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For just a moment, when the plague’s seared out of him, Mala Longxia Cookie’s mind is blessedly clear. The thick boiling fog’s burned away. The fog that’s hidden his memories… the needles drilled into his dough, the infection simmering inside him like a hitchhiking parasite, like new, cruelly-spicier jam ready to replace his own. Even the longing he felt to crawl back home, for just a moment, so he could glimpse fireworks over the laughing swaying-lantern market and remember who he is, what he wants to protect through the fear and poison… it all comes back.
And he would spill everything guiltily, hopefully at Phoenix Pepper Cookie’s feet, now, even as he shook and wept mala sauce into his sleeve. Even as he couldn’t look her in the eyes until she used her fan to tilt his chin up to face her. He would. Except he doesn’t have time.
Mala Longxia Cookie was made into the Plague Omen in that merciless lab, and by his own logic he should have cut himself down before infecting anyone else. But the desperate hope and love on Phoenix Pepper Cookie’s face is so clear, now, as she struggles to save him. Gives him her fire, trusting he’s still worth saving. A citizen of the Sleepless Streets. And so… and so that poisonous thought — (“I should have torn myself apart, charred my dough to ash, before coming back here! If I’m really infected, that would’ve been best.”) — clears, too. Could Mala Longxia Cookie have really taken something so precious from her, her of all Cookies, when she still believes she can save him? And he must be precious to her, even when he’s tainted. She looks like she wants to pull him into her arms and run a protective hand up and down his back, smoothing his braid and lobster-claw hair. She looks like she wants to kiss his forehead, still scowling, and tell him she’ll take it from here.
Mala Longxia Cookie prepares to tell her the truth. She should know what kind of threat they’re facing, what paraded relentless torments could be inflicted on other Cookies the embodiment of Pestilence finds intriguing. “The disease Mad Syrup Cookie designed for our floor specifically mocks what we love. Burning passion, your purifying flames. It will break our dough, yeah, but most of all it’ll warp our spirits. It will make us fear our neighbors and ourselves. I almost fell for it. He did it all on purpose…! I’m… I’m so sorry. I don’t know how I can be forgiven, or healed.”
“Don’t be stupid. You’re already on the way. I forgive you. And you don’t even have a fever anymore.”
But… you know. He doesn’t have time. Mad Syrup Cookie claims him again. There are always, always more needles waiting.
***
When next Mala Longxia Cookie returns to the Sleepless Streets, he’s unconscious. Phoenix Pepper Cookie insists on carrying him herself. She brings all her work into his hospital room to linger by his side until he stirs awake again… he gasps that he has to warn her, has to explain, and she taps her fan against his lips. She saw it all already, in Mad Syrup Cookie’s lab. She watched the experiments, the torture, on dozens of woozy dripping-syrup screens before she burned them all, first to a bubbling mess and then to nothing but a smear on the floor. He doesn’t have to relive any of it to warn her. She’s just happy to have him back. No more syrup-toxin cocktails will be stirred into his dough again, not on her watch.
They go to see the beacon at the edge of the Sleepless Streets together, once Mala Longxia Cookie can walk again. He didn’t dip his hand in or pay his respects, after all, when he was carried in on her back. He expects Cookies in the market to whisper about him, avoid him, shoot him accusatory glances… (Plague Omen, puppet, disease spreader, he would’ve seen us all killed if we got infected, how dare he show his face again?)… but so far as he can tell, none of them do. He’s offered more free samples than he can hold, and he and Phoenix Pepper Cookie eat together on their way. She probably has a lot of work to do, but she watches him fondly, even when he finds himself hesitating in front of the beacon.
“Uh… hahaha. It’s just. Last time I did this, I accidentally played right into Mad Syrup Cookie’s plan.” She already knows, but he says it anyway, laughing awkwardly, wincing into a smile. “I poisoned… everything…”
“You know what my name means? Phoenix Pepper Cookie?”
“Well, yes…”
“A phoenix burns, and then rises again. It’s alright, this time.” Phoenix Pepper Cookie takes Mala Longxia Cookie’s hand, and… when he doesn’t try and pull away… guides it towards the fire. He goes the final distance himself, and a relieved laugh bubbles out of him when it feels like home.