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Chapter Text

“Hello girls. Nice of you to fall for our trap.”

Anne was beyond confused. Why was Marcy in that armor and why did she have the Music Box? For a split second, she was relieved to finally see her friend again but now she didn’t know what to think.

“Marcy? What are you wearing? What’s going on?”

“We’re not Marcy, not anymore.” They replied, walking closer to where Anne and Sasha were suspended in the air by some sort of mechanical arms. “We are a collection of Amphibia’s greatest minds uploaded into a unified consciousness.”

Anne narrowed her eyes as she tried to wiggle out of her restraints. “What have you done with Marcy?”

Darcy smiled, bowing their head and pointing to the helmet they were wearing. “She’s up here, with us. It’s how we recognized your little ruse. War of the Warlocks, very cute.”

Anne gritted her teeth as a wide range of both threats and pleas flooded her mind. However, before she could verbalize any of those thoughts, Sasha spoke up from beside her.

“Give us our friend or I’ll take her back myself!”

Darcy openly laughed as they walked in between the two humans. “Your friend? Don’t be silly. You’re not friends, not anymore. And examining Marcy’s memories, it’s doubtful you ever were.”

Anne couldn’t believe what she was hearing. That wasn’t true…was it? She looked over at Sasha only to see an unsure expression on the blonde’s face. Anne mentally shook her head. Whatever they were talking to, it wasn’t Marcy.

“Sasha, don’t listen to this…thing!”

Darcy’s attention turned back to the brunette. “Ah, the famous Anne. Dumber than a bag of rocks and yet somehow this rebellion’s last hope.”

First of all, ow. Second of all, Marcy would never think of her that way! Right?

Darcy’s smile widened “Speaking of which…”

Anne, Sasha, and everyone else were suddenly pulled out to the balcony overlooking the battle below. Darcy raised them above their head and spread out their arms.

“Frogs, toads, and newts of the resistance, your leaders have been captured. Your rebellion is…huh…?”

Anne glanced at Darcy in confusion. She followed their gaze and became even more confused by what she saw. There was a small circle of white light on the cliff overlooking Newtopia. The circle of light seemed to grow bigger with each passing second.

Anne glanced at her friends only to see that they looked just as confused as she was.

“My lord? Is something wrong?” Andrias’ voice boomed from the ground below.

Darcy remained silent, simply staring at the ball of light as a look of pure anger began to form on their host’s face.

FLASH

All of a sudden, the circle of light became so bright that Anne had to close her eyes. When the light dissipated and Anne was able to reopen her eyes, she finally realized what the circle of light was.

It was a portal.

“It can’t be!” Darcy nearly shouted after they recovered from their shock. What they saw should be impossible! Only the Music Box had the kind of power necessary to travel between worlds.

Darcy watched as a massive metal vehicle with a large cannon attached to it traveled through the portal. According to Marcy’s memories, the vehicle was a human invention called a tank and was a weapon of war.

The Hive Mind looked down at Andrias as one tank turned into dozens. “Son, get up here!”

Andrias immediately deactivated his sword and leaped up to the balcony his lord was standing upon. “What’s going on?”

Darcy pointed at the portal. “It seems that the primates of Earth are more capable than we thought.”

“PFFFFFF! HAHAHAHA!!”

A shrill laugh from behind them caused Darcy to pause and glare at one of their prisoners.

Despite her restraints, Sasha’s head was tilted back as she continued to cackle in delight after seeing the look on Darcy’s face. “Wow! And you said you were a collection of Amphibia’s greatest minds?!”

“Shut up!” Darcy snapped. “Your primitive technology is still no match for the power we hold with the box.”

Sasha’s laughter quickly died out. “You don’t mean…”

Darcy turned their attention back to Andrias. “Activate the laser cannon.”

Several gasps were heard from the captured amphibians as Andrias entered the castle and made his way to the Music Box. Darcy looked back to the human-made portal, excited to see the destruction unfold.

“Oh no you don’t.”

The Hive Mind turned just in time to see Anne burn through the robotic limbs meant to hold her in place, a blue fire surrounding the teenage girl.

Darcy only had a second to process what was happening before Anne launched herself at Andrias, sending him flying into the walls of the throne room. The blue-haired girl swiped the Music Box off its pedestal and held it up for Darcy to see.

“Let my friends go or I’ll destroy the box.”

Darcy froze. “You wouldn’t, that’s your only way home.”

Anne glanced behind Darcy at the portal where the army from Earth continued to grow with each passing second. “Not anymore.”

Time seemed to freeze in place as the Core mulled over its options.

“Do you think she’s bluffing?” One of the scholars asked.

Aldrich shook his head. “According to Marcy’s memories, her friend there is a terrible liar. We would know if she was bluffing or not.”

“I refuse to give in to the demands of a child!” Aldrich’s father and Andrias’ grandfather protested. “Much less one that is a star of the Olm Prophecy.”

Another one of the scholars nodded. “I agree, but what choice do we have?”

Aldrich stroked his beard for a moment before responding. “She said to let her friends go, yes?”

The scholar nodded in response as Aldrich continued. “Then I say we give her what she wants.”

Darcy smiled at Anne. “Are you sure letting them go is what you want?”

Skeptical blue eyes looked into orange ones as Anne nodded hesitantly. Darcy’s smile widened. “Okay then.”

Darcy tossed Sasha, Grime, the Plantars, Olivia, and Yunan off the side of the balcony. 

“Guys!” Anne cried out, immediately dropping the box and rushing past Darcy in a flash of blue lightning to save her friends.

Darcy began to walk towards the fallen box. A part of them almost felt bad at how easy it had been to trick the human girl. It seemed that they still had some optimizations to make to Marcy’s brain.

However, before Darcy could reacquire the Music Box, a purple tongue lashed out from beneath the balcony, grabbing the object and pulling it far beyond the Hive Mind’s reach.

Darcy rushed to the edge of the balcony only to see Captain Grime’s tongue recoil back into his mouth, the Music Box now held in his arms even as he and the rest of the resistance continued to plummet to the ground below.

Darcy watched as Anne somehow managed to slow their fall just enough that when they splashed into the shallow moat of Newtopia, not a single drop of blood had been spilled. 

It. Was. Infuriating.

“Andrias!” Darcy yelled. “Get up and activate the castle’s emergency backup power. This isn’t over!”

Said newt pried himself out of the indent in the wall and nodded begrudgingly. “As you wish, my lord.”

“Haha!” Grime cheered. “Yet another flawless escape!”

Sasha resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she and the rest of the resistance ran for cover. It was nice to know that some things never change.

Sasha glanced back at the others and quickly placed Anne’s arm over her shoulder when she noticed the other girl struggling to keep her balance and run at the same time.

Anne blushed slightly at the gesture but continued to run as fast as her body enabled her to. “Thanks, using those powers makes me feel like I have a hangover times ten.”

Sasha raised an eyebrow. “Have you ever had a handover?”

“No!” Anne said immediately. “I just imagine that this is what it would feel like.”

“INCOMING!!!” Hop Pop shouted as something whizzed over their heads.

Sasha hastily pulled Anne to the side before lasers from a nearby group of frobots could fry her head off. Anne looked back at the blonde in relief. “Thanks, Sash!”

Sasha pulled Anne away from yet another laser headed their way. “Don’t mention it.”

BANG!

A loud noise sounded out amongst the chaos. Sasha glanced behind her only to see that the frobot attacking them had been destroyed.

Sasha looked up and couldn’t believe her eyes. Standing atop the cliff overlooking Newtopia was another human, and not just any ordinary human: they were a soldier with a gun!

Sasha watched in relief as more and more soldiers lined the edge of the cliff, their weapons pointed squarely at the frobots.

“Drop your weapons, now!” One of the soldiers yelled.

“They’re robots!” Sasha shouted. “They won’t listen to you!”

As if to prove her point, the same group of frobots from before raised their blasters to the soldiers.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The soldiers fired at the frobots, their bullets piercing right through the weak Amphibian metal. Both Anne and Sasha cheered while the rest of their group stared at the soldiers with a mixture of awe and fear. Given that they had never encountered anything like a gun before, Sasha wasn’t too surprised by their reaction.

The soldiers made their way down the cliff. Their commanding officer, if Sasha had to guess, offered her his hand. “Thanks for the heads up.”

Sasha accepted the handshake. “No problem.”

The man’s gaze turned to Anne, who was still using Sasha’s shoulder to stand. “Wait a minute, I know you…”

Anne blinked in surprise. “You do?”

He nodded. “Yeah, all of us were given your picture before the mission. It said you were highly dangerous or something like that, but you’re just a teenage girl.”

“That’s because you haven’t seen what she truly is.” A voice spoke up from behind the line of soldiers.

Anne froze as a bald, dark-skinned man in a purple suit came into view. “Not you again!”

Sasha looked at Anne in concern. “You know him?!”

Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly all stepped in front of Anne protectively. The brunette grimaced. “Sasha, meet Mr. X, the FBI agent that tried and repeatedly failed to capture the Plantars back on Earth.”

Mr. X’s smile fell slightly from Anne’s not-so-flattering introduction. “I didn’t fail! I was merely unable to succeed. There’s a difference!”

Anne rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, dude.”

“Enough of this!” Mr. X snapped. “I’m taking you and these frog aliens into custody!”

Sasha felt something akin to a growl in the back of her throat. “You’ll have to go through me first.”

“And me!” Grime spoke up from behind her, still clutching the Music Box in his claws.

“Us too!” Yunan spat as she and Olivia fell into step next to Grime.

Mr. X smirked. “Fine by me, the more the merrier.” He turned to the commanding officer. “Take them all into custody and bring them back through the portal. I’m not about to let these freaks interfere with our operation.”

Sasha used her free hand to unsheathe one of her swords. She was not going to let herself or Anne be captured without a fight, not this time anyways.

The soldiers now had their guns pointed at the group they had saved just minutes prior. “Put down your weapons, we don’t want to hurt you.”

THUNK

Something hard and fast slammed into one of the soldier’s helmets, knocking him unconscious. Mr. X looked around in shock. “What the—?!”

“Hohoho, it looks as though you need some help, my friends.”

Out of seemingly nowhere, Tritonio Espada leaped in between the two opposing sides.

He glanced back and winked at Anne and Sasha. “Commanders.”

“Tritonio?” Sasha said, staring at the newt in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

Tritonio laughed. “The real question is: what are we doing here?”

Suddenly, as if on cue, a sizable chunk of the Amphibian Army surrounded Mr. X as well as the small group of soldiers. Beatrix took her spot next to Tritonio and pointed her battle axe at the human. “Yah got two choices here, hummus. Either yah help us defeat Andrias or yah go back through that portal yah made.”

Mr. X stared back at the toad, seemingly unphased although Sasha could see tiny droplets of sweat running down the agent’s face. “You don’t scare me, little miss froggy.”

“Did you just call me a frog?” Beatrix asked before turning to look at Grime. “DID HE JUST CALL ME A FROG?!!!”

Grime nodded. “Yes. Yes he did.”

Beatrix turned back to Mr. X and rolled her shoulders. “That, hummus, was a big mistake.”

Mr. X took a step back but maintained his look of confidence. “Are you sure about that?”

The FBI agent held down a button on his watch. “Come in, Frakes! I need you to commence Phase 2 of Operation First-Strike!”

“Roger that, X. Here goes nothing!” A voice on the other line exclaimed with a little too much passion behind it.

FLASH

The ground rumbled as seven more balls of light appeared both beside and above the original portal. The balls of light grew until they were about the same size and from them emerged even more soldiers and weapons.

Mr. X smirked at the shocked expressions lining the faces of the amphibians as well as Sasha and Anne. “What? You didn’t think that was it, did you?”

Sasha watched as a fucking fighter jet came through one of the portals.

“Well shit.”

Chapter Text

Anne gawked at the U.S. Military, its size expanding tenfold in just a manner of minutes. She scowled at Mr. X who only gave her a smirk in return. “What’s all this for? Are you trying to take over Amphibia or something?”

“Amphibia?” Mr. X questioned playfully. “Is that what this world is called? Kind of on the nose, doncha think?”

Mr. X snapped his fingers. “Alright, enough is enough.” He held a button on the side of his watch and spoke into it. “Initiate extermination protocol.”

The agent’s watch let out a small beeping sound. Mr. X grinned maniacally and stepped closer to the group of soldiers behind him.

Anne finally pulled away from Sasha and marched over to him, the Plantars falling into step behind her. “What are you up to, X?”

Mr. X merely looked up at something in the sky. “You’ll see soon enough.”

Anne spread her arms out in exasperation. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

All of a sudden, gunfire began to rain down on the Amphibian Army from above, ripping right through their soldiers like they were nothing. Anne looked up in shock at the multiple attack helicopters hovering directly above them. She whipped her head back around to Mr. X only to see several tranquilizers pointed squarely at her and the Plantars.

Anne had only a second to realize what was happening before something pricked the side of her neck and her mind fell into unconsciousness.

“Get down!” Sasha yelled, ordering any amphibian that could hear her to find cover. The blonde took a quick glance down and frowned at the now pale red color of the shallow water she was crouched in. 

Sasha turned to where she last saw Anne, hoping her friend would have an idea to get them out of this. However, when she looked, all she saw was an unconscious Anne being carried over the shoulder by one of the soldiers along with the Plantars.

Sasha gritted her teeth and unsheathed her swords. “Oh no you don’t.”

Sasha charged at the group of soldiers but instantly fell to the ground when she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. 

She placed a hand on her shoulder and tensed as soon as she felt a thick liquid on the spot. Sasha tried to push herself up but failed miserably, splashing back down into the water as gunshots continued to pelt the ground around her.

Sasha was about to give up entirely when clawed fingers suddenly wrapped around her body and pulled her out of the shallow water.

“Come on, Lieutenant! We’ve gotta get out of here!”

Sasha lazily turned her head to look at Grime as she was swiftly carried away. “But Anne…”

“Will be fine, but you won’t be if we don’t get that wound treated.”

The sounds of battle slowly began to fade away as Sasha fell further into unconsciousness. The last thing she saw before her eyes closed was one of the helicopters landing on the ground and Anne being carried inside.

“ANDRIAS!!!”

The newt king turned at the sound of his lord’s voice. He bowed his head as Darcy walked into the observation room. “Yes, my lord?”

“Why aren’t you out there aiding our troops?!”

Andrias looked up and gestured to the monitors in front of him. “I thought I’d be more useful here, directing our defense of the castle.”

“Don’t be an idiot.” Darcy scoffed as they stomped their foot on the ground, using their robotic arms to elevate themselves up to Andrias’ level. “We order you to get out there and take back the Music Box! Oh, and destroy that Boonchuy girl while you’re at it.”

“Are you sure? What if the humans—?”

“JUST DO IT!” Darcy shouted. “We’ll even let you use the Dyoplosaurus.”

Andrias’ words died in his throat. He nodded reluctantly. “Yes, my lord.”

The newt exited the room and slowly made his way down to where the Dyoplosaurus was kept. Andrias sighed. Everything was going perfectly up until now. He and Darcy had the resistance captured and they were this close to invading Earth! Andrias was moments away from making up for his mistake all those years ago!

Now though?

Now their plans were in shambles. The resistance escaped, the box was taken, and Earth had somehow invaded them instead. It was a disaster in all aspects, but Andrias was not about to let some minor setbacks stop him!

Andrias finally descended the stairs to the bottom floor of the castle. He looked up at the massive mechanical suit in front of him. He smiled to himself. After all these years, he finally had a chance to use the Dyoplosaurus.

He climbed inside the mech suit and pressed the large red button to his left, turning it on.

STARTING UP…

Andrias tapped his foot on the floor of the cockpit impatiently. “Any second now…”

STARTUP COMPLETE.

The newt king sighed in annoyance. “Finally!” Andrias pulled a lever and the hanger doors of the castle opened, revealing a war-torn battlefield below.

Andrias felt a slight sting in his heart when he caught sight of Newtopia, the city having caught fire from all the fighting.

It doesn’t matter. Andrias thought to himself. Every human city on Earth will be in flames soon enough, as long as I can get the box back.

Andrias jumped from the castle to the ground, signaling for the remaining Frobot Army to gather behind him. “Find the Music Box and locate Boonchuy. I’ll deal with these annoying primates.”

The frobots immediately flew off in all directions leaving Andrias alone in his mech suit to deal with the oncoming hoard of tanks and fighter jets.

Andrias cracked his knuckles. “Now then, let’s see what this baby can do.” The newt loaded up his missile system.

TARGETS LOCKED.

“Hey, primates!” Andrias called. “Get a load of this!”

The shoulders of the Dyoplosaurus opened up, allowing dozens of Amphibian missiles to launch at the human army.

However, before they could even reach the division of tanks Andrias was aiming for, the missiles were blown out of the sky by some kind of artillery stationed on the ground.

Andrias furrowed his eyebrows. “Frog damn it! Okay, how about this?!” He held down a button and pulled a lever on his left side. 

Suddenly, his mech’s tail began to shine a bright yellow before several olm-like plasma beams shot out. Andrias watched in satisfaction as the beams tore through the human fighter jets, sending the aircraft crashing to the ground below.

“Now that’s more like it!” Andrias laughed as one of the frobots approached him.

“ENERGY READINGS INDICATE THAT ANNE BOONCHUY IS NO LONGER IN THIS WORLD. HIGH PROBABLY THAT SHE HAS ESCAPED TO EARTH.”

Andrias grimaced. “Dang it. What about the Music Box? Is it still here?”

“SENSORS INDICATE THAT THE BOX OF CALAMITY IS STILL IN AMPHIBIA. LAST SEEN BEING HELD BY THE FUGITIVE, CAPTAIN GRIME.”

“Find that toad!” Andrias ordered. “The castle’s laser cannon can end this battle in seconds, but we need the box to do that!”

“UNDERSTOOD.” The frobot said before flying away again.

Andrias groaned in annoyance. This day just kept getting worse. He looked back at the destroyed fighter jets and the terrified faces some of the human soldiers held. The newt smiled slightly as he activated his rocket boosters, allowing the Dyoplosaurus to fly. 

“ALRIGHT PRIMATES!” Andrias laughed. “READY FOR ROUND TWO?!”

“Come on! We’ve got to keep moving!” Grime yelled over his shoulder. “The Commander needs medical treatment!”

After carrying Sasha off the battlefield, Grime and the remaining members of the resistance fled to a nearby forest. While they may have escaped for now, the sounds of war could still be heard all around them.

“Where’s Anne and the Plantars?” Mrs. Croaker asked from beside him.

“That Mr. X guy took them.” Grime grumbled as he ran. “Sasha tried to stop him but she got hit by one of those gun thingies.”

“So what now, Grimothy?” Beatrix huffed. “We’re outnumbered by both the hummuses and Andrias. Our weapons don’t stand a chance against either of ‘em.”

Grime looked down at Sasha in his arms before turning back to his sister. “We’ll regroup back at Wartwood and come up with a new plan.”

“Roger that.” Tritonio said, having caught up to his fellow resistance members.

Grime smiled ever so slightly. It was nice having others he could rely on. Even if one of those people was his sister.

As the resistance reached the edge of the forest, things seemed to have calmed down considerably. Only the loudest of explosions could still be heard from the battle in Newtopia.

“Alright, everyone!” Grime called out. “Be on the lookout for any signs of—!”

BLAST

Suddenly, lasers began to rain down from the sky. Grime looked up and grimaced when he saw a small squadron of frobots hovering above them. The toad quickly retreated back into the forest and set Sasha down gently.

Grime went to grab Barrel’s Warhammer as the rest of the resistance tried to fight off their attackers. He paused when his hand brushed against something in his back pocket.

The Music Box…

“So that’s why they’re here.” Grime muttered to himself, resuming his motion and pulling out Barrel’s Warhammer. “Maybe I can use that to our advantage.”

“Hmm…..?”

Grime dawned a look of shock. He glanced downward only to see Sasha’s eyes start to flutter open. The blonde tried to sit up, but Grime pushed her back down softly. “Stay still, Lieutenant. You lost a lot of blood.”

“Where’s Anne?” Sasha murmured in her half-conscious state. “Is she hurt?”

“I’m sure she’s fine.” Grime lied. “Just go back to sleep, we’ll be back home in no time.”

Sasha nodded, albeit very slowly. “Okay…”

The blonde laid her head back on the ground and immediately dozed off. Grime sighed. She was going to be restless as soon as she remembered what had happened to both Anne and Marcy. 

Grime stood up and took one last glance at the sleeping blonde before exiting the tree line once again. He looked around as the resistance fought off the frobots with everything they had. While they weren’t necessarily losing the fight, they weren’t exactly winning either.

Grime quickly pulled the Music Box out of his pocket and set it on the ground. “HEY, METALHEADS! LOOKING FOR THIS?!!”

Some of the frobots turned to look at Grime and froze when they saw the toad holding Barrel’s Warhammer right above the Music Box. As soon as the first frobot saw what he was doing, the rest of them immediately halted their attack.

Grime smiled. “Yeah, that’s it. Don’t move or I’ll smash it to bits.”

“PLEASE REFRAIN FROM CAUSING DAMAGE TO THE BOX OF CALAMITY.”

“You tell Darsha and that monster of a king that if they want the box back, they’ll have to agree to our terms!”

Grime looked over his shoulder at Beatrix, Mrs. Croaker, and Tritonio. “What are our terms exactly?”

The other resistance leaders glanced at each other in uncertainty. However, before any of them could answer, Lady Olivia stepped forward. “We’ll give the Music Box back if they help us rescue Anne and the Plantars and if the Core gives up Marcy as its host.”

Grime turned to Olivia bewildered. “What?! There’s no way they’ll agree to—!”

“TERMS ARE ACCEPTABLE.”

Grime whipped his head back to the frobots. “Wait, what?”

“LORD DARCY HAS APPROVED OF YOUR TERMS.”

Yunan raised an eyebrow. “They did?”

“AFFIRMATIVE. THEY LOOK FORWARD TO OUR FUTURE COOPERATION.”

With that, the frobots took off back towards Newtopia. Grime placed the Music Box back in his pocket and crossed his arms, watching the mechanical army depart. “That was way too easy. I don’t trust them one bit.”

“Yes, but what choice do we have?” Olivia countered. “Now come on, let’s get your human friend back to Wartwood.”

Grime stared at the newt for several seconds before giving her a slight nod of approval. The resistance quickly gathered their things while Grime went to retrieve Sasha from the woods. After checking for injuries and doing a headcount, they resumed their march back to Wartwood. Little did they know, however, an automated drone was watching their every move.

Chapter Text

Andrias roared at the incoming division of tanks. “Is that the best you can do?!” The newt deactivated his shield and grabbed a stealth plane straight from the sky, chucking it at the tanks with as much force as he could muster.

BOOM

At least a dozen tanks exploded on impact, but the humans continued to push forward. Andrias struggled to catch his breath. “Okay *huff* how about *huff* this!”

Andrias loaded up his missile system, but instead of the familiar beep, telling him it was ready, an error message popped up.

ERROR. AMMO DEPLETED. ERROR.

“Olms have mercy!” Andrias sighed in irritation. While he had managed to hold off the humans for the better part of two hours now, it seemed the Dyoplosaurus was finally beginning to run out of steam.

Andrias touched the middle of his crown. “My lord, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up!”

“Really, son?!” Darcy’s voice answered back. “You seriously can’t destroy a race with such primitive weapons?!”

“But, my lord—!”

“We don’t care, Andrias!” Darcy spat. “While you were out there making a fool of yourself, we found a way to get the Music Box back.”

“Wait, really?!” Andrias asked, blocking a few incoming tank shells with his shield. “I sent a group of frobots to retrieve it. Did they succeed?”

“Not exactly.” Darcy conceded. “Those imbeciles in the resistance wanted to trade the box in exchange for us helping them save Boonchuy.”

Andrias scoffed. “Seriously?”

Darcy laughed. “That’s not all. They wanted us to give up Marcy as our host! Can you believe that?!”

“Heh…yeah.” Andrias said with a half-hearted chuckle. “I’m guessing you refused the offer then?”

“Of course not!” Darcy exclaimed. “If those fools want to give us the box for free, who are we to stop them?!”

“My lord, what about—?”

“Relax, Andrias. We have no intention of actually fulfilling our end of the deal. Once we get the Music Box back, that pitiful resistance and these annoying humans are done for.”

Andrias pulled a lever, activating his flamethrower and torching a platoon of human soldiers that had begun to scale Newtopia’s walls. “What about our current situation?”

Darcy groaned. “It seems to us that a tactical retreat may be required.”

“A tactical retreat?” Andrias questioned.

“Yes.” Darcy sighed in defeat. “Your lackluster performance on the battlefield has left us no other choice.”

“Please, my lord, just give me a little more time!” Andrias pleaded.

“No, son. You failed us once again.” Darcy huffed. “You have exactly ten seconds to get your butt back in the castle or we’re leaving without you.”

Andrias’ eyes widened. “Ten seconds?!”

“Nine, eight, seven…” 

Andrias smashed the button to his rocket boosters, propelling him at lightning speed to the castle in the sky.

“Six, five, four…”

Andrias flicked the switch on his right, opening the hangar doors and allowing himself inside the castle.

“Three, two, one…”

“I’m in!” Andrias yelled at his crown. “You can stop counting down now!”

A voice from behind him laughed. “What’s wrong? Is our teasing too much for you?”

Andrias quickly exited the Dyoplosaurus and bowed before his master. “No, of course not!”

Darcy rolled all ten of their eyes. “Stand up, Andrias. We’ve got places to be and idiots to backstab.”

The Hive Mind turned and began walking back to the throne room with Andrias following closely behind. The newt awkwardly cleared his throat. “Is it really such a good idea to abandon Newtopia like this? Shouldn’t we at least put up more of a fight?”

“And lose more of our forces in the process?” Darcy countered. “No, this is a necessary sacrifice.” They looked over their shoulder. “Don’t tell us you’re worried about the civilians inside the city?”

Andrias shook his head. “No. Their lives mean nothing to me.”

Darcy smiled. “Good, we were worried you were going soft there for a moment.”

“I’ll do what is necessary.” Andrias reaffirmed right as the two of them reached the throne room.

“We’re glad to hear it.” Darcy replied. “Now then, let’s get out of here, shall we?”

Darcy made their way over to the control panel and after a quick second of typing in commands, the castle jolted. The jets keeping the castle above the ground were now tilted very slightly north, resulting in the fortress moving towards the south.

Andrias walked to the balcony as the castle continued to fly farther and farther away from the battlefield. He winced when a loud explosion sounded out and the walls of Amphibia’s largest city crumbled.

Newtopia had fallen.

Anne slowly opened her eyes. She looked around, finding herself lying on her bed in the Plantar’s basement.

“Kids, breakfast!” Hop Pop yelled from the kitchen.

Anne’s mouth watered when the smell of pillbug pancakes reached her nose. She quickly grabbed her phone and made her way upstairs.

Anne sat down next to Sprig and Polly, the siblings arguing over whose tongue was longer. Hop Pop sighed as he served each of them a plate. “That’s enough you two, now eat up. We’ve got a lot to do today.”

“Like what?” Anne asked. Weren’t they just going to work on the farm like always?

“Come on, Anne!” Sprig exclaimed. “Don’t you remember?!”

Anne took a bite of her pancakes. “Uh, no. Should I?”

“Yeah, Anne! We’ve got a mission to go on!” Polly exclaimed.

Anne turned to the tadpole and nearly fell off her stool in surprise. “Woah, Polly! Since when did you get legs?! What mission?!”

“Our mission to stop Andrias of course.”

Anne whipped her head around at the sound of a familiar voice. “Sasha?!”

Her best friend was standing by the fireplace, her blonde hair longer than she’d ever seen it. Her outfit looked like something out of Marcy’s fantasy novels.

“How are you here?! What’s going on?!” Anne shouted. “Who’s Andrias?!”

Sasha sighed as she placed a hand on Anne’s shoulder. “You know the answers to those questions, Boonchuy. Try to remember.”

Anne let out a gasp as the world shifted. She closed her eyes for a split second and when she opened them, all she could see was a black void with no one else in sight.

“Hello?” She called out. “Is anyone there?”

…Silence…

Suddenly, a white gem came into view. Anne reached out for the gem but stopped when it began to grow and shift in shape. Anne watched as the gem morphed into…herself?

The other Anne’s hair and skin seemed to have been bleached. She also had several long crack-like scars running along her body. This new version of herself smiled. “It’s time to wake up.”

“Huh?” Anne said, tilting her head to the side.

“I said it’s time to wake up!”

“But I don’t know—“

“GET UP!!!”

~~~

“AAAHHHHH!!!”

Anne woke with a start, her unfocused eyes glancing around in panic. “What…? Where…?”

She shot out of bed and ran, only to crash face-first into a wall. Anne groaned as she held her head in pain, finally taking the time to survey her surroundings.

She was in a white room, the only things besides the walls, floor, and ceiling being a white bed, a toilet in the corner, a sink, and a table set off to the side. Anne glanced down at herself in confusion, noticing that she was wearing a plain white shirt and shorts. 

However, that confusion turned back into panic when she saw that one of her ankles was cuffed and was chained to one of the blank white walls. Anne cried out in alarm. “No. No! NO!”

She pulled on the chain to no avail. “Hello? Sprig? Hop Pop? Polly? Sasha? Grime? Is anyone there?”

Suddenly, the wall next to her shifted and a small doorway appeared. Anne narrowed her eyes when a familiar figure stepped into the white room.

“What do you want, X?” Anne spat, her voice filled with malice as she addressed the FBI agent.

Mr. X merely smirked. “Hello, Anne. Do you like your new room?”

Anne scoffed. “Are you serious right now?! I’m chained to the wall! Why the hell would I like anything about this?!”

Mr. X hummed in acknowledgment. “Sorry about that. Your powers are still unfamiliar to us and we can’t have you escaping now, can we?”

“You kidnapped me!” Anne yelled incredulously.

“Not necessarily.” Mr. X retorted. “You escaped federal custody, remember? The way I see it, your arrest was warranted.”

Anne threw her arms into the air. “As if! I was just trying to get the Plantars back home and stop Andrias from invading Earth!”

Mr. X waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry we got the situation covered. As for the Plantars, they’re now safely back in government custody.”

“Wait, what?!” Anne screamed. “Where are they? What are you doing to them?!”

Anne’s hair began to rise as her shock morphed into anger, much to Mr. X’s amusement. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“FUCK YOU, X!” Anne shouted, her hair and eyes turning a dangerous blue. She turned and started to pull on the chain binding her to the wall.

“Ah ah ah, not so fast young lady.” Mr. X reprimanded as pulled out a remote control with a small red dial on its front. The FBI agent turned the dial up ever so slightly, instantly causing Anne to stop what she was doing and fall to the ground.

The blue-haired girl squinted her eyes shut as pain, unlike anything she had ever felt before, coursed through her body. The blue light in Anne’s hair and eyes slowly dissipated.

After several seconds of agonizing pain, Mr. X turned the dial back down, much to Anne’s relief. He walked towards the girl and knelt down next to her. “Please don’t try to escape again. If you do, the chip in your brain will activate and the pain you feel now will be nothing compared to what the pain will feel like then.”

“Where are the Plantars?” Anne growled, just barely able to lift her head off the floor.

Mr. X looked down at the girl in front of him, small tears threatening to escape from her eyes. “They’re being examined by a colleague of mine. Don’t worry, she promised she wouldn’t dissect them…yet.”

Mr. X turned to walk back out the way he came as Anne called out after him. 

“I’LL KILL YOU FOR THIS, X! YOU HEAR ME?! I’LL KILL YOU!!!”

Mr. X reached the small doorway and turned around to face Anne. “Now now, that’s no way to treat your new supervising officer, is it?”

The FBI agent turned up the dial on his remote, causing Anne to start riveting in pain once again. 

“Let’s make one thing clear. You are government property now. You will do what you are told. If you ever wish to see your little froggy friends again, you will obey! Do you understand?”

Despite the suffering she was in, Anne managed to nod in compliance. Mr. X smiled down at her. “Good. I’ll see you tomorrow morning then for your first day of training.”

With that, Mr. X turned down the dial on his remote and closed the door, leaving Anne to collapse from exhaustion on the floor. 

Several hours later, Anne crawled her way up to the bed and slowly pulled the covers over herself. That night, Anne cried herself to sleep, wondering if she’d ever see her friends or family again.

That night, Anne’s dreams were filled with all the ways she could think of to make Mr. X suffer the most gruesome death possible.

Anne smiled to herself in her sleep. She was gonna make that asshole regret ever messing with her family.

Chapter Text

Several Weeks Later

Sasha stormed into the war room. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?!”

Grime looked up from his map of Amphibia. “Tell you what?”

“That you made a deal with Andrias and Darcy!” Sasha shouted. “Beatrix just told me that you and Olivia agreed to give them the Music Box back in exchange for their help in saving Anne and that Core thingy freeing Marcy!”

Grime scratched the back of his head nervously. “I thought it’d be best if you had time to rest.”

“You thought it’d be best if I…?!” Sasha slammed her hands onto the table in front of them. “Grime, I am the Commander of the Resistance! And with Anne gone, I need to know everything that’s going on around here!”

Grime held his hands up placatingly. “Yes yes, I know. But you’ve been so busy trying to secure the Valley that I thought laying this on you would be too much.”

Sasha pinched the bridge of her nose, groaning loudly as she tilted her head back. “Grimeeeeee!!!”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay?” Grime said, standing up from his seat at the table and walking towards his former lieutenant. “It was the only option we had at the time.”

Sasha threw her hands up into the air. “You know what, it doesn’t matter!”

“Wait, what?”

Sasha took a step towards the toad. “Yeah! It doesn’t matter because no one’s seen Andrias, Darcy, or the massive flying castle they use in weeks!”

“They have to be out there somewhere.” Grime countered. “Just look at the reports. The U.S. Military, as you call them, are still engaging with the Frobot Army on a regular basis.”

“I never said they were dead, Grime.” Sasha sighed. “I’m just saying that we have more important things to worry about right now.”

“Like what?”

Sasha smiled. “I’m glad you asked.” The blonde strode over to the map of Amphibia and pointed at one of the villages located in the Valley. “Swamp Shiro.”

Grime looked at the map, confused. “I don’t follow.”

“Swamp Shiro is the closest village to the mountain pass and as such it will be the first line of defense against the U.S. Military.” Sasha explained.

“And we need to worry about this right now?” Grime questioned. “I thought the humans were focused on conquering the Northern regions of Amphibia for the time being.”

Sasha nodded. “They are, but if we want to defend the Valley, we need to make sure Swamp Shiro is secure.”

“Makes sense.” Grime conceded. “So when do you leave?”

Sasha smirked. “The real question is when do we leave?”

“What?!” Grime exclaimed. “Why me?”

Sasha turned and started to walk out of the war room. She looked over her shoulder, her smirk turning slightly sadistic. “You didn’t tell me about the deal you made, remember?”

“But…” Grime began to say but Sasha was already gone. The toad groaned. “And here I thought I could have the day off today.”

Joe Sparrow landed in Swamp Shiro with a resounding thud. Sasha, Tritonio, Grime, and Stumpy all dismounted, each one less gracefully than the last.

“Where to first, Commander?” Tritonio asked.

Sasha placed her hand on her forehead, examining the small frog village. She pointed at a large building in the center of town. “There, that must be the town hall.”

The group began to make their way toward the building but before they could enter, the doors slammed open and a rather chubby toad walked out.

“Ah, Commander! It’s so good to see you again!” The toad said jovially as he walked forward and aggressively shook Sasha’s hand. 

Sasha smiled awkwardly. “Hey, Mayor Toadsworth. How are things here in Swamp Shiro? Any problems with the frobots?”

Toadsworth chuckled. “Not since you helped us drive them out a few weeks back.” He looked over Sasha’s shoulder at the other three members of the resistance. “So what brings you all here on such a fine day like today?”

Grime stepped forward. “We’re here to help build up your defenses. The human army is closing in on the mountain pass and this town is the first one they’ll come across once they pass through.”

“Aye, this town’s gotta be in tip-top shape before they get here.” Stumpy added.

Toadsworth nodded. “I see. Well then, let me introduce you to the leader of our local militia.” The toad snapped his fingers. “Frobert, get out here will yah!”

The doors of the town hall slammed open once again, a tall green frog in armor hurrying to Mayor Toadworth’s side. The frog saw Sasha and immediately went to salute her. “C-Commander Sasha, welcome. I’m Frobert Moondrop.”

Sasha placed her hand on his shoulder. “At ease, soldier.”

Frobert looked at the blonde in surprise before reverting to a more relaxed posture. “Yes ma’am.”

Sasha rolled her eyes and turned to Toadsworth. “We’ll take it from here, mayor. You go do…whatever it is you do.”

Toadsworth tilted his head down in acknowledgment before stepping back inside. Sasha looked back at Frobert. “Walk us through your defenses.”

Frobert nodded. “Of course. Follow me, I’ll lead you to our barracks.”

“Great.” Sasha replied.

Sasha, Grime, Tritonio, and Stumpy each fell into step behind Frobert as they walked toward Swamp Shiro’s outer wall.

Frobert looked over his shoulder at Sasha as the five of them approached. “I have to ask, why are you helping us exactly? You’re a human, shouldn’t you be supporting the invaders?”

Sasha froze in place, a look of shock plastered onto her face. “Absolutely not! Why would you even think that?!”

Frobert shrugged. “I’m just confused as to why you would go up against your own kind.”

Sasha stepped toward the frog, pulling out a piece of paper from her pocket and handing it to him. “Have you seen the reports? They’re rounding up Amphibians and doing experiments on them. I mean, that’s even worse than what Andrias was doing! As far as I’m concerned, that’s more than enough of a reason to go against my own kind!”

Frobert eyed the paper carefully. “So essentially you’re saying that you’re the only ‘good’ human.”

“What? No!” Sasha exclaimed. “There’s tons of good humans out there! Heck, most of those soldiers are probably good people at heart. They just have bad generals giving them shitty orders.”

“Huh…” Frobert said, handing the paper back. “Well, in any case, I’m glad you’re with us.”

Sasha breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, me too.”

With that settled, the group continued walking and soon arrived at the barracks, or rather, three small shacks pressed up against the wall with a training area set off to the side.

Sasha exchanged glances with Grime, Tritonio, and Stumpy. “Um…is this it?”

“Looks pretty bare bones if you ask me.” Tritonio said, making no attempt to disguise his discontent at the meager buildings in front of him.

“Yup, this is it!” Frobert replied. “Let me introduce you to the troops.”

Frobert cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled out. “Hey, guys! Come and see who’s here!”

Sasha watched as about twenty or so frogs flooded out of the barracks, each of them in leather armor and holding a sword. The blonde narrowed her eyes in disbelief. “This is it?! This is your entire militia?!”

“Well, no.” Frobert answered. “Larry had to call in sick today.”

Sasha lifted Frobert off the ground by the collar of his shirt. “Do you have any idea what we’re up against?!”

“Um…some humans with a bunch of weird black sticks?”

“NO!” Grime yelled before Sasha could even open her mouth to respond. “The humans coming here have weapons beyond anything you’ve ever seen before! They have giant metal machines that shoot explosive arrows and metal birds that can drop boom shrooms on entire cities! You have no idea the kind of firepower they possess!”

Tritonio spoke up before Grime could continue. “He’s right, you frogs are woefully unprepared for what is to come.”

“I’ve seen firsthand what those human weapons can do.” Stumpy remarked. “It’s no wonder Newtopia fell so quickly.”

Sasha cleared her throat. “Thank you, Grime, Tritonio, Stumpy, but I’ve got this.” She raised Frobert higher into the air, his own soldiers stepping back in fear. “Listen here you idiot, we probably only have about a week before the U.S. Military gets here. We need to seriously improve your defenses and the size of your militia if you want your town to even last an hour against them.”

Frobert grasped at Sasha’s hand. “Okay okay, I get it! Can you put me down now?”

“That depends. Are you willing to put in the effort?”

Frobert opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by the voice of one of his soldiers.

“Hey, does anyone else hear that?”

Sasha paused, whirling her head around to the frog soldier who’d spoken up. “Hear what?”

“You don’t hear it? It sounds like some sort of buzzing.” The small, yellow frog answered.

Sasha let go of Frobert and cupped her ear with her hand, straining to hear what the frog was talking about. After a few seconds, she heard it: a low brr that was getting louder by the second.

Sasha’s eyes widened in realization. “Shit. EVERYONE, GET INTO YOUR DEFENSIVE POSITIONS NOW!!!”

“What’s going on?” Frobert asked, confused by Sasha’s sudden shift in tone.

Sasha looked down at the frog, her mind running a million miles a minute. “They’re coming, the U.S. Military is here.”

“What?!” Grime exclaimed. “But I thought you said they still had yet to take the mountain pass?”

“I did!” Sasha shouted as she ran to help one of the frogs load a nearby catapult. “Looks like they’re ahead of schedule!”

Sasha gritted her teeth as she and a couple other frogs hoisted a boulder into the catapult. She wiped some sweat off her forehead, running to help another group of frogs pass out shields to the others.

Sasha called out to her fellow resistance members. “Tritonio, Stumpy, go tell Mayor Toadsworth what’s happening and prepare Swamp Shiro for evacuation! Grime, you’re with me!”

All three of them nodded before running off to do as they were told. Grime, in particular, scaled the outer wall, peering over it to see how close the army was to the town.

BRRRRRRRRRRR

The low buzz from before crescendoed, causing Sasha to look up in alarm. Her jaw dropped when she saw a bomber plane flying right on top of them. “Everyone get down!”

The entire resistance force ran for cover as bombs began to fall from the sky, destroying several buildings and sending the citizens of Swamp Shiro into a panic.

Sasha reached for her swords but stopped when she realized that there was no point. Her swords were no match for the guns her fellow humans were using. Swamp Shiro was done for and there was nothing she could do to stop it besides give its citizens time to retreat. 

“Grime! How close are they?!” Sasha yelled.

“About a quarter of a mile away!” Grime yelled back.

Sasha nodded, turning to the catapult operators she had helped earlier. “Launch the boulders then go help the rest of your town escape. We’ll hold them off for as long as we can.”

The frogs stared at her nervously. “Are you sure?” One of them asked.

Sasha gave them a small smile to reassure them. “Yes! Now do it!”

The frogs pulled the levers on their catapults, sending multiple boulders flying over the wall.

SMASH

“Direct hit!” Grime called out. “It looks like they’ve stopped for now, but I wouldn’t push our luck.”

Sasha gave him a quick thumbs up before putting two fingers into her mouth and whistled loudly. She turned to the remaining members of the militia, most of them still with expressions of pure terror on their faces. “Everyone, gather around me as quickly as you can. Hurry!”

Every single frog, along with Grime and Frobert, made their way over to her just as Joe Sparrow landed next to them. “Get on!” Sasha shouted.

The Amphibians obliged, squeezing onto the bird’s back as fast as they could. Sasha climbed into the front seat. “Alright Joe, get us outta here.”

With one large flap of his wings, Joe Sparrow soared into the sky. Sasha let out a sigh of relief as they began to fly away.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The blonde jumped when the sound of gunfire exploded around her. Sasha turned to stare at the ground, realizing that the gunshots were coming from human soldiers on the ground. 

“Joe, evasive maneuvers!”

The giant sparrow chirped, shifting his weight from side to side to avoid the bullets. After nearly thirty seconds, the gunfire stopped. Sasha looked behind them, letting out an even bigger sigh of relief this time. “I think we’re out of range.”

Grime held his chest, struggling to control his breathing as they continued to fly away. “Good. I don’t think *huff* I could handle much more of your *huff* fancy flying.”

Sasha leaned back into her seat, closing her eyes and sighing. “Did Tritonio and Stumpy get everyone out okay?”

“I think so.” Frobert responded. “I saw them leading the rest of town into a nearby forest.”

Sasha nodded slowly. “Then they should be fine. They’ll be able to meet up with us back in Wartwood later.”

“So what now?” One of the frog soldiers asked nervously.

Sasha opened her eyes, exchanging a glance with Grime before answering. “Now we prepare for the fight of our lives.”

They may have lost the battle, but this war was just getting started.

Chapter Text

It had been three days since Swamp Shiro fell and Sasha was already at the end of her rope. In that time she had reinforced Wartwood’s walls, trained and armed every frog she possibly could, and sent out scouting parties to keep track of the U.S. Army’s advancements into the Valley.

Sufficed to say, she was exhausted. However, she couldn’t stop now. The resistance had, at most, a day before the human army arrived at Wartwood’s doorstep and Sasha couldn’t afford for them to be ill-prepared.

The blonde physically jumped when a clawed hand stopped her from running back into the Plantar’s home to grab more bricks for the outer wall. Sasha quickly drew her sword and pointed it at her assailant only to see Grime standing there with a concerned look on his face.

Sasha put her sword away. “Jesus, Grime, don’t scare me like that!”

The toad crossed his arms. “Lieutenant, when was the last time you slept? The bags under your eyes are enormous.”

“Whaaat? No they’re not!” Sasha tried to say only for Grime to raise an eyebrow in response. “Okay, fine. The last time I slept was, let’s see…um…two days ago, I think, when I took a quick nap in between training.”

Grime smacked his forehead. “You need to rest, Sasha. You won’t be able to fight in the upcoming battle if you’re half asleep the whole time!”

“I know, I know.” Sasha sighed. “But there’s so much to do and even then it still probably won’t be enough to hold them off.”

Grime nodded sympathetically. “You’re doing everything you can, but let some of us help. We’re all in this together and that means we all have to do our part.”

Sasha laughed. “Wow, Grimsey, since when did you get all sentimental?”

Grime waved her off. “Yeah yeah, just go get some rest. I’ll make sure Beatrix and the rest of the toads finish up the wall before sundown.”

“Thanks, you always know how to…wait, do you see that?” Sasha said as she squinted at something high up in the sky.

Grime followed her line of sight, spotting a black dot hovering above the Plantar’s home. He lashed his tongue out at the object, destroying it and sending its remains plummeting to the ground.

“Was that a drone?!” Sasha asked incredulously.

Grime peered down at the now-destroyed chunk of metal. “Seems like it.”

“Damn it!” Sasha shouted as she kicked the downed drone in frustration. “That means they’ve scoped out this place from top to bottom! They’ll know where all our defenses are located, not to mention the entrance to our underground base!”

“Well, that’s not good.”

“Yah think?!!” Sasha deadpanned.

She began to pace back and forth as Grime watched. “Okay, so a sneak attack is out of the question. We can’t hold out in a siege either, not that that would’ve worked anyway. Maybe we could escape on the kill-a-moths and Joe, but there are way too many people to carry, and where the hell would we go?”

“Sasha.”

“Just because they know our positions doesn’t mean we still can’t win. It’ll be hard and there’ll probably be a lot of casualties, but maybe…”

“Sasha!”

“What?!” The blonde yelled, stopping her pacing.

“Do we have a backup plan?” Grime asked. “One that hopefully won’t get us all killed?!”

“If worst comes to worst, I guess we could try to use the Music Box and escape.” Sasha explained tentatively.

Grime raised an eyebrow. “Do you even know how it works?”

Sasha shrugged. “No, but it can’t be too hard, right? I mean, there wasn’t really much time to figure it out when we briefly took over Newtopia.”

“But where would we go?” Grime questioned. “Not Earth, that’s for sure.”

Sasha let her body sag a little. “I don’t know, Grime, but anywhere’s got to be better than here.”

“COMMANDER!!!”

Sasha immediately straightened up when a familiar voice was heard coming toward them. She watched as none other than One-eyed Wally ran up to them looking panicked.

“Wally, what’s going on?” Sasha asked when the frog finally reached them.

Wally threw his hands around wildly as he spoke. “The human army, t-they’re almost here. The scouting parties we sent just barely managed to sneak away undetected.”

Sasha exchanged a glance with Grime before the two of them rushed off in opposite directions. Grime ran towards Wartwood while Sasha ducked into the Plantar’s home to gather the rest of the army from the basement.

“So much for getting some sleep.” Sasha muttered under her breath.

One hour later and the entire Amphibian Army was gathered in the center of town, many looking extremely nervous for the battle ahead. “I wanna go home…” Sasha overheard one of the newts say to another.

“I think they might need some sort of motivation.” Grime said, nudging Sasha’s shoulder as they walked past. “Most of them look like they’ll flee at the first sign of danger.”

“I can’t really blame them.” Sasha responded. “If I were them, I’d be scared shitless. Hell, I am scared shitless but I see what you mean.”

Sasha gave the other leaders of the resistance a quick nod before climbing to the top of the town statue. She cleared her throat.

“LISTEN UP!” Sasha called out to her soldiers, their attention immediately being drawn to the Commander. “The battle that will decide the future of the resistance is upon us. We formed this army to stop Andrias, but today we face a different foe, one with weapons most of you have never seen before.”

Sasha sighed as she looked down at her troops. “I know this isn’t going to be easy. With the massacre at Newtopia, Anne’s capture, and the catastrophe at Swamp Shiro, I understand if you want to give up. I understand if you want to lay down your swords and surrender.”

“Should we?” Someone in the crowd yelled out.

Sasha closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them again. “No! During my time here, I have grown to see Amphibia as my home, even more so than Earth ever was. I refuse to let it be destroyed.” She looked at Grime. “Amphibia has made me into a person I can be proud of. If that means that I have to go against my own kind in order to protect it, I’ll do so without hesitation!”

Sasha jumped down from the statue, the army making a pathway for her as she walked. “We will hold the wall for as long as possible. If they break through, retreat to our defenses at Stumpy’s Diner or Grub & Go. If they take those, retreat back to the Plantar’s basement.”

“And if they reach us there?” A newt nearby asked.

Sasha pointed to a familiar old frog and a pair of newts. “I have entrusted Mrs. Croaker, Olivia, and Yunan to guard the Music Box. If we reach a point where it seems we can’t win, then we’ll use it to escape.”

The blonde drew one of her swords and pointed it in the air. “Now then…PREPARE FOR BATTLE!!!”

A collective ‘yes ma’am’ was heard before the entire army hurried off to do their select duties. Sasha sheathed her sword as she let out a heavy sigh. She felt Grime place a hand on her shoulder. “That was great, Lieutenant, but do you really think we have a chance at winning?”

Sasha turned to look at him, her eye bags more pronounced than ever by the setting sun. “Honestly, not really. A part of me feels like I’m just leading us all to our deaths, but giving up without a fight doesn’t feel right either.”

Grime gave Sasha’s shoulder a light squeeze before letting go. “Then I suppose we better not die.” The toad said before running off towards the outer wall.

Sasha ran a hand through her hair. How the fuck did she end up in this situation? She’d only just turned 14 and here she was leading a goddamn army against the U.S. Military in another dimension! That’s not to mention that one of her friends was possessed by a hive mind and the other was captured by a government agent in a purple suit. She was supposed to be starting high school right now, not risking her life in a war!

Sasha shook her head, trying to keep her mind focused on the present. She’d have time to really think about the absurdity of this whole situation after everything was settled. As long as I don’t die. Her mind helpfully supplied.

Sasha was just about to start making her way to the outer wall and assist with any last-minute reinforcements when she heard it: a familiar low buzz that was getting louder by the second.

“Metal birds incoming!” Soggy Joe shouted from his position on the wall. “Everyone take cover!”

Sasha quickly ran into one of the makeshift bunkers they had dug out in preparation. After the utter failure at Swamp Shiro and knowing the kind of firepower they were up against, Sasha had taken every precaution she could think of to ensure they would be ready to deal with this sort of attack.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR

The ground shook as the bomber planes dropped their loads, undoubtedly destroying the buildings that used to store their weapon supplies. Sasha thanked whatever frog god was out there that they had spotted the drone beforehand. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have known to move their supplies elsewhere.

As the shaking stopped and the planes turned around, Sasha carefully exited the bunker to assess the damage. Sure enough, Loggle and Felicia’s shops were completely demolished. The blonde couldn't help but feel guilty over their destruction, but she managed to shake it off and return to the outer wall.

“Alright everyone, that was just the beginning.” Sasha yelled out as the resistance ran back to their positions. “The main assault is still yet to come!”

She turned her attention to Ivy and Maddie. “You two, activate you-know-what. Magic is probably the only advantage we have over them so let’s make it count, yeah?”

The two frogs nodded before running off into the forest. Sasha laughed internally as she watched them go. How did she forget to add magic to the list of things that didn’t make sense in her new life?!

“Commander! Tanks and soldiers on the horizon!” A toad soldier shouted. “Do we launch the catapults?”

“Negative!” Sasha called back. “Wait for my signal!”

“But—!”

“That’s an order!” Sasha yelled, her voice not wavering in the slightest.

The toad immediately shut his mouth, albeit reluctantly. Sasha rubbed her eyes in frustration while Beatrix struggled to contain her laughter at her own soldier’s embarrassment.

Suddenly a red beam of light shot up into the air, causing the clouds above to darken and cover up the sun. Sasha turned to see Ivy and Maddie running back from the forest. Maddie, in particular, had a devilish grin plastered onto her face.

“He’s on his way.” The frog witch said proudly as she and Ivy joined up with their parents atop the wall. Sasha gave them a quick nod before turning her attention back to the sky where their trump card was set to appear.

“Commander, they’ve crossed the river!” The same toad soldier yelled out again. “Are you sure we shouldn’t—?”

“Hold. Your. Positions.” Sasha ordered. “We don’t want to hit our special guest.”

Grime peered back at her from his position on the wall with a look of confusion. “Special guest?”

Sasha merely smiled and gestured to the sky. Grime looked up and just like clockwork, the resistance’s secret weapon materialized right in front of the U.S. Military.

Chicka-lisk the Stormbringer had arrived.

Chapter Text

“Hold. Your. Positions.” Sasha ordered. “We don’t want to hit our special guest.”

Grime peered back at her from his position on the wall with a look of confusion. “Special guest?”

Sasha merely smiled and gestured to the sky. Grime looked up and just like clockwork, the resistance’s secret weapon materialized right in front of the U.S. Military.

Chicka-lisk the Stormbringer had arrived.

Immediately the American soldiers opened fire on the monster of a chicken in front of them. However, just as Sasha predicted, this only provoked the Chicka-lisk into attacking the humans with its fire breath.

“Boomshroom Squad, you’re up!” Sasha shouted over her shoulder. “Take out as many tanks as you can while they’re distracted!”

“You got it!” Wally called back as he and a few other frogs snuck over the wall with bags of the explosive mushrooms on their backs.

Sasha turned her gaze back to the Chicka-lisk whose eyes had now turned an unsettling purple, causing dozens of soldiers to be turned to stone. She shuddered slightly at the thought of those people never seeing the light of day again.

“What’s next, Commander?” Tritonio said, calling her attention to his band of newts.

Sasha smiled at him. “I’m glad you asked.” The blonde placed two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. Right on cue, Joe Sparrow, Domino 2, and the rest of the kill-a-moths appeared behind them. “I want you and your archers to fly over their army and rain hell down on them.”

Tritonio nodded. “You can count on us.”

Sasha returned the nod as she watched them take off into the sky, firing as many arrows as they could at the human soldiers below.

BOOM

Sasha redirected her focus back down to the battlefield as a massive explosion rang out. She sighed in relief when she noticed the source of the explosion was a destroyed tank. “Looks like Wally and his crew are doing a good job.” Stumpy commented.

Sasha was honestly surprised at how well everything was going. “We might just pull this off.” She whispered under her breath. However, right as she said that, things took a turn for the worse. 

SCREECH

Sasha and the rest of the resistance had to cover their ears as a blood-curtailing shriek was heard coming from across the battle lines. The blonde opened her eyes only to see that the Chicka-lisk had been killed, a gaping hole now in the middle of its body.

“Motherfucker!” Sasha shouted as she scanned the battleground for what could have possibly killed the Stormbringer. She grimaced when she caught sight of a fighter jet flying away from the corpse, one of the missiles missing from its wings.

With their main threat dead, the U.S. Military rushed forward, more invigorated than ever. Tritonio and the other newts tried to stop them but had to pull back when some of the kill-a-moths were shot out of the sky.

Sasha glanced at the toad soldier from before. “Looks like we’re doing it your way. Launch the catapults!”

The toad’s expression brightened as he pulled the lever. “Finally!”

Sasha watched with slight satisfaction as five massive boulders were flung at the encroaching army. That satisfaction was short-lived, however, when all five boulders were literally blown out of the sky by ground artillery.

“Shit!” Sasha cursed as gunfire began to pelt their positions on the wall. “New plan: Beatrix, you and the toads stay here and hold the line for as long as possible. The rest of you, follow me to Stumpy’s and Grub & Go.”

“Don’t worry, Commander, we can handle a few hummuses.” Beatrix boasted as the rest of the Resistance fled toward the town.

Sasha allowed herself to laugh a little at Beatrix’s confidence. “I’m sure you can. Just try not to die on me, okay?”

“No promises.” Beatrix chuckled, twirling her battle axes as she and the toad army prepared for the oncoming onslaught. Sasha took one last look at the group before turning and running to meet up with everyone else.

“Ah good, you’re here.” Grime said as Sasha approached the remaining army. “We were just about to start setting up a defensive perimeter.”

“Good thinking.” The blonde replied, surveying the defenses that had been already established prior to the battle. “Let’s hurry and get that done, there’s no telling how long we have until…”

Grime looked up in confusion as Sasha trailed off. “What is it?”

The toad turned to see Sasha staring up at the skies above Wartwood. He followed her gaze only to see three airplanes flying far too close to the ground for a bombing run. “No…they can’t be serious…” She whispered to no one in particular.

“What?! What’s going on?!” Grime asked incredulously. However, before Sasha could even open her mouth to answer him, the hangar doors of the planes opened and American soldiers began to fly out in droves.

“Fucking hell!” Sasha shouted, finally snapping out of her trance. She turned to the rest of the Resistance. “Paratroopers incoming, prepare to engage!”

“Paratroopers?!” Loggle asked in disbelief.

“What are those?!” Toadie said as he fumbled with his sword.

“They’re soldiers that fall from the sky with parachutes!” Sasha yelled over her shoulder while she unsheathed her dual heron blades. Her shoulder still stung slightly from the bullet wound she took in Newtopia, but there was no time to complain about it now. “Everyone, grab a shield and try not to get shot!”

The Amphibian Army followed her orders without question, equipping their shields and forming a defensive line right as the first wave of soldiers touched down.

No one moved as the soldiers aimed their weapons at the amphibians. A tiny, minuscule voice in the back of Sasha’s mind thought that this could be her chance to talk things out. Maybe she could use her status as a human to bargain for a peace treaty.

However, that hope went flying out the window when one of the opposing generals pointed at the resistance with a look of fury. “OPEN FIRE!!!”

All hell broke loose as bullets bombarded their line of shields. Despite the chaos surrounding her, Sasha kept her mind calm while she hid behind Grime. “We need to fall back!”

Grime grunted as he struggled to keep his shield steady. “Already? But my sister, Tritonio, and Wally are still out there fighting!”

“They can handle themselves!” Sasha countered, using one of her swords to block an incoming bullet that managed to slip through the cracks. “We can’t stay here, Grime! They’ll surround us if we don’t get out of here right now!”

“Fine, but promise me we’ll come back for them.” Grime relented.

Sasha nodded. “No soldier left behind.”

The Commander of the Resistance stood up as soon as there was a lull in the gunfire. “Everyone, get to the Plantar’s house! Hurry!”

The line of shields broke as every Amphibian made a mad dash for the underground base. The human soldiers advanced towards them, firing on the retreating army while they gave chase.

Sasha was the first to make it to the Plantar’s home, opening the door and ushering everyone inside. All the while, gunfire continued to ring out. As soon as everyone was in, Sasha closed the door, locked it, and rushed through the fireplace into the Plantar family tunnels.

“What’s going on?” Mrs. Croaker asked as soon as Sasha descended the stairs, slamming the entrance to the base closed as soon as possible.

Sasha gasped for breath as her adrenaline rush began to subside. “Paratroopers *huff* had to *huff* retreat.”

BOOM

The underground base shook as what sounded like massive explosions rocked the earth. Frogs, newts, and toads alike all began to panic when parts of the ceiling started to crumble.

BOOM

“Get the Music Box *huff* we don’t have *huff* much time!” Sasha managed to say to the old frog as she struggled to keep herself steady and breathe at the same time.

BOOM

Mrs. Croaker hurried off to the vault where the Music Box was kept. Sasha placed a hand on her forehead as she crumbled to the ground. Why the hell did she think they could win? All they had were puny ass swords, a few catapults, and a monster chicken. Of course they couldn’t stand up to human guns, tanks, and airplanes!

BOOM

The ground continued to shake with each explosion. Sasha looked up as Mrs. Croaker came running back with the Music Box. Olivia and Yunan followed behind her in concern. The blonde quickly grabbed ahold of the box, opening and closing its lid in a vain attempt to activate it.

BOOM

Sasha glanced up at Olivia with a look of pure desperation. “Please tell me you know how this thing works!”

The newt sadly shook her head. “I’m afraid not. I managed to sneak a few glances at Master Marcy’s notes but I didn’t see anything useful about the box.” 

BOOM

“WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!” Someone across the room cried out as the explosions only continued to get louder and more powerful by the second.

After trying and failing once again to get the box to work, Sasha threw the object to the ground. She pulled at her hair as the stress of the situation finally seemed to catch up to her.

It’s all my fault! We’re all gonna die and it’s all my fault!

BOOM

A clawed hand on her back brought Sasha back to reality. She stood up and hugged Grime with all of the strength she could muster. “I’m sorry. We should have left Wartwood when we had the chance.”

“It’s okay, Lieutenant. You did everything you could.” Grime reassured the girl, returning the hug with just as much force as she had.

Sasha struggled to hold back a sob as her voice cracked. “I love you, Dad.”

Grime froze for a split second before letting out a wet laugh. “I love you too, Sasha.”

BOOOOOOM

The entrance to the underground base collapsed, causing a massive cloud of dust to sweep over the amphibians. Sasha pulled away from Grime and pulled out her swords. She was not going to go down without a fight.

The sound of dozens of boots hitting the ground flooded her ears as the U.S. Army descended the stairs. She looked to her side and noticed Grime powering up Barrel’s Warhammer. Yunan had unsheathed her claws, Toadstool had put on his brass knuckles, and Maddie had a bag of curses ready to throw.

Sasha smiled at the ferocity of the group. Who knew she’d grow so attached to a bunch of anthropomorphic frogs? 

Sasha turned back to the underground entrance, crossing her swords in a way that would hopefully stop any stray bullets from hitting her vital organs. The sound of running boots stopped as Sasha heard the cock of a gun.

One of the soldiers stepped out of the cloud of dust. “Put down your weapons and surrender or we will open fire.”

“Leave us alone and we won’t attack!” Sasha hissed.

The soldier shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He and the rest of the human army raised their guns.

This is it. This is how I die. Sasha thought to herself.

CRASH

Suddenly, a gigantic figure smashed through the ceiling of the underground base. Sasha’s heart seemed to momentarily stop when her eyes looked upon the face of none other than Andrias fucking Leviathan.

Andrias laughed as both the U.S. Army and the Resistance stared up at him in disbelief. “What’s wrong, primates? Got some frogs in your throats?”

The soldier from before shook himself out of his shock and pointed at the colossal newt. “Fire!”

A wave of bullets bombarded Andrias, but much to Sasha and everyone else’s surprise, the small projectiles bounced right off of Andrias’ skin. He continued to laugh. “See? I knew your technology was primitive.”

Andrias lashed out with his tail, slamming the human soldiers into the wall. He pulled out his flaming sword and looked over his shoulder at Sasha. “Sup, Waybright. I think it’s time we finally make good on that deal of ours.”

Andrias pulled back his sword before thrusting it toward the downed soldiers, impaling them all in one fell swoop. Sasha mentally kicked herself to get her mind back on track. “Wha—! Andrias? What the fuck is going on?”

Andrias took a step toward the blonde as he discarded the bodies. “Isn’t it obvious? My lord and I are here to save you.”

“Your lord?” Sasha questioned. “Please tell me you don’t mean Darcy!”

“BINGO!” Andrias exclaimed in his typically jolly tone. “Come on Waybright, let’s go take back this crummy town you humans seem to love so much.”

Andrias turned and proceeded to jump out of the same hole he made in the ceiling earlier. Sasha peered back at Olivia and Yunan. “Guard the box and keep everyone else safe. Grime and I will handle this.”

Sasha pulled the toad up the stairs and out of the basement. Her jaw dropped when she caught sight of the scene in front of her.

The Newtopian Castle was hovering in the center of Wartwood as hundreds upon thousands of frobots pelted the U.S. Military with their lasers. Sasha and Grime watched in awe as Andrias jumped dozens of feet into the air before plummeting back down to the ground, crushing multiple soldiers in his wake. 

It was clear that the human army was being overrun. Sasha could even see a few of them being picked off by arrows from Tritonio’s crew in the sky and some being sliced down by Beatrix's group on the ground.

Sasha stared down at what was once the Plantar family home, now just a pile of rubble. Well, that was gonna be fun to explain to Anne and her weird frog family when they reunited. If they reunited.

Sasha shook her head, banishing the thought to the back of her mind. She was going to save Anne and nothing was going to stop her from doing so.

All of a sudden, one of the frobots landed next to the pair, its eyes glowing a light blue as it projected a holographic version of Darcy in front of them. The hive mind smiled. “Well, Sash, looks like we arrived just in time.”

Sasha stared at them incredulously. “You!”

“Yes, us!” Darcy replied happily. “Feel free to thank us later when we come to iron out the details of our deal. I’m sure Grime here told you all about it.”

“He might’ve mentioned it.” Sasha answered coldly.

“Wonderful!” Darcy exclaimed. “We’ll see you soon, Strength!”

With that, the hologram disappeared and the frobot flew away. Sasha exchanged a knowing glance with Grime.

They had won the battle, but at what cost?

Chapter Text

Three Months Earlier

Mr. X clenched his fists as the massive praying mantis fell on top of the portal machine. Anne and the frog aliens had escaped once again and now there was no way to follow them. He pointed at the remaining members of the Boonchuy family in fury. “YOU! I hope you’re ready to explain yourselves!”

Mr. Boonchuy slapped Mr. X’s hand away. “And we hope you’re ready to listen!”

“We have a lot to talk about!” Mrs. Boonchuy added.

“Oh goody…”

Mr. X rubbed his temples as the Boonchuys finished their explanation. “So you’re telling me there’s an entire dimension of frog people and their king wants to invade Earth using a magic music box. Do either of you have any idea how insane that sounds?”

“We know.” Mr. Boonchuy said plainly. “But you’ve seen the Plantars and Anne’s our daughter. She wouldn’t lie to us about this.”

“Are you sure about that?” Mr. X asked, narrowing his eyes.

Mrs. Boonchuy nodded her head. “She might have kept some of it secret from us initially, but she only did that to protect us.”

Mr. X shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. Are you sure that Anne is still your daughter?”

Both Boonchuys looked at Mr. X in bewilderment. The FBI agent continued before either of them could respond. “Based on what I saw, that girl that you claim to be your daughter might just be an alien. No mere human should have powers like the ones she displayed.”

Mr. Boonchuy shook his head adamantly. “Anne’s not an alien! Powers or not, she’s still our kid.”

Mr. X shrugged. “You may be right, but there’s no denying that that girl is dangerous. She should be locked up in a government facility, not running around in another dimension doing god knows what.”

Mr. X ignored Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy’s cries of protest as he turned to Jenny. “Secure the machine and bring it back to base. I’ll wrap this up.” 

Jenny nodded, running off to do as directed while Mr. X pointed at a squad of FBI agents. “Escort these civilians back to their homes. We’re done here.”

“Yes sir.” The head agent replied as he and the other men forcefully grabbed each of Anne’s allies as well as the Boonchuys and led them outside.

Mr. X hummed to himself as he watched the warehouse be cleared of all dangerous material and personnel. “Things just got a whole lot more interesting.”

“Stop here, Jenners” Mr. X directed his partner as the FBI van pulled up in front of the children’s museum.

The past few weeks had been some of the busiest in Mr. X’s career as well as some of the most nerve-racking in his entire life. Just knowing that aliens truly did exist was a dream come true. However, the fact that those aliens might invade Earth in the near future was…to put it mildly…concerning.

Simply sitting back and letting the aliens come was not something Mr. X wanted to do or thought that he should do. That’s why he was here at the museum after all. He needed to find a way to strike first and hopefully keep Earth safe in the process. According to the background information the FBI had gathered on the scientist, Terri, the original technology behind their portal machine had come from a woman known as Dr. Frakes.

Mr. X stepped through the doors of the children’s museum and immediately almost tripped over a small boy running along the floor with a cookie in his mouth. “Hey! Watch where you’re going, kid!”

The FBI agent straightened his suit and continued his walk to the back office, narrowly avoiding a puddle of puke on the way there. He knocked on the door. “Hello? I’m here to see Dr. Frakes.”

The door slammed open, revealing a very short, middle-aged woman with tinted glasses, a lab coat, and a disgruntled expression on her face. “Who are you and what do you want?”

Mr. X reached into his pocket and pulled out his FBI badge, handing it to the petite scientist. “Agent X, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” He lowered his voice. “I hear you’re an expert on interdimensional portals.”

Dr. Frakes’ face instantly brightened. “Finally! It’s about time the government caught wind of my glorious inventions! Come come, let me show you all that I’ve accomplished.”

Mr. X was pulled into the office and led down a dark hallway. Dr. Frakes walked ahead of him, talking on and on about her inventions and how she was outcasted from the wider scientific community for her ideas. Mr. X cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt, but you wouldn’t happen to know a person named Terri, would you?”

Dr. Frakes froze, her expression darkening. “What about them? That traitor stopped me from obtaining my greatest scientific achievement yet!”

“Oh do tell.” Mr. X prodded.

Dr. Frakes threw her hands around wildly as she spoke. “You should’ve seen them. They were like giant lizard people that could walk and talk. I was going to dissect them and document my findings, but Terri and some teenage girl took them away!”

“The teenage girl…did she happen to be Thai by any chance?” Mr. X asked.

Dr. Frakes raised an eyebrow. “Yes…? Why does it matter?”

The FBI agent laughed. “Oh honey, she was no ordinary teenage girl. Her name is Anne Boonchuy and it’s my firm belief that she is an alien herself, or at very least, had her DNA altered by alien technology.”

“Are you serious?!” Dr. Frakes exclaimed. “Where is she now? Did you capture her?”

Mr. X shook his head. “Sadly, no. She and her froggy friends escaped to another dimension using portal technology your former assistant made.”

“How is that possible?” Dr. Frakes said in disbelief. “I’ve only been able to open a small portal for a few seconds. How was Terri able to create one both large enough and stable enough to pass through?”

“They didn’t, Anne did.” Mr. X stated as he crossed his arms. “Somehow she was able to channel blue energy into the portal machine, giving it enough power for them to cross over.”

Dr. Frakes ran a hand through her hair and readjusted her glasses. “I see…so interdimensional travel is indeed possible then.”

Mr. X nodded. “That is precisely why I’m here. For you see, we’ve confiscated what’s left of Terri’s portal technology and we want you to finish their work.”

The mad scientist looked up at him in surprise. “Really?!”

Mr. X smiled. “Yes, really. If you accept, we’ll give you all the government funding you need to complete your life’s work. Now, how does that sound?”

Dr. Frakes’ mouth slowly morphed into a maniacal grin as she stuck out her hand. “It’s a deal.”

Mr. X took her hand, a grin of his own beginning to form. “I look forward to working with you doctor.” He took a step back and pulled out his phone. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to make a call to our Commander-in-chief.”

Present Day

Anne jolted awake at the sound of a siren blasting her eardrums. She covered her ears in a desperate attempt to silence the deafening alarm. “I’M UP! I’M UP!”

Thankfully, the siren stopped, only to be replaced by a gruff voice on the intercom. “Anne Boonchuy, prepare yourself for examination and training. The guards will collect you in five minutes.”

Anne groaned but did as she was told. She had learned the hard way what happened if she ignored orders. The pain from the first few days in captivity was burned into her memory. 

Anne got out of bed and grabbed one of the skin-tight training suits she’d been forced to wear. While they looked sorta cool, they weren’t exactly comfortable.

Anne zipped the back of her suit up and moved to sit back on the bed, almost tripping on the chain connecting her ankle to the wall in the process. She kicked the chain to the side. Honestly, the best part about training was being free of that stupid chain, even if only for a couple hours at a time. The rest of it though…

Pain. Just so much unbearable pain at even the slightest mistake or lack of effort.

Can’t activate your powers in under three seconds? Pain.

Can’t punch through a metal wall with your bare fist? Pain.

Too tired to keep your powers activated because a nightmare wouldn’t let you sleep? Pain.

Crying your lungs out as doctors extract an ungodly amount of blood from your body and you can’t do anything because you’re strapped to a table? Pain. Pain! PAIN!

All that ever happened these days was pain. The only saving grace was her weekly visits with the Plantars. Anne was smart enough to realize that the only purpose of the visits was to remind her who would pay the price if she disobeyed orders, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. As long as the Plantars were unharmed, she could handle whatever physical torture they put her through.

Anne was drawn out of her thoughts as the wall shifted. The door to her cell opened and two guards with helmets walked in, one carrying a pair of handcuffs.

Anne rolled her eyes as she stood up and turned around, her hands behind her back. She knew the drill at this point, no need to have the chip in her brain turned on for something as trivial as this.

Anne sighed internally as one guard snapped the handcuffs onto her wrists while the other disconnected the cuff on her ankle. The guards silently escorted her out of the cell and down a familiar hallway she knew led to the training area. 

“So…what’s the plan for today?” Anne said, breaking the silence. “Strength check? Shockwaves? How about flight training? I haven’t done that in a while.”

The guards remained silent, neither of them even looking at Anne as they led her down the corridor. The Thai girl sighed. “Man, you dudes are like Stormtroopers. Do you even have faces under those helmets?”

Suddenly, one of the guards grabbed Anne’s shoulder and pushed her into a side hallway, the other guard following close behind. Anne looked at the two of them, confused. “Huh, what’s going on?”

The guard holding her shoulder let go and to Anne’s utter disbelief, they unlocked her handcuffs. Anne opened her mouth to ask why they were helping her, but her words died in her throat the moment the guards took off their helmets.

“Hey, Anne!” Mr. Boonchuy said as both he and his wife gave their daughter a much-needed hug.

Mrs. Boonchuy gently cupped Anne’s face. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

“Mom? Dad? How are you here?!” Anne exclaimed, finally getting over the shock of seeing her parents again.

Mr. Boonchuy grabbed Anne’s hand and began to pull her further down the hallway. “We’ll explain on the way, come on!”

All three Boonchuys ran down the corridor, checking around corners for any other guards as they went. Anne had to admit that the training had greatly increased her stamina, making running through the base a breeze. She turned to her dad. “How did you find me?”

“I put a tracker in your hair.” Mrs. Boonchuy said quickly.

“You did what?!” Anne nearly shouted as she stuck a hand into her brown curls.

“We didn’t know when you’d come home or where you’d end up.” Her mother explained. “Imagine our surprise when it said you were in a top-secret underground base.”

“We’re underground?” Anne questioned, following her parents as they turned a corner. “Shouldn’t there be cameras?”

Mr. Boonchuy waved dismissively. “Don’t worry, Anne. Ally and Jess made sure we wouldn’t be spotted while we saved you and the Plantars.”

Anne gasped. “The Plantars? Do you know where they are? They were only ever brought to my cell to visit, not the other way around.”

“Terri and Dr. Jan went to go find them.” Her father replied. “They said they’d meet up with us as soon as they found and freed them.”

As if on cue, a familiar shrill voice yelled out from across the hall. “ANNE!!!”

Anne turned and immediately felt a wave of relief upon seeing Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly racing towards her, Terri and Dr. Jan following close behind them in guard uniforms. Anne opened her arms and hugged Sprig tightly. “Hey, dude!”

“Thank frog you’re alright.” Hop Pop said as he and Polly joined in on the hug.

Anne let out a half-hearted laugh. “I wouldn’t say alright, but I’m definitely ready to get out of here.” 

Dr. Jan nodded in agreement. “Anne’s right. It’s only a matter of time before they realize you’re not where you’re supposed to be.”

“Come on then, the elevator’s this way!” Mr. Boonchuy called as he led the group down yet another hallway.

Mrs. Boonchuy looked at her daughter and the Plantars curiously as they sped through the base. “So how did the four of you end up in a top-secret facility? What did they want with you?”

“We were captured by Mr. X after he invaded Amphibia.” Anne sighed. “I…don’t really wanna talk about the rest…”

“It’s okay, Anne.” Hop Pop said gently. “You can tell us when you’re good and ready.”

Anne gave him a weak smile. “Thanks, H.P.”

Sprig looked around nervously as they approached the elevator doors. “Hey, is it just me or wasn’t it kind of strange that we never ran into any other guards?”

Terri slowed their pace slightly, an anxious expression lining their face. “Yeah…it’s almost like they wanted us to rescue you…”

“AAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

All of a sudden, Anne collapsed on the ground, her body thrashing around wildly as she screamed. “No! Please not again!”

Mr. Boonchuy rushed to his daughter’s side. “Anne, what’s wrong?! Speak to us!”

“It hurts…” Anne managed to squeak out despite the clear agonizing pain she was in.

“Where, Anne?! Where does it hurt?!” Dr. Jan asked as she tried to keep the girl from causing too much noise.

“Everywhere!” Anne screamed.

Hop Pop looked around helplessly. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know!” Terri yelled as they looked all over Anne’s body. “There’s no visible injury anywhere on her.”

“The chip.” Anne breathed out as her convulsions worsened. “He put a chip in my head.”

“Who, Anne?!” Mrs. Boonchuy pleaded. “Who did this to you?!”

“Who do you think?” A familiar voice drawled as the elevator doors opened.

Everyone’s gaze snapped up to see Mr. X walking towards them, an army of FBI agents behind him. The bald man sighed. “Well, Anne, I must say, I’m very disappointed in you.”

Mr. X pulled out a small remote with a red dial from his pocket. He turned the dial down, allowing Anne to recover somewhat. “Hello Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy, Dr. Jan, Terri, Subjects A, B, & C.”

“What did you do to my daughter?!!!” Mrs. Boonchuy hissed, raising her stolen gun to the FBI agent’s head.

“I just gave her a little bit of…extra motivation, that’s all.” Mr. X replied nonchalantly. “Turns out, having both emotional and physical incentives to follow orders is quite effective.”

“H-How’d you know we’d be here?” Terri asked cautiously.

Mr. X genuinely laughed. “Did you really think we’d just let you go after all the trouble you caused? If you did, I regret to inform you that both the FBI and the CIA have been monitoring you all very closely. Honestly, we probably knew about your rescue plan before you even came up with it. Heck, we’ve already sent a team of agents to arrest those girls with the robot panda.” 

“But why allow us to infiltrate your base and free Anne in the first place?” Dr. Jan said in disbelief.

Mr. X sighed as he pointedly looked at Anne. “I wanted to see if she could pass the test, and obviously, she did not. It seems that we’ll have to try some more drastic measures to ensure her loyalty.”

Anne looked up from where she had been laying face-first on the floor. “What?” Her voice was barely a whisper.

Mr. X looked down at the girl, a single flicker of pity passing through his eyes before being extinguished altogether. “Get up, Boonchuy.”

Anne looked to the Plantars for support, only to see them being pulled back by a couple other FBI agents. She glared at Mr. X. “Let them go.”

Mr. X shook his head. “My colleague still needs them for her experiments.” He held up the remote. “Now get up.”

Anne slowly got to her feet, wobbling slightly as she did so. She looked around, only to see that all of her friends and family were handcuffed, their stolen guns taken away from them. She moved her tired gaze back to Mr. X. “So now what?”

Mr. X grinned. “Now we begin the real test.” He snapped his fingers and a guard pushed Mr. Boonchuy forward, forcing the Thai man to his knees. “I want you to attack your dear old dad.”

“W-What?!” Anne exclaimed as she tried to back away. “No, I-I can’t do that!”

Mr. X took out the remote and turned the dial to the lowest setting, causing Anne to fall to one knee. “You can and you will.”

A guard pushed Anne back towards her father as Mr. X turned down the dial once more. Mr. X grabbed Anne’s hair and pulled her to her feet. “Activate your powers, Boonchuy.”

Anne stared at her dad, tears flowing down her cheeks. “I-I…”

Mr. Boonchuy gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, Anne. I’ll be fine.” 

“DO IT ANNE!” Mr. X yelled in her ear. “Do it or I’ll have my colleague dissect one of your little frog friends alive.”

With a huff, Anne wiped away her tears and closed her eyes. After several long moments of waiting, her hair turned blue and a fiery aura appeared around her. She opened her now glowing-blue eyes and stared down at her father, her voice just barely above a whisper. “I’m sorry…”

Mr. Boonchuy gave her a nod of permission. “Don’t worry, Anne. I will always love you, no matter what.”

Anne glanced at Mr. X one last time before she took a step forward and swung a fist at her dad’s face, slamming him against the wall.

“AGAIN!” Mr. X ordered.

Anne had to bite back her tears as she raised her foot and kicked Mr. Boonchuy in the gut, causing the man to spit out a mouthful of blood.

“AGAIN!”

She raised her foot again and stomped down on her father’s chest, sending even more blood out of his mouth.

“AGAIN!”

Anne continued to pummel Mr. Boonchuy into the ground again and again and again. She continued to crack his bones even as nonstop tears flowed from her eyes. She continued to spew his blood across the floor even as Mrs. Boonchuy, Terri, Dr. Jan, and the Plantars begged for her to stop.

After a brutal five minutes, Mr. X placed a hand on her shoulder. “That’s enough, Boonchuy.”

Anne’s gaze snapped to the FBI agent, her fist frozen mid-punch. With a deep, choked-up sigh, Anne lowered her arm and closed her eyes, her hair returning to its normal brown hue. 

“Yes sir.” She mumbled, taking a step back and keeping her eyes trained on the floor.

Mr. X clapped his hands, practically beaming at her. “You did good, kid. I knew you had it in you!”

Anne’s shoulders shuttered but the girl didn’t offer a reply, not like Mr. X expected one anyway. He turned and pointed at the FBI agents holding back Terri, Dr. Jan, and Mrs. Boonchuy. “Take them to cell block D. The rest of you, escort Anne and Subjects A, B, & C back to her containment unit. I think she deserves a little bit of visitation time after that wonderful performance.”

“What about her father?” One of the agents asked, gesturing to the unconscious and battered man on the floor.

Mr. X waved him off. “I’ll call in a medical team to take care of him. He’ll be put in a cell with the rest of them as soon as he’s recovered.”

The FBI agents nodded and began to push Anne and the Plantars back down the way they came while Mrs. Boonchuy, Terri, and Dr. Jan were led toward the elevator. Sprig nudged her leg slightly as they walked. “Anne, are you okay?”

Anne simply shook her head, still staring at the floor as a wave of guilt washed over her. “I almost killed him…”

“You didn’t have a choice, Anne.” Hop Pop said gently in an attempt to comfort her. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Anne looked down at the old frog, her eyes dark. “It was though. I’m the one that hurt him, no matter what excuses you make.”

“Hey, no talking!” One of the guards yelled over their shoulder.

Anne immediately closed her mouth while the Plantars looked at the guard angrily. Sighing internally, Anne closed her eyes as they continued to walk, her guilt slowly morphing into anger.

Mr. X was going to die for this.

Today only reaffirmed what she already knew: she was going to make him suffer. Anne didn’t know when and she didn’t know where, but as soon as the Plantars were safe and that remote of his was destroyed, she was going to murder the ever-living fuck out of the man who had turned her into a monster.

Anne smiled. She would play his little game for as long as it took until that day came, no matter what she was forced to do.

No. Matter. What.

Chapter Text

Fuck.

Sasha never realized how much could be said with just one little word until now. That one, four-letter word that she said almost constantly (much to her parent’s annoyance) had never held so much meaning behind it. There was literally no other way to describe the situation she was in besides simply saying the word fuck.

It had been nearly a week since Andrias and Darcy swooped in to save the resistance and Sasha still had absolutely no idea how to handle them. She had managed to stall them for now, insisting that they secure Wartwood’s position as much as possible before discussing their deal. However, the blonde knew that that excuse wouldn’t keep the two tyrants occupied for long.

On top of that, Sasha still had to organize the reconstruction of Wartwood. While that normally wouldn’t be an issue, the Resistance army was so on edge that none of her soldiers could focus on rebuilding anything without making any major mistakes. It was like they expected the frobots to turn on them at any moment, which, to be fair, wouldn’t be too surprising if it were to happen.

Sufficed to say, it was exhausting, both mentally and physically. 

Sasha sighed deeply as she and Grime walked across the now deserted battlefield right outside the gates of Wartwood. “I wish Anne was here. Even without her powers, she would at least be able to help me deal with all this shit.”

Grime hummed in agreement. “I can’t disagree with you there. That girl has a knack for getting out of tough situations.”

“That’s Anne for ya.” Sasha replied, her fond smile wavering as they continued to walk. “I miss her…”

“We’ll get her back, Lieutenant. With Darcy and Andrias helping us, getting your friends back will be easy as cricket pie.” Grime said enthusiastically.

Sasha froze in her tracks. “No, Grime! You can’t expect me to actually follow through with the deal you made with those two.”

“I know how it sounds, Sasha.” The toad conceded, pausing to stare up at the blonde. “But it might just be your only chance at saving Anne and Marcy.”

Sasha shook her head. “You know I can’t do it, Grime! Your deal involves giving Andrias and Darcy the Music Box back. I can’t just allow them to invade Earth!”

Grime shrugged. “I mean…the humans invaded us first. This could be our chance to even the playing field.”

Sasha let out another deep sigh. “Earth is still my home, Grime. Maybe not as much as Amphibia is now, but I still care about it. I’m not just gonna sit here and let them destroy it.” She looked away from Grime and continued to walk across the battlefield. “Besides, I highly doubt Andrias and Darcy will hold up their end of the deal anyway.”

Grime scratched his chin as the pair passed a destroyed tank. “I suppose that’s true. Is there any chance they’ll let you keep the Music Box until after they save Anne and free Marcy?”

Sasha raised an eyebrow, giving Grime a look that could only mean, ‘Are you seriously asking me that question right now?’

Grime raised his hands in mock surrender. “Okay! I get it, the answer’s no. But do you have any better ideas?”

Sasha sighed in defeat as she stopped to lean against the side of a nearby tree. “…no…”

Grime searched her face for several moments before tearing his gaze away and peering at something else in the distance. After a few seconds of waiting for a response, Sasha did the same, looking away from Grime and turning her focus to the flying castle hovering above Wartwood. “Why can’t things just be easy for a change? It’s been months since I last saw Anne and I have no idea what kind of shit Marcy must be going through in her mind! I just want to see my friends again, Grime.” 

Grime placed a hand on her shoulder, a look of sympathy passing over his usually grim features. “You will, Lieutenant. Once this war is over, you and your friends can spend as much time together as you want.”

“Yeah, maybe…” Sasha replied half-heartedly. 

After a few moments of silence, Grime released her shoulder and pulled out Barrel’s Warhammer, sitting down to polish the weapon in front of her. Sasha sighed and watched him work. However, she soon found herself lost in her own thoughts.

How did it come to this? What ever happened to always being in control? She may be the Commander of the Resistance, but Sasha had never felt so powerless. She couldn’t even count on Anne and Marcy being by her side.

Sasha had been separated from Anne four times already during their time in Amphibia! Once, when the box was originally activated, again after the Toad Tower incident, a third time in Newtopia, and now again thanks to that asshole, Mr. X. Sasha didn’t want to think about what would happen if they reunited only for them to be separated once again.

And then there was the issue of Marcy. After reuniting with her at the Third Temple, Sasha only had a couple days with Marcy before everything went to utter shit. Sasha knew she was alive after hearing Andrias mention a rejuvenation tank, but she could have never guessed what she would become. How was she supposed to deal with an insane, collective hive mind using Marcy’s body as its own?! 

Sasha shook her head in an attempt to push those thoughts to the back of her mind. Thinking about it would only increase her stress levels, which were already way too high for someone her age. Sasha’s life had been full of change, starting with her parent’s divorce. At this point, none of what life threw at her should phase her, so why was she getting so worked up about this?!

It’s because Anne and Marcy were taken away from her. 

Ever since kindergarten, they were always by her side. They were her one constant. That was until they were sent to Amphibia. Now, that one constant in her life was gone…or was it?

Throughout her entire time in Amphibia, Sasha did have one constant and he was standing right in front of her! Grime was the one person she could always count on, no matter what. If Sasha lost him then…

“Can you promise me something?”

Grime jumped, his eyes widening in surprise after not hearing her voice for so long. “Yes? What is it?”

Sasha lowered herself to one knee, grabbing Grime’s shoulders and staring directly into the toad’s yellow and gray eyes. “Promise me that you won’t die. Promise me that you won’t leave me.”

Sasha’s eyes began to water as she spoke. “Please, Grime, I-I don’t know if I can handle losing someone important to me again!”

Grime stared into Sasha’s eyes for several moments before smiling. “Of course, Sasha. I promise that I’ll always be here for you.”

Sasha let out a wet laugh as the two of them embraced one another. She was going to make it through this. If not for her, then for Anne, Marcy, and Grime. 

The two pulled away as Sasha wiped away her tears. “Sorry, I got a little carried away there.”

“It’s alright.” Grime chuckled. “We all have our moments of vulnerability, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

All of a sudden, a frobot landed next to the pair, its red eyes unblinking as it spoke. “LORD DARCY REQUESTS YOUR PRESENCE IN THE THRONE ROOM.”

“Of course they do.” Sasha huffed in annoyance. She exchanged a glance with Grime before turning back to the frobot. “Alright, tin can, tell Darcy we’re ready to make a deal.”

“It’s about time you worms showed up.” Darcy stated as the leaders of the Resistance dismounted from Joe Sparrow and walked onto the castle balcony. “You’ve kept us waiting long enough.”

Sasha shrugged as she swept past the hive mind. “Meh, we had more pressing matters to attend to.”

Andrias gritted his teeth. “Watch it, Waybright. We may have helped you beat the humans before, but that doesn’t mean we won’t destroy you ourselves.”

“Not if you want the box in one piece.” Sasha countered. “My soldiers have orders to smash it if we don’t return from here alive.”

“Understandable.” Darcy replied, moving to stand in front of Andrias. “However, we can assure you that it will never come to that.”

Sasha nodded. “Good, cause I’d rather not die today.”

Darcy smiled. This was going to be more fun than they thought. They clapped their hands together. “Well then, let’s get down to business, shall we?”

Andrias cleared his throat. “As per the deal we made with Captain Grime, the Resistance shall give the Music Box back to us and in return, we will free Marcy and assist in your efforts to save Anne.”

Sasha clicked her tongue. “Okay, you see the problem with that is that as soon as we give you back the box, you two no longer have an incentive to hold up your end of the deal.”

“We suppose that’s true.” Darcy conceded. “What is it that you propose we do?”

Sasha exchanged glances with Beatrix, Grime, Tritonio, and Mrs. Croaker. “We propose that you free Marcy now, as a sign of good faith, before we hand over the box.”

“An interesting offer,” Darcy replied. “However, it is one that we cannot accept.”

Mrs. Croaker’s eyes narrowed. “And why’s that?”

Darcy turned to face the old frog. “If we were to give up our host, all future interactions would need to be done through Andrias, and, let’s be honest, nobody here wants that.”

“Hey—!” Andrias tried to say before Darcy interrupted him.

“If you’d be willing to give up an alternative host that meets our criteria, we may be persuaded to accept your offer.”

Sasha immediately shook her head. “Absolutely not! I refuse to let anyone else become your puppet.” 

Darcy shrugged. “Then we are at a standstill, unless you have another proposal…”

Sasha opened her mouth to speak but paused when Grime nudged her leg, causing the blonde to bend down to look at him. Darcy watched as the toad whispered something in her ear. Sasha’s eyes widened in understanding as Grime stepped away. After a moment, she turned back to Darcy. “How would you feel if we kept the key to the Music Box until after both Anne and Marcy are free? That way, we could decide when and how you use it.”

Darcy tried to remain calm. “That will not be necessary. We share a common goal, there is no need for such complications.”

Sasha crossed her arms defiantly. “It’s the only way we’ll trust you with the box.”

“Oh come now, Sash. After everything we’ve done for you, surely we’ve already earned some semblance of trust.” Darcy retorted, their eyes narrowing. “We saved you from annihilation, remember? We came here to help you beat back the humans. Why must you be so difficult?”

“Pff…yeah right!” Beatrix interrupted. “It’s been a week since yah saved our asses, yet all you’ve done is toured our base and mocked our weapons. The only reason you’re here is because we have the box.”

Darcy’s attention turned to the toad lord. “We admit, the Music Box is an important contributor to our cooperation, however, we are also able to recognize the strategic value that combining our armies would have.”

Sasha furrowed her eyebrows. “So what? You suddenly want to work with us now? What happened to stomping us out like bugs?”

“Plans change.” Is all Darcy said as they slowly approached the blonde.

Grime stepped in front of Sasha protectively, his hand wrapped around Barrel’s Warhammer as if he expected a fight to break out at any moment. “Either you accept our proposal and we keep the key to the Music Box, or you leave here with nothing!”

Darcy stared at the toad for several long seconds before responding. “Fine.”

Andrias looked at them in shock. “My lord, you can’t seriously be considering—!”

“Quiet, Andrias!” Darcy shouted, causing the newt to shrink back in on himself. That idiot was going to ruin everything! Darcy had these fools in the palm of their hand. “Apologies, Andrias clearly doesn’t see the future benefits that this alliance will bring to us both.”

Sasha looked from Darcy to Andrias and then back to Darcy. She reached out her hand tentatively. “So it’s a deal?”

Darcy grinned as they shook her hand. “It’s a deal. We look forward to working with you.”

After a few moments of tense looks from the rest of the Resistance, Darcy pulled away. “Now then, as a token of our appreciation for this new alliance, we have prepared a little gift for you.”

“A gift?” Sasha asked, raising an eyebrow.

Darcy’s smile widened as they gestured for the resistance to follow them out to the castle balcony. “Of course! Don’t worry, you’ll love this.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Tritonio commented as they followed the hive mind outside.

Darcy hummed in acknowledgment as they looked out over Wartwood. “We noticed that your weapons are far too primitive to fight against the humans, so we decided to fix that.”

Darcy pointed at Andrias. “Show them what we’ve been working on, son.”

Andrias nodded reluctantly and pressed a button on his wrist. Suddenly a massive container dropped out from the bottom of the castle, landing in the center of Wartwood. Two frobots grabbed a hold of one side and pried the container open, revealing dozens upon dozens of miniature mech suits similar to the Dyoplosaurus.

“Are those for us?” Sasha questioned as she looked down upon the suits.

“Sure are!” Darcy replied, watching as the frobots emptied the container and helped some of the Amphibians climb into the mech suits. “With these, your army will now be a force to be reckoned with.”

Beatrix laughed. “Those hummuses won’t stand a chance against these!”

“And that’s not all!” Darcy exclaimed as they motioned for Andrias to press another button.

The castle shook as two egg-like containers shot out from beneath the structure, smashing into the plains just beyond Wartwood’s walls. A few seconds later, the eggs burst open to reveal two massive purple-eyed birds.

“Are those herons?!” Sasha yelled as the two avians stretched their wings.

“Yup!” Darcy replied, their smile widening from how easy it was to earn these fools’ trust. “Thanks to the mushroom enzyme we’ve been using in our collars, they’ll obey whatever command you tell them.”

Sasha turned to stare at Darcy for several long moments before speaking. “Let me guess, you were gonna use those to invade Earth, weren’t you?”

Darcy laughed. “Clever as always, Sasha. But yes, that was the original intention.”

Sasha sighed and shook her head, but didn’t say anything else on the matter. Instead, she stepped further out onto the balcony and looked out across the valley. “Looks like it’s time for a counterattack.”

Chapter Text

Private David Johnson sighed as he finished his patrol. He had spent nearly all night walking around the outskirts of the small village they were occupying and now he just wanted to get some sleep. 

When he enlisted as a soldier for the U.S. Army, he never thought he’d be sent to another dimension! The notion would have been unthinkable just a few months ago, yet here he was, near the front lines, making sure that none of those frog robots snuck up on them.

David waved to a couple other soldiers as he made his way into the town. Jacob Rodgers, another private that was assigned to the night patrol, bumped his shoulder as he walked into one of the buildings set aside for the soldiers to sleep in. “Long night, eh?”

“Tell me about it.” David replied back, feeling relieved to finally have a few hours of rest.

“Ya know, the Commanders say the war will be done soon.” Jacob continued, laying on the sleeping mat next to David’s. “There’s been a little bit of trouble over the mountains thanks to that Waybright girl, but the rest of the continent should capitulate within a month or two.”

“Is that so?” David responded dryly as he tried to fall asleep. He was not in the mood for conversation.

Jacob didn’t seem to get the message as he just continued to ramble on. “Did you know that she’s only fourteen years old? Makes you wonder if the aliens here did something to her head that made her want to help them.”

“Maybe.” David yawned, turning his back on the other man.

“I mean, why would a human, one of us, want to help a bunch of freaks? They were gonna invade us for Pete’s sake! We’re saving the world right now!” Jacob exclaimed.

 “Uh huh…” David mumbled.

“Oh hey, did you hear the rumors? Apparently, the FBI is working on making some kind of super weapon that’s powerful enough to take down the flying castle. I’m not sure if they’re true, but imagine the damage something like that could do to—!”

“Will you shut up?!” David yelled, sitting up to glare at the other man. “I don’t care what kind of weapon the FBI is supposedly making! All I want to do is get through this, go home, and see my family!” He sighed. “Look, I get it. We’re all excited to be in another dimension but if you say one more word, I’m gonna punch you in the throat, got it?!”

Jacob stared at him in shock. “Sorry, bro. I didn’t mean to—“

BOOM

The ground shook violently as a massive explosion sounded out in the distance. Without sparing Jacob a look, David immediately threw on his gear and rushed outside. Everywhere he looked, people were scrambling to ready their defenses. David rushed over to the Lieutenant of his platoon who was barking out orders left and right. “Sir, what’s going on?”

His superior turned to look at him. His face looked calm but his hands shook nervously. “Some kind of blue laser just took out a large chunk of the frontline. We’re still working out the details.”

“Sir, according to the radar, several large objects appear to be heading our way.” One of the other soldiers announced.

David turned his gaze towards where the frontline was situated. The sun had only just begun to rise which didn’t allow him to see much beyond the village his platoon was currently stationed at. “What are our orders, sir?”

“Hold your positions for now. We don’t know exactly what the enemy is planning yet, but we need to be ready to engage at a moment’s notice.”

“Yes, sir.” David saluted before running to meet up with the rest of his squad just outside of the village’s boundaries. He grimaced when he saw Jacob was already there, conversing with their Staff Sergeant.

“There you are, Johnson.” His Staff Sergeant greeted as soon as David came into view. “I was just about to send Rodgers here to find you.”

David placed a hand on his gun. “Sorry, sir. I was just double-checking what our orders were.”

The other man waved him off. “It’s fine, private. You just get into position and then we can—“

BOOM

Yet another explosion shook the earth they were standing upon, this time much closer than before. David had to hold onto a nearby tree to keep his footing. He looked up in shock as a large shadow was cast over their position.

The flying castle was here, and it wasn’t alone.

Thousands upon thousands of frog robots flooded the sky as the castle slowly approached them. Just behind the robots were two enormous birds with purple eyes and razor-sharp teeth, each of them looking like they haven’t eaten in months.

David’s Staff Sergeant was the first to break out of his shock. “All troops, prepare for battle!”

“Sir yes sir!” Every soldier around him responded in tandem, including David who had already joined the other soldiers in creating a line of defense.

“Sir, there appears to be movement at the tree line.” One of the soldiers holding a pair of binoculars called back.

David turned just in time to see hundreds of frog aliens storm out of the forest, however, instead of their typical swords and shields, these Amphibians were using some kind of exoskeleton suits of armor. Each of which had a laser cannon arm similar to the ones seen on the frog robots.

“Open fire!” The Staff Sergeant yelled.

And that’s when all hell broke loose.

Sasha whooped loudly as she watched the battle play out in front of her. Who knew riding on top of a heron could be this much fun? She turned to Grime. “Now this is what I’m talking about!”

Grime grimaced from his seat on the back of the other heron. “I’m glad you’re having fun, Lieutenant. But let’s try to focus, okay?”

“Yeah yeah.” Sasha said, waving him off. “Let’s just get down there already.”

Sasha guided her heron to the ground, accidentally crushing one of the village's buildings as she landed. She looked toward the village’s front gates, smiling in pride as the Wartwood Resistance began to overwhelm the American defenses.

Sasha patted her heron’s head. “Alright, birdbrain, it’s time to cause some property damage.” She pointed at where a nearby group of soldiers were readying their tanks for battle, causing the heron to immediately stomp toward them.

The group of soldiers raised their guns toward her as she approached. One of the men seemed to recognize her. “Shit is that…stand down, Waybright!”

Sasha merely laughed and pointed her sword at the group of soldiers. “Not gonna happen.”

Sasha’s heron quickly spread out its wings, knocking the soldiers back in a powerful gust of wind. With the soldiers knocked away, her heron was free to rip the tanks to shreds using its talons and beak.

By the time the soldiers regrouped, it was far too late as Sasha’s heron had already taken off back into the sky. Sasha looked down in triumph, noticing a pile of artillery shells just waiting to be ignited in the village center. She called out to one of the frobots flying nearby. “Hey metalhead, why don’t you light this place up?!”

The frobot’s eyes simply turned into question marks. Sasha rolled her eyes. “Shoot the shells, you idiot!”

Thankfully, the frobot did as she said, causing the shells to erupt in a massive explosion. 

“That’s one way to do it.” Grime remarked as he flew his heron alongside hers. “However, let’s try to keep structural damage to a minimum.”

Sasha laughed half-heartedly. “You try telling that to them. Wartwood was in shambles after the battle, remember?”

“I know.” Grime conceded. “But after the war is over, the frogs that live here probably won’t want to come back only to see that their homes are destroyed.”

“It’s war, Captain.” A voice from behind the two of them said. “Collateral damage is necessary if we mean to win.”

Sasha turned in her seat only to see Andrias flying beside them in his Dyoplosaurus suit. The newt fired a missile at a group of soldiers while he continued. “I would assume a toad would know that already.”

Grime opened his mouth to defend himself, but Andrias was already gone, using his flamethrower to torch a fighter jet that was heading for the castle.

“It’s okay, Grime.” Sasha said sympathetically as she maneuvered her heron back towards the battle. “I’m glad that you care about the frogs so much. I’m sure Anne would be too.”

Grime simply nodded before guiding his heron to the ground, destroying a military drone right before it fired upon Wally and Loggle. Sasha shook her head and rejoined the battle as well. They would have time to rebuild later. Right now, all that mattered was taking back their home.

All in all, the battle went surprisingly well.

After only an hour of fighting, the U.S. Military had ordered its troops to retreat. The joint forces of Andrias and Darcy’s frobots and the Wartwood Resistance were just too much for the single platoon to handle it seemed. In terms of casualties, only about a dozen frobots were destroyed and a few Resistance members were injured while the opposite side lost nearly all of their equipment and suffered a casualty rate of 25%.

And all of that is just the beginning of our counterattack. Sasha thought to herself as she looked down at the now-liberated village from the castle balcony.

“Wonderful job out there, Sasha!” Darcy spoke up from behind her. “We knew allying with you would work in both our favors.”

Sasha scoffed. “I’m only working with you until Amphibia is free. Once the war is over and I have Anne and Marcy back, this alliance is over.”

Darcy shook their head, feigning a look of sadness. “How disappointing. We’d hope this could be the beginning of a beautiful partnership.”

Sasha rolled her eyes, pointedly deciding not to respond to the hive mind’s act of friendliness. She turned when she noticed Beatrix and Grime making their way onto the castle balcony as well.

Grime glanced at Darcy before focusing his attention back on Sasha. “We found some of the villagers being kept prisoner underneath the town hall. It seemed like they were being prepped for transport before we arrived.”

“From what they told us, the rest of the village managed to escape into the forest.” Beatrix added. “Should we send a search party to look for ‘em?”

Sasha shook her head. “Wherever they are is safer than the village is right now. Gather the ones that were kept prisoner and send them back to Wartwood. We’ll deal with all those who were displaced as soon as the war is over.”

Beatrix nodded and ran back inside to relay the order while Grime looked out across the Amphibian landscape. With the sun now being higher up in the sky, it was much easier to see the destruction the battle had caused.

Darcy smiled as they studied Grime’s grim expression. “Andrias was right, you are going soft.”

Grime sneered at Darcy. “Yeah, well, maybe if you hadn't misused the Music Box in the first place, none of this would have happened!”

Sasha stepped in before Darcy could reply with one of their typical snide remarks. “Ah-bup-bup, let’s try not to argue with one another. We still have a war to finish and like it or not, we need to work together.”

Grime nodded reluctantly while Darcy merely smirked. Sasha sighed internally. It was one thing to create this alliance. It was another thing to keep it together.

Grime rolled his shoulders as he looked back out over the balcony. “So, Lieutenant, where to next?”

Sasha smiled mischievously, something that Darcy seemed to take note of and mirror in their own expression. “I think it’s about time we took back the capital. Next stop: Newtopia.”

Chapter Text

Sasha steeled her gaze as the walls of Newtopia appeared over the horizon. After taking a deep breath to soothe her mind, she turned away from the castle balcony, walking back inside to discuss plans for the upcoming battle.

Sasha knew heading straight for Newtopia was a risky move. Hell, there was a decent chance of it being a complete disaster. However, Sasha also knew that taking the city would open up access to Amphibia’s northern regions and potentially eliminate one of the U.S. Military’s main bases of operation on the continent. In other words, it would be a massive victory in the war effort.

She stopped in the center of the throne room, staring at where a miniature holographic version of Newtopia was being displayed. She tuned in to the conversation between Andrias, Darcy, Grime, Beatrix, Tritonio, and Mrs. Croaker on what their strategy would be.

Andrias pointed at one section of Newtopia’s walls. “We’ll have our ground soldiers scale the wall here. With the humans distracted by the castle, herons, and frobots, the rest of you can sneak in and sabotage their ground-to-air defenses.”

“That’ll never work!” Grime retorted, resetting the hologram back to its original state. “What we need is an attack from all sides. Surround the city with frobots and have the herons break through the front gates.”

Sasha shook her head. “Grime, siege tactics won’t work in this context. We might as well be sitting ducks with that plan.”

Darcy, whose eyes had been closed up until that point, looked up at Sasha. “Waybright is right. As much as we hate to admit it, human weapons are far more powerful than we initially anticipated.”

“Says you…” Beatrix muttered under her breath.

The hive mind reset the hologram once more, analyzing every inch of the city’s exterior design. Tritonio tapped his foot impatiently. “We could always try using my patented orphan strategy.”

“We’ve been over this, Tritonio.” Sasha sighed, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose in annoyance. “No orphan costume is gonna fool a highly trained soldier, especially if they’re not even the same species as you.”

The newt rolled his eyes. “Fine, whatever you say, Commander.”

SLAM

Everyone looked up in surprise as the doors to the throne room were quickly forced open, both Olivia and Yunan running inside. Sasha turned her gaze between the two newts, fearing the worst. “What’s going on? Are we under attack?”

Olivia shook her head as she struggled to catch her breath. “We just received word, Newtopia has been abandoned.”

“What?!” Sasha exclaimed, feeling as though she must’ve heard incorrectly. “Are you sure?”

Yunan nodded. “We sent a small team of Amphibians and frobots to scout ahead. From the images the frobots took, it looks like the humans just packed up and left.”

Darcy turned to Andrias. “Pilot the castle to Newtopia at once. There has to be something we’re missing.”

As it turns out, they weren’t missing anything. Just as Olivia and Yunan had stated, Newtopia was completely abandoned with no sign of the U.S. Military in sight. Sasha flew to the ground with her heron and took in her surroundings.

She turned to a nearby group of frobots. “Check the buildings and the sewer system. There’s gotta be something here that we’re not seeing.”

“Perhaps there’s a bomb underground.” Andrias offered as he jumped down in his Dyoplosaurus suit. “They may be trying to lure us in before blowing the city up with us in it.”

Sasha shook her head. “I told the Olms to keep track of any unusual activities happening under the surface. The only thing they’ve found is a field of land mines near the Ruins of Despair, nothing about there being a bomb underneath Newtopia.”

The second heron landed next to Sasha’s, both Grime and Beatrix dismounting from the bird by sliding down the side of its wing. Grime peered up at his former lieutenant. “Find anything?”

Sasha shook her head as Beatrix looked between each building suspiciously. “Maybe the hummuses just don’t want it anymore. I’ll admit, this place could definitely use some redecorating.”

“Newtopia is the largest city in all of Amphibia! It’s perfectly located in the center of the continent and it has access to the sea.” Sasha stated in full confidence. “Even if they're not from this world, anyone with military knowledge would be able to understand its strategic value.”

Andrias opened the helmet of the Dyoplosaurus, moving his hand to stroke his beard in thought. “That begs the question then, why would they abandon the city?”

Sasha sighed in defeat. “I don’t know…”

Anne calmly sat on the side of her bed as she stared at the wall of her cell in thought. Something was going on today, she just knew it. In the past two weeks since her escape attempt, she had fallen into something akin to a routine.

Wake up, train, eat, train, visit the Plantars, eat, train, sleep, repeat.

That was what her life had seemingly become, however, something was off about today. After she woke up, no one came to bring her to the training area. Anne normally would’ve brushed the change off as Mr. X deciding to give her a break or him just simply forgetting but the logical part of Anne’s brain knew that a person like Mr. X wouldn’t do either of those things.

On top of that, Anne was able to hear muffled yelling coming from outside her cell so obviously something big was going on. She immediately stood when the door of her cell slid open and Mr. X himself walked inside.

“Come on, Boonchuy, it’s showtime!” He said excitedly, pressing a button on his watch that disconnected the cuff on Anne’s ankle remotely.

Under normal circumstances, Anne would’ve just followed Mr. X out of the cell silently, but with all the commotion going on today her curiosity got the best of her. “What’s going on?”

Mr. X smirked as he motioned for Anne to follow him, the guards outside the cell walking behind the two of them in turn. The FBI agent glanced at Anne as they walked through a hallway Anne had never been down before. “Playtime is over, Boonchuy. The military thinks that the war in Amphibia has gone on long enough and they need our help to get it done.”

Anne froze in her tracks. “You don’t mean…”

“Yup!” Mr. X exclaimed. “It’s time to put those powers of yours to good use.”

The guards pushed Anne forward, forcing her to keep walking alongside Mr. X. “But surely I’m not ready yet! I’ve only been training for a few months.”

“Oh, Anne, honey, you are more than ready for what we need you to do. Heck, our friends at the CIA have been practically begging me to take you out on a test run.” Mr. X replied cheekily before opening the doors in front of him, revealing a massive room with a complicated-looking machine at its center.

Anne’s eyes widened in shock when she noticed the familiar figure typing away on the control module. She gasped. “Dr. Frakes?!!!”

The mad scientist turned around. “Ah good, you’re here! Now we can begin.”

Anne took a hesitant step back as Dr. Frakes walked towards her. “Begin what?”

“The next phase of my life’s work, of course!” She yelled, grabbing Anne’s arm and dragging her in front of the machine.

Mr. X made his way to the control module and watched as Dr. Frakes made a few last-minute adjustments. He looked up at Anne. “When I say go Boonchuy, you’re going to use your powers to charge the machine.”

“What’s it do?” Anne asked nervously.

“This is our Main Portal Operation Terminal.” Dr. Frakes explained. “It connects to all of the smaller portal machines we’ve set up in other U.S. Military bases across the country.”

Anne stared at the machine in realization. “So if I power this up…”

“We’ll be able to open as many portals as we see fit.” Mr. X responded. “We can send thousands of soldiers to another dimension all at the same time.”

“No.” Anne whispered.

Mr. X’s smile fell. “What was that, Boonchuy?”

Anne turned to face the FBI agent directly. “I won’t do it. I won’t help you invade Amphibia anymore than you already have.”

Dr. Frakes scoffed. “But you have to! We—!”

Mr. X held up a hand, his eyes narrowing. “Did you forget our deal, Anne? Did you forget what I told you on the day you arrived? You are government property now, Anne. You don’t get to choose what you will and will not do.”

He held up the remote for the chip in her brain. “Do you need a reminder of that, or should I bring in one of the Plantars or your parents to serve as motivation?”

Anne’s determined look faltered at the mention of her family. She could handle the pain from the chip if she had to, but could she risk the lives of the people she loved?

Innocent Amphibians could die if you do this. A voice inside her head reasoned.

But Mr. X could torture Mom, Dad, Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly if I don’t. The other side of her mind argued.

“DO IT, ANNE!” Mr. X yelled.

Anne sighed internally. I don’t have a choice.

Slowly, Anne started to lift her hand toward the machine as she fought to blink away the silent tears clouding her vision. She furrowed her eyebrows as the familiar sensation of her powers manifested within her body. Mr. X and Dr. Frakes watched with intense satisfaction as Anne’s eyes and hair changed color and her powers began to channel into the portal machine.

“Power levels are already over 500%!” Dr. Frakes exclaimed in excitement.

Mr. X nodded before turning to one of his subordinates. “Alert General Murphy. Operation Payback is a go.” He looked back at Anne. “Come on Boonchuy, let’s get you ready for your grand debut. It’s time to show off the power of Project Blue.”

Sasha looked around in confusion as she continued to walk down the streets of the abandoned metropolis. “Where the hell could they have gone?”

Grime shrugged as he walked alongside her. “They probably moved the residents to a research facility on Earth or maybe even one here in Amphibia. Based on the reports and from what you’ve told me about human society, those would be the most logical explanations.”

“I guess…” Sasha conceded, effectively ending the conversation there. Deciding that her efforts could be better spent elsewhere, Sasha stuck two fingers into her mouth and whistled loudly. After a few moments of waiting, her heron appeared beside the duo. She looked back at Grime. “I’m gonna do some more scouting from above. See if you can find anything that’ll tell us why they left the city.”

Grime nodded. “I’ll do my best, although I doubt I’ll find something given how there has yet to be a single clue.”

“I know, I just…” Sasha sighed, struggling to come up with the correct words. “There has to be something going on here. I don’t believe for a second that they would just leave the city without any sort of fight.”

“Give it a rest, Sasha. We’ll figure it out.” Grime replied as the blonde climbed onto the back of her heron. “I promise to leave no stone unturned.”

“Thanks, Grimsey.” Sasha responded with a hesitant smile, her heron flying up into the sky with one large flap of its wings soon after.

She took a deep breath to calm her mind before looking back toward the ground. Grime was right, stressing over a seemingly free victory wasn’t gonna help anyone. However, Sasha still couldn’t seem to get rid of that same feeling of dread she felt in her gut ever since they’d arrived in Newtopia.

Something was going on here, there was no doubt about it. Sasha wasn’t going to stop looking until she found out what.

FLASH

Suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, a series of bright balls of light appeared around the outskirts of the city. Sasha looked around in shock as what could have been close to a hundred portals expanded rapidly, completely surrounding their army within Newtopia. She looked back down at Grime who was staring at her in confusion, only having seen a few flashes of light but nothing more. 

“It’s a trap!” Sasha yelled.

“What?!” Grime exclaimed as the blonde continued to watch in horror. “What do you mean it’s a trap?”

Sasha guided her heron back to the ground and dismounted. “A whole bunch of portals just appeared surrounding the city. They must have evacuated their forces from Newtopia so that they’d be free to blow us to smithereens!”

BOOM

The ground shook violently as explosive shells rained down upon the city, reducing several nearby buildings into piles of rubble. Sasha grabbed Grime’s arm and hauled him towards her heron. “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here!”

Grime nodded, following Sasha onto the heron as they tried not to die from the destruction happening all around them. The toad grimaced as soon as they were in the air, observing the size of the enemy’s forces.

“That’s got to be at least 4,000 soldiers if not more.” Grime stated as he scanned the cliffs surrounding Newtopia. “That’s not to mention all of those airplanes and tanks as you call them.”

Sasha shook her head in disbelief as she watched even more soldiers and equipment flood out of the portals. “I knew it wouldn’t be that easy, but this is just…”

“Hey, um, Commander?”

Sasha turned away from the growing mass of soldiers at the sound of Grime’s voice. “Yeah?”

“Should we be concerned about those?”

Sasha followed Grime’s line of sight, pausing when her eyes fell upon what the toad had been staring at. Out at sea, but still visible from Newtopia, was a fucking aircraft carrier as well as several destroyers no doubt a part of the U.S. Navy.

“Shit!” Sasha cursed as the situation became bleaker by the second. “What’s next?! Are they gonna try and nuke us? Fucking hell!”

She turned her heron towards where the Wartwood Resistance was stationed near the front gates of the city. Sasha noticed that Andrias was among the troops as she landed.

The newt turned at the sound of Sasha’s and Grime’s arrival, already having gauged the situation using his Dyoplosaurus suit. “They tricked us.”

Sasha rolled her eyes as she and Grime dismounted. “No shit, dumbass. They have us surrounded on all sides.”

“In that case, I’ll go power up the laser cannon.” Andrias replied as he held out his hand, waiting for Sasha to give him the key to the Music Box.

“We can’t.” Sasha refused, surprising Andrias slightly given the situation they were in. “Our armies are far too close to one another. If we tried to use the cannon, we’d just be blowing ourselves up!”

Andrias scoffed. “Sure we can. The sacrifices of a few will be worth it if we can destroy the humans here and now.”

Sasha shook her head adamantly. “Neeee-ope. Not happening.”

“Fine then, have it your way.” Andrias grumbled as he reentered the Dyoplosaurus. “Just don’t come crying back to me when we all die.”

Sasha held his gaze, even as bombs continued to rain down all around them. “Don’t worry, you would be the last person I would cry in front of.”

Andrias rolled his eyes, shutting the helmet of his mech suit and taking off towards the front lines where the Frobot Army had just barely managed to hold off the American ground forces.

Sasha sighed and turned towards her fellow resistance members, beginning to bark out orders. “Wally, Loggle, Stumpy, get on top of the wall and see if you can make use of its defenses. Tritonio, you and your newts go with them and assist in any way you can.”

The Amphibians nodded without question, running off to do as they were told. Sasha pointed at the remaining leaders of the resistance. “Beatrix, Croaker, have the frogs and toads use their exoskeleton suits to help Andrias and the frobots. Don’t let them push you back an inch.”

“You got it, Commander.” Beatrix said with a bit too much excitement behind it as she and Mrs. Croaker left to prepare their forces.

Finally, Sasha turned to the two purple-eyed herons behind her. “You two, keep the skies clear overhead. Crush any enemy aircraft you see.”

Grime stared in amazement as the birds took off into the sky. “Now that’s what I call giving orders!”

Sasha brushed off the compliment. “Never mind that. Now, come on, we’ve got a battle to win!”

BOOM

Sasha quickly covered her head as a chunk of the wall next to them suddenly collapsed. She coughed as a mountain of dust clouded around them. “You *cough* okay, Grimsey?”

Grime’s chest heaved but the toad managed to nod in reassurance. “Never better.”

Sasha looked over the damage. “We need to disable their larger guns.”

“Agreed.” Grime said, using Barrel’s Warhammer to hoist himself back onto his feet. “You have any ideas on how to do that?”

“Well…”

FLASH

Suddenly, another explosion of light appeared from behind enemy lines. Sasha groaned. “For fuck’s sake, what now?!” Despite knowing the dangers, Sasha peeked out from the now broken piece of wall. What she saw made her freeze.

Sasha watched as a bright blue light began to rise up into the sky, its familiar form becoming clearer and clearer as the blonde continued to stare at it in shock.

Grime paused in his examination of the battlefield when he noticed Sasha’s abrupt silence. He followed her gaze. “Is that…?”

“No, it can’t be…” Sasha whispered to herself in disbelief.

Anne looked down over the battlefield as Mr. X spoke loudly through the comm in her ear. “Alright, remember the rules Boonchuy. You do whatever any of our soldiers tell you. Got it?!”

Anne mumbled in affirmation as she felt her powers buzz beneath her skin, just waiting to be released upon her opponents. However, Mr. X didn’t seem satisfied with her answer as he yelled even louder in her ear. “WHAT WAS THAT, BOONCHUY?!”

“I got it!” Anne yelled back, just barely keeping her disdain for the FBI agent in check. Anne took a deep breath to collect herself before using her powers to fly toward the front lines in a flash of blue lightning. She scanned the ground below her as she flew, spotting a group of soldiers being pinned down by lasers from a large squadron of frobots.

“Hurry up and do your thing, Blue!” One of the soldiers yelled as Anne landed next to them.

Anne grimaced at the moniker. While Mr. X had been nice enough to call her by her real name, all of the soldiers had taken to calling her ‘Blue’ now. That was all she was to them: Project Blue, a biological weapon of mass destruction. According to them, apparently, weapons have no need for a first or last name. The blue-haired girl gritted her teeth in anger before slamming her fists into the ground, destroying the group of frobots in an instant.

Anne could hear Mr. X laughing from the comm in her ear. “Wow, Boonchuy! Keep this up and you might just earn a visit with your parents!”

“Yes sir…” Anne muttered as she flew back up into the sky, scanning the battlefield for another group of soldiers she could assist.

Everything about this situation was rubbing Anne the wrong way. She never thought she’d be forced to use her powers to fight her friends. Last she checked, she was still Co-Commander of the Resistance, yet here she was, mowing them down and destroying Andrias’ frobots alongside them.

That part of the situation was a bit more confusing. Why would the Wartwood Resistance team up with Andrias and Darcy? It just didn’t make sense to Anne. Maybe they had some kind of deal to fight off the U.S. Military, but there was no way to be certain. 

The Thai girl shrugged. If she could focus her efforts on just Andrias’ forces, maybe she could avoid hurting the people she actually cared about. While she couldn’t outright protect them from harm, she could at least ensure she wasn’t the one issuing it.

Anne sighed as she landed in front of the gates to Newtopia, raising her hand so that she could blast the entrance wide open. However, something, or rather, someone caused her to freeze in place.

“Anne?”

A familiar voice from behind her caused the blue-haired girl to whip her head around. Her jaw dropped when she saw who the voice belonged to.

Sasha stood in the shallow water, a sword in each of her hands. She stepped forward carefully. “Anne, is that you? What are you doing here? Why are you…?”

“I…” Anne started before inwardly cursing herself. Mr. X could hear everything she said through the comm. Anne couldn’t just come out and say she was being forced to fight against her will.

Sasha continued her approach, sheathing her swords and reaching out her hand. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

You have no idea. Anne thought to herself, wanting to simultaneously laugh and cry at the thought of how much pain she’d been through over the past few months. She said nothing, however, knowing it would only distract Sasha from what she needed her to do.

She smacked Sasha’s hand away. “Stop, don’t come any closer.”

“What’s going on over there, Boonchuy?” Mr. X’s voice spoke into her ear.

“Nothing, sir.” Anne replied back, keeping her voice as steady as possible.

Sasha stared at her long-time friend in confusion. “Anne, who are you talking to? What’s going on?!”

Anne racked her brain, trying to find some way to let Sasha know that her family and friends were in danger without directly saying it. She steeled her voice and spoke into her comm, hoping Sasha would overhear what she was saying. “Sir, I fear the enemy has planted some tar across the battlefield.”

“Tar?” Mr. X questioned. “Why would they place tar on the battlefield?”

Anne glanced up at Sasha, hoping she’d get the message but the blonde simply stared back at her, more confused than ever. “I’m not sure. My parents warned me about it when I was a kid. Maybe they want to capture one of our soldiers and take them prisoner.”

Sasha’s eyes widened in understanding, finally seeming to comprehend the deeper meaning behind Anne’s words. She nodded. “Don’t you worry, Boonchuy. I’ll come up with something to get them out of there.”

Anne smiled at the other girl as Mr. X’s baffled response came in through the comm. “How in the hell would the enemy use tar to…? You know what, forget it! Just get back here. That blasted newt your parents told me about is starting to get on my nerves. Take care of him for me, will ya?”

“Yes, sir.” Anne said, not taking her eyes off Sasha as she did so. The blonde held her gaze, nodding reassuringly.

Anne slowly rose up into the sky. She turned back to look at Sasha one last time and mouthed 'Mr. X has a remote, destroy it' before taking off in a flash of blue lightning towards Andrias.

Mr. X may have her on a leash for now, but as soon as she got her freedom back, she was gonna make sure the FBI agent never saw the light of day again.

Chapter Text

Sasha quickly dove behind a large piece of debris as bullets rained down upon her previous position. She grimaced when she noticed several holes in her cape. That was way too close for comfort.

Sasha took the small moment of safety to reflect on the absolute catastrophe that the battle had morphed into. Both the Wartwood Resistance and Andrias’ Frobots were being pushed back on all sides. It wouldn’t be long before they would be forced to retreat back inside Newtopia’s walls. From there, they would be sitting ducks.

The blonde took a chance by peering around the side of her cover, looking up at the fierce battle taking place in the sky between Andrias and Anne. Under normal circumstances, Sasha would hope for Anne to pummel Andrias’ ass into the ground. However, these were not anything close to normal circumstances.

Sasha furrowed her eyebrows when Andrias’ Dyoplosaurus suit took a hard hit to its chest. She still wasn’t sure exactly how Anne had gotten mixed up in all this, but she at least had a good idea why.

Based on what Anne had indirectly told her, both the Plantars and her parents were being kept prisoner somewhere, presumably as a way of forcing Anne to fight for the military. Sasha also remembered the parting line Anne mouthed before heading off to fight Andrias.

‘Mr. X has a remote, destroy it.’

Sasha had absolutely no idea what kind of remote Mr. X had that made destroying it so important, but if Anne thought it needed to be done, Sasha would do it.

All she needed to do now was figure out how to accomplish saving Anne’s family and destroy the remote without dying in the process. Simple!

Sasha looked away just in time to see Joe Sparrow land next to her, Olivia and Yunan on his back. The blonde nearly let out a sigh of relief. “Perfect timing, you two. I need you guys to do something for me.”

Olivia exchanged a confused glance with Yunan. “Yes, what is it?”

Sasha hesitated for a moment but eventually tossed the key to the Music Box up to them, Yunan catching it with her hands. “Anne is being forced by the FBI to use her powers against us. I need you two to mount a rescue mission and save Anne’s family on Earth so they can’t be used against her. Can you do that?”

Both newts looked confused but nodded in affirmation.

“Good. Take the key to Darcy and bring Anne’s family back here as soon as possible. The faster we do this, the faster Anne can be freed.”

Olivia and Yunan looked at each other wearily. Olivia cleared her throat. “Are you sure this is a good idea? You know what giving the key to Darcy means, right?”

Of course she did! However, as long as she had her backup plan in place, everything would be fine…probably…

Sasha let out a forced sigh. “Look, we don’t have a lot of options here. Just give them the key and we’ll figure it out later. As of right now, freeing Anne is our top priority, got it?!”

Both newts nodded, albeit reluctantly, before flying off back to the castle in the sky. Sasha shook her head and turned her attention back to the battlefield. That was Step 1. Time for Step 2.

Sasha jumped out from behind the debris and made a beeline straight for a large piece of Newtopia’s wall sticking out of the ground. Now that she was slightly closer to the frontlines, Sasha could make out a few of the soldier’s faces. The next part of her plan involved sneaking behind enemy lines, which, to put it lightly, was gonna be incredibly fucking difficult to do without getting caught or killed in the process. 

However, if she managed to locate Mr. X and destroy the remote Anne mentioned, it might just give their forces enough of an advantage to turn the tide of the battle. Sasha ducked when a barrage of bullets flew over her head.

“This had better be worth it, Boonchuy…” Sasha muttered as she ran behind another piece of debris.

Olivia hurried through the castle corridors as quickly as her short legs would take her. Yunan kept pace behind her, pointedly trying to get the attention of the orange eyeballs on the walls so Darcy would know they were coming.

Thankfully, Yunan’s wild flailing seemed to work as Darcy was waiting for the two of them in the throne room, looking thoroughly confused as to why the newts had come back so soon.

“We thought you two were going to go help with the battle?”

Olivia nodded. “We were, but Commander Sasha gave us a new mission.”

Yunan held up the key to the Music Box. “She told us to give you this so that we could travel to Earth. Apparently, that Boonchuy girl’s family is being kept prisoner to make her fight for them.”

Darcy’s eyes lit up at the sight of the key. They grinned as they moved toward the Music Box, gesturing for Olivia and Yunan to follow them. “We have to admit, using Heart’s loved ones is a bold strategy that we wish we’d thought of ourselves.”

“Excuse me!” Olivia gasped.

Darcy waved her off. “Don’t worry, we’re allies now, remember? We’ll help rescue them.”

Yunan eyed the hive mind speculatively but chose not to comment on it. “So…how does this work exactly? How do we know where on Earth we need to create a portal to?”

“With all the Calamity Energy radiating from the portals the humans made, we should be able to pinpoint the exact location of their power source.” Darcy explained as they methodically tapped the sides and top of the box.

When it came time to hand the hive mind the key to the Music Box, Yunan hesitated, knowing that the key was their only assurance that Darcy wouldn’t turn against them. However, Yunan knew that saving Anne’s family and friends was the only way to free the Thai girl from Mr. X’s control. 

So, rather reluctantly, Yunan handed Darcy the key to the Music Box, allowing them to open a portal to Earth. Darcy sent the newts a knowing smirk, obviously recognizing the implications behind giving up control of the Music Box to the hive mind.

After a few more taps and twists from Darcy, the Music Box opened and a white portal materialized in front of them. They smiled. “This portal should bring you to the precise location that the Calamity Energy is being emitted from. However, there is no guarantee that Anne’s loved ones will be in the same place.”

“We’ll take our chances.” Olivia said in determination.

Darcy nodded but held up a hand right before Olivia and Yunan could walk through the portal. “Wait, we have one more thing.” They snapped their fingers, causing a long-armed figure to drop down from the ceiling. “Take Cloakbot-2091 with you. It should be able to assist you if you run into trouble.”

Yunan resisted the urge to unsheathe her claws. “We don’t need a hunk of metal to keep us safe, especially not one made by you!”

Darcy shrugged. “Suit yourselves, but trust us, when the humans spot you, you’ll want to have this ‘hunk of metal’ by your side.”

Olivia put a hand on Yunan’s shoulder, calming the general ever so slightly. “Thank you, Darcy. I’m sure it will help us immensely.” She pulled the other newt toward the portal. “Come on, Yunan, we’ve got a mission to complete.”

Yunan continued to stare at Darcy for as long as she could before finally turning toward the portal. “Fine, let’s do this before things get ugly.”

Darcy watched as Olivia, Yunan, and the Cloakbot phased through the portal, crossing over to the other side. They closed the Music Box. “Those idiots never learn, do they?”

Sprig groaned as his boredom seemed to get worse by the second. “Where’s Anne? She’s usually here by now to visit us.”

“I don’t know, kiddo.” Hop Pop replied, moving to sit next to his grandson by the bars of their cell. “You know she would be here if she could. It’s not like she has much more freedom than we do.”

“You can say that again.” Mr. Boonchuy coughed from the neighboring cell. He turned to his wife. “Maybe we never should have left Thailand. Who knew this country’s government could be so evil?”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure it’s just that Mr. X guy.” Terri sighed from the cell directly opposite the Plantars. “I’ve worked for a few government officials before and none of them were anywhere close to the way that man acts. He’s basically a psychopath.”

“You’d have to be to force a teenage girl to do the things she did.” Dr. Jan spat. “It’s inhumane! It goes against basic human rights!”

Polly followed Hop Pop and sat down next to her brother and grandfather. “I just want to get out of here and bash that guy’s head in for what he did. If only they hadn’t taken my mace away…”

Hop Pop hugged his grandchildren close. “I know, sweetheart, I know. We have to stay strong for Anne. She’ll find a way to get us out, that girl is too determined for her own good.”

Suddenly, the prisoners heard footsteps coming toward them. Sprig peered out through the bars of the cell. “Anne?”

The one making the footsteps slowly came out from behind the corner causing everyone to freeze in place. Terri gasped. “You? But…how?!”

Dr. Frakes laughed. “Did you really think I’d let you steal my life’s work and get away with it? I created the portal technology. I had a patent pending!”

Terri shook their head in disbelief. “You’re the one who created the portals used to invade Amphibia, aren’t you? God, it makes so much sense! Only a person as insane as you would work with Mr. X to accomplish something so absurd!”

“You only tapped the surface of what my technology is able to achieve, my dear, Terri.” Dr. Frakes boasted. “Using my brain and X’s influence, we were able to do what no other human thought possible by conquering another dimension!” She gestured to the Plantars. “Thanks to that, I now have more test subjects than I know what to do with.”

“You’re mad!” Sprig shouted in defiance. “We just want to be at peace. It’s Andrias you should be fighting, not all of us!”

Dr. Frakes walked over to the Plantars’ cell, flicking Sprig in the face as she scoffed. “You all are aliens from another dimension! Considering what you did to Blue, this invasion is a necessary precaution.”

“Blue?” Mrs. Boonchuy questioned. “You’re not talking about Anne, are you? She said her powers came from the Music Box.”

Dr. Frakes turned to the Thai woman. “Ah yes, X did mention something about a Music Box.” A small bit of drool leaked out of the mad scientist’s mouth. “If Blue’s powers are anything to go by, I can’t even begin to imagine the kind of technology we could power if I got my hands on it.”

“Enough talk.” Dr. Jan huffed. “Why are you here? It can’t be just to taunt us.”

Dr. Frakes grinned. “You’re right, it isn’t.” She pressed a button on her watch, causing a green bubble-like force field to form around Hop Pop. “I’ve been trying to figure out Amphibian biology, specifically how your kind evolved. To continue my research, I’m going to need some samples from an older specimen.”

“Wait, no you can’t!” Sprig yelled as he and Polly tried and failed to free Hop Pop. “You can’t take him!”

Dr. Frakes laughed. “What are you gonna do, little frog? What are you gonna—“

BONK

Everyone looked on in shock as Dr. Frakes suddenly collapsed and the force field around Hop Pop vanished. That shock was further amplified when a Cloakbot suddenly turned visible, its glowing red eyes staring down at Dr. Frakes’ unconscious body.

“Thank frog we found you!” A familiar voice exclaimed as two equally familiar figures rounded the corner.

“Olivia! Yunan!” Sprig yelled in relief as the newts ran into the cell block. “You’re here.”

“Sure are, kid.” Yunan smiled. She looked at the Cloakbot. “Stop staring at that human and let Anne’s family out of there. We don’t have much time.”

The Cloakbot’s eyes narrowed but did as it was told, grabbing a hold of the bars and literally pulling them apart. Olivia helped the Plantars out as the Cloakbot did the same for the other cells. “I’m glad you’re safe, Plantar family, but as Yunan said, we need to get moving.”

Mr. Boonchuy limped out of his and Mrs. Boonchuy’s cell. “Before we do, can someone please explain who these two female lizards are and why they have one of those things with them?!”

Hop Pop cleared his throat. “Boonchuys, meet Olivia and Yunan. Olivia and Yunan, meet the Boonchuys, Anne’s parents. As for the robot, I frankly have no idea why that’s here.”

“Darcy lent it to us.” Yunan explained. She continued when she saw the shocked expressions on the Plantars’ faces. “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we allied with them to fight against the humans. Probably should have mentioned that earlier…”

“Are you two serious?” Polly questioned in disbelief. “Last I checked, that thing possessing Marcy was our enemy!”

Sprig nodded. “I agree, Darcy can’t be trusted.”

Yunan sighed. “Okay look, Sasha made the decision to form an alliance with them. What’s done is done, we don’t have time to argue like this.” The newt turned to Dr. Jan and Terri. “You two, humans, are you also friends with Anne?”

Dr. Jan and Terri nodded. The museum curator stuck out her hand. “My name is Dr. Jan, pleased to meet you. The scientist behind me is Terri.”

Yunan hastily shook the woman’s hand “Good to know, now then let’s find a portal back to Amphibia. Anne needs to know that you’re all okay.”

Each member of the group murmured in agreement and set off down one of the hallways. Under the guidance of the Cloakbot’s energy detector, they were able to slowly make their way toward one of the FBI’s portal machines. However, after a few minutes of sneaking down hallways, the Cloakbot’s proximity alarms started beeping loudly.

“MULTIPLE HUMAN LIFEFORMS DETECTED.”

The group came to a halt as multiple FBI agents flooded the hallway in front of them. “Frog damn it!” Yunan cursed.

The agents raised their guns as a blond figure walked through the center of their formation. Jenny eyed the Amphibians and humans carefully, raising their hand as a signal for the agents to hold their fire. They looked back at the group and began to use sign language.

(What are you doing here?)

Olivia noticed that the sign language Jenny used was surprisingly similar to Amphibian sign language. She quickly moved to the front of the group and responded.

(We’ve come to free our friends. Don’t try to stop us.)

Jenny gave her a soft smile which was quickly followed by a frown as they signed their reply.

(I want to help you. Mr. X has gone too far. He’s not the same man that I became partners with all those years ago.)

“Hey, boss, what are you telling them? Do we shoot?” One of the FBI agents asked.

Jenny shook their head, taking the gun from the FBI agent’s hand and pistol-whipping the man in the head. In complete shock, the other agents advanced toward the mute blond. They looked back at the group, smiling and gesturing for them to leave while the rest of the agents were distracted.

Not wasting any more time, the Amphibians, humans, and singular Cloakbot quickly made their way to where one of the FBI’s portal machines was being operated. They stormed into the room, taking the scientists inside by surprise.

Yunan unsheathed her claws and jumped in front of a scientist trying to escape. “Not so fast. We still need you to open a portal back to Amphibia.”

“It’s fine, Yunan. Let them go.” Terri called out from where they were already typing away on a control pad. “This tech is virtually the same as my own and since the coordinates are already set…”

FLASH

A portal materialized in the middle of the room. Hop Pop glanced up at the Boonchuys. “So…you two ready to see Amphibia for the first time?”

Mr. Boonchuy smiled weakly. “If it means Anne will be freed from Mr. X’s control, I’d be willing to go anywhere.”

“Same here.” Mrs. Boonchuy agreed. “Anything for Anne.”

Olivia raised her voice and signaled for the group to gather around closely. “This is it. Everyone prepare to enter the portal on three. Ready?”

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three!”

The entire group jumped into the white portal at once, disappearing from one world and reappearing in another. Sprig coughed as he picked himself up off the ground. “Home sweet home…”

Hop Pop gasped as he looked around the area that they’d landed in. The small group appeared to be just outside of Newtopia, not too far behind the human frontlines. He shuddered at the utter destruction happening all around him, turning to Olivia and Yunan in distress. “You didn’t tell us there was an entire battle going on!”

“We were in kind of in a hurry!” Yunan retorted.

BOOM

The group looked up as a massive explosion sounded out from across the battlefield. Mr. Boonchuy froze as the familiar blue light of Anne’s powers blazed through the sky. He and the rest of the group watched in awe as Anne grabbed Andrias’ missiles midair and literally chucked them right back at his mech suit. Olivia quickly turned to look at Anne’s family. “We need to get you to her, now! She needs to know that you’re all okay.”

Hop Pop shook his head, forcing his mind to get back on track. “Right.”

“Come on, you frogs!” Mrs. Boonchuy yelled as she raced toward where Anne was currently flying. “Let’s go save our girl!”

Chapter Text

“Keep it up, Boonchuy. Show that newt who’s boss!”

Anne charged headfirst into the side of Andrias’ mech suit in a flash of blue lightning as Mr. X continued to egg her on. Despite knowing that it would hurt the chances of her friends winning the battle, Anne couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of satisfaction in beating the newt into the ground. He had been the one to stab Marcy after all, the least she could do was give him a little bit of retribution for it. 

Anne flew back slightly to recover and survey the damage she’d managed to inflict. It was bad, she noticed. Real bad.

Dozens upon dozens of exposed wires and shattered pieces of armor covered the Dyoplosaurus. Anne knew that with her training she was a force to be reckoned with, but this was just ridiculous! She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hey blue boy, you ready to surrender yet?”

Andrias, to his credit, simply held up his mech’s fists. “Not even close.”

Anne furrowed her eyebrows, taking a moment to look down at the battlefield beneath her. To say things were going poorly for the Amphibians would be an understatement.

Andrias’ frobots were on the brink of collapse. Even without Anne there to help out, the American soldiers were slowly, but surely, pushing them back. That wasn’t even mentioning the absolute destruction being done to Newtopia by aerial bombing runs from the Air Force or the shells being launched at the city by the Navy out at sea. All in all, things were not going well for Anne’s apparent “enemies.”

Anne refocused her attention back on Andrias as the newt prepared for an attack of his own. She watched as the shoulders of the Dyoplosaurus opened up, allowing Amphibian missiles to launch toward her. Anne grimaced. “Really, Andrias? Missiles? Again…?”

Anne could feel Andrias smirking from inside the suit. “Like they always say, the third time’s the charm!”

The blue-haired girl had to physically resist rolling her eyes at the newt’s stupidity. She was trying to make this fight last as long as possible to give Sasha time to free her. However, doing that was kinda hard when all Andrias wanted to do, it seemed, was get pummeled by her repeatedly.

“Really? Missiles, again? He never learns, does he?” Mr. X said into her ear.

That’s what I just said! Anne thought to herself in annoyance. Frog, all she wanted to do right now was yank the stupid comm out of her ear and crush it in her hand. Honestly, the pain from the chip in her head was more tolerable than Mr. X’s incessant commentary on her performance throughout the entirety of the battle. Like, seriously! Shut the hell up, dude!

Anne grabbed a hold of the first missile that reached her, stopping the projectile in its tracks and sending it flying right into several other missiles behind it. She zapped toward Andrias and kicked his mech suit hard in its center, sending the colossal newt tumbling to the ground once again.

“Seriously, dude, just give up. You can’t beat me.”

Despite it all, Andrias laughed. “We both know that’s not what I’m trying to do here, Boonchuy. All I need to do is outlast you.”

“Good luck with that.” Anne replied as she stared down at him. “You have no idea how much training I’ve done to master these powers.”

“Just finish him, Anne. We don’t have time for these games of his.” Mr. X spat.

Anne sighed, cracking her knuckles and readying herself for one last attack. She began to build up her power, the blue aura surrounding her becoming brighter and brighter by the second.

“That’s right, Anne, do it! Take him down. Show that stupid newt just how much humans are — what the hell? What are you doing here?!”

Anne paused in her attack at the surprised tone clearly evident in Mr. X’s voice. “Is something wrong, sir?”

Mr. X seemed to be breathing heavily on the other end of their comm link. “Your friend is here.” He hissed. “I don’t know what her deal is! Why the hell is she attacking me of all people?!”

Anne froze. Sasha did it, she found Mr. X and was now trying to get the remote from him. She cheered internally. Way to go, Sash!

However, that still left the status of the Plantars and her parents unknown. Even if the remote was destroyed, Anne wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she let Mr. X and the FBI torture her family.

“ANNE!”

The blue-haired girl turned away from Andrias at the sound of a familiar voice. A voice that shouldn’t be anywhere near the battlefield. Anne let out a massive sigh of relief when she saw Sprig running underneath her, Hop Pop, Polly, Mom, Dad, and even Dr. Jan, Terri, Olivia, and Yunan following behind him. Small tears of joy began to cloud her vision.

Her family was here. They were safe.

Anne lowered herself to the ground, much to Andrias’ utter bewilderment. “You’re here…” Anne whispered. “You’re actually here…”

She opened her arms, engulfing Spring in a bone-crushing hug as the young frog barreled into her. Anne felt her skin-tight battle suit dampen as she held Sprig close to her body, his tears of joy evident for anyone to witness.

Andrias proceeded to lower his mech suit to the ground. He watched the exchange in front of him in awe. “Well, this is an unexpected development…”

However, as soon as he opened the helmet of the Dyoplosaurus, all the Plantars and Anne’s parents became defensive, standing in front of Anne with their arms outstretched. Andrias held up his hands placatingly. “Calm down you frogs and…uh, humans. You may not know this but we’re actually on the same side now.”

“We heard.” Hop Pop said suspiciously as he glanced at Olivia and Yunan. “Doesn’t mean we like it or trust you for that matter.”

Andrias shrugged. “Fair enough, I suppose.” He turned towards Anne. “So Boonchuy, does this mean our fight is over or…”

Anne grimaced. “Yeah, Andrias, it’s over.” She released Sprig from her hug and took a step back. “However, there’s a certain someone that my fight is only just beginning with. Everyone, stay here. I’ll be right back.”

With that, Anne took off in a flash of blue lightning once more, heading in one very specific direction. It was finally time to get some much-needed revenge.

Sasha thrust her sword forward in a fury of slashes, not giving Mr. X even a second of reprieve. She lunged forward as the FBI agent stumbled and fell to the ground. Sasha pointed her sword at his neck. “Where is it?!”

Mr. X looked at her incredulously. “Where’s what? What the hell are you talking about?”

Sasha ground her teeth in anger. “Where the fuck is the remote, X! I know you have it on you!”

Mr. X froze, his face stunned in disbelief. “How do you know about that?” He quickly held up a finger to his ear. “Anne, come in! Forget about Andrias, I need you to come handle your bitch of a — AHHH!!!”

Sasha smirked as Mr. X wailed in agony, his now chopped-off hand lying motionless on the ground next to him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you~”

“You absolute bitch!” Mr. X screeched as he fought to contain the blood flow. “I’m a highly specialized, top government agent! You can’t do this to me!”

“Oh, but I can…” Sasha remarked as her smile widened, pressing her sword against Mr. X’s neck. “Now tell me, where’s the damn remote!”

“He keeps it in his front pocket.” A voice from behind her spoke up.

Sasha froze, glancing behind her only to see Anne land on the ground and walk toward the other two humans. Mr. X also seemed to freeze at the sight of Anne. He pointed at Sasha. “Kill this bitch, Anne, or your family will face the consequences!”

Anne stopped in front of Mr. X, leaning down to look him in the eye as Sasha reached forward and took the remote out of his pocket. Anne smiled. “Yeah…I don’t think so.”

Sasha peered down at the remote in her hand, looking back up at Anne inquisitively. “Do I do it now?”

The blue-haired girl nodded. “Destroy it.”

Mr. X gasped in shock as Sasha ran her other sword right through the device that seemed to be the only remaining form of control the bald agent had over her friend.

Anne slowly turned her gaze from the now destroyed remote back towards Mr. X, her blank expression morphing into a sadistic grin. “Well would you look at that, X. I’m free now.” She cracked her knuckles. “You can’t tell me what to do anymore.”

Mr. X held his remaining hand up placatingly as he tried to inch himself away across the ground. “Now now, Boonchuy, there’s no need to get upset. Let’s just take a deep breath and—”

Anne launched herself at the FBI agent, slamming him headfirst into the dirt. She pulled her fist back as she forcefully held Mr. X down. “You think I’m upset, X? Ho ho no. I’M FURIOUS!”

Anne grabbed Mr. X by the head and repeatedly punched him in the face, a large gash forming as blood poured out of the FBI agent with each and every hit. 

“YOU!”

PUNCH

“ABSOLUTE!”

PUNCH

“FUCKING!”

PUNCH

“ASSHOLE!!!”

Anne screamed in rage as she pummeled Mr. X again and again and again with her fists. After nearly a dozen punches, Anne grabbed his arm and bent his elbow in the complete opposite direction, causing Mr. X to cry out in agony.

“HOW DOES IT FEEL, X?! HUH? HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE RUTHLESSLY TORTURED AND BEATEN TO DEATH?!!”

“…please…” Mr. X choked out. “…please…I don’t…want…to die…”

Anne scoffed, kicking him in his now deformed face. “Ugh, really? Try apologizing first and then maybe we’ll talk about sparing your life.” Anne rolled her shoulder and continued her assault.

Eventually, after another brutal five minutes, Anne dropped him and stepped away, her breath ragged as she tried to reel in her anger. Sasha approached her cautiously. “Boonchuy…you, uh, you good…?”

Anne turned toward Sasha, a very forced smile lining her face as she glanced back at the crumpled man beneath her. She took a deep breath. “No, but I will be.”

Anne looked out across the battlefield before turning back to face Sasha. “Watch him for me, will you? I think it’s time to show our fellow humans why you never mess with someone else’s family.”

“Wait, what are you going to—?”

FLASH

Sasha watched in awe as Anne took off in a blaze of blue light, blasting toward the frontlines in seconds.

“No…she can’t…” Mr. X tried to yell, only managing to let out a quiet whisper. “We worked too hard to get this far…”

Sasha kicked him in the gut, making the man topple over once more and clutch his stomach in pain. “Yeah, well, maybe you should’ve thought about that before kidnapping my friend and invading her home, our home!”

Mr. X squeezed his eyes shut as the pain became near unbearable. He coughed. “You’re a human. How can you call this place your home?”

Sasha crouched down next to him, grabbing his chin and forcing him to watch Anne obliterate tanks, soldiers, and planes alike. She sighed. “Because, X, this is where I became the best version of myself, just like Anne over there. The people here care about us and we care about them.”

Mr. X spat out a mouthful of blood. He cringed in pain, but still managed to scowl back at Sasha. “These frog aliens are dangerous. You led a resistance movement against the king of this world, did you not?”

Sasha furrowed her eyebrows. “You’re right, I did lead a resistance against Andrias to stop him from invading Earth believe it or not. And thanks to you, I was forced to give back the—”

BANG

Sasha let go of Mr. X’s chin as a sharp pain suddenly rang through her shoulder. She stumbled back and held a hand over the wound, looking up to see a squadron of soldiers with their guns raised to her head. Sasha used her uninjured arm to quickly unsheathe her sword, cursing herself internally for being so oblivious to her surroundings.

“Drop the weapon, Waybright and surrender now!” One of the soldiers ordered.

“Not a chance!” Sasha spat back as she felt the blood from her shoulder ooze out into the palm of her hand. “I suggest you guys leave before Anne gets back from her rampage. She’s already pissed enough as is.”

The soldier gritted his teeth. “I will not be told what to do by some impotent teenager!“ He turned to his subordinates. “Help X to his feet and arrest the girl.”

Sasha took a step back as two of the soldiers approached her. She held her sword up defiantly even as her body began to weaken from blood loss. “Not another step!”

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” One of them tried to reason. “We’ll bring you back to Earth. We can help you get rid of this mind control these aliens clearly have you under.”

Sasha scoffed. Do these guys seriously think I’m being mind-controlled?! She rolled her eyes. “This isn’t mind control, you idiots! You would know that if you had actually tried getting to know the inhabitants of this planet before trying to take it over!”

Sasha looked behind the soldier and sighed. “I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. You guys aren’t even going to be conscious to hear me explain.”

The soldier raised an eyebrow. “What are you—?”

BONK

Sasha grinned as both soldiers collapsed, Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy standing over their bodies with two large pieces of metal. Behind them, Sasha could see the Plantars, Olivia, Yunan, and two other humans battling it out with the other soldiers, managing to take them down and recapture Mr. X.

She took a step towards Anne’s parents. “Sup, Mr. and Mrs. B!”

Mrs. Boonchuy walked over the soldiers’ bodies and enveloped Sasha in a hug. “Long time no see Sasha! Where’s Anne? We saw her head off in this direction and — WAIT ARE YOU BLEEDING?!!!”

Sasha stepped away from the hug and gave a weak shrug. “Eh, I’ve had worse.“

“Sasha, honey, you need to get that checked out.” Mr. Boonchuy warned as he took the soldiers’ guns. “Wounds like that can easily get infected.”

Sasha waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, I got it. I’ll take care of it once the battle is over, which may be sooner than we thought.”

“What do you — oh my goodness, ANNE!!!”

Both of Anne’s parents looked past Sasha as a blue streak of light plowed through the U.S. Military, ripping their weapon of war apart and leaving a line of blue fire in her wake. In mere minutes, Anne had managed to majorly turn the tides of battle in the Alliance’s favor.

Sasha laughed. “Ya know, I kinda had a feeling Anne was holding back up until now. Add that to her rage and let’s just say that is the result.”

“What are y’all talking about over here?” Hop Pop asked as he and the rest of their small group walked over to the three humans. Sasha turned towards them, grinning slightly when she noticed Yunan roughly dragging a now unconscious Mr. X by his head.

“Oh, ya know, Anne’s super cool anime powers and the fact that something’s actually going in our favor for once.” Sasha responded.

Sprig gasped when he caught sight of Anne zap overhead toward the Navy out at sea, proceeding to tear a hole right through the aircraft carrier in seconds. “That’s incredible! Despite everything, I guess that training really did pay off…”

“Yeah…” Sasha sighed. She looked back at the Plantars and Anne’s parents. “So what exactly happened back on Earth? Anne seemed to have a ton of pent-up anger towards that Mr. X guy.”

The frog and humans all exchanged glances. Hop Pop coughed. “Maybe it’d be better if we explained it with Anne here and not in the middle of a war zone. There’s a lot of…well… painful details I’m sure she wouldn’t want us telling you without her permission…”

Sasha nodded in understanding, jumping slightly when Lady Olivia came up from behind her and began to treat her shoulder. She looked down at the newt in surprise. “You don’t have to do that. I’m fine, really!”

“Nonsense!” Olivia countered as she pulled out bandages, disinfectant, and medical tweezers from Frog knows where, using them to quickly remove the bullet and cover the wound. “As our Commander, your health is of utmost importance!”

Sasha winced from the pain of having the bullet pulled out, but managed to smile back at the newt. “Well, thank you…I guess.”

Hop Pop cleared his throat. “So, Commander…we heard you decided to team up with Andrias and Darcy. Do you mind explaining that by any chance…?”

Sasha groaned. “I did what I had to do, okay? It was either that or be annihilated. Trust me that neither choice was particularly attractive.”

Sprig put a hand on his chin in thought. “Actually, that does bring up another question: Where’d Andrias go? After we left the spot where he was fighting Anne, he seemed to realize something and flew off.”

“I think he was heading back towards Newtopia.” Polly added.

Sasha’s expression darkened. Wait a second…did that mean…? She looked up at the castle. “Shit!”

“My lord, do you have it?”

Darcy looked up and smiled as Andrias walked into the throne room. They stepped aside to show Andrias that they did, indeed, have the key to the Music Box. “Sure do!”

Andrias stared at the Music Box. “Does this mean…?”

Darcy’s smile widened. “Yes, Andrias, it’s time. No more delays, no more distractions, no more idiotic allies, and no more games. Our army is gathered, and the humans are essentially defeated. Now is the time to strike! It’s time to turn the tables. After a thousand years, our invasion of Earth can finally begin!”

Chapter Text

“Let’s make one thing clear. You are government property now. You will do what you are told.”

“PLEASE STOP! IT HURTS! PLEASE!”

“I want you to attack your dear old dad.”

“Don’t worry, Anne. I will always love you, no matter what.”

“AGAIN!”

“You don’t get to choose what you will and will not do.”

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Anne screamed in rage as she slammed her hands on the ground. She watched in satisfaction as the resulting shockwave rocketed into the American ground forces, quite literally flinging them into the sky.

“no more…please…I can’t…no…more…”

Anne had to close her eyes for a moment as the memories of what he did threatened to overwhelm her. While they were painful, those memories were the only thing keeping her from passing out. After over two hours of being in her Calamity Form, there was only so much more Anne’s body could take.

Despite that, the Thai girl continued on, knowing that she had to keep the memories at the forefront of her mind. She couldn’t allow her powers to extinguish. Not now, not while she was finally getting her revenge.

Anne scoffed when some of the soldiers shouted up at her, saying that she was a monster, a science experiment gone wrong. She narrowed her eyes when some other soldiers started pleading for their lives. 

Anne honestly couldn’t bring herself to care about the destruction she was causing. They brought this upon themselves. 

For every tank destroyed, Anne thought of the people that did this to her. For every soldier she burned alive, Anne thought of the people that tortured her. For every one of the naval vessels she punched a hole through, she thought of the ones that just stood by and watched her get vivisected.

“I’m thinking I shouldn’t use those powers if I can help it. I don’t know how else to describe it but using them feels…bad.”

Anne finally understood what she meant all those months ago. These powers, these abilities are a curse. The pain that others put her through for simply having them was beyond any retribution Anne could possibly give them.

But well…it still couldn’t hurt to try…

As soon as she realized what Andrias was planning, Sasha placed two fingers into her mouth and whistled as loudly as she could. She knew giving Darcy control over the Music Box was a bad idea, but she didn’t think the Hive Mind would be insane enough to try and use it against them so soon.

The rest of Anne’s friends and family looked at Sasha in confusion as she looked up into the sky. Sprig tilted his head. “What was that whistle for? Was it something I said or…?”

Sasha sighed internally. Frog, what she wouldn’t give to have Anne’s powers right now. “I’m trying to call Joe. If I don’t get up to that castle ASAP, there’s a chance that this battle is going to take a turn for the worse.”

“Wait, you don’t mean…” Hop Pop trailed off, suddenly realizing why Andrias leaving may have been more concerning than he originally thought.

“Andrias and Darcy are going to try and use the Music Box to invade Earth? Yup, that’s exactly what I mean.” Sasha finished as Joe Sparrow landed next to the group of humans and amphibians. 

Sasha made her way onto his back. “If I’m wrong, no harm no foul, but if not then we’re gonna have a much bigger problem on our hands.”

“Wait, let us come with you!” Polly yelled as Sasha prepared to take off. “We can help!”

The blonde shook her head. “No can do, squirt. Besides, I need you guys to watch Anne. I have a strong feeling she’s taking on more than she can handle. If she passes out, I’ll need you guys to bring her somewhere safe.”

Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy nodded while the rest of their small group gave noises of affirmation. Sasha smiled at them one last time before taking off into the sky towards the castle.

“Please let me be wrong about this…”

BLAST

Sasha nearly toppled off of Joe’s back as the bird made a sudden evasive maneuver. Sasha looked behind her in shock only to see that the frobots that had just been their allies moments prior were now trying to shoot her out of the sky.

“Goddamnit! Never should’ve trusted Andrias’ stupid ass face! What was I thinking?!”

Sasha steered Joe to the side as the frobots sent another barrage of lasers towards her. She glanced up. The castle was just a few dozen meters away.

SCREECH

“JOE, LOOK OUT!!!” Sasha screamed as one of the herons came up from beneath them. Thankfully, Joe stalled just in the nick of time for the heron to miss its mark. Seizing the opportunity, Sasha unsheathed one of her swords and slashed at the bird’s mind-control collar, cutting it in two.

Sure, the heron was still dangerous, but at least Andrias and Darcy wouldn’t be able to control it now. Using its dazed state to her advantage, Sasha guided Joe around the heron and onto one of the castle’s balconies. She let out a slightly crazed laugh as a sign of relief. “Frog, I’m never doing that again…”

Sasha patted the side of Joe’s head and ran inside, not at all caring about the orange eyeballs on the walls. There was no point hiding that she was here if the frobots and heron were anything to go by. 

Was going in alone stupidly idiotic? Yeah, probably. But as long as Sasha’s backup plan worked, everything would work out just fine…at least, she hoped it would.

The Commander paused when a group of frobots came out from behind a corner with their blasters raised. Sasha sighed and unsheathed both of her swords, twirling them in her hands before bending her knees in a combat stance. 

She laughed. “Just you wait, Core. The second I separate you from Marcy, you’re done for!”

“Son, what is taking so long?!”

Andrias flinched slightly at the clear impatience and anger present in his lord’s voice. He looked up from the Music Box. “My lord, I’m working as fast as I can. The box still needs time to gather its energy to create a portal big enough for our castle to fit through!”

Darcy ground their host’s teeth together. “We don’t want excuses, Andrias! That Waybright girl is moments away from storming into the throne room. We can’t waste any more time.”

“So? It’s just one kid.” Andrias said as he looked over his shoulder at Darcy. “Surely we can handle one tiny brat.”

Darcy narrowed their eyes. “Just like how you handled Boonchuy? No, we can’t take any more chances with the stars of the prophecy. Either we make them into additional hosts for us to use, or we kill them. It’s what we should have done from the start.”

SLAM

Both Andrias and Darcy turned their heads as an angry blonde launched herself into the throne room. Her breath was erratic and her eyes were swimming with rage. Sasha pointed each one of her swords and Andrias and Darcy. “Stop what you’re doing right now or face the consequences!”

Andrias had to stifle a laugh. Was she actually being serious?

Sasha gripped her swords tightly as Andrias walked away from the box and stood over her comparatively minute form. He took out his flaming sword and activated it, illuminating the dim throne room in orange and yellow light.

Darcy, for their part, simply smiled at Sasha’s brazen attempt to stop their plans. They took a few steps towards her and chuckled when Sasha involuntarily took a step back. “Well isn’t this cute? The Champion of Strength has come to save the day!”

“I’m warning you!” Sasha growled in response as she once again raised her blades. “If you try and use the box, neither of you are gonna like what happens next.”

Andrias raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? Well then, I guess we’ll just have to take our chances.” He looked down at Darcy. “The coordinates are set, my lord. All you need to do is turn the key and our Invasion of Earth can finally begin.”

Darcy grinned manically and moved to stand in front of the Music Box. They placed one hand on the key and stared directly at Sasha. “Well, Sash, it’s been fun.”

Darcy twisted the key.

…

…

…

…

“What?”

Now it was Sasha’s turn to grin maniacally. She tilted her head playfully as she stared at Andrias and Darcy with the most innocent-looking face she could muster. “Awww, is something wrong? Is the Core’s little toy broken?”

Darcy immediately whipped their head back towards Sasha, their orange eyes burning with rage. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!!!”

Sasha shrugged as she took note of the almost embarrassed look on Andrias’ face. “Nothing much, just swapped out the real key for a fake.”

Even with all of the most intelligent minds in Amphibia’s history at their disposal, Darcy stuttered. “Wha—? But how? We used this key to send those newts to the human world. How could it possibly be a fake?!”

“Oh no, that key was the real deal.” Sasha explained. “The one you have inserted into the box right now is totes fake. Thank Mrs. Croaker, it was her idea after all. She always said we should have a contingency plan if you two tried to backstab us.”

Darcy continued to stare at Sasha in the most shock they had ever been in throughout their entire ten-thousand years of existence. “But how could you possibly switch them out? We have eyes everywhere…”

Sasha’s smile widened. “And that’s why I had Maddie brew some invisibility potions.” She snapped her fingers and moments later, the teal frog in question appeared in a puff of green smoke beside her, the real key to the Music Box in her left hand. “Didn’t think of that, didya?”

Andrias finally seemed to snap out of his stunned silence. He pointed his flaming sword at the frog and human. “Give us the real key to the box or else!”

Sasha simply raised an eyebrow at him before exchanging a glance with Maddie. She let out a small chuckle before putting away her swords and smirking. “Hoho, no. We’re just getting started.”

BOOM

The entire castle shook violently as something exploded from several floors beneath them. Maddie quickly climbed onto Sasha’s back while Andrias and Darcy looked around in alarm. “Sounds like Ivy just disabled the Shield Generator.”

With a quick nod of approval, Sasha gave a mock salute to Andrias and Darcy. “Welp, that’s our cue. See ya later, nerds!”

Before either Andrias or Darcy could even blink, Sasha drew her sword and ran full force at Darcy. With the Hive Mind still partially preoccupied with figuring out how they had been so easily outsmarted, Darcy had no time to react as Sasha cut the cord connecting Marcy to the Core.

Andrias could only watch in mortified shock as his lord’s host went limp and the small frog on Sasha’s back ripped the helmet off of Marcy’s head and tossed it aside. Sasha peered back at Andrias and smiled before picking up Marcy in her arms and running towards the castle balcony.

Andrias mentally slapped himself and forced his body to move. He roared in rage as Sasha, Maddie, and an unconscious Marcy leaped from the side of the balcony and onto an awaiting Joe Sparrow and Domino 2, Ivy already on Joe’s back.

The yellow frog smiled widely as her fellow resistance members quickly found their footing on top of Domino 2. Andrias tried reaching over the side of the balcony to stop them, but it was no use. Both Joe and Domino 2 were already speeding back toward the ground.

Andrias pounded his fist into the side of his castle in absolute, unbridled fury. How could he have let this happen? Not only did they not have the key, but the Shield Generator was also destroyed and his lord no longer had its host. How could one little teenage girl outsmart the greatest minds in Amphibia’s history? She wasn’t even the Champion of Wit for crying out loud!

The Core’s voice from inside his crown seemed to match his anger, if not more so. “You imbecile! How could you let this happen?!”

Andrias scoffed. “Me? You were just as fooled as I was!”

“SILENCE!!!” The Core yelled. “Thanks to you, we have no other choice but to initiate our final gambit!”

Andrias froze, completely forgetting about his anger for a moment as the Core’s words settled. “M-My lord, you can’t seriously mean that. Surely we can find another way to regain control of the box. Destroying Amphibia now would be pointless.”

“Oh Andrias, who said anything about destroying Amphibia?”

Chapter Text

When Marcy opened her eyes, the first thing she expected to see was certainly not the sight of Anne’s parents staring down at her. She placed a hand on her forehead as her vision slowly came more into focus. “What happened…? Where…?”

Marcy tried sitting up, but Mrs. Boonchuy gently pushed her back to the ground. “Shh, rest. You’re safe now.”

Marcy slowly turned her head to the side, spotting Sasha talking with Grime and a few of the Wartwood citizens that she recognized. Why was Sasha’s hair so long and wait, why did all of Wartwood’s citizens seem to respect her and Grime?

How much have I missed?

“Master Marcy! Oh, thank goodness you’re awake!”

Marcy’s head turned the other way as a familiar voice raced towards her. Her eyes widened when the familiar figures of Lady Olivia and General Yunan came into view. “Olivia? Yunan?”

Yunan dropped to her knees and embraced Marcy in a nearly bone-crushing hug. “You scared us there, human!”

Marcy shook her head as she continued looking around at her surroundings. “What happened exactly? The last time I remember is Andrias and orange eyes and…what the heck happened here?”

Olivia followed Marcy’s gaze, spotting countless numbers of destroyed military equipment, frobots, and pieces of Newtopia’s wall scattered throughout the battlefield. She cringed. “Ah, yes, that. Well, let’s just say a lot has happened while you’ve been…gone.”

“Marbles…?”

Marcy suddenly looked to her side as a weak voice called out to her. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of Anne laying on the ground nearby, her eyes just barely open.

“Anne! Is that really you?!” Marcy exclaimed. “Are you okay? Why are you—?”

Anne cringed, shutting her eyes tightly. “Sorry, can you slow down a bit? My head is killing me right now.”

“Oh yeah, sorry!” Marcy quickly replied. “But really, are you okay?”

“I’m fine for the most part. Definitely doing a lot better than the dudes I beat up, that’s for sure,” Anne said with a faint smirk.

“Marcy!”

The Taiwanese girl looked up as the last of their trio rushed towards her, pulling Marcy into a light but firm hug. Sasha let go after a few seconds and placed her hands on Marcy’s shoulders. “Geez, Marce, warn a girl next time you decide to get possessed, will yah?”

“Possessed? Is that what happened?” Marcy looked back at Anne. “The Core…Andrias wanted me to be its host…”

Anne, Sasha, Olivia, and Yunan’s expressions all dimmed. Anne shook her head from the ground and sighed. “We’ll talk about it later, Marbles. For now, we’re just all glad you’re okay.”

Marcy nodded and gestured with her hand towards the battlefield. “So…does anyone wanna fill me in what all this is all about?”

Grime felt his bones ache as he walked along the edges of Newtopia’s outer rim. Looking around, it was clear that repairs would take months if not years to complete.

Assuming we win the war soon, that is…

The toad grimaced. Everyone else in the Wartwood Resistance seemed to think that the war was essentially over with this victory, but Grime knew better than to get his hopes up. While, yes, both of Sasha’s friends had been saved and the humans had been repelled, there were still many more battles to come before total victory could be achieved.

For Barrel’s sake, the Newtopian Castle was still flying right above them with who knows how many frobots still inside, not to mention the Music Box! While Grime had been aware of Sasha’s backup plan in case of Andrias and Darcy’s betrayal, he still thought they could have done more to cripple their defenses.

As he glared up at the castle, Grime felt something in the wind shift. He looked away from the flying fortress as the ground began to shake ever so slightly. Grime turned his head in search of the source of the shaking only for his eyes to return to the sky.

It was then that he saw it. 

Maybe the war would end sooner than he thought…

Sprig watched from afar as Anne laughed at something Sasha said, Marcy giggling alongside her. It was weird, not in a bad way, but still weird.

The levity of the situation was something neither he nor the rest of his family had felt since the day they left Earth the first time. While there were some good times while with the Resistance, everything that’d happened since getting captured by Mr. X was a pure nightmare.

Anne tried to hide it, but Sprig knew her well enough to see the pain hidden underneath her tired expression. She was hurting, and not just physically.

Maybe after the war was over they could talk about it. The two of them had yet to have an actual conversation since being freed from Mr. X and Sprig knew in his heart that that hurt wouldn’t go away on its own.

Sprig took a step towards the larger group, consisting of his family, the Boonchuys, Dr. Jan, Terri, Olivia, Yunan as well as Anne, Sasha, and Marcy when he felt the ground begin to shake beneath him.

“What the…?” Sprig looked up and gasped. 

Oh frog, that was bad, real bad.

Anne smiled contently as she relaxed her muscles on the ground. Sasha had been telling her and Marcy about her past few months as Commander while gesturing wildly with her hands.

“They had like 20 guys in the entire militia. The whole town fell in less than 5 minutes — if that!”

Marcy frowned. “According to what I researched on Amphibia’s societal structure, frogs aren’t usually trained to fight, much less an enemy of that scale. It’s supposed to be the job of the toads to protect villages from monsters and the like.”

Sasha shrugged. “Marcy, the entire continent was being invaded by an outside force. We had no choice but to use every available soldier we could conscript.”

“At least you didn’t kidnap your soldiers.” Anne joked darkly. Both Sasha and Marcy looked at her in concern, but Anne waved them off. “I’m fine guys, really. Can we just not talk about this right now?”

Sasha and Marcy exchanged a glance, seeming to have a silent conversation amongst themselves. However, before either one of them could open their mouth to respond the ground began to shake violently.

Sasha looked around in alarm. “The hell? Please, for the love of frog, that better not be another portal.”

Anne winced as her headache worsened. The ground shaking was jostling her already exhausted brain.

Marcy tapped Sasha’s shoulder and pointed to the sky. “Umm, I’m pretty sure it’s not a portal…”

Anne’s eyes followed Marcy’s finger. Her eyes widened. “Oh crud…”

Amphibia’s Red Moon, the object that had been a constant for nearly her entire time in this world was rapidly growing larger in the sky. Anne watched in shock as the Moon’s surface dramatically shifted. No longer was the celestial body peppered by craters. Now it was covered in orange eyes, each one directed towards Amphibia itself.

Anne turned her head at the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. She furrowed her eyebrows in concern as she saw Sprig gasping for breath. “The Moon…it…it’s getting closer…”

“Those eyes are the same as the Core’s.” Sasha scowled. “Whatever’s going on, it’s because of them.”

FLASH

Out of nowhere, a blinding light encompassed almost the entirety of the surrounding area. Everyone in their small group cried out in alarm as they each covered their eyes. 

When the light dissipated, the Moon was still there in the sky, creeping ever closer to the planet’s surface. What was new, however, was the absolutely massive white circle slowly growing above the Newtopian Castle.

Suddenly, Anne felt a surge of neigh unimaginable pain flare up from inside her. She cried out as she spasmed on the ground. If she hadn’t known what the pain of the chip could cause, this probably would have been the worst pain she’d ever experienced.

Both Sasha, Marcy, the Plantars, and her parents rushed to her side. Her mom placed a hand on her cheek. “Anne, honey, what’s wrong? Speak to us!”

Anne peeked her eyes open through gritted teeth. “Andrias…he’s doing something to the Music Box…I can feel my stone trying to leach power off of me…”

The whole group watched as a faint blue glow enveloped Anne’s body, a small stream of which trailing up into the sky towards the castle. Sprig crouched down next to her in panic. “Are you gonna be okay? What does that mean?”

Sasha growled as she looked from Anne to the white circle. “I think that means Andrias is planning something big, something that’s going to take the entire power of the Music Box to pull off.”

“But I thought you stole the key to the Music Box?” Polly questioned. “Shouldn’t it be useless now?”

Olivia shook her head. “Not if Andrias and the Core are willing to sacrifice the stones altogether.”

FLASH

Another surge of power from the castle and the white circle had grown to nearly two times the circumference of Newtopia. 

“It’s…a portal.” Marcy realized as she studied the circle. “They’re trying to make a portal big enough to send the Moon to another world.”

“Earth…” Anne ground out. “They want to destroy Earth.”

“But why?!” Hop Pop exclaimed. “Why destroy any world for that matter?”

Sasha cursed. “Isn’t it obvious? The Core is a sore loser. They’re trying to get revenge on both us and the U.S. Military by destroying our home world, Amphibia be damned.”

Despite the pain, Anne tried to stay focused. The situation was dire, no doubt. Even with her powers, there would be no chance of her pushing the Moon back into orbit. That left their only two options being destroy the portal or destroy the Moon itself.

If they destroyed the portal, the Moon would just continue on and obliterate Amphibia. That wasn’t really an option so destroying the Moon was their only choice.

That just left them with one question: ‘How?’

“I think I know of something that can help.”

Anne turned at the sound of Mr. X’s voice. The FBI agent had regained consciousness but was still unable to properly stand up. Her eyes instantly turned blue as she haphazardly stumbled to her feet and stomped her way over to him. “SCREW YOU, X!!!”

Fuck the pain she was in, that asshole needed to stay down for all she cared. Anne went to kick him in the face again but was held back by Sasha.

“What kind of something are you talking about?” Sasha asked, much to Anne’s dismay.

Despite his face being bruised beyond recognition, Mr. X smirked. “Ever heard of a nuclear bomb, kid?”

Sasha stared at Mr. X in disbelief. “A nuke? You want to launch a nuke at the Moon? You can’t be serious.”

Mr. X let out his most infuriating laugh. “You got a better plan?”

“Sasha, don’t listen to him!” Anne shouted as she struggled against her friend’s grip. “We can’t trust a word this fuckface says!”

“What’s wrong, Boonchuy?” Mr. X taunted. “Do I look like the kind of person that’d sacrifice the entire world just to get revenge on you?”

Anne stared down at the FBI agent with unbridled fury. “It wouldn’t surprise me.”

“How would a single nuke destroy the entire Moon in the first place?” Marcy questioned. “The amount of firepower needed to destroy something of that size and not leave large chunks of debris is far larger than that of just one nuclear bomb.”

Hop Pop raised his hand. “Umm…what’s a nuke?”

Marcy looked down at him. “Oh, it’s a weapon that, when detonated, splits apart the smallest unit of matter and causes a massive explosion. There’s also typically a whole bunch of toxic nuclear waste in the aftermath.”

“So…something kinda like Andrias’ laser cannon?” Sprig asked.

“Oh much bigger than that, little froggy.” Mr. X explained. “A big enough bomb can level an entire city.”

“Hold on!” Yunan exclaimed. “If you had weapons that powerful this whole time, why didn’t you use them on us? Wouldn’t you have won the war a lot sooner?”

“We wanted to liberate the planet, not demolish it.” Mr. X said, rolling his eyes. “Besides, now that the fate of Earth is at stake, I think we’re all on the same page when I say that we have to work together on this.”

“Work with you?!!!” Anne screamed incredulously. “Fuck no, we’re not doing that!”

“Anne.” Mr. Boonchuy placed a hand on her shoulder. “We know you’re angry at him, we all are. He hurt you and you deserve justice, but sometimes we have to do things we don’t like for the right reasons.”

“But—!”

“We’ll decide what to do with him after this is over.” Mrs. Boonchuy stated firmly. “We won’t let him get away with what he did just because he helped save the world.”

Despite still seething with rage, Anne acquiesced. She knew there was no time to waste. The fate of Earth and the future of Amphibia were hanging on the edge.

“Okay…but this still doesn’t answer my question.” Marcy butted in. “One nuke isn’t nearly powerful enough to destroy the Moon!”

Mr. X pulled himself to his feet and gestured toward the sky. “According to the reports from our scientists, much of the Moon itself is actually hollow. If we were to guide the nuke inside, the blast could destroy it from within.”

“Really?” Sasha asked, crossing her arms. “You had time to study Amphibia’s Moon, but you still couldn’t defeat a couple of teenagers and some frogs.” 

Mr. X sent the blonde a glare, but seemingly decided to keep his mouth shut for once. He held up his bandaged stump where his hand used to be. “Now normally I would use my watch to call in an airdrop, but I seem to have lost it in our little scuffle earlier.“

“Uh, doesn’t it take, like, a lot of red tape to order a nuclear strike?” Sasha asked. “I’m pretty sure even if you did have your watch, the amount of bureaucratic bullshit needed for it to go through would take way longer than the amount of time we have before the Moon destroys Earth.”

Mr. X flat-out grinned. “For a normal person, sure. But, honey, I am a top federal agent. Let’s just say I’ve made some questionable decisions with the strings I’ve pulled, hmm?”

“Like Project Blue?” Anne spat.

“Mmm, yes that was one thing that would’ve definitely gotten me investigated had word gotten out.” Mr. X hummed. “But I digress. Look, the point I’m making here is that we’re going to need another way to fire the nuke I have stored in a missile silo nearby.”

“I think this might do the trick.”

The entire group turned as Grime approached them from across the battlefield, dragging with him the body of a high-ranking general. He tossed the corpse at Mr. X’s feet and raised a proverbial eyebrow at the looks of shock directed towards him. “What? Sasha gave me a basic overview of what to look for concerning the human command structure. I saw this already dead human on the battlefield and thought they might have something useful on them.”

Looking like he might throw up, Mr. X reached down and plucked the general’s radio from his pocket. “Uh…thanks. This should do.”

Mr. X turned the dial on the radio before switching it on. “This is X speaking. Security Code 46-17-59-89-32. I need you to execute Order 13. Target: Object M-1.”

“Copy that, X. Executing Order 13 on Object M-1.”

“That’s it? That’s all it took?!” Sasha gaped. “That was, like, two sentences.”

Mr. X turned to her and smirked. “What can I say, I have connections.” He looked to the rest of their group. “Now then, the missile should take about 10 minutes to launch. In the meantime, we’re going to need to figure out how to direct it with enough precision to enter inside the Moon and detonate it from within.”

Mr. X raised his remaining hand. “And from where I’m standing, there’s only one individual qualified.” He pointed squarely at Anne.

Anne resisted the urge to snap him like the twig he was. “Excuse me?! You want me to fly up there and guide a literal nuke inside the Moon?!!”

If this had been anyone else, Anne probably wouldn’t have protested. Saving the world and the people she loved would normally be a no-brainer. But this was Mr. X they were talking about and Anne was done being his lapdog.

“Oh come now, Boonchuy, this will be child’s play after all the training I had you go through.”

Anne felt her earlier burst of strength leave her as she spoke, her legs wobbling beneath her. “Yeah, maybe if Andrias wasn’t leaching off my powers. I can barely stand, X, let alone fly into space!”

Sasha stepped forward with Grime and the Plantars at her side. She unsheathed her swords. “Then it looks like we’re gonna have to take down that portal after all.”

Andrias watched from the castle balcony as the portal in the sky continued to enlarge with each burst of power from the Music Box. Looking through it now, Andrias could spot several of the geometrically shaped buildings Earth was known for.

“We’re almost there, my lord. Just a little bit more power from the box and the portal will be large enough.”

“Very good, Andrias. Keep this up and you might just redeem yourself.”

Andrias smiled to himself under his father’s praise. He placed his crown back on his head and went inside to check on the Music Box.

Andrias grimaced as he laid eyes upon his once-prized device. The gems on its top blinked in and out with various intensities. The fake key Waybright inserted spun uncontrollably. Parts of the box were even starting to crack.

This will all be worth it. Andrias told himself. Using this technique on the Music Box was supposed to be a last resort, but even then, that was with the actual key. Without the stability the key offered, there was no telling what might happen once the Moon entered the portal.

The Core knows what it’s doing. Once we destroy Earth, we’ll win this war once and for all, box or no box.

“HEY ANDRIAS!”

The King of Amphibia turned back towards the castle balcony as a shrill voice called out from over the edge. He roared in fury when he spotted Waybright along with her disgraced toad friend and annoying frogs flying atop Joe Sparrow.

Andrias immediately pulled out his flaming sword and charged toward them, taking large swings at the giant bird in an attempt to ground it. In the end, Andrias just managed to nick Joe’s wing, sending his passengers to the castle balcony proper.

Andrias stalked towards them, ready to end these nuances for good. However, right before he could bring his sword down on them, both Sprig and Polly darted under his legs and toward the Music Box.

“Oh no you don’t!” Andrias growled as he swept his tail into them, knocking the two frogs into the throne room wall.

Sasha pointed one of her swords at his head. “You have one chance, Andrias. Close the portal or we’ll do it for you!”

Andrias simply laughed. “You worms don’t stand a chance against me.” He snapped his fingers. “Cloakbots, engage!”

Out of seemingly nowhere, a small army of Cloakbots appeared inside the throne room. Each one of them laughed in unison as they attacked the Resistance.

Sasha scrambled to get everyone out of the line of fire, pulling Grime and Hop Pop behind a pillar and shooing Joe back out into the sky. By the time she, herself, turned to fight the Cloakbots, one of them had reappeared directly in front of her.

Andrias laughed as Sasha just barely managed to dodge its blast. “It’s over, Waybright. You may have gotten one over on me before, but you and your little Rebellion can’t stop what the Core has planned.”

Sasha sneered at him, drawing her swords and cutting the Cloakbot in two. “Destroying Earth will do nothing, Andrias! The Core is petty and just wants revenge. It’s using you!”

“The Core is comprised of Amphibia’s greatest minds. They are the reason behind Newtopia’s prosperity.” Andrias batted Grime away with his hand when the toad went to swing Barrel’s Warhammer. “To call the Core petty is to undermine its vast intelligence.”

Sasha gritted her teeth as she cut down several more Cloakbots. “Fucking hell, Andrias. OPEN YOUR EYES! The Core doesn’t care about anything but power. It doesn’t matter whose mind is in that thing, all it wants is to be in control.”

Sasha leaped out of range as Andrias brought his sword down upon her. “Take it from someone who was a control freak for years! All the Core wants is to impress its will onto others. Seriously, Andrias, do you want to open that portal? Do you want to destroy Earth?”

“Of course I do!” Andrias said despite himself. Of course he wanted to destroy Earth. It was the humans of that infernal world that ruined his plans of conquest. Boonchuy, Waybright, …Marcy, they all got in his way even before the other humans invaded. Without the Core, he doubted he would have made it as far as he did.

The Core pushed him to continue, to redeem himself. It was their influence that guided him to this very moment. If it wasn’t for Le— if it wasn’t for that traitor, he would’ve crushed the humans ages ago, back when they were still a backwater civilization.

Andrias steeled himself and brought his foot up in an attempt to squash Sasha once and for all. However, just as he was about to end her, the castle lurched, sending everyone, including the Cloakbots, flying across the throne room.

Andrias roared to his feet the second he was able and looked around wildly. He paused when his gaze fell upon the Music Box, or rather, lack thereof. 

In the midst of all the fighting, Sprig and Polly had managed to recover from Andrias’ previous attack and yoink the Music Box from its pedestal. Within seconds the gigantic portal in the sky collapsed, the castle itself losing power rapidly and lowering itself back towards the ground. Even the remaining Cloakbots had started to power down.

“NO!” Andrias yelled as he charged at the frog siblings. He swung his sword in a large arc, sending a wave of flames barreling toward the pair.

Both Sprig and Polly ducked just in the nick of time before sprinting over to Sasha, Hop Pop, and Grime. Andrias roared in fury. This was not how it was supposed to be! He was this close to winning, to redeeming himself!

Andrias raised his sword, ready to plunge it into the ground and create a shockwave. However, before he could do anything, a binding blue light filled the throne room. Still trying to cover his eyes, Andrias didn’t even have time to react as something decked him across the face, causing his sword to fly out of his hands.

Andrias fell onto his tail as the light dissipated. He looked up, first in anger, and then in fear.

In front of him floated Boonchuy, her hair a brighter neon blue than he’d ever seen it. He stared as the blue aura around her grew even stronger, the blue gem on the decayed Music Box shining bright along with her.

Anne looked down at him through tired eyes. “It’s over, Andrias.”

The king glared at her. “Over? You worms have only delayed the inevitable.” He gestured to the imposing shadow of the Moon overlaid across Amphibia. “The Core may not destroy Earth, but their final gambit is unstoppable. It will destroy you and everyone you love along with it.”

Andrias watched as Anne glanced over at Sasha and nodded. Before Andrias could even try to understand what that meant, Anne was on top of him with one fist raised.

A moment later, everything went black.

Anne looked down with contempt at Andrias’ unconscious body. “I take it that reasoning with him didn’t go so well?” 

“Nope.” Sasha replied, popping the p.

Anne sighed and walked to the castle balcony. The missile the nuclear warhead was attached to was approaching its maximum altitude. Its thrusters stood out as the most visible thing against the night sky apart from the Moon.

I’m really doing this, aren’t I? She was actually going to guide a nuke inside the Moon. She was going to risk her life to save everyone.

Anne felt something tug at her leg just as she was about to take off. She looked down, seeing Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop hugging her as tight as they could.

Anne took the time to crouch down and hug them back just as hard. No words were exchanged as there was no need to. All four of them knew exactly how much they cared for each other.

Anne pulled away and gave her found family a small smile. Just having them by her side had calmed her nerves tenfold. Giving one last careful glance at Sasha and Grime, Anne blasted off into the sky.

Anne reached the missile a few dozen seconds later, catching the weapon right as its thrusters began to fizzle out after entering the upper atmosphere. She held it aloft above her head as she turned and continued forth towards the Moon.

Anne tried her best to stay calm as she approached, even as the eyes covering the Moon converged on her, staring her down.

“How pitiful, you believe that primal weapon can defeat us?!”

Anne nearly stopped in her tracks as several small doors along the Moon’s surface opened, releasing hundreds of eyed monstrosities. She narrowed her eyes and zoomed past them. Those doors were her opening.

“We are as old as the Music Box itself. We will persist long after you and the rest of your kind have perished. Any attempt to destroy us is futile.”

Anne continued to dodge the Core’s science experiments. She gritted her teeth as she inched closer and closer to the Moon.

“You stars of the prophecy are but nuisances to us. The Stones of Calamity are ours to control. They are Amphibia’s greatest treasure.”

Anne reached one of the doors and maneuvered herself behind the missile. She looked directly into one of the Core’s eyes. “And that’s where you’re wrong.”

She batted away a pair of the Core’s creations. “Amphibia’s greatest treasure was never the stones.”

Anne’s hands and feet began to glow blue as a rush of power burst through her. “Amphibia’s greatest treasure is its people and I am their protector.”

Another burst of power and her hair had begun to resemble that of a blue flame. “It doesn’t matter who threatens them, I will defend the world I love even if I have to fight other humans.”

Finally having seemed to realize what Anne was planning, the Core surged, the Moon’s surface pushing against the missile pressed against its outer door. “No! STOP! We are a God! You are a mortal! You—You—!”

Anne smirked as her power reached a breaking point. “And so, that. Includes. YOU!”

Anne pushed with everything she had, forcing the missile through the doors and all the way into the Moon’s core. She gave them one last small wave as the Core’s eyes widened in an emotion not seen on them in all of their thousands of years of existence: fear.

Anne flew back to Amphibia’s surface as the Core panicked, ordering its creations back inside in a vain attempt to rid itself of the nuke. Anne turned around once she was safely out of range and waited.

“5…4…3…2…1…and……”

The Core was gone and Anne would ensure that the war between Earth and Amphibia would end alongside it.

Anne realized what she had to do.

Chapter Text

Sasha watched from the castle balcony as Anne descended from the sky, her blue aura only just beginning to fade. Small pieces of the Moon fell from the sky behind her, although none seemed big enough to cause any sort of substantial damage.

Anne let her powers dissipate as she landed, wobbling slightly before Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly managed to steady her. Sasha met her eyes as she punched her shoulder playfully.

“Nicely done, Boonchuy!” Sasha laughed. “That was one hell of an explosion.”

Anne returned her smile, although it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I…thanks, Sash. All I did was follow the plan.”

“And you did amazing, Anne!” Sprig exclaimed. 

Polly jumped into her hair. “We could see you blow up the Moon from here, Anne! It was so froggin’ cool!” 

“Language, Polly.” Hop Pop chided. “But yes, Anne, you did great up there. I’m so proud of you. We’re all proud of you.”

Sasha waved for the rest of them to follow her. “Alright everyone, that’s enough. Let’s go tell everyone the good news. Sprig, bring the Music Box.”

The small group followed Sasha to the castle balcony, only Grime staying behind to guard Andrias’ unconscious body. One by one, they each boarded Joe Sparrow.

Sasha looked over from her seat as Anne seemed to pause in front of Joe, her eyes staring into nothing. 

“Come on, Boonchuy!” The blonde yelled. “Don’t you wanna see your parents?”

That seemed to snap Anne out of her trance as she let out a quick apology and climbed aboard.

The fly to the ground was short. In the time it took for Anne to destroy the Moon, the castle had lowered itself considerably, the last shreds of the Music Box’s power allowing it to land safely in the middle of Newtopia.

Marcy came running as soon as they landed, closely followed by Olivia, Yunan, Anne’s parents, Dr. Jan, and Terri. Behind them stood Mr. X, his remaining hand chained to a nearby tree.

“Anne, you did it!” Marcy exclaimed loudly as she pulled the other girl into a hug. “Oh my gosh, tell me everything! How fast do you think you were going? Did you feel a shockwave from the blast? How did you breathe in space?!”

Anne looked back at her cluelessly. “I, uh, I’m not sure. I think my powers just sorta protect me from that kind of thing.”

“In any case, we’re glad to see you safe, Anne.” Olivia said, placing a gentle hand on Marcy’s shoulder.

“Anne, you were spectacular out there!” Mr. Boonchuy said next as he and Mrs. Boonchuy wrapped their daughter in a tight embrace.

“We knew you could do it!” Mrs. Boonchuy smiled. “Our daughter, a hero!”

Sasha watched as Anne laughed happily alongside them. Although, at least to her, Anne’s laughter seemed slightly forced. Maybe the overall stress of the past few hours had gotten to her. Maybe she was tired from using her powers. Or maybe, it was something else entirely…

Anne was nervous, that much was obvious. Something was eating away at her and Sprig was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Once everyone was done congratulating her, Sprig approached Anne and tapped on her leg. “Hey, Anne, do you mind if we talk for a few seconds?”

His best friend looked down at him, a genuine, albeit worried, smile forming on her lips. “Sure, dude, what’d you wanna talk about?”

Sprig sighed, sneaking a glance at the larger group behind them before looking back at Anne. “What’s going on with you? And don’t say it’s nothing because I know there’s something you’re not telling us.”

Anne’s mouth opened and closed. She seemed to struggle to find a response other than the one Sprig had forbidden her from saying. In the end, she gave up.

“Listen, Sprig, I…there’s something I have to do. It might sound crazy but it also might be the only way to end the war. I just…don’t know how to say it in a way that won’t make everyone panic.”

Sprig pondered for a moment. “What if you just tell me what it is first? Maybe then I can back you up when you decide to tell everyone else.”

Anne still seemed uneasy but eventually nodded. “Alright, but please don’t freak out. We…we have to do this, for everyone’s sake.”

“Got it.” Sprig nodded. “I’m all ears.”

Anne took a deep breath before speaking one quick, quiet sentence. “We need to destroy the Music Box.”

Sprig’s mouth fell open.

“YOU WANT TO DO WHAAAAAATTTT???!!!”

Anne cringed from the volume of Sprig’s voice, quickly placing a hand over his mouth. “Keep your voice down!”

Anne looked over her shoulder at the rest of the group, silently thanking whoever was up there that no one had seemed to hear his outburst. She removed her hand.

“Why do we need to destroy the Music Box?” Sprig asked, regaining his composure. “That’s your only way home, isn’t it? At least the only way we have any control over.”

Anne grimaced. “I know it sounds bad, but as far as I can tell, it’s the only way to keep Amphibia safe.”

Sprig cocked his head to the side. “I still don’t understand. Won’t your government still be able to open portals on their own?”

Anne shook her head hesitantly. “No, or at least, I don’t think so.” She looked at her hand. “I don’t know how else to describe it, but something about the artificial portals the military makes feels familiar to me. It’s like a small bit of my stone’s power is being channeled through them.”

Realization seemed to dawn on Sprig’s face. “Wait, so you mean all portals, even the one Terri made, are made possible because of the stones?”

Anne nodded. “It's something I’ve been thinking about ever since I powered up Terri’s machine. The portal only responded to my specific energy, or more specifically, the energy of my stone. Remember? No matter how much power we generated, the portal remained the same size.”

“So if we destroy the stones, we stop anyone from making a portal ever again.” Sprig reasoned. He looked back at Anne. “But…if we do that, then we won’t be able to see each other anymore. Earth and Amphibia will be completely cut off from one another.”

Anne could already feel the tears beginning to build up beneath her eyes. “I know.” She whispered. “But what other choice do we have?”

Explaining her plan to the rest of the group went about as well as she expected. After the initial bout of confusion and the subsequent re-explanation of her reasoning, everyone was more or less on board.

However, just when Anne thought she’d have to start saying her goodbyes to everyone, her parents stepped forward.

“We’re staying.” Mr. Boonchuy stated, turning his gaze toward Anne. “We know how much you love this world, Anne. We’re not about to make you separate from it.”

Anne sputtered in disbelief. “But what about the restaurant a-and everyone at the Thai temple! I-I can’t just ask you guys to leave your entire lives behind for me…”

Mrs. Boonchuy shook her head. “Anne, honey, we’d do anything for you. We broke into a military base to save you. What makes you think we wouldn’t do this for you now?”

Mr. Boonchuy chuckled. “Yeah! After all we did to try and break you out, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were at the top of the FBI’s wanted list.”

“Guys I… I don’t know what to say…”

Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy pulled their daughter into a hug as Anne started to tear up. Of all the things she thought might happen, this was by far the most unexpected. And the surprises didn’t stop there…

“We’re staying too.” Marcy and Sasha said at once.

Anne’s head instantly snapped towards them. “W-What?! What do you mean you’re staying? What about your families?”

Sasha exchanged a glance with Marcy. “Anne, you know both of our home lives were never that good to begin with. As far as I’m concerned, my family is right here. In Amphibia.”

Marcy shuffled her feet nervously. “It-It’s true. I’m sorry for trying to force you guys to run away with me, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of moving away. Away from the two of you.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “You…you two are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m going to do whatever I can to make it up to you. If that means staying in Amphibia, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Anne couldn’t stop herself. The next thing she knew, both of her arms were wrapped tightly around Sasha and Marcy’s necks. Sasha laughed as Anne pulled away slightly embarrassed.

“Jeez, Anne, don’t make such a big deal out of it. Besides, I’m pretty sure both me and Marcy have been designated as leaders of terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. Not sure how much I want to go home and face, well, that.”

Olivia cleared her throat. “Well, we are happy to welcome you all with open arms.”

Anne turned to Dr. Jan and Terri. “So what about you two? Are you going to stay?”

“Anne, I’m sorry but…“ Dr. Jan sighed. “But as much as I want to stay here and study Amphibian history and its people, I don’t think I can leave my life on Earth behind.”

“I agree.” Terri concurred sadly. “It’s been amazing knowing you all, but I can’t in good conscience abandon my life on Earth.”

“But what about the FBI?” Hop Pop asked. “Wouldn’t they still have a warrant out for your arrest too?”

Dr. Jan waved a hand. “Eh, I’m not too worried. If it comes down to it, I’m sure Terri and I can work out a deal.”

Terri chuckled. “Yeah, they’ll probably try to get me to find a way to create a new portal without the Calamity Stones.” They placed a hand on their chin. “I mean, it might be possible, but it would take at least a decade for me to create something like the pinprick-sized portal I made before.”

Anne nodded. “Well, if that’s what you guys want to do, I’m not going to stop you. Although, I am going to miss you.”

Dr. Jan smiled and placed a hand on Anne’s shoulder. “We will too, Anne. We will too.”

“Welp, if that’s all, then there’s just one more thing we need to do.” Yunan stated as she trudged toward Mr. X.

The FBI agent looked up as the newt and the rest of the group approached him. He sighed. “Alright, what is it you freaks want this time?”

Yunan shoved the radio into his hand. “We need you to initiate a mass evacuation of Amphibia. I’m sure none of your soldiers are going to want to be abandoned on an alien world and we, of course, don’t want them here.”

Mr. X stared down at the radio skeptically. “And if I refuse?”

“Then I’ll be sure to cut off your other hand and make you eat it.” Yunan grinned with a few too many teeth.

Mr. X rolled his eyes. “Alright! Alright! I get it.” He switched on the radio. “Attention all units, this is Special Agent Mr. X. Operation First-Strike has been terminated. I repeat, Operation First-Strike has been terminated. All troops are to return to base on Earth immediately. Any and all prisoners of war are to be left behind. Stragglers will be stranded and will not receive extraction.”

A whole round of confused voices sounded out from the radio, but, in the end, each of them seemed to acquiesce to the command. 

Sasha handed the Music Box to Marcy, the shorter girl proceeding to open a mid-sized portal back to Earth for Dr. Jan and Terri. As the two made their way into the portal, Mr. X stood up and gestured to the binding on his wrist.

“Welp, this has been fun, but I think I’ll be taking my leave as well if you don’t mind.”

Sasha smirked. “Oh I’m sorry, did I forget to mention that you’re staying here? Whoops, my bad.” She reached over Marcy’s shoulder and closed the lid to the Music Box, the portal disappearing soon after.

Mr. X blinked once in confusion before yelling in outrage. “What?!!! You can’t keep me here! I’m a top federal agent! I have rights!”

Sasha’s expression darkened. “You tortured Anne. You made her your weapon. We aren’t about to let you get away with that.”

Mr. X balked. “You—You—!”

“It’s over, X.” Anne said sternly. “You. Are. Done.”

She turned away before her anger got out of hand again. Frog knew she did not have the energy for that right now. 

Anne looked over as Marcy stepped forward with the Music Box in hand. Sasha raised an eyebrow. “So how do we do this then? Do we just take a hammer and smash it to pieces or…?”

Anne shrugged. “I guess…? Look, all I know is that the stones need to be destroyed with the energy inside them gone. How we do that doesn’t really matter.”

Sasha drew her swords and indicated for Marcy to put the Music Box on the ground. She spun them around in her hands once, before zeroing in on her three shining targets. She looked up at Anne and Marcy.

“Alright, girls. On the count of three.”

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three!”

SLASH

With two precise swings of her swords, Sasha shattered all three Calamity Stones. The deed was done. There was no going back.

Anne felt a jolt of electricity rocket through her only to disappear a moment later. She tried reaching for her Calamity Powers only to find an empty void. Her connection to her stone was gone.

She looked back at her family and friends as they all took the first breath of a brand new chapter in their lives. Anne smiled. “So…who wants to start figuring out how to rebuild our home?”

The War Between Worlds was over.

Several Months Later

Marcy soared over the sky as fast as she possibly could, racing atop Joe Sparrow at lightning speeds. After all the preparation she’d done over the past few weeks, she couldn’t believe that she had nearly slept in long enough to miss the ceremony!

She swooped down as a cluster of giant dragonflies flew into her path. As much as she’d like to enjoy the scenery, there was simply no time to dilly-dally. Both Anne and Sasha were counting on her to be there!

After months of rebuilding, Amphibia was nearly back to its former glory. Well, not to the glory that Andrias and the Core envisioned, but still better nonetheless. Everyone had put their best effort into making this world the best it could be and Marcy was proud to say she was a part of that effort.

While she wasn’t necessarily there, for the majority of the war, Marcy knew enough about it to know the devastation it caused. And not just to her friends and family, but to all of Amphibia.

She sighed as Joe sailed over the Mountain Pass. A part of her still couldn’t help but feel as though everything was her fault. If she had never found the Music Box, had never forced Anne and Sasha to come to Amphibia with her, maybe things would’ve turned out differently.

But that was in the past. Marcy had a new life, a new future ahead of her.

A new future with Anne and Sasha by her side.

Slowing down slightly, Marcy took a quick moment to wave to the toads on Toad Tower as Joe flew by. After helping the Resistance lock up Andrias and his remaining loyalists, Sasha and Grime had moved back to the stronghold. Under their joint leadership, as well as some help from Beatrix, the Toad Army had undergone massive reformations.

No longer did the toads dominate over the frogs. Instead, the towers reverted back to their original purpose. All across Amphibia, the Toad Army defended villages from the various creatures the land had to offer. On top of that, on the national scale, all Amphibian races now held equal political status.

With Marcy’s help, the new Amphibian government had adopted a political system that incorporated true representative democracy. It was just the sort of thing Marcy had wanted to implement ever since the failed Toad Rebellion.

As for Anne, she had decided to take a more backseat role when it came to Amphibia’s political restructuring. She helped, yes, but she didn’t get herself as directly involved in it as much as Sasha or Marcy did.

For the most part, Anne remained in Wartwood, choosing to live a quiet life with her parents and the Plantars. Plus, thanks to Loggle and Chuck, the Plantar family home had been completely rebuilt with even a few extra rooms added on. 

Marcy, herself, had taken up residence in her old room back in Newtopia under the care of Olivia and Yunan. With her help, the capital of Amphibia had been restored into something marvelous, all references to Andrias and the Core being removed in the process.

Still, while the three of them lived fairly far apart from one another, they each made time to hang out every now and then. This ceremony, in part, was kinda an excuse to do just that.

Despite all these relatively good changes, however, there were a few strange mishaps over the course of Amphibia’s rebuilding. For example, only a couple of months after the end of the war, Mr. X’s body was found dead in his underground cell.

Initially, the toad and newt guards had ruled it a suicide. But, according to other prisoners who were there that night, there was apparently a dark lanky figure that broke into his cell. Mr. X allegedly screamed out for help not too long after.

Surprisingly, it had been Andrias who had been the one to call the guards to their cell block, but by then it was too late. Mr. X’s corpse had been strung up by his neck.

With not much evidence to go off of, the case was dismissed and everyone simply moved on. Although…Marcy did note that Anne was noticeably quieter the day the report came in.

But, that was weeks ago and Marcy was far too excited about today to ponder anymore about the past. She guided Joe to the ground as Wartwood came into view, landing amongst the assembled crowd.

Marcy hurriedly hopped off Joe’s back and politely shoved her way through the mass of Amphibians to the town square. There, she saw Anne and Sasha standing atop a pedestal, both of their eyes immediately zeroing in on Marcy.

“Come on, Marce! We’re almost about to start!” Sasha yelled out to her.

Anne knelt down and reached down a hand for Marcy to grab, pulling the other girl onto the pedestal. Marcy breathed out a huge sigh of relief. “Sorry, guys, I overslept. Too much time preparing and not enough time sleeping. Haha…”

Anne rolled her eyes playfully as she turned to wave at her parents and the Plantars near the front of the crowd. “Don’t worry, Marbles. We would’ve waited, right Sash?”

Sasha shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe we would’ve…“ She trailed off as Anne sent her a pointed glare. “…I mean of course we’d wait! That’s what friends do!”

Marcy smiled. “Well I’m here now. Let’s get started, shall we?”

Both her friends nodded as Anne gestured for Mrs. Croaker to begin her part of the ceremony. The old frog stepped forward and raised a hand, quieting the crowd.

“People of Amphibia, we are here today to officially celebrate the end of our world’s most bloody conflict in over a millennium. Today, we not only celebrate the war’s end, but we also celebrate the lives of those we lost. It is thanks to their sacrifices that we live on today.”

A brief moment of silence passed before Mrs. Croaker continued.

“Today, we also celebrate the addition of several new people into our lives and acknowledge the sacrifices they made to ensure the safety of our world.” She turned to address the three humans. “Anne Boonchuy-Plantar, please step forward.”

Anne walked in front of Mrs. Croaker and kneeled down. Mrs. Croaker smiled as she held up a blue medal in the shape of a frog’s foot and placed it around Anne’s neck. “On behalf of Wartwood and the rest of Amphibia, I hereby bestow upon you this symbol of your heroic achievements. May you continue to make us proud.”

Anne stood, placing a hand on the medal and looking out into the crowd. “I’ll do my best.” She returned to her place by Sasha and Marcy.

Beatrix stepped forward as Mrs. Croaker went to take a seat. She coughed into her hand. “Sasha Waybright, step forward.”

Sasha did so, offering a military salute to the toad before bending down on one knee. Beatrix smirked as she pulled out a red brooch in the shape of a toad’s head. “On behalf of the Toad Army and the rest of Amphibia, I offer yah this symbol of yer courage and determination to deter our enemies. May you continue to fight for our protection.”

Beatrix placed the brooch on her chest. Sasha stood. “Of course, Captain.”

At last, Lady Olivia moved off her seat, smiling warmly at the three girls as Sasha returned to her position. She placed her hands over her dress. “Will Marcy Wu please step forward?”

Despite her near-overwhelming nervousness, Marcy complied, kneeling down just as Anne and Sasha had done. She watched as Olivia presented her with a green hairpin in the shape of a newt's tail.

“On behalf of Newtopia and the rest of Amphibia, I give you this symbol of your intelligence in the face of overwhelming adversity. May you continue to inspire us.”

Marcy smiled as Olivia placed the piece in her hair, standing up accordingly. “Thank you. I will do everything I can to improve this world for the better.”

She stepped back to stand with Anne and Sasha once more. Moments later, the crowd erupted into applause.

Marcy could feel tears beginning to build up beneath her eyes as she met the gazes of her two longtime friends. This is what they’d been waiting for. This is what they’d been fighting for.

All this time, Marcy had hoped, had dreamed, of the moment where it would finally click for her. The Core was gone. Mr. X was dead. Andrias was locked up. The U.S. Military was cut off.

Amphibia was finally at peace.

THE END