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It had been exactly 2 hours after the dark enchantress war had ended and she was defeated.
Shadow milk cookie had watched his friends fall at the hands of the traitorous Silent Salt cookie, all of them dropping like flies one by one. But right before the rift opened in the sky and the avatar of destiny had emerged with that GNAT White Lilly cookie he had managed to slip into the giant oven and merge with a part of the ultimate cookie.
After everything was said and done, shadow milk took it upon himself to use what little powers his fallen friends had and merge with them as well.
The transformation was quick. With a final crack of what little sanity he had being destroyed, he was now a being who could travel throughout timelines, now longer bound by his frail body.
His eye that was unscathed by the magical arrow that the remainder of silent salt cookie’s and white Lilly cookies soul had thrown at him turned into a mix of the yellow from the fount of knowledge and his regular cyan he had developed after the corruption, while the other eye that was struck was now a mix of other cookies eyes including his friends.
His hair had returned with its galaxy patterns, stars flowing gently in the shortened hair as his outfit gained new eyes and the area that held his arms were turned into wisps of magical energy that could transform between wings and claws at his will.
Merging with the ultimate cookie and the other beast cookies did not go without consequence. For, shadow milk cookie he could hear every single voice of the souls within the ultimate cookie, and the beast cookies voices as well.
Normally, he never had a problem with the voices in his head when he first became corrupted, they even felt comforting sometimes when he felt alone within the silver tree, but hearing thousands of voices at once, it could be a little overwhelming with all the persistent buzzing going on.
But despite the overwhelming sounds of the ultimate cookie, there was one voice that could ground him before they returned and drowned him out…
Burning spice cookie.
Burning spice always had a nice voice according to shadow milk, a grainy voice filled with such power, yet could be soft and comforting at times of extreme need.
He had taken Burning spice’s defeat much more harshly than the others, he had made sure to say his goodbyes to his body after absorbing the rest of silent salts powers, and when he created his decoy body to trick the remaining cookies and the ancients, he had made sure to have them hugging each other tightly, as if saying “I will always be there for you”
Sometimes in his little pocket dimension in the rift when the voices got too overwhelming, burning spice’s soul would somehow find a way to quiet them down for just a little bit so that they could talk.
“its alright shadow…their gone for now…”
The sound of burning spice’s voice echoed throughout shadow milks head, bring him some peace. Burning spice’s voice had found him when he was curled up into the fetal position on the cold, non-existent floor of the pocket dimension, his hands cupped over his ears as if to shut the voices out.
Shadow milk had heard silent salt cookie’s warning about how merging with the ultimate cookie would destroy what little sanity he had left, but he ignored him, the feeling of revenge feeling sweeter than ever as he watched silent salt cookie struggle underneath the holy fork that had pierced his abdomen.
Shadow milk had a plan to get revenge on the world that had screwed him over, but he needed time to regain his strength and find a way to be more stable with this new form before he went tearing into the timelines.
Shadow milk let out a quiet sigh, his shaky hands moving away from his ears as he responded quietly in a raspy voice.
“T-thank you…”
“No worries…”
Burning spice responded softly, knowing how much chaos shadow milks mind was, now being a part of it himself.
“I…I wish I could see you again spice…I miss when you held me…its so much more…different…without you around…”
He spoke as he hugged himself tightly, he never wanted to admit to anyone that a beast such as himself could feel ‘loneliness’, yet here he was, missing burning spice despite having a part of him inside him now, curled up in the floor of the void.
“I know…”
Burning spice said softly, trying to soothe shadow milks opened wounds
“I miss you too…”
Shadow milk had to resist the urge to let out a sob, tears welling up in the corner of his eyes , threatening to spill over, when suddenly he remembered something.
Shadow milk cookie was now a powerful entity, stronger than ALL of the ancients combined , if he could find a way to see burning spice again…
HE WOULD.
Shadow milk came up with a spell ritual right off the fly, he needed to focus before the other voices came back and distracted him from his goal. He quickly bit down on his thumb, drawing some of his signature black blood and he used it to draw a magic circle on the ground. He sat himself within the circle and began to concentrate.
The circle made of his blood started glowing a magnificent bright blue as he felt his mind go numb. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and the next time he opened his eyes, he was inside the confines of his mind.
His mind was just as chaotic if not more than what people would think of when they looked at him.
The whole space was somehow darker than the void pocket dimension he now resided in as his bid his time, but there were shattered mirrors all across the space, hiding memories he wanted to forget so he smashed them to pieces himself.
He took a few moments to get adjusted to his new surroundings before starting his trek towards the whispers coming from somewhere within his mind.
The walk felt like it had went on forever, passing broken mirror after broken mirror. It all felt like he was walking in circles, except for the fact that the voices were getting louder and he could immediately tell, they were the other 3 beast cookies.
He finally reached the origin of the voices, but he kept his distance for now, not wanting to startle them with his new appearance just yet.
In the distance, burning spice, eternal sugar, and mystic four cookie, were all standing in a circle, discussing something. Shadow milk strained his ears to focus onto the conversation.
“He’s making the wrong choice! Shadow milks mind is a mess now, and no one of that mental instability should be trusted with THIS much power! It’s too much…even for him…”
The pink sugar angel spoke in a concerned tone, her wings were fluttering nervously, a habit she had started when they were still virtues.
Then, mystic flour spoke up, her voice monotone as always, yet her brows were furrowed slightly, her hands clasped in prayer.
“as much as shadow milk annoys me with his continuous yapping…eternal sugar has a point…”
Burning spice stood there with his arms crossed over his muscular chest, his long black hair cascading down his shoulders as his red antennae twitched with small tremors, head hung low in contemplation.
“You don’t think I already know that!? Sure, he’s being an idiot, but it’s still shadow milk, we can’t do anything but talk to him, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.”
He spoke up with determination, making eternal sugar flinch with his harshness. It wasn’t unusual for burning spice to be harsh and violent, but in context of the situation, it was…out of place somehow.
Burning spice continued talking, letting his hands drop down to his sides and clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white.
“We need to keep him as stable as we can so that the ultimate cookie doesn’t get to him. You know how manipulative they can be.”
The others looked away in silent agreement. They had been inside of shadow milks mind long enough to recognize the manipulative tactics that they use to manipulate their prey into helping them, and it was scary, knowing that if the being could manipulate THE beast of deceit…It was bad.
Shadow milk cookie finally decided that he had heard enough of their conversation…it was nice to know that they somewhat still cared about him but…what could they do now to stop him? They were just ghosts now anyways…
Regardless, shadow milk finally found the courage to step forward, slowly approaching the group, shifting the wisps that replaced his arms into wings that folded by his sides.
Eternal sugar cookie was the first one to catch sight of shadow milk and his new form due to the angle she was standing at. She let out a gasp and put her hands over her mouth, drawing the attention of the other two.
Both mystic four and burning spice turned to the direction that Eternal sugar was facing and their eyes widened at the sight of their friend. This was the first time they were seeing his new form and they were shocked.
Shadow milk continued his slow strides towards the group, making sure to take his time. He stopped a few feet away from the group, and he just stared at them with a blank expression, his eyes focusing on specifically burning spice. Would he react to him in disgust? Maybe even hostility? Who knew until someone made the first move.
It took a few seconds of them staring at one another before burning spice slowly took a step forward, careful not to frighten him like a cornered animal.
“shadow…?”
He whispered quietly, hesitant to reach a hand out, not sure if he wanted to bite his hand off if he made the wrong move.
Shadow milk just stared at burning spice slowly approach him, and he looked at all of their reactions.
They were scared. I mean, who wouldn’t be if you saw this…CREATURE… standing in front of you.
Shadow milk after taking a second to analyze the mood before he spoke slowly and quietly.
“Yeah…its me…at least…I think it is…”
His gaze drifted to the floor, waiting for criticism, yelling, or even for burning spice to lash out and tackle him to the floor, screaming about how much of an idiot he was…but it never came…
Burning spice looked at shadow milk with pure concern in his eyes and every crease in his face as his antennas continued to twitch uncontrollably. He had no clue what had happened to shadow milks physical body after he passed out, but he never expected…This…
“Oh shadow…”
He said, his voice cracking with the emotion he was trying his dammed hardest to contain and not spill out as he slowly extended his arms out to him.
Shadow milks gaze shifted upwards from the floor to burning spice, and his eyes widened slightly at the gesture.
He took one hesitant step forward before picking up the pace and practically throwing himself into his arms, wrapping the wisp-like wings around burning spice as he buried his face into his chest, taking in the warmth he had so desperately missed.
Burning spice flinched a little bit at the impact when shadow milk ran towards him. He let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding in and wrapped his arms around shadow milk. It felt weird to burning spice. Parts of shadow milks form felt whole and yet…some parts felt like a dense fog in the mornings after it had rained the night prior, soft mist brushing against his skin.
He slowly ran his hand up and down shadow milks back, careful not to hit any of the extra eyes that had made their presence on his body out of past wounds or the new surge of power he had gained.
Shadow milk had found himself leaning into the touch. He had been running on pure adrenaline for the last 24 hours, finding no time to rest and had grown extremely exhausted. He had been through an entire war, and never once had closed his eyes to let the embrace of sleep take him under, causing him to sway slightly in burning spices grasp as his eyes threatened to fall shut.
Burning spice immediately noticed and gently lowered himself and shadow milk onto the ground, letting him lean against him. He spoke up quietly, whispering into shadow milks ear.
“It’s alright…you can rest now…we’ll be here…”
Shadow milk felt relived at burning spice’s soothing words, knowing that he wasn’t alone at this time made him feel safer and he finally let his eyes drift shut, letting out a small huff, expressing his comfort as he leaned comfortably on burning spice, his wings still tightly wrapped around the pair.
Burning spice took a couple of moments to just observe shadow milk, making sure he had fallen asleep before turning back to eternal sugar and mystic flour.
They both stared back at the pair, taking in shadow milks new form and how soft burning spice was being with him before eternal sugar spoke up, her tail swaying nervously.
“what…what do we do now…?”
Burning spice looked at eternal sugar before shifting his gaze back to the fast asleep shadow milk in his arms, letting out quiet snores and running his hand through his hair.
“Now…we wait…and we help him stay stable for now before he does what ever crazy plan comes to his mind…”
Burning spice let his words hang in the air to let everyone process what he had said before mystic flour stepped forward a hint of a rare frown on her face.
“How about we just stay with him for now... its not like we’re going anywhere anyway…”
Both eternal sugar and burning spice nodded at mystic flours suggestion, and both mystic flour and eternal sugar sit down next to the duo.
Eternal sugar then used her magic, the cracked Soul jam resting on her forehead flickered slightly with a light pink light, before a soft blanket appeared in her hands. She signaled for mystic flour to sit closer, which mystic flour silently scooted closer to the group, and eternal sugar draped the blanket around them all.
Feeling the blanket against his wings made shadow milk shift slightly, a shiver running through his body before settling back down again. Burning spice had to resist the urge to coo over him, but considering the context of the situation, he held back.
After a while of burning spice being lost in thought, he looked beside him to where the other two were seated, and he noticed that they had both fallen asleep, leaning up against one another as eternal sugars wings gently rested on mystic flours shoulder.
None of them had gotten sleep in an embarrassingly long about of time, but they were beasts. They didn’t need things that normal cookies needed, like sleep or food. That was just how the witches baked them, but that never stopped them from feeling tired.
He looked back down at the sleeping shadow milk. All of the eyes except for his main left eye that had been struck were closed while his left eye remained open, probably due to the damage done to it, it probably wasn’t completely functional anymore.
Shadow milk had always been a bit visually impaired, even when he was the fount of knowledge. They had accidentally baked him with to much milk, causing his dough to be weaker, and his eyesight to be worse. The fount of knowledge always had a pair of golden rimmed glasses perched on his nose, yet when they became corrupted, he had ditched the glasses, because of the eyes that littered his hair and outfit helped him see better.
But now with the damaged eye, just because he had gained more eyes to his look, most likely serving the same purpose as before, he wouldn’t be surprised if he was completely blind in that eye now, but hadn’t noticed it.
A yawn from burning spice interrupted his train of thoughts as he suddenly realized he was also getting tired. He let out a sigh before placing a kiss on shadow milks head, earning him a quiet sigh from the smaller cookie.
Burning spice pulled back and gave him a small smile before laying him and shadow milk onto the ground next to eternal sugar and mystic flour, adjusting the blanket over them, and felt his eyes flutter shut as the last thing he felt was shadow milks wispy wings wrapped around him tightly, and the blanket draped over them, as the void fell into a comfortable silence, unaware that the soul of the ultimate cookie was watching them very closely from within the shadows, ready to use this interaction as ammo against shadow milk cookie.