Broken Sword, Broken Soldier
One Shot by LazilyBeingLazzie
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The blade was planted into the ground as he knelt to the ground. He had been fighting non stop for hours now. These creatures that appeared at the doorstep of the Vanilla Kingdom was nothing he had seen before. And yet he couldn't help but feel as though his forces and allies were too far from him to even come to his aid.
Not that he would tell them to come find him yet. There was always a possibility that there were more enemies at other sections of the kingdom. If they were doing their part (and he had no doubt they were) then it was his part to fight his fight even more.
For the moment, there were no more enemies to challenge him, giving the warrior a moment to breathe. He needed his strength if he were to continue fighting.
But as he stood there, he noticed a presence behind him. Snapping back into action, Dark Cacao Cookie swung his sword around and pointed it right at the throat of a cookie he did not recognize. They were unphased by the threat that loomed over them, not even a flinch. Their pale white and yellow clothing looked graceful and holy. Garments of a priest if not mistaken. Upon their head was something that looked similar to his soul jam. Who was this?
They spoke with an echo accompanying their voice. "You are strong, young one. I had not expected you to last under such a siege alone."
Frowning at his enemy, Dark Cacao Cookie answered. "Am I to assume you are my enemy? Are you behind all this?"
"In some parts, yes. Though I do not intend to fight you."
"You should have thought about that before attacking my friends then."
The stranger hummed. "Such an interesting motive. Yet it has it's flaws."
He growled at the comment. "I will not let you get away with this!"
Swinging his sword to attack this enemy, he finds his blade interrupted from it's path by another weapon. Noticing it's dark metallic form, he follows it's trace to it's owner. A dark knight with dark violet flames in the back of it's head.
Gritting his teeth, the king knew this meant his enemy was this new warrior. With that, he pushed them back and charged at them. The knight was silent and coldly calculating his moves. Swiftly reacting to his strikes as their swords clashed and sparked.
"Why is it that you fight for such things?" The voice of the pale stranger echoed in the king's head as he continued to fight.
The distraction gave the knight an advantage to attack, striking him as it threw Dark Cacao back further away. He grumbled as he stood back up to defend himself.
"What do you gain from their safety that you cannot accomplish with protecting yourself?"
"Fighting for those I love is my strength! If I do not fight along side them, then they will crumble! And I cannot allow that!"
The knight charged at him, positioning his blade to stab him. Dark Cacao placed his sword in front of him, blocking the blow. Even with the aid of his Soul Jam, the enemy was causing his feet to slip in the dirt a little.
"Then you are a fool. For even if you were to obtain the full ability of my power, you would not be able to save them all."
The warrior yelled at his enemy as he pushed a little more. He would not listen to these atrocious lies. "THAT WILL NOT STOP ME FROM STANDING MY GROUND TO THE BITTER END, YOU VILLAINS!"
Crack!
His candy eyes widened, looking down at his sword. The knight's blade swiftly slid off the surface of the weapon, slicing into the side of his face, leaving a scar. He screamed in pain as he stumbled. Breathing heavily, he could feel his confidence faltering. He wasn't going to survive this battle. His enemy was fast and cunning. And the strength he wielded was far greater than he could ever muster.
"Believing you can making such a difference will only crumble you in the end. If you truly want to win the war, you must assure your own survival."
"Rrrrrr, NONESENSE! The Dark Cacao Kingdom does not stand with one brick alone! It takes many to build the wall that surrounds it! A soldier cannot win alone!"
"Then why are you alone?"
The knight struck from behind. The king barely dodged it as he was still trying to come up with a response. He would not falter. He cannot! He goes for a strike, only to miss as he tries to refocus on the battle ahead of him.
"Surely your warriors would know that you would need help and come to your aid. If they are as faithful as you say they are."
He goes for another strike. The knight dodges easily.
"Unless they are more concerned with the safety of the others, than of their king."
"Stop talking . . . " Blow by blow, his actions began to blur. The heat of the moment getting to him.
"Then again, can you call yourself one if they cannot do the one task they are meant to die for."
"ENOUGH!"
He suddenly felt it. A pain in his side. Falling to the ground, he could feel his armor had cracked and broken. The knight stood over him in victory. It happened so fast. Was he blacking out in rage again? He could feel his injury weakening him.
The pale cookie then floated over to him, standing next to the knight. "You are a fool. But you have much potential. I could use a strength like yours."
Dark Cacao glared at them with hatred. "I am no pawn of yours. I will destroy you before I crumble."
" . . . Very well. I gave you the chance to surrender."
A sudden moment of pain came to Dark Cacao's head. A splitting headache that he moaned over. Harsh and piercing. It was hard for him to focus. He needed to be ready to fight. He had to . . . pick up his sword . . . and fight . . . back.
There was a sinister giggling echoing in his mind. A voice he didn't recognize at first. That was, until he heard it clearly speak to him.
Dark Cacao Cookie . . . what a pathetic king you are . . .
Was this . . . the Voice of Resolution?
Do you not see . . . ? You've done nothing but failed your people . . . you will crumble . . . and all that will be left of the kingdom will be nothing but ashes . . .
"Wh-What are you . . . ?"
You were the only one standing between victory and failure . . . and you lost . . . because you were too weak . . .
No, this couldn't be the same voice. He didn't fail. No, everyone was fine! He didn't-
A sound of an explosion from afar caught his attention. It came from the other side of the kingdom. Were those from his own soldiers!? He tried to stand up, but fumbled onto his knees again.
Weak . . . pathetic . . . you spent all of your time building that stupid wall up, and yet you did nothing to building your own strength . . . that's why they abandoned you . . .
"No . . . they did no such thing . . . "
Why would they fight along side a losing battle . . . they knew how brittle you were . . . this is the result of your blindness . . .
Dark Cacao was on the ground, trying to fight the voice in his mind. The knight and pale cookies stood behind him as a third cookie appeared with them.
"I told you I could handle this myself, Shadow Milk Cookie," said the pale cookie.
"Awwww~! You're just jealous that I got to him first before you, Mystic Flour Cookie," said the new cookie, colored in blue and dressed like a clown.
"Just keep him occupied," state Mystic Flour, "I shall ensure he will remain in deep slumber."
Behind the pale cookie, a soft glowing light appeared. It shined on Dark Cacao as he knelt to the floor in pain. He was feeling weaker and weaker by the second. The pain in his mind growing worse.
They will not come for you . . . They will not look for you . . .
He didn't want to believe the words. They were nothing but lies . . . lies that . . . were making sense for a moment. Would they search for him? Are they even alive? Are they safe?
Why should that matter . . . You can barely stand yourself . . .
The voice was right . . . he wasn't going to make it. Not if he tried to find them. The enemy had him cornered and nearly broken. If he was stronger . . .
Yes, yes . . . You can be stronger . . . But they will hold you back . . .
He thought of the Dark Cacao Warriors. Caramel Arrow Cookie. Crunchy Chip Cookie. Their names were coming to him. But when he thought of them . . . he felt . . . nothing.
His very emotions were growing dimmer and dimmer. His anger was cooling down. His determination withered. Losing what he believed was his motivations, he couldn't help but find himself staring into nothingness as he searched for anything at all.
But there was nothing.
Mystic Flour reached for the shoulder of the warrior, who remained still and silent. "You do not care for the cookies anymore, do you?"
The king looked ahead of him. "No . . . "
"Do you have a reason to fight?"
" . . . No . . . "
"Then what is it you want?"
" . . . I want . . . to be stronger . . . "
He's wanted that before. But it didn't seem to have that same vigor as it did before. But it was all he knew at that point. If he were to do anything, it was to get stronger. For what? He wasn't even sure what it was at that moment. He felt nothing.
"Then let me show you the true strength of my power."
Turning to Mystic Flour, the Dark Cacao King looked at them with an empty gaze. As the three cookies were drifting away, he helplessly followed. The pain was gone. The passion was gone.
All that was left was nothing.
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Something I've seen in fics a few times but not for comedic effect is the idea that Constantine selling his soul so many times makes him look/feel Wrong to ghosts.
Like I love various Danny ghost shenanigans giving Constantine a heart attack in stories but just imagine that Constantine is like deeply, deeply unsettling for Ghosts & Liminals to be around.
To the point of whenever he and Danny meet for the first time at the Watchtower after Danny's joined the League, Constantine just walks in and upon turning to look at who just walked in Danny just shrieks like a small child and throws a chair at him out of reflex, diving behind Captain Marvel to use him as a magical human meat shield while screeching "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT???! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" At the top of his lungs and doesn't stop until Batman makes Constantine leave.
Even after Zantanna explains Constantine's whole deal and Danny explains to the Justice League how totally fucked up that looks/feels like to him ("Dude, Ghosts are their core, for us you see that before you see the shape of whoever you're talking to. Like, imagine someone walks up to you with a face that looks like it's made out of a shattered plate and the pieces are bleeding"
Or like, imagine instead it's a thing were Jason and Jazz are dating and Jazz, Danny & Elle are invited over for a nice meet the family brunch - "Brunch is fun and casual!" Dick insisted, "Way less intimidating than if we had them over for dinner!") and Constantine pops in to talk to Bruce about a case.
And the second he walks into the room all three just shriek like they're from an episode of Scooby Doo.
Elle takes one look at Constantine and just nopes out of there so hard she doesn't even gk intangible as she throws herself out the window and starts flying for the hills. Danny screeches like a cat whose tail has been stepped on and jumps onto the ceiling and scrambles away. Jazz screams like a house wife from an old Looney Tunes cartoon and starts climbing Jason like a tree - which is a bit of a problem since she's half a foot taller than Jay and throwing his center of balance off a bit and now half of the plates are smashed on the floor.
Jason doesn't even notice though because he also is losing his shit over what the fuck that thing is and unlike Elle is far more interested in Fight rather than Flight and pulls out a gun - "Why'd you bring a gun to brunch?! Guns aren't fun or casual!" - and just starts unloading on Constantine (who is very lucky Jason has switched to non lethal rounds and that he's quick enough with his spells to largely keep most of the rubber bullets from hitting him) also while screaming at the top of his lungs.
And well, turns out Jason's new girlfriend is the older sister of that ghost hero the League's been looking to recruit and Bruce is gonna take advantage of that - Phantom has been hard to pin down, which is fair, bad history with government agencies trying to kill him and all - to talk to him about a place with JL, though first he's going to have to get him down from the ceiling and that'd be a lot easier if Constantine would just leave already, they are supposed to be having a family brunch this is his one day off!
(Elle screams her all the way to Metropolis and doesn't stop until she nearly knocks Superman out of the sky. He isn’t really sure what's going on, but he does manage to calm her down and takes her to go get some ice cream. When he pitches joining JL she tells him that she thinks he's kinda lame but that Superboy is cool so she's down. It's...honestly kinda devastating but Clark manages to get through it.
A note gets made when the two ghost heroes officially join the League that partnerships with Constantine should be kept at an absolute minimum.)
And lol yeah, just, Constantine being utterly terrifying to Danny and the Pham
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