Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sasha was exhausted. She was laying on the cold, metal floor of the generator room, breathing heavily as her back screamed in pain. That thing had sliced it open, burnt her skin... And somehow, she was still alive.

She looked to her side. Grime was lying not too far away from her, his chest rising ever so slowly. 

He's breathing.

Sasha noticed her sword next to Grime. So close and yet so far... 

Grime's eyes flickered as used his remaining energy to kick the sword towards her.

Sasha smiled at him, her features tainted with relief. He had already closed his eyes again. 

Gritting her teeth, Sasha gripped onto the hilt of her sword, Anne's voice replaying in her head. 

I have to win this. For Anne, for Marcy, for Grime, for Earth.

"There! That's better." Darcy chuckled as they overlooked Andrias and Anne's battle. 

And Anne was losing.

Sasha dug her sword into the ground, using it as a support to help her stand up. She was on her feet now, running towards Darcy with her sword raised.

"Huh?" They turned around to face Sasha as she swung her sword towards them.

"I am not that person anymore!" Her voice echoed around her as she collapsed. She did it. She won. ...Right?

Darcy was frantically checking their body-no, Marcy's body- for any damage. They smiled.

"Pffft, you missed."

"Wanna bet?" 

Darcy looked at her unimpressed, waiting for something, anything to happen.

Silence. A minute passed as realisation dawned on Sasha. She did miss. She lost.

Suddenly a loud cheer erupted from outside. Both Sasha and Darcy turned around to see Andrias, broken and defeated, lying in a pile of scraps. The Planters were helping Anne onto Domino 2 as they flew towards the castle.

Darcy scoffed.

"The forcefield is still up. We have all the time in the world."

"You...you do realize they know how to g-get in, right? We went over it already." Sasha tried to keep her voice from wavering as Darcy narrowed their multiple eyes at her.

"Boonchuy is weak from her battle with that pathetic excuse for a king. She'll be easier to beat than you."

Sasha had to distract them long enough for Anne to come. They can get out of here, regroup, and finish this when they're all in better shape. "She's stronger than you t-think. She just beat...Andriass after all."

Darcy giggled.

"Andriass! Oh, that's a good one. We'll make a mental note of that."

"Uh...I actually copyrighted it? You c-can't use it."

Thirteen orange eyes glared at her.

"We don't care. And now that we think about it..." They bent down to pick up their scythe. "We're just gonna kill you now. Does that sound good?"

Sasha looked behind her, hoping that Anne would come rushing in. She really needed to see her face. Her dark eyes, her glowing skin...

"N-no. No, that doesn't sound good." 

Darcy smiled so wide their face might have well cracked.

"Too bad."

Everything happened so fast. They lifted up their scythe, ready to land the death blow, as something glowing blue knocked them over.

Anne. 

Sasha's vision was blurry, her ears were ringing. Someone helped her up as the shouts of Darcy and Anne barely made it into her brain. 

"...asha? Are...okay??" Sprig asked her as him and the Plantars helped her limp towards the exit.

"Y-yeah. What about Anne?" 

Sasha nearly fell over as she came face to face with Lady Olivia and General Yunan.

The shorter blue newt stepped forwards.

"The general and I can hold off The Core while you escape."

Sasha tilted her head in confusion.

"Y-you'd do that?"

Olivia nodded. "We wish to do something to help you."

"Okay..."

She stumbled. Her vision was getting worse. Olivia and Yunnan stayed true to their word on held off Darcy as Anne joined them. 

"Sash? What happened?" Anne asked as her hair faded back to its regular color. 

"We need t-to get out first."

Anne agreed, helping Sasha walk as they made their way to Domino 2.

Just as they were about to climb onto the killapiller's back, Sprig tugged Anne's skirt.

"Yeah dude?"

He looked down.

"Do you think they'll be okay? Olivia, Yunan...Marcy..." Sprig's voice trailed off.

Anne grimaced.

"They have to be."

Sasha didn't remember much else. She passed out as they flew next to the boosters, the heat nearly as strong as Darcy's scythe. Anne lead them to a bunker Mr. X, the FBI guy, had opened for survivors. The Boonchuy's were there, some students from school, and a handful of strangers.

The bunker became their home, as they planned to attack in a week. 

A week turned into a month, a month turned into a year, a year turned into two...

And they were no closer to stopped the invasion. 

Chapter Text

"All clear." Sasha signaled to Anne and Maddie. 

They rushed across the debris towards the sole remaining building in LA- The Wu's house. It made sense. If The Core inherited some of Marcy's personality, they might have also inherited her attachments to her home. 

Anne got a good view of the house. The statues in front were crumbling, most of the roof was caved in, windows were broken...but the house itself was relatively intact. They might even have food. Expired food, that is. If Mr. X had deemed the surface safe awhile ago, they could've restocked their food without risking food poisoning. With their limited resources, any minor ailment spells death.

Anne sighed. Tomorrow marked the third anniversary of the invasion. Three years of this lifestyle, three years since they left Marcy to the hands of The Core... 

"Should we head in?" Sasha's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah. We might find something useful inside." Maddie added.

A month into the invasion, Andrias had opened a portal back to Amphibia to get materials. Some of the rebellion took advantage of this and managed to come to Earth to aid their friends and allies. Anne couldn't help but feel like those efforts were in vain.

"Anne? You in?"

"Oh, yeah. What Maddie said."

Sasha nodded before opening the door. All three of them cringed at the sound that came from the rusted hinges. 

As they entered, Sasha and Anne pulled out their swords and Maddie grabbed a potion from her satchel.

CREAK

Anne whipped around.

"Did you guys hear that?"

"Yeah. Loud and clear." Sasha muttered.

The three slowly moved towards the basement where the sound came from. 

"...Should we open it?" Anne asked nervously.

Maddie and Sasha both nodded.

"Alright then...here goes nothing."

Just as Anne was about to open the door, it swung open, causing her to jump back. Standing in front of them was a middle aged Asian woman gripping a baseball bat. Her black hair was pulled back into a messy bun, white strands sticking out. She was wearing a yellow dirt-stained cardigan on top of a dark green jumpsuit. Her eyebrows were narrowed, wrinkles visible, dark brown eyes processing what was in front of her. 

Vivienne Wu. Marcy's mom.

Ms. Wu dropped the bat and gasped. "A-Anne? Sasha?..." Her voice trailed off as she noticed Maddie. "What's that monster doing here?"

Sasha raised her hands.

"Hey, hey. That's Maddie. She's one of the good guys. No one's here to hurt you." 

Ms. Wu sighed. "I-I apologize. It's just been so long since I've seen anyone..."

Anne fidgeted with her fingers. "Yeah. Well, you can join us in our bunker. There's lots of people and a good amount of resources."

"That sounds g-good. May I ask a question?"

Sasha bit her lip. "Sure."

"Since you two are here...where's my baby? My Marcy?"

Anne tugged at her shirt collar. What was she supposed to say? 'Oh yeah, your daughter's possessed by some eldritch entity and she's most likely gone forever. Sorry!' 

"Oh, well-"

Sasha shoved Anne aside without warning.

"The guy leading the invasion, King Andrias, is holding her prisoner. Something about her designing new blueprints for those stupid robots."

Anne let out a breath she didn't know she was keeping in.

Nice save, Sash.

Ms. Wu nodded. "I-I see. So she's alive?"

"Yeah, she is." Anne answered. 

A ghost of a smile appeared across Ms. Wu's face as she headed over to the couch. Wiping off the debris, she gestured to it.

"Please take a seat. I'd appreciate it if you girls would speak to me for a little bit."

~~~~~

"My husband moved to Massachusetts five months after Marcy's disappearance for his job. Did she ever tell you two that we were moving? She...didn't take the news well. That was actually the last time we saw her..."

Sasha crossed her arms and leaned back. "Mmh. She told us alright."

"Ah. I doubt her father is still with us, but the news that my sweet little girl is alive is enough to put me at ease."

"Oh, I'm sorry Ms. Wu." Anne said.

"Please, call me Vivienne."

"At least you and Marcy have living parents. And parents who love you." Sasha growled.

Anne reached for Sasha's shoulder.

"Sash...your parents could still be alive."

"I don't care if they're alive or not. As a matter of fact I hope they aren't."

Anne flinched. She knew Sasha's homelife was bad and that her parents had split up, but not much else. The divorce must've really taken a toll on her. 

Vivienne made eye contact with Sasha. "I'll have you know that your father always spoke highly of you. He did care."

"And clearly your parents did something right, because they raised a badass!" Maddie butt in.

Sasha smiled. "Thanks guys. ...hey Vivienne, do you have any food?"

"I believe there's still some canned food in the basement. I've been living off of it for the past couple years."

"Well, we need some down in the bunker. We'll gather it and then head over there."

Vivienne nodded. "Of course."

~~~~~

Andrias made his way down into the depths of the castle. The Core had requested his presence, and who was he to refuse?

As he entered the dark room, multiple orange eyes on the wall opened up. He had no reaction to them, he's come to expect it at this point.

"Andrias."

He directed his attention to the ceiling, where Darcy descended on a wire.

"You asked to see me, my Lord?" Andrias bowed down, avoiding looking them in the eyes.

"You'd be correct. We're not too sure about you, but we're in a 'commit-murder' kinda mood." Darcy twirled their hair around a pale, boney finger. 

They've only taken off the helmet once. They told him they had to adjust it, and since removing the helmet that one time, their long, matted hair has been exposed. It only reminded Andrias more of Marcy.

"Anyways, you got good news for us?" Darcy asked while stretching their skeletal limbs. 

"Well, we've successfully wiped out the Chez Republic."

Darcy laughed. "The Chez Republic? It's Czech, you fool."

Andrias looked at them in confusion.

"Like checkmate? The earth equivalent of flipping a wart? Frog, we're regretting making those repairs for you."

He bent over in shame. "Of course. I apologize my Lord."

Darcy scoffed.

"Don't even bother, big guy. Now, anything on that Boonchuy girl?"

"She's still alive-"

"We already know that. After all, we need her to be alive. Hello, vivisection?" Darcy rolled their many eyes at him. "We've been monitoring the Frobots cameras. Once we confirm her location, that's where we'll be heading. Are you processing this, Andrias?"

He nodded.

"Yes, my Lord."

"Okay then. We're done and now request your pathetic existence to leave our presence."

Andrias simply gave them a court yes and left.

As he exited the basement, he noticed Lady Olivia scurrying away from him out of the corner of his eye.

Was she listening? I don't understand why The Core chose to leave her uncollared. He sighed. Hopefully she's fairing well.

Andrias walked down the hall into the throne room. Pushing open the doors, he went to sit on his throne. He took notice of the stained tile that's been there for years. Marcy's blood. From when he killed her.

He took off his crown on placed it in his lap as he stared out a nearby window. What did Marcy even think of him? She probably hates him now.

I wouldn't blame the kid. I'd hate myself too.

He closed his eyes, allowing himself to rest while The Core was watching the videos recorded by the Frobots.

They smirked.

"Bingo."

Chapter Text

Sasha and Maddie were both standing around Vivienne, scouting for Frobots, as Anne lead the way back to the bunker.

"We should be there in a mo-" Anne was cut off as a laser beam shot right past her ear, grazing it. She felt a small trickle of blood down the side of her face.

The group turned over to see three Frobots with their cannons charged and aiming at them.

Anne turned to Sasha. "Should we take care of them?"

Sasha smirked. "Hell yeah."

She pulled out her swords as Anne activated her powers. They nodded at each other before rushing towards the Frobots.

Sasha used her sword to stab right through them while Anne blew them up with energy blasts.

"Say hello to my fist you overgrown scrap of metal!" She punched the center of the Frobot's face with a glowing fist. It toppled backwards, sparks flying from it cracked eyes.

Maddie stepped forwards with some potions in hand. "May I do the honors?"

Sasha elbowed the frog in the arm. "Knock yourself out."

Maddie smiled as she gestured for everyone to stand back before throwing the potions. 

"Here goes nothing."

BOOM

A small cloud of glittering purple smoke from the explosion emitted off of the obliterated Frobots.

Anne punched a fist into the air. "Woo! We're awesome!" Her and Sasha high-fived in celebration. 

Vivienne walked to the Frobot and nudged it with her foot. 

"That was...surely impressive. And Anne, you never mentioned having powers. I'm positive Marcy would find those interesting."

Anne smiled anxiously. 

"Y-Yep. Perks of being trapped in another dimension!" 

Vivienne slowly nodded. Anne and Sasha had already filled her in on Amphibia and their whereabouts. She was definitely a bit confused, but the invasion made the story as believable as can be. 

And Marcy. Anne missed Marcy. A lot. Sure, she trapped them in Amphibia on purpose, but Anne's already forgave her. Sasha? She's not too sure. Thinking about it made her emotions try to swim to the surface, waiting for the dam to break.

Even though what Marcy did was wrong, that didn't mean she deserved to be killed and then used as the host for The Core. I hope she's still, well...Marcy after all this.

She felt Sasha grab her hand. "Anne? You good?"

"Oh yeah! I'm great! Just peachy!"

Sasha stared at her, clearly not buying it.

"Mm-hm. Well, we're already at the bunker." She gestured to a small concrete wedge hidden by a toppled building with a metal door in front of them. A screen with a speaker and blinking red light was waiting.

Anne went over to it and held down on a button. Mr. X's face appeared on the screen.

"Ah, Anne! Was the mission successful?"

Anne gulped. They forgot to get the food. 

I'm such a fucking idiot. How can I save everyone if I can't even remember to get food?

"Uh, we kinda...forgot? Sorry."

Mr. X didn't yell at her like she expected.

"No worries. We've found a solution to that. Now, was the mission a total waste of time?"

"Um, no! It wasn't. We found another survivor, Vivienne Wu."

Mr. X clapped his hands.

"Great! The more the merrier! Now come on in, Terri has an announcement soon."

The screen went black as a click was heard from the door. It creaked open, allowing all four of them to squeeze into the small space it lead into.

A mechanical whirring was heard as the room-an elevator- started to descend.

Little did they know, the Frobots had cameras that stayed intact. Cameras that sent the footage and location to Andrias' castle. 

~~~~~

"Vivienne! Oh, it's so nice to see you! How are you? Have you eaten lately?" Anne's mom pulled Vivienne into a tight hug once she saw her. 

"It's good to see you too, Oum. I've been managing as of late."

Anne headed further away from her and Marcy's moms and over to Sprig, who was talking to Ivy. She jumped up to smack him on the head before running away, laughing.

Sprig rubbed his head. "Ow."

"Hey dude!" Anne said from behind him. Sprig turned around, beaming.

"Anne, how was your mission?"

She rubbed the back of her neck. "I guess it was successful? Mr. X seemed happy enough."

"What happened?"

Anne pointed at Vivienne. "Well, we found her."

"Who's 'her'?" Sprig titled his head.

"...Marcy's mom." 

"Ohhhhhh. Did you...tell her about Marcy?"

"No! How was I supposed to?" Anne unknowingly raised her voice, attracting the attention of everyone nearby. 

Mrs. Boonchuy stepped towards her daughter. "Anne? Is everything alright sweetheart?"

"Y-Yeah. Sorry for shouting." Anne sighed.

"Well, I wouldn't know how to tell her that either, if that helps." Sprig said. 

Anne leaned against the wall. "Thanks dude." 

A pink-ish frog came out of nowhere. Polly. During the almost three years they've been trapped in the bunker, she's grown into a frog with a body that isn't just a sphere with limbs.  

"Hey Anne! Hi Sprig! Whatcha guys talking about?" 

"Not much-" Anne mumbled before Sprig interrupted her.

"Marcy." 

Polly yawned. "Why?"

"Because her mom's here and we're thinking about telling her what happened to her daughter." Sprig gestured to Vivienne. 

"Oh." Polly's grim expression quickly turned into a smile. "Off topic, but can you guys believe it's almost been three years like this? It's so boriiiiiiiing."

Anne lowkey felt grateful for the change of topic. But it didn't really change to a topic she wanted to talk about though.

Because I know I wasn't strong enough to save everyone.

She pulled her hair out of the ponytail it was in and put on her yellow hoodie, crossing her arms.

"Yeah...maybe if I found that letter sooner, Anne would've had enough energy left to beat Darcy." Sprig looked down.

Anne shook her head. "Dude, it's not your fault. You know that."

"But it's not your fault either Anne. And you know that."

Anne held her face in her hands, her emotions finding cracks in the dam. "I guess..." She looked up at her siblings. "I-I just feel bad about not being able to save everyone."

Sprig sat on the floor. "I feel bad about not being about to save my parents. Even though I was too young a-and confused to do anything, I can't help but feel like I could've done something."

Anne grabbed him and Polly to force them into her tight embrace. 

"Oh Sprig..."

"You don't have to worry about it Anne. Maybe you couldn't save everyone, but look!" Sprig directed her gaze towards all the people in the room. "Look at how many people you did save!"

Anne didn't even know that she was crying until she went to wipe away her tears. "I'm supposed to stay strong for you guys."

Polly pouted. "C'mon Anne, I me and Sprig can beat Frobot ass just fine!"

"Polly! Don't use that word!" Sprig eyes went wide as he shushed his sister. 

"What word? Beat?"

"No no, the one you just said-"

"Frobot?"

"Ugh, no-"

 "Fine?"

"No! Ass!"

"Oooooooooh. Riiiiight."

Anne tried to hold back a laugh. Sprig smiled at her. 

"Aha! We got you to laugh! So, uh...did it help?"

"Y-Yeah. Thanks you guys." 

Sprig held out a fist. "Spranne against the world?"

"Spranne against the world." She smiled and bumped her fist with his.

Polly stomped her foot down. "Hey! What about Annolly? Or Puhanne?"

Sprig stared at her

"Those sound stupid."

"Sorry dude. Sprig's kinda right." Anne smirked.

"Fiiiiiiine. I'll come up with a super cool name for us! Eventually." Polly groaned, giving her siblings a hug before going off to find Frobo.

~~~~~

Olivia waited for Andrias to leave her train of sight before quietly making her way over to the monitor room, where Darcy was.

She peeked inside to see them watching a video. 

"Say hello to my fist you overgrown scrap of metal!" A girl with bright blue hair punched the camera using a fist radiating with energy.

Master Marcy's friend. I believe her name is Anne. Olivia reminded herself.

Darcy chuckled. "Bingo." 

They pulled up a new tab on the monitor and began looking at what appeared to be analytics.

"Hm?" Darcy suddenly perked up and muttered to themself. "We'll check."

Olivia quickly rested against the wall, preventing Darcy from seeing her. She let out a long sigh.

"Hello, Lady Olivia. Nice to see you around!"

Olivia jumped and looked to her side. Darcy was standing right next to her, smiling.

"M-Master Mar- Darcy! You startled me!"

"Oh, did we? Sorry about that. We just noticed you...observing us and thought we'd say hello!" They giggled.

Olivia bit her lip, avoiding their eyes and instead looking at their stolen body. It was malnourished and shaky, which she didn't expect to be surprised by. She knew they never ate, drank, or slept, things Marcy had told her needed for humans to survive.

Oh Marcy. My poor child...

"Uh, as a matter of fact, I wished to make a suggestion." Olivia said without thinking.

"Well then, fire away!"

"Have you...ever considered taking care of Mar- your body?"

Darcy smile fell.

"We don't need to. Our body is working just fine!" They cracked their knuckles. "Though it is a little weak..."

"Perhaps a nice meal and some rest will help?" Olivia laced her fingers together.

"No, that'll be unnessaccary. We just need to make some...improvements."

"Ah. I see." Olivia looked down at the floor.

Darcy grabbed her arm, making her freeze.

"You sound disappointed that we'll be taking care of our host."

"I-I assure you, I'm not! I find it great that you are, as a matter of fact!"

Darcy eyed her. "We'll have to keep an eye on you. Or a few." 

Several orange eyes opened up on the wall, as if on command.

Olivia couldn't help but remember the fateful day she and Yunan had tried to rescue Marcy. How they had broken the same eyes that were now piercing her with their gaze.

"You can go do whatever we keep you around for. We have some business to attend to." With a flick of their hand, some wires lifted them back into the monitor room and a large metal door shut behind them. 

Olivia stood in silence for a moment, nothing but her thoughts to entertain her.

Darcy has footage of Anne. They must know where she is.

She had to warn them. But how?

Simple. She headed towards the castle dungeons with one goal in mind.

Enlist the help of Captain Grime.