Chapter Text
If you asked Sasha Waybright eight months ago if she would believe that one day, she would fight her possessed best friend until they both died, she would have laughed at you and then punched you in the face.
Now that it was happening, it really put into perspective just how insane her life had become.
She dodged a fiery scythe that swung toward her, glaring at the revolting imitation of one of her closest friends, Marcy Wu. This...Darcy, was truly a pathetic creature, so close and yet so far from mortality that she doubted it even grasped the real concept of death. And yet, for a thing that was so ignorant to the trials of mortals, it was dead set on slaughtering her and everything she knew. It was almost comical how it seemed to both grasp the true reality of everything, and yet see everything as a game at the exact same time. It knew it was playing with lives, and it didn't care because it would survive.
Not for long-
The sound of cooking flesh echoed across the walls as the other's weapon sliced through her back, slicing down her spine and likely puncturing a few organs in the process.
It was over, wasn't it? She was dying whether she liked it or not, whether she won or lost it didn't matter.
No, it can't end this easily! She needed to at least end this madness before she went, to land the final blow on her foe and kill it once and for all.
She stood again from will alone, landing one last attack on the thick cord that tethered her opponent/friend to the castle walls, relishing in the thing's screams as it crumpled to the ground as she did. She felt every muscle in her body finally relax, mind suddenly clear as the cries of agony cascading from the walls trilled in her ears. It was over, the thing was dead, and Marcy would be safe.
It was a soft sniffle from a few feet away that drew her attention again, coming from what should have been a freed-best-friend. The helmet was still latched on, sparks erupting from the place it was cut and burning Marcy's back. But the real kicker was that all ten eyes were open, and they were as green as the gem of wit on the music box. The many eyes glimmered like emeralds, somehow wider than before, somehow more ignorant, somehow less large...
It was a look she knew all too well, from a time where Marcy would come knocking on her door, a stuffed animal in hand, begging to stay with her because her parents were scary, looking straight ahead and yet seeming to look up at her at the same time. The same look Marcy would have when she curled up in her lap, thumb in her mouth as she giggled at the fantasy cartoons Sasha had graciously put on for her. The same look that looked up into her eyes as a scribbled drawing of pinks and yellows and blues was held up into her vision, a small voice saying, "Loo'! 's you!" The same look she had the night after they reunited in Amphibia, the other residents of the Plantar household long since asleep, soft babbles and even softer hands reaching up to grip her fingers that would then reach down to comb through her ebony curls.
It was the look of a child; the look of a child Sasha had grown to adore just as much as the teenager, but this time it wasn't Marcy with that look. It was the horrific approximation of life gazing at her with such soft, reverent eyes, eyes that should have belonged to Marcy, eyes that were...stolen from her best friend and twisted, multiplied, mutated into a monstrous replica of eyes Sasha loved once upon a time.
She should have been revolted, she should have gagged and wished for death to come sooner, but those eyes...those terrified eyes blinked shut for just a moment, reopening as squinted slits as salty, blood-mixed tears fell from the real eyes beneath the helmet, whimpers and cries escaping the thing. Tears that, despite every bone in her dying body screaming "NO!", she wanted to wipe away.
Tears she wanted to brush from the filthy, bloodied cheeks of the monster shedding them.
Tears she wanted to kiss away until they morphed into soft giggles of babyish joy that she had heard far too many times before.
Giggles she wished she had cherished from the very start, from the first day that the girl she loved had opened up about her feelings until that fateful trip to the castle where the rebellion plans would be executed.
She forced her aching, dying muscles to flex, to push her body into a somewhat sitting position, startling the beast with a child's eyes. It crawled closer, frightened and curious, like a stray kitten being offered food from a stranger. Its mouth cracked open just a bit, lips that Sasha knew too well cracked and close to bleeding from dehydration-that monster's fault, for sure, it surely didn't know how to care for the body it STOLE-falling open to let out a soft sound. Her-ITS voice was raw from screaming, from what could only be classed as dying, and yet it was as adorable as she remembered.
"M-maa...?"
Normally, there wouldn't be a drop of hesitance. It would be a happy squeal, maybe a sleepy yawn, at rarest a pouty grumble, but for the first time since the day she found out, her honorary title to her little girl was spoken with nervousness. But it wasn't her little girl in front of her, it was a creature, and so she would be willing to let it slide this once. She smiled, small and soft toward the little one ahead of her, the little one that had been edging closer and closer with every moment.
Cool metal found its way in her arms, armor and helmet pressing against armor and flesh for the first time without harmful intent. Ten sweet emeralds blinked up at her, cracked lips mouthing at the fur along her neck, those same soft hands pressing on her chest and then snaking around her back, hugging her close. Ten disgusting eyes that mocked her little girl's memory blinked up at her, pulled back flesh and sharp teeth clamping down on her furs, arms attempting to restrain her-no, stop, this isn't the time. She had to stay focused, she had to at least mime affection to this monster, to this shoddy replica of the one she loved.
"Mhm...mama's here...no need to cry...shhh..."
She gently swayed the beast in her arms, whether it was to soothe it or a reminder that her time was short was debatable. Soon, the cries slowed, and all that was left was the light sounds of her baby chewing her armor and the heavy breaths of a dying girl. She collapsed downward, and the monster took that as a sign that it was time to sleep. It snuggled deeper in her arms, thumb sneaking into its mouth as its eyes blinked open and shut again and again remaining closed for longer each time, chest rising and falling slower and slower as consciousness drifted away.
"Good night, Darcy...my baby..."
As the ten emeralds shut for the last time, as did the two rubies, and while one would wake up, the other would remain asleep forever.