Chapter Text
It's quiet, save for a gentle breeze. A war is over, a realm is saved, and three girls stand at the edge of a large cliff, staring out at the world they helped save. The three girls, blessed by the Calamity Box, after countless betrayals chose to save each other time and time again. None of them could get out the exact words why. Just that they could never have left them behind, no matter what they did. However, the sun sets and one girl does turn her back on the group and begin to walk away.
"Sasha?" Anne calls out behind her, turning on her heel to face them both.
Sasha stops, "Yeah?" she doesn't bother looking at the either of them. It's too hard to at this point. Nothing could have prepared her for seeing the terror and regret on their faces when they first saw her again after the first loss to King Andreas and she can't risk seeing that pain that she caused in them again.
"Where are you going?" Anne calls out again.
"I'm leaving."
"Sash..." Anne chokes. She almost stops herself, but carries out the words that her heart is begging her to get out despite the "frog in her throat", so to speak. "Please don't"
"I should go. All of this was my fault. I manipulated you. I was cruel. I needed control and I needed power and I betrayed you..."
"Uh, yeah, multiple times."
"Yeah Anne, multiple times. I used that power to help us win and to help free you... but now that debt I owed you is paid. I don't need to spend any more time ruining your lives anymore."
Marcy shouts over Sasha, tears threatening to well in her again if it wasn't for the fact that she already cried all the tears her body could when she was first freed by the both of them, "No sash, it was me! I held on too tight! I was selfish! I cared more about being with you two than... I cared about how you actually felt... It was my lies, my betrayal... I'm the one who should be punished, not you."
Sasha would look angry if she didn't look so damn sad. A single tear rolls down her cheek as she turns back around to look at Marcy's heartbroken face. "That is such a load of crap. Look at you!! You can barely even stand!! You didn't deserve this!!"
The two of them are quiet for a moment, their overwhelming guilt filling the air. After a long pause, Sasha and Marcy look at Anne expectantly.
"Well... what did you do?" Asks Marcy
"Yeah we all messed this up so now its your turn. We can't be the only one's who made horrible life shattering mistakes in all this!" Says Sasha.
"It's only fair."
"Guys, that doesn't even..." Anne is almost about to reject their question entirely, because let's face it, it's dumb, but Anne's mind does land on something to blame herself for. "If I say it its gonna sound more mean to you than it will to me"
"Were big girls, we can handle it," Sasha assures her.
"I think it's that I went along with you two all the time. That's how I failed you."
They can't hide that that hurt. It reads on both their faces from miles away. The worst part is neither of them can really argue with it.
"I told you it would just make you feel bad."
Marcy looks intensely at Anne, "keep going."
"Well... I let myself get walked on. I didn't catch you guys when you did the wrong thing. I never spoke up about ANYTHING either of you did... to me or to each other. That was wrong. I wish I could have done better for you."
"oh," says Sasha.
"But that meant we never had a reason to change. We didn't talk about things honestly and we couldn't ever grow from our mistakes because I always tried to justify them... I would bend over backwords to justify anything either of you did because you were my best friends."
Without a hint of anger or bitterness Sasha softly speaks, "You couldn't have changed us FOR us. No one can do that."
"Yeah," Marcy put's a hand on Anne's shoulder briefly, "we made our mistakes and now.... now we cant take them back. Its over, isn't it?"
"Yeah, yeah it is."
Before Sasha can turn back around and wonder back to whatever the hell she thinks she's going to do, Anne yells, "NO!!"
The other two thirds of the Calamity Trio stare blankly at this explosion of emotion on Anne's face.
"No... not talking was OUR problem. A problem we can fix!! A problem we HAVE to fix!!" Anne is hollering so that they could hear it from a mile away, as if making this point louder will unclog their ears of the self doubt and self defeating the two of them have in such high quantities.
"Why do we HAVE to?" Sasha asks, "How do you know we even can?"
"Because we CAN!!"
Marcy quirks her head, "Which question was that answering?"
"BOTH!!!!!!!"
Anne is panting now. All the battling left her without much energy, and shouting at her best friends in the world who, at the moment, seem to want to just give up on being friends, is emotionally exhausting enough as it is."
This time Anne is quiet. The next words come out in-between breaths, "Because it's important... Because I love you..."
Sasha and Marcy are taken aback. They take a while to respond.
"Yeah Anne, love you too."
"Love you too Anna-Banana."
A keen listener of a fly on the wall would notice that the two less courageous girls said, "love you" foregoing the "I". The "I" in "I love you" makes it far too personal. Far too real for the group of BFFs that they were. But Anne could be honest with them. Anne say it plainly, even if she didn't have the courage to specify what she meant by it.
"Please," Anne starts, "It's okay... you made mistakes but it's okay... All I want is to know that you are okay. We're smarter now. We don't have to make the same mistakes again. We can start again. We can do it better this time."
Marcy seems eager, but is too self aware in this moment to allow herself to give in to the siren call of Anne's pardoning. She sacrificed too much of their lives. She gave up too much. She hurt them too much.
Sasha takes a small step back. She doesn't deserve this, does she? Does this count as a redemption? Did she earn this kindness? She never had before, she thought she would be able to tell if she did for once. She can't imagine that anything she did to help her two girls came close to making up for all that she did. She hurt them too much.
Anne can see the self loathing in their eyes. She can see the sadness and the fear. If Anne is being honest, she feels it to. She's scared that she could be hurt again. She's afraid of what might happen if this friendship between the three of them resumes the way it left off before they had used the Calamity Box. Despite this, she pushes through. She pushes through that fear because they are her friends, and she knows that if they are strong enough and smart enough and brave enough to talk when they need to and be honest about their needs they can do this whole friendship thing right this time.
Anne approaches Sasha and Marcy, grabbing both of them in either arm. The tears well again, one more time to send them off.
"I forgive you."
They want to protest but all they successfully do is sink into Anne's arms. None of them notice but a faint glow can be seen around the trio in this moment. You can guess what the glow looks like I'm sure. Specks of white shining within the Green, Pink, and Blue.
"Let's go home"