?” Anne asked, worried.
Too easy. “Well. I mean, we’ve known Marcy since forever right?”
“Yeah…”
“Her parents always struck me as kind of… well let's say traditional.” She looked over at Anne, the gears were already turning, “I mean, we both know Marcy. I would never call her hateful, but who knows what she’s picked up from her parents,” she warned.
“Marcy… she wouldn’t…” Anne shook her head. “But she’s always so affectionate with me.”
“Cause right now it's between friends.” Sasha put a hand on her shoulder “Who knows how she’d feel if she’d act knowing your true feelings…”
“But…”
“Listen, Anne, you came to me for advice. You're free to do as you please, but don’t come crying to me later if it blows up in your face.” she could see Anne’s anxiety spiking, time for the finishing touch “listen, I want to help, so let me scope out the situation. I’ll take her temperature on the subject and report back.” she offered magnanimously.
“Really Sash?”
“Of course, Marcy won’t suspect a thing and you won’t be putting anything at risk.”
“Thanks! You’re the best” Anne said before launching into another hug.
“I know I know.”
Now all she had to do was wait a few days to ‘report back’ that Marcy seemed put off by the questions. ‘The vibe was off, just ignorance probably.’ Might be a bad idea to confess, but if they worked at it Anne could probably come out to her - eventually. Meek little Anne would accept it and the status quo would be maintained.
Sasha looked down at the flat blade of her dagger. She was really tired of feeling like garbage every time she saw her reflection.
“Sash? SASHA!”
Sasha almost fell back out of her chair. Just catching herself on the nearby bedpost.
Marcy snickered, “rare to see you zone out Sash, you feeling alright?”
Sasha shook her head, “yeah, guess a few sleepovers in a row is starting to get to me.” she said, making a show of rubbing at her eyes. “Almost done with the next draft?” Sasha stood up and looked over Marcy’s shoulder.
“Yeah, what do you think?”
After Andrius fell and no one seemed keen on having another monarch rule over the land. The toads said the strong should rule, the newts insisted the wise, while the frogs objected to being ruled over by either. They were at a deadlock, that was until Sprig Planter informed everyone that the human world didn’t have any kings or queens in charge. The council asked the three resident humans to help develop a new system.
Sasha and Anne were hesitant, but Marcy agreed for them.
Marcy had an impressive command over how governments worked, and set about developing a balanced system for Amphibia. Sasha had a mind quick to recognize where the shrewd and ruthless could abuse those systems for their own ends. Anne, who had neither the mind nor character for either of these things, fell asleep in the first session. She was excused to focus on recuperating.
“You need an outside body to accept new justices. If the chief justice is the only one who can confirm new members and dismiss those of misconduct, they could keep the bench empty or stack it with only those who agree with him.”
Marcy looked down at her document reading closely “Ah, man-” she crossed it out with ink and started a rewrite at the bottom of the scroll. “Come on Wu, that was an easy one”
Sasha stood back, stretching her back. Distracted by past regrets or not, she had been helping Marcy with this for the last six hours, “Alright, as much as I would love to keep forging the future of this world, I gotta get some sleep.” she said, patting Marcy on the back.
“H-huh? Is it that late?” Marcy looked to Sasha and then the window, where it had grown pitch black outside. “W-wait, Sasha, want to have another sleepover? I can brew us some buggachinos and you can tell me more about the rebellion.” she said already moving over to a mass of chemistry equipment Marcy had used as a coffee machine.
Sasha looked at Marcy a bit incredulously. “Another one Marcy? It’d be the third one this week,” Sasha said, weary, she was bone tired. While she was happy to expound on the many cool battles she led. She had to sleep sometime .
Marcy flinched back, crossing one arm over her chest ”I-I know but I missed to much and I just-” She was shaking a little.
A part of Sasha, the selfish part of her, would have absolutely taken that at face value to get to her bed faster. But that part of her was a bitch, and she was better than her. So, she scrutinized her friend.
Marcy looked at her nervously, trying - and failing to take deep steady breaths. Her eyes were ringed and looked like they hadn’t slept in days, which was backed up by the number of coffee stained mugs littered about her room.
Marcy had been in a coma for the first week after the fight. When she finally woke up she claimed that she didn’t really remember much after the helmet was forced on her. She seemed much more concerned with Anne and Sasha and then whatever had happened to her.
But the way she shook here at the thought of being alone for a night… “Marcy… what happened after Andrius put that helmet on you?”
Marcy froze up, “I-I don’t know, there was just that flash, some pain- th-then I woke up in the infirmary after it was all over.” she insisted. Sasha gave her a look that said she wasn’t buying it. “You know your right, its late, I’ll see you tomorrow…”
Sasha wanted to kick herself. “You know what Marmar, maybe you have a point. My room is way out in the base of the castle,” Marcy immediately brightened and started back to lighting a burner for the buggachinos but Sasha stopped her, “but since we both need the sleep, I’m just gonna crash here.”
“Crash?”
“Yeah, we’ll get ready for bed and just crash. No snacks, no games, no gossip- and I’ll be right here the whole night.” she assured
Marcy took a moment to consider it before nodding.
Before long both of them were in pajamas and laying down for the night. Marcy’s bed was easily big enough for the both of them. Marcy curled up on one side with Sasha laid out on the other.
Sasha wanted nothing else but to nod off but she was waiting to make sure Marcy didn’t sneak off to work into the night.
However as time passed Sasha didn’t hear either Marcy trying to sneak off to do something, nor the quiet snores signaling she had while asleep. Which was weird since usually if Marcy wasn’t actively being playing a game or chatting she was usually the first to pass out.
“Still up Marcy?”
“...mhmm”
“Trouble sleeping?”
“...”
“You know you can talk to us, me or Anne, about whatever happened right?”
Marcy tugged the sheets tighter around herself but said nothing.
Okay, this wasn’t working. Different approach. “So, like, you definitely want to kiss Anne right?”
That got her attention. Marcy whirled about in a mass of flailing limbs and sheets. Looking at Sasha with a quickly flushing face. “Wha- how- I mean, n-no of course not- pft.” Marcy said, trying to play it off looking casually off to the side- but ruined it by keeping checking Sasha.
“Real, smooth Marcy. Convincing.” Sasha deadpanned.
“Ugh,” flustered Marcy, grabbed her pillow and squeezed it, “I thought you said there was no gossiping?”
“Well originally we were supposed to be asleep by now.” Sasha prodded
“How did you know?”
Sasha sat up, “Well, my main clue was that a few seconds ago I asked if you wanted to kiss Anne and you immediately freaked out-” Marcy threw her pillow at Sasha’s face who couldn’t help but laugh.
“Sash, you can’t tell Anne, please.”
“What? That you want to kiss n’ get married and adopt a bunch of pollywogs?”
This was great, all she had to do was bolster up Anne’s confidence to ask out Marcy. Then bam! Another personal failing in the rear window.
Sasha felt hands grab her shoulders, desperate and looked back at Marcy. In her eyes weren’t the worried anxious ones she had seen in Anne, but a more primal fear “Please, you can’t,” tears brimmed at the corners of her eyes.
“Mar, really its-”
“She can’t know how selfish I am!” Marcy said, whatever mask she had been holding onto cracking. “After what I did to her- to everyone. Sh- she can’t” tears started to flow. Sasha pulled Marcy into a hug “I-I’m fine. I’m really fine. No one needs to worry about me. Please-”
“I just didn’t want to be alone.”
Sasha rubbed small circles into Marcy’s back for over an hour until she fell asleep
This was going to be complicated.