The main swaps in here are Jim-Aja, Toby-Krel, Claire-Douxie, and NotEnrique-Archie.


"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Aja said, looking down to the staff that Krel had tightly gripped in his hands. It felt odd in his hands, but it only made sense for the staff to feel odd in them. It wasn't like it was his to begin with. It was Douxie's, and before that Angor Rot's. And presumably, long before it had belonged to the assassin, it had belonged to the witch possessing the body of Krel's boyfriend.

Were they boyfriends? Neither of them had said any codifying words yet, but Krel had confessed his feelings to Douxie as he had brushed the newly white bangs off of Douxie's still-pale face after he nearly died making a portal at the gyre station. Moreover, tonight had been their first date (and Douxie had even called it a date) until Douxie had gone to the bathroom and came back possessed. Not that Krel had noticed until they had gone back to Douxie's adoptive parents' house.

"I'll be fine," Krel said, rolling his eyes. All he had to do was hold a stick. Sure, he was the worst at fighting on the team, and Morgana had sent his shield into the Shadow Realm, but he could handle holding a stick. Even if it was an evil stick made of dark magic that had originally belonged to Morgana. "You're the one going to another dimension."

Without Krel.

Again.

He tried not to let that sting.

"We should go," Strickler said, looking down to Aja. "The longer he stays there, the harder it will be to put him back in his body."

"Stay safe, Master Aja," Blinky said, glaring at Strickler.

Krel exhaled, extending the staff to its full length. Douxie had said fear was especially useful for making portals. And when Krel had helped to power Douxie's portal at the gyre station, he had been so afraid that he had barely felt any pain, while the drainage had been sudden enough that Aja had screamed. And so Krel focused on his fear. Fear that his sister would die. Fear that his boyfriend's soul would be lost forever. A dark portal formed in the far end of the room, and Strickler walked into it, having to crouch down a little because it wasn't as large as the portals Douxie could make.

"Be quick, because I'm not sure how long I can keep this open," Krel said, "And if you see my shield…"

Aja squeezed Prince Cat and smiled at him over her shoulder before she disappeared into the Shadow Realm.

"My, my, left behind again," Morgana said. Her voice still sounded wrong coming from Douxie's body, but at least she wasn't trying to do an impression of him anymore. She turned to Blinky. "Your brother betrays you, your student turns from your teaching to that of my changelings, and your partner – why, where is he?"

Blinky growled. "I'm going to go get a gag. Krel, ignore her." He then left, slamming the door. Krel winced. He had a feeling he was already going to be in trouble with Douxie's adoptive parents for all the furniture now sucked into the Shadow Realm. He didn't want any more damage to happen and give Mr. and Mrs. Nuñez even more reason to hate him.

Morgana hummed. "Why, you're a natural. You handle the staff so well."

Krel found himself wishing he had brought headphones to his date.

"You know, we're not so different, you and I."

He tried to focus on the portal ahead of him.

"I know what it's like, to always be in the shadow of a sibling. The perfect, golden child, always in the limelight, always getting praised for things that, if you did the same, no one would applaud you for. She finds a rock that gives her a shield, and everyone is excited. You bind a curse to a shield, and at best everyone is nonchalant about it at best."

Krel swallowed, turning his head a fraction towards her. "How do you know that?"

She shrugged as much as her chains would let her. "I own his essence and mind as well as his body. I went looking through his memories. And is that not an apt description of you? You have so much potential. Potential that is squandered with Merlin's lot. Potential that I would help you bring to your proper greatness. Isn't that what you want? To finally be considered greater than your sister?"

Krel tried very hard not to nod.

Morgana smiled at him in a way that almost matched the way Douxie had smiled at Krel so many times before. "All you have to do is give me the staff."


Aja did not like the Shadow Realm, and she hadn't even seen much of it, not when she and Mr. Strickler had been dragged to a replica of the Nuñez house by a stuffed cat. Well, at least the emotional connection with the stuffed animal given to him by his birth mother had worked.

"Be careful, Young Themis," Mr. Strickler said as Aja tried to turn a light on to no avail. "You don't know what tricks this house might be playing."

"But we also need to be prepared for whatever's here." Aja picked up a remote and attempted to turn on the television. It sprung to life, but the things it showed should have never been recorded to video. The scenes were all of Douxie, and Aja recognized some of them. She had been there for some of them. The woods. The portal. Finding out that his baby brother Archibald had been replaced by the changeling everyone had gone on to call Archie. The day Aja left for the Darklands.

Between scenes – memories? – from the last year were older memories. Memories of a little boy, born to a single poor mother who died when he was three. Memories of a boy who had been slapped, kicked, and punched around through the foster care system until he was ten.

Beyond the cries coming from the young Douxie on the TV, there were the cries of a baby coming from upstairs.

Archibald.

Aja rushed up the stairs, Mr. Stickler on her heels, to Archibald's room. The cradle was empty even as cries could still be heard from it. And before Aja could turn to her teacher, the spectral form of Douxie entered the room and pantomimed picking up Archibald, saying words of comfort to the infant that wasn't even there.

"Morgana must have trapped him in his own memories," Mr. Strickler said. "It would be a clever way of keeping him from fighting back and trying to reclaim his body."

Aja tried to grab Douxie by the arm, but her fingers slipped through him. "Well, how do we get him to see us?"


Morgana's offer was tempting. After all, how long had Krel just been "Aja's little brother" instead of everyone viewing him as his own person, great for his own achievements?

"I would just need to drop the staff?"

Morgana nodded, smiling what should have been an encouraging smile. But that face had given so many encouraging smiles to Krel before, and those smiles didn't have so many teeth. Morgana's supposedly encouraging smile was like a shark's.

"Shut up," Krel said. "If you really wanted me on your side, you'd have made this pitch to me sooner, instead of trying to use me as bait for my sister first."

And as it was, if it weren't for Archie knocking Morgana out, Krel would have been bait. Morgana had even said so.

"Even you think Aja's more important than me because she's the trollhunter, no matter what you say about my potential. Also, yeah, I'm attracted to Douxie's body, but that's only because it's Douxie. I'm demisexual so don't even think you can seduce me to the side of evil from my boyfriend's body."

At that moment, Blinky burst through the door, holding a sock. Morgana growled and swung her head to the portal. Krel held on tight, digging his heels as much as he could into the hardwood floor, but it was no use. He and the staff went flying into the portal, and Krel almost immediately hit a meteor. That impact finally wrenched the staff from his hands, leaving lacerations in its place. Behind him, a light went dark.

Shit. Shit fucking dammit. Groaning, Krel lifted his head, and noticed a blue gem shield nearby. He grabbed it, hissing in pain as the gemstone touched one of his cuts.

Well, at least now he had his shield. It was time to go try and rescue his boyfriend, sister, and former teacher. He flew towards the golden glow of the Shadow Staff.


Tonight was supposed to be good. Douxie had finally gotten over his odd cold, and he had gone to a nice restaurant with Krel. This was supposed to be their first date, and after the restaurant they would have gone on a relaxing walk, and Douxie would have kissed Krel for the first time.

According to Aja, Krel was okay and keeping a portal open, which made Douxie feel even worse. That staff had tainted him. Morgana had made him her puppet. What would she do to his boyfriend? If, of course, Krel still wanted to be his boyfriend after tonight. Even if Douxie regained his body he had no guarantee that Morgana wouldn't try to use him again. She had even told him that the two of them were linked, essence and mind, now and for all of time. He was a liability to his friends.

Douxie held tightly to Prince Cat as Strickler held onto Aja's shoulder and incanted something in Trollish. Douxie couldn't even be touched anymore, and Strickler had only barely convinced Douxie he wasn't dead yet. He really wanted a hug, though.

The three of them sped to the light of the portal, and then they stopped as it went dark.

"I suppose Krel didn't have the strength to keep the portal open for long," Strickler said in a tone that made Douxie angry. For a changeling used to trickery, Strickler didn't respect Krel's cunning nearly as much as he should have. As much as anyone should have.

"Or Morgana did something to him!" Aja shouted as she summoned her daggers and hopped onto an asteroid as she began to chase after the Skathe-Hrün. (Because no, Aja, those small knives she used were not glaives. Glaives were polearms. His – the staff was closer to a glaive than what she used.)

Douxie and Strickler began to chase after the Skathe-Hrün as well. Even Strickler flew (flew? When did he get wings?) awkwardly through the Shadow Realm, but Douxie?

Moving through the Shadow Realm felt natural as breathing. More natural because he wasn't breathing in this spectral form. He twisted and turned, each time just ghosting the staff's surface. There was something sticky clinging to it. Something that reminded Douxie of blood.

And then he felt a body crash into him, tackling him into an asteroid.

"Douxie?" Krel asked, and he stroked Douxie's cheek with, strangely enough, the back of his hand. Douxie could smell blood on Krel.

Wait.

Krel stroked Douxie's cheek.

Krel stroked Douxie's cheek.

Douxie wrapped his arms around Krel's non-spectral body, and they didn't pass through. "I'm sorry," Krel said. "She was too powerful."

"I'm sure you tried your best."

"Hisirdoux?" Strickler said. Douxie wrinkled his nose; he hated his full name. He was fine with his former-surname-turned middle name of Orkney, but why couldn't his adoptive parents have changed his name from freaking Hisirdoux when they changed his last name to Nuñez? "Are you still with us? Oh, hello, Krel."

"You got your shield back! Lively!" Aja said.

"No thanks to you," Krel grumbled, quietly enough for only Douxie to hear. Douxie chuckled softly as he stood up, offering a hand to Krel.

And then Douxie staggered, and Krel had to catch him as Douxie nearly doubled over from the eldritch knowledge that assaulted his mind. "Are you okay?"

Douxie wanted to give Krel some reassurance, even if it was false, but those weren't the words that spilled from his lips. "Azazazuth-Kinekh-Thoon."

The glow surrounding the Shadow Staff changed from gold to the same blue violet that made up Douxie's spectral form.

"Great. Great. He's speaking in tongues now!" Aja said, turning to Strickler.

"No, I," Douxie said. He wanted to take a breath right now, but he was pretty sure he had no lungs in this form. "These words. They're in my head. I think they're a way to summon the staff!"

"Then summon it!" Strickler ordered.

Douxie firmly planted his feet, reaching out with one hand and holding onto Prince Cat with the other. "Azazazuth-Kinekh-Thoon."

The staff came a little closer before violently jerking away. Aja and Strickler landed on the asteroid behind him.

"Azazazuth-Kinekh-Thoon."

This time, the staff came even closer before ricocheting away from him.

"She's stronger than me," Douxie lamented, and he felt two arms wrap around his torso from behind.

"She's an old hag without a body of her own," Krel said to him "But you're amazing. I know you can do this."

"Azazazuth-Kinekh-Thoon," Douxie incanted. And then he incanted the words again, but this time he could hear Krel chanting them as well.

Krel was wrong. Douxie alone wasn't strong enough to reclaim the Shadow Staff from Morgana. But the two of them, together?

Krel let go of Douxie, only to step to Douxie's side and take hold of Douxie's hand and Prince Cat. Krel looked at Douxie, and there were pinpricks of light in his eyes. "Let's get your staff and body back."

"Azazazuth-Kinekh-Thoon!" the two of them shouted. Douxie's spectral form blazed with light. Two runic circles formed around them, twisting and combining until the Shadow Staff became the epicenter of them, just for a second. Then the Shadow Staff flew to Douxie's hand. The handle felt more comfortable in his hand than it ever had before.

And when a single spark of gold appeared on the handle, Krel put his other hand on the on the staff, smothering the last of Morgana's control.

"Grab on," Douxie instructed to Aja and Strickler, and they followed his order before Douxie took them out of the Shadow Realm.


That's right! Shadowmancer boyfriends!

I've played around with the idea of a swap between the trollhunting trio and the side B protagonists trio, but while the Aja-Jim swap has always been a pretty easy decision, I couldn't decide who I wanted to give the Shadow Staff to between Douxie and Krel since they're both associated with portals and I couldn't see either of them wielding the gravity hammer. And then I realized I could make them both wizards while changing the gravity-cursed hammer to a more appropriate weapon.

Themis was a titan and the personification of justice as well as the goddess of wisdom and good counsel, as well as the interpreter of the gods' will. I figured she would be a good stand-in for Atlas in this swap.

Because in canon Claire could touch Jim's spectral form while he couldn't touch hers, I suspect only wizards can touch spirits in the Shadow Realm. Thus, Krel can touch Douxie while Aja and Strickler can't.