Chapter Text
“Home…”
Anne was numb. There was no feeling left in her. She wasn’t excited to be home, she wasn’t even thinking about her family right then.
While she tried to take in the familiar smells and sights of LA, flashes of exactly what just happened a few seconds before kept coming into view. So she wasn’t really taking in the sights and the smells. All she saw was Marcy. All she smelled was burning flesh. All she heard was her best friend’s final apology before her body crumpled onto the ground.
“...Anne? Anne!” She gasped and blinked, bringing herself back to the present where her other best friend, Sprig Plantar, had been calling her name. It was then that she noticed the flashing red and blue lights on the side of the road in front of her. Frog, how long had she been lost in thought that there had been enough time for emergency services to get there?
She slowly raised her head up, facial expression not changing in the slightest. There was an officer walking up to them, still sat on the hood of the car they’d warped onto.
“Ma’am,” said the officer, presumably to Anne, and not Polly, since normal humans don’t generally talk to amphibians and expect them to talk back. Normal humans don’t generally see giant frogs nearly the size of humans either but the man didn’t seem to be too focused on that, not when there was a young human girl who was the victim of a potential car accident; because, why else would she be sitting on a car hood in the middle of the highway?
“Ma’am, are you alright?”
Anne swallowed. “...No,” she said honestly. She didn’t have it in her to lie and pretend everything was fine, not even now. Because everything was so damn far from fine.
“Anne…” Sprig said and wrapped his arms around Anne’s arm as to comfort her and buried his head into her side.
“...What the-?” the officer stammered, finally noticing the talking family of frogs that joined her on the car.
The sound of wheels on concrete denoted the arrival of a stretcher from the EMS and the officer stepped back and said something along the lines of ‘I don’t even know what I’m looking at here’ into his radio.
Anne wasn’t particularly aware of much going on around her so when a gloved hand that wasn’t a Planter’s touched her arm she recoiled immediately and whipped her head around to see a paramedic with her arm outstretched.
“Miss, I’m going to need you to-”
“No! Don’t touch me!” She began to feel a long-awaited flood of tears leaking out of her eyes.
“We need to examine you for injuries-”
“Stay away from me!”
“Anne, it’s alright, calm down. I think these humans are here to help.” Hop Pop said gently and the woman’s eyes widened and brows furrowed, looking shocked. Another aftereffect of giant talking frogs in LA on highway 110.
She needed to get out of here. There was way too much going on. She couldn’t handle it, not after everything that had happened that day already. She felt some sort of energy surge within her and things in her vision became a tinted blue. She wasn’t entirely present when she began emitting flashes of light and ethereal leaves began floating up around her head. She wasn’t aware that she’d grabbed all three Plantars and practically teleported away from the road, not stopping until they were all deep in the forest. The forest felt more like home than anything else here right now.
Her hair stopped glowing and the leaves and the blue began disintegrating and Anne collapsed on the forest floor.
She opened her eyes to the familiar faces of her found family; she wasn’t sure how long she’d been unconscious.
“Anne!” they all shouted simultaneously.
“Anne, dang it! You gotta stop doing that! What the heck is going on?” Hop Pop said.
“Huh?” Anne blinked, not entirely sure what he was talking about.
“You don’t even know you’re doin’ it, huh?” he said as Anne sat up from the ground.
“What do you mean?”
Sprig chipped in before Hop Pop could say anything, “Anne, you glow!”
“You’re magic!” Polly added.
“You have some sort of connection to the stone in the Calamity Box, it gives you special abilities. You just now turned all blue and glowy and super sped us out here into the woods. You did it once before, back at the castle,” Hop Pop explained.
The memories flooded back to her again. “The castle…” she muttered, “Marcy…!”
None of the Plantars knew what to say to that, they’d all seen what happened. Anne sat in silence, staring at nothing as more tears spilled from her eyes. It didn’t take long for the first sob to escape her throat. Anne covered her mouth with her hand and keeled over into the fetal position sitting on her knees. She cried and she cried and she cried. Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop just sat there with her, keeping her company, making sure she wasn’t alone right now. Each’s empathy had reached a point when they all were there, crying together for who knows how long.
Marcy… wasn’t gone, right? She couldn’t be. She was Marcy! And Sasha, Sasha was still there too! She had to have saved her, right? But… but that sword… It had gone straight through her heart. Anne had watched it happen right in front of her eyes. There was no way she could have survived that…
And it was all King Andrias’ fault. All his fault. Marcy had trusted him, they all had, and he went and stabbed her in the back, literally. There was no doubt in Anne’s mind that the next chance she got, she would finish that tyrant once and for all.
“Marcy… Sasha… I don’t know what to do…” she said softly into the earth that she had rested her head on, voice completely cracked and broken. She tried to breath but couldn’t get a single breath in without choking on sobs again.
It took a long time to compose herself enough so that she wasn’t curled up in a ball on the dirt anymore, yet she still felt like she would burst into tears again any moment.
“Anne…” Hop Pop broke the silence finally, “do you have someone you can call? That’s how that box of yours works, isn’t it? You can use it now, right?”
Her phone! “My phone!” She fumbled for the device that was stashed in a pocket in her skirt. The thing was probably near shattered by now. She pulled it out and pressed a button to turn it on.
3 bars.
She had service.
It took everything in her to not start crying again. She swallowed hard and unlocked it, pressing on her contacts, tapping the first name to show up on her frequents list: Mom.
It rang three times before there was a click on the line; someone had answered.
“H-hello?” A voice said. A voice she hadn’t heard in over six months.
“…Ma…?” Hardly any sound came out of Anne’s mouth. She was still folded over her knees and her hand was kept close to her mouth, covering it.
“Anne?! Anne, baby, is that you?!” Anne’s mother’s frantic voice said.
“Mama,” she sobbed again, the lack of clearly didn’t last very long, “Mama I- …I need help.”
“Baby, baby, where are you, baby?”
“I-I will send you my location…” Anne sniffled and opened her texts with her mother still on the line and pressed the already prepared ‘send location’ button. “Please- please come…”
“I’m on my way, baby, I’m on my way, I promise. Annie baby, are you hurt? Where have you been for so long? Oh, your father and I had thought the worst! What happened to you?”
Anne couldn’t hold herself together for much longer. “I’m okay, I’m okay, I- I… can’t-” She broke off into sobs again.
“It’s okay, baby, it’s okay, stay on the phone with me okay? Do I need to call 911?”
“No!...No, don’t, please, just…”
“Okay, I’m not far, baby, I’ll be there soon. I am driving now,” Her mother said.
"Be careful…" Anne said softly.
"Of course. Annie, are your friends with you? You all- you three disappeared together."
Anne's heart dropped even further down into her stomach as more tears fell from her eyes.
“...No…” She barely whispered, “no, I’m… alone…”
"Alright, hun, alright. I'm almost there. It’s gonna be okay.”
It’s gonna be okay. Was it?
Anne sniffled hard and swallowed, tapping the mute button on her call screen. She cleared her throat.
“You guys need to hide…” She told the Plantars. “...She’ll freak out if she sees you and I don’t think- I can’t handle that right now…” Her voice wavered and she tried to take a deep breath, but it got caught in her throat and she coughed a few times.
Her surrogate frog family looked at each other.
“Are ya sure?” Hop Pop asked.
Anne nodded and leaned in to wrap her arms around all three of them, a hint of composure peeking out that she knew she’d lose within minutes. She took another breath and ushered them to a spot behind a bushel of sticks and shrubs and sat down cross legged with them, chewing on the inside of her cheek.
“Annie, dear, are you still there?” The voice on the phone said. Anne blinked and set her jaw.
Hitting the mute button again, she said, “...Yes, mama, I’m still here…” She cleared her throat again and stood up shakily.
“I think I’m coming up to your location, baby, I’m parking my car right on the side of the road. Are you in the woods?”
“Mhm… yeah,” she confirmed.
“Okay, I’m walking to you, okay? Just stay where you are, I’m almost there,” her mother said.
Anne took a shaky breath again, “Okay, Mama…” Her voice had reduced to a whisper again. Any louder, she knew she’d break down again. She muted her side of the call again and turned back to the Plantars who were standing on the forest floor with her.
“Just… don’t come out until I say so, okay?” Anne looked at them with tired eyes, with an expression none of them could identify, and then trudged back out to the clearing they were in earlier.
Just then, she heard a soft, “Anne!” coming from somewhere to her left, then echoed on her phone. “Annie, where are you?”
“...Mom,” She tried as loud as she could, but her voice cracked and barely any sound came out at all. She sniveled and took a couple of steps in the direction of the calls, trying to clear her throat again, “Mama…?”
The moment her mother’s worried face came into view, any bit of composure disappeared, just as she’d predicted. She used what seemed like all of her strength and none of it at the same time to sprint in her direction, her mom doing the same to her. Anne melted into her upon their collision, squeezing onto her as hard as she possibly could, another river falling from her closed eyes and sobs escaping her lips.
The two ended up knelt down on the dirt and they stayed like that for frog knows how long, Anne’s mother running her hands through her daughter’s matted hair.
She knew she was absolutely filthy and surely looked exactly like she had been living in a swamp for the last six months, which she had been. She even still had her chest plate over her shirt, with the leaves and sticks she was never able to get rid of still in her hair, muddy shoe, singular, since she never bothered to find another one, and the backpack she’d held onto for so long carrying everything she owned during her time in Amphibia.
Her mother on the other hand, was well groomed, as one would be expected to be, here in the great US of A, and she smelled like delicious Thai food from their restaurant, a stark difference from the cooked bugs and plants she’d become accustomed to in the last several months.
Anne had her face buried in her mother’s neck and stayed there as the sobs turned to hiccups turned to snivels turned to breathing deeply. Eventually, Anne began to pull away slightly, her face tight and lips pursed staring down at her lap. She felt two soft warm hands on either side of her face that directed her gaze upward and she looked into her mother’s deep brown eyes which were scanning every inch of her face and wiping under her eyes to clear the muck of tears and snot that had gathered there.
“Anne, can you tell me anything? What can you tell me? What happened to you, baby?” Anne’s mother said as calmly as she could.
Anne began to shake her head, but stopped and swallowed, looking back downward.
“...I-” She took a deep breath and returned her mother’s gaze again. “This is gonna sound… totally crazy and insane and like I’ve completely lost my mind, but I promise you I’m not crazy…” She reached her hand up to her chest and traced the design on her golden chest plate, one of her many proofs that everything that had happened was in fact real. It was too real. “I’m not crazy…” She nearly zoned out, caught in all her chaos of thoughts and memories and feelings.
“Of course, hun, you can tell me anything, I promise I’ll believe you, I promise, okay?” She tilted Anne’s head back up to look at her so that she could tell she was being genuine. Anne inhaled sharply and sighed, nodding.
“I was… trapped,” she began, trying to find words to make the story seem like she wasn’t a total nutcase, “in a place… and I didn’t have a way to get home, until now…” Her heart dropped and her stomach hurt at the mention of the present and most recent memories and she bit her lip, shaking her head to push them out; there was absolutely no chance she would be able to talk about that for a long long time.
“...And this place, it wasn’t… here. It wasn’t… ugh! I dunno how to say this! I sound insane right now!” She gritted her teeth and balled her fists, angry at whatever god out there decided it’d be a good idea to let this happen to Anne and her best friends.
“It’s alright, baby, just tell me as plainly as you can, I promise you won’t sound crazy.”
Anne highly doubted that, but nodded, fiddling with the hem of her t-shirt.
Another deep breath later and she let herself spurt out the most basic true answer there was: “I was magically transported to this place called Amphibia that’s full of talking frogs and is also in another dimension!” She squeezed her eyes shut and was met by nothing but silence from her mother on the other end. She carefully opened one eye at a time and saw furrowed brows and concerned eyes.
“...Oh…” was all her mom could say.
“...Yeah, that’s what I thought. But I have proof! I have this armor, and I have pictures on my phone and I have-” She cut herself off, sighing, “oh my frog,” she whispered, “I have some people I want you to meet… People from that world… that are also frogs… You guys can come out now…” She said hesitantly.
A cute little frog family emerged from the woods. One, what looked like an old man, with grey hair growing out of his bright orange head, wearing clothes like he was a pet and his owner had decided to dress him up for fun. He was also extremely big for a frog; standing on two legs, he would’ve reached about Anne’s waist in height. The next, a much thinner and younger looking bright pink frog wearing a hat with goggles on it along with a greenish jacket and shorts. The last one was much smaller, really just a magenta sphere with a face and arms and legs, wearing a giant bow on the top of her head.
Anne’s mother nearly fell backwards upon seeing them, an obvious reaction for someone who’s lived on Earth as a skeptic for their entire life.
Anne reached her arms out in surrender. “It’s okay, it’s okay! Mama, these are the Plantars. They took care of me while I was in Amphibia.”
Anne’s mom just stared at them for a while and an awkward silence rang out until Hop Pop decided to break it.
“Hopediah Plantar,” He said and stepped forward, reaching an arm out in greeting, “Pleased to meet you Mrs. Boonchuy.”
Mrs. Boonchuy’s eyes darted from the frog to her daughter a couple of times before Anne smiled sheepishly and nodded and shrugged. Anne’s mother squatted down to be closer to Hop Pop’s height and reluctantly reached out to grab his hand to shake.
“Hello…” She said carefully.
Sprig jumped up next to Hop Pop and mirrored his actions. “Hi! I’m Sprig!”
“I’m Polly!” the smallest bounced up to join them.
Anne’s mom gingerly shook each of their outstretched hands and stood up to look back at her daughter.
“...Well…?” Anne asked cautiously.
Her mom’s eyes darted around a few more times before she responded.
“...They’re frogs…” She said matter-of-factly.
“Mhm.”
“They talk.”
“Yep.”
Another brief wave of silence fell over them again.
“...This is gonna take some getting used to,” She said finally.
Anne sighed. “Can we… take them home with us? They’re kinda stuck here now, too…”
“I… guess…” her mother said, “but, how did you get back in the first place? And your friends, Sasha and Marcy, did they get trapped there too? Marcy’s parents were worried, and Sasha’s home put out missing posters before even we could."
Anne’s stare went blank and she froze, trying to keep herself stable, unable to say a word. She looked down at the ground.
Her mom went to reach out to her and say something but Hop Pop tugged on her sleeve to hold her back. She looked down at him, the old frog just shaking his head. Anne’s mother sighed.
“It’s alright. You can tell me when you’re ready, okay, baby?” She said instead and wrapped her arms around her daughter again, Anne returning the gesture.
“...Okay. I think… it’s time to go home. What do you think, Annie?” Mrs. Boonchuy said after a few more moments of quiet. Anne just nodded against the hug she was still entangled in.
“Yeah, that sounds nice…
Home…”