Chapter Text
HOW DARE HE??!!!
His breath comes out in rough puffs, he could hear rattling as his body desperately tries to get air, it hurts so badly.
Shadow milk can feel his magic quickly seeping away and has no choice but to give up on floating. His legs buckle the second any weight it put on them causes him to crash to the ground.
These stupid legs! Why do they never work as he wants them to?!!! This is so humiliating, first those brats manage to beat him in his own game, Pure vanilla tricking HIM, THE cookie of deceit. And now his own magic and body is betraying him, making him have to struggle on the floor. He tries to get back up on his legs again but they didn’t cooperate at all, he couldn’t move them at all. He managed to crash on his face as his fragile body just gave up.
Pure vanilla watches on as the beast struggles too weak to even get up. He does feel bad for the beast and he so wishes to walk over to the beast to help but he knows that’s a bad idea, especially now. Pure vanilla could practically see the smoke coming off of the beast so for now he decides that checking on the children is the best idea, Shadow milk cookie is too weak to do anything against them. Turning around he sees the children behind him, they’re all huddled together and is also watching on as the beast struggles on the floor.
“Are all of you okay?” he asks the children, they quickly switch their focus from the form on the floor to him. “Nothing major but a few scratches” Gingerbrave tells him, the other two agree.
Rubble crash on the floor making both parties pause, the spire seems to shake debris falling from the roof. Shadow milk could feel the spire giving up and all he could do was watch. His magic was fully drained, he can’t float, make portals or even try and stabilize the spire.
Shadow milk cookie seems to be frozen, Wizard cookie observes and he can tell something is not right. The expression on Shadow milk cookies face and the spire seemingly falling apart tells him he should be worried.
Before anyone can even register what’s happening there’s a loud noise and shaking before the roof caves in. The world seems to be in slow motion as the roof comes down. Pure vanilla quickly moves to shield the children. He glances over to Shadow milk cookie and horror quickly fills him as he sees the other cookie still on the ground exhausted, unable to do anything to shield himself from the falling roof. It’s too late to do anything as the roof crashes on the floor they’re all on and the floor under them can’t take the weight and also caves in.
Shadow milk watches as the roof comes down and the floor under them falls away. First he felt sad, his spire, their home falling apart. He can only hope his minions got away, he would never admit it to anyone but he cares so much for those two.
His mind stopped as the floor fully gave away and they all were in a free fall. Horror quickly filled him, he can’t do anything, with no magic and a weak body he’s truly helpless. His gaze catches on the group on the other side, at least their horror is amusing to watch. And of course Pure vanilla looks at him with that look, he could laugh at the expression of horror and worry on the others face. All of them could only accept this, there was nothing any of them could do but try and shield themself and pray.
Overwhelming pain quickly takes over his mind, with no ability to shield himself he can only take the beating, tumbling, hitting things in his fall, sometimes there’s a weight over his body before he continues to fall. The noise and pain is overwhelming and someone seems to take mercy on him as darkness takes over.
Wizard cookie at last managed to pull Strawberry cookie out of the rubble they were stuck under. To the side Pure Vanilla is healing Gingerbraves broken leg. “Do you have any more wounds that need immediate attention?” Pure vanilla spoke softly, worried. He didn’t want to sound or come across as harsh right now, everything felt fragile and on edge. The other two look okay, moving unhindered. Gingerbrave almost jumps up and goes over to the other two to make sure his friends are okay. Pure vanilla observers, his chest fills with warmth as he watches the trio, the care they hold for each other, it’s so nice to see. Though Pure vanilla is worried for Shadow milk cookie, he didn’t see if the other cookie was able to escape in time or if he also got dragged down with his spire.
He should check around for Shadow milk cookie, his souljam is still telling him his other part is still somewhere close. And if he’s somewhere around here there’s a big possibility he’s also stuck somewhere in the rubble. Pure vanilla gently lay a hand over his own souljam, he can feel the other half is in pain, agony even.
“Pure vanilla?” The trio is dirty, clothes torn with some patches of jam but otherwise is good, they stand together and look at Pure vanilla for some sort of guidance. They look about ready to collapse from exhaustion but also eager to help. “We should settle down somewhere so we can rest” Pure vanilla urges them to leave the rubble, leading them to a spot where they can sit down and rest. “If you kids set something up here while I take a look around the rubble for anyone needing help” They look at each other, “Do you think Shadow milk cookie is still here…?” one of them asked “Yes I can sense him” “Why do you want to look for that beast when he has done nothing but haunt and hurt you?” Pure vanilla gently smiles at them “Because he needs help, both mentally and physically and I know underneath the rough exterior there is something worth trying for”
Pure vanilla manages to get the trio to settle down and rest, maybe have some fun to try and ease them. Pure vanilla tells the other cookies he will be back later and if they need anything they know where he is, and he tells them that he will be careful and that they don’t need to worry.
He returned to the remains of the collapsed tower. He’s very careful where he steps and navigates the remains, listening and looking for anyone or anything that needs help. He tries to follow the feeling of his souljam for his other half.
Slowly consciousness returns to him. Everything feels numb and it feels like he’s not in his own body. Shadow milk opens his eyes, or he thought he did but he was only met with darkness.
What’s happening…? There shouldn’t be darkness, he should be able to feel his body. Trying to think hurt his head so giving up on that, for now. He’s still so exhausted, his limbs feel so heavy, it feels like something really heavy is holding him down. He could feel it all but his sluggish mind didn’t want to register anything. He doesn't know what to do so he tries to move his arms, he could tell from the exhaustion that he wouldn’t be able to move his already stubborn legs. His arms don't move so he tugs on them only to immediately regret it as pain explodes through his arms. That seems to open the flood gate, pain that he couldn’t feel before now flood his system. This pain quickly overwhelmed him as he wasn’t ready, blinding him. Before he knew what he was doing his body tried to curl up to stop the pain, though this only caused more pain. Crying out from this new sudden pain makes him try to retreat from the source of pain, again this only causes new pain to zap him.
He can’t keep up the trashing and flinching, exhaustion forces his body still. The pain has cleared enough of his mind to take in more of the situation, the rattling sound every time he breathes is worse, now also having this sort of gurgling sound. He can’t take any deep breaths both because of the pain and the pressure over his chest, and anytime he takes a breath he takes a inhale of dust. His body tried to cough out the dust and dirt that is not supposed to be in the airways, but because of the restrictions he can’t get enough space to cough or just take in more dust and dirt. A violent sneeze immediately causes stabbing pain. Pure agony, this is PURE AGONY.
Shadow milk stares at what he assumes is the ceiling. He’s a bit surprised as he feels something wet running down his face. Am I crying? How pathetic. He’s just gonna pretend it’s blood, as that seems to be more likely. Him crying???? He can’t remember the last time he cried.
He huffs, yet again immediately regretting his action as a sharp pain takes over his entire being. An overwhelming urge to scream takes place and he doesn’t resist it, he screams as loud as he’s capable of. What comes out of his mouth is not a scream, it sounds like a wheeze. A rattling, gurgling wheeze. A sob manages to squeeze past his defenses, and it’s so painful, he can feel even more tears rolling down his face.
Laying there in the darkness, the only thing he could feel was pain. No way to tell if he was conscious or not, it was torture. He could only hope someone finds him, be it either to finish him off or to just be, he desperately didn’t wanna be stuck and in this much pain. The tree was bad enough but this, this was really bad, it was dark, dust filled barely functioning lungs, overwhelming pressure and pain.
A faint sound breaks him out of his haze. He tries to focus on the sound, which is quite easy as the only sound that exists as far as he can hear is his own breathing and what he can now say is footsteps above. He tries to focus on the noise, all his brain wants to focus on is the pain.
What had been crushing pressure on his chest is suddenly CRUSHING him. Panic sets in and before he knows what he’s doing he’s sending out a wave of magic he didn’t even know he had. There was a noise above then the pressure lightened a tad bit, it was just enough for him to take a small breath. He can hear and feel what he can conclude is a person above shifting and moving, the pressure and debris around him also move. The person must be moving the debris.
The pressure is finally light enough, he didn’t even know he had tensed so much until he felt his body relax and his head hit the ground as the adrenaline left and he was unable to keep his head up. He can hear yelling above, witches they are loud…. can’t they shut up? His head hurts too much for this. Is he slipping away again? He wouldn’t mind it, it would mean no more pain, even some rest just sounds nice even though he has never been too fond of sleeping, especially since his corruption. He knows his sister Eternal sugar enjoys sleeping, he never understood it but right now some sleep sounds heavenly. A hiss escapes as little light manages to sneak into the pitch darkness, the contrast and suddenness hurt his eyes, he tries to hide away from it, but this only spikes the pain again forcing him to stay still. Light has always bothered him, making him prefer darkness much more than light. The people above continue to work on removing debris -he can hear multiple voices talking- all the moving and noises makes the pain go up and down consistently, making sure he can’t really relax or get used to the pain. He allows his brain to shut down for now, if he can avoid feeling the pain, the reality then he will take that chance. The world shifts into the background and he can finally relax, escape this reality.
The area was so quiet and his heightened hearing made it easy to make out the high pitched wheezing noise, it was a really annoying noise but he followed it. The type of wheezing he can hear tells him this person or animal is hurt and in need of immediate attention, possibly squeezed under something heavy, liquid in the lungs which most likely means it’s lung is punctured. Lifting the staff high up in the air allows him to see further, he tries to follow the wheezing to the best of his ability. They must be close now, at this distance he can also hear a rattling in the wheezing. He can’t see anything so it must come from under the rubble, they must be crushed somewhere in the rubble. The rubble under his foot suddenly shifts, tipping forwards? The souljam suddenly flares up and the agony sent through it makes him stumble for a second before a sudden blast of magic hits him from underneath, this sends him to the ground. Recovering fairly quickly he realizes his souljam is still sending waves of agony through, he pushes through getting to his feet, quickly moving to shift the rubble back. He shifts around stuff and weight until the urgency from his souljam calms back down. Okay so Shadow milk cookie is stuck here, underneath this rubble in so much pain, pinned stuck and probably in total darkness as he seems to be quite far down. He tries to get a response through their souljam bond but he gets nothing back but the faint pulsing of pain coming from the other side of the bond. The other cookie must be exhausted, judging by the pulse of magic he sent out and the unrestrained feelings passed through the souljam bond.
He prod around a bit to see how bad the situation is. He may need help with this rescue. They should be able to hear him if he yells, the area is so flat and barren they can almost certainly see him from their position. The safest option is calling them over to help him.
Pure vanilla yells out for the trio and he does manage to get their attention and they make their way over. The trio is hesitant at first knowing it’s Shadow milk cookie, but knowing the situation they agree to help because they don’t want any cookie to suffer like that, especially an immortal cookie as this won’t kill an immortal, sure it will suffer greatly but won’t die. Together they start slowly working away at the debris, working carefully to not cause more injuries and avoid more suffering then needed. The beast is already suffering enough. As time goes by Pure vanilla can feel Shadow milks presence dull, he does panic for a second and quickly reaches out to probe at the other, he does get a weak push back and is relieved by this. The lower down they get the more blue jam they find, there’s so much everywhere. Pure vanilla offer to take over the job if the others didn’t feel like continuing because of all the jam and that he would understand if they don’t want to be here anymore, but the trio looks at him with determination and tell Pure vanilla that they want to continue helping so the four of them continue to work down. After what felt like forever they get down to where Shadow milk cookie are, and the amount of jam makes even Pure vanilla nauseous.
Gingerbrave does get a bit of a jumpscare, coming face to face with the beast, its eyes stare dully ahead and there’s so much jam it’s dripping from his face. With its face being covered in so much jam it’s dripping from him Gingerbrave would have sworn the beast was dead, especially with the dull far away look in his eyes. They need to dislodge the beast from its prison as they only made the access to him small enough for the kids to get to him. Gingerbrave volunteered to try and dislodge the stuck cookie, he is the slimmest cookie compared to Wizard cookie and Strawberry cookie. Gingerbrave decides to start with one arm. Together they manage to ease the weight on one of the arms letting Gingerbrave to wiggle the rubble away. Gingerbrave does find another problem right away, this one arm is impaled through and stuck to the ground. The pole impaling its arm is thin enough to probably break, with enough messing around they manage to get the arm loose. This time when Gingerbrave glances at the beast's face his eyes actually watch him instead of looking through him, Gingerbrave gives a shaky smile and immediately goes back to work. Shadow milk cookie watches for a little while before the pain and the splitting headache becomes too much to handle and retreats back into his head. They manage to get into a flow freeing the rest of Shadow milks upper body, Gingerbrave can’t reach its lower body from his angle.
He gets dragged back to reality when the child wipes his face, it’s a piece of fabric wiping his face just now noticing the irritation of its eyes. Blinking the world back into focus noticing how the other cookie is looking at him, what was this one's name, Ginger something? He was pretty sure it started with Ginger. He can see the other cookies mouth moving but can’t hear anything, everything halts as the kid wraps his arms around him underneath his armpits and then starts dragging him. Pain explodes through him and he can’t stop the scream from escaping, a guttural harsh scream from pure pain. The tugging stops immediately, he can yet again feel the tears run down its face. New jam starts to flood out of the new wound, it’s difficult as everything is already stained in blue jam, though the jam now flowing from his stomach is a lighter blue as it flows out before turning a darker blue. He watches in fascination, it's impossible to tell how bad the new wound is, or even the old ones. A new object is pressed in beside him and the pressure on his lower region lessense and suddenly without warning he’s tugged out, and all of a sudden he’s free from the rubble.
Gingerbrave huffs proudly, his idea worked and now the beast is free. All the jam made it tricky, everything was slippery or sticky and Shadow milk wasn’t listening or being helpful, it was just dead weight. Admittedly Gingerbrave almost let go of the beast to run, the scream the beast had let out scared him really badly, but he didn’t let go of the beast! He was really proud of himself. Wedging a rock in he does manage to loosen the pressure on the beast and pull him out, it’s just dead weight so Gingerbrave almost drops him before scrambling to get a better hold on him. Strawberry reaches for Gingerbrave to pull him up, Wizard cookie and Pure vanilla right beside her to make sure she doesn’t fall. Together they heave up Gingerbrave and Shadow milk. Gingerbrave never realized how small the beast is, he can easily hold onto it, Shadow milk is dangling beneath him as there was no way for them to fit together.
On solid ground now Gingerbrave quickly pulls the beast up, kinda holding it like a child would hold a cat. One could barely tell it was a cookie in Gingerbraves arms, it was a blue mangled mess. Jam was dripping from the beast's form and Gingerbrave was now more blue than his normal golden brown. Pure vanilla removes his cloak to wrap around the beast, taking him from Gingerbraves arms, holding him in a princess carry to not put any more strain on the other's body that seems to be falling apart. Shadow milks eyes is just barely open looking into the nothingness, most likely a severe concussion. Exhaustion now hangs over everyone as they successfully completed their rescue, now they could go back and rest.
The world was slowly rocking. There was something really warm surrounding him, it was really nice, way better than the cold darkness he’s been stuck in for witches know how long. The warmth was pulling him back into his body and begging him for sleep. He would so love for sleep to pull him under but it doesn’t, he’s in pain, so much pain, his mind isn’t letting sleep claim him. It feels like his head is being split open and the nausea is so bad, it also feels like his insides are falling out. The noise of his wheezing, gurgling breathing is also keeping him aware. Wait the world is moving, the last thing he could remember was Ginger cookie pulling at him. Glancing up and sure enough it’s Pure vanilla carrying him. Anger fills it and it wants to yell and scream at Pure vanilla, because how dare he after everything that has happened. He doesn’t know if his minions are okay, its spire is now all over the ground and Pure vanilla dares to lie to its face after everything, he can’t trick the beast of deceit! The anger leaves as quickly as it comes, they all helped to get him out from the rubble and is now seemingly taking him somewhere, and because it’s Pure vanilla he’s sure nothing bad will happen. Pain consumes him again and this time he can curl in on himself, curling up towards Pure vanilla's chest, he can’t resist the warmth coming off of the other cookie, as much as he may hate it he can’t say he hates it. The arms holding him tightens nicely around him, it’s like a soft warm cocoon, he feels safe, he can’t hold open his eyes any longer. Falling into a light sleep in the other's arms.
He does wake back up when he’s put down on the ground, his precious warmth moves away and he isn’t quick enough to grab onto it. The growl that rumbles out was not intentional but he can’t stop it. He is so cold without the exterior warmth, it was always cold, it was almost a curse. Suddenly there’s something thrown over him from behind, his arms are still stuck in the cocoon so he can’t do anything. There’s a round of laughter before the soft object is moved from over his head and face to instead be wrapped around him. Blinking Pure vanilla is the first thing greeting it as its sight clears slightly, he is smiling at him “Is that better?” His words are spoken so softly and quietly, his voice doesn’t hurt his head. It’s slightly better so he nods at Pure vanilla, annoyingly his smile and his whole face softens even more and then he turns away. Shadow milk is almost seething before there’s something wet wiping his face, Pure vanilla had picked up a wet rag to clean his face. His movements are calm and gentle, moving with purpose but also letting Shadow milk see where he’s moving his hands. It’s not long before it is again starting to fall asleep sitting. Pure vanilla continues to wipe away jam and look out for wounds, he would like to check over the beast thoroughly but now is not the time for that, they all need rest, he catches Shadow milk before it can fall and gently lays him down. Picking up one of the pillows to put the beast's head on, making sure he’s comfortable before settling beside the beast, picking his own pillow, he makes sure the kids are asleep and okay before putting down his staff to go to sleep himself. Tomorrow they would check the beast for his wounds and start making way back, he longs for his kingdom, for Crispia. He looks forward to getting home, back to his friends and if he gets a new friend from all of this then it’s even better, glancing at the beast with his own two eyes, he looks so peaceful for once, its face is still scrunched up but from pain instead of anger. He falls asleep almost immediately when his head hits the pillow.
They all jolt awake by the blood curdling scream some hours later. Rubbing out the sleep from their eyes they find Shadow milk cookie curled up by a tree a little further away from the stop it was placed in.
Pure vanilla quickly rose to get to the beast, he probably reopened some wounds. Horror quickly dawns on Pure vanilla, what kind of healer is he?? He didn’t even check the beast's condition before going to sleep, and said beast had fallen and been trapped under rubble for witches know how long. He could still hear the ratling, gurgling wheeze that was the cookies breathing. Opening his eyes to try and make something out yet all that greets him is blue jam quickly pooling under the beast, Shadow milk was just a blue dot in his vision but Pure vanilla could tell he was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm. Sending out some healing magic he hopes will somewhat ease its pain. He can also feel the kids' eyes observing them as they hover around, they have no clue what to do or what even happened. He turns slightly to try and get the kids to settle down a bit and also giving time for the beast to calm down slightly, it would not be good if both parties were to panic.
They wait for a while, the kids do manage to calm down but Shadow milk is still hunched over wheezing, just listening to his breathing is painful. Shadow milk is clutching his side like his life depends on it, it’s very obvious that the source of his agony comes from some wound on his stomach or side. Pure vanilla steps in to try again to ease its pain. Pure vanilla finally gets close enough to take in what state the other is in, he can’t see much with his limited vision but also the clothes that cover his entire body. He can see the many rips in the body suit so Pure vanilla can assume there’s much more damage beneath and also internally. He does manage to see the jam still flowing from between the fingers clutching the wound, it flows like a waterfall from the beast's body. Again turning around at the sound of footsteps he sees Gingerbrave holding his cloak and staff, saying his thanks he takes the items being offered, having his staff back he can see clearly again and it’s sickening to see this much jam, even for Pure vanilla. Cloak in hand he scots closer to Shadow milk, ignoring the jam seeping into his own clothing, right now he needs to get the bleeding to stop or even just slow down. Using his cloak like a big bandage he quickly wraps it around the wounded area several times before tightening the fabric and tying it into a knot. Everything only takes a few seconds for Pure vanilla but Shadow milk’s reaction is immediate, recoiling and screaming out in pain as it tries to undo the cloth around his middle, the pressure was intensifying the pain and that was the last thing Shadow milk wanted. Pure vanilla is fast in stopping Shadow milk from undoing his work, in a moment of pure instinct Shadow milk growls and goes in for a bite, the only mouthful he gets is of disgusted textured cloth. Easily picking up the beast Pure vanilla takes it away from the pool of jam to a clean area, now also using his hands to put pressure on the wound.
After a long while of sitting there the wound does eventually stop bleeding so heavily, Pure vanilla got the children to bring him clean water and a rag while he sat sit the beast who were not happy, trying to trash with the little energy he had only resulted in flop like movements, giving up on that as it only brought pain it decided to stare at Pure vanilla still growling. It was very ineffective as the growling barely got through it was more like a wheezing sound again. Shadow milk realizes what he’s doing and immediately tries to shut it up, giving up and he just lays down on the ground. Realizing he’s laying on grass he tries to distract himself with the grass. “Shadow milk I need to take a look at the wound” Shadow milk looks back up to where Pure vanilla is sitting beside him. He can’t bring himself to care so he will simply allow Pure vanilla to do what he wants, maybe it will even get rid of the pain.
Carefully unraveling the cloak now blue from jam, using water to make it easier to unravel without aggravating the wound too much. It will be difficult or maybe even impossible to get this cloak clean again. Pure vanilla simply puts it away, far from where Shadow milk is laying. Again seeing all the jam that now stains the grass he again decides it’s best to move Shadow milk to another clean spot. Satisfied with the precautions to possible dirt or anything else getting in the wounds he gets started on carefully ripping the bodysuit away to assess the wound. It’s a really deep wound and he can hear someone gagging behind him.
The pain is too overwhelming, through the fog he can hear someone gag and he would laugh if he could. He could hear ripping before cold air hit more exposed dough, fear set in quick. He throws himself away from those hands invading his space, touching him. There’s yelling as he tries to move, forgetting his legs don’t work, he doesn’t get far and hits the ground again. Everything felt weird, it was in so much pain, overstimulated by the tiniest of noises and touches. He doesn’t wanna get touched. Going to again clutch the wound he is met with open flesh. Glancing down he is met with the wound, now an open hole right into his insides… looking up slightly he is retching. What was supposed to be on the inside is now on the outside, on the ground right beside where he is laying on the grass. Again he hears someone throw up. He can only reach as there is nothing to throw up, it hurts it so much. There are again hands against him, warm gentle hands holding him. Terror fills him and he hates it, the pain, the terror, the fact that his enemies gets a front row seat for it, he hates it so fucking much yet he can’t do anything.
And again he’s crying, so pathetic yet can’t be stopped. The warm hand holding him breaks him. Sobbing, tears finally run down its face like rivers, emotions slip right through the mask. Panic quickly flashes as the warm hand leaves only to settle over his eyes, as if protecting him from what’s happening. The beast feels absolutely drained, its body finally giving up, going limp on the grass. He is still very much aware but information doesn't want to register in his brain, the only thing that does is the warm hand still very much present over his face. Sounds and feelings just go right over his head, only the warmth somewhat ground him.
They do manage to put the beast’s organs… back where they should be, inside. It just took several turns of throwing up. Pure vanilla was the only one keeping it together, at least on the outside. Why the beast decided to throw itself away is a mystery for him, he talked and informed Shadow milk yet he reacted so violently, he’ll have to put that away for now. Petting along the others hair was so weird, it was like a solid mess yet not, silky and soft and almost moving like it had its own sentience. He had managed to patch up the other to the best of his ability with the limited resources. Ripped blankets served as bandages, and sticks tied to broken limbs, using whatever they had on hand.
Pressure on his hand pulled him back, the hair in his hand had become kinda solid and was squeezing his hand. Smiling he looks down to the beast's face, and sure enough blue eyes meet his. They look so sad, its still in agony, and they can’t do anything to help because they don’t have any painkillers. He could try his healing magic again, he would feel guilty if he at least didn’t try, those eyes stare at him in agony, asking for help, seeking any kind of comfort. All he can do is pull the blanket tighter around the beast and pull it into a hug, allowing it to rest against him, souking up his warmth, he has always been told he radiates warmth.
Getting comfy he allows the trio to also rest against him, they cuddle up to his sides while the beast is resting in his lap. He is small enough Pure vanilla can comfortably tuck the others head under his chin. They all need this rest. He starts petting the strange hair again and he can feel the beast rumble. Pure vanilla finally allows himself to fall asleep, knowing all the others are as comfortable as they can be. He is filled with warmth and a soft smile on his face as sleep claims him.
A little loaf cat rests by the ambers of a forgotten fire.
