Chapter Text
Sprig floated back down to Amphibia, he would be safe. He had to be. Anne wouldn't be risking all of this if it didn't guarantee the safety of her family and friends.
She watched as he left her view, Frobo loyally returning him to Hop-Pop and Polly. Anne shed tears that would never be seen.
She mourned a life lost, one she would never be able to experience.
Her guard was down. A mistake she would regret for the rest of her life.
The moon was housing for every sick project The Core could come up with. It was at its strongest here; and while the stones make her physically unstoppable, her mind was just as susceptible as ever.
A voice whispered in her ear.
"Anne, do you really want to die?"
Anne knew she needed to destroy The Core. It would be so easy. But forgive her for wanting to spite the creature that caused every problem she had since the Calamity Box landed on Earth.
"Of course I don't want to die, you pile of garbage! I would do just about anything to live but-"
"Anything?" The voice of her greatest enemy cut her off. "Anything at all? We might be able to help you…"
"What!?" Anne nearly burst out laughing. "Why the frog would I ever listen to you!?"
A sick oily laughter emerged from behind her. "For the same reason as Marcy. You can't let go." The laughter quieted. "Can you really do this? Knowing that after everything you went through to get all of your friends back together, they will be ripped from you once more?"
More tears slipped from Anne's eyes.
"That's what we thought. We will let you live. You will keep your powers, you can see your friends and family. All you have to do is allow us inside your mind. We cannot control you without a helmet or collar. All we shall do is rest and survive."
It was a convincing argument. Anne knew she couldn't trust it. Marcy made the same mistake with the box, trusting something she knew too little about to fix her problems. But Anne wanted to live, she could feel the powers of the stones slowly waning. If she used the powers now, she would die, and her body might never even make it back home.
"Fine," Anne muttered. "Make me live. But try anything funny and I'll blow you to bits!"
"Yes, yes. Of course! We knew that!" The Core's synthetic voice shook with excitement at the prospect of survival.
A large metal tube shot out from the moon, on its tip was a massive syringe filled with a murky black liquid, thick as tar. "Allow the fluid into your body and you will see your friends and family once again."
Anne allowed the syringe to puncture right where her heart was, and she screamed in agony. She felt as if her very soul was being torn apart!
"Perfect…" Whispered The Core, directly from inside her mind. "We are safe! Now destroy the moon, it must be convincing if you want our deal to remain a secret."
Anne nodded, and charged up a massive beam of calamity. She felt a well of power she hadn't had before open up inside of her, and she destroyed the moon in one hit.
Anne slowly descended to the ground, her power was stronger after whatever The Core gave her, but she was still exhausted.
She lay in the lake, surrounded by all of her allies as the glowing aura faded from view.
Anne's skin was like that of weathered marble, rough and crumbly, as if she would shatter from the smallest fall. Her hair was silky white, and growing from it were blue, green, and pink flowers. Anne's eyes glowed a vibrant electric blue, with no pupils. But the most unsettling of all were her veins. They were large and unhealthy looking. Each vein flowed blacker than even the darkest of nights, and it felt so wrong to look at.
Anne knew then and there, that if it weren't for The Core, Anne would've died. No could'ves or maybes about it.
"See…" Rasped her new mind roommate. "We are why you do not crumble to dust as we speak."
All of Amphibia watched with bated breath as Anne slowly sat up from Sprig's embrace.
"Um…" The Thai teenager began, raising her hand in a half-hearted wave. "I'm alive?"
Cheers echoed from across the battlefield. They won, and Anne survived.
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As everyone began rebuilding and cleaning up, Mother Olm approached Anne.
"Child. You continue to surprise me." The olm smiled kindly. "I thought for certain that the ancient spell would be lethal, but you have stayed in the land of the living."
"We both know why that is…" Rasped a voice inside of Anne's brain.
"Haha, yeah…" Anne trailed off, pointedly ignoring the entity taking refuge in her consciousness. "I wonder why? Maybe the stones had more power than we thought or something?"
Mother Olm scratched her chin. "Perhaps they did. But it is a shame that you were so injured. Do you feel alright? You should probably lay down. Who knows what side effects being like this has."
"Yeah," Anne agreed. "I think I'll go take a break. Good luck with the rebuilding!"
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Anne burst into the hotel room, flopping on the bed.
"Okay, so what in Frog's name happened up there!" She shouted at the voice in her head.
"Whatever could you mean, Boonchuy?" The condescending wink was practically audible, even inside her brain.
"I mean like, that gooey stuff, and the whole being made out of dust! I literally just blew up a moon and now a hyper advanced AI just put itself in my mind! Like, this was definitely a bad idea, but I don't wanna die, so like, are you gonna try taking over the world using me or just stay in my thoughts for the rest of my life or… or… AUGHHHH!!!!" Anne screamed in irritation.
"Calm down Boonchuy. We can't control your thoughts, we can't force you to do anything. But we can do one very fun thing. Ahuhuhu…"
All of a sudden, a vicious searing pain filled Anne's entire body, and she looked down at her hands and watched as they began to crumble into a gray powder .
"What the Frog!" Anne reached down and grabbed the dusty fragments and held them against herself. They quickly assimilated back, and she returned to 'normal'.
"Ahuhuhu…" The Core spoke with the voice of Darcy, so gleefully sinister. "Just don't make us too mad and you'll be fine, Boonchuy."
Anne suddenly came to the conclusion that this was a lot worse of an idea that originally anticipated.
Sure, having the genocidal AI that possessed her 1st best friend, severely injured her 2nd best friend, crippled Grime, ordered the attempted murder of all of her friends and genocide of multiple species and planets…
Actually, this was never a good idea. What was Anne thinking!?
"You were thinking selfishly." Whispered The Core's voice. "You wanted to come back alive, so you ignored the red flags and fused with us. So now… you're stuck with us for the rest of your life. Best of all, if you don't obey us, you will die more painfully than a human mind can comprehend!"
It was official.
Anne majorly fucked up.