Eyes | Amphibia

Chapter 4 (FLASHBACK)

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It's been some time since the invasion. Since the girls left Amphibia for the last time. the people of LA were still recovering, both physically and mentally, and everything that had been destroyed by Andrias' army was now under construction being fixed.
The trio was the talk of the town, especially Anne, so every time they were out in public it was hard to dodge all the people wanting to ask them questions or take a picture with them or even get their autographs. Some people even still thought the whole thing was a hoax and wanted clarity on the situation. It was nice, being so popular and loved by the townsfolk, but it was quite tiresome when all they had wanted to do these past few days was rest and recover from everything that happened in Amphibia.
Anne wasn't taking to being apart from the Plantars so well. She missed her frog family so much, and it didn't help that she didn't have any of the pictures she took with them anymore since she had left her phone in Amphibia with Sprig. Sasha missed Grime and the toads a lot, too. Of course Marcy missed General Yunan and Lady Olivia, and she even missed Andrias a tiny bit, but she never got to really connect with the newts like Anne did the frogs and Sasha did the toads, so she couldn't relate to her friends as much as she wanted to. Ironically, she was the one who spoke of Amphibia the least now that they were back home.

There was about a week left until Marcy was to move away. The three were currently hanging out at Anne's place, all relaxing on her bed. The golden hues from the setting sun shone through the windows. Sasha was scrolling through her phone and Anne was watching with her head rested on the blonde's shoulder, and Marcy was lying on her stomach playing a game on her Nintendo Switch. The three of them sat in a comfortable silence for awhile, the only sound that filled the room coming from either Marcy's game or the TV playing faintly in the background, before suddenly, Sasha groaned. "Ughhh. People won't stop messaging me about Amphibia! Can't they just leave us alone for one second?!"
Chuckling softly, Anne took the phone from out of Sasha's hands. "Okay, I'm taking this from you before you put a hole in my wall."
Realizing how worked up she was getting over this, Sasha let go of a small, bashful laugh, letting Anne take her phone and relaxing beside the curly-haired girl. "Sorry... my phones just been blowing up ever since the invasion, and it's soooo annoying! Usually I'd love this kind of attention, but God... I'm so tired." He chuckled dryly. Sasha then looked over at Marcy, who had a strained look on her face, like something was bothering her. "Hey... whatcha' up to over there, Mars?"
"Huh?" Marcy quickly looked up from the Switch with wide eyes, but she quickly relaxed when she noticed both Anne and Sasha looking at her with concern in their gaze. "Oh! I'm just... playing a game." She responded rather awkwardly.
Anne and Sasha glanced at each other before Anne asked, "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah! O-Of course everything's okay!" She answered, but Anne and Sasha didn't seem convinced. Sighing, Marcy paused for a moment, then turned off her game and sat up. "Okay, no... everything isn't okay. I... I feel horrible about what I did to you guys in Amphibia. Heck, I still feel horrible for even sending us there in the first place! You guys may've forgiven me, but the guilt still haunts me. Sasha, that huge gash on your back is because of me... and Anne..." Her lip trembled as she started to cry. "you died because of me." Quietly gasping, Anne's eyes widened and her face contorted with existential dread. Sasha noticed, and wrapped her arm around the brown-haired girl to comfort her.
"You being here right now is a literal miracle. If the Guardian didn't send you back, you would've been gone forever all because of me!" Marcy held her head in her hands as she sobbed. "I just... I just feel so bad..."
"Mar-Mar..." Sasha sighed, reaching with her free hand to gently take one of Marcy's hands into her own. "It wasn't you who did that. That was never you. It was that thing, 'Darkarcy' or whatever it's name was!"
"Darkarcy? I'm pretty sure it called itself 'Darcy', Sash." Anne chimed in with a small chuckle. Her laughter was contagious to Sasha and even Marcy a little bit, too.
"Okay, Darcy. The Core. Whatever. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that it wasn't you, Marcy. We know that. You had no control over yourself when it happened. We never, ever blamed you for it, so please don't blame yourself."
Anne reached over to hold Marcy's other hand. "Yeah! And are we forgetting about how you literally helped save the world, Mars? You were incredible!" She smiled. "We've all made mistakes, and we've all done things we wish we hadn't. But the things Darcy or The Core did were never your fault, even if it used your body to do them."
A smile tugged at Marcy's quivering lips; Anne and Sasha always knew just what to say to make them feel better. "I was nowhere near as incredible as you, Anne. And even 'incredible' is and understatement for what you did!" She sniffled, smiling back at the brown-haired girl.
Anne blushed, her smile enlarging. "Awe, thanks!" She giggled bashfully.
Letting go of her friends' hands, Marcy wiped her tears before crawling over to them and wrapping her arms around them in a hug. "Thanks, you guys... you're the best. I don't know what I'm going to do without you when I move."
Anne and Sasha hugged Marcy back. "Of course, Mars!" Sasha smiled, followed by Anne, "We'll always be one call away, Mar-Mar."
The hug lasted for a minute or so before Marcy pulled away, sitting back on her legs. Her smile slowly faded. "I hardly remember anything from before The Core... possessed me. I remember what happened when we brought the music box to Andrias," Marcy's voice quavered as she spoke of that horrific memory, "but after that, it's all a blur... except for the mindscape."
"Mindscape?" Sasha asked, raising an eyebrow. "You never told us about a mindscape."
"Oh, I didn't?" Marcy tilted her head to the side. "Well, it was this place The Core kept me in while it was possessing me. It was a place inside my own head, and it was amazing at first; it was just me, and a million puzzles to solve! I managed to finish around three-hundred of them or so before I realized I was losing track of time. Then, suddenly, a door appeared. I walked through it, and what was on the other side was incredible: an enormous library with a bunch of newts wearing these bright-orange cloaks who were reading, rearranging the books, and talking among themselves!" Marcy seemed to speak fondly of this memory. "Then, King Aldrich appeared. He was huge— even bigger than Andrias! He explained how I was in The Core's inner sanctum and that I'd be the first human to join their ranks. I asked him what The Core was and how I got even got there in the first place, but he didn't give much of an answer. Then, the library disappeared and we were in this amazing fantasy land! I remember a dragon soaring through the sky above us and a beautiful castle in the distance. It was everything I ever dreamed of, but something seemed missing. I told Aldrich, but he insisted all that was missing was my map. I believed him at first, and we set off on a magical fantasy adventure together! But something still felt missing. It was lonely. Finally, Aldrich gave me you guys; fake versions of you, anyway. I can't believe I was gullible enough to think it was really you at first... looking back, it was so obvious..." Marcy's smile faded into something more solemn.
"What do you mean, Marcy?" Anne asked with furrowed brows.
"It was perfect at first. It was like you guys were there just for me; you were only interested in what I wanted, which was what eventually made me realize it wasn't real..." She closed her eyes, letting out an empty chuckle. Anne and Sasha glanced at each other with guilty eyes before returning their attention to Marcy. Marcy reopened her eyes, however now, she was looking down at the bed instead of at her friends. "When I realized it wasn't real, Aldrich had lost his patience with me. The sky got all dark and stormy, and Aldrich demanded that it was time I got assimilated into The Core, but I refused. Then—I guess as a punishment—he took you guys and the fantasy land away and left me all by myself in pure darkness; all I had left was that picture of the three of us that says 'BFFS' on the bottom. I held onto it and waited, because I knew you guys were going to come back for me. And you did, just like I knew you would. So yeah," She took a deep breath as she finally restored her eye-contact with Anne and Sasha, smiling at the two of them through teary eyes. "that's pretty much it."
Both of their eyes full of sympathy for their friend, Anne and Sasha immediately pulled Marcy into another hug. "Oh, Marcy... why didn't you tell us about this sooner?" Sasha frowned. "Anne and I are sorry for ignoring you so much in the past. It wasn't right of us to treat you that way, and we see that now. You know that, right? You know we're sorry?"
"Oh, of course!" Marcy nodded, her arms wrapped tightly around her two friends. "I didn't mean to make you guys feel bad. I promise, it's okay—Really!" She answered sincerely. "It hurt, but... I understand. B-Besides, we're all different people now! Like Anne said, we've all made mistakes, and we've all done things we wish we hadn't. Let's just leave the past in the past now, okay?"
"That sounds good." Anne smiled, to which Sasha nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think that's for the best."
Marcy just smiled in response, letting go of their friends and instead laying down in between the two. There was a small period of slightly-awkward silence between the three before Sasha asked, "So what do you guys want to do now?"
"Hmmm..." Anne hummed in thought. "I'm not sure! What do you wanna do, Marcy?"
Marcy thought for a moment, before suddenly her eyes widened with an idea. "Oh! Wanna watch Suspicion Island? Didn't a new season come out recently?"
Anne and Sasha's faces both lit up with excitement. "Oh, yeah! I totally forgot about that!" With a big smile on her face, Anne grabbed the TV remote and quickly went to turn on the show. She remembered what happened when she first introduced the Plantars to Suspicion Island back around when the previous season came out, and she let go of a small, barely-audible chuckle at the memory. While Anne put the show on, Sasha wrapped an arm around Marcy and smiled warmly at his dark-haired friend. With a light blush reddening her cheeks, Marcy smiled back, and she snuggled up beside Sasha. Once the show was on, Anne laid back down and joined in on the cuddles. She reached over Marcy to hold Sasha's hand, but Marcy thought no more of it than a friendly gesture.
As they watched the show, the three sat in silence for most of the time, occasionally gasping or having small conversations about what they were watching, but otherwise silent so they could focus on the show. While they watched, Marcy noticed her head had begun to ache; it wasn't too painful though, so she wasn't very worried.

Everything was okay.

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