Secret of the Sugar Flare

Epilogue: A New Challenge

Banbury Cookie sat alone in a cell, quiet and moping. She heard the creak of the dungeon door and the silhouette of her former foster sister, but barely did so much as shift her eyes in her direction before facing the floor again. "...I should count myself lucky," she sneered. "The NEW Head Nun of the St. Pastry Order has graced me with her presence in my lowly prison cell."

"You should count yourself lucky that our Emissary spared your life," Pastry Cookie retorted coolly. When Banbury Cookie grunted indifferently back, she went on. "Betraying me was the best thing you could've ever done for me. It put me on the right path. Perhaps your time in here can do the same for you."

Banbury Cookie suspected she wasn't just here to gloat. "...Why are you REALLY here?"

"Because you're going to tell me something," Pastry Cookie said as she knelt down to her eye level. "Where. Is. My REAL family?"

***

Dark Choco Cookie coughed, feeling a dark, almost poisonous air being pumped into his lungs once more. Through his blurry vision, he could see the hazy outline of a Cookie, hands toning down from a recent spell. He stared down at him coldly. "You know...you chose a very poor time to develop a backbone."

"Who...are you? Where are we??"

"That's not a very polite way to address the Cookie that just saved you," he replied coolly.

When Dark Choco Cookie glared back at him, his hands glowed again. "PLEASE. If you really want to die, then I can send you right back to those gates."

Dark Choco Cookie suddenly realized that the Cookie was holding a familiar staff. "Wait...how did you-?"

"There's a lot that you have missed since you left the mortal coil. But there's more to magic than just the tools we wield,"

"Then...I've come back to life?"

"NO, of course not. No Cookie can come back to life. But if you do as I say, you might~"

The Cookie turned, revealing to be Dark Cacao Cookie's ex-advisor, Affogato Cookie. He looked off into the distance. "Red Velvet Cookie, that IDIOT," he hissed. "He was supposed to find the brat and bring her to the Crimson Badlands, JUST that. We could've used the spell and had that Sugar Flare for ourselves...but I suppose even Dark Enchantress Cookie can play her cards wrong. And now, she's been elected a leader, trying to build a bridge of peace between us and those wretched WITCHES."

Dark Choco Cookie heaved a defeated sigh, having lost the will to fight. "Affogato Cookie...it's over. Leave her be."

"I intend to, for now."

That surprised Dark Choco Cookie enough to look up at Affogato Cookie, who seemed to be staring off into space. "There's no reason to continue at this point. The sorceress' little show caused quite the scene, and now every Cookie's looking into what happened at that battle. So much time and planning...wasted. But when Dark Enchantress Cookie returns, mark my words...we will start anew and make that blind brat pay!"

"You know..." Dark Choco Cookie stood up. "I don't really care about the plan anymore. I'm done with all of this. Somewhere down this path, we lost a part of ourselves. Only I was lucky enough to have Meringue Cookie as a part of my past. Nonetheless...the ends did not justify the means. And now...I intend to get back what I lost."

"So you're just CONTENT with the limited time this world has?" Affogato Cookie snapped. "CONTENT with how the doorway to Otherworld that was opened all those years ago will soon flood and take over?!"

"...We were wrong about Dark Enchantress Cookie. She didn't want to help us. She didn't want to SAVE anything!" Dark Choco Cookie turned away. "She wasn't planning on keeping us around once she got the power she wanted."