Author Notes: My sincere apologies because Turbo is actually not in this chapter...it's a short one with Ralph and Vanellope and a lil' bit of the twins.

If you didn't get the memo on Tumblr, I've started an askblog for Turbo and the twins that is based on the very beginning of the fic. It suggests that they just end up hiding out with Turbo indefinitely and none of these later events happen. I liked the interactions and I wanted to keep writing them as this plot progresses, so the Tumblr username is "ask-ktb-and-the-twins" and thanks to havesome-candy who let me know I can't post links in here, because I do not know these things.

I am very sick today and I can't judge this chapter very well. Next one has Turbs in it, I promise. Thanks, as always!

Chapter Nine - Warning

When Vanellope returned to check on Turbo and the twins, she found the three of them curled up asleep together against the far wall. It was a strange sight, the two boys looking so peaceful and content as they leaned back against their cybug companion. She noticed, immediately, of course, that they had cut the candy cane stilt from Turbo's neck. For a moment she thought to be angry, but the emotion faded quickly. It was just as well, she thought. To be perfectly honest, she didn't like that the guards had done that, even if it was necessary to assure he didn't bite his way free of the other bonds. It seemed cruel somehow, and it made her uncomfortable.

In spite of his legs pinned against him, Turbo had still managed to curl somewhat around the two boys snuggled up together at his side. The twins, for their part, seemed peaceful and content, each one holding to Turbo as though the cybug body was as commonplace as anything.

Vanellope left the room quietly, nodding to the guard at the door, now an older gentleman with a mustache and a mellow expression, and headed for her own chambers, her hands in the pockets of her hoodie, her eyes on the floor.

Her first reaction had been nothing short of shock. Even now, she was still trying to wrap her mind around the idea that King Ca—that Turbo, was really still around, and a cybug no less. Turbo didn't belong in Sugar Rush, wasn't a part of Sugar Rush, how could he have regenerated here? Sour Bill had done his best to convey to her what King Candy had done in the code vault, but the whole thing was so over her head, she'd given up trying to make sense of it. After all, it didn't really matter how he'd done it, all that mattered was that Turbo had made himself part of the game somehow. And that was a big problem.

She bit her lip lightly. She was angry, furious really. She hated him, for everything he'd done to her, and to Sugar Rush. But she didn't know what to do. After years of being at his mercy, he was suddenly at hers. The dynamic was unfamiliar and it didn't feel right. A part of her wanted him to suffer, wanted him to know all the pain he'd put her through, but a bigger part wanted to figure out how to make everything just go back to the way it was, with Sugar Rush finally becoming a safe and welcome place for her. She had thought the game was finally going to get a chance to be the way it was supposed to be, and now here he was, back again where he didn't belong...and the twins' involvement didn't help matters any.

She looked up suddenly when she realized she was at her bedchamber. Ralph stood at the door, waiting.

"You're making some dangerous decisions here, kid."

She looked up at him. He stood there with his large arms crossed over his even larger chest, his mouth turned down in a serious frown. "Scare the guards off, did ya?" She waved a hand at him as he pushed open the door himself and let her step past into her chambers, rolling her shoulders back and her eyes with them. "Presidents have to make dangerous decisions, okay?"

Ralph lowered his brows, letting the door close behind him as he thumped along after her. "He shouldn't be in the palace."

"Well there's no where else to put him right now. Ted crashed his car into the Fungeon wall earlier."

"Speaking of which," Ralph continued, his voice low, "You really shouldn't trust those two."

"Ralph!" she pouted, turning toward him as she sat on the edge of her cotton-candy bed.

"I'm serious, kid!" He stepped up to her and knelt down as he reached her bedside, looking her in the eyes. "Those two are the only other characters left from Turbo Time. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt as much as the next guy, but there's a lot of complicated stuff involved here."

Vanellope looked at him square in the eye, sighing with mild discouragement. "I know they're lying." Ralph raised his brows. Vanellope gestured anxiously. "When Ms. Calhoun found out I was inviting them to stay here, she gave me a couple of...um...'bugs', little microphone things, to put in their helmets. I didn't want to do it, I like them! But...well, she insisted. So, I did it anyway, I just never turned them on!" She sighed again and glanced aside, looking disappointed and a bit hurt. "Until today. After we brought Turbo in...Sour Bill was listening. He's heard everything they've said since they joined Turbo this afternoon. And the thing is...they definitely had been meeting with him before this, and the whole 'reporting Turbo to me' thing was the twins' plan to get him into the palace. They're after something, but we're still not sure it is..."

Ralph extended his hands emphatically. "I told you!"

Vanellope's eyes grew and she raised a finger quickly and reached forward to press it against his nose. "You have to keep this a secret, okay?"

Confusion crossed Ralph's face as he shook his head. "W-what?"

Vanellope sighed again and tilted her head to the side. "I'm not throwing them out, okay? And I'm not just gonna lock Turbo up and forget about him. Even when Felix does fix the Fungeon, which I kind of suspected the twins had destroyed on purpose anyway. The thing is, I'm really curious about what they're up to, okay?"

Ralph reached forward and clutched one of Vanellope's wildly gesturing hands in his first. She looked at him seriously as he spoke. "What he's up to is either getting back his power here or getting his revenge, and neither one is gonna end well for you, okay? You need to put a stop to this."

"Ralph," Vanellope said gently, "this is my game. And I know what I'm doing."

Ralph squeezed her hand gently before he released it, letting his fist thunk to the floor. "Vanellope..."

"They're all that's left, Ralph," she murmured. "You said it yourself. They're all that's left of their game. Turbo is all the twins have, and they're all he's got. For all these years, they've thought they were the only ones, and now they're finally back together. I'm not gonna take that away from them, not unless I'm sure. Don't get me wrong, Ralph, I'm mad." She glanced aside, squeezing her fisted hands against her knees. "And I'm hurt that they would lie to me. But...I like the twins, and I'd like to have them be a part of this game. I'm not convinced they'd actually do anything, you know, bad to help him."

Ralph let his head tip to the side. "Kid..."

"Ralph," she said, looking back in his eyes. "I know what it's like, okay? I know what it's like to spend your whole life wanting to do nothing more than race, and not be allowed to. Racing's in their codes just as much as it's in mine. And just like me, the twins never did anything to deserve being banned from racing. And we've all got Turbo to blame for that, but, you know what I mean." She tilted her head a little to match Ralph's angle. "I just want to be sure before I do anything drastic, okay? I know how they feel...and if Turbo's using them or tricking them or forcing them into helping him or something, I just...don't want them to suffer any more because of him. They've been hurt enough."

Ralph knew there was nothing he could do or say that would convince Vanellope otherwise. Still, he was frustrated at the child's naivety dealing with a villain whose transformation he had witnessed first hand. He still had memories of Turbo, of a young angry racer with an obsessive streak, ranting and raving and stalking down that path that would someday lead him to what the arcade understood only as madness. If only Vanellope had some of those memories, maybe she would understand the risk, the danger. But she only had a King who had lied and cheated and lost his mind in the heat of the moment. She had no concept of the villain who had corrupted himself over years of hate and obsession.

"Just be careful, kid," he said gently. "And don't hesitate to call."

She smirked at him faintly, reaching forward again to poke him in the nose. "You know you're the first one I'd call, Stinkbrain."

Ralph stayed in Sugar Rush until morning, standing at Vanellope's door in place of her usual guards. When he finally had to leave, it was reluctantly and with a heartful of worry. He stepped out of Vanellope's chambers and moved quickly down the hall, heading straight for the front doors of the palace with his long, even strides. Then, just as he was crossing a main intersection of the hall, he noticed the twins heading his way from the outer wing where Turbo was being kept, one of them yawning and the other examining the hall's architecture with a curious eye. Ralph, for one, could never quite tell the two of them apart.

Ralph knew he should keep going, should ignore them and hurry on home to Fix It Felix, Jr., but he couldn't seem to control himself from barking out, "Hey! You two!"

The twins looked up in unison, blinking at Ralph with their bright yellow eyes. He had encountered the two before in Game Central Station (it would have been impossible not to after all these years), and infrequently in other games, but like most characters in the arcade, he for the most part steered clear of them in light of their association with Turbo. Even looking at them now, their grey skin and yellow eyes gave him the faint unnerving feeling he got when he thought of his final confrontation with the king-faced cybug as Sugar Rush was all but devoured around him.

Ralph stepped up to them heavily, shaking the palace with his monstrous steps. The twins didn't move back from him as he approached, but they did move closer in to one another, becoming a unit, even if they still paled in size next to the wrecker. "What do you want?" Ted muttered anxiously.

Ralph frowned down at the two of them. How anyone could ever tell them apart, he couldn't imagine. Looking down on them, he just saw two sets of yellow eyes set into dark shadows, identical in every respect except that one was faintly more defensive than the other. "Just delivering a warning, okay?" He clenched his giant fists, towering over them. "This isn't your game, alright? And it isn't Turbo's either. And just in case you ever forget that, I'm letting you know I've got my eye on the three of you."

Ted stared up at Ralph, his heart pounding. He grasped his brother's hand and squeezed it tightly. "What are you saying? We were invited to Sugar Rush, we're not here trying to take it over." Ted stepped slightly in front of his brother, puffing out his chest. "And you may hate us for actually caring about an old friend of ours, but-!"

"Old friend?" Ralph scoffed a little, shrugging his huge shoulders. "In case you forgot, that 'old friend' of yours got your game unplugged."

The twins were silent. Ted stared hard up at Ralph, his eyes cold. Ned lowered his gaze and glanced aside. Knowing he had overstepped the line, Ralph cleared his throat softly, and muttered an apology under his breath.

Ted took a breath and let it out hotly. "We haven't forgotten," he said, his anger reigned. "But Turbo was still a part of that game and that makes him a part of our family. No matter what he's done, he'll always be that. We're not just going to abandon him here."

Ralph was silent, keeping Ted's cold gaze, when Ned spoke up softly, his eyes still on the floor. "Felix came for you when he thought you'd gone Turbo, didn't he? Even if you really had, I'll bet he'd still have come for you..."

Ralph looked at the other twin and frowned quietly, then he sighed and the harshness faded from his eyes. He shifted his weight in discomfort and nodded in reluctant admittance. "You're probably right about that..."

"We're looking out for Turbo," Ted said, his voice firm. "Maybe if we'd've been there for him back then, we could have prevented a lot of things that happened in this arcade. But we weren't. We're not gonna make that same mistake again. Turbo is family, and we're looking out for him, no matter the cost."

Ralph regarded the two of them seriously, but his countenance had softened. He nodded solemnly. "I can't argue with that... But I've still got my eye on you, hear me? You might have an obligation to Turbo, but I've got one to that kid Vanellope. And if I think anything you're doing could hurt her in any way, you know I'm stepping in to stop it."

Ted and Ned nodded in perfect unison. "Understood."

Feeling a bit awkward now, and realizing he was running quite a bit late, Ralph excused himself from the two of them and rushed off, now at a heavy-stepped jog, out of the palace. The twins watched him go before relaxing slightly, still clutching hands in between them. After a moment, they glanced at one another and spoke softly, "We've gotta find the code vault." Ned nodded, and they hurried off into the palace.