Once upon a time there lived a small village.

It was located deep within a magical forest ruled by a kind queen. The queen's daughter fell in love with a prince and they spent many happy days together.

One day, the queen had an accident, and the queen's daughter was crowned the new queen. The prince had to leave for a while to study to becoming the new king.

Every day she would wait for him, his letters keeping her heart from breaking as he wrote his love for her.

One day, she went out on a walk, greeting the villagers as she passed by, smiling at their playful manner.

Until she spotted her prince holding hands with another young woman.

Her heart broke. Didn't he say that he loved her? Didn't he promise they would be together forever?

She ran away in tears. When the prince tried to explain himself, she ordered the guards to lock him away.

That day was when everything changed. When the queen's daughter turned into a broken monster, and when the prince learned that love was nothing more than a burden and should never let in harm him ever again.

Trees shot past him.

Dwellers scurried out of the way.

Minions watched in fear.

The king had returned.

And he was not happy.

His normal yellow eyes could only see red as he flew through his forest at top speed.

Many could feel his aura, feeling danger being around him as he went deep into the forest.

He had an intent to kill, to murder someone.

He was dead set on it and nothing was going to stop him.

Everyone knew that the king was hard to anger on this level.

Not many thing could tick him off this bad.

But something had, and someone was going to die tonight.

Hat Kid cried as her body moved on its own, moving this way and that in a little dance. Strings of red were wrapped tightly around her limbs, forcing her to move against her will. She was hurting and she still didn't feel good.

"Aw, don't cry little one. Little puppets should be happy to be performing for their king."

She bit her lower lip as she was tugged upwards into a blue hand of the Moonjumper.

"After all, our little show is about to start soon. Our special audience is about to show up and he wouldn't be too happy if he saw you in tears now." He squeezed his hand around her, making her cry out in pain. "Would he?"

Moonjumper laughed, throwing his arms high up in the air, twisting round and round. "After many years of being denied my rightful place, I shall finally gain control over the forest! It was my right when SHE became unfit to rule." He grinned down at her, rubbing his thumb against her cheek. "I don't understand how that shadow became ruler when it should belong to me! I was a prince once. So long, long ago." He sighed wistfully.

"All those years of learning how to be a good king, all the laws and practices to hone out. All for nothing when SHE entered our lives. But I can forgive her. She never entered a hardship like we had at a young age. Just a pampered sheltered life where she could have anything she wanted right at her feet…"

"… makes me wonder what she could have turned out to be." He shook his head, tossing the young weak girl back and forth between his hands. "But you? I don't get you. I mean, he should have taken your soul by now and thrown your little body here with all the rest of them!" He held her up by the strings, showing her the mounds of dead rotting bodies. The smell was making her gag.

"He's taken hundreds and hundreds of souls before. Young and old, bird and man, ALL of the sorts! And yet." He twisted her around to face him. "He lets YOU live. Why is that? You're certainly nothing special. Well, not from what I've seen so far." He took his thumb and index finger, trapping her middle between them and looked her over.

"A little girl alien who relies on her special hats to go about the world looking for… what did you call them again?" He hummed, scratching his head. "Something small, tiny but with an interesting power…" He smiled, a grim wicked smile. "Something that looks like… THIS."

Something flashed in his other hand, and Hat Kid gasped as a Time Piece floated in Moonjumper's hand.

"Oh don't look so surprised my young dear. Did you really think that you collected all of these in MY forest?"

She shot a glare at him. "Snatcher's forest."

Moonjumper's right eye twitched, enclosing his hand on the time piece. He hissed slightly as he took in some air and blew it out slowly. "Poor confused little SICK." He pressed his fingers together, causing the young girl to let out a shout of pain. "Girl. I think you meant to say MY forest. Better yet. I don't think I gave you permission to talk like that to me."

Her face paled as he looked at her with something in his eyes that she did not like. "I left a specific message back at your place, but I think we've waited long enough for your B. F. F. to show up. It just goes to show that you can't trust a—"

"PUT."

Moonjumper froze.

"HER."

He spun around, looking upwards.

"DOWN."

Snatcher glared down at the duo, his eyes trained on them.

"NOW."

"AH! Snatcher! You've arrived! How… delightful." Moonjumper's lips curled in disdained as Snatcher slowly climbed down the pillar like a coiled snake on tree's trunk, his eyes never leaving the corpse or the sick child. "Any moment longer and things would have turned… ugly."

Snatcher stood to his full height once he reached the bottom, holding out one hand and glared harder at the blue corpse. "The kid. Hand her over. Now."

"Now that's a bit rude. Demanding me to hand over my new puppet like you own—"

"GIVE. HER. TO. ME. NOW!"

Moonjumper recoiled a bit. He never seen the Snatcher like this before. He sighed, twisting the small girl pressed between his fingers. "Snatcher, Snatcher, Snatch Snatch diddle dee do. You're so persistently SELFISH." He tossed her up in the air, catching her in his hands and smiled as the Snatcher's face contorted into a look of fury.

"First it was Subcon. Then it was the inhabitants. And now? Now you want take my new toy away? Oh you wound me so." He pulled out a cage, and none too gently tossed Hat Kid inside. "We both know that there can only be one ruler of this forest. And that there can only be one to control it all." He set the cage on a chain, which rose up high above them. "If you want her back so badly… let's settle this like we ALWAYS DO."

Snatcher watched as the cage went high, looking at the Moonjumper with shadows of his power leaking off. "FINE." His claws extended, cracking with energy. "But you're not leaving in one piece after tonight."

One upon a time there was a prince.

He was locked away down deep in a dungeon by the one whom he thought loved him.

This is all a big misunderstanding! He thought. Surely my love will see that soon and free me!

But nights passed, turnings into weeks to months.

The cold dug deep into his body, never once turning into a warm day for him.

The cold outside grew as it did inside the dungeon.

One night, on full moon night, as the prince glared at his shadow, he laughed as a funny thought occurred to him.

Stupid silly me! I'm not the only one down here! All I have for company are these puddles and my own shadow!

He laughed, madly.

But what good use is a shadow to a corpse?! So be free shadow! You're no use to me!

And to his mad surprise, his shadow spoke.

The forest shook with power as two entities threw their powers against one another.

Strings shot through the air, pillars of deadly magic burst out of the ground. Claws slashed, digging into stone, earth, and blue and dark skin. Bodies slammed to the ground with force, pillars knocked over and crumbled to the earth.

It was deadlock match between a king and a would-be ruler.

She had never seen Snatcher act this way before, nor had he ever shown to be this powerful in their battles before. Watching him fight Moonjumper, it was like one of those funny TV shows that one of her friends back home liked to watch a lot. Had Snatcher been holding back with her? Or did he not see her as something worth putting his full power against?

She cringed as Snatcher slammed Moonjumper's face into the ground before he retaliated by slashing his claws at Snatcher's left eye.

Power blast after power blast rocked her small cage, tittering it to rock high in the air and drop suddenly. It was not a good thing for her aching sick body.

She whimpered, curling in on herself as her body wracked with pain.

Once upon a time there was a shadow of a prince.

Everywhere the prince went, the shadow followed like a mirror.

Everything the prince did, the shadow did the same.

In every way, the shadow and the prince where the same.

But everything changed when the prince finally noticed the shadow and laughed in cackling madness.

Stupid silly me! He said as he laughed. I'm not the only one down here! All I have for company are these puddles and my own shadow!

But what good use is a shadow to a corpse?! So be free shadow! You're no use to me!

The shadow, for the first time ever since the prince was born, suddenly felt something deep within itself.

Something it had never felt before and yet was suddenly aware of.

It slowly opened its mouth, speaking with its own voice that did not belong to the prince.

Free?

The prince stopped laughing.

… Am… A-am I going mad? For a second there, I thought I heard a voice. And what's that I see? Eyes! Eyes in my own shadow!

The shadow didn't understand what the prince was saying. Eyes? What eyes? Shadows don't have eyes. The prince did and… that stirred something within the shadow.

It did not want to be part of the prince. The prince got to do everything he wanted. He got to choose where to go. He got to pick what to wear. He made all the choices that he wanted.

HE DIDN'T WANT TO BE PART OF THE PRINCE ANYMORE!

With great bursting strength, the shadow pulled himself out of the ground.

And fled.

"You Were Once A Part Of Me!" Moonjumper screamed, throwing his arms widely as the strings shot through the air, cutting into anything that stood in their way. "You LEFT me to ROT in that place!"

Snatcher ducked behind one of the trees, diving into the shadows and popping out in a far distance. "To be fair with every argument we have of this, you told me to GET LOST!" He dived back in the shadows as the strings shot after him in that spot, hitting nothing but dirt.

Moonjumper growled as he missed again. "You ungrateful shadow! Did you even THINK how long it took me to get out of there?! The years after you left me to build my power to escape that place! But no matter! Once I rid of you from this place, Subcon will rightfully be mine!"

"Stupid says what?"

"What?" Moonjumper parroted before he realized his mistake and growled with anger as Snatcher howled with laughter. "GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT ME!"

"Oh is that what we're doing right now? I thought we were here to relive the past! You know, how you tried to take MY forest away from me." Moonjumper twisted around, searching for the shadow in the darkness. "How you tried to steal MY subjects. And how I blasted away your legs for defying ME?!"

Snatcher jumped out from beneath the large corpse, grabbing him by the neck and slamming him to the ground. "And now you've hurt one of my minions, leaving me a message threatening to KILL a sick girl, and you STILL THINK YOU'RE THE RIGHTFUL RULER AFTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!"

Moonjumper struggled to pull Snatcher's hands off him, but the shadow pressed harder, digging his claws into the rotted blue flesh. "Normally I wouldn't care too much." Snatcher spook in a hush tone. "But you've gone too far this time."

"Just over some GIRL?!" Moonjumper choked, glaring up at the shadow.

Snatcher laughed, throwing his head back and tightening his grip. "You'd be surprised! Kid's got an attitude and spunk like you'd never know! She's stubborn but she's got her head on right. She's a little bit of a pest at times, but, eh, we all have been a bit bratty at young age."

Moonjumper dragged his claws down along Snatcher's arms, making the shadow wince in pain but didn't let his grip go. "She's just! A small! CHILD!"

"Yeah, but if she wasn't so sick she could kick—" Snatcher stopped, his eyes widened as a look of realization crossed his face. His eyes narrowed, looking at Moonjumper with a sickening feeling in his nonexistent stomach. "… You were the one who put those flowers around my home."

Moonjumper. Grinned.

Subcon Forest shook from a mighty roar of anger.

The shadow hated what he saw in his reflection.

He looked like the prince, but he was no longer a part of him!

He hated his face, so he got rid of it.

He hated his hands, so turned them into claws.

He had no use for walking, so he got rid of his legs.

He hated the torn but regal clothes he wore, so he turned his whole body into a single black shadow.

Once he liked what he saw, he was no longer the mirrored image of the prince.

He was now a shadowy ghost with long arms that ended in claws.

A shadowy serpent that flew in the air with no boundaries to stop him.

A face that struck terror with a dashing flashing smile and glowing eyes that illuminated in the dark.

He was a being that snatched the souls of trespassers who dared to enter his home, HIS kingdom.

He smiled.

Snatched.

Snatcher.

That sounded like a good name for him.

They did not know what was happening.

One moment the forest was peaceful, and the next their tree had fallen over and a powerful aura coated the forest.

They took to the trees, hiding in the branches as two large scary beings were fighting.

They recognized one of them being the king, but the other was a mystery to them.

They could feel their king's aura flaring.

Anger.

Grief.

HATRED.

Pain.

Most of the aura was flared at the strange new being, but the aura was also leading to somewhere else.

They were scared, but they wanted to help their king.

They followed the aura where it led to a cage.

They could feel the king's aura strongly here.

Annoyance.

Anger.

Pain.

Worry.

Caring.

Acceptance.

Laughter.

Joy.

Love.

So much love here.

All for this strange looking small being.

This being that felt like fireworks and sunny days.

Of childish joys and new wonders to be found.

Of innocence untainted by the world.

Of happiness that wanted nothing more than to fill a void of loneliness deep within.

Their aura was weak.

They could feel it was weakening.

The king loved this being.

If the being died…

They had to help this being.

For the king.

"IT WAS YOU?! YOU PLACED THOSE FLOWERS THERE TO BEGIN WITH?! YOU CAUSED THE KID TO GET SICK?! YOU CAUSED HER 25 DAY ILLNESS?!" Snatcher roared with fury.

Moonjumper dodged Snatcher's attacks, but he wasn't fast enough to evade all of them. He hissed as he barely managed to evade a blast attack from below. He knew Snatcher lost all sense of reasoning planed attacks once he lost his cool, but maybe it wasn't such a good idea to sicken the child with such a deadly illness if this was the result of that plan.

Still, he had the upper hand. The child was still locked away in her little cage. If things were getting out of hand for him, he could always use her as a shield.

He hid behind a tree, resting a moment and taking a chance to glance at the cage. His red eyes widen. A Dweller was at the cage, pulling on the lock!

Moonjumper growled, dashed towards the cage at top speed, catching Snatcher's attention and followed suite after him.

The blue corpse snagged the Dweller and the cage, angered that some small spirit tried to get in his way, not noticing the Snatcher coming up behind him and slash deep cuts within his back. The surprise attack from behind shocked Moonjumper to drop his grip on the Dweller and the cage, letting drop high from the sky.

Spotting the cage falling was enough for Snatcher to shove aside his rival, diving down after the cage, catching it in his hands and coiled around it protectively as they hit the ground. Dazed, Snatcher quickly gained his bearings, and after casting a quick glare at the screaming cursing Moonjumper, he snapped off the bars of the cage, pulling the kid into his hands.

"Alright kid let's get you somewhere safe away from thi—kid?" Snatcher frowned as there was no response. Hat Kid laid limp in his hands. "Kid? Kid come on. This. This isn't funny. Wake up! Kid! Come on!" He poked her, pinched her cheek, flicked her ear, all those little things he did to annoy her that riled her up and made her face scrunch up in anger.

But there was no response for her.

Her chest wasn't even moving.

"… k-kid?"

"YOU!" Snatcher had no time to think as Moonjumper grabbed him from behind, losing his hold on the child as Moonjumper grabbed his neck and threw him over to the ground. "YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO ATTACK ME WHEN MY BACK IS TURNED?!" He grabbed Snatcher, throwing him into a pillar and toss him into the air. He sent thread after thread, piercing into Snatcher's body. "YOU WORM! YOU EXCUSE FOR A KING! YOU WHO WERE ONCE MY SHADOW AND MY SOUL!" He grabbed the threads, tugging them and threw Snatcher around, hitting him against trees, pillars, stones, and the earth.

Summoning many of his strings, he commanded them to wrap around the shadow's body, pinning his arms together and officially trapping him. He grinned wickedly as he brought his prize down close. "I win. Just how it was meant to be." He smiled, turning around and spotting the same pecking Dweller nudging the child's shoulder. "Don't think I forgot about you."

The Dweller froze, looking up at him.

"As your new king, I find those who've have no loyalty to me… DISPOSABLE." Strings shot forward, aiming for the Dweller who coward on top of the child.

And stopped.

Moonjumper blinked. His string weren't supposed to just stop! He didn't command it! And—wait. Were they evaporating?!

Moonjumper watched in mute horror as his strings started to smoke and evaporate into nothingness. He heard something behind him. He turned around… and quickly regretted it.

Snatcher's body was twitching, no. Contorting! His fingers cracked, grew, lengthened, sharpened, twisting, bending, growing, breaking. Eyes of golden yellow were a deep crimson red, his smiled vanished and his mane went wild. An unearthly hiss emanated from him, strings and threads burning away from his growing unconstrained anger.

Before the last thread broke, Moonjumper knew he was in for a world of pain.

The new aura was scary.

The king's emotions flooded their mind with pain, anger, pain, sadness, anger, pain, sadness, anger, anger, sadness, pain, anger, pain, fury, sadness, fury, fury, FURY, FURY—

There was no escaping his aura.

The whole forest could feel it!

Many brethren could feel his aura.

The false king could feel it too.

Backing away from the king as he let out a terrifying roar.

They flinched as the false king was swatted away like a fly.

The king went after them.

They were scared.

They were sad.

They needed to wake the small being.

They went back to nudging the small being.

Their aura was still there, still weak, but there.

The king couldn't feel their aura through the mess of their emotions, but the small being was still alive!

If the king knew this, he would return to his old self!

They nudged harder and harder.

The battle behind them was growing.

They kept nudging.

They heard the false king scream in pain.

Come on small being!

Come on!

The king needs you!

Movement?

Movement!

Yes!

YES!

Come on small being!

They know they can do it!

Just!

Live!

The small being let out a gasp.

Snatcher had no attachments to anything besides his books.

He had forbidden himself to feel anything towards anyone. They were all the same to him. Just beings whose souls were meant to sustain him.

He stiffened, glaring down at his side. For some reason the kid had decided to visit him this night. Honestly, why did keep insisting on coming here?! He didn't want her here and she already had her soul back!

He could toss her out in the rain. That would teach her to come barging in like she owned the pecking place.

"s… sna… cher…" He froze. She smiled in her sleep, snuggling into his side. Odd. Usually when someone dreamed about him, they usually woke up screaming.

He should still throw her out and make her go back to her own bed…

Peck it. He was too comfy in his chair and the kid was surprisingly warm against his side. He'll do it tomorrow.

Or the next day.

Or the day after that.

But there was no way he was getting attached to this kid!

A cough.

Her cough.

He knew that sound anywhere.

His head spun around.

She was coughing.

She was moving.

She was alive!

"KID!" Snatcher screamed, tossing the defeated Moonjumper away and flew towards the still alive still alive still alive STILL ALIVE kid, scooping her up in his arms. She whimpered, but that was good! S-she was in pain, but still good!

Her blue eyes weakly opened, gazing up at him. "Snatcher?"

"You little BRAT!" Snatcher roared, holding her up to his face. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU PUT ME THROUGH?! I TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU ONE SECOND AND YOU GO GET CAPTURED! HONESTLY! I SHOULD JUST TAKE YOUR SOUL RIGHT HERE AND NOW AND NEVER GIVE IT BACK!"

She smiled at him. "I missed you too…"

Snatcher glared at her a moment before huffing, shifting his arms so that she was cradled protectively in his hold. "You're just lucky that I don't have the energy to do more than yell at you kiddo. I'm too tired right now and… are you sleeping?!"

Indeed she was. Snuggled against his form with her little hands gripping his mane for dear life.

Snatcher groaned, rolling his eyes. "I'm not a bed kid. You got one back at your place waiting for you along with a worried cat." Snatcher couldn't help but smile a little. His body ached and his wounds would need time to heal, but the kid was safe now.

His smile vanished when the Dweller started nudging the kid's cheek roughly, disturbing her sleep that she needed to recover. "Hey hey. Stop that." He shoved the Dweller away. It looked at him in confusion. "She's sleeping. She needs that to recover from her sickness." He knew it was rather pointless to talk with a Dweller. They never said a word or sound.

So maybe it would have been great if it could.

Otherwise it would have shouted for him to look out for the being behind him. Maybe it would have screamed as the being threw an hourglass to the ground beside him, opening up time vortex that sucked them in and disappeared. Vanishing without a single trace left of them.

Once the light faded away and there was no trace of them anywhere, Moonjumper slowly cackled before breaking out into a full blown mad laughter. He didn't know where they went, or when, but they gone. Subcon was HIS now.

He giggled madly, holding where his arm once was as he struggled to stay floating. He was very weak, but he didn't care. He WON. That was all that mattered to him.

But if he had the chance to be a little bit sane at the moment, he would have possibly spotted the glowing eyes of minions in the fog. Or the bright bodies of Fire Spirits who were not dancing. Or the many Dwellers gathering in the tree tops. Or the many unhappy, angry inhabitants who witnessed what he had done.

If he had, maybe he would have had a chance to escape.