40. Reunion, part 2

Chapter 40: Reunion part 2

How did we get here? Where did it all go so wrong?

It seemed to start out so well. Sasha was back in my life, and it seemed like she'd been doing pretty well for herself if the big coach she was driven around in was any indication. And it looked like she'd been able to get Toad Tower to ease up on the whole oppressing the frogs thing… in fact, she'd managed to convince them to hold a huge banquet for the town to make up for all the years of mistreatment.

I suppose the warning signs were there if you paid attention. But I wasn't exactly looking for them. All I knew was I had one friend back, we were going to find the other one, and everything was finally going to go right.

I guess you could say I was a little blinded by luxury. First, that coach ride, and then actually getting to see her digs in the tower. I thought her room back at her dad's mansion was something, but this looked like something you'd expect a Bibsy Princess to be living in! She had fine furniture. She had her own personal chef, that could make REAL FOOD. Burgers. Tacos. Pizza, Fries. Fried chicken. The chickens here are the size of houses, so that alone must've taken a real effort. And yeah, I know in my head that the meat in those burgers and tacos definitely wasn't the kind I'd get back home, but I didn't much care because at least it was in a form I was somehow familiar with.

She had a shower. OH MY GOD, SHE HAD A SHOWER. Do you know what a pain in the butt it is to bathe on the farm? I have to draw my own water from the well, after fighting off the water beetles that hang out around it, then once I've lugged enough of it back to the tub, I have to heat it up, but not so much that it's too hot, then fill the tub, then empty it when I'm done. And don't even ask what I've been using for shampoo. Hint: It's not sold in stores, it doesn't smell great, and it's slug mucus. No wonder stuff keeps getting stuck in my hair.

So, there I am, feeling really clean for the first time since coming to Amphibia, stomach full, really feeling like everything's going right for once, when Sasha springs the news on me about the rebellion.

What rebellion, you ask? You're asking the wrong person, because up until that moment I had no idea it was a thing. But apparently, unrest has been spreading across the frog villages in the valley, dissatisfied with the way the toads have been treating them. And they've been starting to fight back.

And what inspired them to do so? A certain frog seems to have become a symbol of defiance in the Valley. A frog who stood his ground against tax collectors. A frog who ran against the Toad-appointed mayor and won a moral victory despite the fact that the race was fixed from the start. A frog who – yeah, you already guessed it, it's Hop Pop.

I mean, if you actually know the guy, it's a ridiculous notion. Can you really picture Hop Pop, of all people, as a revolutionary? Seriously, just imagine him, standing atop a guillotine, shouting "EAT THE RICH" before letting it fly. You'd have to be crazy to think that would ever happen.

But try telling the rest of the valley that, because there he is on a poster looking like Frog Guevara.

But that wasn't the bomb dropping, no, it gets much worse. This whole banquet thing? Just a trap to lure the frogs here so the toads could get their hands on him. And execute him.

And here Sasha was, explaining this to me like she was planning our next day at the mall.

Did you ever find yourself with someone you had known almost as long as you can remember, and then you're sitting there listening to her, and it's like some complete stranger is talking? You're sitting there thinking, "who is this person wearing my best friend's face? Do I know her? Did I ever really know her?"

At that moment, listening to – I can't even say the name anymore – her just casually talking about imprisoning my friends and MURDERING MY GRANDPA like – like it was like fixing a leaky faucet or something minor like that… I just… I just couldn't be in the room with her anymore. I made the most feeble excuse I could think of on the spot and just got the frog out of there.

…which, of course, was the next thing I needed to do. Get the frogs out of there. And I had to do it fast, because eventually, these guys were going to drop the whole charade of this being a party and just get it over with. I didn't really have much of a plan, other than bluff like crazy. I just grabbed a spare cloak and sword, hid my face as best as I could, and headed down to the banquet hall (Sasha had given me a brief tour of the tower earlier, so I had a vague idea where everything was).

By the time I got there, it looked like the frogs had already figured out that this whole thing was a scam because they were pretty much in full-on revolt at the time. I was pretty sure that the toad soldiers wouldn't keep themselves from fighting back for much longer, so it was for my very best Sasha impression. Luckily, these guys didn't seem to be very good at telling one human from another, so I was successfully able to convince them to leave and let me deal with them myself.

Once I revealed myself to everyone, things calmed down. As I'd figured, they already knew this was all a ruse to keep them imprisoned, but they didn't know about HP's upcoming execution. He took it pretty well… no, of course he didn't, would you?

Anyway, after I convinced Wally not to blow up the tower with the boom-shrooms he smuggled in, since, y'know, that would kill all of us, Sprig found an entry into the sewers. It was time to Shawshank our way out of there.

I would like to tell you we crawled through that river of guano and came out clean on the other side. I would like to tell you that. But movie quotes only take you so far. You either get busy escapin'… or get busy crawlin' directly into a crowd of very upset toad soldiers.

The next thing we knew, we were there on the very top of Toad Tower, Sasha looking at me as if I was somehow the wrong one here. Like I'm crazy for not wanting to have someone killed just to make it easier to get home. Grime was going on about how this was just how things had to be and how HP was a necessary sacrifice to preserve their way of life… but was this a way of life that deserved preserving? Because all I was seeing was inequality and oppression. It's just plain wrong to treat people like this.

And Sasha was just going along with this. And I realized… she doesn't see them as people. They're just animals to her. She doesn't know them. She hasn't lived among them, learned from them. She doesn't understand them.

That was the difference between between her and me. I couldn't let this go on. I grabbed a sword from the nearest toad and pushed my way through to stop the execution. The toads tried to cut me off, but Sasha stepped past them and started talking me down.

And for a moment, she almost succeeded. It was those three words that almost did it.

End. Of. Discussion.

Looking back, I think I first heard them from her mom, when she was in the middle of throwing a temper tantrum at her sixth birthday (this was a few years before her folks officially separated though you could already tell something wasn't right). The three words got her to immediately stop. Like they were some kind of activation code from a spy movie.

I don't know exactly when she started to use them herself, but they worked pretty much the same on the two of us. When she said those three words, you knew deep down, that there was no point arguing. She wasn't going to move. They worked every time. Even now, they were working. In spite f everything, in spite of myself, I lowered my sword.

That's when a splatter of mud struck her right in the face, and it was like a spell had been broken.

Sprig had worked his way to the front and had fired the mudball heard 'round the valley, He'd stood up for me when I hadn't for myself. He'd had faith in me, when I hadn't had any in myself.

Remember how I said I'd felt like someone who I'd known my entire life felt like a stranger/ Well, at that moment, I realized that I did have a friend, a friend that I knew very well, even though he hadn't been my friend for that long.

And, if I hadn't known which of my friends I should be putting my faith in, Sasha immediately made in clear when she swung her sword to strike Sprig down without even the tiniest bit of hesitation. If I hadn't blocked her blade with my own, he would've been cut right in half.

And for a moment, there we stood. Swords out, staring each other down.

How did we get here? Where did it all go wrong?

Grime then made it official. We were gonna go full Klingon and fight it out. I win, everyone goes free. Sasha wins… well, I was going to have to see to it that she didn't.

We circled each other, waiting for Grime to signal the beginning of the match. The second he did, she lunged in for the kill, and I realized, my god, I really don't know her anymore. At first, it was all I could do to hold her off. Even with Tritonio's training, she was just better than me. Stronger, fiercer.

But she was just fighting for herself. I was fighting for a lot more. And that resolve fueled me. I pushed back, went on the offensive… I even managed to disarm her for a moment.

But once she realized she couldn't simply overpower me, she started playing dirty. Pulling a dagger on me, blinding me with her cape, sweeping the leg… what is this, an 80's karate tournament?

I found myself on the floor, with her sword inches away from my face, I was seconds away from losing. She demanded me to give up, stop wasting time on "slimy little frogs."

That was her mistake. They weren't "slimy little frogs." Truth be told… they weren't even just my friends at that point. These frogs were my family.

And a Boonchuy will do anything for family.

With one final burst of strength, I managed to disarm her of both of her weapons and knock her dow, ending the fight. If Grime was as good as his word, it would have all been over right there.

Grime, it turns out, is a dirty liar. He whipped out his tongue (dang, there's some length on that thing) and snatched Hop Pop right out of the crowd. For a moment, it seemed like all of this was going to be for nothing.

And then the tower started shaking.

Turns out I hadn't been as successful at convincing Wally not to blow up the tower as I'd thought. He'd somehow gotten the notion that, by telling him very clearly not to do it, I was telling him to do it. How do you even… never mind. It didn't really matter anyway. Like it or not, that tower was coming down.

Grime went over the edge first; to be honest, I wasn't all too broken up about it.

But the next one to lose her footing was Sasha.

[At this point, the writing is a bit smudged, though still legible.]

I managed to grab her hand just in time, but the tower was falling apart all around us and I was starting to lose my own grip. I felt my fee slip, and then I felt a moist pair of hands grab hold of them. Behidn me, I could hear Sprig reassuring me that he had me. Hop Pop and Polly too.

I could also tell it wouldn't be enough. I looked Sasha in the eyes, and lied to her that everything was going to be fine, we were all going to be fine, and for a moment, she was there again, the Sasha I knew my friend.

And it was that friend who said "Hey Anne? Maybe you'd be better off without me."

And then she let go.

For a moment, all I could do was watch in horror as she fell out of my life. All I could do was ask myself, again, "How did we get here? Where did it all go wrong?"

When Grime seemingly came out of nowhere to catch her in mid-air, I let out a breath I wasn't even aware I'd been holding.

The rest of the escape from the tower was a blur. I was only vaguely aware that Mayor Toadstool had pitched in, carrying at least half a dozen frogs away from the tower all on his own. He made the excuse that he was only doing it so he could keep exploiting us, but I'm starting to think maybe he did really care.

Off in the distance, I could see Grime carrying Sasha to safety. He took one last glare at me, and carried her off, out of my life again. And… again, seeing the gentle way he carried her, I wondered if he really simply regarded her as an asset that was still valuable enough to save… or if, in his own way, he had really come to care about her as well.

It was then that all the emotions I'd been feeling finally caught up with me, and I had myself a good old-fashioned ugly cry.

…huh. Will you look at that. I've been crying for like the last ten paragraphs. I wasn't even aware of it. No wonder it was getting so hard to see the page. For a minute there I was wondering if I needed contacts.

Anyway, it's been a couple of days since we got back. As you can imagine, it's taken me a while to put my thoughts together enough to get them on page.

The ice barrier's almost completely melted, so soon it's going to be time to be moving on. Going outside the valley. What's the future going to hold? Is Marcy out there somewhere? The way home? There's no way of knowing. There's only hoping.

Hope. It's a funny word, really. When you think about it, it's not really anything… and yet, it's also everything.

I hope we find Marcy. I hope we find the way home.

And… even after everything, I hope that somehow, some way, I find Sasha.

It can't be the way it was. It can never be the way it was. But maybe… somehow, we can build something new. Reach some new kind of understanding. Because I know that I've changed, a lot. And if I can… maybe, just maybe, she can too.

That… didn't end quite like I was expecting it to.

Sasha was unsure just how she had expected it to end… probably with Anne raging against her betrayal, cursing that day on the playground that they'd met, something along those lines. Not… well, not like this.

It might have even been easier the other way. Negative feelings, that she could deal with. She'd certainly had enough of her own in those days after the tower fell, on the run, stripped of status, cursing Anne for replacing her because it was easier than cursing herself for her own mistakes.

Why'd she even bother reading this, anyway? There was no insight to be gained this time. Just pain.

She briefly considered hurling the journal at the wall in frustration, but that wouldn't help either. That was the old Sasha Waybright anyway, lashing out at the world because she couldn't face her own issues. She was better than that now, she hoped. Besides… there was an entire resistance out there now that depended on her at least pretending to keep it together.

"And I was thinking we could have the arsenal over there… it's in a recessed area so it's easy to guard, and it's conveniently adjacent to this larger, more open cavern which I believe would make an excellent training area…"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure, do that," Sasha replied half-consciously.

All around them, the frogs and assorted other amphibians of Wartwood were scurrying around setting up their new underground lives. Stumpy had claimed one chamber for the canteen, while Duckweed was busy setting up his printing press in another, ready to turn out dozens of anti-Andrias propaganda leaflets. Other Wartwood citizens had claimed their own niches in this new world they'd relocated to.

"And down that way, we've found a good location for the snail stables and James Sparrow… you really aren't paying attention at all, are you?" asked Grime, noting Sasha's listless replies.

"Uh huh, right, James Snail, got it…"

"Sasha!" Grime emphasized, clapping loudly in her face (toad fingers being too fat to snap; Grime was still impressed by the human ability to make that noise), "We need you here!"

"Oh! Oh wow. Sorry, sorry, I just-"

"Look, I'm not particularly adept with… emotional baggage, but it's clear you won't be at full capacity unless yours is resolved. Would you like to… ugh… talk about it?"

"It's just… this feels like a failure." She held up her hand and in anticipation of his reply. "And I know you're going to say 'this is merely a tactical retreat' but it is. It's a failure. I had one job. Keep Wartwood safe. Well, Wartwood is up there, and it's in ruins, and we've been driven underground. So yes, I feel like I've failed, and you can bring logic and tactics and emotional appeals into it all you want, but it can't change how I feel."

Grime considered. "Well.. when you put it like that, then, yes, I suppose this is a failure."

"…well, thanks, this was a productive convers-"

"-but, failures exist for a reason. So you can learn from them. Of course, a brief period of walling might also be helpful, so if you wish to retreat into a cavern with a few six-pacs of bog grog and a big bag of Cheetles and try binging Suspicion Island and growing a beard for a while, I could pick up the slack…"

"Um… well, I'm a little young for bog grog and human teenage girls don't really tend to grow beards for the most part, but… I guess a little self-care couldn't hurt."

"Think about it. In the meantime… just remember that failure isn't the end… merely another beginning."

"…oh, s***, that's the lesson isn't it?" Sasha realized, snapping her fingers. The entry had been about failure… the failure of their friendship. And yet, Anne had never given up on it.

…well, not until Sasha'd taken advantage of her trust yet again, but that was a lesson for another time.

"Beg pardon?"

"Nothing. Y'know… I think I'll take a rain check on those Cheetles. I've got a rebellion to supervise."

A.N.: Well… we did it. We got to the end of the season!

I'm not sure if I'll be doing two-parters for the other double-length episodes, but I think this one worked out pretty well. In any case, this marks the halfway point of this series, since we know the journal Sasha's reading only goes up to "Battle of the Bands".

Schweenieboy: Sasha's had to learn what a real friend is the hard way.

Snake screamer: Thanks, hope you liked part 2

Gregorian: Yes, while the chapters are in the episodes' airing order, she isn't necessarily reading them in that order… and in fact, there will be one special chapter in Season Two that actually chronologically takes place in Season One. And it will feature a couple of very special guest stars…

OMAC001: Well, she did… what did you think?

Next: I think I'm going to take a bit of a between-season hiatus to get back to the "Body Issues" universe… but when I come back, "Handy Anne"!