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“Anne, Anne, Annabanana! Look!”
Anne lifted her head from the pillow and glared half-heartedly at the tv Marcy’s eyes were glued to. Some dude with muscles way too huge and a mass of bananas for hair screamed at the top of his lungs or would have been screaming at the top of his lungs if Marcy hadn’t muted the old static tv in her basement so her parents wouldn’t ruin their sleepover.
“Aw yeah, look at him go!” Marcy continued to cheer on for the buff dude as he pummeled some poor baddie to death and Anne stuffed her head back into her pillow. “If only we could do something like that.”
“Mm, that’s good Mar-Mar,” Anne murmured as she drifted back to sleep. Anime was cool and all, but she didn’t really care to watch the late-night shonen block when she could stream some cutesy rom-com on her phone anytime. Especially when a fight lasts for ten episodes straight and half of it was spent powering up into some super form.
Super transformations were kinda cliche anyway. It’s pretty cool the first time, but every show features them now and the characters get new forms so often it becomes formulaic. And honestly, it was tiring and confusing listening to all the anime nerds at school argue if Super Something Infinite can beat Gold Extra Ridiculous.
Or at least that’s what she thought until something awakening within her. It all kinda clicked, that weird feeling bubbling inside her chest arriving in Amphibia. She didn’t know how to describe it, but it felt sturdy and unfailing. Like setting foot on dry solid land after months balancing on your toes to avoid being tossed by rocky waves.
It was a tinkle on most days when the worst of her troubles is to avoid being caught slacking off on her chores. But on other days, when fighting for life against monstrous predators or whatever nonsense Wartwood was caught up in, it felt solid enough to place her hands on and use it for a split second, before retreating into the depths of her heart until the next near-death scenario.
It faded after a while, sometime after she and Marcy cleared the first two temples, and she figured whatever that feeling was bundled up stress and adrenaline. Survival instincts born sometime while toughing it out in the wild, and died as she gained a second home and Sasha finally came around. She didn't need it anymore, she was strong enough on her own to handle the ups and downs of friendships and adapting to a new world. For the first time in forever, everything was alright.
Or at least everything was alright until Sasha betrayed her trust, Kingo Andrias betrayed them all, and Spring was falling to his death.
She was powerless, useless, and frankly, fed up with the universe screwing her over.
And then, it all clicked. The phantom feeling condensed into… something. Something vibrant and strong, falling perfectly into a pit in her heart, begging her to reach out and grasp it.
And she did.
King Andrias was right there, tyranny in the making and the perfect punching bag. Everything that happened wasn't his fault; he didn't drag her across worlds for some silly little adventure or tore their friendship apart for more power. But his multi-world conquest was bigger than Marcy's and Sasha's mistakes and someone had to make things alright.
Light flooded her veins, strong and swift and untouchable. Gravity bent to her will and bottled anger and confusion and sorrow exploded into white-hot fury focused on a single target.
It's just for a few seconds, but she hardly remembers any of it. Just that she forced a king to bow in front of her, and for once she was the one in control. It felt….good.
And then, it felt wrong. Lightning coursing through her veins stagnated and turned into thick heavy lead weighing down her limbs. Her laser-sharp focus dissolves into a hazy lens covering the world and thunder rang in her skull. The power slipped through her hands and something had been chiseled from her heart, leaving a throbbing behind. She had to let go, but King Andrias was defeated. Everything had to be alright now.
Everything fell apart seconds afterward. Marcy is barely clinging to her life, Sasha got left behind, and the Plantars are now stuck in a strange new world with no way home. If only she held on a little longer, stuck up the pain and discomfort and got the job done, everyone would have been alright.
The familiar unfamiliar drone of the city and shuffling of bodies penetrated her ears as she attempted to shove the memory of failing out of her mind. Anne lifted her head from her pillow, barely making out the shallows of the Planters sprawled out in makeshift beds across her room and her parents curled into each other at the foot of her bed. Hop Pop, Spring, Polly, they endured so much to help her get home and now they’re worlds away from their own. Her parents took her back in with open arms, but they'd never let her go if they knew of the truth of what happened and what’s coming.
King Andrias is coming after her, after them, with an army of killer robots that’ll raze her city to the ground. Her family wouldn’t be able to fight back and if they even tried, King Andrias would kill them to get to her. He nearly killed Spring, he probably killed Marcy, she can’t let him get to anyone else.
As bad as they felt, she needed her powers to make everything alright. She needs them to save Marcy and Sasha no matter how badly they hurt her and stop King Andrias from taking over countless worlds because there’s no one else who can. She can’t waste them on stupid things because then she wouldn’t be strong enough to keep everyone safe even if each new threat bring her closer and closer to her limits, chiseling more and more of her sanity away. It hurts and hurts but….
Everything has to be alright, even if she isn’t.