Chapter Text
Nothing but grey. Fitting, seeing his current situation. He closes his eyes.
His head ached, the mark over his left eye feeling like it’s on fire as he walks around his prison. Witches, he hadn’t felt this much pain in eons. It’s just as unpleasant as he remembers.
The only thing here is a pool of water, mirroring his own face back at him.
He looks like shit, hair disheveled, jam coating his bodysuit and collar, and thick rings under his eyes.
Is there… any point? In any of this? The Witches were gone, he had thought that maybe- maybe they were still listening, still… there… but no. It was Silent Salt Cookie. It had always been him. They’d created him, and for what? To leave them here? Why?
He inhales. The air smells of nothing but iron and jam… he feels… nothing.
His Soul Jam is faded and grey, only a little patch of its former blue remaining, and he exhales shakily. There are no gods, there are no Witches, there is nothing to stop him if he decides to destroy everything on Earthbread… and yet he doesn’t crave that as he once had. There is nothing where that desire once stood.
An endless expanse where his love for chaos and destruction once lie. Maybe Mystic Flour Cookie was correct. Everything he’d done— trying to get Them to finally LISTEN— had been in vain. Because he was weak, because he couldn’t hold on to ‘Truth’, because he lost hold of Knowledge—
No, Shadow Milk Cookie’s fate had been decided the moment he opened his eyes for the first time. He would Fall, from Knowledge to Deceit… and now…? He doesn’t know, and he doesn’t care to Know.
For the first time in his long, torturous existence, he does not care to Know.
A crucial part of the history of this place opens its eyes.
The dying light of his Soul Jam, the last fragment of he who had come before this… Beast. It too, had finally given up. There was no reason for him to press on.
He closes his eyes, and lets the darkness of his own mind drown him one last time.
—
Time passes in the blink of an eye, his mind and vision hazy and distant… until voices, unintelligible to his clouded mind, and light hits his eyelids… yet his body does not move. It was not supposed to.
Something familiar about the voices rings out in the confusion of this endless darkness, but he can’t be bothered to fight his way back up… so he does the only thing he knows how to do.
He sinks further, and further, and further.
There’s black water all around him, a pool so deep he cannot see past the surface anymore…
Well, it’s all for the better. No one mourns the wicked, after all.
——————
“Master Shadow Milk Cookie!!” Candy Apple screeches as the Beast is finally broken from Silent Salt’s hold.
Black Sapphire runs after her, but stays behind once she slows down. Something’s wrong, and he can tell immediately. Shadow Milk would normally have floated up and made some form of comment.. but he was just standing there, eyes closed, and his only movement being his labored breathing.
Gaping chest wound still there, slowly leaking his blueish-purple jam onto the ground. He should be screaming in pain, yet he doesn’t, just… sits there.
He only turns his head once Candy Apple directly hits him square in the side, wrapping her arms around his torso. Opening his cerulean eye, he locks on to her. Witches, he looks exhausted… pitch dark circles line the underside of his eyes. Black Sapphire doesn’t let his concern show though.. what kind of actor would he be if he let his act go?
…which is why he’s surprised by Shadow Milk’s words. “…Is there.. a meaning behind this…?” His gaze is cold, sharp, and something Black Sapphire doesn’t recognize tinges his voice like ice. Candy Apple lets go before looking up, directly into his eye. It’s glazed over, like he’s not fully present and in the moment.
“…I.. shall bid this place adieu…” He mutters something else, too quiet for anyone to hear. A portal appears under his feet, swallowing Shadow Milk before his (former?) minions can react.
Candy Apple falls to the ground, and Black Sapphire bends down to try and comfort her.
—
Pure Vanilla is surprised when he sees Shadow Milk in his dreams. The other covers his mouth before he can say something about it, though. “I am NOT Shadow Milk Cookie. I am not him, do not speak to me as such.” He pulls.. not Shadow Milk’s hand off of his mouth. “Ugh. To put this short, my power is yours, you hold pretty much aaall of the Light of Knowledge, congratulations.” Pure Vanilla blinks. “Can you.. please elaborate?” Not-Shadow Milk rolls their eyes. Or… eye, seeing as their left eye has been replaced by the shape of Shadow Milk’s Soul Jam.
“Shadow Milk Cookie will not listen to me anymore, therefore, my power is yours until he snaps to his senses.” He tilts his head. “Witches.. are you an idiot or just plain stupid?? I. Am. The. Light. Of. Deceit. Catch up, will you?” There’s a burst of confetti in his face. He’s… starting to see where Shadow Milk gets some of his ideas from now.
“So! Congratulations! You have me to deal with now.” A grin from Deceit, all teeth and insincerity. They look at their wrist, as someone would look at a watch. “Well, seems it’s time for me to exit the stage! Good luck~!”
Pure Vanilla only manages half of one word before the Light of Deceit vanishes into a bloom of confetti. What did it mean by the fact Shadow Milk wouldn’t listen to it?
Either way… it couldn’t be good by any means, if it was bad enough that it would abandon its original holder in favor of him of all Cookies…
His mind can only guess what had occurred.
He just hopes he won’t be too late.