"I think we could have been great friends."
Grape shifted in her bed, unable to properly sleep. Peach's words from Sparkle Theater never left her mind, and have just gotten worse and worse since then. Something about Olly and Dimentio made her think as well. If Davidonell was right, and she was his daughter...She wondered if she should go back to him, or if she should stay with the Sour Bunch.
So far she had chosen the Sour Bunch.
They did raise her after all.
She rested her hands over her eyes, thinking once again about that sentence. Peach sounded so sincere, and Grape couldn't even respond back. Peach had even touched her hand as she'd reached for her, as her giant form vanished to nothing. There was a knock at the door, and no response when Grape said they could enter. She sat up and rose from her bed.
"I hope that Cid isn't sleepwalking again. He almost left home last time."
She opened the door, nothing but pure darkness on the other side. She slowly reached up for it, but pulled her hand away.
"Something's wrong, I can feel it. Somebody's in here, with me."
"Very clever, you're apparently smarter than you seem."
Grape turned around quickly. "What? Where are you? Who are you?" She turned on the lights, which only shone a single spotlight in the center of the room.
"Foolish. You have no power here, or over me. I'm quite surprised you have no clue who I am. Does the legend of the Thousand-Year Door strike up anything in you? Or are you too busy with your...Sour Bunch to know of a classic tragedy?"
"You speak as if you expect me to know you when I can't even see you. Reveal yourself, now."
The shadows formed into the basic shape of a woman, a star-like pattern in her body and long wavy hair. She grinned, revealing her pointed teeth.
"What...are you?"
She moved in close. "Call me Shadow Queen, if you will."
"Shadow Queen? The name is familiar..."
"But I should ask who you are. You interest me, woman. Tell me who you are. I know of your Sour Bunch, I had to deal with a few of them to get to you."
"What did you do to them? You didn't hurt them, did you?"
"Mhmhm...no I did not. I only made them faint. Nearly dead, but not quite. They can recover, if you wish them to."
"If I wish them to? What are you on about? I can't heal with my Darkle."
"Ah...So you can use magic."
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
"As I said before, tell me who you are. You wouldn't want me resorting to torture to get you to speak, now will you?"
Grape scoffed. "If you're trying to manipulate me, it'll take more than that to-"
Shadow Queen grabbed Grape's face by her chin, pulling her in closer. "That was not a suggestion. Speak, now."
"My name is Grape..."
She released her, and she rubbed her face. "I see...And you have a rivalry with Peach, correct?"
"How did you find out about that? That was personal business."
"I have my ways of getting...information. Now, about your magic..."
"You can't have it, if that's what you're asking. Somebody has already tried to take it before, and that didn't work out well for either of them."
"Take it? Mhmhmhm, no. I don't want to take it, I want to strengthen it."
"Strengthen it? What are you saying? My Darkle is just strong enough, and I do not need to associate with fools like you in order to care for me and my crew."
Shadow Queen smiled again, this more twisted than the last. "But from what I know, you're still too weak. Princess Peach stopped you, and so did somebody who can't even use Sparkle. How saddening that you believe you're strong enough, when you just aren't."
She made a good point, Darethend and Peach both stopped her, nearly killing her, and Peach was known to be very weak; magic or not. "So where are you going with this?"
"I can make your magic the strongest in this world. I go undamaged by Sparkle, and you cannot get injured by physical attacks unless by said magic. So I want you and I to combine forces. You see, I'm currently trapped in the Underwhere, and am speaking to you through a dream. You've been dreaming for a while, ever since you heard that door knock. And if you let me strengthen your magic to the point of being unbeatable, then you can free me from my mortal chains and set free a new darkness into the land. You want your perfect tragedy? I can help you get to that goal." She held out her left hand. "And I may kill you if you disagree, so you really don't have a choice."
"Heh...You had me at the point where I would become unbeatable. I find it so disappointing that I was beaten by somebody as weak as Peach. You have a deal."
She accepted Shadow Queen's hand, finding it cold and the grip like a hard mist. She looked at her own after, finding a strange feeling left in her hand.
"But...how do I free you?"
"Mhmhm...You already have. Let the fun begin!" Shadow Queen vanished.
Grape expected to wake up, but she didn't. The dream was over, right? So why had she not woken? She found herself moving towards her vanity against her will, and seeing her own reflection shimmer through it. She no longer looked like herself, and her scream did not cut through the invisible barrier that held her. She grabbed her mask, attempting to rip it off, but the reflection did not listen. Instead she smiled, and headed for the door.
"Shadow Queen? What did you do?"
She reappeared, grinning cheek to cheek with her fangs. "You're getting your end of the deal. But I can't do anything without a mortal vessel...So I'm using yours."
"That wasn't the deal!"
"You like puppets, right? Well, this will entertain you DEARLY! Enjoy your new life as a marionette, you foolish mortal!"
And with that, she was gone once again.
