Chapter Text
White Lily cookie wasn’t supposed to do that.
If she’d fallen for his two choices like the dull cookie she was, he’d be back to his full power.
Well, half power anyways.
Still, with half his power, ripping Pure Vanilla’s soul jam back into his own clutches would be child’s play. Even half was overkill for such a task.
A quarter, no, even an eighth would suffice.
Just the slightest bit more power than the scraps he managed to force through the barrier.
If she had just listened to him. He wouldn’t be in his situation.
Maybe he’d gotten overzealous.
He’s just been stuck in that damn tree for so long. Watched as the cookies told twisted tales about him and his friends, branded them beasts. And then he watched as something even worse happened.
They forgot. What was written about him was lost to time, and the few folktales of his exploits faded away. Soon enough, not a single cookie so much as whispered his name anymore.
He wasn’t even a campfire story to scare little cookies anymore, he was nothing.
He watched from the dark side of the moon as five heroes rose, using his friends’ powers as if they were their own. They didn’t even know who they stole from. Kingdoms rose with their heroes and faded alongside them. The heroes became ancient and nearly forgotten.
Shadow Milk’s eyes turned to the one still barely clinging to his power.
Pure Vanilla Cookie. The most forgotten of all the heroes. He’d sacrificed the most out of them, only to be left wandering vacantly across the land. Forgotten even by his own mind.
There was a certain twisted pleasure he got out of seeing that thief suffer. That pleasure soon turned to boredom as he watched that cookie help anyone he could, only to end up robbed and left to the side of the road. Shadow Milk could only watch the same script play out so many times before he grew tired of it.
That routine changed once Pure Vanilla found a certain village. One that appreciated and looked after him. Always making sure he was eating enough raisin jellies and not overextending himself.
Pure Vanilla would smile more than Shadow Milk had seen him in years. Shadow Milk couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the hero’s cliched happy ending.
He became even more helplessly bored, until a cookie he’d never seen before entered the village. That cookie claimed to be brave, yet his knees shook each time he entered combat. And another cookie always hiding herself in her hood and an incompetent wizard trailed behind the not-so-brave cookie.
These actors, despite their dullness, spiced up Pure Vanilla’s life. He went from a hermit to taking up arms against his dear old friend once again. Alas, any good entertainment wasn’t to last in Shadow Milk’s life, as Pure Vanilla left the adventuring to the younger cookies.
Shadow Milk instead got to watch as Pure Vanilla painstakingly rebuilt his kingdom. Which consisted of mainly filling out paperwork and settling petty disagreements.
He wished Pure Vanilla would crumble already, maybe then his stolen would return to him. With just a bit more power, he could burn this tree to the ground and return to the world’s stage.
He would never let those cookies forget him again. He’d put on a show to truly remember.
Shadow Milk tended to drift off those days, Pure Vanilla was more dull than ever. There was only so much slice of life shenanigans he could take before putting the entirety of the rebuilt Vanilla Kingdom on his ‘Crumble on sight’ list.
It would be fun to have some scores to settle once he’s free, but at this rate it was getting out of hand.
That wretched tree grew just a teensy bit weaker each day. Shadow Milk gave more and more of his attention towards breaking free, stopping almost all of his rudimentary surveillance of Crispia and Beast-Yeast.
Shadow Milk could tell his friends sensed the tree’s weakness as well. They ruthlessly fought against the tree’s seal with Shadow Milk redoubling his efforts.
He was closer than all of them. Well, he had always been more crafty than them.
With just half an eye on kept on Pure Vanilla, it shocked him to lay an eye upon his own prison. Things kept getting better and better.
The tree was wilting, and Pure Vanilla was here, his soul jam ripe for the taking.
Shadow Milk’s smile grew as he felt the tree crack. It was finally showtime!
He put on one of his best performances, not that those dull cookies appreciated it. The look on Elder Faerie’s face made it all worth it though.
He toyed with that silly Vanilla cookie, letting him know who the real owner of the light of truth was.
Everything was going swimmingly. They proceeded to the final act, and the glorious conclusion was soon upon them. He strung the little cookies up by their necks.
Those weak little cookies in his clutches looked familiar, he must have seen them while watching Pure Vanilla. Not that they mattered anyways. Every cast needs a few extras.
They would be excellent cannon fodder.
Ah, how he’d missed this. This power, this terror. All these theatrics almost made him want to keep playing with them. Almost. He’d have plenty of time to toy with cookies after he escaped.
Shadow Milk glanced down at the new guardian. A frail half-cookie. She could hardly replace Elder Faerie Cookie.
Oh well, that just made things easier for him.
Shadow Milk’s smile twisted as he presented White Lily with a lovely false choice at the final hour.
She could save her friends, buying them a few moments more, or she could risk their lives for a shot at taking him down.
Pure Vanilla struggled against his strings, begging White Lily to take him down. Shadow Milk laughed, guess he’d made quite the impression already.
White Lily stood there frozen, her eyes nearly filling with tears.
Was this really one of the so-called ancient heroes? What a waste of Silent Salt’s powers.
Just as Shadow Milk figured she’d given up, the cookie began to glow. He recognized that glow, she shone with Elder Faerie’s power.
Just another stolen power for that cookie.
Her eyes cleared, any trances of tears gone, as she stared him down. She seemed almost a different cookie as she gathered her power for one last strike.
Shadow Milk grinned. He had her now. Even if she managed to destroy this form of his, the rest of him was safe and sound in that prison. With the guardian drained, breaking out again would be a cinch.
Her power rushed towards him. Shadow Milk braced himself, even if it wouldn’t crumble him, it would still hurt. At the last second, her power sped past him, going straight for the tree.
No.
Not again.
He couldn’t get sealed again. How many years has it been since he’s seen the sun?
He hasn’t even made it to his ‘Crumble on sight’ list.
They were going to forget him again.
“You… you…!” He glared at her.
She wasn’t supposed to do that.
“I gave you only two choices!”
Shadow Milk clutches his scepter. His grip was growing weaker. It felt so heavy.
“How dare you ruin… this moment I’ve been waiting for so long…”
He was going back to the tree.
He’d been defeated by a handful of cookies. Just a bunch of extras.
No. He wouldn’t let this stand. Those cookies would rue the day they crossed him.
The world wouldn’t forget him, not again, he wouldn’t allow it.
He wouldn’t wait any longer to be free.
Shadow Milk feels it, just beyond the faerie kingdom, there was a body he could take over. It was weak, weaker even than an ordinary cookie, but any form would do.
He barks out one last warning to the guardian and her foolish friends before channeling his consciousness.
There’s no time to take a glance at his new body as Shadow Milk rushes to take over. The original consciousness, if it can even be called that, is pushed to the side as he enters his new home.
He’d done it. Those cookies thought he would be sealed away oh-so easily. He would show them, just as soon as he regained his strength.
Shadow Milk Cookie drifts off, his new body fainting with the shock of acquiring a new host, as he dreams of revenge.