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Anne could accept her death.
She had thought it through, in the most thorough manner her thirteen year old brain could in the twenty-nine minutes (and thirty-seven seconds!) she had in-between Mother Olm telling her about the spell, and turning to Marcy and Sasha, knowing exactly what she had to do.
She… She would miss them. Her friends in Amphibia, the toads, the frogs, the newts, the olms, the robots, and her friends on Earth, and most of all, her family - the Plantars, her family in all but blood, and her actual blood family. And gods, Marcy and Sasha, they would blame themselves, but one day they would have to know it wasn't their fault.
Honestly? Anne had considered going home, when it was offered, and she hated herself for every single one of those eleven seconds. How could she even think about that? About leaving the Plantars, about leaving the whole world?
She'd never be able to face her parents, knowing she'd done that.
When you go somewhere, it's never on your mind whether it would be your last time going there. You never think you'll be seeing these buildings, these hills, these people, for the last time. Anne sure didn't, when she saw her parents and her home on earth for the last time. She never thought she'd have to face that thought; if she were to die before her parents did, she thought it would be sudden, unexpected, something she couldn't control - like a car accident, or a heart attack, or a disease that couldn't be cured.
Not… Not this.
Despite that, Anne could accept her death. She didn't want to die. She was thirteen, she didn't want to die. But she knew, from the moment they started pushing against the moon, despite the frobots, maybe she even knew back when Mother Olm suggested it, that she would have to, in the end.
She just wished she had more time. In the end, it always came down to that. She wanted more time. More time with her family before the battle, more time before the moon crashed into Amphibia, more time before the power of the calamity ran out, more time before her parents were going to celebrate-
Anne was a selfish person. She knew that, and she was fine with it. Dying was just… One more selfish choice she had to make. One that she hoped they never forgave her for. One that she, desperately, hoped they would forgive her for. One that she, selfishly, wished she never had to make.
She knew her worth, knew she meant as much as she could do, knew that despite her family telling her otherwise, too many people had spent her life convincing her of the fact for her to think anything else, and so her choice was made before it was an option. She could only hope it was the right one. After all, her whole life leading up to Amphibia had been a series of poorly made, definitely wrong choices masquerading as the right thing to do, dressed up by pretty words and final decisions ("End. Of. Discussion.").
As she stared up at Sprig, though, his eyes wide and pained, tears streaking both of their faces, she knew she did something right. Something so selfishly, horribly right. Her shaking, bleached-bone coloured hand rested on his cheek.
She hoped her apology was, at least, visible in her eyes as she crumbled.
Anne Boonchuy was not a strong, noble hero. She was a weak, selfish, mistake-making teenage girl, and she was content with that.
Meeting a god, of course, threw that entire thing off kilter. Coming back to life, even as just a copy, a doppelganger? That kind of just… Tossed it all into the bin.
Something rustled in her pocket as she stumbled over to the group of amphibians and people mourning - mourning her - barely able to put one foot in front of the other, every nerve burning. The arm she had held the stones in was numb, limp at her side. She tried not to think about any of it, refusing to even look at the arm.
"Hey guys," she called, voice cracking slightly, a sad half-smile crawling onto her face.
"Not now, Anne, we're mourning the loss of a true hero," Hop Pop told her, as Sprig's head whipped towards her, mouth gaping. "Wait-"
"Anne!" Sprig cried, jumping at her. She caught him in a one armed hug, adjusting him so he sat against her hip, like how she used to hold kids when she baby-sat for her mother's friends.
Marcy was spluttering questions at her, but Anne's ears started to ring, and she was fairly certain the black spots and staticky fuzz around the edges of her vision were not normal.
This hypothesis - hah, fancy science word, Marcy - was proven right when she set Sprig down just in time to collapse in the water.
___
"-nne? Anne?!" Sprig was shaking her shoulder.
She sat up, putting a hand over her eyes. Or, well, trying to do so, before realising she tried to move her numb arm - should she be worried? Probably - and using the other one.
"...Ow."
"Are- are you feeling okay?" Sprig asked tentatively. "Is it like when you used your blue power before but, like, times ten?"
Anne nodded, wordlessly.
"And what…" he trailed off for a moment, hesitant. "What happened to your arm?"
"And how are you alive?" Marcy cried. "Not that I'm not glad! I'm so happy you're alive! But how?"
"Really long story to that, Mar-Mar. But um- what do you mean, my arm, Sprig?"
"It's… Pretty bad, Anne," Hop Pop told her, putting a webbed hand on her shoulder. "You might want to look at it."
Carefully, she lifted her hand off her face, and peeked at her numb limb. It was still that bleached-bone coloured white, cracks running along it. The worst was centered around the dorsal side, presumably, since that was where the cracking originated, but she couldn't flip her hand over to check, so she was left staring at her palm blankly.
"Oh Anne…" Sasha knelt beside her, putting a hand on her knee. "I'm so sorry…"
"I know you said it was a long story," Marcy said, crouching on her other side, "but we have time."
"...Yeah, alright. But maybe not while sitting in the middle of the lake?"
___
Anne sipped the last of her cup of water, legs crossed where she was perched on part of the rubble left in Newtopia. There were still houses standing, but she felt uncomfortable going inside newts' homes without their permission, especially since some of them… Weren't there to give it anymore.
" Dude, " Marcy shouted, gesticulating wildly. "Dude what the heck! A god? Like, like a real god?! "
"I have… Similar sentiments," Sprig commented, swinging his legs. He was sitting next to Anne, leaning on her slightly. "Mainly, what the FROG, Anne?!"
She laughed. "I just told you, silly." Her smile melted away. "Actually we… Should probably think about what we'll do now. We don't… We can't…"
"...Home." Sasha flopped back onto the dusty pavement. "Oh- your parents, Anne-"
Anne shook her head. She couldn't think about that now.
"Maybe we can check out your arm instead?" Marcy offered. "We never really got the chance to do that earlier."
Anne winced, but nodded. Using her good arm, she maneuvered the white and crumbling one onto her lap. Three shining gems glinted back up at her. She blinked.
"Um. Mar-Mar? Scale of one to ten, how bad would rocks in my hand be? Specifically the magical type?"
" What? " Sasha and Sprig spoke in unison, exchanging a glance afterwards.
Marcy gasped. "In your hand like, in your hand in your hand? Or like, embedded in your hand because sharp rocks, unfeeling skin, and a forceful collision are a bad combination?"
Wordlessly, Anne used her working hand to lift the other up, making the small group gathered around her either flinch back or, in Marcy's case, lean forward to grab her hand.
"I'm not going to question this anymore." Anne flopped on her side, letting Marcy fiddle with her hand. "Seriously. First god, now this?" That's not even mentioning the fact she now knew how old she'd be when she died - and ascended, or whatever it'd be called - and she had a full seventy-eight years until she was at the ripe old age of ninety-three to think about how she'd go about godhood.
As she laid down, something crinkled in her pocket.
She pulled out a- a sticky note? A bright, highlighter yellow sticky note.
Ttyl! o.O
p.s. they'll let you go back and forth
p.p.s. they'll make you really tired after using them, since you're the charging station, overuse is BAD bad
p.p.p.s the arm's permanent. Nothing is without its price. Not even I can do something like that.
"Oh my frog I'm passing notes with god," Anne groaned, letting her head fall back.
Sprig hopped over to her, resting his chin on her head as he read the note. "Wow. So you're like a music box all on your own now?"
"I… Guess?" She shook her limp arm with her hand. "How does it work though? Do I have to ask nicely again? Please, fancy rocks in my hand, let me go to my other home and my other family so I can make sure they're safe?"
They sparked slightly, but nothing happened.
"Do they need… A blood sacrifice?! " Polly asked, slamming her hands down dramatically to emphasise the second half of her sentence.
"Hmm… Definitely a possibility," Marcy murmured, poking at the jewels. "But not a likely one, from what we've seen of them. Maybe they just need all three of us acting as conduits? It was a pretty big power drain, when we used them before, and when you used all three, well…" a slightly awkward pause "you died."
"Are we going to- what, hold hands and say please? Like some girly anime?" Sasha asked, sounding disgusted, which, hypocritical, Anne knew for a fact she loved anime back when they were on earth.
"Might as well try," Anne acquiesced, shrugging. "I mean, what's the worst that c-"
" Don't- don't even finish. That. Sentence. " Sprig hissed, jabbing a webbed finger at her. "You'll jinx us! Every time someone says that, something goes wrong. I'm not risking it!"
"Woah!" Anne held her hands up in surrender. "Okay, dude! Calm down!"
Sprig squinted at her for a moment more, before nodding and going back to being glued against her side.
"C'mere, y'all," Anne called, beckoning Marcy and Sasha with her functional hand. "Does anyone wanna grab the uh… Y'know… Or should we be a line instead of a circle?"
Marcy shifted uncertainly, avoiding eye contact, and Sprig set a hand on Anne's shoulder gently. Sasha sighed, rolling her eyes as she grabbed abruptly - but carefully - for Anne's arm, twining their fingers together.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Hurry it up already, Boonchuy." Sasha grumbled, shaking their linked hands.
"Right, uh…" She paused, trying to remember what she'd said before. "Please, give me the power to go see my other family, and to return my friends to theirs?"
The gems winked up at her from their spot on her hand. At first, it appeared that nothing had happened, but the glow gradually grew brighter, until it was blinding, and Anne finally had to close her eyes.
"Woah…"
She squinted up at the portal, grinning. "Come on! Let's go!"
Anne took one step forward, getting her shoe-less foot through and onto rough pavement before an intense wave of exhaustion plowed her over and she promptly passed out.
As she went down, she heard Sprig cry out "not again-!"
___
When Anne woke up, she was mostly just disappointed in herself. Seriously, who passed out so much in one day?
Sprig, on the other hand - "Anne! You're okay!" - was enthused, leaping to his feet and running to her bedside (was she home? On earth?) as soon as she sat up.
"Oh, I was so worried-" he fretted, fiddling with her hand. "Marcy and Sasha are asleep, I guess the gems drained them a bit too, but they didn't pass out hours ago like you did and I couldn't sleep-"
He was cut off as Anne wrapped him in a one-armed hug. He was quick to return the favour, tucking himself beneath her chin.
"Thanks, Sprig." She pulled back, keeping her hand on his shoulder. "So. We're on earth?" He nodded. "And I'm… In my house?" Another nod. "My parents…?"
"Also asleep," Sprig told her, patting her knee. "They told me to keep an eye on you. I think they knew I'd be awake all night."
"Okay." Anne leaned back, resting against her pillows. "...What do I do now?"
He was silent for a moment, swinging his legs off the edge of the bed. "I guess… That's up to you now. You don't have a big destiny anymore. Or well- you never did, you just had a big responsibility. And that's over, so your life is, well, yours." Sprig looked up at her, eyes scrunched around a smile. "And I, for one, am really glad to be a part of that life."
She smiled back. "Me too, Sprig. Me too."