Fragments - A Cookie Run Fanfiction

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Trust

((Whoaaa-ooooh, we're half way thereeee, Whoa-oooh SQUIDWARD ON A CHAIR!!)

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((Beginning Notes: Before we get started, I want to publically answer an inquiry from someone who wanted to make a slighty braizen comment in my DM's. Now- my DM's are open to everyone and always will be- but if you want to come in and chew me out for my content- or hate on it- just do it publically. You shouldn't have to hide your opinions on my fanfiction. If you don't like it, just say so in the comment section. I'll completely understand ; So in short terms, I was 'asked' WHY the fiction is so long. A reason that a lot of readers understood- versus other readers who didn't (no shade))

((There are several reasons this fic has lasted so long: 1 - For a better sense of topic separation and pacing between angst and breaks from angst. 2 - To establish understandable, believable relations ships between characters who are typically enemies. 3 - To establish a rate of whish the readers can explore notable trauma and the effects on someone who neglects to deal with their trauma.))

((I also think I have dragged it out long. Maybe even way longer than necessary- but even if it is not very well executed- the only plus side is that my intentions are clear. When dealing with topics like trauma, and establishing believable relationships- it is often overlooked and it goes without saying that more of the plot is dedicated to the destination- than how the character gets there- and it leaves readers wondering and thinking it's out of left field.))

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Standing behind the boy, was the tall purple skinned woman. Of course, she was more straightened up now, her air tucked back into her headwear. She seemed to be watcing in slight interest, before standing up and walking away from the doorframe, to get closer to Gingerbrave, who was still leaning his head on the table.

"You know, most cookies would have taken the chance to get away, while there was nothing to stop them. Yet, you stayed." the woman seemed to be the slightest bit baffled, if anything else. She sighs, before setting down her scepter, and closing her eyes- then pulled out a chair to take a seat herself. She folded one of her legs over the other, before looking back over to the boy. "... It's surprising, have this amount of trust for someone who ... has the title of my enemy."

GingerBrave looked over to Dark Enchantress, whether it should have been taken as a compliment or an insult. However, he did what he usually would- and that waking ithe statement at face value. She basically outright stated that she trusted him.

"I suppose I could have." GingerBrave muttered out, before looking down to the floor. "Maybe I would have, if I felt the need to run. I don't though, I don't want to leave..." the white haired child leans his head forward, before looking toward the wall on the opposite end of the room- adjacent from the stove. "I don't feel as afraid here. Not right now..."

Dark Enchantress seemed to ponder the statement, some sort of shadow falling over her face as she thought about the words a bit more.

"What if you were in danger? What if all of this was a well constructed lie to get you to trust us, boy?" she tilted her head, some of her loose strands of hair slipping from behind her ears. "What if all of this is just trying to eploit you in any way possible, just so we can use your weaknesses against you for our own benefits?"

GingerBrave blinked a couple times, before looking over to the woman again. He and her locked eyes- his more constant saddened expression made the woman looked away a bit, before pondering something mentally. After a small affirmation she made with herself, she looked back at the youngster.

"I suppose we will have to cross thhat bridge when we get there. Even if I am just an enemy in your home, I shouldn't doubt everything you've done for me. No matter how straining it has been... you said you trusted me... and I trust you." He let his eyes travel over to the picture of the swan on the fridge. The same drawing he had given Dark Enchantress a while back. "Maybe I am stupid for doing so. Maybe you do have alternative intentions. I don't believe it is so, because i would like to believe that the reason you can tolerate me so much... is because you have some place deep inside of you also hide away from everyone else."

Dark Enchantress stopped for a second, her hand tifhtening on her scepter from the other end of her chair. The action was, of course, strained. However, she let out a quick sigh, and became less tense again. The feeling she had felt was not anger. Though- normally it might have been.

The implication could have insinuated that she was 'two-faced'. She hated the idea of being called two-faced- depsite avoiding her slightly more compassionate nature. She was no where near her past self. All those glimpses of who she may have been, or used to be.

All she knew, was her current goal, and this child had somehow interfered. A child she used to call a sworn enemy. Howeever, deeping looking into his mental state had only lead her to become soft. Part of her hated the softness she felt- and what caring she could feel for another cookie when her goal nearly always required her to be ruthless. Over this last stent of time, one of the few things she did manage to learn was just how messed up this child actually was.

It was funny, how things looked on the other side of the mirror.

A clever and carefully crafted facade had disintigrated from the child's face upon the confrontation of his emotions. children should not know how to hide severe depression. From what little she knew, the boy wasn't even a teenager yet, and still he had managed to mask what could be argued as PTSD, a severe case of depression, and critically low self-esteem.

The thought of the boys' memories came slowly flooding back toward her psyche. Being inside of an oven where nearly everyone around himself died. Escaping with one sibling, and stuggling for some time- before losing the other sibling to one of those damned witches. Not only was the kin eaten- the kin was eaten in mockery. That witch enjoyed every minute of making him suffer.

To some extent, the idea of suffering made her internally cringe.

Namely because, as a chaser of what she viewed as 'The Greater Good' she had felt how she saw the witch act. She had often found herself enjoying inflicting pain, even if it was not what she wanted to do when her goal had become her only reason to existing. She closed her eyes, and let out a sigh, as she pictured the witche's twisted face, and she easily saw herself.

Darkness only beign forth more and more darkness. Even so- it was too late to turn back now, she had commit too many crimes, and attacked too many cookies to consider anything else. Maybe one could consider her whole goal to be a mass of confused irony. Other viewed it to be justice.

It was hard to sympathize with someone who would commit crime after crime to accomplish their goal. That's why she didn't try to appeal to anyone's better nature. Because appealing to someone's better nature wouldn't help them progress. It would just get them to agree with them- until they had to do something that they didn't like. Something that went agaisnt their moral code, no matter how much support they were willing to give.

Lost in this trail of bemusing thoughts, Dark Enchantress snapper herself out of her confusing frame of mind, and looked back to the child, who was looking down at the table. Several questions pried at her, and she couldn't help but beg forth a question to the idle youth staring forthmost at the nearest wall.

"... If you have been so wronged in the past by a witch- why do you still fight alongside those who defend witches? Why do you fight to defend lands made by creatures who have made us to be eaten? Those who have caused you all of your grief?"

Gingerbrave looked over to her for a moment, seeming to ponder her question for a moment.

((To Be Continued))