A/N: This is my first WIR fanfic (though I have been RPing for a bit in the fandom). It's not my best specimen of writing, and it's not the longest, but I hope you like it.
It's based off a headcanon by pink-palette-swap on Tumblr (at least, I think it was hers; I don't remember and can't find it). The headcanon is that the reason the recolors aren't in the final scene where the racers get back their memories is because they were unlockable characters who were reset to their locked state when the game reset.
So, yeah. Enjoy.
It was a dark day in Game Central. Hundreds upon hundreds of candy citizens, NPCs, and sugary racers huddled in small groups dispersed throughout the hulking power strip as tons of characters from other games looked on, upset and confused at the commotion that was the station.
The ice queens had gotten together, talking quietly about what they would do when this was all over. The boys were in another corner, switching between sharing their feelings about this sudden event and discussing ways to comfort the scared girls, a segment of conversation headed by Swizz. Other groups of racers and characters convened, some reassuring each other and themselves, others speaking of things like slumber parties and kart parts to get their minds off the tragedy that had unfolded.
The palette swaps had all been separated from each other, so unlike the other racers, they were dealing with the unexpected event in a singular and individual way. Citrusella was just thankful she had found Sticky, for she hadn't seen the girl since before the roster race was scheduled to begin. She learned that Sticky had seen cybugs, something she knew not to be part of the game, gathered near her house. Upon seeing them, she had bolted from the game, fearing that something very bad was happening. It had turned out she was right, for not much later, a mob of Sugar Rushians came out of the outlet—everyone in the game, in fact, save two characters: one the game's ruler and the other a glitch. Sticky related the entire story to Citrusella, and Citrusella followed suit, telling things from her side. When Citrusella was almost done with her story, the two grew quiet as an event at the outlet caught their attention.
The "Do Not Enter" sign—a sign usually reserved only for unpluggings or removals—had finally stopped flashing above the entrance to the game Sugar Rush.
The entire station's breath collectively hitched as the sign then changed to being entirely blank, as if there was nothing plugged into the outlet at all. A couple Sugar Rushians began to cry, afraid that their home was now gone forever.
Most everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the sign slowly flickered back to life with a new message: "Pause for authorization for reentry."
The Sugar Rush racers and all the candy people waited restlessly, anxious to return to their game, as Surge briefly checked over the outlet and cord, teleporting himself shortly to the game end of the cord and coming back in a matter of seconds.
"All clear for reentry. This game is reopened," he said, bored.
The crowd cheered. Candy people began to pour back into the game at alarming speed, racers dispersed among them.
And as they crossed the line from the cord and into the portal of the game, that was when something seemed to have gone haywire.
Sticky and Citrusella were the first in, so they were the first to feel it.
Their bodies began to rise into the air, freezing in place and flashing as they seemed to have somehow collapsed in on themselves, technically speaking.
And as it happened, they screamed in pain. Their pixels felt as if they were being ripped apart bit by bit, polygon by polygon.
They were.
Their bodies and minds were being converted to raw code.
It looked curiously like Vanellope's glitching. They wondered if this was how she felt when it happened.
They hoped it wasn't happening to all the racers, and they were simultaneously relieved and frightened when they saw that it wasn't as the racers ran past them without a second thought, appearing to be headed toward the main track. Sticky and Citrusella were glad nobody else seemed to be experiencing this pain, but they were rather concerned because it was as if the racers couldn't even see them.
Their thoughts turned to terror and their eyes widened as they looked to each other and then down the power line, where they saw Torvald and Nougetsia cross the portal.
They wanted to yell out, to scream "No! Go back," but their voices had been taken, sucked away with their quickly diminishing code. It was too late as the mysterious force took the other two swaps as well.
The girls could only look on each other in horror, hoping that the mysterious force would release them. And when it did, they would have a laugh and gear up for a third roster race, one that would go off without a hitch this time!
But it was very clear that that was not what would happen here. Each of their bodies was losing abilities fast, and it was obvious they would not live to see another roster race anytime soon.
They continued to stare at each other, using their faces and eyes to relay messages they were unable to speak. "I wish I could have stopped you." "I'm sorry." "It's okay." "You're my best friend." "I love you." They stared for a long while, their eyes telling stories when their mouths could no longer, until one by one, each of them had their vision sucked into the depths of their code, blinding them.
They all remained frozen, unseeing, unmoving, and silent, able to feel nothing but pain as their bodies disintegrated and were fed into the belly of the game.
Soon there was nothing left, and the girls had been transported to darkness, to be seen again only when their characters were unlocked.
