Cindy took a bite out of her juicy fruit and smiled. "Oh my gosh, I forgot how much I love juicy fruit. Where did you find these?" She asked looking towards her brother.

Sydney took a bit out of his own and couldn't help but smile as well. It had been a long time since they had juicy fruit. "There's a few trees west of here." He explained.

They were about to trek up the Big Rock Candy Mountain, and since food was scarce up there, they needed to get as much rations together as possible. Sydney had brought back enough fruit to last for days. "Man, the last time we had these were when…" She stopped and thought about it.

"What?" Sydney asked.

"We were over Tea's…" She said looking down sadly.

Sydney frowned and then slide over next to his sister. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Hey, look. I know you two didn't leave on the best of terms, but when we get back, she'll be happy to see you. You two were best friends remember?"

Cindy pinched the bridge of her nose. "The last time we talked to one another was when Fang got injured, and I said… I said he deserved it. I mean, what the fudge was wrong with me?" She said laying down on the ground.

"You were angry, it was a stressful time and-"

"That wasn't an excuse. You were just as torn as I was and all you did was try and keep the peace. All I did was try to make everyone as miserable as I was."

After Garry had vanished, even before then, Cindy had thought about how she had treated everyone. If she hadn't cut them off completely, she had snapped at them constantly. It was no wonder nobody tried to stop them from leaving to find Garry. How could they have wanted her around? Sure they'd all said their goodbyes, but that was probably more for Sydney.

And Tea, she felt even especially terrible about that. The girl was pretty much like her sister, and she had said so many terrible things to her. "Ah… I screwed up so bad."

"You're not the only one who screwed up little sis. I fooled myself into thinking Garry was right, just because I didn't want to have to bring down my friend. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine."

Cindy looked at her brother and patted him on the leg. "No it's not. Well, kind of… Garry going out of control was BOTH of our faults. But at least you tried to stop him before. I was just going to let him run wild all over the place. I was afraid if I did say something he wouldn't like me anymore."

Sydney chuckled. "How do you know he even liked you in the first place?" She shot him a deadly glare and he felt a cringed. "I-I was kidding, of course he likes you…" He mumbled. It was true, Garry liked his sister. But he was never keen on showing much emotion towards anyone.

Still, he had a very soft spot towards Cindy. The two always exchanged witty banter with one another, and Cindy was one of few who could get away with calling him 'Garry' rather than king or sire. "I still can't believe he was planning on wedding that Vanellope girl! Then he has the nerve to talk about how much he cares about me! I'm gonna strangle him!"

The older Syrupshot didn't bother correcting his sister on the fact that Garry talked about caring for BOTH of them. It's not like she'd listen anyhow. "Well, he's certainly not gonna come to us if you're threatening him like that."

Cindy stood up and then smiled. "Doesn't look like he's coming to us either way, so we might as well go find him!" She said pumping her fist into the air. Sydney shook his head amazed at how quickly she could change attitudes. A minute ago she was all depressed, now she was more pumped up than ever.

They began making their way up the mountain, eager to find their friend.

Eventually night had come, and the siblings had decided to go to sleep. They camped out by a heard of Rocky Rams, who didn't seem too bothered by their presence. Cindy had even played with a few of the young ones.

Right now however, Cindy had a hard time going to sleep. Something, she didn't know what, was just compelling her to stay awake. She felt like she could miss something important if she dozed off. She knew it sounded silly, but she was always one to go with her gut. Women's intuition and all that.

So she simply laid there starting at the sky. She felt a tongue wipe across his cheek and saw a baby ram standing near her. "Gross…" She muttered. She probably would have freaked out over something like this, but her fear of the rams outweighed that reaction. They were nice and all, but they were also easily excitable. If she made any loud noise, they might charge them.

The rams didn't seem to want or need sleep either. They were still roaming around casually. Some of them were still even fighting with one another. The goat licked her again, and then nudged her slightly. "Stop it." She said pushing him away slightly.

It began nudging her side, then suddenly flipped her over so she was facing the other side. She scowled. "What in the world is your deal?" She asked about to turn around and confront the baby animal. Before she turned around, she saw a figure in the corner of her eye. "What the…"

The figure was standing further up the mountain, walking up towards the top. Cindy narrowed her eyes. Who was that? Could it have been Garry? "Sydney!" She said nudging her brother. "Wake up, I think I see someone."

Sydney groaned. "You always think you see someone at night. You're just seeing things again, now go to sleep."

Cindy frowned. Okay, so maybe she's woken up a few times at night and dragged them on a wild goose chase, but that didn't mean it wasn't real this time. "But I really do see something this time!" She argued.

"Go to sleep…" He repeated.

She pouted and then got up. "Fine, if you're not going to help me, I'll fine him myself!" She said storming off. She could hear her brother sighing and muttering something about not staying up to late. She felt something nudging her leg and looked down to see the baby ram.

Cindy reached down and petted him. "Well, at least you believe me." She said smiling. She began making her way toward where she saw the figure. It hadn't been that hard for her to trek up the mountain. Cindy was a tough girl. Climbing up rocks and trees was something she did on a regular basis.

Once she reached the spot where she saw the figure she looked around for any clues. She saw a few faint footprints headed east. "It's got to be him…" She muttered to herself. "Not even Fang stays up this late."

She kept going until she made her way towards a cave. It seemed like the perfect place for someone to hide. As she got closer she could hear voices coming from the cave. She looked confused. If it was Garry, who else was in there with him?

Walking in, she caught a bit of the conversation. "We don't have much more time. It's going to happen in a matter of months, and when it does we won't be able to hold them back anymore." The first voice said. She had no idea who that was.

"We can't hold it back anyways. If we do the gamers will think something is wrong and we'll get unplugged. We're going to have to come up with a new plan." Now that voiced she easily recognized! It was Garry.

She ran deeper into the cave, still listening to the conversation. "I would just try redoing everything, but he's even better at manipulating the code than I am."

"Well then why don't we try recruiting the others? We clearly don't have the resources to do this on our own."

Cindy reached the end of the cave and then saw two figures standing in the middle of a large clearing. They were wearing cloaks and had their faces covered. "We have company." She looked up and saw a third figure standing sitting on a large rock.

The other two on the ground turned towards her. "Cindy?" It was Garry's voice.

"Who's the brat?" The other figured asked.

"Doesn't matter, she'd seen us, we need to get rid of her." Cindy looked back up towards where the third figure was sitting, but her was now gone. "I'll handle it."

She looked over her shoulder and now saw the figure standing behind her, holding up a finger towards her. There was a spark around his hand, and it looked like he was about to jab her with his finger, but before he could Cindy felt something pull her back.

She was yanked over towards one of the figure and landed on her butt right in front of him. The figure pulled its hood down and revealed itself to be Garry. "Don't touch her!" He snapped.

"Garry!" She quickly got up and then hugged him. "I can't believe it! I knew we were getting close to you! I had a feeling!"

Garry looked surprised at first, but then hugged her back. "Um... it's nice to see you too."

Cindy let him go and then patted his shoulders. She then scowled and pulled him forward kneeing him in the stomach. Garry had the air knocked out of him and then fell to his knees. "You selfish little gum wade." She said grabbing the front of his shirt.

"Okay, I deserve that but-" She punched him on the arm and he winced in pain. "Okay, I may have deserved that one too-" She pulled her foot back and kicked him in the shin. "OW, would you stop it!"

"Why should I? Do you have any how mad I am at you right now?" She snapped. She raised her fist to hit him again, but he reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Let me go!"

Garry sighed. "Look, I understand you're mad about me… trying to destroy the entire arcade. It was clearly not one of my brightest moments."

"You think?" Another figure asked sarcastically.

"Would you shut up?!" Garry snapped.

Cindy pulled her hands loose and shoved him away. "Where have you been all this time? Me and Sydney have been turning the game upside down looking for you!" She said angrily. "And who are these people?" She said looking at the other two figures.

"What a charming little brat." The first figure said grunting.

Cindy reached for her pistol, but Garry stopped her. "Cindy, I'm sorry you've wasted so much time looking for me, but I can't go back."

She frowned. "Yes you can! Everyone had decided to forgive you! Jimmy even said to bring you back! And he's in charge now, no one will-"

"Wait, you left Jimmy in charge? That jelly bean for brains is running my kingdom!" He said balling his fist up. He then took a deep breath and calmed himself. "No, no, it's fine."

"Just come home!" Cindy said grabbing his arm.

Garry sighed. "Even if the others did want me back, I can't. I have something I have to do." He said turning around. He heard a click and then turned to see Cindy aiming her pistol at him. "Oh c'mon now Cindy, you're going to shoot me?"

She fired hitting him on the arm with a blast of chocolate syrup. The syrup quickly began hardening around his arm. "I'm going to bring you back one way or another Garry."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Cindy, I don't want to fight you…"

"I don't wanna fight you either."

Garry's arm started inflating until the chocolate shell broke off. He held his hand out towards her. "I can't go back yet Cindy. I can't tell you why, but I need you to trust me-"

"Trust you? That's funny." She said pulling out her other pistol. "I'm not just going to let you walk away. Not without knowing why."

"I can't say."

She looked furious. "You jerk! Why is it that you never want anyone to help you?" She shouted at him. "Do you think that you're protecting us? That by leaving us behind and out of the loop we'll be safe? Well you're wrong! We're even worst off because we're spending all the time worrying about you! You're telling me to trust you? Why don't you trust us?"

Garry looked taken aback. He stared at her with a guilty look on his face. "You're… you're right." He said simply. "I've realized I'm not able to do everything on my own. In fact, I figure I'm pretty weak. I need your help."

Cindy looked surprised. Garry was admitting he was wrong? That was something that was extremely rare. Usually even if he did admit he was wrong, he found a sly indirect way of saying it. But to outright admit he was wrong, was almost weird.

The other figures seemed surprised as well. Not because he was admitting he was wrong, but because he was even considering letting this girl join them. "So… you're going to tell me what's going on?"

Garry sighed and then looked towards one of the figures, the one who'd almost attacked her earlier. He then turned back to Cindy. "Not right now. Just know that something big is happening. When it does I'll need you and Sydney's help."

Before Cindy could ask what, the figure vanished. Cindy turned around and aimed her pistol at where she assumed he was going to appear. She suddenly felt a finger poke her back, and a shock run through her body. She fell to the ground unable to move.

She was on the ground twitching, his body glitching every few seconds. Garry walked towards her and kneeled down next to her. "Forgive me Cindy, I swear I'm not leaving you out. It's just… right now, the less people that know, the better."

Cindy was slowly starting to lose consciousness. "When you wake up, tell Sydney to start getting ready. There's going to be a battle for the whole arcade soon enough, and we need to be prepared." He stood back up and began walking off, the other two figures following.

Cindy slowly reached out towards him, but then blacked out.

"Cindy! Cindy!"

Cindy's eyes shot open and she looked around panicking. "Garry!" She kept looking around hoping to find him, but was greeted with the sight of her brother instead. "Sydney! Where did he go? Here was right here!" She looked out of the cave and saw daylight. "No!"

Sydney grabbed her shoulders. "Cindy, calm down. What happened?"

"He was here! He was here with two other people, I don't know who they were!"

"Wait, are you sure you weren't just-"

She grabbed his arm and glared at him. "Sydney…"

He looked in her eyes for a few seconds and then grew a serious look on his face. "I believe you." He said standing up.

Cindy stood up as well. "He said we needed to get ready. He said something was coming and it would decide the fate of the arcade." She explained. "He said he was going to need our help. He even admitted he was wrong Sydney. Like blatantly and outright said he was wrong."

Sydney looked surprised. "This… this is serious."

"No doi." She said as she began walking towards the exit of the cage. "Let's get started."

A/N: So, there it is. Another short one, but there you go. I wanted at least one story where they found Garry for a while, and gave more foreshadowing for the sequel. Garry will get his own story, but the figures won't be revealed until the sequel. So if you want to find out who they are, you'll have to read the sequel! The sequel is unequal! Lol.

The next person up is Dough, since I'm saving Garry for last. Anyway, have a good one!