Chapter Text
He had known something had happened the moment she had done it. Of course, at the time he didn’t know she was the one responsible. All he knew was that he suddenly felt… different. He had been minding his own business for once, sitting in his fungeon cell skulking, when a sudden warmth invaded his code. Before he had time to process this foreign feeling, the glitching started. Glitching had become an unwanted normal for him ever since his regeneration. The glitches were painful, but usually bearable. Usually he would let out a small moan or a short hiss before returning to normal. However, these glitches that suddenly assaulted him, which seemed to have been set off somehow by those foreign feelings in his code, were not. He was vaguely aware he was screaming. He was violently shaking in his chains, glitching so often his body looked like little more than a clump of red 1s and 0s when he became dimly aware of his cell door being hurriedly thrown open and someone throwing their arms around him as well as they could. Immediately the pain stopped. His glitching settled down enough so that he could see again. What he saw caused him to roughly shove the intruder away. If he had been able to stop and think, he would have realized that earlier he wouldn’t have had enough strength to push her away. The glare he shot her didn’t look near as threatening as he would have liked due to the fact that he had to whimper and hiss in pain a few times as the last few glitches from his episode raked his system. Once he got his breath back he chocked out “What the HELL do you think you’re doing?!”
He grimaced when he heard how weak and pathetic his voice sounded. She had sat up in the spot on the fungeon floor where she had landed when he had shoved her off of him, and was studying him in a way that unnerved him. When he spoke, she waited a few seconds before replying, as if choosing her words carefully.
“I…heard you screaming and thought you were dying.” She said. He supposed he probably HAD sounded like he was dying. He glared.
“Why would you care? You’re going to kill me anyway.” She looked at him shocked. She made as if to move closer to him, but he growled in warning and she stopped.
“I would never kill you!” she said, offended. Her tiny hands curled up into fists. She looked more upset then he had ever seen her. He hadn’t thought she’d ever be able to catch him off guard, but he found himself blankly staring at her at a loss. He had been sure she planned on keeping him in this cell until she arranged some kind of execution. He even figured it would be public since so many people hated him for what he had done. If their roles had been reversed, that’s what he would do. Maybe that’s why the fact that she was showing him mercy surprised him so much he found himself unable to reply for a good minute. When he finally spoke, his voice was laced with malice.
“If you aren’t going to kill me, what are you going to do? If you plan on leaving me in this cell to rot away I WILL escape and you WILL suffer.” He was NOT going to stay in this cell in chains for the rest of his life. He would either find a way to escape or come up with some way to make her hate him enough to decide to execute him after all. He would prefer death as opposed to having to sit in this cell, knowing he had lost, and having to be at the mercy of the person he hated the most in the whole arcade. He mentally shook his head and thought to himself ‘I DIDN’T lose.’ He stubbornly refused to accept it was over. He hadn’t lost – not really. Things hadn’t necessarily gone according to plan, but as far as he was concerned things were far from over. He NEVER lost. Never had, never would. After all, he was the greatest racer ever. One little bump on his road to power and purpose wouldn’t stop him. He would see his revenge through to the finish. It all was only a matter of time.
While Turbo had been sitting silently fuming, Vanellope had been quietly observing him. She’d ignored his threat, deciding instead to pay attention to his actions. She wondered if he felt anything when she linked their codes. She knew he had immediately started glitching because they were too far apart, but she didn’t know if he had actually felt them connect. She knew she had. But she had also been expecting it. Boy was he going to freak when he found out! She bit her lip in worry. When Ralph found out he would be soo mad. But she hadn’t known what else to do! If she hadn’t linked the two of them through their codes, he would have died. Even though the game recognized him enough to regenerate him, since his original coding wasn’t actually a part of the game, the game’s virus protection was still doing its best to eliminate him. He had been growing weaker and weaker by the hour, and Vanellope knew if she hadn’t taken such drastic measures he probably wouldn’t have lasted through another night. Since the incident, she had done her best to learn about the codes. She figured that she should know at least the basics in case anything or anyone tried to interfere with her programming again. Felix, it turns out, knew a few things, being the lead character in his game and all, and was more than willing to teach her. Little did he know she would use her new-found knowledge to save the one person who nearly got her killed! She knew he would not approve. But she was confident she would get him to understand once he knew she had no other choice. Felix was a nice guy. She pulled herself out of her thoughts and turned her attention back to Turbo. He was still sitting there looking beyond annoyed and refused to look at her. A glitch rippled through him and he let out a small groan. The glitching bothered Vanellope. Glitching wasn’t supposed to be painful. When she glitched, she felt only a slight tingly feeling, like her whole body fell asleep at once. At first it was a little bit uncomfortable, but not painful. Turbo obviously felt pain when he glitched and Vanellope was determined to find out why. She had hoped that after linking their codes it would stop, or at least the pain would stop, but it didn’t look like that was the case. She hoped that maybe once he got stronger it would. She made to stand and Turbo snapped his gaze back on her. “You’re still here?” he spat. “Get lost glitch!”
She couldn’t help it; she smirked. “That isn’t an insult anymore, you know. Glitching is part of me now, and since I’ve accepted it, I’m proud of it. You however, need to do something about your own glitch.” She thought for a moment and then added “Turbutt”. “If glares could kill, she’d be dead by now.
“WHAT did you just call me?”
She grinned and skipped out of the room saying in a sing song voice “I’ll be close by if you need me. Just call~!” and the door shut in his face.
Slightly put off, Turbo stared at the closed door for a good few minutes imagining different increasingly violent ways he could kill ‘that damned brat’ before he finally sighed and relaxed a bit. Since she was finally gone and he had some peace to himself, he needed to try and figure out what happened to him earlier. That was definitely not normal. He raked his brain trying to figure out what could have affected his coding so much to make him react that way. After hearing Vanellope wasn’t planning on killing him, he ruled out any kind of damage done by her. No one else he could think of had access to his code in the Sugar Rush code vault, and even if they did, the chances of them knowing what to do with his codes to make him react the way he did weren’t high. Instead of making him feel better, however, it made him more worried. If someone hadn’t done this intentionally, then what had caused it? Did he have a virus? Was the game finally getting successful at rejecting his code? He knew the game had been fighting hard to un-do his regeneration, but so far he had been able to stop it from killing him. True, he didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to fight it, but he had lasted a few days and he considered that a victory. After thinking for hours and not coming up with anything that seemed likely or even possible, Turbo was exhausted. His body felt like it had gotten run over by a truck multiple times, so he decided it would be best just to give up and get some sleep. It wasn’t very comfortable to sleep while chained in a dark and cold dungeon (or fungeon in this case) but he soon found he couldn’t keep his eyes open. Just when he was about to drift off, the door to his cell flew open again. Grunting in protest and glitching a bit from being surprised, he was immediately aware of the brat standing in front of him looking determined. Before he could react, she had swooped down and unlocked his chains that had him tethered to the floor. Having no clue what her purpose was, he eyed her suspiciously and didn’t move.
“Well are you gonna get up or what?” The amused look on her face was enough to make him angry again. But he couldn’t resist the urge to stand up. His legs were very unsteady since he had been sitting in the god-forsaken cell for three days. When he stumbled a bit Vanellope immediately reached out and grabbed his arm. A sudden surge of strength went through him.
Too shocked to pay much attention he only jerked his arm out of her grip and asked “What are you doing?” She visibly flinched but he ignored it and continued “Have you finally decided what to do with me?” Instead of replying, she simply turned around and started walking.
Turbo glanced around and was surprised to see she had no guards with her. Unchaining him and not having backup with her in case he decided to get violent? What was she thinking? Of COURSE he would try to escape! Or at least, he would if he could. But unfortunately for him, his arms were still bound in handcuffs he couldn’t glitch out of. He was also too tired and still too weak to get very far even if he did try and take off, so he decided it would be smarter for now if he just follow her. They walked in silence for a good while, until they came into the main part of the castle. HIS castle he thought angrily. It was his, and it should still be his. He would get it back; but first he needed to get some strength back and come up with a plan. So he kept following her up the stairs on the left until they got to a hallway full of rooms. He hadn’t spent much time in the upper levels of the castle when he had been in charge, choosing instead to spend his time racing until he was simply too exhausted to go another lap. Therefore, he wasn’t too familiar with this particular hallway. After walking a little ways down the hallway she stopped next to a door that had a sign which looked to be made out of chocolate and icing which proudly declared “Vanellope’s Room”.
“This is my room.” She said, as if the sign needed further clarification. Before Turbo could possibly imagine why in the world he would need to know this information, she pointed to the room right across the hall and said “That’s your room.” She turned toward it but Turbo was too stunned to move. HIS room?! What the heck was going on?! First she de-chains him, then she fixes him his own room in the castle?! Right above the code vault no less! And right across the hall from her! Did she not realize how easy it would be for him to attack her in her sleep and then go downstairs and mess with the codes again?! When she realized he wasn’t following her, she turned back around. He immediately noticed how tired she looked. She looked as if she hadn’t gotten much rest lately. Not that he cared.
“Are you coming or not?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. “I’m tired and I would like to get some sleep, if you don’t mind.”
Normally he would have shot back at her with some snide comment, but his brain was still trying to process what in the actual flying fudge was going on here. She turned back around and he numbly followed her into ‘his’ room…and stopped. He hadn’t known what he was expecting, but it wasn’t THIS. Was this what she had been doing all day after she had left his cell? His room was very large and decorated with him in mind. There were tasteful hints of red throughout, his favorite color of course, and all his favorite candy was laid out on the dresser. The bed was large and looked very soft, and even though he had NO clue where she had found it, there was an old TurboTime poster that had once been in Grand Central Station on the wall next to his wardrobe. All sorts of questions were on the tip of his tongue, but Vanellope seemed to know what he was going to ask and answered him before he got the words out.
“Well I couldn’t leave you in the fungeon forever, now could I?” She gently reached over and took his hands, unlocking his last restraints. He was too shocked to resist. “I still don’t know exactly what to do with you, but I figured you’d be more comfortable up here. It just didn’t feel right to leave you down there all alone in the dark. Look, I’m sleepy so I’m gonna go to bed now. There’s a bell on your dresser that you can use to call Sour Bill if you need something. I’m right across the hall, so…yeah. Don’t get any ideas, there are guards patrolling this hallway all night. Okay, bye then!” and without further ado she left him staring after her like she had suddenly grown two heads.
He was standing alone, in the castle, freed, and yet the first thing he could think of to do was to collapse on the bed. He had never felt more exhausted or confused in his life. If she thought she was being kind or ‘being the better person’ or whatever for allowing him his freedom and his own room in the castle, she would regret it. When he woke up in the morning he would take action. But for now, he thought, his eyelids closing, he would sleep.
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He awoke to the sound of racing. That, as should be obvious, was his favorite thing to wake up to. He was usually an early riser, and hadn’t woken up to the sound of racing since he lived in TurboTime with the twins since they had always gotten up before him to practice. Before his memories could fully overtake him a slight glitch went through his system and he hissed in pain. Right. He would need to prevent himself for thinking of his past. Too many painful memories. His glitch had seemed to agree. He chose instead to go over to his window where he could barely make out a line of Sugar Rush racers seemingly racing each other just for the heck of it. Surprised they would be up so early, since he remembered them being pretty late risers, he glanced at the clock that was on his dresser. TWELVE O’CLOCK?! He never slept in this late! He had meant to do SOMETHING useful with his newfound and still confusing freedom, like escape at least! But it was too late now. He had messed up. The whole castle would be awake. He creaked the door open and glanced down the hallway. No one was there. Maybe there was still time to escape! Right when he was about to sneak out the door Vanellope’s door flew open. She was standing in her nightgown blinking sleepily and yawned. Suddenly she seemed to realize what she was looking at and to further confuse him, her face lit up.
“Turbutt!” she exclaimed excitedly. “How’d ya sleep last night?” He stood up straight and glared.
“What do you care?” Her smile fell a bit but she didn’t seem deterred.
“I’ll take that to mean ‘why Vanellope, thanks so much for asking! I slept great! I’ll wait here in my room while you get changed!” and with that she shut the door in his face. Again. ‘This is happening a lot lately’ he thought. He debated on just walking away while she was getting dressed but decided against it since she had already seen him leaving. The guards would be on him in minutes. He was a glitch now, so he couldn’t leave the game, and there weren’t very many places he could hide. Especially not in his current condition. He felt stronger than yesterday, but he was still far from healthy. Vanellope was apparently a very fast dresser, and while Turbo was lost in his train of thought she had finished getting ready. Her door flew open again, and before Turbo could protest he felt himself being dragged across the hall and down the stairs. She may have been smaller than him, but since he was still so weak she was easily stronger. There it was again, that same sensation he had gotten the last time she had grabbed his arm. He had felt as if he had suddenly gotten stronger, just from touching her. She came to a halt and he forced her hand off his arm. While he was pondering this revelation, Vanellope was talking anxiously to Sour Bill who Turbo hadn’t noticed was in the room since he had been caught up on his thoughts. He did notice, however, that Sour Bill looked very worried. Since he normally didn’t show much emotion, Turbo figured something must be really wrong. When she turned to him, she looked worried. She was trying to hide it by putting a fake smile on her face, but he could tell – no he could…feel…? That she was worried. ‘Wait, was he really actually feeling-‘
“Turbo!” she nearly shouted, jolting him out of his thought process “We are going to have visitors! No need to worry, they know you’re here. But please try and be nice. Well, at least don’t threaten them. It’s going to be a bit awkward enough as it is without you provoking them.”
He glared down at the little –she looked a bit like a pixie he supposed, in her princess dress-and bitterly replied “What guests?” Before she could reply Wreck-it-Ralph and Fix-it-Felix Jr. barged in the room. Well, Ralph barged in, Felix only timidly followed behind him, apologizing repeatedly for being rude. Turbo nearly panicked. Ralph looked MAD like I’m-mad-enough-to-rip-turbo-limb-from-limb mad. Turbo was well aware that he wasn’t in a good position. True his hands and feet were free, but he had nowhere to run, no energy to try and hide, and Ralph was so much larger than him it would have been a total waste to even try to escape.
“Ralph!” Vanellope squeaked. Obviously she could tell how angry he was “Please don’t be mad! I swear I know what I’m doing!”
Ralph apparently didn’t agree and he fired back “You know what you’re doing?! Don’t be mad?! Are you SERIOUS?!” he yelled. She looked at the ground, at the wall, anywhere but at Ralph. Like a child getting scolded by her parent Turbo noticed. “Do you have any idea what danger you’re in?! When you found this little demon you told us you immediately locked him in the fungeon! You promised you wouldn’t do anything else until I came. And once I get here I find out you RELEASED him and are letting him roam about the castle as he pleases?!” He had said all this without taking a breath, so he finally paused and breathed heavily switching focus from Vanellope to Turbo. Turbo felt himself shrink back. “And YOU. Ralph fumed “You have the audacity to show up here-“ “The audacity?”
Turbo interrupted angrily “Do you think I ENJOYED my code being ripped apart by lava and then painfully put back together again!? Do you think I ENJOY the game constantly attempting to undo my regeneration? I’m a GLITCH now and I can’t do anything about it!” ‘I can once I get to that code vault, but I won’t let THEM know that’ he thought. “I would rather be ANYWHERE but here in this sugary hell.”
Ralph seemed a bit surprised he had spoken up, but when he was about to reply Fix-It patted him on the arm and said “Now Ralph,” and after a brief hesitation “…Turbo… I think you’re upsetting Vanellope.” Sure enough, the child had started crying. All the rage left Ralph’s face and he looked concerned. He knelt down to her level.
“Vanellope I’m sorry I wasn’t trying to scare you!”
She sniffled “You didn’t scare me you stinkbrain you just made me upset because I didn’t know you’d be so mad.” “Of course I’m mad!” Ralph replied struggling to maintain an appropriate voice volume “How am I supposed to feel when I find out you are putting your life at risk by letting the worst scum of the arcade free!” Turbo knew he should take offense at that, but given the situation he decided to stay silent. Vanellope sniffled again and looked up at Ralph. “I’m not in any danger.” This only succeeded in further frustrating the wrecker.
“Listen, I know you seem to think you aren’t for some reason but-“ “No, Ralph,” Vanellope argued, “I’m not just saying that, I’m serious.” She sighed a little bit and turned her back to him. “I wanted to do this differently, but I guess this is as good a time as any.” She was now facing Turbo and glanced up at him nervously before staring firmly at the ground. “I know my life isn’t in any danger from Turbo because…if he kills me, he’ll die too.”
Turbo paled. His mouth felt so dry he could barely choke up a “Come again?” His voice had gone up considerably in pitch.
His mind was desperately trying to make sense of her words, and then it hit him right before she confirmed his fears; “I linked our codes.” He thought he would pass out. He swayed back and forth trying to process this information when he heard Ralph and Felix shout almost in union “You did WHAT?!?!” Felix immediately fainted. Turbo thought he was going to be sick. Code linking was the most intimate thing you could possibly do with another game character. Linking literally meant you were connected with another person- you felt their emotions, shared their thoughts, shared their life, as well as their death. Once done, it could never be undone, or else both would die in the process. Not much was known about how linking worked because it had only been done a few times before, and only when one of the characters lives was in danger- oh. OH. It all made sense. This crazy…PIXIE…knew he was dying because the game was rejecting him, so she decided the only way to save him would be to link them together. She was the strongest character in the game since she was the lead character, and since he was fading fast the only way he would have survived was linking her code to his. But still…she would actually do that? Didn’t she understand what that meant?! He figured she didn’t really. Turbo had studied code for many years before taking over Sugar Rush, and even HE didn’t fully understand linking. It was so uncommon it hadn’t even come to mind when he had been trying to understand all of the strange things that had been going on with his coding lately. But this explained everything. He glitched so badly in his cell before Vanellope arrived because they were too far apart. The instant she had grabbed him he had felt better. And that strange foreign feeling of warmth he had before…that must have been when she’d…he felt dizzy.
He was jolted back to reality when he felt Ralph suddenly grab him.
“Vanellope, are you actually INSANE?! You…LINKED…your code…with HIM?!! How did you even know how to DO that? No wait, WHY would you do that? Don’t you understand what that means?!” The whole time he was freaking out he was shaking Turbo back and forth. Felix had passed out on the floor as soon as he’d heard the news, so he wouldn’t be any help calming Ralph down. Vanellope was crying again, Turbo could tell without even looking at her, and he guessed that was what was making him feel so queasy.
He was about to speak up when Vanellope said “Please stop it Ralph or we’re gonna be sick.” Ralph looked confused for a brief instance before he realized what he’d been doing.
He did his best to let Turbo go as gently as possible, since he didn’t want to hurt Vanellope, and said “I really don’t know what to do. There isn’t any way we can FIX this, don’t you understand! You two are stuck like this. For good.” He sighed angrily, glared at Turbo as if it was HIS fault this had happened, and trudged over to Felix to try and wake him back up. Vanellope was still crying silently and finally Turbo decided he couldn’t take it anymore. Still feeling sick, he turned around and marched the few steps in between him and Vanellope until he was right up in her face. She looked up at him and he felt his stomach lurch.
“DAMN it!” He suddenly shouted. Vanellope jumped “Why in the world would you DO such a thing pixie?!” He started feeling worse and knew making her more upset wasn’t helping. “Why in the world would you LINK yourself to someone who tried to kill you, and would try again if I had the chance?!” She shrank back a bit, but he knew she wasn’t actually afraid. He couldn’t do anything to her, after all. Not unless he wanted to suffer the same fate.
“I…I couldn’t just let you die!” she sobbed. “I learned a bit about coding from Felix” Turbo shot the unconscious offender a glare “and I knew that nothing else would save your code! You were hours away from death, and I couldn’t stand to see you suffer like that.”
“WHY?” Turbo yelled angrily “WHY couldn’t you? I tried to kill you! I ruined 15 years of your life! If it had been up to me, you NEVER would have raced! So why would you link us together?” Tears running down her face, Turbo knew he had underestimated the girl when he saw the determined look still in her eyes.
“I couldn’t NOT save you when I had a chance.” She said whipping her eyes on her sleeve. “I don’t regret it. You have a new chance at a new life. A fresh start. Don’t waste it” Then she turned and walked over to Ralph and Felix, who was starting to come to. Turbo stood there watching her walk away in shock and almost…respect. He had never guessed he would hear such…mature words coming from such a small child. Knowing he couldn’t change the reality of the situation, he simply stood there and watched three of the people he wanted the least to do with suddenly become three people who were going to now be the most important people in his life. He would rather have died. The dizzy feeling was getting worse, and he found his vision was becoming dark. He swayed one last time and saw the pixie turn around in sudden realization before his world went dark.
Turbo passing out was unexpected and certainly not something Ralph knew how to handle. Of course, since it was Turbo, Ralph normally would have enjoyed seeing that little brat in such sorry shape. However, since that monster was now forever attached to sweet little Vanellope, watching him pass out was terrifying. Vanellope had seemed to know it was happening, but Ralph guessed she naturally would since they were connected and all, and had let out a short gasp of warning which gave Ralph just enough time to turn around and watch him fall. Vanellope had clutched her head for a moment, but then rushed toward where he fell. Glad to see she hadn’t passed out too, Ralph grabbed Felix in one hand, who had just woken up, and rushed over to where the two of them were. Vanellope had already grabbed on to him and was trying to wake him up.
“Ralph!” Vanellope anxiously cried “Can you lift him? We need to get him back to his bed. He will be fine he just couldn’t take everything happening all at once. He’s still too weak!” Ralph understood. He grabbed him – reminding himself to be gentle for Vanellope’s sake- and carried him up the stairs and into his room.
After laying him on the bed, Ralph was at a loss as to what to do. Felix, now standing on his own two legs again, glanced between turbo and Vanellope. They both wore the same troubled expression on their faces, and Felix was uncomfortably reminded how close these two now were…whether he liked it or not. Which he didn’t.
“Jimminy Jamminy” he whispered. He didn’t quite know how to handle this situation. He felt kind of guilty about teaching Vanellope about the codes. At the time, he figured it was a good idea. Each main character needed to know the very basics of coding in case something went wrong in their games. He had just never expected Vanellope to use her new knowledge to do…well, THIS. Felix had always considered himself a decent guy. This idea of himself was shaken slightly when he realized he hadn’t been treating Ralph very kindly these past 30 years, but he felt that wasn’t totally his fault. He had fallen victim to the stereotypical bad guy label that the whole arcade had created. They’d made up and now were best friends (well, Felix was Ralph’s OTHER best friend since Vanellope obviously came first) and therefore Felix had learned from his mistakes. If Felix hadn’t believed in Ralph and gave him a chance, they would never have become friends. Therefore, Felix believed he understood where Vanellope was coming from. She believed Turbo deserved another chance, and believed strongly enough that she had changed her life to get him that chance. Felix sighed. He hoped one day Turbo would appreciate all that Vanellope was giving up for his sake. Ralph was staring at Turbo on the bed with an unreadable expression on his face. Felix could only imagine what thoughts were going through his mind. He was about to say something because he couldn’t stand all the tense silence when Vanellope spoke up.
“Thank you guys for coming to check on me, but if you don’t mind, I’d like you to leave now.” Ralph made a sound of protest but Vanellope ignored it. “Turbo can’t hurt me. I’ll be fine. I’m just tired, is all. Things weren’t supposed to turn out this way, ya know? I was going to get him used to me before I told him, and I was going to show you guys everything was fine between us before I told you.” She looked so sad and tired. Felix couldn’t help but wince when he heard these innocent plans. They sounded just like the idealistic ideas a child would think up. Of course, she WAS a child. Sometimes he forgot that since she acted very mature for her age. Then again, she HAD been through a lot more since her game got plugged in than any other character he knew. That’s what was making it so hard to believe that she would actually FORGIVE that person who made her life so miserable for all those years! He thought about how innocent she was and how that innocence put her in further danger. Even though Turbo couldn’t physically hurt her, words affected Vanellope deeply. He had heard from Ralph about those racers who used to pick on her by calling her names. He could definitely see Turbo speaking harshly to her and using his words as his weapon since he couldn’t do anything physical. Turbo was suffering from his own inner demons, and Felix knew that it would take a lot more effort to bring out the good in him, if there was even any left. But he didn’t have the heart to tell her that. Especially now when they were linked together permanently. All he could do was hope his fears were unfounded.
“I’ll call you over tomorrow” Vanellope was saying “and we’ll talk more. For now, I need rest.” Ralph stubbornly looked away but Vanellope gently placed her hand on top of Ralph’s arm. “Please stinkbrain? I’ll be fine, I promise.” She yawned and her head drooped down a little. Felix wondered if it was simply because she was so tired, or because Turbo being unconscious was affecting her more than she was letting on. Sour Bill had told them this morning as they were waiting to meet with Vanellope that she usually NEVER slept in later than 8 on a Sunday when the arcade was closed. He had said he was really worried and had gone to wake her but she was in a deep sleep and wouldn’t wake up. If Felix had to guess, he would guess that Turbo had slept in, thus making it a lot harder for Vanellope to wake up. All of this thinking about their link was making his head hurt, so he decided he would take Ralph and come back in the morning. The poor girl looked as if she was trying desperately to stay awake. She probably didn’t want them to know how much the situation was affecting her. Ralph had already stood up to leave. He had a concerned look on his face, but motioned to Felix and slowly turned and walked toward the door. Vanellope looked relieved that they were leaving, and waved sluggishly to Felix as he followed Ralph out. Ralph was way ahead of him by now, and didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk. Sighing, wondering how he could possibly get Ralph to calm down when he could barely get HIMSELF calm, Felix glanced back to see Vanellope had fallen completely asleep, her head on Turbo’s chest. If he squinted, he thought he could make out a similar look of contentment on their faces. Shaking his head, he turned back around and jogged out the door after his partner. He just hoped those two would be okay.
When Turbo woke up only about an hour later, the first thing he noticed was he felt better than he had in a very long time. This was a funny way to feel after waking up from having passed out, but he was just glad he didn’t feel sick anymore. He moved to prop himself up on his elbow when he noticed he was having a little bit of difficulty breathing. Looking down, he found out that weight on his chest hadn’t been part of his imagination-Vanellope had her head and both arms on his chest. She was still asleep, and his moving hadn’t seemed to disturb her at all. His first thought was that her being in such close contact with him must be why he felt stronger than usual. After all, one of the major downsides of linking is that the further apart two linked characters get from one another the weaker they become. If they get too far apart, they die. So the closer they are, the healthier they are. They literally NEED to be close to live. This was the complete OPPOSITE of turbo-tastic. It made him sick. Thus, Turbo’s next thought was to immediately throw her off of him. He was disgusted that she would dare fall asleep on him like that! But he knew that if he hurt her, it would hurt him as well. So instead he tried to slide out from under her. In doing so, he managed to wake her up. She blinked her eyes open, let out a yawn, and then smiled up at him like she couldn’t be happier. This of course annoyed him to no end. “What are YOU so happy about?” He practically growled. “Oh I don’t know, I’m just happy you’re fine now, I guess.” She was still grinning at him like everything was all fine and dandy with the world and he just couldn’t take it anymore. He brushed her aside as gently as he could while still making it understood she should get OFF him, and then rolled over. He was still tired and didn’t feel like dealing with the brat. She sighed, and headed for the door. This was going to be a lot harder than she had originally thought. “If you need me, I’ll be in my room.” She smiled once more at him, but he only glared in response. Then she closed the door and he was once again by himself.
He used to enjoy being alone. He used to THINK he enjoyed being alone, at least. Even back when TurboTime was plugged in, he would always do whatever he could to get his own private time away from the twins. They always wanted to hang out with him and- He glitched again and hissed in pain. ‘Damnit Turbo’ he thought ‘stop thinking about them.’ Forcing himself to redirect his memories, he thought instead to the events of the day. Thinking about how he and that damned brat were linked together for all eternity did not cheer him up at all, surprisingly enough, and he was still exhausted so he decided to go back to sleep. But that’s when the nightmares began.
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The arcade had just closed, and he was hanging out with the twins Ted and Ned like he always did after a full day of racing since they stuck by his side no matter how hard he tried to shake them. They could be very annoying, and although at times he did genuinely enjoy their company, it depended on what mood he was in. The mood he was in now was one of the worst he’d ever been in. This had not been a full day of racing. Quite the contrary. They had only had two gamers since that new game RoadBlasters had been plugged in earlier this morning. To say Turbo was pissed was an understatement. Two gamers. TWO! And the only reason they had played their game at all was to waste time until it was their turn to play RoadBlasters! It would have been impossible for Turbo to be any madder. Ted and Ned both seemed to understand Turbo was in no mood to talk. They had tried all day to get him to cheer up, but to no avail. They were used to him pouting, they were his brothers after all, but they had NEVER seen him as upset as he was now. Ned finally got sick and tired of watching Turbo fume in the corner, so he got up and went over there despite Ted’s protests. Ned had always been the boldest twin, while Ted was always afraid to hurt anyone’s feelings.
“Okay Turbs, you’ve gotta snap out of it.” When Turbo stubbornly refused to answer Ned grabbed his shoulder and spun him around.
“Let GO Ned!” Turbo spat,annoyed. He was in no mood to deal with him.
“Listen, I know you’re upset because we didn’t get played very much today, but it’s just because that new game just got plugged in. After the newness of it wears off, our gamers will come back.”
Turbo scowled “That’s what YOU think. I however, understand the situation we are in.” He tried to turn back around but Ned grabbed him again, now really annoyed with Turbo’s attitude.
“And what situation is THAT, pray tell.” Turbo yanked his hand off his shoulder and stood up. He was shorter than the twins, but not by much.
“A few more days of this and Litwak will PULL OUR PLUG. Don’t you get it? We’re DONE.” He shouted. Ted gasped.
“No…no, he won’t!!” Ted practically whimpered.
Ned replied angrily. “You need to calm down! Just because we didn’t have many gamers today-“
“Listen Ned” Turbo interrupted “I’m not sticking around for him to unplug us. I’ll get RoadBlasters unplugged if it’s the last thing I do!” and with that Turbo ran off up the stairs to his room.
Ned glared after him but turned back around to Ted when he heard him whimpering. He sighed.
“Ted, he isn’t serious. You know how Turbo gets. He’ll pout some more and then he’ll get over it.”
“I…I guess you’re right…” Ted replied although he didn’t seem too convinced.
“I am.” Ned replied back firmly. “Now let’s go to Tapper’s to relax and give Turbo some space. Maybe when we get back he will realize what an immature jerk he’s been and apologize.” Ted grinned as Ned put his arm around his head and took his helmet off to give him a quick hair rub, before they set off for GCS.
Turbo didn’t hear them leave, and assumed when he came back downstairs that they had gone to their rooms. Their cars were still there, and they NEVER left without their cars. Little did Turbo know, they had chosen to walk for once in order to calm Ted down and take longer in the hopes that Turbo would be calmed down when they returned. Turbo had taken the opportunity when the twins were ‘in their rooms’ to drive into RoadBlasters to mess with it, and did not expect Litwak to unplug both games as a result. His last view of TurboTime was watching their game disappear into code, believing the twins were still in it.
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Turbo thrashed about in his sleep, dreams of TurboTime getting unplugged tormenting him. Everyone thought he had done it on purpose! Everyone blamed him for cold heartingly killing the twins! But it had been an accident! RoadBlasters didn’t have actual characters, the only characters were cars. He was jealous of the game, and shouldn’t have messed with it even if the characters were cars with no feelings, but he had because he figured his happiness depended on it. He was selfish and blinded to what he DID have. As a result, he became homeless and unintentionally killed his best friends, his FAMILY, in the process. He hadn’t dreamed of them in a long time. After their deaths, he had hidden himself away in the darkest corners of the gaming world until he found an opportunity to start over in Sugar Rush. No one knew he was alive, and he had wanted to keep it that way. The guilt he felt was too much to bare, and he couldn’t handle it anymore. When he had gone into Sugar Rush’s code room, he only wanted to create a new life for himself. Start over, so he wouldn’t have to remember his horrible past and feel the guilt for the death of the twins. And of course, bring the twins back. However, in order to create such a life for himself he had to ruin others’. At the time, even though he knew it was wrong, he justified it. But now, he just didn’t know. He woke up with a loud scream after seeing an imagined image of the twins bodies breaking into pixilated fragments as the game was unplugged and the twins were sucked into the black void. Breathing heavily and glitching uncontrollably, he tried to calm himself down but the pain caused by his glitching was making it difficult. All of a sudden he door burst open. Vanellope was standing there with a look on her face he actually couldn’t read for once. She stood there as if debating on whether to speak, before slowly walking over to the bed and plopping down on the end of the bed near his feet. His glitching almost completely stopped.
“What?!” he snapped. He tried to sound threatening but since he was still trying to get over his nightmare it sounded more frightened than anything.
She didn’t react to his harsh reaction and instead said quietly “I saw your dream.”
He froze. She…saw…how DARE she! Suddenly he was furious. If he was thinking rationally he knew she couldn’t help it. But that had been such a horrible dream, such a PERSONAL dream that the thought of her seeing it immediately threw him over the edge.
Startled by his sudden anger she hurriedly said “I’m sorry! I didn’t see it on PURPOSE you know. I was lying there dreaming about my favorite candy and suddenly BOOM I’m dreaming your nightmare!”
Ignoring her apology he said “You have no right-“ but she interrupted him.
“I know I don’t and I’m sorry but there was nothing I could do to stop it. I wasn’t going to come in here but…”she looked at the ground “I could feel how scared you were and I figured I should come check on you.”
“I wasn’t scared!” He huffed. He knew she was right, but his pride wouldn’t let him admit it. They sat in silence for a few strained moments before she spoke again.
“I’m sorry about the twins.” He glared at her so hard she could almost feel it drilling into her. “Fine I know you don’t want me here so I’ll leave. I just wanted to help.”
She got up to leave but before she shut the door she could have sworn she heard a mumbled “thanks.” But surly she was hearing things, right?
After that Turbo couldn’t go back to sleep. Memories of the twins and his time in TurboTime haunted him the whole night. His glitching didn’t fully stop, since his emotions were all over the place. When he finally decided to give up on ever getting any more sleep, he went over to the window to look out over Sugar Rush’s landscape. He could remember admiring the many candy themed hills and tracks that made up the game as King Candy, when his new life seemed to be set in stone. Now, at the start of THIS new life, Turbo didn’t feel that same stability he had before. He had no idea what his future held. Would he be stuck in Sugar Rush the rest of his life? Probably. He couldn’t be far from Vanellope anyway, and he was pretty sure now that he was considered a glitch by the game he wouldn’t be able to leave it even if he and Vanellope weren’t linked. Not that he was anxious to leave. Throughout his time as King Candy he had heard rumors of what the characters in the other games thought of him. If he strolled into Game Central Station he knew he definitely wouldn’t be welcomed with open arms. He didn’t have any friends left there anyway. Because it was still very early, none of the racers had taken to the tracks yet. Everything was silent. Soon he found he was bored. He paced around his room a few times before debating on whether or not to test how far he could get from Vanellope without glitching uncontrollably. He didn’t want to cause any danger to himself, but he figured knowing his limit would be smart. Maybe once he knew his limit he could come up with some sort of plan. Just because no one had figured out a way to successfully separate a link didn’t necessarily mean there WASN’T a way. And if anyone could figure that out, it was him. He was fairly certain he knew more about the codes than anyone else in the whole arcade. His mind made up, he decided to try and sneak down to the code vault to look at his and Vanellope’s code. He needed to see what exactly he was up against.
Peering out in the hallway, he was almost surprised to see it was empty again. True, he couldn’t do anything to Vanellope in his current condition, but the lack of at least one guard was a foolish move on her part, he thought. He glanced at her door briefly, half expecting it to fly open, but it remained closed. Taking a deep breath, he began to tiptoe down the hallway. He made it to the end of the hallway no problem, but when he was halfway down the steps he started to feel very sluggish. He couldn’t believe it-he wasn’t even that far away!! How strong was this connection of theirs?! Shaking his head in hopes to help clear it, he trudged on down the stairs. By the time he got to the bottom his glitching had started. At this point he was too stubborn to give up and turn back, even though he knew that would be the smartest thing to do. He was so CLOSE! He was beyond frustrated. Trying to stay as quiet as he could as he hissed and moaned as the painful glitches raked his code, he had almost made it to the curtain which hid the code vault when his code just couldn’t take it anymore. It was almost as bad as the first time. The glitches were so frequent and so painful he had to bite his lip hard to keep himself from screaming.. Okay, this was a BAD idea. He found he had collapsed and couldn’t even move enough to crawl back toward the stairs. Luckily, he heard the faint sound of little feet running toward him and he was soon nearly picked up in Vanellope’s arms. He could have sworn he felt her shaking, although he was shaking so much himself he could have just been imagining it.
“What in the world are you DOING?!” she scolded. “You KNOW we can’t go very far from each other yet, and yet you decided to just try and leave?” He had stopped glitching now since she was next to him and did his best to scoot out of her arms.
“None of your business what I was doing” he spat back at her. She looked at him like he had gone crazy- or crazier at least.
“None of my business?” she slowly answered. “When are you going to accept the fact that we are LINKED now? Like it or not, EVERYTHING either of us do is now the business of the other.” He refused to give her the satisfaction of replying, so he chose instead to glare at the ground angrily. True, trying to make it to the code vault hadn’t been the smartest thing he had ever done, but he was sick and tired of feeling so helpless and out of control of his own life. He hadn’t imagined that their link would be strong enough that he wouldn’t even be able to make it the fairly short distance to the code vault! He heard her let out a little sigh, and finally looked up at her. She wasn’t looking at him, but was looking at the ground. “Look…I really AM sorry things turned out this way. I know I’m not exactly your favorite person, and if you think this has been easy for me, us being connected like this, then you’re wrong. But I’m not planning on keeping you locked up in this castle forever. I still need to talk with Ralph and Felix, but I want to figure out a way to get you more involved in the game.” He felt all of these emotions rolling around inside of him, and he honestly couldn’t tell if they were all his or if some of Vanellope’s were affecting him as well.
“You…you want me to get involved in the game?” he said, shock evident on his face.
She looked up at him. “Well, I know how much racing means to you, and I figure since you have nowhere else to go the best thing to do is to let you race here.” She smiled a bit. He was still too shocked to move. She…she would actually trust him enough to let him race here!? Even after everything he had done to her? He didn’t know if it was because she was too nice or too stupid, but he couldn’t really complain. Of course he wanted to race again! It had been driving him insane, going so many days without racing. That was what he was made for, after all. His purpose in life. If putting up with Vanellope and her freakish friends long enough to get him in a race car was what he had to do, he’d do it. So, to Vanellope’s surprise, a slight smile appeared on Turbo’s face. She had never seen him smile. Not as himself, anyway. Maybe things WOULD get better, after all.
Ralph and Felix came over as soon as the arcade was closed. They made a much calmer entrance this time, to both Turbo and Vanellope’s relief. Turbo had been a bit concerned that Ralph would still be angry, and while he certainly didn’t look HAPPY, he at least looked as if he was not in denial anymore. Vanellope and Ralph had a brief talk about how each other’s days had gone, Ralph completely ignoring Turbo. That didn’t bother HIM at all. He was glad he didn’t have to deal with him, actually. Ralph had nothing special to report, except Turbo heard him whispering almost proudly how he had knocked Felix on the head with some more bricks than usual today. The two of them may be friends now, but Turbo could understand why it would still feel satisfying to beat the ‘hero’ every now and then. Of course, the twins had hardly ever beaten HIM, but- he stopped his train of thought immediately because he felt a glitch coming. He found that if he tried to avoid things that would cause him to glitch, such as thinking about the twins, he could usually prevent the glitch from happening. Anyway, Vanellope was in the middle of telling Ralph about her boring day at the castle (she hadn’t been able to race since they had linked since she couldn’t leave him) when he noticed Felix had come over to stand next to him. He looked awkward, like he didn’t know what to say. He had taken his hat off, and was twisting it nervously in his gloved hands.
“So…Turbo…how was YOUR day today?” He smiled at him hopefully. Apparently he thought he should try and be nice to him since he was going to be around for a while. Turbo felt himself snarl in disgust.
“Don’t worry about trying to be civil to me, Fix-It. It’s not worth it.” He turned and walked away to the farthest corner of the room he could get to without feeling the effects of the separation from the brat. He perched himself up on a window and found he had a pretty good view of the Random Roster Race that had just started. Felix had gotten the most disheartened look on his face when Turbo had brushed him off, and slowly turned around to involve himself in Ralph and Vanellope’s conversation. He had been hoping that attempt at a conversation would have gone better, but he supposed he couldn’t expect Turbo to act any differently toward him when only a day had passed.
Ralph and Felix had stayed for a while, taking about who knows what. Turbo didn’t really care, anyway. He had heard his name come up in the conversation a few times, but had ignored them. He was just so sick and tired of dealing with the three of them that he decided it was better to just pretend they weren’t there. It wasn’t until they left that he finally removed himself from the window ledge and reluctantly went back over to where Vanellope was sitting. She was in the middle of the floor, with papers spread out all around her.
Curiosity got the best of him, and he couldn’t help but ask “What are you doing?” She had known he was there, but jumped a bit when he spoke up. He had been so obviously making a point to not associate with any of them all day that she hadn’t been expecting him to willingly start a conversation with her.
“Oh, hey there Turbs. I’m just-“
“What did you just call me?” he had noticeably paled and taken a few shaky steps back.
Surprised at this strange reaction, she nervously repeated “Um…I said Turbs. Do you not like that name or someth-“
“Don’t EVER call me that” he threatened. His eyes were wide and he seemed really freaked out, so Vanellope didn’t push it like she normally would have. He had started glitching again, and before she could say anything he spun around and started practically running up the stairs.
Vanellope sighed. Apparently she had unintentionally found something that triggered some pretty bad memories for him. Although about what, she had no clue. She hastily grabbed up all her papers and followed after him, knowing if she stayed down there Turbo wouldn’t be able to make it all the way to his room. Once she got up to the top of the stairs she saw that Turbo’s door was shut tight. Sighing again she turned and went into her own room, deciding to continue working on her little project in there. He stubbornly refused to come out of his room the whole rest of the evening, and when Vanellope had timidly attempted to let herself in before she called it a night she almost got hit by a flying helmet. Apparently he was still NOT in the mood to talk. So she left him alone, not prepared for the dreams she would be forcibly made to share with him that night.
When she woke up the next morning, she could immediately tell something was wrong. She just couldn’t figure out what. She felt a mix of emotions, and they were all swirling around inside making her feel nauseous. Figuring it had something to do with Turbo since the dreams she saw of his that leaked over last night were anything but pleasant, she quickly got up and glitched out of her nightclothes and into her usual clothes before heading across the hall to Turbo’s room. Still not being able to shake the feeling that something wasn’t right, she hesitated slightly before knocking quietly at his door. After waiting outside a while with no response, she creaked his door open. The room was dark, with the curtains drawn and she thought she could barely make out his form on the bed. Walking quietly towards the bed she was suddenly grabbed from behind in a way that surprised her a lot more than it actually hurt. Turbo had obviously planned for this all to happen and had grabbed her in a way that constrained her without causing much pain. With some difficulty Turbo forced Vanellope over to the bed and held her steady as he forced her to look up at his face.
“Listen” he hissed “I’m done playing around with you. I don’t care if we are linked I refuse to live out the rest of my life this way. Now since I can’t go to the code room without you, you are coming with me. Now.”