41. True Colors (Part 1)

The Night of the Sleepover

As Sasha entered the old house she peered around trying to see through the dark. It was hard to make out anything with no light sources so Sasha stumbled around trying to find a place she could sit down in. As she stumbled in the dark her hand managed to land on something on an old desk. She picked it up and realized it was an old mask of some kind. It was wooden and looked to have antlers coming out of the top. It looked extremely old and worn, Sasha starred at the mask intently.

Huh wonder what this is? she thought

Playing with the mask Sasha put it to her face and pretended to be a scary monster

"Bwhahahah I'm a masked deer person I'm gonna get you!" she taunted, "I bet Anne, Luz, and Marcy would freak if they saw me come out wearing this!"

As she pulled the mask away she noticed there was some sort of greenish-black sludge on it. She realized only too late that some had gotten on her face.

"Eww, gross," said Sasha trying to clean the sludge off her face, "no way I'm wearing this again."

It was at that moment though when Sasha heard something almost like a laugh inside her head. A cruel laugh that sounded different from anything she had heard before.

Is someone there, thought Sasha talking to herself she didn't expect a response and was surprised when she heard one

Hello Sasha, replied her thoughts though something about the voice was different.

Who are you? thought Sasha nervously

Oh I'm just your inner voice, replied the voice, you're having a conversation with me to try and distract yourself from how scarred you're feeling right now.

What, get real, thought Sasha, no way I'm scarred right now, you can't fool me. If you really are my inner voice why don't you prove it by telling me something only I would know.

Alright, said the voice….

The frog army stood assembled close to the capital of Newtopia. Emmanuel took out a telescope and aimed it at the capital city. At the moment nothing was out of place though he knew it was only a matter of time before the Toad Army appeared on the horizon. He'd stationed lookouts around the edge of the city, and given them orders to alert him at the first sign of trouble. After putting his telescope away he went back inside his tent. Lilly was already there buckling her scabbard to her belt.

"Anything unusual dad?" she asked her back turned to him.

"No not yet, the anticipation is killing me though, not knowing when they may strike."

"Well we've done all we can to prepare, now all we have to do is win a fight against the combined might of all four towers," said Lilly with a laugh.

"Oh is that all," replied her father sardonically.

"Yep," said Lilly turning around, "and with the Masamune on our side how can we fail?"

Emmanuel took in the sight of his daughter. She was now wearing a silver breastplate with a blue cloak that billowed behind her. She also had on white pants and boots. The Masamune was clipped onto her belt. She looked so much more confident and seemed to project an air of power around her.

"You look amazing," he said coming up to hug her, "but I want you to know I was already proud of you even before you pulled the sword."

"I know dad," said Lilly returning the hug, "now I get make you even prouder."

"Have you gotten used to using the sword then?" he asked.

"Yeah I've been practicing ever since I got it, and I've been practicing my other abilities too," said Lilly, with that she closed her eyes. When she opened them again they were glowing a deep blue. Lilly brought up her hand and an orb of water appeared in it. Lilly focused and made the orb move about in the air, after a few minutes she shot it out it out from her hand and out of the tent.

"Very impressive," said her father, "is that the only element you've been using so far?"

"I think I can use others too, but water seems to come easily to me, I'll stick with that for now. I still have my bag with potions in it too, just in case," said Lilly.

At that moment three other figures entered the tent.

"How you doing Lilly?" asked Gustav.

"I'm ready, I don't know what may happen today, but I am ready. Do you think Luz was able to find a way back to her world?" asked Lilly.

"I hope so, she probably wouldn't want to be here considering what's about to happen," said Gustav, "maybe if she did find a way back she took Sasha with her."

"Somehow I doubt that," replied Lilly, "from what you told me Sasha wants to conquer Amphibia, and I don't think she'd give up so easily."

"Perhaps that's just wishful thinking on my part," answered Gustav.

"Aw don't worry son," said Percy, "whatever happens at least we'll be together."

"Actually about that," began Emmanuel, "listen there's something I need to talk to you and Braddock about. But the rest of you can stay if you want."

Lilly and Gustav looked at each other before deciding to stay. Emmanuel became serious before speaking, "l won't lie, the odds are not in our favor. The Toad Army vastly outnumbers our own, and even with Lilly and the Masamune it might not be enough. If I had my way I wouldn't even be having us fight this battle, but I know we have to. We can't let the Toads gain control over Amphibia or we'll never be able to defeat them."

"So what do you need from us?" asked Braddock.

"I need you to leave and go underground," said Emmanuel.

"What? But we want to help?" said Percy.

"Look we realize that it was wrong to oppress the frogs," said Braddock, "we want to make things right."

"I understand that," said Emmanuel, "but a leader needs to be prepared for any scenario. I've given the army instructions that if the battle goes poorly, and we are forced to retreat, that we will regroup in Wartwood. That's the town that the "Freedom Frog" is from, and it's far enough away from Newtopia that it should be a safe gathering point. I want to send the two of you there ahead of us in case we lose this battle."

"Dad why are you doing this?" asked Lilly.

"Because….if we lose, then the rebellion is finished," said Emmanuel emphatically, "but there may be hope if there are some survivors who manage to escape. And if the toads do come into power then it would be wise to have some toads who are on our side already in place."

"But we want to help fight," said Percy.

"If the toads see you fighting with us then they'll know you're traitors," countered Emmanuel, "and again if we lose and the Toads take power they'll hunt you down and execute you. If you aren't seen with us, then they won't know you helped us. And you can use your status as the new ruling race to help others, that's how you can help."

Braddock and Percy looked at each other as it sunk in what Emmanuel was asking of them.

"Help protect other frogs, and help keep them safe if you can," continued Emmanuel, "it's better for us if the Toads never realized you helped us. This is my back-up plan in case of a loss, will you do this for me?"

Braddock and Percy hesitated for a second before both nodding.

"What about me?" asked Gustav.

"You don't have to fight with us either Gustav," said Emmanuel, "but I heard you got that letter from Amara right?"

"Yeah she asked me to meet her in Newtopia, said there was something important she wanted to tell me," answered Gustav.

"Then you should probably sneak inside and see if you can meet her. I think It would be best to have you there just in case, I heard reports that the toads may have already planted some of their forces inside the city," said Emmanuel.

"Should we maybe put some frogs of our own in the city?" asked Lilly.

"If we do that it will reduce the strength of our army," countered Emmanuel, "we're going to try and keep the toads from gaining control of the city, if the toads do make a move from the inside we're going to have to hope that the Newts can counter it."

"Still it's for the best that I go ahead of you inside, once I find Amara maybe the two of us can help you if it comes to that," said Gustav.

"What about Amara's friend? That newt general you told me about?" asked Emmanuel.

"Amara said she was here, maybe I can get her to help too," said Gustav.

"Alright, it might not turn out to be anything, but if she's really as fierce as she brags she could be a helpful ally," said Emmanuel.

"Dad, Braddock, good luck!" said Gustav coming up to his father and Braddock and giving them both a hug.

"Bye son," said Percy, "please be safe, I hope I'll see you again after all this is over."

"I hope so too dad," said Gustav.

As Joe Sparrow landed (or rather fell) into the water, the group disembarked ready to enter the city of Newtopia. Luz looked up at the high walls in awe.

"Wow! So this is Newtopia?" she said in amazement, "it feels just like a fantasy city!"

"I know right?" said Marcy coming up to Luz, "that's right this is your first time here isn't it?"

"Yeah it is, although Amara occasionally talked about it, still it's nothing like I could have imagined," said Luz.

"Oh speaking of Amara…." said Marcy as the gates to Newtopia opened, standing at the entrance was a familiar pink Newt. Her eyes instantly finding Luz.

"Luz!" called Amara waving at her.

"Amara!" yelled Luz in response running up to her old friend and almost knocking her over with a hug. Amara returned the hug glad to see Luz again.

"Oh it's so good to see you!" she said, "I got Marcy's letter saying you were coming here, I'm glad I get to see you again."

"It's great to see you too Amara," said Luz, as she was hugging her Luz looked down and noticed Amara's tail.

"Hey you're tail is back," she said.

"Yeah, took a few weeks, but it's grown back nice and strong," said Amara moving the tail around a bit and flexing it.

"Oh man I have so much to tell you," said Luz, "Oh but uh first let me introduce you to my other friends."

"Actually I've already met them," said Amara, waving to both Marcy and Anne.

"Hey Amara nice to see you again," said Marcy coming up to her.

"Same," said Anne, "great to see your tail is back. I know not having it upset you."

"It upset my mom more than me," said Amara, "but in any case I am glad it's back." Amara looked at the two other figures and let out a gasp.

"Hey wait a minute, is that Sasha and Grime?" asked Amara in disbelief, "what are they doing with you?"

"It's a long story," said Luz, "but don't worry they're fine. They helped us recharge the last stone on the box."

"We're gonna wait a bit to introduce them to the King," said Anne, "we'll make sure and put in a good word for both Grime and Sasha since they helped us."

"I think I can convince King Andrias to give you both a pardon," said Marcy.

"Okay, if you say so," said Amara, "are you going to see the King right away?"

"Yeah we are," said Anne.

"Oh…are we all set to go then?" asked Amara. As she said this Amara looked over at Marcy, who made a motion with her hand to not say any more.

"I guess so….aw man I only just got here, I would've liked a chance to look around the city first," said Luz.

"Well maybe you can," answered Amara, "I can give you a quick tour before your audience with the King. It won't take long."

Luz looked between Amara and her other friends, not sure what to say, though Sasha eventually spoke up.

"Yeah you should go and see the sites Luz," said Sasha, "Marcy and Anne got to see the city so shouldn't you?"

"Really you sure?" asked Luz.

"Well hey what about you Sash?" asked Anne, "do you want to see the city before we leave?"

"Nah I'm good," said Sasha quickly, "plus I think I'm still technically a wanted criminal so I probably shouldn't be out in public.

"Oh well if you sure, I guess it's okay for Luz to have a quick look around before we leave," said Anne, "meet us at the palace when you're done okay."

"You got it!" said Luz walking to join Amara, the two went off the explore the city. As they did Sasha cast a glance towards them, hoping Beatrix had gotten her message….

"So this is the outdoor market of Newtopia," said Amara showing Luz the sites, "it's right by the harbor so it gets a lot of imports from all around Amphibia."

"Oh neat, I can only imagine all the exotic goods you have here," said Luz.

"Well I'm sure it's nothing compared to what they might have in other worlds," said Amara, "I'm sure we'll see amazing things in these other worlds, there's one specific world I hope we get to go to."

Luz paused upon hearing that, "uh, what exactly are you talking about?"

"Wait didn't Marcy tell you?" asked Amara.

"Tell me what?" said Luz.

"Oh…she didn't mention it, maybe she forgot," began Amara, "you see, apparently that music box you guys used to get here is capable of traveling to other worlds."

"Yeah I know," said Luz.

"Well Marcy and I had a talk with the King," began Amara, "King Andrias said that once you got the music box charged again that he wanted to go exploring other worlds. He offered to take, the four of you along, and then asked if I wanted to join you. I said yes."

"Wait…really?" said Luz a bit confused.

"Yeah, Marcy was supposed to tell you all this," said Amara.

In her mind Luz flashed back to a conversation she had had with Marcy, one line in particular sticking out from that conversation,

"You guys are already thinking of going home?" asked Marcy in a somewhat sad tone, "I mean neither of you even want to think about maybe keeping the adventure train running?"

"Hmmm," said Luz aloud, "now that you mention it, Marcy did seem as though she wanted to keep going on adventures. I guess maybe she was testing the waters to see if either of us wanted to go too."

"Oh, do you not want to go then?" asked Amara.

"No, not really," said Luz, "I mean part of me would love to keep exploring other worlds, but another part of me knows I can't keep doing this forever. Plus I need to at least let my mom know I'm safe. I don't want her to worry about me, she doesn't need to lose me too."

"Oh," said Amara crestfallen, "I had kinda hoped you were all set to go, but if not, then I guess I understand."

"Hey now that we have to box working again, I mean who's to say we can't come back and visit," said Luz. "I'd be down for that Maybe you could even come and checkout my world too!"

"Oh really!" said Amara, "I mean I guess that would be cool too! I just wanted to explore these other worlds because…well actually I have something to tell you about."

Whatever Amara was going to say was forgotten as suddenly a large toad came up to her putting her hand over her mouth and quickly holding a knife to her throat. Amara let out a muffled scream. The toad flashed a look towards Luz.

"Come with us or your friend gets it," she said in a rough gravely voice. Another toad appeared behind Luz grabbing her and putting his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming.

"No calling for help, and no using your powers either," said the first toad, "understand?" She moved the knife closer to Amara's neck to make sure Luz got the point. Luz quickly nodded.

"Alright, take 'em to the Arena," said the female toad, "Beatrix is waiting for them there."

With that the other toad threw a large burlap sack over Luz blocking her vision and picking her up.

"Remember kid, no powers or your friend gets it," said the soldier as he gave the sack a rough shake to make sure his prisoner wouldn't trouble him.

Sasha and Grime had worked quickly, overpowering the King and getting the Toads in place to start the rebellion. Andrias had been defeated and imprisoned. A group of toad soldiers leading him to the dungeon .

"You'll never get away with this," said Andrias as he was being lead away," he sparred a quick glance at Marcy giving her a nod.

"Well frogs say hello to the new rulers of Amphibia," began Grime, "pretty hot right?"

"Sorry things got a little crazy back there," said Sasha coming up to Marcy and Anne and putting her arms around them, "you guys good?"

"Good?! Are you serious," exclaimed Anne pulling Sasha's arm off her.

"Sheesh don't be a sore loser," said Sasha going up to the now empty throne and casually sitting on it, "I'm gonna stick around and get this toad regime off the ground, but I can totally send you two home if you want." Sasha glanced over at Anne, she could see anger building up in her face.

"Or you can stay here, with me, how about it Anne? How's you like to be the new queen of Amphibia?" asked Sasha.

Anne was angry at Sasha, but even so that question caught her off guard, "wait what?"

"Well I mean…ruling over a world is hard, I don't know if I could do it alone, I sure could use someone by my side to help. And Anne I'd like that person to be you, if you really care about the frogs so much then you can help me rule over them and be a voice for them." Sasha came over to Anne, looking deeply into her eyes. She brought up her hand to caress Anne's face, but Anne quickly knocked the hand away.

"Don't touch me Sasha!" yelled Anne.

"Oh come on, I'm offering you a chance to actually help those frogs you care so much about," said Sasha, "what do you say?"

"What do I say?!" said Anne her temper rising, "After everything you've done! I say you're clearly insane if you think I'm gonna let you bully me and everyone else just to get what you want."

Sasha seemed unfazed by this response, "hey Anne have you noticed that Luz never came back?"

As Sasha said this a deep pit formed in Anne's stomach as she only just now realized that Luz had been taking awhile to come back.

"Where is she?" asked Anne.

"Don't worry she's safe," said Sasha, "I had to get her out of the way when we were planning this rebellion otherwise she would have just used those fancy powers she has to stop us."

"Sasha Luz doesn't have her powers anymore, where is she?" asked Marcy, her voice quiet and scared as she thought of her friend.

"Relax, like I said she's fine," replied Sasha, "now let's talk more about us, don't you think that the three of us worked better as a trio? I mean things were so much easier before Luz came along. Wouldn't it be great if we could just go back to how things used to be?"

"Sasha how can you say that?" asked Marcy in disbelief.

"Admit it Marbles," said Sasha, "we had a great thing going on the three of us, we were already BFFS, we'd known each other since we were kids, wasn't it great that way?"

Anne took a long pause before she continued, "so that's what this is really about….you're jealous of Luz."

"What, no," replied Sasha unconvincingly.

"Oh yes you are," said Anne with conviction, "I can't believe I didn't put it together sooner. You setting us up at the dance, you telling me to not be friends with her anymore, now this!"

"That's not it at all," said Sasha, her voice faltering.

"Well you know what," began Anne, "you should be jealous of Luz, she's a much better person than you'll ever be!"

Sasha was hurt by that remark but tried to recover, "Anne, I know you're upset-" began Sasha before being interrupted by Anne.

"No I am done listening to you, I'm done trusting you," yelled Anne, "you're a horrible person and I am done being friends with you!"

That last statement seemed to upset Sasha. Marcy came over to Anne trying to calm her down.

"Anne you don't mean that, we can still fix this," she said.

"No Marcy we can't!" declared Anne flatly.

"Fine well since we're not friends I'll just send you home!" said Sasha, "and you can say goodbye to both your frog family and Luz, cause you'll never see either of them again!"

"You wouldn't," said Anne in disbelief.

"My box, my rules!" answered Sasha holding up the box for emphasis.

"Sasha wait," said Marcy, meanwhile Anne turned and ran towards her frog family covering them with her body to protect them from Sasha.

"Sorry Anne, say hi to your parents for me," said Sasha with a cruel smile as she opened the box….

….only for nothing to happen.

"What?" said Sasha as she fiddled with the box trying to get it to work, "huh well that was embarrassing. Until I can figure out how to use this thing, guards take them to the dungeon."

With that a group of toad soldiers appeared around the group and marched them out of the throne room and towards the dungeon.

"Sasha where is Luz?" asked Anne desperately as she was being lead away. Sasha turned up her face not saying anything.

"Sasha if anything happens to her…" was all Anne managed to get out before the doors to the throne room closed.

Luz was dumped unceremoniously out of her bag onto the floor. The Toad soldiers who were handling Luz stepped back as she stood up. When Luz looked up she noticed she was in some sort of coliseum. It looked right out of one of her history books of ancient Rome. The ground was covered in dirt in a ring shape with many seats for observers to sit. Luz quickly noticed that the seats were filled with toads. They were murmuring and making various noises looking intently at Luz.

"That's the one," called a random toad from the audience, "I saw her at Tadpole Pond. She's the one with the strange powers."

"She burnt me good," said another, "I hope Beatrix knows what she's getting into."

"Should provide some good sport for us for sure," said a third.

"Amara where are you?" called Luz trying to find her friend.

"I'm over here," called Amara, Luz turned and saw her friend chained up at the other end of the Arena, she could see that Amara had a black eye and several bruises on her body.

"Your friend started making trouble for us, so we roughed her up a bit so she'd behave," called the female toad who had captured Amara. She stood right beside her still holding her knife. Luz flashed the toad a vicious look, as she did the Arena became quiet as a new toad entered it. She was a female toad, holding a deadly looking axe. She was wearing a strange uniform with a spike on her right shoulder and some sort of medal on her chest. Like Grime she seemed to be missing one of her eyes, the right one, it had a nasty looking scar over it.

"Well, well, Luz the Humus," said the toad in loud grand voice, "I've been looking forward to meeting you."

"I don't even know who you are," said Luz in a spiteful voice.

"Oh where are my manners, I'm Beatrix, Lord of the West Tower," said the Toad introducing herself with a bow, "also the only Toad Lord whose come closest to beating Uodeela in a fight."

"So what am I doing here?" asked Luz in anger.

"Well this is the coliseum," explained Beatrix spreading her arms wide, "in days of old this was the proving grounds for toad warriors! Here every five years the toads would gather and the strongest among them would fight to the death to determine who would be the new Toad Lords. Nowadays the process isn't as brutal, and Newtopia has a say in who gets to be a Lord, but we still use this arena as a way to test each other's strength. I've fought my share of battles in this very arena, and now with you here I think I shall have one of my greatest challenges yet!"

"That's all well and good," said Luz annoyed, "but you still haven't explained why you brought me here."

"Ah yes of course," said Beatrix, "you see us toads are planning a rebellion of sorts against the King, it was all Sasha's idea," explained Beatrix.

Luz's face fell at hearing this, and yet it didn't surprise her that much, why did I ever trust Sasha, thought Luz feeling a deep sense of regret. Beatrix continued talking

"and we knew that we couldn't hope to succeed if you were still a factor. We had to do something about you and those powers you have. I've heard the reports from the soldiers who were at Tadpole Pond, so I know what you're capable of. That's why Sasha and I made a plan to get you away from the group and bring you here."

Again Luz's face fell, though this time it almost felt numbing to know that Sasha had once again betrayed her.

"So Luz the Humus, seeing as I'm the only one who's fought a magic user before I thought I'd take a crack at you and see if you really were as tough as I heard. Plus this keeps you away from our main army which is only an hour away from the gates of Newtopia, though I hear they're making good time and may in fact be here sooner."

A cold sweat was starting to form on Luz's face as she realized that she was going to have to fight Beatrix without her powers. She slowly started considering her options wondering if there was any way out of this situation. As she was thinking a bat flew into the Arena and towards Beatrix, it seemed to be carrying a letter that it gave to her.

"Eh what's this?" said Beatrix taking the letter and opening it, "hmmm it's from Sasha. Dear Beatrix I just want to let you know that Luz doesn't have her powers anymore." Beatrix stopped reading the letter aloud after that, and continued to scan it with her eyes. But that statement was enough to make Luz feel a deep burning rage in her core.

"Sasha you bitch!" said Luz aloud.

Beatrix looked up from the letter towards Luz and the other toads in the arena, "it seems there's been a change of plans," she said to the toads assembled there. "We're needed in the streets to help secure them in case the Newts try anything. I guess in the meantime we'll keep the humus locked up here. If she doesn't have any powers then she's not worth my time."

Luz's mind was racing as she heard what Beatrix said, if they go out and join the other toads then any hope we have of defeating them is gone, she thought, but maybe if I can keep them here then Anne and Marcy can come up with a plan. Marcy's smart I know she can come up with something, and Anne is a strong courageous fighter. I know they can turn this around, I just have to find a way to keep Beatrix here and give them a chance.

As she was thinking this Luz felt her pockets and realized she still had a large number of the pre-drawn wind glyphs on her. Thinking quickly Luz called out to Beatrix.

"Hey uh Beatrix, you wanted a fight right?" called Luz, "well I can still give you one!"

"Thanks but I'm not interested," replied Beatrix, "you look so weak and scrawny there, if you don't have your powers I could probably crush you like a bug."

"Sasha's lying about my powers," said Luz desperately thinking of the first thing that came to her mind, "I still have them."

"Eh, what," said Beatrix confused, "why on Earth would she lie about that?"

"Well if I didn't have my powers could I do this?" Luz quickly pushed a wind glyph into her hand so Beatrix didn't see. She activated it and blew a strong gust of wind at Beatrix almost knocking her down. The toads in the arena all let out a gasp at this. Beatrix recovered form being blown over and flashed a deadly looking smile at Luz.

"Looks to me like she's still got them powers," called a toad from the audience.

"I saw her use wind magic at Tadpole Pond," said another.

"We can't go out into the streets if Luz is still a factor," said a third.

"She must've tricked Sasha somehow, trying to get us to abandon the original plan so she can fight our army," said a fourth.

Beatrix stepped forward looking intently at Luz before turning around and raising up her hand signaling she wanted silence.

"Okay, change of plans again," she said, "looks like the original plan is back on! I'll be fighting Luz one on one, once that's dealt with we'll head out and join the other toads. And as for you," she pointed straight at Luz, "don't even think about heading out to fight our main army or your friend here gets it." Beatrix pointed her axe at Amara.

As she said this Beatrix stepped closer to the toad who was guarding Amara, "from what I've heard this humus is pretty powerful. I hope I can beat her, but if not at least I'll soften her up a bit for the rest of you. If she manages to beat me then have the other toads swarm her. We need to keep her distracted for as long as possible."

The toad guarding Amara nodded. With that Beatrix stepped forward axe in hand ready to face Luz. Luz responded by getting into a fighting stance raising her staff ready and looking Beatrix straight in the eye….

With the help of General Yunnan the group had managed to escape the toads and flee the palace. As the made their way through the streets of Newtopia it was obvious that the situation was quickly deteriorating, the toads that had been placed there were looting the stores, taking whatever they wanted and just generally causing destruction. Anne and the gang moved quickly and quietly so as not to be seen before they all took cover inside Sal's. As they did a small toad in a sky blue cloak observed them enter.

"Uggh the city's crawling with toads," said Sprig in disgust.

"And there's still a whole army coming," said Hop-pop in terror.

"Yep it's a full on toad rebellion," said Marcy, "but don't worry I've got a simple plan to solve this."

Marcy took out her telescope and looked out towards the entrance of Newtopia, as she did her face fell,

"Oh no, we're too late," she said her voice heavy with despair, "the army is already here."

Anne came up to where Marcy was standing and looked through her telescope, she could see that the Toad army was less than a mile away from the gate.

"No, no, no, it can't end like this," said Anne realizing the hopelessness of their situation.

The group had all but resigned themselves to their fate when Lady Olivia got their attention, "Wait, something's happening."

The group looked out the window and towards the main gate. They saw all the water around the city begin to gather in a wave, a wave the built up by the gate and then came crashing down on them. The large wave pushed the army away from the gate and scattered them around the entrance of the city. As the toads tried to recover a large sound came from over the hill and a new army charged towards them, this one composed of frogs.

Lilly pointed her sword at the toad army and lead the charge of frogs against them over the hill, her father right beside her. As they neared the army Lilly concentrated and used her powers again summoning a large amount of water to her and then blasting it straight at the toads as she approached. The blast knocked quite a number of them away. The frogs closed the distance to the toads and within moments had engaged them in a fight. Weapons clashed as the two armies began to struggle against each other.

"Block the entrance to the gate!" called Emmanuel to his army, "Don't let them enter the city!"

The frogs positioned themselves so that they stood between the toads and the gates of Newtopia, preventing them from entering the city, at least for the moment.

At the front-lines Bufo was confused, he shouted at a nearby lieutenant, "What's going on? Where did this frog army come from?"

"Sir I don't know, they just appeared suddenly," answered the lieutenant, "the frogs have blocked the entrance to the city."

"Bah, they're just frogs," growled Bufo in disgust, "this is a minor distraction at best, we'll break through their ranks and take the city. Forward!"

As he said this a large wave appeared in front of the toad army washing over them and scattering them again, making them easy pickings for the frogs as they overwhelmed them.

"What?!" said Bufo in surprise seeing this display of magic, "Is that humus with the magic power here? I thought Grime, Sasha, and Beatrix were supposed to handle her!"

"I don't see a humus anywhere on the battlefield," replied the lieutenant searching around for the source of whoever had caused that wave. His eyes finally finding Lilly as she used her magic powers again. This time blasting a jet of water straight at a column of toad soldiers blasting them out of the way.

"Sir it would seem that the frogs have a magic user on their side," explained the lieutenant to Bufo.

Bufo's face fell in worry as he realized this rebellion might suddenly be harder than he thought.

"I don't believe it, and army of frogs," said Hop-pop, "and they're standing up to the toad army."

"They've stopped the toads from entering the city," said Yunann, "this may be the opening we need."

"It seems there is a magic user among their ranks," observed Olivia as she watched Lilly unleash another water blast against the toads.

"Wait really!" said Marcy focusing her telescope on Lilly, "you're right! That's amazing!"

"Where did this army of frogs come from?" wondered Sprig.

"Who cares," answered Polly, "they're kicking butt and taking down the toads!"

"Yeah you're right," said Marcy, "if they can keep the army distracted long enough then we might still stand a chance here."

"Excuse me," said a new voice entering the room, "are you by chance Luz's friends?"

The group turned to see a small toad taking off his sky blue hood, revealing his face and looking at the group, though Yunann quickly approached him.

"Ah a spy they've sent you to….wait Gustav?" she asked in surprise.

"General Yunan," answered the toad, "haven't seen you since that business with Sasha and Grime."

"Yes it has been awhile, though it would seem as though your mission has failed," said Yunan, "we're in the midst of a rebellion here."

"Given the circumstances I'd say that's an understatement, but I was at least able to let the frogs know of Grime's plan. I'm the reason the army is here now fighting them, I hoped I might run into you again. With you on our side we may stand a chance at defeating them," answered Gustav.

"I see, well thank you for that at least," replied Yunan, she turned to face the rest of the group, "it's alright we can trust him. I've met Gustav before, he was spying on Grime and Sasha trying to figure out what their plan was."

"Hold up a second," said Anne coming up to the toad, "did you say you know Luz?"

"Yes I do," answered the toad, "you must be Anne. I'm Gustav, I studied magic with Luz. I take it if you're here then she hasn't yet found a way home. But wait a sec where is she? I thought she'd be here with you?"

"We uh don't know," answered Anne, "Sasha took her somewhere. We have to find her!"

"I'll add that onto the plan," said Marcy, "so in addition to finding Luz, we also have to close the front gate so we won't get overrun, then we have to free the king, defeat Sasha and Grime, work through our emotional baggage, and finally redesign the current political system so that this sort of uprising never happens again." Marcy let out a gasp of air as she finished.

"Gee is that it?" asked Hop-pop sarcastically.

"Yeah this ain't looking good," agreed Polly. The group let out a heavy sigh as they realized the weight of all they would need to do in order to win the day. Anne looked over the group before speaking up.

"Come on you guys we can do this!" she said trying to lift everyone's spirits, "they may think we're a weak little frog family, a clumsy nerd, a weak metal baby, and a goofy pushover, but they have no idea who they're dealing with." Anne looked over at Olivia, Yunann and Gustav, "well except for you guys, they probably think highly of you."

"They do," said Yunan.

"Uh they actually don't think very highly of me," said Gustav, "truth is I've kind of been banished from the toads."

"Wait really?" asked Anne intrigued, "they can do that?"

"Ehum," said Lady Olivia, "please continue your speech, we'll have time for more formal introductions later."

"We've been through a lot together," continued Anne, "Cannibals, giant killer moths, combining vegetables, you name it. And we're gonna beat this too, cause when we're together, nothing can stand in our way. Now who's ready to kick some ass!"

The others cheered in response to Anne's speech ready for the plan.

"All right now here's how we're gonna do it!" said Anne, "firstly we need to free the king."

"Actually," said Gustav speaking up, "we don't need to do that right away." the others looked at him.

"We should focus on getting control over the city first, as well as shutting the gates," he said, "if we do that then we can drive out the toads who are already here then retake the palace with ease. Once we have control of the palace we can free Andrias no problem."

"The boy has a point," agreed Yunan, "we should also consider reinforcing the frogs, they're fighting the toads but they can't hope to last forever, even with that magic user helping them." Yunan came up to Marcy taking her telescope and looking out at the battle.

"Ah ha!" she exclaimed, "they're being lead by Bufo of the East Tower. Send me out to deal with him! If we can stop Bufo we'll deal a huge blow to the army. They'll be leaderless and disorganized."

"I have an idea myself," added Olivia, "when the toads took the palace they captured some of our newt soldiers, If we can free them we will have reinforcements of our own to help deal with the toads."

"Okay then new plan," said Anne, "Yunan go outside and help the frogs, Hop-pop, Polly, and Frobo, attack the toads in the city head on and see if you can drive them away from the gate. Olivia and Marcy you two see about freeing the newt soldiers so we can add them to our ranks. If you can get them freed then have them join Hop-pop, Polly and Frobo and help reclaim the city. Meanwhile Sprig, Gustav, and I will sneak into the guard tower and close the gate."

"What about Luz?" asked Marcy

"After you free the newts see if you can capture a toad soldier and find out where they took Luz," said Anne,

"Okay got it," replied Marcy.

With that the group split off to fulfill their tasks.

Luz blasted a tornado at Beatrix causing her to be trapped inside the vortex, Luz came up and stabbed at her with her staff, but her armor took the blow protecting her from any serious damage. After awhile Beatrix broke free and came at Luz with her axe, Luz barely managed to dodge the blows, while on the ropes Luz activated a light glyph and sent the orb straight at Beatrix's face, but she covered her eyes.

"Nice try Luz," snarled Beatrix, "but Uodeela used that same trick, I've learned to guard against that."

Luz panicked for a second before jumping back out of the way of another of Beatrix's swings. She was already starting to feel a little tired from the fight so she reached into her belt and pulled out a stamina potion. Luz quickly drank the potion and her fatigue went away, but she knew it was only a temporary solution.

After finishing the potion, Luz slammed a wind glyph into the ground causing a tornado to form, it began spinning blowing everything away. Beatrix stood her ground against the mighty gale finally planting her axe into the ground to keep her from moving. Luz began to realize how bad an idea this was as the force of the wind picked her up off the ground and blew her around the stadium. Her light frame able to be buffeted more easily by the wind than Beatrix's large and heavy frame. Eventaully Luz got slammed into one of the walls by the wind. The tornado eventually faded and Beatrix came straight at her.

Beatrix swiped at her again and this time the blow managed to graze Luz giving her a cut above her left eye. Luz put her hand to the spot and pulled it back seeing blood on her hand. Beatrix came at her again with renewed vigor. Luz managed to dodge the attack and used another light glyph to summon up an orb and send it at the toad, again Beatrix managed to block the orb, but this time Luz came up to her and tried kicking her in the chest, but her blow didn't do any damage and Beatrix recovered coming at Luz again.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Beatrix, "I heard you were a lot tougher than this. Why you holding back girly?"

Luz didn't respond as she instead pressed two wind glyphs into her hands before aiming them straight at Beatrix, the double burst of wind managed to blow her back. But Luz was starting to realize that she had been on the defensive for this whole fight. All she had managed to do was keep Beatrix away from her, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could do that.

Back outside the gates the battle was raging fiercely. Trying her best to inspire the soldiers, Lilly lead her troops from the front. Engaging in different battles with various toads using both her sword and magic to give her the upper hand. She tried her best to take out the strongest toads on the battlefield to prevent them from gaining an advantage.

Lilly was locked in combat with a large blue toad. The two continued to trade blows until suddenly he made let out a yelp of pain before falling over dead, from behind him General Yunnan appeared withdrawing her claws from the toads back covered in blood. Lilly gazed up at the newt in awe.

"Who are you?" she asked. Yunnan was about to respond when a group of toads around them yelled out in terror.

"Ah it's General Yunnan," screamed one of them

"The scourge of the Sand Wars?" asked another next him

"The very one," replied a third, "I heard she defeated Ragnar the Wretched."

"She's the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of General in the great Newtopian Army," said the first again. The three toads all looked at each other before running in terror from the newt. Yunan turned to Lilly and gave a wink.

"That's who I am," she said in a cocky voice, "don't worry I'm here to help, with me on your side it's like you have another army fighting with you!"

Lilly's face lifted with that news, she gripped her sword with new resolve. She and Yunan shared a look before rejoining the battle, hoping to turn the tide! Yunan leapt straight into the fray instantly decapitating a toad before using her tail to cause another to trip to the ground. She came over to that toad sinking her claws into him and ending him. Another toad came up to Yunan trying to attack her but her armor took the blow, Yunan turned around slashing at the toad destroying his weapon before slashing at him multiple times killing him.

With the toads in the city distracted Anne, Sprig, and Gustav quickly made their way to the guard tower that held the controls for the gate. They glanced up and saw only a few toads guarding them.

"This shouldn't be too hard," said Gustav, "I think we can take them in a fight."

"Ready for one last adventure?" asked Anne looking at Sprig.

"Spranne against the world!" replied Sprig, "he uh real quick Gustav if you don't mind me asking why are you helping us against the toads."

"Uh it's a long story, that would take too much time to explain," answered Gustav, "I promise I'll tell you later."

"Right let's get up there and take control of the gate," said Anne as the three went up to the tower. There were three toads there standing watch and guarding the mechanism for opening the gate. Luckily they hadn't noticed the trio, Gustav looked at both Anne and Sprig.

"Here I have a new trick I want to try," he said, he pulled out a piece of paper with a strange symbol on it. Gustav emerged from the entrance of the tower and hit the symbol on the paper causing a jet of water to emerge from it knocking off one of the sentries. The other two charged at Gustav but he dodged out of the way before bringing out two more papers and activating the glyphs on those. Two more jets of water slammed into the toads sending them careening off the tower. Sprig and Anne emerged from the entrance stunned at the display.

"Pretty cool right?" said Gustav.

"You know how to use glyph magic too?" asked Anne in shock

"Yeah I….wait how do you know about glyphs?" asked Gustav.

"Luz and Marcy discovered them," said Sprig, "they found them while they were studying magic. They found a symbol for wind and one for light."

"Where did you find that water one?" asked Anne.

"Well ever since Lilly got her powers, she's gotten particularly good at water," explained Gustav, "one day while she was practicing I noticed a strange shape in a puddle that she had left behind, Lilly saw it too and out of curiosity we copied it down on paper and tried tapping it. And lo and behold water magic!"

"That's crazy, you have so got to compare notes with Luz when this is all over," said Anne.

"I'm sure we will," replied Gustav, he looked down at the battle that was raging below trying to find Lilly.

"Looks like Lilly's getting the hang of her new powers," observed Gustav, he pointed her out to Sprig and Anne. The two starred at her for a few seconds before noticing the sword she was wielding.

"Hey wait a sec is that the Massamune she's using?" asked Anne.

"Yes it is, you know about the Massamune too?" asked Gustav.

"Yeah we all tried to pull it from the stone," said Sprig, "but none of us were worthy."

"No kidding," said Gustav surprised, "wow I guess that must have been before we got there. Yeah she's been practicing ever since she first got it, I'd say she's doing pretty good."

"Luz told us about her" said Anne as she watched Lilly fight another toad. The two engaged in battle their swords clashing as they struggled against each other Lilly put her hand to the water that was all around them and caused a stream to come up from under the toad launching him into the air!

"Looks like we all have a lot to talk about later," observed Gustav, "but first we have to win this battle."

"Right, let's shut this gate already!" said Anne, her and Sprig moving to the mechanism. They both pushed hard against it but couldn't make it move.

"What the hell?" asked Anne, she looked over the side noticing the wedge that was jammed up against the gate preventing it from being moved.

"Don't worry I'm on it," said Gustav also noticing the wedge, he jumped down from the gate and reached into his bag pulling out a strength potion, he downed the whole bottle in one gulp before pushing against the wedge, it took time but he slowly began to move it away from the door.

Back down below the battle raged on, the frogs continued to hold the line against the toads and their advance against the city. Despite the strength advantage of the toads some of the frogs were using the water glyph to help even the fight against them. A group of frogs stood by the gate and used water glyphs to push back any toads who got too close. On the frogs' side Lilly leapt around the battlefield using both her sword and magic to fight. While on the toad's side Bufo was proving why he was a Toad Lord as he brutally cut down any frogs who dared oppose him. Bufo struck down another frog quickly removing his sword from its body before turning to see the gate beginning to close.

"What's going on? Why is the gate closing?" he asked in outrage.

"It's over Bufo!" said a voice from behind, Bufo turned to see General Yunan having just killed the lieutenant that was fighting next to Bufo. Her claws flashed in the bright sun.

"I think it's time for you to admit defeat and surrender," said the General, "or don't, honestly it would be more fun that way!"

"General Yunan, I've heard of your exploits," sneered Bufo, "don't think for a second that I'm impressed. Our army still greatly outnumbers these worthless frogs. We'll kill them all then break the gate ourselves If we have to!"

"So you don't want to surrender, that's fine by me," answered Yunan getting into a fighting stance and flashing a deadly smile at Bufo.

Bufo responded by pounding his chest and pointing his sword at Yunan, "I am Bufo Lord of the East Tower! I will die before I surrender!"

"I hope you'll entertain me first!" answered Yunan.

Bufo let out a yell and charged straight at Yunan trying to slice her with his sword. Yunan dodged his attacks and brought up her claws to block his strikes. The two traded blows as the fighting around them intensified.

Back inside the palace Sasha was still fiddling with the music box trying to determine how it worked, finally the voice in her head spoke to her.

You don't know how to work that thing, it asked slightly annoyed.

Hey give me a break, replied Sasha to her thoughts I just got it. If you're so smart why don't you tell me how to work it.

I…don't know how to work it either, said the voice.

Hmmph you sure are bossy aren't you, thought Sasha.

Hey I helped you get this far didn't I? said the voice

I guess you did, still it's a little freaky to learn you've been talking to me this whole time, I thought I was just having a conversation with my inner thoughts, said Sasha to herself, now I find out that you're a different person who's been in my head since that incident at the abandoned house. You were the one who spoke to me that night weren't you.

Yes, and you have to admit that I've helped you ever since then haven't I? said the voice.

I guess so, you were right about Luz and her trying to steal Anne away from me, I can't believe I didn't notice that on my own, thought Sasha, I never should have let her join our group to begin with. Here Anne and I have been friends for so long if anyone gets to date Anne it should be me!

What about Marcy? asked the voice, she's known her at least as long.

Yeah but Marcy is well you know Marcy, replied Sasha, she's not exactly girlfriend material. But hey it always helps to have a nerd in your friend group. Every time there was any sort of group project that needed to be done in school all I had to do was flatter Marcy a bit and tell her how smart she was and she'd do the all the work for all of us.

Ha, ha you really are great at getting other people to do what you want, said the voice, you're like the daughter I never had. You know if things with Anne don't work out I have a nephew who you might be interested in.

Hey don't even say something like that, Anne will eventually realize that we were meant for each other, answered Sasha.

Well everything will work out now, said the voice, once you send Luz to my world you'll be rid of her, and I will have her right where I need her.

Are you going to tell me why it's so important that I send her to your world? asked Sasha.

No I don't think I will, replied the voice smugly

Fine be that way, said Sasha, all that matters to me is getting her away from Anne.

As she continued to talk to the voice Grime came up to where Sasha was, holding something behind his back,

"Ehum," he said, "I got you something. Had it made especially for this day." With that Grime brought out a long thin gift and handed it to Sasha.

Sasha was elated, "what! Grimesy you didn't," Sasha took the gift and quickly opened it to reveal another sword. It was just like the one she currently already had although this one was a bright silver instead of red.

Sasha let out a gasp of delight as she took the new sword in her hand, "how'd you know I wanted to dual wield?"

Sasha brought the sword up to her face and looked directly at it, she could her reflection looking back at her, and for a moment her face fell. Grime noticed this.

"What's wrong you don't like it?" he asked in a worried tone, "Ah dang it I didn't get a gift receipt."

"No, no it's just-" began Sasha, "What if Anne's right? What if I am a horrible person?"

"I don't see how that can be true, you didn't cut her down when she insulted you," said Grime, "also you changed the plan with Luz to protect her."

"Oh uh…. How did you find out about that," asked Sasha slightly embarrassed

"You just told me," said Grime matter-of-factly. Sasha's made a surprised look with her face.

"But I suspected as much when I saw you writing that letter, I suppose what's done is done we've taken over the city and that's what matters," said Grime.

"So you don't think I'm a horrible person Grime?" asked Sasha.

"If you really wanted to you could have had Luz killed, but you didn't," said Grime, "but in any case who cares what Anne thinks, you and I are in charge now, and we get to do whatever we want!"

As Grime said this the voice in Sasha's head spoke to her, greatness requires sacrifice, you'll never achieve anything if you're always putting others before you. Take it from me, I had to sacrifice much to get to where I am today!

"The thing is I thought what I really wanted was Anne, but now she says she hates me" said Sasha out-loud, "what would I have to sacrifice in order to get her to love me?" Sasha realized a second too late that she had said that last part out loud, earning her a weird look from Grime.

"Eh, what are you talking about Lieutenant?" he asked confused.

"Oh uh….It's not what it sounds like," said Sasha nervously.

"No come on, if you want to talk about it, I'm here for you," began Grime, "I've guessed for awhile now that you fancy Anne don't you?"

Sasha didn't say anything, but her nervous look and blushing cheeks were enough of a response for Grime.

"I won't pretend I know how you humans judge each other as potential mates, but I think I can see why you want Anne, is that why you're so worked up over what she thinks of you?" asked Grime.

"I guess so…." answered Sasha not really sure, "I mean I offered to let her be a queen by my side, what more could I possibly do to show her how much I like her?"

"Well you could always threaten Luz," answered Grim nonchalantly.

"What?" said Sasha.

"Or Marcy I suppose, but yeah just tell Anne that unless she gives herself to you that you'll hurt one of her friends, that should solve your problem," answered Grime as though it were the simplest thing ever.

"I can't do that," said Sasha aghast, "I want Anne to….you know….like me for real, I don't want to force her into it."

"Hey you wanted advice I'm giving it to you," answered Grime.

"Oh uh….well thanks for that," said Sasha as she continued to fiddle with the box.

"Still haven't learned how to work that thing yet have you?" asked Grime

"No not quite," answered Sasha, "and I need to figure out how this ding dang box works. Once I do I think I'll test it on Luz and send her to another world that way she'll be out of our way for good."

"Yes you've mentioned that before," said Grime, "but enough about that for now, hey I have an idea. Why don't you come help me redecorate this place."

Sasha smiled joining Grime in moving to a tapestry that hung in the throne room. It depicted Andrias with a rainbow over his head tending to various amphibians and generally looking like an old kindly ruler.

"Yikes, this thing has got to go!" said Grime, he Sasha pulled hard on the tapestry finally removing it. Though as it fell it revealed another tapestry beneath it, one that was far less pleasant than the previous one. Immediately Sasha's eye caught what seemed to be a pile of skulls at the bottom. The rest of the image seemed to depict nothing but death and destruction.

"Whoa is that the king with the music box?" asked Sasha

"If it is it's a really good thing we stopped him," said Grime.

Sasha was about to reply, when a strange sound caught her ears, she went to the window of the castle and saw Anne and Sprig turning the mechanism and closing the gate.

"Are you serious they escaped?" she said in disbelief.

"Wait what's going on outside the city?" said Grime pointing to the battle taking place in the water near the gate.

"Hey the army's here, but they're fighting another army of frogs!" said Sasha.

"What?!" exclaimed Grime, "what is an army of frogs doing here? Where did they come from?"

"It won't matter for much longer," said Sasha, "Anne and Sprig are about to close the gate!"

"Where are the rest of our forces?" said Grime looking around the city, "shouldn't Beatrix and her battalion be here?"

"Captain Grime!" said a toad soldier entering the throne room, "the toads in the city have been routed, we've lost control of the gate."

"Where the hell is Beatrix?" asked Grime in annoyance, "she was supposed to back you up."

"She's fighting the humus in the coliseum," replied the toad.

"WHAT?!" said Sasha fear filling her face.

"That hummus still had powers, so we're sticking with the original plan to stop her," said the soldier, "it shouldn't take much longer though, once Beatrix finishes her off we can bring in the reinforcements."

"You fool! We're losing the city!" yelled Grime, "get back to Beatrix and tell her to forget about the human and bring her soldiers here now!"

"No, no, no, no, no," said Sasha in an almost pleading voice, "I changed the plan to keep Luz safe, Grime I'll go! I have to save Luz!"

"What about the gate?" he asked in a panic, "we need to stop them from closing the gate!"

Sasha was torn, on the one hand she wanted to keep Luz safe, but on the other the gate needed to be saved if they didn't want to lose the city and prevent whatever Andrias had planned.

Go and save Luz hurry! Yelled the voice to her, I need her for my plan!

Shut up! Thought Sasha, who cares about your dumb plan, I have to save Luz!

"Grime go and stop them at the gate, I'll go get Beatrix!" commanded Sasha.

Wait! Take the box with you, yelled the voice, use it on Luz!

"SHUT UP!" yelled Sasha out-loud. Grime gave her a look, but Sasha quickly tried to play it off, "uh forget I said anything Grime, just go stop them at the gate. I'll go get Beatrix!"

"Alright! Good luck!" called Grime as he leapt out the window towards the rampart where Anne, Sprig, and Gustav were. Meanwhile Sasha ran out the throne room doors, out of the palace and towards the arena

No you fool! Yelled the voice in her head, take the box with you! You need to use it on Luz!

Sasha ignored the voice as she rushed toward the arena as fast as she could run.

Back at the arena things weren't going good for Luz, in an attempt to actually fight Beatrix Luz had tried using her staff to hit her, her blows weren't strong enough to hurt Beatrix and the toad lord simply shrugged them off. Luz again brought up her staff to defend herself from Beatrix's axe. The staff had taken more than a few blows, and Luz wasn't sure if it would last much longer. The battle had been full of many close calls and near misses and Luz now sported more bruises and cuts on her body as she had been grazed more than once by Beatrix.

I need to get that axe away from her, thought Luz, quickly she came up with a plan. Letting Beatrix swing wildly at her again Luz managed to skillfully plant a wind glyph onto the axe. Beatrix stopped attacking for a second confused by what Luz was doing. Luz used that moment of distraction to activate the glyph and caused a powerful gust of wind to shoot out of the axe. The gust blew it out of Beatrix's hands up into the sky and over the wall of the arena. For a second Luz was relived as she thought this meant she might finally have a chance against her. But that relief was soon replaced by dread as Beatrix simply punched her hard in the face causing Luz to fall down to the ground.

The blow made Luz start to lose focus and made the world around her begin to spin, Luz tried to stand back up but was so dizzy and disoriented from the blow that she fell back down.

"LUZ, GET UP!" yelled Amara from across the arena, still in chains. She could see that Luz wasn't doing well. It was the only thing Amara could think to do. Luz tried to stand back up, but again fell down. Beatrix didn't make any move to finish her, instead taking the time to gloat and play to the crowd of toads who were all cheering her on!

"GET UP!" yelled Amara again, desperately hoping her words would have some affect on Luz.

Luz heard Amara's words and slowly lifted her head up. From her position she saw Beatrix reach behind her back and pull out a deadly looking club. The club was lined with sharp spikes, Luz's face fell at seeing this new weapon.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" cackled Beatrix as she stood over Luz, "are you really the one who defeated Grime at Tadpole Pond? Pathetic! I thought you might actually give me a challenge."

Luz didn't respond as she lay there on the ground, bruised, bloodied, and broken. She struggled to stand back up, even though she had almost no strength left.

"Well this has been fun," gloated Beatrix as she raised her club over Luz, "but it's time to put an end to you!"

Beatrix swung her club down at Luz, at the last second Luz managed to roll out of the way and dodge the blow. Using every ounce of strength she had left Luz got back up on her feet and faced Beatrix, defiance in her eyes!

"Oh good, I was afraid you'd die too easily," said Beatrix rushing at Luz. Luz brought up her staff to block her club and tried desperately to fight back, as she felt in her pockets she realized she only had a few glyphs left and had no idea what she would do when she ran out of them….

Grime landed with a loud crash on the rampart catching the attention of Anne and Sprig.

"Stop! You have to let our army into the city!" said Grime desperately, "it's the only way to stop whatever Andrias has planned with the music box."

"Really Grime, is this what you're reduced to, lying to try and get us to stop," said Sprig.

"Frankly I don't care whether you believe me or not, I have Barrel's hammer, I can make you stop!" said Grime as he swung his hammer wildly at Sprig, though Anne quickly came to her friend's defense.

"Like we'd ever believe you Grime," said Anne as she exchanged blows with Grime. Grime and Anne continued to fight before Grime thought up something that could maybe distract Anne.

"We have your friend Luz, I know where she is," said Grim causing Anne to stop her attack, "I'll tell you where she is if you leave the gate open."

"Luz," said Anne in a whisper as she stopped and considered the offer, only for her thoughts to be interrupted by Sprig.

"Don't even think about it Anne," called Sprig, "you know Luz would want you to do the right thing. We can't let the toads take the city! We'll find another way."

"Shut up!" yelled Grime as he again swung his hammer at Sprig, the frog dodged and launched himself at Grime causing him to stumble backwards. Unfortunately Grime was already near the edge of the tower so when he stumbled back he lost his footing and fell over with Sprig. The two kept falling until they both landed on a roof, almost falling into the house it was over.

Anne rushed over to the side of the tower, "Sprig!" she called worriedly, casting her eyes about for the pink frog.

"I'm alright," yelled Sprig waving up at Anne to indicate he was okay, Anne let out a sigh of relief, though quickly yelled, "watch out!"

Grime had snuck up behind Sprig and swung his hammer at him, Sprig dodged the blow and took out his slingshot aiming straight at Grime's face. Sprig launched a rock at Grime but Grime brought up his hammer to block it, he quickly closed the distance and swung again at Sprig attempting to smash him with the hammer. Sprig hopped around the roof avoiding Grime's blows, and using his slingshot to fire back at Grime whenever he had an opening. Grime kept blocking Sprig and eventually landed a punch on him knocking him to the ground. Grime brought up his hammer ready to crush Sprig but before he could he was blasted out of the way by a stream of water. Sprig turned and saw that Gustav had climbed up to the roof and had just used a glyph to blast Grime away. Grime recovered from the blast and starred straight at Gustav.

"Gustav, what are you doing here?" he asked in anger.

"I'm stopping you and the toads from taking over the city!" declared Gustav proudly.

"You fool! You have no idea what Andrias is planning, stop this right now," yelled Grime.

"Did you forget you banished me? I'm not a toad anymore so I don't take orders from you," mocked Gustav.

Grime ignored that comment and charged straight at Gustav, but his charge was interrupted as Sprig launched another rock at his eye this time scoring a hit!

"Aw, my one good eye," cried Grime, he began swinging his hammer around wildly trying to hit either Sprig or Gustav. They both nodded to each other before Sprig got down on the ground while Gustav came up to Grime and pushed him so that he tripped on Sprig. Grime fell to the ground the hammer falling on top of him, hitting him hard in the face. Gustav came up and grabbed the hammer.

"But your just a little frog, and you you're just a runt," said Grime in a slow pained voice.

"Guess I'm not so little after all," bragged Sprig.

"And I guess this runt just beat your ass Grime!" bragged Gustav, he looked over at Sprig before offering his hand in a high five, which Sprig quickly accepted.

Outside the gate Bufo continued fighting Yunan, the two seemed evenly matched as claws and sword struck each other each one matching the other. Yunan used her tail to try and trip Bufo up, but he saw what she was doing and swung his sword at her. Yunan withdrew her tail and swiped at Bufo with her claw. Bufo brought up his arm to block the blow. His armor absorbed the blow and Bufo tried to push Yunan off. Yunan allowed herself to be pushed back and used that momentum to charge at Bufo again!

"Ha, you truly are fearsome opponent. Perhaps your reputation is well earned," admitted Bufo blocking another blow from the Newt.

"Really, I was just thinking the opposite of you Bufo," said Yunan in an attempt to distract him, "if you're the best the East has to offer then we should have appointed a new toad lord years ago."

Bufo growled at that insult and resumed his attack on Yunan, again his sword clashed with her claws. The two trading blows as the tried to strike each other. Yunan again used her tail to try and trip up Bufo, but Bufo saw it coming an this time grabbed her tail with his free hand quickly pulling Yunan to the ground. Yunan smiled though as she used the opportunity to kick Bufo in the face knocking him off balance. She then used her claws to stab Bufo in the leg causing him to let out a yell of pain. Yunan quickly moved to his other leg and stabbed him again, causing him to fall to his knees. Finally Yunan struck Bufo's arm, even though it had a guard on it, she still managed to make him drop his sword. Yunan quickly kicked it away leaving Bufo on his knees at her mercy. Bufo slowly glanced up at Yunan, feeling fear for this first time in his life.

"I am General Yunan," declared Yunan, "scourge of the Sand Wars, defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of General in the Great Newtopian Army, today I add a new conquest to my ever growing list…."

Yunan smiled as in one swift motion she slashed her claw at Bufo's neck separating his head from his body!

"….slayer of Toad Lords!" With that Bufo's lifeless body fell over!

Some of the soldiers noticed this and called out, "Bufo has fallen! What do we do?"

"Retreat!" called another.

"No stand and fight you cowards!" called another, "we can still win this!"

At that moment the battle was broken up as suddenly the form of the Red Heron burst forth from the trees and into the water where the frogs and toads were fighting! Both armies stopped fighting immediately as they noticed the imposing monster.

"All frogs fall back now!" called Emmanuel to his troops, "regroup at the rendezvous point!" With that the frogs wasted in no time in quickly fleeing. The Red Heron spared a glance at the frogs and for a moment began chasing them, Lilly came up to the heron and used her water powers to send a stream directly at the her. It pushed her back for a bit but wasn't enough to stop her, still Lilly had grabbed the heron's attention and decided to use it.

The Red Heron reached down trying to snatch Lilly up in its beak, but Lilly dodged the attack she began hoping around like crazy, all the while continuing to hit the heron with water bursts trying to anger it into focusing on her. It tried again to eat Lilly but again Lilly dodged it, finally Lilly summoned up a stream of water and jumped on top of it, riding it like a surfboard and directing herself away from the frogs. There heron turned around and followed her.

Yes my plans working, thought Lilly.

Once she had the heron's full attention she directed her stream towards the retreating toads quickly riding past them. The heron kept following and soon noticed the large number of toads in front of it. The heron licked its beak in anticipation of the feast!

"What are you doing you fool?" asked one of the feeling toads, "you'll get us all eaten!"

"Exactly," replied Lilly coldly.

The same toad looked back in horror as the heron had forgotten about Lilly and instead focused her attention on the large number of toads in front of it. It let out a horrible growl and began to chase them. Some toads began pushing others out of the way to save themselves. Many of them were not fast enough and got scooped up and deposited into the heron's hungry maw. The toads continued to flee all the while being pursued by the hungry red heron.

Lilly continued to ride on her stream of water and directed it back towards the gates of Newtopia. She aimed for the gate tower and managed to successfully dismount onto it. She wanted to make sure the gates were truly secured and to help drive away the toads that were still in the city. As she got up to the tower she saw a human at the controls.

"Oh hello," said Lilly to the human, she glanced at her for a second before saying, "are you Anne?"

"Yes that's me," said Anne, "and you're Lilly aren't you? Luz's friend."

"Yes I am, did she find you in Wartwood? Did the two of you make amends?" asked Lilly.

"Yes we did," answered Anne, "but I don't know where she is now. We got separated before the battle started."

"Don't worry I'll help you find her," said Lilly, "looks like you've got the gate secured. Good job on that by the way!"

"Thanks but you were the one doing a great job!" said Anne, "I saw you using that sword and magic and jumping all over the battlefield. Then you managed to lead that heron away form the frogs and make it chase after the toads, you were amazing down there!"

"Thanks, I only just started learning how to fight, and this sword," she said indicating the Masamune, "I never would have thought of all the frogs in Amphibia that I would be worthy of it."

"It's good to know that it wound up in your hands, you know Luz and I actually tried to pull it, but neither of us were worthy," explained Anne, "good thing you were."

"Wait really?" asked Lilly, "you found the temple where the Masamune was housed? Wow! It looks like I have a lot of catching up to do with Luz once we find her."

Anne looked out toward the still retreating toads, the form of the red heron fading off into the distance.

"Hey uh, not sure how to ask this but….is that heron?" began Anne

"Yes," answered Lilly already knowing what Anne wanted to ask her, "as you can see she has no recollection of who she was. I knew it would be pointless to try and get through to her, so I did the next best thing and had her chase after the toads." As Lilly spoke her face fell as she also looked out towards the fading form of the red heron.

"I'm really sorry to hear that," said Anne coming up to Lilly, "Luz told me how much Uodeela meant to her." They were interrupted though when a voice from down below called up to them

"Anne!" called Marcy from down in the streets, Anne went over to the edge of the tower and saw Marcy waving up at her. She stood there with Olivia and a squad of armored newt soldiers.

"I found out where they took Luz," she called, "they're holding her at the Arena."

"What?!" said a worried Gustav, "the arena, that's where toads used to fight to the death. If she's there they might have forced her into combat with another toad."

"Well what are we waiting for then?" called Sprig, "let's get over there and save her!"

Sasha ran as fast as she could down the streets of Newtopia towards the Coliseum. As she did she noticed that the fighting in the streets had died down.

Can't worry about that now, she thought to herself, I have to save Luz.

After turning another corner the arena was in sight, Sasha breathed a sigh of relief knowing she wasn't much farther now and contineud running towards the entrance. Before she could get there though she felt a tug on her leg and was quickly tripped. As she fell to the ground Sasha turned to see Anne, Marcy, Sprig, a frog she didn't recognize and….

"Gus?" she said out-loud

"Sasha," said Gustav, looking deeply into her eyes.

"Guys Luz is in trouble we have to help her!" said Sasha.

"Yeah we know," said Anne anger in her voice, "that's why we're here, you really are the worst Sasha. Is it not enough for you to kill Luz? You have to make her fight for her life for sport? And without her powers!"

"What no, that's not-" began Sasha

"Save it!" yelled Anne, "we're here to stop you and save Luz!"

"I don't want to fight," said Sasha throwing up her hands, "please I'll explain later, but first we have to rescue Luz!"

"Yeah we'll take care of that," said Anne, "but first I'm going to take care of you."

Anne pulled out her sword and charged at Sasha, Sasha brought up her own swords to block Anne. The two traded blows only feet from the Arena entrance.

"Anne stop! We have to save Luz!" said Sasha.

Anne turned to the others who were with her, "guys go get Luz! I'll handle Sasha!" called Anne,

The others all nodded before running past Anne and Sasha and entering the arena. Despite the circumstances Sasha was at least relieved to see this, she turned back to Anne trying to convince her of the king's plan.

"Anne I need you to listen to me," pleaded Sasha, "there's something wrong with this Andrias guy." Sasha tried to continue but Anne interrupted her

"You expect me to believe you after all the lying and manipulating you've done," exclaimed Anne, "sorry Sasha but you're out of chances, in any case it doesn't matter, your toad army has already been defeated!"

"What?" said Sasha.

"We've already stopped them from entering the city and we secured the gate," said Anne, as the two continued to fight.

"No, no, no" said Sasha, "this can't be happening."

Anne and Sasha continued to fight, though Sasha was clearly on the defensive, in fact she spent most of the fight blocking Anne's blow instead of trying to hit her. Though eventually one of her strikes landed on Sasha grazing her right cheek. Giving her another scar like she had on her left side.

"Oh good now you match," said Anne sarcastically. Sasha brought her hand up to her cheek and felt blood, she renewed her attack on Anne hoping that if she could at least get her to stop she might be able to convince her of the king's treachery. Anne charged at Sasha slicing at her, Sasha ducked out of the way and gave a kick to Anne's hand causing her to lose her sword. Anne wasn't bothered by this as instead she slid behind Sasha grabbing her cape and bringing it up over her head blinding her. Once her head was wrapped up in the cape Anne punched Sasha hard causing her to fall to the ground and drop her swords. The battle was over.

Back in the arena Luz was all but worn out from her fight with Beatrix, she had used up the last of her pre-drawn glyphs and had nothing left but her staff to fight with. Still Luz refused to give up as she struck Beatrix again with her staff, but the blow barely hurt her, Beatrix recovered and went after Luz with renewed vigor. Luz's collection of cuts and bruises had grown over the course of the fight and the stamina potion she had taken earlier in the fight seemed to at last be wearing off. As the two continued to fight Luz brought up her staff to again block a blow from Beatrix and her spiked club, this time however Beatrix managed to break Luz's staff with the blow. The staff broke apart into two pieces in Luz's hands. Beatrix prepared to strike at Luz again and this time instinctively Luz brought up her arm to defend herself….

"Ahhhh!" Luz screamed, as intense pain flooded her arm! She knew instantly that it was broken as the pain she felt in it quickly became unbearable.

"Ahhhh!" Luz screamed again, hoping that maybe the scream would help soften the pain, but no relief came, her scream slowly turned into a whimper as she cradled her broken arm. Tears formed in her eyes as she fell to her knees unable to do anything else. Beatrix came up to her lifting Luz's face so that she could stare into her eyes.

"You know Sasha said I didn't need to kill you, just get you in a weakened state," began Beatrix knowing that she had all but won against Luz, "so tell you what. I'll give you one chance right here, in front of me and all these other toads. Surrender! Admit defeat and I'll let you live."

Luz responded by forming a large glob of spit in her mouth, then spitting directly in Beatrix's face! The toads in the Arena let out a gasp, Beatrix was stunned by this, yet made no move to punish Luz.

"Wow I have to admit you have guts!" said Beatrix genuinely impressed as she wiped the spit from her face, "here you are utterly defeated with a broken arm facing certain death and you still spit in my face. I have to admit that takes a lot of courage!"

For a second Luz wondered if that meant she wouldn't be hurt for her act of defiance. Yet that hope was dashed as Beatrix roughly punched her in the face causing her to fall down and hurt her arm even more. Luz let out a pained whimper, like an injured animal, as she fell to the ground.

"But I can't let such an act of defiance go unanswered," said Beatrix, raising her club and preparing to bring it down on Luz, "goodbye Luz the humus, may you find glory in Toadhala!"

Luz looked up at the club over her head and knew that this was going to be the end for her. She closed her eyes and braced herself hoping her death would at least be quick. The last thing she thought of was her mom, Marcy, and Anne, and how she would never see them again….

Luz heard a sound, like a large stream of water rushing by and opened her eyes. She saw Beatrix get pushed away from her by a jet of water. Then she saw a figure leap over her at Beatrix and engage her in combat with a sword, a sword that looked very familiar. Luz heard the toads in audience gasp and saw some of them get up from their seats to help Beatrix she looked back to the entrance and her heart leapt as she saw Anne and Marcy approaching her, Anne calling out her name desperately. Behind them she saw a squad of newts in armor being lead by a fancy looking newt in a dress. The newts quickly rushed forward and began attacking the toads in the coliseum. Meanwhile Anne and Marcy came up to Luz tears forming in both their eyes as they saw Luz's condition. Anne came up to her and again picked her up in her arms and began to carry her away from the fighting. It was the last thing Luz remembered as the intense pain from her battle finally caught up to her and she slowly drifted off into unconsciousness….