Chapter Text
Turned out, the dream spell would make Gingerbrave aware of being inside a dream.
Either Wizard Cookie forgot to mention it, or this was an unintended side effect.
Regardless of the case, Gingerbrave was having the time of his life!
He laughed joyously as he somehow wielded a candy cane more than ten times his size onto a battle against what seem to be various kind of dragons of all things (maybe Hollyberry Cookie’s stories of fighting dragons rubbed off on him a bit?), and he was winning by a mile.
Each swipe of his massive cane would send the dragons flying away into the distance, while simultaneously sending huge gusts of wind that’d completely blow away any fire breaths the dragons sent his way, much to the dragons’ chagrin.
The teen was also wearing an outfit that he thought frankly looked badass from what he could see of it, consisting of a black cape with gold accents and a golden skull in the center, as well as a black and gold militaristic uniform that also had golden skulls on it.
Gingerbrave wasn’t alone in the battlefield either, he could spot his siblings as well as many other cookies like the ancients and even the beasts fighting their own draconic opponents in the distance, making it feel like he’s some kind of protagonist in an action movie!
“I can do this all day!” He found himself saying with a chuckle as he batted the last of the dragons away, said dragon keeling over with a pained roar as it collapsed on the ground defeated, which gave him a chance to catch his breath for a bit while his candy cane shrunk back down to its normal size.
“Phew, that was quite a doozy! Now, where are the rest of my…” Gingerbrave started saying as he looked around.
“…Friends and enemies…?” He finished, his smile becoming a confused frown.
Indeed, all of the sudden it’s as if everyone had vanished, the teen finding himself now standing alone in the scorched battleground with no sign of life. The chaotic noises of fighting were gone, leaving only the ominous sound of wind blowing fiercely.
‘W-Where did everyone go!?’ Gingerbrave thought as he blinked in shock, taking in the monochrome landscape all around him as he felt what felt like dread creeping in. ‘Wait, why is everything suddenly black and white, too!? It’s like someone sucked up all the colors…!’
“…G-GINGERBRAVE…”
The teen froze as he heard what sounded like a chorus of voices inside his head.
‘T-That voice… I know that voice-‘
“…GINGERBRAVE…!”
He gasped as he was suddenly hit by a wave of pain around his chest, causing him to kneel down while gripping the candy cane tightly for support, his vision darkening.
“…F-FINALLY…YOU CAN HEAR US…!”
Gingerbrave’s breathing became heavy and strained, his eyes watering as his free hand cradled his chest where the pain was intensifying.
‘W-What’s happening to me!? T-This pain…!’
“…WE MISSED YOU, GINGERBRAVE…!”
His eyes widened in horror as his chest started smoking.
The hand on his chest reflexively jolting away at the heat his chest was radiating.
The kind of heat that he’d feel from…!
“…SOON… WE WILL REUNITE…!”
Gingerbrave screamed.
Back in the world of living, Gingerbrave shot out of his bed with a terrified scream.
The teen sat there breathing raggedly, shaking like a leaf and both arms hugging himself.
And it was like that for the next while, the young cookie not really keeping track of how long it took before he calmed down enough for his breathing to be stable and for him to stop shaking.
“…A-A nightmare… it was just a nightmare, Gingerbrave.” He eventually muttered to himself.
‘W-Well, Wizard Cookie’s spell did work… until that happened.’ Gingerbrave thought with a shudder. ‘…That’s the voice of the Ultimate Cookie, w-wasn’t it…? But why would I suddenly dream about them…? I thought I was doing just fine not thinking about… whatever that whole oven experience was!’
“…I wonder if it has anything to do with how I’m feeling lately?” He muttered again, voicing his thoughts while rubbing his warm chest, before pausing.
‘Wait a second… why is my chest so warm?’ Gingerbrave thought in confusion and concern, looking down to see… that his chest was black, and his top skull button was replaced by the eye button of the Ultimate Cookie.
…
…
…
“WHAT THE FUDGE!!?” The poor youngling screamed for the second time since waking up, before bolting out of bed to go take a closer look at that part of his body in the mirror, desperately hoping that he was just hallucinating and seeing things cause of the nightmare.
To his dismay, the mirror proved him that it was indeed his reality, on top of revealing that his strand of icing now gradually transitioned from white to black as it reached the tip.
“W-What’s happened to me!?” Gingerbrave yelled, one of his hands touching that part of his chest delicately as if feeling it for the first time, and his worry grew when he realized it felt like touching burnt dough and it smelled like ashes.
Much like the charred remains of cookies from the ultimate oven.
“Even if you leave, you will forever remain in us…”
He gasped as he suddenly heard a faint chorus of voices in the back of his head.
“And we’ll forever remain in you…”
He rushed over to grab his candy cane as his eyes darted around wildly, looking for where the voice was coming from, yet he could not spot anyone in the bedroom except himself.
“U-Ultimate Cookie! W-Where are you, what do you want from me!?”
“Next time… we’ll meet outside the Oven…! Gingerbrave…”
After that ominous statement, the room was silent once more save for his own breathing.
It took a moment for Gingerbrave to realize that he’s not going to hear anything anymore, at which point he collapsed backwards and plopped right on his bed, his expression a combination of shocked and haunted in equal measure.
‘…D-Did that really just happen…? W-Was it… all in my head…?’ The young cookie thought in fear as he shook his head, one of his hands once again rubbing his blackened chest. ‘…W-What did they mean, “you will forever remain in us” and “we’ll forever remain in you”? D-Did they… put a part of themselves in me!? Took a part of me for themselves!? Was that why I was feeling so off and, why I kept feeling that pain in my-‘
As if on cue, his chest acted up again.
But this time it’s worse.
The teen let out a pained scream and fell backwards on the bed, as said chest felt like it was on fire…!
The area around the eye button even faintly glowed orange, as if he had a miniature sun inside him!
‘HOLY MOLY THAT HURTS LIKE HECK!!’
Luckily for Gingerbrave, the “flare up” was no more than a few seconds long.
Still, it made him breathe raggedly for a few minutes, his eyes watering and just about ready to burst into tears.
‘…T-This is… not going to be fun to explain to Strawberry Cookie and Wizard Cookie, huh?’ The teen eventually realized with an uncharacteristic level of resignation, as he tried to steady his breathing. ‘Ovens, they’re going to be SO mad at me for keeping this to myself for so long, but… I guess I gotta face the music at some point, haha…’
‘…Well, once I stopped looking like I’m going to cry at any moment…’
Surely, nothing could be worse than facing his siblings at this point.
Gingerbrave stared blankly at the hastily written message on the kitchen table.
“Sorry Gingerbrave, but this morning me and Wizard Cookie are both being called for a potentially dangerous expedition. Apparently, a group of strange monochrome-colored cake monsters were spotted attacking a few of our adventurers at a spot somewhat far from our kingdom to the east, and we alongside a few other cookies were sent to investigate.”
“Don’t worry, we made sure to pack plenty of life potions and jellies, so we’ll be fine. Hopefully, we’ll be back by the time the moon rises at most. And no, you’re not coming with us, get some more rest and let us handle it, okay? – Strawberry Cookie.”
The teen found himself groaning at the very inconvenient timing.
“Monochrome-colored cake monsters…?” He muttered to himself.
“What does monochrome mean again… oh right, didn’t Wizard Cookie tell me it just means black-and-white? Black-and-white… like the-“
He stopped himself right then, feeling dread creeping in on him again.
‘N-No no, surely it’s just a coincidence… a lot of things are black-and-white, not just them…!’
…
…
…
“Ugh, I’m so tired of all these weird and worrying thoughts!” Gingerbrave eventually snapped to himself.
“I gotta distract myself, or something… like doing daily chores while waiting for those two to get back-“
“…Oh right, I was told to rest some more…”
And so, Gingerbrave found himself sitting on the couch in the living room, staring at his transformed chest thoughtfully.
“Strawberry Cookie and Wizard Cookie are going to freak the heck out, if they see me like this…” He pondered while poking said chest, frowning at the burnt texture of it. “I know they’re going to see it eventually anyways, but maybe… I could try to hide it at first…? To uh, soften the blow a bit… I think Pure Vanilla Cookie said something about that! …Not sure I can hide my icing, though…”
Unfortunately, as he went to his closet, he realized that all of his costumes were currently at Mont Blanc Cookie’s boutique, because she wanted to “make them a bit more exquisite” as she put it, and thus there’s nothing left in his closet.
…Well, almost nothing left.
For his most recent birthday, someone jokingly gifted him a chocolate dress that’s essentially a girl’s version of the chocolate tuxedo he’d wear for Halloween Masquerade, with some extra stuff tacked on.
He never did find out who did it, because the dress was delivered straight to his home, just innocently sitting on the dining table with a note wishing him happy birthday.
At the time he laughed it off, appreciating the joke even if thinking of himself in a dress was a bit mortifying.
Ironic that he’d now find himself actually trying it on for the first time.
“…Better than scaring the daylights out of Strawberry Cookie and Wizard Cookie immediately on their return, I guess.” Gingerbrave mumbled, blushing slightly as he picked the dress up.
Huh. He thought he’d look ridiculous but…
Gingerbrave thought he looked quite nice in this chocolate dress!
Looking at his reflection, he didn’t feel quite as much embarrassment as he expected to feel.
He’d bet on Strawberry Cookie and many other girls he knew to say he looked “cute”, even!
The thought did make him smile and blush a bit as he walked away out of his bedroom into the living room.
“Gingerbrave! Are you there!?”
The teen jumped as he heard Adventurer Cookie’s voice from behind the front door.
“Yeah, I am! What’s up?” Gingerbrave responded without thinking, before inwardly panicking.
‘Oh no, I should had stayed quiet…! I don’t want anyone to see me in this dress except-’
The front door was slammed open.
‘-my siblings…’ He finished the thought in resignation, blushing as Adventurer Cookie stared baffled.
“Dude, why are you in a… nevermind that! Come with me, there’s a weird group of cake hounds approaching the east gate of our kingdom!” The man hastily informed before running off.
Gingerbrave stood there for a second, equal parts dumbfounded and mortified.
A few seconds later, he and Adventurer Cookie were both sprinting through the kingdom.
“What did you mean by “a weird group”, Adventurer Cookie!?” The young cookie asked.
“They were just plain bizarre! Black-and-white all over, emitting smoke constantly and way stronger than regular cake hounds! Even Werewolf Cookie had trouble with fending them off!” The adult one replied back with a concerned frown.
For the third time that day, Gingerbrave felt dread creeping in on him once more.