AUTHOR'S NOTE: You didn't think Okage had depth? 'howls with laughter' You and me should talk. Drop me an email sometime. Hey, and to everyone who reads this story! I don't think this site will let me plug the forums here, but send me an email and I'll tell you where to find Fear Your Shadow. We only have 60 members. Please help us. You can find a slightly updated version of my story there, as well as all the theological discussions about the game you can take. And then some.

Star and Illisaith had sat in the Mirage bar for a while, fidgeting and talking. Eventually, they had gone to their room simply to avoid the stares Star kept getting. They had stayed there for a few hours, but Star was concerned about her friend. Despite Illisaith's repeated assurances that she was not to blame, she knew Ari had been hurt because she had been unwilling to attack the vampire, and she wanted to know that he was going to be okay.

"Oh, yeah," Illisaith muttered, looking around at the people cowering away from him. "Stan's definitely been here." He laughed quietly as he leaned against the reception desk. Star chirped, and he sighed theatrically. "What? It's funny."

"You are bad, young one," Star said good-naturedly.

"No, I'm evil," Illisaith corrected her. "There's a difference."

Star looked at the ground and smiled in amusement. "This conversation seems oddly familiar, though I cannot for the life of me imagine why," she muttered.

"Why?" Illisaith demanded. Star shook her head and refused to answer.

"Uh…e…excuse me…?" the desk attendant broke in hesitantly.

"For what?" Star asked, perplexed.

"It's an expression," Illisaith informed her. "Did you find them yet?"

She smiled the smile of someone who fears for her life. Although they had both tried to assure her that Illisaith was not Stan, she was unsure she believed it. Still…"I'm afraid your friend Ari went missing."

Illisaith's eyes darkened. Star laid a restraining hand on his shoulder and chirped something. It did not calm him down, but it did remind him that she knew his weakness. "When?" Star asked. "Did our friends follow?"

"It was a few hours ago." The young attendant knew she was dead by the way Illisaith was grinding his teeth, but she plowed on anyway. "I think your friends went out the gate."

Illisaith was gone. The attendant blinked owlishly and breathed a sigh of relief as Star thanked her and flew after him.

Three hundred years ago, the town of Arlington was a small hamlet. It was amazing how three hundred years could make so little difference. The town had been rebuilt after Evil King Gohma had destroyed it, but it had never progressed. There were a few more people living there now, but there was no Hero's Club; the inn consisted of two rooms and a restaurant/bar. It was, quite literally, a one-horse town; although it did have two mules and a donkey, as well.

They had come here following Rosalyn's Hero sense, as Stan had mockingly dubbed it. Neither of them had been here before; Rosalyn had never even realized it was here until Stan had told her the story of Hopkins and Gohma. She felt awed to be walking the same streets that Hero Hopkins had walked so many years before. Assuming Stan's story was accurate, and she had no reason to doubt him yet, this was where Hopkins had actually awakened as a Hero. She could almost hear him telling off that young upstart Maximus.

Stan repressed a laugh. Watching Rosalyn be awed was among the funniest things he'd ever seen. As far as he knew, his story was true, but that didn't make this any less hilarious. The woman acted as though she was walking on holy ground. She probably felt that she was desecrating it by allowing an Evil King to enter.

Although most of the townsfolk were far too busy to pay any attention to the passersby, three children followed them around to gawk at Stan, much to his annoyance. Finally, he turned around and snarled at them, causing them to squeal and run away. He smirked and was allowed to feel victorious for about thirty seconds until they returned with more in tow.

"They multiply like rabbits," he muttered, disgruntled.

Rosalyn laughed. "Well, you should have just ignored them. They'd have gotten bored eventually."

"Ignore them, she says," Stan said, rolling his eyes. "Easy for you to say; they're not staring at you."

Twelve sets of eyes were now fixed on Stan, waiting to see what the crazy, beast man would do next. Rosalyn chuckled as Stan growled low in the back of his throat. "You sound like dog," she quietly informed him.

"Shut up," he replied between clenched teeth.

Rosalyn sighed. She needed to find some way to distract Stan before he did something rash. Since it was practically noon, she said, "I think it's time for a lunch break; what do you say?" As he thought about that, she added quietly, "And by the time we come back out, the kids will have gotten bored and gone away."

"I think it's time for lunch," Stan agreed, faster than expected. Being stared at was bothering him more than Rosalyn realized. She was amazed he had not done something before now.

The interior of the inn was well lit and extremely clean. There was some smoke in the air, but not too much because the building was well ventilated. It was a lot better than either of them hoped to expect. The young waitress was very nice and tried not to stare at Stan, which annoyed him almost as much as actually being stared at because she was so obvious about it. Rosalyn apologized for his short temper and ill-mannered remarks by saying he was having a bad day.

The waitress nodded understandingly. "Yeah, we all gets 'em sometimes."

Stan muttered something not very nice; fortunately, the waitress didn't hear him. Unfortunately, Rosalyn did.

"Knock it off, Stan," she whispered. "You're going to get us kicked out of here."

"Oh, what a pity that would be," he replied blandly. "To not have people muttering about me being some kind of freak because they don't realize I can hear every word they're saying!" The last bit was said more loudly than necessary. All conversation stopped immediately. Stan nodded once. "That's better."

Rosalyn looked around at all the people who were quite obviously not watching Stan. In fact, they seemed to find the ceiling significantly more interesting. She shook her head. "Okay, I'll admit it. This was a bad idea."

"No, you had a bad idea?" Stan said mock incredulously. "Incredible. Never thought the day would come that you, of all people, would have a bad idea. Blows my mind."

"Oh, like you never had a bad idea," Rosalyn replied scathingly.

"Of course not," Stan said egotistically. "All my ideas are good ones; they just get ruined by stupid people like you."

Instead of replying, Rosalyn glared at him. She sighed and started drumming her fingers on the table. "How long does this take?" she muttered.

Stan stared at his knife and tried to think of all the different ways he could use it to silence the inn's patrons. They had started talking about him again, only louder. It wasn't that they were bad people; it was just that they had never seen anyone with pointed ears before, and they seemed to think that it was some kind of birth defect that had rendered him retarded. They had yet to notice his eyes, which was probably a good thing.

Rosalyn was using her spoon to push down the ice cubes in her glass of water when she stiffened. Something was very, very wrong.

"What is it?" Stan asked. As if on cue, a thundering crash rang across the village and someone screamed. Without thinking, Rosalyn jumped to her feet and ran out the door with Stan hot on her heels.

"So here you are," said a familiar voice. "I've been waiting."

The voice was coming from above. They turned to see Ari standing on the roof of the inn.

"Ari!" Rosalyn exclaimed. "What are you doing up there?"

"Careful, something's not right," Stan warned her.

Ari sneered. "You should listen to him, Hero woman."

"Ari, what's wrong with you?" Rosalyn asked, disturbed by his attitude. He was almost acting like Stan.

Ari laughed derisively. "Nothing's wrong. Ha, nothing at all. I just realized something; you really are stupid, aren't you?" He laughed, and there was no sanity in his voice.

"Slave, knock it off and get down here!" Stan yelled.

Ari snarled and vanished. Stan whirled around, but he was a split second too late. He went flying through the air and crashed into the side of the inn. Ari stood behind where he had been; his arm was outstretched and energy crackled around his fingers. He sneered. "I'm not your slave, freak. I'm Evil King Ari, now!"

Rosalyn gasped. She helped Stan to his feet; for once, he didn't throw her off. "You can't be an Evil King," he protested angrily; his voice shook for some reason.

"But I am," Ari said, smiling like a viper might. "I might let you live if you agree to serve me."

"Never!" Stan snarled. He pulled energy to his hands, intending to throw it and incinerate his former slave. However, Ari simply made a "come-hither" gesture with his hand. Stan screamed as darkness engulfed him and rushed toward Ari.

"Be a shadow, again," the new Evil King laughed. He raised his arms and sent energy shots at random targets.

Rosalyn grimaced and blinked back a tear. Ari was her dearest friend, but this wasn't Ari anymore. She unsheathed her rapier and faced him. "I won't let you do this, Evil King!" she announced, every inch the Hero.

For some reason, Ari found that hysterically funny. "And how do you propose to stop me?" he asked once he could speak again.

"Why are you doing this?" Rosalyn asked; she couldn't hold back the note of despair that crept into her voice.

He put his hands behind his back and leaned close. "Because," he said in a hushed voice, as though he were telling her some secret. "I'm tired of being pushed around."

Looking back, Rosalyn realized exactly how stupid she was at that moment, to not have anticipated the attack. Ari quickly brought his hands around and fired twin shots at Rosalyn at very close range. She was lucky to have survived; the rest of the town wasn't so lucky.

With the Hero out of the picture, Ari decimated Arlington. No one survived save for two people: a fallen Hero and a ruined King.

Rosalyn gasped; Ari's shots had hit her right over her heart, and now it hurt to breath. She carefully turned her head to look at the damage. "Are you okay, Stan?" she asked without turning. When he didn't reply, she called his name again.

"…no…" he replied. His voice was faint, and he sounded like he was in agony. Or was it something else?

Rosalyn turned, then, and rushed to his side as quickly as her own pain would allow. He was curled in on himself and translucent as a ghost. "Stan, what's wrong?" she asked, her voice rising in panic.

He looked at her; his eyes were filled with terror, which only exacerbated Rosalyn's fear. She'd never seen anything but arrogance or anger in those eyes. "Sh-shadow…" he choked out. "Can't…fading…"

"Shadow…shadow…Stan!" Rosalyn screamed as he faded almost completely. "Shadow…OH!" Suddenly, it hit her what he was trying to say. "Stan! My shadow!"

He shook his head, but as he nearly faded from sight again, he whined slightly. He knew he wasn't going to win this fight; he shuddered as he drew the rest of what little power he had left to go into Rosalyn's shadow, returning it to its original color.

"Stan?" she asked a bit uncertainly.

"…ow…" his disembodied voice returned.

"Are you okay, now?" she asked with real concern.

"I'm stuck in your shadow," he muttered without bothering to show himself. "What do you think?"

Rosalyn huffed, then gasped as her lungs brushed against her bruised ribs. "Hey, you were dying, okay? And don't try to deny it. I could have just left you there, but I didn't. You could at least be a little grateful."

Stan said nothing, and Rosalyn decided not to pursue the issue. At least, he wasn't complaining about her figure this time. "Look at this place," she breathed. "I can't believe he did this…"

"I can't see it from here," Stan informed her; his voice carried none of his usual cocksure egotism.

Rosalyn rolled her eyes. "Then come out of there and look! Geeze…"

"…maybe later…"

She wasn't sure whether or not she actually wanted to pursue the matter, so she started to leave. She had twisted an ankle and bruised several ribs when Ari hit her; she had to limp to walk, but doing so meant she could hardly breathe. After a while, she took a break; she hadn't gone very far.

"Well, it's pretty bad," she told Stan. "There's no one left alive…" Her sentence ended with a sniffle. She was in pain, and she had failed all these people. "Some Hero I am…" she muttered, then started to cry.

"Aw…come on," Stan said helplessly. "Don't' cry, damn it! It's annoying!"

"But it's all my fault!" Rosalyn sobbed. "I'm a Hero! I'm supposed to save people! I shouldn't have hesitated…" She dropped her head in her hands and wept uncontrollably. Although this did nothing whatsoever to help her breathe, she couldn't stop.

Stan groaned. The last thing he wanted to have to deal with right now was a hysterical Hero woman; he had enough problems of his own. "Hey, look on the bright side," he said, uncertainly. "Uh…and as soon as I think of one, I'll tell you about it."

That statement was so ludicrous and so out of character for Stan that Rosalyn actually stopped crying. She sniffed then laughed a little. "You are such a moron," she informed him.

"No, you're the moron! Here you are, in pain, and you can use your Hero power to heal yourself."

Duh. Rosalyn had been so caught up in everything that she had completely forgotten about that. She had to laugh at herself. She closed her eyes and sent herself into a healing trance.

"Well, good for you," Stan said. If she heard him, she made no effort to respond. "Never mind poor me. I'll just stay here and talk to myself. No big deal. At least I still have the power to use my voice in this form. How did that little brat do this to me?"

He growled. "Natasha, of course. She must have kidnapped him and brainwashed him or something. I'll kill her when I find her. I'll rip her to shreds and feed the pieces to the sharks. Then I'll kill all the sharks that ate her and skin them and…"

He continued in that vein for a very long time; it made him feel better to rant as loudly as possible. He had gone through dogs and piranhas, and was getting ready to feed some cats to a polar bear when Rosalyn came out of her trance. She listened to his ranting long enough to know that he was running out of things to feed to other things, then she stopped him.

"Can I assume Natasha started that?" she asked.

Stan stopped. "Oh, you're back. Yeah, I tore her apart and fed her to some sharks."

Rosalyn nodded appreciatively. "Sounds good to me. Let's go." She had come to the much the same conclusion Stan had, and she, too, was now out for blood.