Chapter Text
The thing was – they’ve always been all they've ever had, even before their shared imprisonment. So when Dark Enchantress Cookie revived the Five Beasts, they knew where their loyalties lie. And, spoiler, it wasn’t with their ‘savior’
It had been Shadow Milk’s idea to sneak out. They hadn’t gotten far. Just a small grove close to where they’d been freed. Most would have expected the five of them to have caused as much destruction and chaos as possible. But it had been millenniums since they’d had felt grass on their feet. Or seen the stars in the sky.
“She’s going to betray us.” The Five were laying in a circle in the grove, staring at the sky above. It had been Mystic Flour who spoke. She was laying across from Shadow Milk, with Silent Salt on her right, and Burning Spice on her left. Eternal Sugar Cookie was the only one not on the ground, instead opting for laying on Burning Spice’s chest.
“We could always kill her,” Burning Spice suggested.
“That’s your answer to everything, Tikka,” Eternal Sugar Cookie said with a yawn.
A clang got everyone else’s attention. “It isn’t an awful idea,” Silent Salt signed. “She’s the only cookie who knows were alive again. We’d have to get rid of her eventually anyways.”
“We’re not strong enough yet,” Shadow Milk said, eyes never leaving the sky. He missed the stars. They were breath taking. “Unless you plan on doing it the old fashion way.”
“What’s wrong with the ‘old fashion way’?” Burning Spice grumbled.
“Tikka. She’ll crumble us before we even get close to her.” Burning Spice continued to grumble as the other Beasts snickered. The Five fell into silence as they continued to take in the lovely night.
“Hey.” Four of the five turned towards the Beast of Sloth. “You know what we should do…”
***
Finding a town wasn’t that hard. Nor was disguising themselves. (“Are you sure you have enough energy to glamour all of us?” Mystic Flour asked their resident shapeshifter. In response, Shadow Milk simply rolled their eyes and blew a raspberry. “Please, Peony. I may not be back to my full powers, but this is child’s play.”)
The Four Beasts were following Eternal Sugar Cookie through the town. The Beast of Sloth was being extremely picky about what stall she wanted them to go to.
“Angel Cake,” Burning Spice started to grumble. “How many food stalls do you intend to pass? I’m starving…”
“Tikka, may I remind you that none of us even remembered hunger until Sugar mentioned it,” Mystic Flour pointed out.
“It must be perfect, Tikka dear. Nothing less for my special ones.” That seemed to have settled the Beast of Destruction, at least for the moment. The Beasts continued to follow their comrade, periodically pointing out stalls for the angelic cookie.
Suddenly, the pink cookie stopped short, almost getting run over by the others. “Do you smell that?” An excited glint came to the pink cookie’s eyes. The others sniffed the air. It was Mystic Flour who recognized it first. “Bao buns.” An equally excited look graced their face. Well, as excited as Mystic Flour could get.
The three remaining Beasts watched as two cookies ran off towards the smell, fingers intertwined. With nothing better to do, they followed their companions at a slower pace. Upon finding them, the two women were buying out the whole stall. Even from a distance’s away, the three Beasts could hear the one-sided happy chatter of the stall owner.
“There’s no way we can pay for this,” Silent Salt pointed out. “I don’t know about you two, but I would prefer to not be found out on our first night of freedom.”
“Leave that to me, darling.” Burning Spice and Silent Salt watched as the blue cookie saunter towards the stall. The two large Beasts felt Shadow Milk’s magic shift their forms again, looking rougher than they had before.
Upon reaching their fellow Beasts, Shadow Milk threw their arms around the hungry cookies. “Peony! Angel Cake! Oh, thank the Witches, you two are ok!”
The remaining Beasts flinched at the wording, though the stall owner thankfully didn’t notice. “Oh my! Whatever happened to the three of you?” Watching Shadow Milk weave their lies was always fascinating. The Font of Knowledge spun a tale of woes, how they had gotten separated from their companions, how they were held up and robbed by thieves on their way here. If they hadn’t known that the blue cookie was lying, they’d believe him too.
“As delicious as all of this looks, darlings,” Shadow Milk continued, speaking to his companions. “I’m afraid we can’t afford it. Those rotten crooks took every last coin we had.”
Due to their backs being turned to them and Shadow Milk’s attention being on their companions, only Burning Spice and Silent Salt were the only ones who were able to watch the stall owner’s expression change. Cookies these days were so naïve and trusting. They continued to watch as the stall owner waived away their ‘concerns’ and ‘worries’, that it was on the house. It took every ounce of self-restraint not to laugh at them.
Only when they were back in the safety of the surrounding woods did they allow themselves to mock the poor, unsuspecting shop owner.
***
Months passed. The Beasts had taken every opportunity they could to sneak away from Dark Enchantress. Sometimes they would explore the nearby woods. Other times they’d head to different neighboring towns, playing pranks and tricking unsuspecting cookies into doing their whims.
None of them had yet broached the elephant cookie in the room. For millenniums they had been stuck in that damn tree, wanting vengeance and destruction. Now they had the opportunity to due so. They were free, and no one seemed to remember who they were, their names lost to history.
And yet…
They were free.
No one knew who they were. No one knew they had escaped.
They could go anywhere. Do anything.
No responsibilities or expectations.
They finally had the freedom the Witches and cookiekind had denied them.
They were in the grove again when the subject was broached. Once again, it was Mystic Flour who said what they were all thinking. “Do we really want to go through with this?”
“They imprisoned us for millenniums, Peony.”
“But these past months had been the most fun, relaxing months of our immortal lives!” Shadow Milk whined. “You can’t tell me you haven’t been enjoying yourself too, Salty!”
“Where the hell would we even go!”
Eternal Sugar Cookie chuckled at her fiery friend. Turning Burning Spice’s face towards hers, she said, “You’re not denying the possibility of a new life, Tikka dear.” The other Beasts watched as Burning Spice’s lit up with a furious blush.
That was the other thing. They’ve always been all they've ever had, even before their shared imprisonment. Back before the corruption, the Five had never put a name to what they were, their relationship always blurring between varying levels of affection.
During their imprisonment, they grew incredibly codependent but more unsure. Nobody wanted to try and say something because they're worried they'll lose everything if they bring it up. They’re so important to each other. It would crumble them to be rejected.
“It’s like Berry said, this has been nice. And it isn’t like we can’t always go back to world domination and retrieving our Soul Jams once the novelty wears out.”
“We’ll need new aliases.”
“I thought you were against this?”
“I never said I was. Wherever you all go, I’ll go to.”
“Aww…,” Shadow Milk Eternal Sugar Cookie teased before the Beast of Deceit continued, “You loooovvee us, Salty.”
“Very much so.”
Blushes rose from each of the Beasts. The flustered bumbling was interrupted by Sugar again. “Well, good news, I at least know what names we can all go by.” She pointed at them one by one as she listed off names. “Tikka, Blueberry Muffin, Salty, Peony, and Angel Cake.”
“Our nicknames?” Mystic Flour questioned.
Sugar Cookie shrugged. “Why not? No one remembers our actual names. You expect them to know our petnames for each other.”
“We still don’t have an answer to where we’d go.”
“I heard rumors from some of Dark Enchantress’ minions that a new kingdom arose over Crispia.”
“Crispia is far, Berry.”
“Exactly. No one, not even the Enchantress would expect us to go off and live in some idyllic little town.”
“Then we are in agreement?” Mystic Flour asked. With no one raising any further complaints, all that was left to decide was when to leave. Though as they each took in the others’ forms, a decision was made.
Now.
They would leave now.