Avoiding the Unavoidable

Oreanna watched as Vanellope finished the race and was renamed princess and declared that everyone who was ever mean to her shall be executed. Then she laughed at the look on Taffyta's face. She would jump in the diet cola just to see that look a second time. She watched Ralph left in some kind of space ship and Vanellope run off with the other racers to get ready for the racing all day.

Vanellope looked around, trying to find Oreanna. For some reason, the memories of her weren't recovered. When Vanellope couldn't find her, she asked the other racers. She went to Candlehead since she was the closest.

"Hey Candlehead." Vanellope called to her. "Do you know where Oreanna is?" Candlehead jumped a bit.

"I don't know." she said quickly. She was definitely nervous. "I would ask Taffyta." Vanellope decided against this. Her memory of Taffyta was a bit foggy but she remembered that Taffyta would always get angry when someone bothered her when she prepared for a race. She asked Jubileena next, seeing how she was more acquainted with her than the others. She also grew nervous, it was obvious they were hiding something. One by one, she asked the other racers and she received the same reaction from all of them, even the cold hearted sour bill.

All there was left was Taffyta. Vanellope took a deep breath. "Hey Taffyta." Taffyta turned around, already nervous. She thought that Vanellope was finally going for revenge of fourteen years of abuse. "Would you happen to know where Oreanna is?" Taffyta grew much more nervous.

"No." she said slowly. "Why don't you ask-"

"I did." Vanellope asked. "I asked everyone else and they all directed me to you. I get the idea that you guys are hiding something." Vanellope was about to question further but they heard the arcade open.

"Oh, the arcade is open. Get in your kart before they think the game is broken. We'll continure this conversation never!" Taffyta was happy to find an excuse to get out of that.

"We will continue this conversation after the arcade closes." Vanellope glitched back to her kart. Taffyta tried to forget about it but she kept worrying about what Vanellope would do when she found out that Oreanna was deleted and it affected her racing. She lost almost every race.

(Later that day)

After the races were done, Taffyta saw Vanellope approach. Taffyta quickly walked toward the nearest racer which happened to be Jubileena.

"Hi, Taffyta." Jubileena said. "How did Vanellope take the news?"

"I haven't told her yet." Taffyta answered in a whisper. "Why did you all pin it on me!? Why not Gloyd or Crumbelina?"

"Because they all blame you for the way Vanellope was treated." Taffyta was angry. "I don't. Candlehead doesn't either because we know you believe you had good reason. It was all Turbo's fault."

"Hey Taffyta, Jubileena, what are you guys hiding from me?" Vanellope asked. They jumped.

"We're not hiding anything from you." Jubileena said. "But we don't have time to talk. We are about to go meet up with Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog and Toad from Super Mario Bros to go to a party." Vanellope knew she was lying. Jubileena was the person who taught her to lie effectively.

"Can I come with?" Vanellope asked.

"It's sort of an invite-only party. No one outside the game knows you yet so no one would invite you yet."

"Can't you put in a good word for me?"

"I would. But it's Ryu's birthday and he doesn't exactly trust me since I lie to him a lot. I am the best liar you know."

"What about Taffyta? She's a horrible liar. Ryu would definitely trust her."

"He doesn't like me. I kind of convinced him to not wear shoes when the game was plugged in because it would be cooler and then I threw them in a digital trash can, which we all know that that means it's unrecoverable. Then he stepped on a lego." A shiver ran down their spines. A fate worse than death.

"Okay, I'll just crash the party." Vanellope said nonchalantly. "I am the best at it." Taffyta and Jubileena nodded. The trio walked toward the entrance. When they got there, Taffyta and Jubileena walked straight through but Vanellope was blocked by the glitch shield that almost killed her just that morning. "Come on!" Vanellope banged on the shield as hard as she could. "I'm not a glitch! Let me through!"

Taffyta walked back. "Vanellope," she said. "You still have that glitch in your code. Unless you fix that you still can't leave." Vanellope just sat there.

"Okay. I'll see you when you get back." She looked at Taffyta. "Taffyta, when you get back, I need to talk to you. Head straight to the castle and make sure your back an hour before the arcade opens. You're not getting out of it, understand?" Taffyta nodded and walked away, nervously.

"That was close." Jubileena said. "She definitely knew we were lying. Ryu's birthday isn't until July."

"Actually the shoe story is true."

(Some time later)

Just around two hours until opening, Taffyta and Jubileena were running around the arcade trying to find a place to hide. They ran into every game they could find. They ran into Mario bros and hid in a pipe but a goomba kicked them out. Then they went into Pacman and hid off screen but Pacman said no. They walked through the entire arcade until there was only one game left to hide in: Fix-it Felix Jr.

They didn't find many hiding places but found all the homeless characters in the game. When the Sugar Rushers found them, they tried blending in. Ralph came by and was preparing for a speech.

"I'm sure you are all wondering why I called you here." all of the gameless characters nodded. "Well I've been considering this all day. I've talked this over with Felix and Gene earlier and they've agreed that, if you wish to, you could stay here in the game." There were a few gasps and happy murmurs here and there. Taffyta and Jubileena were equally shocked, although not as happy since it didn't involve them entirely. They still acted happy so as to not stand out. All the homeless characters, now Fix-it Felix Jr. residents, started to walk around the game aimlessly. Taffyta and Jubileena were about to sneak away and hide. "Hey cavities." They stopped and looked at him. He had his arms crossed. "I am almost completely certain that you two aren't homeless."

"Maybe not technically." Taffyta said. "But we can't go home right now. We're trying to keep the others from finding us."

"Why?"Ralph asked.

"We're assuming that when we're not back in an hour, Vanellope will send someone to find us." Jubileena said.

"Why are you hiding from her?" Ralph asked.

"We'll tell you." Taffyta said. "But you have to promise that no matter what this will not get back to Vanellope." Ralph nodded and they told him the whole story, including the kart that they all built together, Vanellope taking Oreanna's place in a race, Oreanna being deleted, and keeping Vanellope from entering a race to protect the game.

"Of course, you realize that King Candy is a lying whiny baby who used to be named Turbo." They nodded. Without warning, Ralph picked the pair of racers up who then struggled. "I promised that I wouldn't tell anyone that would end in Vanellope finding out. I didn't say that I wouldn't hand you over." And with that, he took the train out of the game.

(in Sugar Rush)

Ralph was just walking carefully through the delicate Sugar Rush castle with the struggling Sugar Rushers in hand. Just as he was walking into the throne room, he heard Vanellope talking.

"Gloyd and Rancis, go get Taffyta and Jubileena and bring them here." she ordered.

"Let me save you some time." Ralph said, throwing Taffyta and Jubileena on the ground in front of him. "They were trying to hide from you guys in my game. I gotta take off now. The arcade's almost open and I got a full day of happily wrecking a building ahead of me." He walked away without another word. Vanellope glared at the racers in front of her.

"Gloyd, go get the oreo guards." Gloyd ran out the room and a few oreo guards wielding spears walked in. "Now, you two will explain exactly what you are hiding and why."

"And what if we don't?" Taffyta asked. Jubileena covered Taffyta's mouth immediately.

"I hadn't thought of that." Vanellope said as she thought about it. "I will tie ropes to both of you and throw you in nesquik sand. Then when you hit the bottom, I will pull you out and dunk you back in, each time, the weight of the sand will crush you." They thought of how bad the pain would be and immediately spilled the complete story. "She's gone?" The Sugar Rushers nodded. "For good?" Another nod. Vanellope fell to her knees and started to cry.

(in the Grid)

"Well, you have one condition left." Pix said, appearing by Oreanna's bed. "When she thinks of it, you'll have around a week there. Meaning less than a day here."

"I remember quite a bit about Vanellope." Oreanna said. "She is a quick learner. You saw so yourself when she learned to control the glitch over a year faster than you thought was possible. When she finds the code room, she could learn to write codes faster than she should. But she's not creative enough to think of designing me a new body on her own. Someone would have to suggest it." Pix nodded.

"Happy dreams. I have something to do." He flipped the panel that he was on and went to the White Grid. Oreanna spawned some French fries and turned on the television. She didn't get to watch much before a dream took over.