Chapter Text
The world was falling apart, as far as Marcy was concerned. Because guess what? This whole mess was no one’s fault but her own, and now everyone knew it. She’d gotten her two best friends stuck in another world where they nearly died, and even if they’d grown as people because of it there was no excuse for her own selfishness.
“I just… didn’t want to be alone,” Marcy muttered, falling to her knees. Quiet sobs escaped her mouth- she didn’t mean for it to happen this way, why was everything falling apart now when she’d been so close… Tears fell from Marcy’s eyes and she buried her face in her hands. The disapproving gazes of her friends were unbearable to look at- Sasha’s anger and Anne’s silent disbelief at another betrayal to add to her growing list.
The tense quiet seemed to press in from all sides, constricting around Marcy’s already aching heart. The girl huddled on the floor, shaking and whimpering and choking on the hot, salty tears that wouldn’t stop flowing. She was a child, a selfish child, throwing a fit because her hand had been caught in the cookie jar and she had never stopped to consider whether anyone had wanted this as much as she had.
Had everything always felt this cold? She wanted everything to go back to normal, for time to turn back so she could fix all of this. She just wanted to be happy with her friends, was that so much to ask? How had it all gone so wrong so quickly?
“Well, that’s what you get for pouring your heart out to me over flipwart,” King Andrias chuckled darkly, interrupting Marcy’s mental spiraling.
She heard voices and shouting but didn’t really process anything until she realized she was on her feet, wiping away tears so that she could aim at attacking frobots as Anne and Sasha fought back-to-back and Grime and Yunan took down enemies left and right. She watched as Andrias tried to kill Polly, and succeeded in crushing Frobo beneath his fist. She watched as Polly grabbed the box off its pedestal and the castle slowly began lowering itself back towards the ground.
“Not so fast.”
And then Andrias was talking again, and he had Sprig in his fist. Everything went quiet.
“You’ve all got spunk, real chutzpah. But… this ends now.”
“Guys, don’t listen to this bully! I’ll be fine!” Sprig squirmed in the king’s grasp, but he was completely stuck.
“We’ll see.” Andrias narrowed his eyes, holding Sprig out a nearby broken window. “Now put the box down or this little twerp learns how to fly.”
“Anne, DON’T-” Sprig was cut off as Andrias tightened his grip, and the little frog choked.
“Sprig!” Anne glanced at the purple polliwog holding the box above her head. “Polly, do what he says.” As soon as she obliged and the castle stopped lowering towards the ground, Anne continued. “Okay, dude. You have what you want. Now please, just put him down. He’s my best friend, in this world or any other world.” Marcy ignored the pang in her chest at those words, even though they were true. Sprig really was a better friend than her. But Andrias’ expression only seemed to darken.
“That's the thing about friends, isn’t it?” he began. “The more you love them, the more it hurts when they go. Allow me to demonstrate.”
And the next thing Marcy knew, Sprig was falling.
The girl whistled loudly for Joe Sparrow, wind rushing past her as she dodged some laser beams shot in her direction and ducked out the nearest window, landing on the bird’s back as she arced around to catch Sprig by the wrist and drag him up next to her. For a second it looked like Marcy would miss him, but then her fingers wrapped around slimy amphibian skin and one slippery moment later he was sitting in the saddle beside her.
“If you’re as important to her as she says you are, you’re important to me, too,” she said, and Sprig nodded wordlessly, still in shock from nearly falling to his death.
They flew back up to the castle just as the blue faded from Anne’s hair (that was a mystery for another time) and she collapsed, and Marcy set Sprig free to run to his sister- because really, they were siblings, weren’t they?
She snatched the box off of its pedestal once more, zoning in on the gems and buttons as she fiddled with it, opening a portal to Earth.
At least, I hope these are the right coordinates. They probably are.
“Please work, please work, please work,” she muttered to herself, glancing back at Anne and the Plantars. “Quick, into the portal everyone, hurry!”
Anne climbed into the glowing doorway, the Plantars by her side. “Marcy, hurry,” the Thai girl urged. I need more time, Marcy’s thoughts screamed. What if the coordinates I set are wrong? We can’t just leave Sasha! She continued fiddling, her heart pounding in her ears.
“I just need t-”
Something pushed Marcy out of the way with as much force as it could, and the smaller girl went sprawling. Andrias struck with his sword, impaling Sasha on the end where Marcy had been less than a heartbeat ago. Sasha, who had been so mad at her moments before. Sasha, who was one of her oldest friends. Sasha, who had fought for her and saved her life, and now she was paying the price.
“SASHA!!” both Marcy and Anne called out as the blonde girl collapsed onto the floor. Sasha sacrificed herself for her, she saved her. Even after she was the one who made this whole mess in the first place. Marcy couldn’t breathe.
There was no time to process what had just happened - not really, anyways - because the next thing Marcy knew there was a white-blue-pink light blinding her and she was falling backward into the portal and out of the sky.
…out of the sky?!
She must’ve dropped the box before falling through because she didn’t see it in the air around her and she definitely wasn’t holding onto it anymore.
The ground is so far away. She watched as the tops of the reddish-pink trees got closer and closer. Actually, no, wait, trees aren’t supposed to be that color, are they?
A dark shape swooped under her, breaking the girl’s fall as she landed with an oomph on its back.
“Joe Sparrow!” Marcy exclaimed in surprise, hanging into the feathers around his neck for dear life. “…did you follow me into the portal?” It honestly wouldn’t be the most surprising thing that had happened to her that day.
The duo landed safely on the forest floor, leaves stirring up around them as Joe beat his wings and hit the ground with a soft thump. He chirped at his rider and Marcy slid off, staring around in awe.
Weird… tree things? They almost look like pine trees from afar, but the leaves are all wrong… She ran her hand along the trunk of the tree, making a soft humming noise of surprise. Bark texture’s all wrong too. It’s almost… velvety? She walked around a bit to take a proper look.
“Where are we?” she asked to no one aloud, Joe Sparrow tweeting in response. Alright, Marcy, start with things you know. She was surrounded by trees. They might’ve looked different than normal trees, but they were definitely still trees. The girl caught sight of some strange footprints in the leaflitter.
She knew she should’ve been focusing on how to get back home and save her friends (Sasha with a sword through her back, a blow Marcy was supposed to take instead of her; Anne, watching, wide-eyed, confused and scared and hurt by another person she thought she could trust), but her curiosity and definitely nothing else drove her to make the decision of going around the forest. Besides, she didn’t have any better plans at the moment.
After following the tracks for a while, the girl stopped to take a break on a log, Joe Sparrow settling down beside her. As she sat, catching her breath, Marcy’s brain immediately began flashing through the events of earlier.
Why did it all have to be like this? She just wanted to be happy, she wanted her friends to be happy, she wanted to go on adventures for the rest of time, and she wanted Sasha and Anne by her side as she did it. But now they were further from her than maybe they’d ever been. Her selfishness led her to this. The blame was on her. It was her fault she and her friends ended up in Amphibia, her fault Sasha was-
Time to get moving again, the girl decided, standing up. Thinking of everything was hurting her head. She was not going to let herself sink into her thoughts for too long. Not when she was in a mysterious forest and had interesting footprints to follow and still had… her journal… with her..?
“Where is it?” Marcy patted her cloak, feeling around all the secret pockets and through her bag. Her journal was missing. Oh. …I gave it to Anne and forgot to ask for it back, didn’t I? Well, great. She sighed- now she didn’t even have something to catalog her findings in.
The girl hadn’t even noticed she was still walking until she slipped on a particularly smooth patch of wet moss and fell.
And fell, and fell, and fell. For the second time today, funnily enough.
Luckily, she landed on top of something soft. Unluckily, she couldn’t see anything, and that soft thing underneath her was making a deep, angry rumbling noise.
Oh, frog.
“Joe Sparrowwwww!!” she called out, hoping that he would be able to hear her, which was rather unlikely, considering how far she had fallen, and the strange moss that lined the walls of the cave soaked up her voice and stopped it from echoing.
Marcy shot up from her position immediately as the ground beneath her shifted - because right, of course, she’d fallen on top of something - sprinting in no real direction at all and ending up in a head-over-heels tumble into a moss-covered wall.
She felt as the thing in the darkness loomed over her, a chill zipping down her spine. Slowly, at least a dozen red-orange-yellow-ish eyes opened, illuminating the shape of some kind of… axolotl-looking creature?
Am I still in Amphibia after all? Marcy barely had time to wonder before a thunderous sound shook her to her core. While her bones were still vibrating from the roar, the creature stepped towards her, and she finally registered how big it was - bigger than King Andrias, even, with all of its thirteen huge eyes focused on her.
“Any day now, Joe,” Marcy murmured under her breath, reaching for her crossbow. If she was gonna die fighting an eldritch axolotl creature she might as well go down swinging. Or shooting, in this case.
Taking aim, Marcy hit it right in the eye. She covered her ears at the bone-shaking roar that followed, taking the opportunity to duck between the creature’s legs and narrowly avoid its swinging tail.
“JOE SPARROW!!” she shouted, louder this time. “ANYBODY-” The girl cut herself off as the roaring behind her went quiet, covering her mouth as she slowly turned around. The creature, now with a tiny arrow stuck in its largest eye, glared down at her, even angrier than before.
“Uhhhh, nice… monster… axolotl… thing? I-I’m sorry for shooting you in the eye, but I think you were trying to eat me, so…” She backed up until she hit another wall, silently cursing herself for wasting all her arrows on the frog-bots back in Newtopia.
A blast of red energy flashed over her head, and electricity zapped through her body for a moment as the girl blinked away the dots spinning in her vision. She suddenly found herself back aboveground, deposited safely next to a crack in the ground that was just big enough for a girl of her size to fall into.
So that’s why Joe Sparrow didn’t fly down after me, she thought. He didn’t fit. Finally, the girl processed the other person standing over her, a red cardinal (was it… made out of wood?) perched on his shoulder and a golden staff with red energy glowing on the end in his hand. He glared down at her with magenta eyes. The rest of his face was covered by a pale red bandana.
“Ah. So that explains it,” he muttered, the glow disappearing from the end of his staff. “Of course the only person incompetent enough to fall into a nixolotl’s lair is a human. Where do you all keep coming from?”
“Are you an elf?” Marcy asked, ignoring his statement as she stared at his pointy ears. Oh my gosh I’m talking to an elf! Hold on, did he say there are more humans here besides me-?
“I am not an elf,” he replied, annoyed. “I’m a witch.”
“Oh. Hm. Sorry, then,” Marcy stood up, brushing herself off as best she could. The little red cardinal on the witch’s shoulder trilled at him, and he sighed.
“What’s your name?” Marcy piped up after a pause. “I’m Marcy Wu, Chief Ranger of the Newtopian Knight Guard.”
He tensed up at the mention of Marcy being a “chief ranger.”
“Newtopian Knight Guard?” he echoed. The girl cocked her head at him.
“Uh, y’know, Newtopia! It’s a biiig city, filled with talking newts and ruled by a king who pretends to be nice but is actually a complete a-” She coughed awkwardly, realizing he had no idea what she was talking about. “…I had a feeling that I wasn’t in Amphibia anymore.” I have to get back there, then. And now I’ve gotta find a way to make a portal without the music box, or my friends, in a completely unknown world filled with giant monsters and witches that look like elves.
“Is that where you’re from?” the witch interrupted her thoughts.
“Oh!” Marcy jumped, almost forgetting he was still standing there. “Yeah, sorta. See, a few months ago I ended up in Amphibia- long story. Before that, I used to live on Earth, with other humans, another long story. Anyway, in Amphibia, I became a ranger - which I kinda regret now, also a long story - people were betrayed, backs were stabbed, literally - that’s also also a long story, and gosh, it’s really all one big, long story, isn’t it? - and then I ended up here. What… is this place?”
“Welcome to the Boiling Isles,” the witch answered in a dry voice. He looked mildly confused by the girl’s explanation but overall seemed uninterested with whatever calamity Marcy had gotten herself tangled up in.
“The Boiling Isles,” the girl repeated, finally remembering something. “Wait, you mentioned more humans being here?”
“Yeah, and from what I’ve seen, you have a way of always getting yourselves and others into danger. Causing trouble all the time…” He trailed off with a tsk, tsk sound.
“Oh…” Marcy nodded slowly. Not that she agreed with the part where he insulted humans, but she certainly had a habit of causing trouble. Well, trouble was one word for it.
The witch’s bird turned into a staff in his hands, and he sat down on it as it floated, seemingly without any real physics at play.
“Woah,” Marcy breathed. She had seen a lot of things in the past few months, but still. “How does that work? Is it magic? Oh, duh, of course it’s magic, you’re a witch, sorry-” She paused at his stare, biting her lip.
“Thanks for saving me,” she finally murmured.
“Yeah sure, don’t mention it,” the blonde witch rolled his eyes. “Just don’t cause any more trouble, because I’m not swooping in to save you from a slitherbeast or dragon or whatever creature you provoke next time.” And with that, he flew away, leaving Marcy just about where she had been before, except with a newfound understanding of where she was, and how fascinating (and, admittedly a little terrifying) this would be.
Wait a minute. Finally, Marcy realized that throughout her entire conversation with the witch boy she hadn’t seen or heard so much as a cheep from Joe Sparrow. In fact, the huge bird was nowhere to be found.
“Joe! Joe Sparrow!!” She looked around, yelling out his name as she cupped her hands around her mouth. She whistled for him, but there was no response. Great, Marcy chewed the inside of her cheek, looking around and rocking back and forth on her heels, …now what?