No'ones Pov
Madeleine launched forward angrily at Jack, who swiftly bounced back out of harm's way. Another one of the members dashed forward and tried to do a rounded kick at Madeleine. The Paladin barely had time to dodge it, and the huge drawback motion made him stumble. Another member snuck behind him and tried to gag him but he regained his balance and slashed the guy's arm, making him jerk away in pain.
Meanwhile, Espresso had sucked five of the cookies into his coffee black hole, ruthlessly exploding and injuring them. Only Abyss, Jack, and five other injured cookies left. Suddenly, Espresso and Madeleine found themselves encased in a thin layer of jello, forbidding them to move.
The remaining gang members, excluding Jack and Abyss, threw themselves at the couple. Each of their hands held daggers and guns. Espresso speedily used his coffee beans to melt the good just enough to move his hands. He sent the seven coffee beans he made earlier back at the gangster's hands, blowing away the weapons while steadily creating more coffee bullets.
"Useless," Abyss muttered under his breath, earning a glare from Jack.
Madeleine slashed the jelly with his sword, but the green goo quickly reconnected as if his attempt with so futile that nothing ever happened. Espresso's jelly had melted thankfully, and he sent a small burst of flame at the the green trap Madeleine was in. The tiny flam immediately began to eat away the jello.
Espresso bubbling with anger, summoned a coffee cloud over Jack's and Abyss's heads. Jack was sprinting towards him with a knife and Abyss was slowly shifting from feet to feet. Espresso's lips couldn't help but smile just a bit as he snapped his fingers.
A cascade of boiling coffee poured onto Jack who failed to dodge the bubbling liquid completely. The sleeves of Jack's jacket glued themselves onto Jack who writes and howled in pain. He forcefully ripped the jacket off his soaked arm revealing the hot angry red rashes.
Madeleine winced but had no time to scold him as he was busy fending for himself and knocking out the gangsters with minimal injuries. Most didn't look too good. Espresso had been side-shooting bullets at them. Even without his full attention, he had managed to shoot one through two shoulders, a leg, and a stomach.
When they were all knocked out-
BAM.
A cookie who had been hiding burst out with a long thin sword. He had swung it at Madeleine's chest but Madeleine turned around sharply and swung it right back. Clangs echoed and soon they were having a sword fight, with Madeleine barely winning. He could've fought much better if he wasn't so worn out and tired.
Espresso couldn't intervene, as there was a high chance of hitting Madeleine instead of the target. So he tried to find Abyss, who had managed to hide somewhere but he was momentarily distracted by the sword clanging.
A rustle from his left made him turn curtly and blast the small box away... but instead of finding Abyss, he found a tin can with a mouse in it. Espresso reared around and sent his remaining two backup coffee bullets just as Abyss burst out. Espresso grinned, adrenaline and blood coursing through his body. In a matter of seconds, Abyss will be on fire, with coffee bullets through him. Burnt and dead.
But something was very wrong.
Abyss didn't have any weapon in his hand. He had sharply turned left and bared the pain of the coffee bean cutting his arm and leg. He wasn't reaching for Espresso's neck, stomach, shoulders or arms, which would've been the smartest place to grab or hit.
Espresso began conjuring a ring of fire when... too late.
He watched as Abyss's middle and index fingers zoomed into his face. A second later, it touched the mage's forehead.
Espresso froze... then blacked out.
It felt like he was drowning suddenly. Espresso couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, couldn't stand. The silence pounded against his ears, unbearably loud. Then, the voices that sounded like nothing grew louder.
But the voices weren't loud enough to process. Or there were just too many voices... and red eyes. The longer Espresso was in the Ocean space thing, the more eyes there were.
Red, angry, eyes.
Judging eyes.
Louder whispers.
One voice rose above the rest, the most distorted, yet the most clear, "Are you fucking kidding me? Are you three?! How dare you have emotions control you, weaken you. You could-"
Cold. Cruel. Furious. Unnacepting.
A cold voice Espresso had spent more of his life with than with his blood family.
Espresso swerved around, or more accurately, swam around so that he didn't see anything except darkness once more. He told himself he didn't care about Dark Enchantress's opinions, or anyone's opinions, anymore.
If only it was true.
He swam away from the voices, towards the dimly glowing yellow light in the far distance. It looked bright and unnatural against it all. Espresso would never do something as carelessly as this, but what other choice is there? And it reminded him of Madeleine.
When he finally reached the light, he flinched back in terror. His eyes widened and he tried to scream, but couldn't. His chest tightened and his stomach and heart hollowed. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes, falling away into the thick water-like air, which wouldn't have been possible at all if it weren't for the cursed magic.
It was Madeleine.
Madeleine, lifeless, and floating in the water. He was only visible due to the light which made him appear even more dead. His blonde hair was stained with crimson blood like his clothes. Espresso felt so cold, so lonely, so dead himself.
Espresso tried to grab ahold of his love, but more blood gushed out in front of him as the knife that he hadn't noticed before was ripped out of Madeleine's chest...
By his nightmare once more. By Dark Enchantress, who had an evil smirk painted on. It was like a common nightmare Espresso had whenever he slept, but it felt so real. Dark Enchantress opened he-
"ARGHHH!" A scream cut through his mind, dragging him back into reality with a painful jab to his mind.
In front of him was Abyss, who he'd seen moments before he blacked out due to the Yakuza doing some sort of witchery. Instead of looking like a black hole threatening to engulf him, Espresso thought he seemed pathetic.
Abyss was clutching his head and rolling back and forth, his eyes widened and terrified. He was shaking and begging for it to stop.
Espresso turned the other direction, and sure enough, Pomegranate stood smirking and holding up her thrice-cursed mirror. When she caught him staring, she scoffed.
"What may you be doing here?" Espresso asked, allowing the fact that Madeleine was alive and running towards him and not dead to sink in.
"Not even a thank you," Pomegranate muttered stiffly.
"I thank you for helping us," The mage said, truthfully, "But we could've managed it sooner or later."
Another shriek from Abyss made the four cookies now gathered wince again.
"We were walking Chiffon and buying food. Lots of pies," Pomegranate replied, nodding towards the bags on top of a cargo the height of a fridge, "And my, my... you really are weak when it comes to mind magic like mine, aren't you?"
"I'm assuming he needed me to look into his eyes. Afterwards, he needs to top my forehead in order for his magic to work," Espresso scoffed, "Just a careless mistake on my behalf."
"Pomegranate, you're hurting him too much!" Madeleine said, struggling to stop the hypnotized Abyss from gouging his eyes out.
"That's the point," Pomegranate said, her expression unchanging.
"But-"
"Don't you get it, blondie? Even if the war is over and Dark Enchantress's spirit isn't controlling White Lily anymore, there is still evil in this world. We established this. There must be darkness to have light, etc, etc," Pomegranate snapped.
She loosened up and sighed after a few moments of Abyss grunting and crying into the silence of the group. Then the priestess mumbled something and lowered her mirror, shuffling to Red Velvet who gazed at Abyss with a mixture of pity and anger.
Pomegranate spoke, "Madeleine, Espresso, listen, because I can't believe I'm doing this prep talk thing. This person was going to do something bad to you two. Maybe torture, how the fuck I'm I supposed to know? Now he's going to want revenge. So the best choice right now is to..."
"Is to turn everyone here in so they get healed and jailed," Madeleine said at the same time as Espresso said, "Dispose of their bodies and evidence that we were here."
Madeleine whipped towards Espresso and grabbed his boyfriend's shoulders, "No!"
Espresso looked away, guilty, "Abyss's power will allow him to break out easily. Then he'd wish for revenge. I am simply stating the facts, Maddie."
"I don't want any more violence than needed either," Red Velvet said, stroking Chiffon who wined, "But we'll get into trouble if they tell the paladins that we attacked them first."
"But we didn't!" Madeleine said, turning to Red Velvet and letting go of Espresso.
"We did hurt them enough to scar their lives forever," Pomegranate said coldly, glaring at Madeleine, "Espresso is correct like I presumed. We need to dispose of the bodies then leave."
"Why don't you three do it then? I don't want to see 15 cookies get murdered, Yakuza or innocent," Madeleine growled, but knew their reasons were valid, "I'll agree to this, but I won't ever accept it! And I won't kill if I can help it! Got it Pomegranate?"
"Hey, you killed the cake monsters ruthlessly!" Red Velvet said, getting worked up. Chiffon whimpered and his tail and ears drooped.
Guilt stabbed Madeleine's chest, "I regret it! They attacked innocent cookies! I did feel guilt."
"ENOUGH! We'll attract a crowd and Abyss may get a hold of himself!" Pomegranate shouted, shutting everyone up.
The black-haired cookie at their feet groaned, clutching his chest. He looked out of it, but he wasn't screaming in pain anymore.
"Espresso, burn everyone here to ashes," Pomegranate instructed, and Madeleine flinched, "Then we'll leave some fake evidence pointing towards an inner fight between the gang members. There's a half-empty gasoline tank here, and a few cigarettes on the members.
"Espresso, you don't need to do it," Madeleine said, grabbing the mage's arms.
"He may need to, we can't find a lighter," Pomegranate said, her voice sounding like she didn't want to dead cookies, just tortured ones, "The fire needs to spread before any bypasses spot us. Plus, if he does it now and you two leave, Abyss's scream can carry out to someone. Espresso and I's senses are sharp, so I'll teleport us to the hotel the second someone draws closer."
"Fine," Madeleine said, and he, Red Velvet, and Chiffon quickly jogged off with the bags.
Madeleine wasn't fine with this at all. He hated it. He wondered if Espresso got caught, or if he lost control. He knew the mage wouldn't get caught, or lose control, but the worry in his chest couldn't go away.
He planned to go to the hotel and lay down on the bed to think about it.
Pomegranate stepped back and motioned to the mess of cookies with the mirror as if saying she was going to cast her spell on anyone who came back to reality if Espresso didn't hurry up and burn them. Pomegranate's spells were the few things that he was scared of, and Espresso felt that they'd be better off dead.
A familiar feeling filled Espresso's heart along with something... but what... else, as he summoned a fire coffee ring behind him. Burnt coffee, how bitter in a non-likeable way.
Abyss's screams pierced the air again as the fire ate everything on the concrete floor. Espresso drew in a sharp breath and raised the temperature even hotter until the air was hotter than the sun in July.
The scent of bitter coffee aroma filled the air. Pomegranate chucked something at the fire and dead bodies, (Abyss was on the brink of life), and the scent of Espresso was soon masked well enough to not be able to smell anything.
Espresso's ears perked toward the direction of the north. Pomegranate fished out a weird-looking fruit right afterward, and Espresso assumed it did something to hide the fact that they'd been here causing the fire.
Shouts and footsteps were quickly approaching from the distance and Pomegranate walked up to Espresso as he dropped his arms beside him and stopped using coffee magic. Pomegranate took out a vail containing her specially made teleportation dust delicately and uncorked it.
The red smoke tendrils hugged themselves onto the two, blending in with the ash-gray colour of the smoke. There was no Pomegranate smell from it, due to the fruit most likely.
Then, the mage and prestress were gone...
...and back at the hotel.
They were in different ways silently, without a sound. They didn't want to say anything at all. It was like they had just relieved the past.
Espresso entered his and Madeleine's hotel suite and found Madeleine sideways on the bed, fast asleep. His chest rose and fell peacefully and Espresso found himself sitting down on the bed. Madeleine got too worked up and winded up unconscious himself. He also had cuts over his body which he wrapped with gauges and bandaids.
"It's only 9 Pm, hmm," Espresso mumbled to himself, "Perhaps I could work.. hm.."
Espresso's tiredness had finally gotten to him. He felt himself giving away and falling into a deep sleep as his head hit the soft covers of the bed beneath the Paladin's arms.
He was venturing into dreams, and more accurately, his past.
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Word count: 2258
Halp my paper book I use for rough drafts is completely beaten up TvT
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Have a good day/night!
- Crimson
Written: 09/14/23
Edited: