Chapter Text
Kneeling on the ground, wrapped up in their family group hug, it hits her suddenly.
Anne- uninjured despite the fact that she did just die- has to hold back another wave of tears (she’s cried so much already) at the realization that this is it. This is goodbye for real. There’ll be no more adventures, no more market days, no more inside jokes and sibling teasing and farm chores.
She bites her lip. This is the last time she’ll hold her family- her family, because that’s what they are, after this year together- and oh, oh frog, that hurts and she doesn’t want to let go because that’ll mean she’ll have to stand with Sasha and Marcy while the portal (the last one, ever) is opened and then she’ll have to wave goodbye and leave Amphibia and her family forever and-
It hurts so, so bad.
(Why can’t she have both? Why can’t she live on Earth and visit Amphibia and Wartwood and her family whenever she wants? Why couldn’t the god-person who looked like Domino just given her all three stones back intact instead of three shards with a note that says “Use them wisely ;)”? Why can’t she have both of her families? It’s not fair and Anne’s so mad about it but she can’t do anything-)
Tucked under her chin, Sprig whimpers, and Anne exhales wetly, squeezing him (and everyone else) a little tighter. She doesn’t want to leave him. He’s her first real friend and they’re each other’s everything and she just… has to leave now? Forever? And never see any of them ever again?
She’s a sister.
She’s a granddaughter.
She’s a best friend.
And she has to give that all up.
(She can’t; she’s not strong enough. She’s not strength or wit; she’s heart and it feels like her heart is shattering into a million billion pieces and no amount of superglue can fix something like that.)
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
Anne shifts to stand, and Polly mumbles something that sounds like “Don’t go yet.” Anne has to fight the urge to fall right back down and scoop her little sister up and promise that no, she’s not going yet. She’ll stay a bit more.
But she stands anyway, even though it breaks her heart, and pets Bessie on the head between her eyestalks, and lets Frobo give her one last back-breaking hug. She clears her throat.
“Well,” Anne says, and her voice breaks. She takes a shuddering breath and continues. “I guess this is it.”
Hop Pop smiles wetly back at her. “I s’pose it is,” he croaks out. “tell your parents we said hi, okay?”
Anne nods mutely, not trusting herself to speak all of a sudden.
“Anne, c’mon; we gotta go,” Sasha yells (kinda hoarsely) from somewhere behind her, and Anne nods.
“Coming,” she bites out, and spares her family one last glance. Five pairs of indescribably sad eyes meet her own wet ones, and she tries her best to smile.
“‘Bye,” she whispers, and turns to the others.
She doesn’t even get to take one step.
There’s a crack and a whoosh, and- there’s a portal on the cliffside.
A portal.
Anne stops in her tracks, gaping. She blinks real hard, like that’ll make everything make sense.
Nope, it’s still there. It’s not the music box portal, though, because it’s not a mash-up of blue and pink and green. This one’s blue, and only blue, just like-
“Hey, it worked!” a familiar voice yells over the swell of confused voices, and Anne squints into the light.
“What the-“
“Hello! Is this Amphibia?” Terri- Terri!- pokes her head out of the portal, to the accompaniment of several yells of “Human!”
Her eyes land on Anne, and her freckled face breaks out into a grin.
“Anne! Hey! We got the portal working!”
Anne probably looks like a fish with how far her jaw has dropped.
Sasha, hand on one of her swords, rushes up next to Anne. “Who-“
Polly’s excited bellow drowns out whatever Sasha was going to say, her little body colliding into the back of Anne’s head as she grabs fistfuls of her hair to stay balanced. “HEY! HOW’D YOU DO THAT?!”
Anne covers her ears.
Terri laughs as she steps fully into Amphibia, some sort of sensor thingie in her hand. “Not too sure! We knew you guys had the music box, but I wanted to try and use some of the tech from those frog-bots to see if we could do anything with that.” she rubs the back of her head. “Whatever it was, it worked!”
(Anne gets the distinct feeling the stone-god-Domino-person had something to do with that. She’s not sure whether she should feel annoyed or relieved.)
“Huh,” Polly says, and Anne feels small webbed hands grab her leg. She looks down, and Sprig is peering cautiously at Terri.
“How… how stable is the portal?” he says, and there’s a slight quiver to his voice. Anne rests her hand on his head.
“Stable enough, from what I can tell. The measurements”- she waves the sensor around- “say it can be opened for a bit possibly whenever- which makes it a permanent portal!”
“Whoa, does that mean we’ve got a music box replacement?!” Marcy bounces up next to Sasha, eyes sparkling, with Olivia and Yunan trailing behind. “We’ve still got access to Amphibia?!”
Terri opens her mouth, but-
“YOU BROKE THE MUSIC BOX?! WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” Dr. Jan suddenly shoots through the portal, and Sasha grabs her sword again. Right. Sasha and Marcy never met Terri or Dr. Jan.
Sasha gives her a side eye, and Anne waves her off. I’ll explain later, she mouths, and Sasha nods, but still keeps her hand on the pommel of her sword.
Eh, that’s fine, as long as she’s not hurting anyone.
“Anne had to blow up the moon,” Polly says matter-of-factly.
“And had to absorb the power of all three stones so she could do that but that broke the stones in the process so those are gone but there’s three shards left and we were gonna use those to open a portal but it would probably be the last ‘cause the shards are so small and all the remaining power would be used up and hi, I’m Marcy!” Marcy says in one breath, still bouncing. Terri mouths Blew up the moon? and Dr. Jan blinks and points at Marcy and Sasha.
“Hey, you two are those other girls who went missing, aren’t you? Glad to see you’re alright!”
“Yeah, that’s us,” Sasha squares her shoulders. “and you are…?”
“People who don’t have enough time to introduce themselves!” A third person shoves through the portal, and Mr. X gives Terri and Dr. Jan a withering glare. “Look, I only got enough clearance for this portal to be opened for a couple minutes, and that’s time you’re all wasting! Let’s move it, people!”
Little hands grasp at her hair and leg a little tighter, and Anne speaks up. “Wait. Can we use this portal again ever? Or is this a one-time deal?”
Mr. X huffs and pushes his glasses up his nose. “Well, normally, this would be a one-time deal. Citizens aren’t normally allowed to have access to tech like this. However,” he holds up a hand before Anne can retort, “you aren’t an average citizen. You stopped an alien invasion of Earth basically single-handedly, which likely gets you some perks. I’m gonna guess you’ll want unlimited access to this?” He jerks a thumb behind him to the portal, and Anne nods fervently, followed by the other Plantars.
“Thought so.” Mr. X clicks his tongue. “Look, it’s gonna take a bit. I’m going to need to get clearance for everyone who wants it, and that does not happen quickly, so you all had better wrap it up here so we can get back and start that process. Miss Boonchuy here will be able to give us some sway as savior of Earth, but that means we’ll need all hands on deck back on Earth, okay? No stragglers.”
Marcy leans behind Sasha to poke Anne in the arm. “Who’s this guy?”
“FBI,” Anne says out of the corner of her mouth. She leans back when she feels the hands on her legs let go, and Sprig steps forward.
“So, wait,” he says, wringing his hands. “…we don’t have to say goodbye?”
“Eh, not permanently,” Mr. X waves a hand, “but for, like, a couple months. Just until we get everything settled.”
Oh. Wait. Anne’s breath hitches.
“I can come back?” Oop, she’s tearing up again. Sprig looks back at her, and his eyes are wet, too.
Mr. X shrugs. “I mean, if you want to. Seems a bit too humid, if you ask me. Anyway, we gotta wrap this up. You three,” he snaps at Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, “let’s go! We’re on a schedule.”
Sasha nods, and her eyes are suspiciously shiny. She peels off from the others and strides quickly back to Grime. Marcy, if it’s even possible, is bouncing even faster now, and basically hurls herself back into Olivia and Yunan’s arms. Anne turns to her family again, and it feels like her heart is supergluing itself back together.
Polly baps the top of her head excitedly. “I wanna go back to Earth!” she yells, and Anne laughs wetly and tips her head slightly so Polly rolls off and into her arms.
“We can have as many sleepovers as you want, dude. I think my parents would be happy to see you guys, too.”
“I wanna see all the robots humans have,” Polly grins, and Anne looks down when Sprig barrels into her legs. He sniffles, and she bends down to wrap him in a hug.
“Hey, hey,” she says softly, and his hands grab at her sleeves. “You hear that, buddy? This isn’t goodbye. It’s just, like, a ‘see-you-later.’ I’ll be back before you know it.”
“I know,” he croaks. “I’m just- I’m really happy, y’know? I thought we weren’t gonna see each other ever again, but we are, and it’s just…”
“Yeah, it’s a lot,” Anne murmurs, rubbing his back a little. “I’m feeling about the same way. I know we’re, like, best friends in any world, no matter what, but it’s a lot nicer to be able to actually see each other instead of just knowing that, you know?”
“Yeah,” Sprig laughs wetly, and Anne squeezes him a little tighter. “yeah, I know.”
“Spranne against the world?” Anne bumps her head against his.
Sprig bumps her back. “Yeah. Spranne against the world.”
Anne straightens quickly when she thinks of something. “Wait, before I go,” she releases him and puts Polly down, reaching into her pocket for her phone. She holds it out to Sprig, and he looks up at her, confused. “I want you to have this. Maybe it’ll help you out on adventures and stuff, but we could also try to see if phones work across dimensions. Y’know, when I have a new phone.”
He finally takes it, and holds it to his chest like it’s something precious. His smile has a slight wobble to it when he looks up at her. “I’ll take good care of it, I promise.”
“I know you will,” Anne grins, and finally stands. “And I promise, dude, as soon as I’m able to come back, I will, just you wait.”
“You better!” Polly laughs as Frobo scoops her up. “Or I’m gonna kick your butt!”
“No attacking your sister,” Hop Pop sighs, but he’s smiling tearily. “but I agree with that sentiment. You’d better get everything cleared up quick, girl, y’hear? We’re gonna miss you somethin’ fierce while you’re gone.”
“Got it,” Anne nods, and she feels a thousand times lighter than she did a couple minutes ago.
A large hand pats her head and Frobo whirs, “See you later!”
“Same, big guy,” she grins, and finally turns to leave. She looks back, and she’s smiling, now. “I’ll be back soon. Promise.”
Her family waves her off, and she steps forward to join Sasha and Marcy. They look a lot happier than they did, and Anne thinks she probably looks the same. She feels a lot better than she did, of course. She smiles at them.
“Ready to go?”
Marcy half-shrugs. “Sorta? I mean, now that I have the opportunity, I kiiiinda maybe asked Olivia and Yunan if I could stay. I… don’t really want to move, if my parents are still doing that when I get back.”
“But?” Anne asks, because, well. Marcy’s standing here.
“But,” Marcy sighs, “they said I should go back, if only to tell my parents I’m all right. And try living on Earth again. And facing my fears. And I could decide after that what I want to do, ‘cause they said I’m always welcome to come and stay with them if I wanted to come back and live here. Which is nice because I really want to get to know them better ‘cause I didn’t get that chance, y’know? With everything going on.”
Sasha nods. “Yeah, I get that. The… not wanting to leave. I, uh, almost asked Grime the same thing. Because you know my parents.” It’s clipped, and Sasha is gripping her arm as she says it, but yeah. Both Anne and Marcy know Sasha’s family situation, and during the six months they’d been running the rebellion, Anne had seen how much Grime had been like family- good family- to Sasha. She gets it. Part of her also wants to stay with the Plantars, but her parents (and Domino) are back on Earth. It’s only been a day but she already misses them a lot.
“Well,” Anne says, and claps both of them on the back. “we’ll be back soon, right? We’ve got time, now.”
Sasha and Marcy finally smile, and Anne releases them to step forward towards Terri’s portal, towards one half of home. Mr. X has already pushed Terri and Dr. Jan back through, and stands right at the edge of it, waiting for them. He nods, and Anne and the girls turn back towards Amphibia one last time, at least for right now.
Valeriana steps forward, and Anne hands her the shards of the stones. She’ll probably know what to do with them. They nod at each other, and Sasha and Marcy move to stand at her sides.
To applause, they join hands and bow, petals dropping from the flower crowns their families had made them. They straighten, and Sasha and Marcy step through the light. Anne goes to join them, but pauses. She whirls around and grins, throwing up a peace sign.
“We’ll be back!” she yells, and it feels like she’s about to burst with how happy she is. She walks backward through the portal like that, grinning madly, and the people of her second home wave back at her, smiles and laughter following her as the light blots everything out.
Her final view of it all is her family, her frog family, shouting “Goodbye!” and “See you later!” as she steps back onto Earth, back into the waiting arms of her parents.
Terri closes the portal behind her, and the buzz of fluorescent lights replaces the crackling of the dimensional rip.
She looks at Mr. X. “Just a couple months?”
He nods. “Just a couple months.”
Anne smiles. She can wait that long.
She’s got time now, after all.
