Felix decided to take a stroll around the apartments in the perpetual night that was their game. He explored the edges of their land only to find three familiar ghosts hovering around a discarded brick pile. As he approached them one looked up and noticed him. "Felix!"

"Well hi there Pinky!" He waved and nodded. "Blinky, Inky. What brings you all here tonight?"

Pinky spoke through the 8-bit tears in her big eyes. "Felix, we can't find Ralph! We've looked everywhere! Clyde got mad at us for putting him in 'journey' mode without checking our facts and now we can't find him! How are we going to fix his code?!"

"Slow down, calm down. breathe. That's it." He patted her head with his repair glove. "Now what's going on? You're looking for who?"

Blinky nudged his sister. "Dummy! Of course he doesn't know who we're talking about, we're still in the 'journey' reality!"

"Ah! What are we going to do then? Clyde's going to get really mad, even more mad than before! What if he tells him?"

Inky ignored his siblings' bickering and floated over to Felix. "This may be hard to believe, but there is another character in your game. A very important character."

Felix blinked, "An…important character? Like a co-op partner?"

"No. A villain, a bad-guy."

"But he wasn't a badguy! It was just his job!"

Inky sighed. "Yeah, and he was feeling a bit down about his role so we tried to show him how much he's needed."

"This kind of thing tends to make characters' lives brighter around Christmas." Blinky explained, "…The only problem was that we didn't realize Ralph already learned his lesson."

"And now he's gone." Felix guessed. The ghost answering him with a nod.

"Oh Felix," Pinky sighed, "You have no idea what it was like for poor Ralph. He slept in the garbage and all the nicelanders hated him."

"O-Oh is that so?" Felix looked down. "How did…How did I treat him?"

The three ghosts looked at each other in thought. "The same way you treat everyone I guess. Although you did ask him to be your best man."

"Best man?"

"Eh? You're not married in this reality?"

"M-Married?!" Felix immediately blushed. "How different is the 'Ralph reality' from this one?"

"That won't matter much if we don't find him and fix all of this!" Blinky exclaimed. "Oh where could he have gone?"

Felix adjusted his cap and stood up straight, a look of determination on his face. "Leave it to me fellas. I can fix it!"

Ralph and Vanellope stepped back as King Candy climbed out of the car to greet them. They kept retreating until their backs hit the invisible wall. Ralph defensively put his arm in front of Vanellope to shield her and she instinctively held on to it. The sudden physical contact caused Ralph to look up in surprise.

"I-I'm not a ghost anymore?" He asked feeling his chest for confirmation.

"N~ope!" King Candy answered knowingly.

"What did you do? Mess around with Sugar Rush's code?" Ralph demanded angrily.

"You seem to know some interestingthings." King Candy mused as he pointed his cane at Ralph. "So who are you? Some rogue thurge protector or thomething?"

Ralph smacked the cane away as he moved forward. "There's a lot of things I know Candy, but first tell me what you did to me or I can promise you it won't end well for you."

"Big words, from a glitch." He smirked causing Ralph to scoot Vanellope behind him. "Got any proof in that puddin' hmm?"

It was Ralph's turn to smirk, "Lets just say I know how much you love to race, your 'majesty'." He said with air quotes. "I also know how to reset the code to normal. So congratulations King Candybalism, by making me 'real' you just screwed up your grand scheme here big time."

Vanellope tugged on Ralph's pants. "Ralph I'm not sure this is a good id-"

King Candy glared at Ralph, but then mirrored his smirk. "Oh? You do do you? Are you so sure resetting the code is such a good idea now that you're a part of it?"

Ralph froze, "What do you mean?"

"Oh thure, bring the game back to default, fix all these problems you claim exist, but are you so thure you'll come out unscathed?" He laughed, "I've taken your ghost data Mr…" He looked him over, "…Buffalo-hog-guy, and introduced it to the main program. As the newest addition to Sugar Rush's data not even you could survive a game-wide purge so soon."

"You're lying."

He shrugged. "Care to test your theory? Since you know me so well and all."

Ralph was about to charge at him until he felt Vanellope trying to pull him back. "Ralph! Don't!"

"Well? Go ahead." King Candy stood still and gestured to himself, unarmed. "Continue with your plan."

"Oh we will." Ralph then grabbed Vanellope and made a run for the Royal Racer.

"Ralph! What-what are you doing?!"

"Just trust me!" He yelled as he slid her into the driver's seat and climbed onto the trunk of the kart."

Vanellope rolled her eyes. "This isn't much of a plan genius! You forgot to factor in one thing, I can't drive."

"I told you to trust me didn't I?" He argued back as he started propelling the kart forward with his hands. The two of them rolled down the rainbow bridge in a flash leaving King Candy in the dust.

"Well." He said in bemusement. "It's about time I got a new kart anyway."

Felix walked through Game Central Station with three colorful ghosts in tow. "You guys don't have any leads to where he might have gone?"

The three of them shook their heads in unison.

Felix sighed, "Maybe we should find Clyde…"

"No!" Pinky protested. "We can't tell him we lost Ralph on top of all this! For sure he's going to report us to the big boss!"

Inky looked up at Felix, "Maybe you can find him with your 'connection', he is your counterpart after all. Or at least he's supposed to be."

"My…what? I don't know you guys…"

"We deal with showing characters their connections with everyone every Christmas as well as stop Pacman from devouring all the dots in a level!" Blinky exclaimed. "I'm pretty sure we know a thing or two about connections."

"Well umm…" Felix hesitated as he inched away. "I guess I just don't have as much experience with character connections as you guys d-oof!" He ended up tripping over someone in his confusion.

"Hey! Watch where you're going next time Shortstack!"

"I'm sorry! So sorry ma'am!" Felix quickly got up and did his best to assist the person he bumped into despite the other person's resistance to his aid.

"Just don't let it happen again Peewee." She answered as she got up. "Had a rough day in-game I don't need clumsy repairmen on top of that."

Felix failed to answer as he was awestruck by the lady's appearance. His vision was clouded with misty sparkles and angelic singing in the air. "J-Jimmy-jamminy…"

The soldier was confused at the reaction and tried her best to ignore the scene and go on her way.

Felix held his hand out ready to go after her, but he stopped.

"Felix?"

"No, I can't. Not while we still have a job to do."

"But Felix…"

"It's our duty to fix this-this whatever this is. I can't just sit still while someone I…think…I care about could be in trouble."

"We have no leads though, we're going in blind."

"Maybe not." A certain soldier, still within earshot of the conversation, turned back to them. "It's all a matter of psyche. Why did the person you're looking for run off in the first place?"

"Umm…" Felix turned back to the ghosts, "You said that he was tired of being under-appreciated right?"

"Uhh…?" They answered in chorus.

"Well then, he'd most likely head to the last place he felt like he was appreciated."

Felix's eye sparkled as he jumped up in excitement. "That seems like a good place to start!" He then came back down, "…Where would that be exactly?"

"Oh oh oh!" Pinky bounced up and down, "Sugar Rush! That's the place that you all-! Well…lets just say that's where a lot of stuff happened."

"Great!" Felix pumped his fist in the air. "Let's get going!"

"*Ahem*" The soldier cleared her throat as she activated her hoverboard. "Climb aboard."

Felix looked up at her carefully, "You…want to help us?" He asked with a hopeful grin.

"You rag-tag bunch would give a Major a migraine. The soldier in me just can't let you all go off with the supervision that's gotten you this far. I don't want your code on my hands."

"Well umm…if you went with us and something were to happen, wouldn't our code be on your hands by default?"

She pulled down his hat teasingly. "When I'm in charge soldier, code doesn't leak for no reason."

Felix fixed his hat and stood to attention. "Yes ma'am!"

"You coming or not?"

"Y-Yes ma'am!" He scrambled onto the hoverboard with the three ghosts following him. "Thank you ma'am!" He smiled. "By the way, we haven't had our proper introductions yet. My name is Fix-it Felix jrrrrr-AAGGHHHH!" He yelled as she started zooming through game central station.

"Sergeant Calhoun!" She yelled in reply.

"Calhoun~ That's a pretty naaaa~me!" Felix tried to respond and keep his balance on the board at the same time.

Calhoun rolled her eyes at the remark, but gave a small smile when she thought no one was looking.

Pinky giggled at the scene while Blinky just shook his head at her antics.

Ralph pedaled the kart all the way to the main track. "Wait, what do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to push you through the finish line and fix the code! We can get rid of Turbo and make you a princess or a president, whatever you want to be!"

Vanellope panicked and looked down, slamming her foot down hard on the brake pedal mere yards from the finish line. The kart jolted suddenly causing Ralph to nearly lose his balance.

"Kid? What was that for?"

Vanellope hopped out of the kart, rubbing her arm. "R-Ralph, I have something I gotta tell ya."

"Can't it wait kid? We're almost there!"

"W-W-Well I-I…" She hesitated and shook her head. "Didn't you hear what King Candy said about the code Ralph? Aren't you scared you might get…purged?"

"I don't believe anything that two-faced not-so-goodbar has to say."

"But what if it's true? You'd take that risk?" She looked at the ground, her voice barely a whisper. "…Just for me?"

Ralph looked down for a moment then lifted up her chin with his finger. "Hey, don't worry about me. No matter what they throw at us, I promise we're going to get through it."

Vanellope couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze. "Ralph, the truth is, I-"

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE STICKY FINGERS!" The commanding voice of King Candy called out as he and his guards were rapidly approaching.

"C'mon kid it's now or never!" He pulled Vanellope's arm, but she wouldn't budge. "Let's go kid! Kid?"

King Candy and his cronies arrived at the scene and stopped just short at the sight of them.

"Vanellope! We have to go! NOW!"

"Ralph…" Vanellope's eyes starting filling up with tears. "…I'm sorry." She said as a sudden jolt of electricity hit Ralph in the back causing him to shake and collapse to the ground. The source of the attack coming from the small gun Vanellope held in her trembling hands.

The last thing he saw before he passed out was King Candy proudly putting his arm around Vanellope as she looked away in shame.

Ralph regained consciousness in a dark room. He tried to move his arms, but realized they were tightly chained wall to wall along with the rest of his body. He struggled some more until the door opened allowing light to pour into the room. Ralph looked at the walls, he was met with clownish faces and childish reprimands causing him to sigh in annoyance.

"I see the prisoner is awake." King Candy giggled, the bells on his shoes jingling along. "Welcome Buffalo-hog to my fu-"

"Yeah, yeah funegon. Fun dungeon. I get it."

King Candy pouted, "The introduction is my favorite part!"

"Can it Caramel Cream." Ralph growled, "What did you do to Vanellope?"

King Candy gasped in mock horror at the accusation thrown at him. "Why nothing Vagrant! What Vanellope did was for the safety of her kingdom and was one-hundred percent her decision."

"Liar!"

"Don't believe me?" He stepped to the side revealing a downtrodden Vanellope behind him. "Ask her yourself."

"Kid! Are you ok?"

"…Yeah."

"Did he do something to you? Threaten you? I swear when I bust out of here-!"

"Ralph! …He didn't tell me to do anything. Everything I did was my own choice."

Ralph's eyes widened. "Kid… Vanellope… Why?"

"H-He said he'd let me race. Not with the others or in an official race, but I'd at least get to drive a real kart and-and-!" She bit her lip realizing how frivolous her rewards seemed at the moment.

Ralph panted in disbelief, "So you…" He swallowed, realizing the full irony of his next words. "…You sold me out?"

"It's not like that!" Vanellope protested, "King Candy explained to me why I can't be in a real race, why I can't cross that finish line. I can't put Sugar Rush in danger Ralph."

"He's lying to you kid! It's all just a lie!"

She shook her head, "I can't even take the risk Ralph! Not if it means endangering the game! Or you! Don't you get it? This is the only way to make sure we all stay safe."

Ralph looked down, refusing to face her.

"I was just…trying to help you. …I'm sorry Ralph." She turned around and ran from the funegon."

"Tsk, tsk. putting such a burden on a young child."

"Shut it." Ralph snarled, his eyes practically glowing red. "You know all the things you said to her were a lie."

"And how can you be so sure?"

"Because I was there. Turbo."

King Candy paused, then turned to him with a simple frown of disapproval. "Well, it seems you do know some interesting things after all." He then whipped out his cane and jabbed the handle into Ralph's neck, holding up his head. "It is quite funny however, that despite all this knowledge you possess, the first character you run to is my spy."

"Spy?!" Was all Ralph could sputter out.

"She was a resourceful little glitch. Evading us time and time again, even managing to build her own kart after we were sure we had barricaded the baking factory. She didn't get too far with that, but then I realized why not work those traits of hers for my own benefit?"

"You're a psychopath!" Ralph exclaimed as he re-attempted to free himself from his chains.

"Why thank you." King Candy gave a quick bow, his eyes glowing yellow. "Now enjoy your stay; there's lots more information I can't wait to hear from you."

Ralph just roared as King Candy slammed the iron dungeon door shut.

King Candy prepared to leave the dungeon cells when he noticed Vanellope sitting on the stairs that led to the exit. "Something wrong Vanellope?"

"Nothing…"

"You're not having second thoughts about capturing that brutish barbarian are you?"

"No! I mean-"

"What you did was for his own good as well you know. He clearly had some screws loose in the head aha!"

"He didn't seem bad, I think he really cared about me."

"Vanellope, characters like that say anything will get you to trust them. I mean you? A princess? What an imagination!"

Vanellope failed to answer.

"I salvaged his ghost data as best as I could, it may seem cruel now, but I assure you it was for his benefit. It's hard to make tough decisions like this, aren't you glad you're not a princess or president or whatever he claimed?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe some day we'll find a way to…rehabilitate him, but for now I advise you to stay away. He has quite the temper on him and his code is still unstable, I don't want you getting hurt."

"Uh…uh-huh."

"That's a good glitch." He patted her head roughly and went on his way.

Vanellope followed suit, leaving the castle, and soon breaking into a sprint until the palace was out of sight. She found a lone candy cane tree in the middle of a swamp and climbed it. Once she reached one of the highest branches she pulled out a star-shaped sugar cookie lightly covered with yellow icing that she had found earlier that day, before she ran into Ralph.

"I made a Christmas wish on you; for you to send me a guardian angel. It wasn't Ralph was it?" She held the star up, "Of course not, wishes don't come true. This is stupid!" She was about to throw the star away when she suddenly saw a black hoverboard zoom through the air only to make an abrupt landing on a nearby hill. She quickly jumped down the tree and gave chase.

"Oh…my…land…" Felix gasped, "This game is huge! How are we going to find him?!"

Calhoun immediately began scouting the area while the three Pacman ghosts tried to regain their bearings.

"Looks like we're just going to have to find some friendlies and drill the information out of them."

Felix flinched, "U-Umm…surely we won't have to go to such extremes will we?"

"Of course not." Felix and the ghosts breathed a sigh of relief. "It all depends on the locals' willingness to say what we want them to say."

The three ghosts blinked into 'vulnerable mode' at the mention of Calhoun's methods. Pinky was first to blink out. "W-Wait, I'm not so sure the characters here may have seen him."

Felix thought for a second, "Oh right! Ralph's still in 'ghost' mode right?"

"Ralph?" Vanellope accidentally blurted out alerting the group of her presence. "Uh-oh…" She immediately ran off only for Calhoun to give chase and quickly capture her by the hood. "Looks like we have a little spy here."

"Let me go! Let me go!" She struggled as Calhoun dragged her back to the group.

"Perhaps this place isn't the sugary coated gumdrop paradise it seems to be."

"N-Now Miss Calhoun, ma'am. Maybe she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She's just a child after all."

"Yeah!" Vanellope argued, "I'm just your run-of-the-mill kid! Heh." She smiled nervously.

"Oh I'll be the judge of that." Calhoun remarked, putting her down. "What were you doing behind the rocks there kid?"

"U-Uh um…just playing. Curiosity, you know how it is."

"I know it kills cats."

"Well, good thing I'm not a cat I guess!"

"You can honestly tell me you're not a spy?"

Her eyes darted left, "Yup!"

"Well that's all I need to hear." Calhoun turned away as Vanellope reached into her pocket then immediately whipped around again her own gun ready.

Vanellope dropped the taser as she shielded her face. "Aaaah! Don't shoot!"

Calhoun smiled in victory, "I like kids. As easy to read as a picture-heavy magazine."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Vanellope whimpered. "Y-Y-You're looking for a guy called Ralph right? I know where he is!"

"Well," Calhoun grinned, putting her gun away. "That was easy."

Felix and the ghosts trembled at the sight, all of them just as frightened as Vanellope.

Ralph just sighed in the darkness of the fungeon, shaking his head at everything that's happened so far.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" A voice whispered knocking Ralph out of his gloom. Vanellope then started unlocking his chains.

Ralph let the heavy metal slide off of him as he stretched out his arms. Vanellope backflipped in front of him after she finished unlocking the last one. "Look Ralph…" She kept her back to him. "I'm sorry for everything. I wasn't sure if I could trust you because… I've never trusted anybody before. But everything you've done so far has been for my sake, and…I at least owe you for that. I know you can't forgive me after all this but-"

Her eyes went wide as Ralph gently knocked the top of her head with his knuckles. He grinned, "Who's the stinkbrain now?"

She continued to look at him in surprise, but then gave him a knowing grin when let his words sink in. "Ok! The coast is clear!" She called out behind him.

Felix then shimmied in through the crawlspace Vanellope opened, followed by the three ghosts and Calhoun, who Felix helped up. Ralph stared on in surprise then looked down at Vanellope. "You…Did you call them for help?"

"No, they came for you on their own. Just in time to help me break you out of here."

"Really?"

"Well, she did need some persuasion that we were on your side." Calhoun commented as she readied her gun.

"What!?"

"It's ok, it's ok Ralph. I deserved it."

Before Ralph could say anything else Felix approached. "Sooo~" He whistled. "You're supposed to be from my game. Err…ourgame. It's nice to finally meet you Ralph!" He held out his hand. "I'm Fix-it Felix Jr."

"Well, err…" He scratched the back of his head. "This is kind of weird, but nice to meet you too Felix." He said as he reached out his hand only for the smaller man to pull him into a hug.

"We're…friends right?"

"Y-Yeah…?"

"The way I'm treated in Niceland is the same way you're treated isn't it?"

Ralph looked down, "Well, not anymore. But yes, that was how they treated me."

"…I'm sorry."

Ralph patted his back. "Don't be. It's not your fault." He smiled. "You used to be the only one that actually treated me with some respect. Besides, I don't know how you endure any of it; if you're anything like my Felix you'd be too nice."

"Nothing they say isn't true."

"That doesn't mean they should say it! Felix, you're the hero of the game! That doesn't mean you have to cater to their every demand and carry the whole game on your shoulders. Your job doesn't make you who you are."

Felix's lip trembled as he blinked back tears. "It's…it's really ok?"

"Hey, the game isn't going to fall apart just because you don't fix Gene's pipes for a night. Let him worry about his own issues for once."

Felix gave a small chuckle. "He does have a lot of issues."

"Right? Right!"

"Ralph, thank you." Felix gave him a calm smile. "For the things you said, and…" He looked to the side. "For being there, in your reality. The other me probably doesn't realize how much he needs you, so for his sake I'll say it. Thank you for being there for me Ralph."

"Oh brother, are we done with the love fest in here or what?" Vanellope complained. "We don't have much time you know!"

Calhoun cocked her gun as she went to watch the door while the ghosts went up to Ralph. "We were so worried about you Ralph! And we're so sorry about all of this!" Pinky cried.

"How are you interacting with everyone?!" Inky asked in a panic. "That's not supposed to happen!"

"I don't know!" Ralph argued, "Turbo did something-"

"TURBO?!" Felix gasped in surprise.

"It's a long story," Ralph answered, understanding the confusion. "Can you guys just fix me now?"

"I d-don't know if we can! Blinky!" Inky called his brother to attention. The red ghost started spinning rapidly around Ralph.

Ralph shut his eyes tight hoping that something would happen, but when he opened them he was still in the Sugar Rush fungeon.

"Again!" Inky commanded as Blinky spun around the demolition man even faster. Eventually all three ghosts started spinning around him until they were dizzy and fading in and out of 'vulnerable' mode.

"It's no use!" Pinky complained. "What are we going to do?!"

Ralph adopted a look of determination on his face as he touched the back wall of the fungeon. "I'M GONNA WRECK IT!" He yelled as he easily punched through the thick stone. He looked down at Vanellope. "C'mon, we have a finish line to cross!"

Ralph and Vanellope were driving in the Royal Racer while Calhoun, Felix, and the ghosts kept up with her hoverboard.

"Let's keep this short and simple kid, just cross that finish line and everything will be the way it should be."

"Got it!"

"Do you now?" Came a voice from beside them was was too close for comfort.

Ralph and Vanellope looked through the candy cane trees to see a kart rapidly heading at them. It had just made contact with the ground as some quick-thinking on Vanellope's part made her swerve the kart away.

Ralph just blinked as he saw King Candy's new kart, it was similar to Vanellope's, his Vanellope's, beloved kart. The mismatch of candy and confections, except this time the unnatural combination looked methodical and more threatening.

"You like?" King Candy asked as he rammed into his old kart, almost causing Ralph to lose his balance. "Made it myself."

"You mean hacked it yourself!" Ralph protested as he swung their kart into King Candy's, it barely left a scratch. "Uh-oh…" He turned to call for help, "CALHOUN! FELIX!" As he got a better view of what was behind him he saw they were busy fighting off King Candy's army.

"You're on your own for now Wrecker!" She answered as she swung her gun into a devil dog.

King Candy took advantage of their distraction and rammed into their kart with full force. The kart started to slow down.

"No nonono!" Vanellope protested as she pressed on the gas pedal harder.

"FELIX!" Ralph yelled, "Throw me your hammer!"

The repairman threw his signature item at Ralph without a moment's hesitation. Ralph caught it mid-turn as they lost the others in the gumdrop hills. "Ok…ok…what does he say? I'm gonna fix-No no…"

"Ralph! Hurry!" Vanellope reprimanded as she tried to keep their kart on the road.

"Ok! Ok!" Ralph stuck a Felix pose. "I can fix it!" He declared as he brought the hammer down full force on the kart. Instantly the dents and damages healed and the kart was automatically brought back up to full speed.

"Yahoo-hoo-hoo~!" Vanellope said joyfully as they caught up with King Candy. They began tailing him as the draft he was cutting allowed them to catch up. The face he made as they were neck and neck was priceless causing Ralph and Vanellope to shoot him some cocky glares of their own.

"You…you…" King Candy started fuming, "YOU GLITCHES! THINK YOU CAN CATCH UP WITH ME?!" He started putting all he had into the kart, but Ralph and Vanellope were determined to keep riding his tail.

Suddenly King Candy slammed on the brakes and pulled behind them. Ralph and Vanellope looked at each other in surprise. "Whu…?" It was then that King Candy rammed into the back of their kart causing Ralph to fall back onto his kart.

"Ahh!" Ralph yelled as King Candy revved his motor, pushing his kart in deeper. Ralph tried to stop him by swinging his arms, but it was difficult for him to keep his balance at the same time. Eventually Ralph grabbed his collar as he tried to push himself up.

"LET GO YOU BOO REJECT!"

Ralph refused to let go as he sat up, just now noticing the fractured bits of code coming from both him and the King. King Candy tried to fight him off, but Ralph gave one final shove revealing his true identity. He glared at the newly revealed character "Turbo."

Before Turbo could answer Calhoun's hoverboard flew out and slammed into the side of his kart, pushing him aside. Ralph blinked in surprise until he remembered the task at hand. "Now's our chance kid!"

"Right!" She answered, just as the finish line appeared in sight.

"You're going to die Ralph!" Turbo shouted as Calhoun and Felix grabbed ahold of him. "The second she crosses that finish line you'll be just as finished ahahaha!"

Vanellope slammed on the breaks right before they could touch the checkered line.

"Kid?"

"I'm sorry Ralph, I can't do it. It's not worth it if I might lose you!"

"We don't know if he's right."

"I still can't take the risk." She said sadly, turning around to hug Ralph. "I'm sorry."

He returned the hug. "I'm sorry too kid." He replied as he stepped out of the kart, then turned around to push it across the finish line.

Vanellope suddenly looked up, "RALPH!" She protested as she started floating up surrounded by sparkles. "W-What's going on?"

As Vanellope started her transformation, Ralph noticed his own body pixelating and distorting.

"What do you know, he actually was telling the truth this time…"

Ralph opened his eyes and saw a misty world of nothing. "Hello?"

His voice echoed.

"Is this purge-atory or something?"

"Wakka."

Ralph snapped to attention. "Hello, is someone there? Hello!"

"WakkaWakka."

He looked around and saw nothing. "Where am I?"

"Wakka?"

"That's not an answer!"

Some of the haze cleared to reveal a round, yellow figure.

"PACMAN?!" Ralph shouted in surprise, "What are you doing here!?"

"Wak, wak."

"…That's not an answer."

"Wakka."

"Wait." The pieces started to come together in Ralph's mind. "You're the ghosts boss aren't you? You sent them to do this to me didn't you?!"

"Wakka."

Ralph glared, "Say something understandable!"

Pacman then glowed and transformed into his modern incarnation.

"AAH!" Ralph shielded his eyes.

"You're the one who wanted to talk."

"…Fine." He lowered his arm slowly, "I can't get used to your new form, it gives me the willies."

Pacman shrugged. "So why are you here?"

"That's what I should be asking you!"

"Actually, I don't have to be here at all."

"Then why are you here?"

"You have to figure it out."

Ralph groaned, "Have you been hanging around that Flynn guy doing zen or something? I could never understand you guys!"

"I believe you blamed everything that happened on a 'paperwork error'?"

Ralph's eyes widened, "You don't mean you did this on purpose did you?!"

"You stole my cherries before."

"JUST FOR THAT!?"

"I take my cherries very seriously you know."

"Ooh, you!" Ralph growled as he tried to punch the anthropomorphic ball only for his fist to go straight through him. "Huh?" He tried punching him a couple more times causing Pacman to cross his arms in annoyance. "I'm a ghost again?"

"It's better than being purged isn't it?

"But how?"

Pacman grinned as he pointed to Ralph's pocket, "You never returned Felix's hammer did you?" Ralph pulled out said hammer as Pacman continued talking. "You sure are a lucky one Ralph."

"So what happens now?"

"You're the one with the hammer, you tell me."

Ralph thought for a moment. "Well, I do have to return it. Plus if I don't go back Pinky and Vanellope probably won't stop crying."

"That's true."

"Ralph clutched the hammer tightly. "One more thing Pacman," He turned to him, "Will you PLEASE go back to your original form?"

There was a puff of smoke. "Wakka?"

"Thank you." Ralph sighed as he hit himself with the hammer.

"I was joking about the cherries by the way."

"Wait wha-?"

Vanellope and the ghosts were sobbing on the ground where Ralph was as Calhoun looked stoic and Felix held his hat in his hand.

"He was…truly a hero, wasn't he?" Felix said softly.

"Not really." Calhoun answered, "He was an idiot."

The ground started flashing as Ralph re-materialized.

"RALPH!" Pinky exclaimed excitedly. "You're not dead!"

Blinky nudged her, "That's not what you say when someone comes back to life!"

Ralph sat up slowly, "Hey guys."

Vanellope, Felix, and Calhoun looked around. "Ralph? Where? Is he here?"

Ralph stared at them in their confusion. "I…I'm in ghost mode again aren't I?"

"Looks like it." Inky said sadly.

"On the bright side, we can fix everything now! Isn't that great?"

"Hold on, hold on!" Vanellope interrupted, "Don't we get a say in any of this?"

"Why? It's not like any of you are going to remember-Ow!" This time Pinky got to nudge Blinky.

Vanellope walked up to the space the ghosts were talking to. She tried touching the space, but nothing happened. She wasn't a glitch anymore, they both weren't; yet for some reason that made her kind of sad. "Ralph…It looks like you were right, I really am a Princess! And Sugar Rush really is going to be alright, but…but…" She started hitting the air. "Don't you ever do that again Ralph! We really thought we had lost you." She reached into her pocket and smiled, relieved that it was still there. She pulled out a yellow, star-shaped sugar cookie and left it at the ground for him. "Thanks for everything Persimmon-Pickel. I'm really going to miss you."

Ralph tried to pick up the cookie but it kept going through him. He could only smile at her.

Felix was next to step up. Once Ralph saw him he remembered that he still had his hammer and signaled Inky to give it to him. "Tell Felix that his hammer saved me. In the end he's still the true hero." Ralph joked.

Inky repeated the message to Felix, causing the man to clutch his hammer and start tearing up. "I'm happy you're ok Ralph. Thanks again, for everything." He tried to awkwardly pat the air and Ralph smiled at the gesture.

Calhoun was the last to step up. She gave him a simple nod. "A hero does what he has to do no matter what. That said, it was still unfair for you to make the sacrifice play without warning." She glared at the thin air, still managing to scare Ralph. "Next time you want to do something like that I swear I'm going to make you wish you stayed in Purge-atory or whatever you went."

"Y-Yes ma'am." Ralph stuttered even though she couldn't hear him. He whispered to Inky, "When you guys reset everything, none of them will remember any of this will they?"

"They shouldn't."

"G-Great."

"Ready to go back Ralph?" Pinky asked brightly.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"O-k!" They all spun around him causing his world to go dark.

Ralph awoke in a familiar bed, a bed carved from his favorite stump in his home. He quickly checked his face and body. "I'm back!" He then felt the wall, "And I'm not a ghost!"

He stepped outside and realized it was quiet, the residents of Niceland still sleeping. He smiled, "It's so good to be home."

Ralph then looked down and noticed a small box on his porch. He picked it up and read the note attached to it.

"Hey Bubble-breath!" Ralph could hear Vanellope's voice as if she was there dictating the note to him. "You were dead asleep when I came by. Don't you know you have to be polite for a President? So anyway, I'm just going to leave this here for you. -Vanellope."

He chuckled as he opened the box and found a familiar yellow-frosted, sugar cookie star inside. However, it was a little different from the one he had seen before. There was some text scribbled on it and he held it up closer to read it.

"You don't need to have wings to be an angel."

He smiled, wiping a tear from his eye. He then found a note under the present.

"And if you tell anyone I said this I'm going to kick you in the knee."

Ralph continued to smile as he closed the box and looked up at the night sky. "Merry Christmas guys."