Baking up a New Adventure! (A Cookie Run: Kingdom Story)

Part 19: A Chance Meeting

"Well, now that my portal gun is fixed I can--" I started to say.

"Perhaps... I deserve this fate," A voice spoke up, catching my attention.

"Who said that?" I wondered.

"Up there!" Latte cried out, pointing with her staff. "There's another cookie up there!"

"That's Dark Choco Cookie!" Gingerbrave gasped as he recognized the other cookie.

"We've got to help him!" I decided.

"Why should we?" ChilI Pepper pressed. "He works for Dark Enchantress Cookie."

"I don't care which side he's on," I responded. "We shouldn't leave a fellow cookie behind to suffer such a horrific fate."

"Hey, watch this!" The human hollered to his friend, and he tossed Dark Choco Cookie into the air, leaving his mouth hanging open in hopes of catching him inside it.

I formed a path of ice that ramped upwards and sped along it, catching Dark Choco Cookie in midair and bringing myself back around, landing safely back where I had started.

"Are you alright?" I asked him.

"Why... did you rescue me?" He asked.

"Because no cookie deserves to suffer a fate as grim as that," I told him. "What are you doing out here all by yourself, anyways?"

"I was separated from the others in all the chaos," He explained.

"The others?" I pressed. "So, Dark Enchantress Cookie and the other Cookies of Darkness were sent here as well?"

"Come on, we'd better find them before they cause any trouble!" Gingerbrave decided.

"You should come with us," I urged Dark Choco Cookie. "At least until we find them. It's not safe for any cookie to be travelling alone out here."

"Could you tell us which way she went?" Gingerbrave asked him.

"They were heading that way," Dark Choco Cookie told us. "But I didn't see where they went after they turned around that corner."

"They can't have gotten far," Gingerbrave decided. "Let's go!"

We took off in the direction that Dark Choco Cookie had indicated, staying on the sidewalk and carefully stepping over any cracks along the way. I fell back and let Gingerbrave take the lead while I decided to talk to Dark Choco a bit more. ***

"So... what caused you to join Dark Enchantress's forces, anyways?" I asked him.

"Why do you wish to know?" He responded with his own question, his voice laced with pain and guilt.

"It's just... well, you don't seem as bad as the rest of them," I explained. "So, I was just curious how a cookie like you got mixed up with them."

"There is no other path for me," He explained. "Darkness overwhelmed me, so I embraced it."

"But... clearly it didn't," I commented.

"What are you saying?" He wondered.

"You just don't seem all that evil," I answered. "Maybe there's still some good in you."

"I just wanted to be a hero..." Dark Choco Cookie sighed. "But I failed. Now, there's no turning back."

"You're wrong," I responded curtly. "In my travels I've seen many people who were thought to be worse off than you. But believe me when I say no one is beyond redemption."

"I couldn't return to my kingdom," He told me. "Not now. Not after everything I've done."

"Then you could come with us and live in our kingdom," I offered.