The shadow of Change

As Strong Bad headed into the deeper parts of the forest he began to wonder what was wrong with him. He was suppose to be the Wicked Prince, the scourge of... The people of Strong Mad's kingdom at least. Now he was acting nice, sweet even to a stupid little fairy with a stupid little lisp.

The Cheat came to his side and he patted the little critter on the head. He was greeted with a questioning tone from the spotted guy. But Strong Bad was too tired to answer. He had to find something to eat before he collapsed.

He finally spotted a fat blue bird, getting a drink from a spring. He sighed, hoping for something bigger, but the bird would have to do. With a tossed fire ball the avian didn't even get a chance to fly too far away before it crashed back down to the ground. The Cheat licked his furry lips, watching the bird struggle with its burns. Normally Strong Bad would have killed a animal in one shot, but he found he could barely summon the fire to even leave a first degree burn. He hurried over to the bird and quickly finished it off with his dagger.

Then Strong Bad brought some wood close and started a fire to finish cooking it. The Cheat watched him in curiosity and hunger.

Until the bird was finished Strong Bad remained quiet, watching the fire and thinking, which he knew was strange for him. Finally he cleaned and cut a wing away, tossing it to his fuzzy companion.

"I don't know if I can go through with this, The Cheat." Strong Bad finally said before taking a bite of fat breast meat. "I'm starting to really get to know the little insect, like a person... I mean he saved my life, man. You had to have seen that!"

The Cheat glared at this, clearing his mouth before complaining to his humanoid companion. He flailed his nubby paws in exasperation.

"Wait a second, The Cheat. I don't think we'll have to start this whole thing over again. Homestar's pretty good with barriers, and if he can protect me against the Burninator then I won't need a stinking amulet." Strong Bad sighed before chuckling. "If he doesn't end up defeating the old dragon for me, that is."

With a shrug The Cheat couldn't help but point out something else to his young friend. Strong Bad scratched the back of his head before speaking.

"I guess not... But I don't think I want to be like them. I like being me, Cheatsy, you know what I mean?" He sneered slightly at the thought. "If I was like dad, or even Strong Mad then I'd be them, not me."

The Cheat's next point came out rather darkly. It made Strong Bad nearly spit out the meat in his mouth and gag.

"What?! No way will I ever even be remotely like that!" He huffed, looking away. "Why would you even bring up baby Dumpus anyways? You know I don't even like hearing his name."

Calmly the yellow critter recalled the night before, and its weird occurance. Between bites he told Strong Bad in creature-talk how the strange shadow reminded him of the things Strong Sad use to practice when they were kids. Making shadows move without the object moving.

"Shadows..." Strong Bad blinked as he tried to put the pieces together. He hadn't seen his little brother for since he was about fourteen, when the fire prince decided to follow Strong Mad when he went to conquer the western kingdom of Freecountry. He had only much later found out Strong Sad took the northern wastelands and made a kingdom there. It finally struck him that maybe the sorrow prince was strong enough to control shadows from a distance. Maybe he could even see through the shadows.

"You don't suppose he'd be spying on me for some reasons?" Strong Bad finally concluded, looking down to his The Cheat. Then he smacked his forehead. "Holy crap, what if Saddy's planning on ruining my plans with Homestar?"

The Cheat gave Strong Bad a strange look, and pointed out one last thing. The wicked prince was currently not doing a very good job at being wicked. In fact he was doing a pretty good job at ruining his own plans.

Strong Bad glared, tempted to kick The Cheat for his comments. But the little guy was kinda right. If he wasn't planning to go though with offing the fairy, then there was nothing for Strong Sad to ruin. But what if there was actually something more to him possibly spying, or if there was actually something special about Homestar. After all, no fairy he'd ever heard of had something other than spherical tail orbs, and no fairy is the world was suppose to use an elemental magic.

A bad feeling began to sink in. Strong Bad was quick to get to his feet. He didn't even bother to see if The Cheat was following. "I have to check on him."

***

Homestar sighed for the hundredth time in the last ten minutes, tapping the backs of his feet against the rock he was placed on. "Bo-wed, bo-wed, bo-wed--" He chanted the word bored boredly.

Strong Bad told him to wait there, but he wanted to be with him. Waiting was so boring for the little fairy. The sun was starting to set too, and it was starting to get cold. Homestar really wished he had Strong Bad's cape to wrap himself in.

"You look lonely. Do you need someone to talk to, Sweety?" A voice spoke softly behind him, making the fairy freeze. The voice sounded a little like his own, without the lisp. Slowly he turned to where the voice was coming from, his eyes wide with uncertainty.

His shadow had risen from the rock behind him and was standing over him with a peculiar deepness, like a soul sucking black hole. Homestar blinked at it, unsure of what to think. It made everything seem a little colder and it began to scare Homestar a little.

"Who the cwap awe you?" The white glowing fairy finally asked, trying to sound tough like Strong Bad.

The silhouette seemed to smile with glowing eyes. "Why, Homestar, I'm your shadow."

"You've nevew talked to me befowe, Shadow." The fairy muttered nervously, trying to look away from his shadow. He found he couldn't even turn his eyes away.

"I'm here to help you." The shadow whispered, wrapping a black grip around the fairy's wrists. Homestar's breath quickened as he strained to pull himself out of the darkness' hold. "You want to be Strong Bad's friend, don't you? Make him happy?"

Homestar suddenly stopped, the shadow's words seeping into his ears and filling his brain. The cold void of the phantom seemed to suck him in. His breath became visible as his half slitted eyes became dull and he went limp in the shadow's hold "Make... Him... Happy..."

With a satisfied nod the shadow began to lead Homestar towards the edge of the rock. There appeared a pale hand out of the night. A tall, wide figure in a black cloak waited for the fairy to be placed on his hand before he closed his fist around him.

Strong Bad rushed from the trees, skidding to stop upon seeing the figure smothering his fairy's glow in thick grayish white fingers. He took a few deep breaths and called over.

"STOP! Put that fairy down!" The figure turned at Strong Bad's thick voice. He looked over from under the hood with white irises against black eyes. The fire prince instantly recognized the pale round cheeks under the porcelain mask. "Strong Sad?!"

"Brother..." The falsetto voice of his youngest brother rang from figure. "It's been a while."

"It has.... Man, when did you get so creepy?" Strong Bad cringed at the sight.

"This?" Strong Sad glanced down at the hand that wasn't holding the fairy. "Merely a side affect of becoming a shadow elementalist, and master control over the darkness and the light."

"Ewww, kay..." Strong Bad cletched his teeth. "That's great and all, Dumpus, but doesn't give you any right to take my fairy! He's mine, so just drop him."

"I know what you think of the fairy, brother. I've been watching you since I heard you were off to kill the king of the dragons. I've been helping you too, but clearly you need more."

Strong Bad snarled, his voice going slightly lower than normal as the hair on the back of his neck rose. He was a little scared, but anger was stronger than fear at this moment. "OK, fine. You did your creepy stalking and spying. You want to help. That's freaking nice of you.... You can start helping me just as soon as you DROP MY FAIRY!!"

Strong Sad chuckled coldly at his older brother's hostilities. "You'll never defeat the dragons the way you're going." His eyes shimmered for a second, and quickly Strong Bad felted something icey touch along his spine.

Shocked by the feeling the fire prince's back arched, and his eyes widened at the sight of his own breath. Dark hands slithered around his arms, legs and torso. "L... Let go..."

"We have to protect our family, Strong Bad. We three are practically the last of our clan, and if you were to fail, all of us will fail. Surely you understand, Strong Bad... I'm doing this for your own good." Strong Sad whispered to his older, yet shorter brother. He watched as his shadow magic seemed into the blue haired prince and filled him with the cold oblivion that was the darkness. "Come home to the north with me, brother, and I'll do everything in my power to prepare you."

"N..No, I don't n-n-need your help! L-let g-eh-go!" Strong Bad tried to struggle against the hold, but he was having trouble breathing, it was so cold.

The sorrow prince didn't listen. He had to do this, it wasn't his choice. He just opened a black door against the forest floor and beckoned for the shadows to pull his brother in after him. The all disappeared into the doorway and the forest went quiet.

A moment later The Cheat finally burst through the bush, looking around madly for his friend. He was met with an empty clearing.