Chapters getting shroter... Well, but I was a little depressed while writing this so it's not a real surprise.
I don't own Wrek-It Ralph. Happy reading
Chapter 4: Voices and Shadows
As she got really presented to everyone, Candice felt herself opening up a bit, smiling not just for education, saying more than the polite "Nice to meet you" she usually used and even laughing a little bit. She's even let go of her brother's hand and let him wander around by himself.
She would blame the candy filled air, or her memories being all bugged. But no, she wasn't so careless, she did register faces and specially voices, trying to figure out the mystery from early. She did ask a few more questions about a few characters to Cloud, just to be sure, and greeted them with distant reverences instead the usual shaking hands.
And as the party went on, she found herself leaning against an wall, a cup of hot chocolate in hands and singing to herself a soft song.
So is it how happiness feels like? The question crossed her mind as the music went on. It's funny I'm here singing about memories when I have none... And mine don't seems to be so happy as this song. And that strange feeling, a spark, a slight energy, pulsing in the music's rythm. It didn't feel bad like last times she now could remember... Playng Hero's Duty, them Sugar Rush... The electricity around...
She let out a startled yelp when, opening her eyes, she saw her cup floating. The connection fell, as did the cup, spilling chocolate on her, but mostly the girl near.
"Hey!" The girl shouted a little angrily.
"Sorry." Candice muttered. But she didn't feel exactly sorry. She was mostly worried with herself and things getting off hand. She extended a hand and summoned a random song, making the chocolate evapore off the two. "Did you see it?"
Taffyta rolled her eyes at the girl. It was obvious she'd seen. That power was scary, it wasn't a Sugar Rush thing, no matter how the girl did look.
"Who 'really' are you?" She asked, crossing her arms. She wouldn't take the risk.
"What?!" Candice blinked, confuse.
"You aren't from Sugar Rush, not with this power. Where did you came from? Who are you?"
"Believe me, I don't know what you're talking about." Te redhead opted for lying. "I'm Candice Candy, I'm from this game. I don't know why this powers, but I don't see anything wrong as soon as I figure how to control them."
"Well, we'll see it. And waht way better than a race?"
"It's a chalenge?" Candice raised an eyebow, before leting out a loud laugh. "You don't know what you're up for, Shortcake. But no, I think I'll pass." She did a dismissive gesture and began to walk away.
"Oh, the newbie is afraid to lose." The blonde girl provoked.
"No. I'm afraid on making you look ridiculous in front of everyone on my first day." Candice snaped back.
The other racers begun to gather around to observe the fight, mostly snickered at the comment.
"Yeah, said the girl who prefers to walk around and lose a party than driving."
"How I go around is not of your business. I haven't to prove anything to you. But if you want to get humiliated, I can provide it."
"You've got attitude, Cotton Candy, but if you really want to survive here, you have to start talking less and show what you're really capable on the track. Unless you don't know how to drive. Or do you think that your singing wil be anough around here? "
The redhead was getting angry. Yes, Tafyta was right, she didn't belong to that place, but so what? It wasn't like hse was trying to cause destruction or anything like that.
Unfortunatelly, the memories started coming back slowly.
It probably had been whe she was four or five years old, when they discovered her strange reaction to music. She was happy, impressed, but it wasn't exactly the reaction of her colleagues.
"What are you?" The words sounded rougher than frightened, as she thought they should.
"You don't belong here, you freak!"
"You are a danger to us!"
Although she tried to argue, tried to explain, it was futile until she got real furious with them. It had been her first fight and she lost it, what just did them pick up even more on her.
And although it wasn't quite the same scene, it was going the same patch, to the same end of outcasting. And was just it. She really didn't know how to drive, she wasn't going to pass the shame of losing. Or worse, they would be sure she didn't belong to that game, again she would be rejected, that if she weren't arrested for attack attempt or something like that. She wasn't going to let that happen. Her hand closed around the handle of her spear and she withdrew it.
Don't do that. Her conscience seemed to alert.
Just one little joke! Another part of her seemed to respond. I have the power, why can't I show it? They will no longer try to mess with me when they see what I can do.
This will only make them more suspicious. The first part answer.
I won't let my old life be repeated here.
"Cool down, Taffyta." Candice turned to her seriously. "My music is capable of much more than doing things float." The music wasn't necessarily chosen, but this time it went out voluntarily, she knew the magic and knew what she wanted. Part of her was still trying to stop, but it was a very small force compared to the anger the inconvenient memories brought her.
She pulled a little piece of cotton candy from her jacket. The tip of her spear flashed, reacting to the music, the cotton candy turned into a cloud, it started raining chocolate and to pursue Taffyta.
"What are you doing?" the girl shouted at her, trying to take cover. The others around were confuse if they should laugh, try to help or be afraid.
Candice had forgotten a detail that conveniently hadn't returned: she wasn't known to control what she was doing. If she had to describe the feeling, it was like being trapped behind a glass wall, watching the scene.
The glow at the tip of the spear went from blue to black, the cloud began to grow, glitch and threaten sending lightning everywhere, giving up on pursuing only Taffyta to cover all the room. Everyone started running, scared, Vanellope tried to talk to her, but Candice couldn't even listen, let alone respond, as if some conscious force did control her body.
The force spread like ice, freezing many characters, the guards came in as they heard the screams, Ralph, Felix and Calhoun tried to cross the busy crowd, but it was Cloud whoreached his sister first.
"Clar!" He called, wondering where the name came from, but no matter. He held her wrist which was holding the spear feeling a strange power to touch her, but the moment he did, the brightness of the spear flashed and faded, the whole mess, ice, cloud, rain, became an energy wave that turned against the girl, wrapping her in pure electricity.
Candice cried, the energy burned like fire and all her strange seemed to be drained. Cloud also felt some of the impact through contact, but the energy seemed to avoid him mostly.
Finally the girl gave way, the spear fell to the ground and the girl droped to her kness, only half conscious of the movement around her.
She felt her body being lifted from the ground, heard shouts, but couldn't distinguish them with her ears ringing like that. She felt a severe headache and collapsed into a chair. Now realized the lower voices, but without understanding them. One seemed close enough to be talking to her, and it's gentle but scared tone probably instructed her to drink from the cup that hung out of focus in front of her.
No, you fool, it's poison. her mind protested.
But this time she ignored it and let the misteryous person give her the drink. It was just chocolate, but her strength seemed to come back a little.
"She'll be fine?" A voice asked. Still the girl couldn't distinguish them, but could understand them now, while the faces of her brother, Vanellope and her trio of friends began to come into focus.
"That we shall see." Someone protested, the voice seemed angry, which was no surprise considering the mess.
"She needs to rest!" That last voice sounded closer, then it should belong to Cloud.
Cloud ... His touch seemed to break the wall between her and the force that caused the mess. Was it still there? Watching, locked just as she had felt minutes ago? Was that force just her anger? It seemed to have full control of her memories to be just that, it knew how to use them against her to manipulate her mind.
For a moment everything spun, losing focus again, so she felt it all back with a violent jerk, blinked and coughed for a moment, and all she found strength to do was cross her arms on the table in front of her and rest her forehead against them.
"Clar, are you okay?" Her brother asked.
It was the second time he called her that. Clar? Was it the name she had lost?
"No." She muttered. Her strength wasn't enough even to her usual sarcastic answers to an obvious question like that.
"Can you answer some questions?"
"You all want to know what happened? I have no idea. When you find out let me know, just know it was not my fault."
"Clar ..." The boy began again.
"I just want it to go away!" She protested, indulging in pain and fell into tears.
"What?"
"The annoying voices and stupid memories." She said between sobs. "They argue all the time, and memories come and go as they please. They're no good memories and they make me angry, then the voices argue further and leave me a headache, I try to scare them with music, but I lose control! Bad things happen, it's not my fault, but I also can't avoid them from happening!"
The wound on her arm ached, if possible, even more than her head. And Clarion had even forgotten it was there. She had a slight flash of the cat scratching her arm. Why wasn't it gone like the others?
Although she wanted to know what was going on, she was too tired to stay awake for one more second.
-KK- -KK-
James was sitting in a chair beside her and kept one arm around her shoulders. That was disturbing. First the voice in the hall, everyone seemed to listen, now she was hearing voices in her mind and doing frightening spells.
He'd regained some memories when he tried to stop her. The little he knew, his name was James, not Cloud and he'd been in the outside world, but was sent to Sugar Rush for some reason.
"I can't really explain it all." He commented, trying to protect his sister. "When we got here, we did perfectly remember what happened to us, but a few hours later these same memories were gone."
"This explains the damaged memory file." Ralph pointed out.
Vanellope nodded. She was still a little scared by what had happened and was, perhaps the most confue of the group. Perhaps Candice could be dangerous, but the way her brother's presence quickly calmed her down... Maybe she was in trouble and needed help... wold it be worth risking give her a chance?
Cloud thought for a moment. The damaged memory could explain things like the memories appearing and disappearing and the powers out of control, but definitely not the voices and the new memories that he'd got back.
"We heard a strange voice in the corridors, your servant can confirm Prin... I mean, Vanellope. Maybe someone hiding out there who's trying to control Dice or something. So she hears voices..."
"What exactly did the voice say?" Tamora said. She would certainly check this mysterious voice. The boy seemed reliable, totally preoccupied with his sister, a little confused, but not more than that. It could still be a disguise, but it seemed unlikely.
"I think it knew us... How was that?" Cloud thought for a moment, fortunatelly the memory wasn't gone like the others. "Oh, right. And so they woke up. Confuse, even a little bit scared. How did they even got there? They would never know. Were their memories real? They weren't sure. Both knew they were brother and sister, even if they never knew each other and, holding hands, they wished destiny would be merciful and let them borrow a life they knew they diddn't belong to." He cited. But so came the cold whisper, he repeated the words as they came to him. "But they were soon to find out, as the darkness began to spread in the mind, the connection never meant to be make they grow stronger, but truth and lies have to be separated in order to save the hurten heart." What was that? The whisper was like a cold hugh around his body, making the boy shiver and wish his sister was awake.
"...the dark never bothered me anyway." He thought she'd heard the notes of a song before it was gone.
He stood up and looked all around, nervous.
"There is something here!" But there was nothing around, no shadow, no mysterious people. "I mean... I heard a voice too. It don't seems to be the same. It was singing. A little girl, probably." He muttered. "But the first voice was adult."
"Well, if you are telling the truth, boy, we'll find the criminals and end with this mess."
"I wouldn't dare to lie, ma'am. It's more like Dice's way, and even she wouldn't lie over something so serious." Cloud smiled, a little nervous. "And I might ask, Vanellope, if I could take my sister to some other place? We live half away and she needs to rest."
-KK- -KK-
An hour... It should be enough to her at least find out what was going on. But that powers kept disturbing her thoughts. Gamers didn't have magical powers, but still she was sure that little hedhead girl did cause the blackout in Sugar Rush and the light Glitch in Hero's Duty. It couldn't be just a coincidence! There was something missing in that story. Something... Something she knew Ralph and Felix were keeping from her.
They thought she didn't notice the worried stares, but they should know by now she didn't let pass anything. And she would find out what exactly they knew but she didn't.
"So, what's bothering you, short stack? You seems a lot quite today."
"It's nothing, sweetie." He tried to smile at her, but he couldn't hide his nervousness. "It's just... When you said about the singing... Calyssa had the same unusual power, turning music into magic. But it just means nothing..."
"What makes you think so?"
"A virus destroied the game nine years ago, no one survived the problem. But I couldn't help thinking about the unnoficials."
"Now you're making no sense, Fix-It. Who are the unnoficials?"
"They were the first and only children actually born into the Arcade. Everyone thought, by that time, they were the reason behind the virus. Calyssa was the children's mother, so it's just strange two new sets of twins with the same red hair and this same power."
"They can't be the same people." She declared throughfully. "But what the connection between the unnoficials, the gamers and this new Sugar Rush racers? Cloud and Candice could still be the same unnoficials, but it can't explain the gamers."
"The virus... Maybe it's what is causing Candice's magical bursts." Felix nodded. "But nothing could explain how they escaped from Dragon's Hunters. Unless..."
"What?"
"They said by the time Kira escaped and tried to help the children's father, James, to get rid of the virus when it spread to American's Spy. But she couldn't stop the virus, the game was also unplugged and she disappeared a week after. No one ever knew what really did happen."
"So Kira hid the kids, and now they're back, probably the virus too. And maybe this mysterious person following them know about it. Now it all makes sense. Co'mon pint-size, let's find this stalkers!"