Chapter Text
Dark Enchantress Cookie, as the world knew it, was dead.
Good.
And even better, all the Ancients and their allies had survived. So, however, had the Beasts. But, they had also lost half of their Soul Jams, which had either decayed or been redelegated to the Ancients. No one knew for sure, but what everyone did know was that they had just made it through the worst week of their entire lives.
"My friends, is everyone alright? Allow me to tend to your wounds." Pure Vanilla Cookie looked at the other Ancients and limped over to their location.
Hollyberry Cookie called out. "Pure Vanilla Cookie! Take care of yourself first!"
Meanwhile, the Beasts tended to themselves and their allies. Eternal Sugar Cookie looked at her friends, demanding that they rest on her cotton candy clouds - so did Pavlova Cookie. And even further on the sidelines, Golden Cheese Cookie took to attending to her aides. Mozzarella Cookie, Smoked Cheese Cookie, and Burnt Cheese Cookie weren't durable like the Beasts and the Ancients, and with her eyeliner and mascara smudged from battle, she spread her wings out wide and called for them to join her.
"My friends! We won! After this, we'll rebuild the Golden Cheese Kingdom and have the grandest celebration! Haha!" She raised her spear in the air.
"Glory to Her Radiance!" Smoke Cheese Cookie similarly lifted his staff and touched it to hers, and Burnt and Mozzarella followed with their weapons.
Golden Cheese Cookie laughed once more and then keeled over from her wounds, dropping her spear and clenching herself. "Agh!"
"Your Radiance-!" Burnt Cheese Cookie ran to her side and put his hands on her arms, he himself, grunting from pain. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Burnt Cheese Cookie. Go tend to your injuries and don't worry about me."
Burnt Cheese Cookie looked at her and then at the other two cheeses, back at the queen, and then at where the allies' medics were tending to the armies. In no time at all, all four of the Cheeses found themselves with the medics for treatment. Golden sat on the ground between Dark Cacao Cookie and Hollyberry Cookie: They, like her, were a total mess, their clothes torn and doughs crumbling. For each of the heroes, they found themselves in throbbing pain, especially Cheese and Cacao. Yet, together, the pain wasn't quite as bad. Golden Cheese Cookie spread out her wings before shaking them out and wrapping them around her friends. One of the wings had been seared with acid, and the other was bent out of position. It hurt, but she pushed through it with the warmest smile.
Dark Cacao Cookie looked down at her. "Golden Cheese Cookie. I'm glad you're alright."
"As am I. Say, how would you like to come to my kingdom once we've healed? Ahh, yes! It will be the most glorious celebration in all of Earthbread!!"
Dark Cacao Cookie sighed and looked back at her.
"Haha! I suppose my kingdom is a bit warm for your liking. Very well, then I will host the party at night!"
Hollyberry Cookie lit up. "A party? Ha! I'm IN! I'll bring some juice!" She reached over Golden Cheese to elbow Dark Cacao.
Golden Cheese Cookie laughed teasingly. "Is that a slight smile I see?"
A medic, meanwhile, knelt down behind her and started treating her battered wings.
~~~
On the Beasts' side of the previously conflict-ridden plain, the Beasts sat on cotton candy clouds, and for the most part, didn't have the energy to engage in conflict with their rivals. Burning Spice Cookie slumped back and manspread on a cotton candy cloud as a few sugar angels removed the mercury from his body. He grumbled, groaning a bit as he turned his head to look at Golden Cheese Cookie, looking so happy with her friends.
Silent Salt Cookie had distanced himself far from the other Beasts, despite Eternal Sugar Cookie's clinging and crying.
"My dearest Hollyberry Cookie~! She-" the pink Cookie whined.
Silent Salt Cookie walked away. "Silence!"
Instead, Sugar went to complain to Mystic Flour Cookie, who sighed as she yapped.
Shadow Milk Cookie sulked while watching the Cheese Trio intensely. Wanting to get closer, he shapeshifted himself into a snake, and snuck up closer to the cheeses. The conversation between the three aides, to keep it short, was in relation to Fettuccine Cookie. After Burnt Cheese Cookie had dropped Golden off with the medics, she had mentioned the girl, and the gatekeeper, in turn, had grown slightly uncomfortable. Perhaps it was because she had a little spasm while boasting about her victory, but the aides had also dropped their composure when the queen laughed about the party she'd throw when she rebuilt.
Shadow Milk Cookie laughed. "Oh, that's not gouda at all!"
The cheese trio all turned their heads at once and immediately noticed the snake.
"Who goes there?!" Burnt Cheese Cookie slammed down his staff.
"Will you choose a sweeeeett lie or the BITTER TRUTH?" the snake said.
Mozzarella Cookie, without hesitating, grabbed the snake with a chuckle. Then, she looked in the direction of the Beasts and threw him as hard and far as she could and laughed as she watched him fly through the air. Luckily for Shadow Milk Cookie, and unluckily for everyone else, before he hit the ground, he transformed back into a cookie with a blue poof and landed safely on the ground.
"Why, you little GNATS!" the blue clown exclaimed, while Mozzarella Cookie was beaming, as if it were the most prideful thing she had done in her life.
"You IDIOT!" Smoked Cheeese Cookie tapped her with his staff.
"Aww, come on! Can't a girl have a little fun?" Mozzarella teased. "Or, should I have crumbled him?"
"DON'T do that EVER again. How foolish of you!" Smoked Cheese Cookie opposed her once again.
"You're no fun! If he tries to come after us for that, Her Radiance will protect us!"
"Did you SEE the condition she's in? She'd be foolish too, to 'protect' us from-"
"Trust me, Smoked Cheese Cookie. He's in no condition to use his little mind games on us. Besides, we know illusions, and we know them well."
Smoked Cheese Cookie lowered his weapon, partially because he knew that Mozzarella was right, and the other part was because he was too tired to keep on fighting with her.
~~~
On another corner of the battlefield, Crunchy Chip Cookie and Wildberry Cookie were making out while Pavlova Cookie watched.
"OH MY GOD! Looks like sweet, sweet LOVE is in the air!~" He started blushing, and then watched them until they got uncomfortable and moved elsewhere, which just happened to be where Burnt Cheese Cookie was putting a treat on a grave he had just dug for one of his jackals.
Crunchy Chip Cookie stared at the grave, and then at Burnt Cheese Cookie, and instantly knew that this man's canine companion had died. The two started talking about their dogs, and then, all three men started talking about how much they loved their rulers, and how both Burnt Cheese and Wildberry were orphans saved by their queens, and how Hollyberry, Dark Cacao, and Golden Cheese were probably in a polycule.
And, as Pure Vanilla personally tended to White Lily Cookie's wounds, he looked at his side of the battlefield: the Ancients and their allies were injured, yet, for the most part, happy. But, on the Beasts' side, everyone was miserable.
"Oh my goodness! Look at the poor Beasts! They look so sad and lonely."
Golden Cheese Cookie overheard him and scoffed. "Don't pity them!" She exclaimed.
"I have an idea," he said, stepping forward. "What if we let the Beasts stay with us? I feel so bad for them. They have nowhere to go home to, and nobody likes them. Maybe if we treat them with kindness, they'll learn from us and become better Cookies!"
Golden Cheese Cookie immediately burst into a fit of laughter, still gripping herself in pain. "Oh, hahaha! I never knew you had a sense of humour like that, Pure Vanilla Cookie."
The other Ancients stared at her, and as soon as she saw the look in Pure Vanilla Cookie's face, she suddenly stopped. "WHAT? You're serious about this? That HAS to be the most ridiculous idea I have EVER heard in my entire life!" She wasn't trying to be too harsh on him, only as much as she needed to snap him back to his senses.
Dark Cacao Cookie sided with her, calling him out for having mercy on the Beasts.
White Lily Cookie looked up. "I agree. I cannot re-seal them, and Silent Salt Cookie cannot crumble them."
And surprisingly, Hollyberry Cookie agreed as well. "Eternal Sugar Cookie is... clingy, but she means well."
Dark Cacao and Golden Cheese looked at each other in disbelief, as if to wonder what was wrong with their friends. But, of course, they were outnumbered, and if the Beasts were living with them, then that simply meant that they were causing fewer problems for the rest of Earthbread.
Golden Cheese Cookie folded her arms and slouched forward, sulking like a good number of the fighters on the Beast army. "I want to go back to my kingdom. We all have better things to do than sit around and babysit this dim-witted bunch all day."
Smoked Cheese Cookie approached Golden Cheese Cookie and knelt down. "My Queen, think of it as a way to protect our home. You can 'deal' with Burning Spice Cookie while he's weak, and then, our kingdom will know many years of peace." There was a tiny hint of manipulation in his voice, as if he were subtly hiding something.
"Protect.. our home..." Golden said to herself. Now that someone verbally put it that way, she had something to gain from this; it didn't sound that bad.
"Hmph. I suppose I can do it." Golden sulked, sitting up straight.
It wasn't long before Mozzarella Cookie approached her as well. "Your Majesty," she said. "You asked about where Fettuccine Cookie was earlier."
"I figured that you three would've taken good care of her. Where is she?"
"Well," Mozzarella said. She and the boys had prepared for this moment. Burnt Cheese Cookie proclaimed that he wouldn't be the one to say it, and Smoked Cheese Cookie, while comfortable with doing it, wasn't sure if he was the best fit. "The Golden Cheese Kingdom was attacked, so we decided to flee and come here to help you! And... on our way here, we stopped at the Cookie Kingdom and left her with them." There was no indication as to whether this claim was true or not. If Fettuccine Cookie was, in fact, in the Cookie Kingdom, then all was good. She was safe. But, if it later came out that she had crumbled and never went there to begin with, Mozzarella could preemptively pay off someone there to back up the lie that she had crumbled there before Golden found out.
"The Cookie Kingdom, huh? Well, I'm sure she's in good hands!" She smiled and looked at her friends, and sooner or later, their armies reconciled with the larger group. It was settled: the Beasts and the Ancients would live in a large mansion together, and their companions would live together in another house across the street.
~~~
The Ancients and Beasts, all but Pure Vanilla and Eternal Sugar reluctant, made their way to the house.
"I'll only stay here if I get first dibs on rooms," Golden Cheese Cookie strutted forward like a diva and entered the house. Of course, she selected the largest bedroom, which was essentially a loft apartment in and of itself, with a large open first floor and a small loft above it that took up a quarter of the room, give or take. On the ground level was a large window and a patio - a room perfectly fit for a queen.
Hollyberry and Dark Cacao selected the rooms on either side of Golden Cheese's room, equally as large, save the loft. Dark Cacao Cookie, while initially unsure about what he would do with all that space, decided that he would put a home gym in his room at some point. Cheese smiled and offered to pay for everything he needed.
The Beasts selected rooms on the opposite side of the house, and at the end of the night, everyone was satisfied that there was enough room to spread out and give everyone space. It would take some time for them to get settled in, but the house was pleasant. Pure Vanilla Cookie, being the least injured of the Ancients, insisted on the others resting while he ran to Walmart and picked up enough toiletries, food, and blankets to get them through the night. The next day, they could focus on decorating and filling the fridge, but for now, they had to suffer through one night of sleeping on the floor and eating microwave dinners.
Surely, things would get better.