Amphibia // One-shots

Forgiveness is a powerful tool

After months in amphibia, the trio finally returned home. No more trips back and forth, no more life-threatening battles, no more reckless adventures, no more robots, nothing. Now amphibia, a place they were once all trapped in, was a place they could willingly choose to visit with peace of mind that they can always return home safely. 

Now they were able to put the trauma of amphibia behind them, with King Andrias and The Core defeated, and Marcy saved. Everything was back to normal, or so they thought. 

It had been a few days since Marcy was saved, she was staying with Anne and her family until her parents could figure out a way to come back. They moved somewhere really far away, so the trip back wouldn't be easy. 

---

"No...Let me go..." Marcy stirred in her sleep, tossing and turning. Clearly, she was experiencing another nightmare. Something she had frequently been experiencing ever since being rid of the Core. 

Anne glanced over the book she was reading, overhearing the scared girl's murmurs. Anne hadn't gotten much sleep that night. She had a really horrible headache that was persisting through the night, no matter how hard she tried to sleep she just couldn't. So she decided to pull an all-nighter, no use in trying to force something that's not going to happen, right?

Anne was well accustomed to Marcy's nightmares. She has had to pull her out of it the last few nights, she hated seeing Marcy like this. She hated knowing she was in pain. 

"Hey, hey" she hushed, slowly moving toward Marcy making sure not to make too much noise that may freak her out even more. 

Marcy mumbled even more incoherent sentences in her sleep, her face scrunching up with discomfort. Anne gently shook her arm until being given a reaction. Which she definitely got. 

Marcy shot up in her sleep instantly awake, accidentally shoving Anne over in her frantic state. Anne fell pack slamming her head into the wooden floor, she slowly got up groaning as she rubbed her head. 

"Oh god! I'm sorry Anne- I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay dude, you didn't mean it. You were scared" Anne cut her off softly, she knew Marcy didn't mean to hurt her. Marcy nodded sadly, slumping over into her knees. Her head resting over her arms

Marcy felt like she was burdening Anne. She didn't want to be causing Anne any more issues, she had done enough of that already. 

"Another bad dream?" Anne said, moving closer to Marcy and placing a hand on her shoulder. Marcy instantly stiffened up as if a memory had just been drawn, Anne quickly retracted her hand. Maybe she was moving a bit too fast, she had to slow it down. "Sorry" she whispered

"I don't want to talk about it," Marcy stated frankly, not because she couldn't handle talking about it emotionally, though it was part of the reason behind it. But because she didn't want to burden Anne with her problems. 

"You don't have to. It's alright, I get it" Anne comforted

Anne knew Marcy was holding everything back. They've known each other since kindergarten, she knows how to read Marcy pretty well. 

"Do you want to try and get some more sleep? Or do you want to do something else?" Anne suggested

After a long moment of silence, Anne let out a long sigh sitting down beside the shaking girl who wouldn't seem to open up. Anne didn't know what to do, usually when this happened Marcy would leave the room for 10-20 minutes and return calm and collected, but not talkative. Usually with a cup of warm tea which was given to her by Anne's mother to help ease her nerves. But this time, Marcy didn't do that.

When it wasn't night, Anne was back at school. Since she no longer had the Planters around to keep her busy, her life was pretty much back to normal. So she wasn't around much, and when she was home she was usually downstairs doing homework with the help of her parents occasionally, though she didn't really need it. 

This left Marcy with the room to herself, Anne didn't know what she did when she was alone, she assumed she just played video games to distract herself. She wasn't enrolled in school, seeing as she was leaving in a couple of days, and clearly wasn't in a good enough mental state to attend school, it seemed best for her to use the last few days in LA to heal mentally at Anne's place. 

Anne was about to leave to give Marcy some room to breathe peacefully. The room felt tense, and she knew Marcy could feel that too. And seeing as Marcy wasn't up for talking, she decided it'd be best to give her some space. Just as she got up to leave, the girl finally spoke.

"You're supposed to hate me." She stated frankly, still looking at her feet. Being unable to make any eye contact

Anne tilted her head, her expression dropping as she sat back down. 

"I don't understand why you're being so nice to me after everything I did to you." Marcy declared tears she had been trying to suppress for so long streaming down her face. 

Marcy looked up at Anne who had a calm and patient expression. Which only confused her more, why was she still being so patient with her? She wanted Anne to be angry at her for what she did, none of this made sense to her. 

She didn't feel worthy of Anne's forgiveness. Not after the impulsive choice, and certainly not after what the Core forced her to do. If anyone deserved Anne's forgiveness, it definitely was not her

"Dammit, Anne! Just yell at me! I deserve it!" Marcy shot up yelling with tears falling down her face, a mixture of sadness and anger. She wasn't angry at Anne specifically, but angry about how easily she had forgiven her. 

"I'm not going to yell at you Marcy. If you want me to be honest with you, I can. Will it help?" Anne replied softly, Marcy, nodded sitting down a bit more structured and not as frantic. 

"I didn't forgive you right away. It took lots of therapy, anger, and even crying to get past it, but ultimately, it took understanding. I understand now. You acted out of desperation and fear of abandonment." 

Marcy looked at Anne her eyes widening as she continued to explain. 

"The Core situation wasn't your fault, it was King Andrias's. You never asked to be controlled, you never asked to do those horrible things. You fought so hard to stop it from happening. If anything you were partly the reason we were able to stop him! If you hadn't fought so hard to regain control from within...I don't know what would have happened to us." 

Marcy chuckled softly, it was almost hard to hear. "God, that fight was impossible." 

"Yeah dude, it sucked." 

"And if it weren't for you I wouldn't have the second family I have now with the Planters. Yeah, amphibia was a traumatic event that I would never want to experience again, but I think I'm better for it now." Anne shrugged looking away from Marcy to wipe away a tear, hoping she hadn't noticed. Even though she had

Marcy pulled Anne into a hug unexpectedly, catching Anne a bit off guard for a moment before she was able to return the hug fully. It felt nice to hold each other again, especially after so long of being apart and having that distance between them. 

Nothing would ever be the same as it once was. 

But that's okay.