"Let's watch her die together, shall we?" the Turbo-King Candy-Cy-Bug thing said and juggled Ralph through his bug legs to force him to face poor Vanellope down below. Ralph was quickly disorientated as he was turned upside down and right side up again and for a moment couldn't get his bearings. As Turbo secured him in place within the confines of his creepy bug legs, Ralph felt the sharp tip of one jab into his stomach. He cringed in pain and tried to pry the leg out of his body, but Turbo only clenched tighter. Ralph cried out, feeling as though he might puke with the pain, and stopped struggling. He knew the wound was deep, feeling his very code shudder and being to ebb from him. But that wasn't important now; what mattered was Vanellope, hundreds of feet below him and about to be eaten by those nasty Cy-Bugs.
"No!" he cried, watching as Calhoun and Felix backed up with Vanellope until the kid couldn't go any further. Ralph watched wide-eyed; it was his fault those Cy-Bugs were here, his fault they had ruined the game, his fault they were going to hurt the only friend he ever had.
"It's game over for both of you," Turbo said with a wicked laugh. Ralph groaned, the wound in his side ebbing away his life and the Cy-Bugs threatening Vanellope's.
"No," Ralph said, turning to look at Turbo, knowing he had nothing else to lose. "Just for me." And with one last feat of strength, he pushed Turbo's many legs off of him, feeling the sharp tip of the leg in Ralph's side rip out of him. And then Ralph was falling.
He knew he would die; it was inevitable now. He spared a thought for Felix and his game and hoped they could forgive him, but Ralph knew this was the right thing to do. So he clasped the medal Vanellope had given him and thrust one massive fist downward toward the mountain, prepared to wreck one last thing.
"I'm bad," he recited as the Diet Cola Mountain rose up to meet him. "And that's good. I'll never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me." Because that's the guy who got to be friends with Vanellope, who got to be the hero for that adorable, dirty-haired kid. With an impact that shook his bones, Ralph landed on the Mentos that formed above the boiling cola inside the mountain. The Mentos collapsed and Ralph fell with them, holding his medal and waiting for the heat of the cola to claim him.
Instead, he was knocked sideways and moved at a remarkable pace. Confused, he looked up to see that he was on the hood of Vanellope's car, zooming down the unfinished track inside the mountain.
"Kid!" he tried to shout, but it came out no stronger than a groan. He had escaped a death through boiling cola, but the wound in his side still ate away at him.
"Don't worry!" she yelled over the sound of the car and the beginnings of the exploding Mentos. "I've got it under control!" She must have glitched through the walls, because next thing Ralph knew he was out in the open air again. But the explosion had caught up with them, strong enough to blast them both away from the car and sent them arching through the air. Before he could even think, Ralph grabbed Vanellope in his hands, encircling her tiny body and holding her protectively against him. He braced for impact and smacked the ground moments later with a jarring thud, not daring to roll in order to keep Vanellope from harm.
"Phew, you really do stink, Ralph," Vanellope said and pushed out of his hands when he couldn't release her on his own. The impact was too much, the hole in his side was too much. It was game over for him, like Turbo said. But at least Vanellope was safe. "Ralph?" he could hear in her voice that she noticed something was wrong with him.
"I'm all right, kid," he lied and struggled to his feet only to collapse back to his knees before he could take a step. The pain was unbearable, growing from the hole in his side and spreading through his body. He could almost feel he code being deleted, being ripped from him.
"No, you're not. C'mon, let's go Ralph," Vanellope said, pulling on his arm. "I can glitch you up to the bridge and those two guys can get you back to your game."
"It won't work kid," he protested. There was too much pain. He was too far gone, it was too late.
"Stop it! You have to try!" she all but screamed. Ralph raised his head to look at Vanellope and saw that there were tears in her eyes. She was crying for him.
"All right," he said and shakily returned to his feet, one hand pressed against the wound in his side that ate away at him. It didn't look like much, but he could feel it slowly destroying him. He didn't know how, but that kid got him all the way up to the bridge, right to the edge of the game. But by the time he got there, he could hardly even keep his eyes open.
"What happened?" he heard Calhoun demand.
"I think King Candy—whoever he was—hurt him. You've got to get him back to his game!"
"No, wait. I can just fix it!" Felix said confidently, holding up his hammer.
"Have you ever 'fixed' a person before?" Calhoun asked, voicing Ralph's question he wasn't able to say.
"Well, no. But it's gotta be the same, doesn't it? It's all just code."
"Well, try it! Quick!" Vanellope shouted impatiently. Ralph grunted as Felix struck the wound with his hammer. The hole in his overalls closed up, but the wound itself didn't.
"His code! It-it must be deleting," Felix moaned.
"What does that mean?" Vanellope demanded.
"It means I can't fix what isn't there. His only chance is to get him back to his game."
Great, Ralph thought bitterly.
"He must weigh a ton. This isn't going to be easy," Calhoun said.
"Hey, listen lady," he tried to say, but he heard it come out as nothing more than an incoherent mumble.
"We've got to try," Felix said and Ralph moaned as the little guy tried to move him.
"All right, on your feet, soldier," Calhoun said and roughly pulled him upwards. Ralph staggered to his feet once more and put his some of his weight on the lady's shoulders. He tried to take most of it on his own, but it wasn't easy. Every step was agony for him, but it was only a short walk to the train and they were on their way towards Grand Central.
He must have blacked out, because next thing he knew Felix and Calhoun were trying to get him up again. Ralph tried, he really did, but there was hardly anything left of him. He felt like a shell of himself, empty and weak.
"I'm sorry, Felix," he said, doing his best to annunciate every word. He needed Felix to know that he didn't mean to ruin the game, didn't want things to end like this.
"No, sir. You're not giving up so easy," Felix said, but Ralph didn't see how they were going to get him across the station and into his own game. If he got back to his own game, he could regenerate no problem, but he was too heavy for anyone to carry him and too weak to try to move himself. It was a new feeling for him, weakness, and he did not like it at all.
"Hang in there, big guy," Calhoun said. "I think your buddy there has a plan." But the words sounded far away, as if Ralf were underwater. The pain wasn't so bad anymore, either. If this was dying, it wasn't such a bad way to go. But the feeling of dozens of hands disturbed his final moments, moving him out of the train and into the air. They're gunna throw me off the building again, he thought dismally, but he knew that couldn't be right. He wasn't even in his game. But as he looked down, he saw that it was indeed the Nicelanders who had him on their shoulders. That's nice, he thought vaguely before the faces of the Nicelanders blurred and then Ralph gave himself up to darkness.
"Ralph?" he heard his name being called from far away and he reached towards it. As he did, he felt himself coming back to himself, though he had not realized he left. "Ralph?" He opened his eyes to find Felix, the Nicelanders, and Calhoun all leaning over him.
"What happened?" he asked and sat up abruptly, making everyone jump back. "Where am I?"
"You're home, brother," Felix said, a grin spread across his face. "You're all right!"
"I—I'm alive?" he asked, and patted himself down, feeling for the hole in his side and finding nothing but his overalls. "I'm alive!" he hollered, hardly daring to believe it. Unable to contain himself, he stood and scooped everyone within reach into a great hug. "I'm alive!" he cried one more time before releasing the group of people he held captive in his embrace. "Thank you everyone! Thank—Vanellope!"
"You've still got fifteen minutes before the arcade opens," Felix said. "Go help her out. But I think you'll need this," Felix held out the medal Vanellope had made him, whole and unharmed. "I held onto it in case it disappeared when you regenerated. It seemed important."
"Thanks, Felix," he said, more grateful than he could express for what Felix though to do.
"I'll go with you, get my ship out of there while I can," Calhoun said. "You comin' with us, Felix?"
"Right you are, my lady. We'll be back in a jiffy, all. Just hang tight," he assured the Nicelanders.
Ralph vaulted off the train to Sugar Rush and raced up the tunnel towards the game's entrance, not wanting to waste another minute away from Vanellope. He spotted her sitting on the bridge, her back pressed against the invisible wall that kept her from leaving the game. And she was crying. It broke his heart to see her like that and sort of surprised him that anyone could care about him enough to cry for him.
"Hey, what are you doing sittin' around, kid? We've got a finish line to cross!" he said as he came up next to her, putting on his best smile.
"Ralph!" she cried and jumped towards him. He caught her easily and embraced her, feeling her tiny hands grasp his shirt in an effort to pull him closer.
"Sorry if I scared you, kid," he said, feeling her little hiccups that came from being so upset.
"Nah, I knew you were just milkin' it, Stinkbrain," she said, sounding much like her normal self as she leaned back to look at him. He knew she was lying, but her smile assured him that she was all right.
"C'mon," he said, lifting her so she could sit up on his shoulder. "Let's go find that car of yours so you can finally cross that finish line."
"Yeah! Let's go, Ralph! Hustle up!" she cried and Ralph obligingly jogged down the bridge, helpless to stop the grin that spread across his face.