Loyalty Among Worlds (Amphibia AU)

After the events of the Curator and the wax museum, the group continues their trip to Newtopia. Inside the Fwagon, Darrel was cleaning his staff. Anne was showing Sprig and Polly more about the Skip Man. Cronaxx and Tint were going over old scrolls.

Darrel wipes his gemstone, making it shine a reflection on himself. Darrel smiles as he turns it and the reflection shows Anne and the frogs. He looks up at Anne with a genuine smile. 'She sure has grown in this world,' he thought. 'I wonder how time works between worlds.'

Anne looks over to Darrel who smiles at her. She blushes a bit, and turns her head to the Plantars. "Guess he really makes you happy," said Sprig. "Don't get all lovey dovey all the time," said Polly. "There are children here." Anne shrugs and continues to stare at Darrel.

Cronaxx opens a scroll and Tint observes by his side. The scroll reveals an ancient rune that shows the symbol of Amphibia armor. "This rune is as old as time itself," said Cronaxx. "Our ancestors rely on this to maintain the balance of this world." He looks to see Tint, unfocused on the lesson and watching Darrel clean his staff.

Cronaxx tapped on his head, regaining his attention. "What's on your mind?" "Oh, uh nothing, Uncle," said Tint. "Then you wouldn't have any problem focusing on the lesson," said Cronaxx. "I'm sorry. It's just that we've taught Darrel so much what you know about magic. That I never got to teach him what I know about magic."

"Your time will come to teach him," said Cronaxx. "It just ain't happening now." Tint looks down, and comes to an understanding that teaching takes a lot of responsibility and knowledge. However, somewhere in his heart, he was eager to teach him something.

Shortly after, the group arrives in the ancient ruins of an old village. Hop pop decides to take this time to stop and rest. The group took this chance to explore the area. Darrel and Tint look across the old ruins with awe and amazement. "It's like I'm at StoneHenge," said Darrel. "What's Stonehenge?" Tint asked. "It's a landmark back in my world. Hey Cronaxx, what do you-"

The two look back and see Cronaxx wandering by himself. He approaches an old building, all rubble, and nothing left but the foundation. Darrel and Tint follow him and look at the building. "This place. It feels oddly familiar," said Cronaxx. "Remember anything?" Tint asked.

Sadly, Cronaxx shook his head. "It's going to haunt me wondering, but I just can't remember what it is." Darrel looks to Cronaxx with a sincere look on his face. "It's okay if you can't remember," he said. "My grandfather once told me that our stories don't always have great starts. It's what you choose to do in your stories that counts."

Cronaxx smiled, "You're right. I think we should at least do something nice for this ruined village." "What are we going to do?" Tint asked.

Cronaxx gives Tint and Darrel four buckets, two each for a student. "We can give the old fountain square some fresh water. So I want you two to take these buckets to the well, fill them with water, and dump the water in the fountain."

Tint smirked and prepared to use telekinesis, but Cronaxx stopped him. "But I don't want any of you two to use magic. We must respect this old village. Any slight changes could cause negative consequences in our adventure."

Darrel nodded, but Tint pouted in defeat. Later on, the two students did what they were told. Darrel was a little happy trying to spruce the place. Tint however, wasn't pleased with not using magic for this simple task.

All the while, Cronaxx was practicing magic on his own. The Plantars and Anne were amazed. Darrel stopped to take a breather, just as Tint came back to dump more water. As Cronaxx reaches his peak on his powers, he reduces his power into little bits and causes flashing lights.

The group was amazed, then Cronaxx took his leave to rest up. Darrel takes a small rest, leaving Tint to get the next batch of water. Suddenly he stops, he sees Darrel resting a bit. He comes up with a plan to finish their small task. He smirks maliciously, and waves his hands at Darrel.

Darrel starts to feel his mind shut down and his eyes start to glow bright blue. He felt completely bliss and awake at the same time. Tint points at his puppet to go to his bucket. "Now follow me," said Tint.

Darrel blindly follows Tint, then goes over to fill the buckets with water. Tint then leads him to the fountain to dump the water. Then, he commands Darrel to repeat the same thing again.

"Hey Tint," said Sprig. "What's up?" Tint asked. "Me and Anne are going to watch some Suspicion Island. Wanna join when you guys are done?" Tint smiled, "I can watch now, Darrel's got this under control."

Tint goes into the fwagon with the others while Darrel continues the task he was charmed to do. The kids enjoyed their time watching Suspicion Island, that Tint suddenly dozed off and fell asleep.

Later that day, the episode ends and the group stretches out. Anne wakes up Tint by shaking his shoulder. "Hey, Tint. Wake up, we should get Hop pop to get this wagon started." Tint yawned, "Yeah, okay."

"Hey guys," said Polly. "When did this village start flooding?" The kids were surprised to hear Polly say that, until they looked outside. The ground was covered with water. "What's going on here?" Sprig asked.

Tint looked out and suddenly realized something. "Oh my Frog," he cried. He rushes off to find Darrel, overflowing the fountain with water. "Darrel Stop! I command you!" However, Darrel didn't obey, and continued to fill the buckets with water.

"Why is Darrel overflowing the fountain?" Sprig asked. "Doesn't he know what he's doing?" Tint twiddled his thumbs, unsure about what to say. "I think he's tired, so we should snap him out of it."

"Maybe he needs to get some sleep," said Anne. She walked up to Darrel's side and tried to get his attention. "Hey, Darrel. Are you feeling well? I think you need to rest." But Darrel didn't listen.

"We need to get him to sleep," said Sprig. "I'll take care of it," said Tint. He snaps his fingers causing Darrel to drop his buckets and collapse to the ground. Anne catches him in her arms and smiles softly.

"Will he be alright?" Sprig asked. "He'll be fine," said Tint. "Just get him to the wagon, I gotta clean up this mess."

Just as Anne and the Plantars were about to leave, Darrel started to levitate. Eyes glowing bright blue, a purple aura surrounding him, and hands holding the buckets again. "Uh, should we be concerned about this?" Sprig asked. "Creepy floating human!" Polly cried.

Hop pop wakes up to Polly screaming, "Kids! What's going on?!" "Darrel's going all 'that'!" Anne cried. "Oh dear," said Hop pop. "I'm going to get Cronaxx for help. See if you can get Tint to try to stop this."

Tint watches from afar and quickly tries to magically bring the water back to the well. But, Darrel reaches out with the buckets in his hand. He magically brings the water out of the well, and back into the fountain. The water gushed like a flowing river.

Tint scrambled to try and get the water back into the well, but had no avail. It only just made things worse for the apprentice. Suddenly, Darrel's magical aura disappears and he falls to the ground. Then, the water was dispersed back into the well.

Tint looks over and finds Cronaxx fixing his mess. Darrel wakes up with a massive headache. "Ugh, my head. What happened?" Darrel asked. "You were under mind control, thanks to my great troublemaking nephew," said Cronaxx.

Tint gives off a cheeky smile, trying to weasel out of anymore trouble. Unfortunately, Cronaxx wasn't having any of it. "I hope you all learned something from this." What's that?" Anne asked as she took Darrel's arm and placed it around her shoulders. "It's that you must learn to finish something you started," said Cronaxx. "Apparently, Tint here started a magic spell he couldn't finish."

"I know," said Tint. "I'm sorry Uncle. I'm sorry that I put you under control Darrel." Darrel stopped glaring at him and smiled, "I forgive you Tint, but only if you accept Cronaxx's punishment." "Which is?" Tint asked. "You're going to clean the fwagon, and Bessie's shell, from top to bottom," said Cronaxx. "Until we make it to Newtopia."

Tint sighed with his head down, "Yes, Uncle Cronaxx." As the group returns to the fwagon, Darrel starts to regain some of his strength.

"So how did it feel being under mind control?" Anne asked. "It was like being in bliss, but you're also aware about what's going on," replied Darrel. "So I won't have to worry about you controlling me?" Anne asked. "Anne, you're nobody's puppet. And neither am I," said Darrel. The two smile and enter the fwagon.

"We're off!" Hop pop cried as he drives Bessie. "Next stop, Newtopia!" The group cheered, even Tint who was working on scrubbing the floors.