•|The Frog, the Toad, and the Cursed Newt|• (Amphibia fanfiction)

Chapter 2: plans changed

The days since returning to Wartwood Sasha had locked herself in what was Sprigs old room.
The amphibians of the little country town had not been too welcoming of the former invaders, even dawning their pitchforks and torches, but upon seeing Marcy's bird, Joe Sparrow and the utter defeat in Sasha, they became hesitant. Sasha didn't speak to anyone, walking away vaguely remembering where the old Plantar home was, and began her solitude, leaving Grime to explain the situation to the rest of Wartwood.
A slow but heavy knock came at the door.
"Sasha? Come on you've been in there for three days." Grime's gruff voice came from the other side of the door. After no response Grime opened the door, to see Sasha leaning on the windowsill her eyes closed in contemplation. Approaching her he puts a hand on her back. Taking a deep breath Sasha ran her fingers through her hair.

"It was me..." Releasing a shaky breath she opened her eyes and watched the setting sun paint the sky with a mixture of oranges and pinks.

"If I hadn't...If we hadn't invaded Newtopia and betrayed them maybe...Maybe she'd still be alive, maybe Andria's wouldn't have..." she choked back the tears, not allowing herself to seem weak in front of her equal, in turn Grime grabbed Sasha's hand and pulled her to her knees so he could wrap his arms around her shoulders.

"I know she was your friend. Not all this is your fault Sasha, no one knew the King would be evil, we didn't know he would go as far as killing a child. No one is to blame here except him." Sasha broke, gripping onto Grimes's cape, she released her pent-up emotions, sobs wracked her body as she cried into the toad who never loosened his arms.

After a lengthy crying session, hearing Sasha begin to calm down he released her, sticking his hands on her shoulders.
"I'm proud of you, creature. If you can conquer the toad army, retrieve a Warhammer from the body of a narwhal worm, and hold your own against a colossal newt. You can make it through this." Grime's expression held stern sincerity as he looked at the sniffling blonde human in front of him, who in turn snorted and shoved Grime lightly.

"You're meant to tell me to suck it up not comfort me." Sasha's usual sarcasm returned into her voice and a smile crept its way onto her lips. Picking herself up she took a deep breath. "Did you tell the town what happened?" Grime nodded.
"I briefed them on our fight with the King but not much else, they eyed me with suspicion, and we haven't spoken since." Sasha brought her hand to her chin.

"Well, we are going to have to get on good terms with them if we are going to overthrow the King and make him pay for what he did to Marcy, and make sure he doesn't hurt Anne." Sasha sighed. "Wherever she is."

The amphibians accumulated in the town square, eyes squinted, and arms folded. Sasha cleared her throat and sighed.
"Look, I know we haven't really seen...eye to eye, we tried to kill you, invade you." The crowed grumbled and murmured amongst themselves. "But we've got something in common, we all respected and loved Anne, and right now she and her frog family could be in immense danger, King Andria's has plans to invade Earth, my home, Anne's home. He showed his true colors during our fight, he-" Taking a shaky breath she continued. "He killed Marcy." The town rippled with shocks and gasps, the townsfolk lost their skeptical expressions and now listened with newfound intent and determination.

"I've seen this town in action, you all are...surprisingly good at combat and quick thinking. And we're going to need your help to stop the king, save Anne and her family...and get revenge for Marcy." The town erupted in cheers, various 'for Anne!', 'for the Plantars' echoed through the crowd. Sasha felt determination and gratitude erupt in her chest, a stern smile swept across her face, she raised her fist and the town followed suit.

Sitting on the ground surrounded by various other country amphibians Sasha began planning their attack.
"We can't attack straight on, he'd see us coming, we need that box, whatever power Anne had, we all had, maybe we can regain those powers, we just need that damn music box...Ugh if only we had plans of the castle." The mayor piped up, raising his finger.
"What if you just went back? Snuck into the Kingdom and scouted it out?" Sasha let out a visible 'hmm', looking to Grime he too was contemplating.
"We could take that bird of the girls? That would land us in Newtopia in a few hours." Sasha nodded.
"Then I'll get going, we have no time to lose, I'll go back to Newtopia and seemingly try to get a layout of the castle, find our best course of attack. Grime you stay here, they're going to need someone to train them."

The bird ride had been awkward, with Sasha not really knowing how to fly Joe Sparrow, coming in with a crash landing on the hills outside of Newtopia, it was well into the night now, the red moon and green hue of the sky reflected upon the moat that rippled around the grand city. Jumping off the saddle she left the bird to peck at the ground as she made their way around the backside of the golden walls. Avoiding shining spotlights, and double the usual newt guard, they attempted to scale the wall.
"They've really doubled security." Sasha noted as she pulled out her daggers, shoving them into the cracks and crevices of the wall so she could climb. "I suppose that's what you get for mounting a full-scale invasion." Making it to the top of the wall, she clung to the shadows and slunk through the city. Making her way to the castle, she spotted another easy to scale wall that led to the throne rooms balcony and began her ascension. Clinging to the outside wall she peaked her head around, being able to see the music box on a pedestal in the throne rooms center, its contrasting blue, green and pink gems cause light to cascade over the walls, covering everything in their hue. Purple lights embedded into the walls emitted a low purple glow, and Sasha could see the king sitting atop his throne along with the general standing in front of him, gritting her teeth she scowled, and edged closer, listening to their conversation.

"It's going to plan Yunan! Soon we will be able to invade the other worlds with my robot army." The colossal newt let out a hefty thundering laugh.
"But what of the girl sir?" Sasha raised an eyebrow.
"Marcy, she will be giving my lord the power he needs, she is of use to us, for now. She will remain where she is." Stroking his beard, he slumped back into his chair, a sadistic grin plastered to his face.
"Marcy...she's-" Sasha held a hand up to her mouth. "She's alive?" With unrelenting rage and newfound determination. "Sorry Grime." She clenched her fists. "Plans have changed."