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The look on Anne and Sasha’s face when Andrias told them about what she did, the way they pulled away from her with betrayal in their eyes — it felt like a knife in her heart.
She wanted to rage against them, act like it was unfair. All she had wanted was to keep the group together.
But deep down, she knew it was selfish. There was a reason she had kept it secret, after all. She wanted to stay in a happy place forever, where there were people in her life who cared for her.
And by forcing Anne and Sasha along with her, she had made it clear that she cared more about her own happiness than theirs. Just because she didn’t want to see her parents again didn’t mean they didn’t; the first time that guilt sunk its claws into Marcy was the first time she heard Anne talking about her parents while in Amphibia.
Marcy didn’t know how to let go, and she ended up dragging everyone else down with her.
And it didn’t even work. Anne and Sasha weren’t friends anymore, and there’s no way either of them would be friends with Marcy after all of this.
And even Andrias, her mentor, the one who had believed in her, one of the first people to really listen to her, had stabbed her in the back with his betrayal. Marcy was alone, and she didn’t know what to do.
She fought by their side, and used Joe Sparrow to save Sprig from falling to his death. It felt like the least she could do for Anne, someone who had had so much misplaced trust in her.
And when she got back — the box had taken too much damage in the fight to be usable. King Andrias managed to scoop up the crumpled frame with the deactivated gems, and rush off before anyone could stop them.
The box, the only way she could start to make up for her mistakes by bringing them home, was gone. It was over.
-
Only hours later, she lay in her empty bed in the castle, pretending like she might sleep that night. She knew all of the rooms around her were filled by people she had let down, people that hated her. Anne, Sasha… the loneliness felt like a physical pain buried deep in her chest, an empty hole in her heart.
Curled under her thick duvet, she almost didn’t hear that first tentative knock on the door.
But Marcy definitely noticed when it softly eased open, and peeking out revealed a very uncomfortable-looking Anne with fidgety hands and even messier hair than normal hovering in the doorway.
“Anne?” she asked quietly.
“Uh, is it… alright if I come in? For the night, I mean.”
“But… you’re mad,” Marcy said stupidly, as though Anne could have already forgotten.
“I’m still furious . And hurt. And… we’re going to need to talk in the morning.” And Anne definitely looked furious, her clenched fists and angry blush making Marcy remember, with a wince, Anne slamming her head into a toad’s metal helmet out of sheer rage. And the toad being the one to fall in pain.
But Anne’s fists slowly released. She took a deep breath with her eyes closed, clearly taking a moment to calm herself down. Marcy’s heart beat erratically in her chest, a twisted ache behind each beat at the knowledge that she had hurt Anne this badly.
After her flush had faded away, Anne opened her eyes and continued. “I’m angry. But I also care about you. You just made it clear how afraid you are of being alone, and — I guess I just thought you might be lonely tonight.”
Marcy stared at her blankly, mind unable to fully compute.
Anne was mad at her. Marcy was the one who had betrayed her, had made herself the villain to Anne’s hero story. Every piece of media she’d ever consumed had taught her that the hero being angry means the villain has to suffer to make up for what they’d done. Right?
But here was Anne, with her big heart and sad eyes, reaching out to her when Marcy had stumbled again. Even if things weren’t the same again, Anne still cared so deeply.
Marcy’s throat constricted under the pressure of trying to understand, eyes burning fiercely under the weight of Anne’s tired gaze.
“Woah uh… dude, are you crying? Ohmygosh did I break you?”
Marcy choked on a wet laugh that bubbled out of her. She shuffled over, leaving an obviously Anne-sized empty space on the bed next to her.
Of course, if Anne was willing to stay, there was no thread in the multiverse where Marcy didn’t invite her in.
After this whole mess, even with Anne’s offer, Marcy didn’t really think she’d join. Marcy didn’t deserve it, after everything. First her parents, then Andrias, then the look on Anne and Sasha’s faces when they learned about her finding the box — maybe Marcy was lonely because she deserved to be lonely. Anne shouldn’t let herself be pulled into that.
But here Anne was anyway. And Anne walked over to the bed, pausing to look down at her with an expression Marcy couldn’t place, despite growing up side-by-side. But only for a moment. And then Anne climbed into the bed, and pulled Marcy into a hug.
It didn’t magically solve everything, but the clawing ache in her chest did ease its hold a bit.
She clutched desperately at Anne’s shirt, annoyed at her own clinginess even as she desperately tucked herself further into Anne’s embrace.
But after everything, Anne just pulled her closer.
Anne rubbed soothing circles over her back, saying nothing as wetness soaked her shirt. And when Marcy let out a wet sob she couldn’t completely smother, Anne just pulled her closer, pressing her own face to the top of Marcy’s head.
Everything wasn’t okay. Marcy knew she had screwed up, and she didn’t know how to make it right. Andrias’s betrayal of her, and Anne and Sasha’s falling out, both weighed on her too heavily to hold.
But here, in this moment, with Anne humming one of her mother’s Thai lullabies into her hair as Marcy curled into Anne’s warmth, the desperate loneliness clutching at her loosened its grip a bit. She listened to the homesick melody, and breathed.