Revenge, or Justice, Served in Blueberries
I wrote something for CookieRun, hopefully you guys like it.
Disclaimer: This is not a hatefic towards White Lily Cookie. I feel like her redemption arc is somewhat empty, is all. I'm happy to answer any questions or maybe see someone else's perspective to get some more clarity from it. I bear no ill will to White Lily stans.
Might not be my best fic in this fandom, but I hope you guys let me stick around to write more.
CURTAINS!
“Whoa… I didn’t expect the Grand Court to be so huge-! Look at all this artwork!” With the same wonder of a newborn, Gingerbrave circles around not just marble statues of strangers, but portraits of consuls and Elders long past.
“Now now, Gingerbrave, we have to stay focused!” Wizard Cookie grits his teeth under his scarf, eyes flickering to White Lily Cookie with every turn down the corridors. “We’re here to see Blueberry Eclair Cookie.”
Lost in her own musings, White Lily Cookie pulls out the sugar paper bearing the summons. Not a wistful hello or a bitter greeting like she’d gotten from Golden Cheese Cookie, simply official documentation for the court. As much as she wishes it could be a chance for a pleasant chat, she’d braced herself on the airship for a discussion marred with bitter regret.
The Blueberry Yogurt Academy’s destruction was nothing short of a tragedy - nothing so easily forgiven or forgotten. Both White Lily and Pure Vanilla found themselves overjoyed to learn someone else had survived, much more a junior that looked up to the former so fondly.
“So… what kind of cookie is Blueberry Eclair Cookie?” Strawberry Cookie’s head tilts, eyes still following the fine architecture.
Pure Vanilla Cookie’s face lights up. “Oh, stories upon stories… Blueberry Eclair never did anything but her best wherever our schooling took us. She was so full of life and ambition, eager to find where her knowledge best applied. Not even just that, but she was always so sweet and vibrant.” He smiles fondly, eyes briefly opening to take it all in. “This will be our first time seeing her since then… I’m certain she’ll help us.”
Gingerbrave’s smile only grows. “Sounds like she was pretty cool! What do you think, White Lily Cookie?”
Pulled only then from her thoughts, White Lily Cookie can only fidget. Understanding and forgiveness are not the same; as much as she wishes it to be so, she can never expect Blueberry Eclair Cookie to not hold some resentment.
And yet, I can’t bear for her to hate me… A selfish thought and nothing more.
She remembers how closely they’d work from time to time, how Blueberry Eclair’s wish to understand Earthbread down to its finer ingredients bled into every experiment, every paragraph written. Nothing but the most ambitious at the Academy, after all.
“It has been a while… I hope this visit bears good tidings.” That’s really all she can say.
“White Lily Cookie…” Pure Vanilla Cookie can only sigh. “A lot has happened, and… Neither of us could blame Blueberry Eclair if she was upset… The Academy was home to her.”
“All the more reason our trip to the Creme Republic is so important.” Wizard Cookie adjusts his robes. “We must be respectful, especially here.”
“Beyond here lies the courtroom.” The charcoal doughed cookie manning the doors can’t bring himself to look White Lily Cookie in the eye. “Please be patient, and mind your etiquette.”
“Thank you.” White Lily Cookie bows her head in respect, leading the way inside and standing at a podium in the corner, marked with a sugar bouquet of orange lilies, red tulips, and dark purple petunias.
“Wait, why is she over there?” Gingerbrave blinks as they’re led to sit with the rest of the gallery. “Shouldn’t we be with her?”
“Ahhh, usually courtrooms have special designations or plaintiffs, defendants, and certain witnesses. Maybe she’ll call Pure Vanilla Cookie there next.” For Wizard Cookie it’s only an educated guess. To everyone else it’s a weight in their doughs.
White Lily Cookie silently holds an orange blossom in her hand. Symbolizing passion, something Hollyberry Cookie would recommend… and yet, why does that feel so close and yet so far? How much has Blueberry Eclair changed? Is there a particular reason for the summons?
Moreover - her eyes trail over the jury box - why are so many cookies glancing at her? Some of them hold pity in their eyes, some confusion and reverence, others… Pure, unadulterated fury.
The courtroom is dead silent, waiting patiently for the judge to come through the doors. Only the faintest shuffles gave the silence any reprieve, whilst adding to the weight of it. Stained sugar glass windows invite sunlight that offers no comfort, only a crude take on spotlights.
Pure Vanilla Cookie, feeling much the same, looks over the courtroom before his eyes settle on her. Aching to assure her, to let her know they’re here visiting a friend, he can only stand where he is commanded. There is no exceptions for the Four Ancient Heroes - they must obey decorum.
Clotted Cream said as much, at least.
“All rise! The honorable Magistrate Cookie presiding!” At last, the silence is broken.
Pure Vanilla bites his lip. Magistrate Cookie…? Perhaps Blueberry Eclair Cookie is somewhere else, but then why would she summon us to this courtroom?
Perfectly on cue, from the back room of the court, a cookie, dough firmed by unquestionable hardship, emerges. Regal yellow and blue robes, bearing the court’s crest and that of the Republic as a whole, compliment the almost wine-colored dough, her dark purple and white icing held up by a thin yellow ribbon to keep it out of her eyes.
Those eyes, yellow and sharp crystals, pierce right to the bottom of White Lily Cookie once she arrives.
“It… It’s her…” Pure Vanilla Cookie is incredulous
“May I…?” White Lily Cookie’s voice is just hardly above a whisper, only audible due to the almost subjugating air of the courtroom.
“You may address me.” Magistrate Cookie sits at the podium. “The trial is not officially begun.”
For a moment White Lily Cookie hesitates. Even just by how the jury is looking at her, she can tell that she is far from welcome here, maybe in the entire Republic. But that can’t stop what is taking place now.
“Then… is it, you then, Blueberry Eclair Cookie?” She asks. “You… you look much firmer than I remember. How long has it been?” Though Magistrate Cookie’s gaze is intense, she would know it anywhere. “I hope I can say, but, it’s good to see you in good health.”
“Hmm.” Magistrate Cookie’s gaze falls to a collection of sugar paper scrolls, all bearing crime after crime written in frosting ink. “Alright. Case #01142006, Earthbread vs the Dark Flour Forces is now in session.”
“Dark Flour forces…?” Strawberry Cookie trembles, pulling at the strings of her hoodie. “I… don’t like the sound of that…”
“Shhh! This is a courtroom!” Wizard Cookie can’t hide his anxiety even through decorum. “... Though I will say, she is quite imposing…”
Magistrate Cookie sits upright in her seat, papers folded and at the ready. “You stand accused of Collective Punishment; you stand accused of Mass Genocide; you stand accused of Covenance. How do you answer these charges…”
Then her gaze flickers to White Lily Cookie, full of such contempt it could envenomate her very dough.
“... Dark Enchantress Cookie?”
A magic circle lights under White Lily Cookie’s feet, rune-engraved sugar glass forming a box around her and moving her seamlessly to the front of the courtroom. Magistrate Cookie’s gaze is one thing, but to feel those of the cookies in the gallery and the jury box are much more.
“Wh-what-!?” Even Pure Vanilla finds himself breaking the silence as well.
“Blueberry Eclair Cookie-!” White Lily Cookie’s hands tremble. “I… I’m sorry… But I’m so confused-!”
In the face of her eyes, threatening to well with tears, Magistrate Cookie leans forward, expression a frigid cold.
“Which charges confuse you?” She sorts the papers in her hands. “Let’s start with the simplest one. You climbed the Cake Tower to attend the Witches’ Banquet - do you deny it?”
“I… only intended to go to find the answers I had the chance to gain,” White Lily murmurs, fragile but resolute. “I never intended for it to turn out this way, honest.”
“Next you fell into the Witches’ Cauldron. You rose from the dough as Dark Enchantress Cookie and declared war on Earthbread - do you deny it?”
“I do not… But I am not here, and I am here now to fix what I destroyed.” White Lily Cookie’s hands twist around her staff.
“Next you destroyed the Blueberry Yogurt Academy, leaving only the ghost of it to bear the Moonstone that held Dark Enchantress Cookie. Thanks to your curiosity, the remnants of your experiments to make living cookies served no purpose to you, and thus the Academy lost its worth - do you deny it?”
“No…”
“You conspired with Butter Roll Cookie to create unnatural cookies with evil magic. With thanks to your forces, these cookies are half-baked, cursed, and can only be cannon fodder in their miserable half-existence, never to know this world’s sweetness, only the darkness you brought here - do you deny it?”
“No…” Her lip begins to tremble.
“You entitled your followers to curse the lands of their birth, forsaking their sacred duties in the name of a cause that will burn them too. Thanks to that treachery, Crispia will face unprecedented chaos and disorder even with the guidance of the three remaining Ancient Heroes - do you deny it!”
“No!” Her spirit curdles like spoiled milk.
Magistrate Cookie, satisfied with the major crimes’ readings, sits back again, rereading some of the papers to her side. Before long her gaze returns to White Lily, still cold and dripping with venom.
“With the recommendations written by the Dark Cacao and Golden Cheese Kingdoms, I charge Dark Enchantress Cookie to imprisonment.” She grips the gavel tight, raising and banging it, and the runes upon White Lily Cookie’s box begin to glow.
"You can't do this!" Gingerbrave cried, watching White Lily's hands helplessly touch the thick sugar of the box. "White Lily Cookie is trying! She can help us stop Dark Enchantress Cookie!"
"Blueberry Eclair Cookie, please, still your wrath!" Pure Vanilla grits his teeth. "You will not solve anything this way!"
Magistrate Cookie's eyes do not leave White Lily. They tighten and narrow, as though wishing she was holding the executioner's sword instead of her righteous gavel.
"You climbed the cake tower, and you attended the Witch's Banquet, for the sake of learning the answer to your question." She flips through fondant scrolls in a blink. "With thanks to your actions, you've fallen into their cauldron, and were reborn as Dark Enchantress. Your actions are the same, and you still pursue whatever "truth" claims to exist for you! I have seen how you learn NOTHING, time and time again!"
Even the jury, having once glared at White Lily, falter, before their fury remains, eyes digging into the cookie's back like daggers.
"'I ask you again, do you deny these charges, Dark Enchantress Cookie?!" Magistrate Cookie shouts, slamming her gavel.
"NO!" Sugary tears, not from self-pity but from terror; a natural emotion in the face of a cold but necessary justice. "I... I do not deny it..."
It's quiet. Too quiet. Even as Magistrate Cookie's expression returns to its previous wintry cold, no one has the nerve to utter a peep. As though the slightest twitch, noise, or infraction would invite her wrath once more.
"499,998."
"What...?" Gingerbrave almost gawks, vague as it was.
"That is how many cookies died in the Blueberry Yogurt Academy. Therefore, I give the count of their lives to your years in the Prison. Ten more for every innocent cookie that has died in the war you began."
Pure Vanilla Cookie's staff falls, the clattering upon the chocolate marble floors a perfect representation of the gallery's feelings.
Magistrate Cookie leans forward, glaring deep into White Lily Cookie's eyes.
So much flashes into White Lily Cookie’s mind, beginning with her years skipping class in pursuit of her own research, ending with the ruins of the Academy. Time heals all wounds, according to the naive cookies that know only petty struggle. But, time could never take back lives lost, futures destroyed - life itself torn asunder.
How can I ever make amends…? She can only tremble, and wait for the end.
"I witnessed you as a promising Cookie, a genius reaching for the stars like we were taught. Then I witnessed you as the Desserter. Now I witness you as injustice made manifest... Your crimes against Earthbread are worthy of death! You have invited calamity through your curiosities... Our academy, our home, is GONE, lost to Crispia because of you. Your selfish ambitions robbed our schoolmates of their lives and their futures-!” Magistrate Cookie chokes. For a moment Pure Vanilla finds himself hoping this… inquisition would finally end.
His hope is crushed, however, when she recollects herself, gaze cold once more. “As I pass down this sentence, White Lily Cookie... I pose you only one last statement: I hope you're happy with yourself."
Magistrate Cookie's gavel bangs one more time, and White Lily Cookie's cage begins to sink into the magic circle.
"White Lily Cookie-!" Pure Vanilla's eyes brim with tears. "... Blueberry Eclair Cookie... What has happened to you...?"
There is no more. The guilty has been sentenced, and the Magistrate can rest.
Strawberry Cookie trembles. "This is... unthinkable..."
What more can be said?
Wizard Cookie just gapes. "White Lily Cookie..."
🌿🌿🌿
"Blueberry Eclair Cookie!"
Pure Vanilla bursts into her office, his lips thinned in his dismay.
Contrary to his mood, Magistrate Cookie is cooler than royal icing, waving off any guards that deem her old friend a threat. Swallowing, she puts aside a cup of cocoa, meeting his gaze as he about runs to her desk, one hand on the wafer as if to make him seem bigger.
"How could you do this?! White Lily Cookie is not Dark Enchantress Cookie! How can you punish her when the one who needs to be in that prison is still at large?!" For a moment he blinks away tears. "Have you no pity?"
"Do you think I'm an idiot, Pure Vanilla Cookie?" She responds, pulling more papers to fill them out. "I am wholly aware and acknowledging of the fact Dark Enchantress Cookie is a separate entity now. But it cannot be denied that she and White Lily Cookie's sins are shared - and thus their punishment will be too. Dark Enchantress Cookie may have been the one to spread ruin and chaos across Earthbread..." She lifts the sugary quill to point at him. "But White Lily Cookie brought her here. She ascended the Cake Tower and attended the Banquet - that alone would see her dragged here if I had any say in it."
Then her expression slowly shifts to that same cold fury.
"My friends, even cookies I don't know but had futures... They died in the Academy, Pure Vanilla Cookie. If you intend to cast them aside as unfortunate or, gods forbid, necessary sacrifices to appease her Curiosity, then I will have you pulled back there to be tried." Her voice is more than a grating hiss, but a proclamation of her grief. "I care nothing for whatever you and White Lily Cookie had in the past - that's ancient history."
"Blueberry Eclair Cookie..." His tears finally start falling. "After everything that you've done today... how will you sleep at night?"
She stands up, brushing off her robes and meeting his puffy eyes. "... Calmed by the moonlight, Pure Vanilla Cookie." Looking to her guards, she gives a beckoning wave. "Escort Pure Vanilla Cookie outside with Gingerbrave and the others. Please ensure I am not disturbed for the rest of the day."
Pure Vanilla Cookie can only sigh, realizing this endeavor was fruitless. Raising his head, he wets his lips as he's turned and led away from her.
"Despite everything... I hope you can find forgiveness."
If there is any to give... Who's to say?
