On The Brink of Calamity

Pink in Regret

   "MARCYYYYY!!!"
    A flash of light, blazing fire, the whip of wind in her eyes, a knife in her heart that cannot be pulled out.
   With a start Sasha wakes up in the Plantar's barn. Her breath hitches in her throat as she tries to calm her racing heart. The two snails continue to snooze quietly around her.
   She hadn't intended to become their cuddle buddy but now the idea of being alone hurt almost worse, but she had to. With more remorse than she'd admit she pulled herself from the hay pile and stepped out into the cool morning air. It had taken three days of flying on Joe Sparrow's back to get back to Wartwood and when they arrived with the adrenaline draining from her Sasha had all but passed out.
   Grime told the villagers what happened. Or atleast his version. Sasha couldn't say for certain how much he revealed beyond Andrias betrayal, she was too busy having an existential crisis. Marcy was...
  Sasha shook her head. She couldn't think of it not again. Atleast not without food in her stomach to promptly regurgitate.
   Reluctantly Sasha walked to the door of the Plantar house. She paused at there frozen. It seemed almost sacrilegious to step inside. Why? Why did she care? Why did she care now?!?
   With no answer to receive Sasha stepped inside. She walked to the kitchen and dug through the pantries and fridge for any food she could stand.
  How could she stand it? Even as she shoveled cricket pâté into her mouth she cursed herself for her selfishness. What right did she have to this?
   Stop it! She screamed at the voice in her head. She deserved it for being alive. She deserved it for trying to help didn't she?
   Didn't she?...
  Sasha's chewing slowed as she got up and walked through the house. She looked at the rooms.
  Grime lay fast asleep on the shattered remains of Hopediah's bed. Barrel's hammer clutched tightly in his grip. His snoring was enough to wake the...
   She moved to the pollywog's room. Small quaint not very girly, Anne probably had things to say about that. Sasha managed a chuckle but only one.
  The pink frog's room was next. She wanted to hate it. The abode of the one who took her best friend. Her arch rival. She should smash everything just for the audacity. But she couldn't even muster the strength to draw her sword. It wasn't his...fault. So who's was it?
   She tried to drag out the time between reaching the stairs. The ground floor. The trap door. She tried to make it last until sunrise. Until morning end. Until the day would begin and Grime could get up and make any decision that could keep her from continuing on.
  But her hand touched the latch of the door to the basement and night was still upon them. No rooster or insectoid equivalent crowed to bring in the dawn and start the day. Only the shrill creak of wood and metal as the door opened.
   She walked down the steps, slid her hand down the railing daring the wood to give her a splinter. Anything she could feel.
   She stepped onto the dull cold stone and looked around. Anne had sure left her mark. Girly magazines, various trinkets and items she'd collected or been given by the frogs of the valley.
   Sasha's gaze froze at the trophy on one shelf. "Frog of the Year" it read. Sasha knew how she got that one. That had been the day they reunited. The day they fought. The day she let go.
   Sasha fought the urge to snort and laugh. Let go? Let GO?!? She didn't let go she fell from grace! Or whatever it was she had. The more she thought of it "grace" didn't seem to fit the ideal.
  She began to feel out of place. This wasn't the room of her Anne this was-
  Whap
  Sasha froze and looked down. She had stepped on some sort of book. She reached down and examined it.
   Anne's Journal. Sasha couldn't tell whether she should covet or recoil at this tome. Anne had never had a diary before. Sasha had certain spent enough time up turning Anne's room on earth.
  Remembering something happy almost seemed to hurt as she recalled the three of them goofing around in eachothers rooms, flopped together in a pile on one of their beds all on their phones or doing nails or eating snacks that would inevitably leave annoying crumbs in their sheets.
   A smile? Was she smiling? That didn't seem right but it was what she needed to give her the confidence to open the journal.
    With each page Sasha was bombarded by Anne's memories. Her feelings and platitudes of every day since her arrival. The Plantars taking her in. The town slowly accepting her. A life time of adventures in just a few months. In the time it took her to get out of jail Anne had become a folk hero. She didn't just make friends. These frogs these slimy, lame, stupid frogs were... were her family.
  "I saw Sasha, we had a fight, the first we've ever really had, it hurt but atleast I know she's safe."
   Sasha felt the first sob come and fought it back only for it to fight back harder.
  "Marcy has been in Newtopia this whole time! Seeing her again was exactly what I needed, I know we're on the right track now, we'll get home, all of us."
   Stop it, stop believing in us.
  "We found Sasha, she'd been following us, I don't know if we can trust her but I want to, she's Sasha I know in my heart she'll always be one of us."
  Stop... please stop.
  "I'm so glad I gave Sasha another chance, as long as the three of us are together I know nothing bad can happen."
  Another sob strikes Sasha like a mallet. Pages fly out of the journal circling her enclosing on her. She can't breath.
  "Stop it! Stop trusting me! Stop forgiving me!" Pages and pages entwine and come together a phantom of a passed time. A tiny blonde egg head with a bruise on her cheek glares down at her with fiery malice. The Lieutenant of the toads backs away flush agains the cold stone as the mirage speaks its warning. "I won't let anyone hurt my friends!"
  "Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!!!"
Hot tears drag Sasha to the floor like ten tons weights. She screams and flings the book across the room fleeing from it like Frankenstein from fire. It was a monument to her failures, it was everything she hated and loved at once.
  "Sasha? Lieutenant are you down here?" Grime's heavy boots creak the wooden beams as he walks down to the cellar. He heard the scream and immediately came to investigate finding Sasha on the floor.
  "Lieutenant? Are you ok?" He touched her shoulder only for her to recoil away. Her eyes are red and stream tears like a fountain. "Sasha? What's wrong?"
  "W-what, what have I been doing?" Sasha sputtered. "What have I become?!? I hurt them I hurt my girls!" Her hands gripped her head trying to find any way out but only more pain came. "I was suppose to protect them! That was my job that was how we became friends in the first place I was their protector! What's happened to me?!?"
  "Lieutenant get ahold of yourself!" Grime pleaded trying to catch his ward but she kept evading him in her panic.
  "Whats the point?!? I'm a monster! I betrayed them! I hurt Anne I let Marcy die I should just stop existing it would be better for everyone!"
   "Sasha!" Grime's voice was firm bordering on harsh. He huffs a bit then softens at the devastated gaze of his lieutenant.
  "My life is a lie Grime, I was suppose to save them and I'm the reason everything fell apart."
  At that particular comment Grime picked up his ward and shook her derisively. "Snap out of it Lieutenant, now maybe you-" he measured his words "- We... didn't make all the best decisions but I'll be frogged in the corn hole before I let you say you weren't trying at every turn to help your friends." He set her down and knelt next to her.
  "I see a lot of myself in you Sasha... maybe too much sometimes." He tugs at his shirt collar and sighs. "A long time ago... during the age of Barrel." He hefts up the weapon of the hero. "The Toads were the defenders of all of Amphibia. The most honored and respected warriors the continent had ever seen. But as time went on and the newts and frogs relied on us for defense we became... hardened." The old toad seemed to age as he spoke, less the driven captain and more the beard baring hermit he became on the run.
   "We began to think... that if the frogs and newts weren't strong enough to protect themselves..."
   "That maybe they shouldn't be allowed to make decisions." Sasha finished. She knew where this story was going because it was exactly like hers. She had become friends with Anne and Marcy and became their protector but as they got older she found herself constantly protecting them. To the point that she started to believe she had to lead them or else.
  "Yes... and that was wrong." Grime stood up. "They have to make their own decisions the same way we have to make ours." He slung Barrel's hammer over his shoulder.
  "And if we're lucky we'll be worthy of them making the decision to trust us again." Sasha managed her first genuine smile in a long long while.
  Toad and human took in a breath ready to move forward in life when their moment was cut short by the ground shaking.
  "What was that?"
  "It came from the town gates let's go!"
  Sasha and Grime reached the front gates in time to see a massive metal shape land outside of town. The bunker sized bot uncurled into a toad esque golem.
  "1 on 2, easy picking." Grime freed Barrel's hammer only to hesitate as more appeared. The roar of jets searing air announced the arrival of six more frobots all cannon armed air units like those that accosted them at the castle.
  "Ok 7 on 2 we've had worse." Grime stated still confident. The Suriname tank took exception to that.
   Portholes opened across the Goliath's body and more frobots were ejected out  landing in a fighting line.
   "Ok that's just rude."
   "Stop talking and hit em!" Sasha roared and the two charged.
  The melee frobots met them head on metal and circuitry parted like the Red Sea as the harden warriors barreled their way through enemy fire.
  Sasha cleaved two bots in half as she tried to clear a path to the leader but the Suriname tank deployed another flanking line of frobots, before she knew it Sasha was surrounded.
  "Ok bring it on I can do this all- POW!
  A metal right hook left Sasha dizzied.
  "Ok I deserved that." Sasha leapt upward and bounced off the heads of two frobots to leap away.
  And her mother said cheerleading wouldn't help her in the long run. Ha!
  "These frogging things are pissing me off!" Grime called knocking around the green drones like polo balls.
  "They just keep coming!" Sasha grunted as another frobot knocked her backward, her swords weren't enough here there were just too many and if they couldn't get to the big one they weren't gonna stop any time soon.
  Sasha goes for a gutsy play sliding between the legs of one Frobot to cut another from underneath and kick the first into another. But they caught her mid strat.
  A metal hand grabbed her by her pony tail and flung her into its ally that put her in a head lock.
  Sasha struggled against the iron grip as the one that hit her stepped forward to finish the job.
  "Sasha!" Grime cried.
  SWHING!!!
  Metal parted metal as two shapes leapt onto the back of the frobot aggressor and tore it apart.
  "You?" Sasha gasped as she looked upon the sight of two friends she thought she'd lost. "Percy! Braddock!" She almost cried at the sight.
  "We got your back Sash!" Percy shouted leaping onto another frobot.
  "Leave the shrimps to us!" Braddock barreled into another knocking it and its flanking allies down like bowling pins.
  "What are you guys doing here?" Sasha asked slipping from her captors grasp and stabbing it in the heart.
  "After we left we came here to hide out!" Percy half explained half exclaimed as he clung to a bucking frobot.
  "I mean where else would we go?" Braddock noted.
  "Why is this place so popular?!?" Sasha wanted to ask but her attention was grabbed by the sudden explosion of several frobots signaling more arrivals to the fight.
  Mayor Toadstool landed on a Frobot before triumphant declaring. "Wartwood! Attack!"
   A yellow frog kid drop kicked a frobot near Sasha flattening it like a soda can.
  "You didn't start the party without us did you?" Ivy Sundew's smirk was accented by a cascade of explosions as Maddie Flour saturation bombed the Frobo front lines with her explosive potions.
  Wally and Soggy Joe hopped into combat next wrestling a Frobot to the ground before ripping its head off and hurling said hunk of metal into its allies.
  "Holy toad we might actually survive this." Grime grinned at his new budding army. "Frogs of Wartwood!" He bellowed. "These metal monsters took Anne Boonchuy from you and we will make sure they regret it!"
  That was motivation enough it seemed as the people of Wartwood quickly 180°ed the state of the battle from out numbered to overwhelming as the frog bumbkins steam rolled the Frobo forces!
  "They're helping us." Sasha almost wanted to laugh, until today she would never have thought she'd be fighting by their side and now they were saving her.
  Across the field the Suriname tank monitors the changing battle field with a mechanical glare.
  "Enemy forces mounting offenses, commence firing line." The behemoth ordered and the smaller obeyed. The hell hopper frobots stepped forward aiming their arm cannons and made true to their names scorching the earth infront of the with a rising tide of laser fire.
   As the last of the melee ended the laser fire met the first line of the Wartwood warriors, the frogs scattered as Sasha and Grime held their ground blocking shots with their weapons.
  "Fall back! Get to the gates!" Grime shouted as a laser singed his left shoulder. His lack of depth perception was taking its toll as more shots pushed him back.
  "Sasha! Retreat!" He forced out backing to the gates as the townsfolk began to barricade the entrance.
  "No!" Sasha snarled pushing forward instead.
  "Sasha! What are you doing?" Grime looked at his lieutenant and she dashed through the laser barrage beams reflecting off the flat of her swords.
  "Sasha! You have to stop!"
  "Get back girl!" Percy and Braddock begged.
  "No! I have to do this!" Sasha screamed through gritted teeth.
  "What are you talking about?" Called Grime stunned Sasha was even still standing.
  "This was her home!" Sasha grunted. "These people took her in and gave her what I couldn't." A laser tags her shin and she falls to one knee.
  "I failed her but this place saved her." Sasha forced herself forward toward the firing line. "If we don't stop them they'll scorch the town to ashes!"
  "So what? We'll retreat to toad tower or that cabin we hid in!"
  "You don't get it!" A laser strikes Sasha's hand flinging one of her swords away but Sasha doesn't stop she charges forward even as the behemoth robot levels it's arms at her.
  "If Wartwood falls Anne will never forgive me!"
   Grime watched as Sasha breached the firing line. Dashing into the Frobots swinging her remaining sword with all her might. When the sword too was ripped from her hands she pulled a dagger from her boot and kept going. As lasers blistered her and singed her hair she forced her way forward. Grime, Braddock and Percy screamed at her to stop to retreat anything but she charged headlong. She had to. She betrayed them too many times she wouldn't let her friends down again. Wartwood took her girls in without hesitation. And if she needed to die to thank them then so be it!
   The Suriname tank watched her approach as it's targeting system lined up.
  "Target in range, twin cannon... fire."
  "Saaaashaaaaa!!!"
  BOOOOOOM!!!
   The missile hit the ground infront of Sasha blasting her backward, limp, and end over end as she hit the dirt.
   "Sasha!" Grime tried to run to her but the phalanx of laser blasts was unrelenting, Percy and Braddock held him back as he tried to leave the relative safety of the town gates.
   Sasha lay motionless on the ground. All the energy drained from her charge. The ringing in her ears kept her from hearing the desperate cries of her allies. The only thing that succeeded in opening her eyes was the need to keep going.
   Her body betrayed her refusing to move as the hell hoppers marched passed her downed form and began firing on the town gates.
   "No." A breath, a whisper of a whisper, the last of her air a finally plea to the sky for a miracle.
  "Please, you gave Anne the power to fight, let me be worthy let me be someone they deserve for once in my life."
  A spark. A flash across the sky. Sasha saw her vision begin to fade. Was she dying? She didn't know whether this was a curse or blessing. Atleast she couldn't hurt them anymore.
   Boom
  The clap of Thunder reveals a vision. A lone toad stood on a lone island in the middle of a red swamp. Sasha doesn't recognize him but the hammer in his hand is very familiar. The armored toad says no words but holds the hammer out to her as if to say. You want power? Take it.