Chapter 11: In Which Sorceress Teaches How to Perform an Evil Laugh

The fizzing and bubbling of superheated cola was the only sound inside the hollow mountain. At the edge of the pool, Vanellope stood with her mouth hanging open in speechless disbelief, gaping at Sorceress with huge, astounded eyes. Sorceress gazed back at her, red eyes unblinking and no sign of emotion on her pale blue face. Ralph's eyes darted nervously between the girl and woman, wondering when and how the uncomfortable staring contest would end.

Then, out of nowhere, Vanellope burst out in a fit of raucous nasal laughter that resounded off the cavern walls. She slapped her knee and doubled over, clutching her stomach and shaking all over. Unable to stand up, she slumped back against Ralph's huge arm for support and sank to the ground, kicking her little feet up and down as she cackled on.

"Ha ha ha! You and Turbo used to date?! That's just… I can't… Ha ha ha ha haaaa!"

Sorceress continued to stare at the girl in silence, now in complete bewilderment. Even now after spending this much time with Vanellope she still didn't understand her at turned her puzzled gaze to Ralph, hoping he could offer some answers. "Did I say something funny?"

Ralph groaned and dropped his face in one of his huge hands, too embarrassed to look Sorceress in the eye. "Her sense of humor's kind of twisted sometimes," he explained. Then he frowned down at the still laughing child leaning against his elbow. "Okay, kid, enough already."

At last Vanellope started to calm down and caught some of her breath. "Sorry, sorry…" she panted between gasps of air. "I just… got this mental picture… of them holding hands… and making goo-goo eyes at each other …" She flung herself into the wrecker's lap and convulsed with a new fit of laughter. "Bah ha ha ha haaaa!"

The mental picture Vanellope just described popped into his head Ralph, causing his stomach drop like a cannon ball sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Sorceress, the woman whom he was now dating and growing increasingly fonder of every day, all lovey-dovey with Turbo, the worst criminal in the history of Litwak's Family Fun Center. He dropped his face in his hand again, wishing he could immediately delete the image from his memory forever.

As Vanellope's laughing tantrum continued, Sorceress continued to sit in bewildered silence. When the girl started to calm down again, she decided it was time to speak. "Pardon me, Miss Vanellope, but I don't understand. I thought you would be more upset about this."

Vanellope lifted her head from her spot in Ralph's lap, too exhausted from her laughing fit to move and trying to catch her breath. This time she was wiping tears from her eyes. "Upset? Why would I be upset? This is huh-larious!"

Sorceress was still confused. "It doesn't bother you at all?"

Vanellope flopped over Ralph's leg on her stomach and put her chin in her hands, kicking her feet idly behind her head. "Well, yeah, it kinda does. But it's not like you knew what Turbo was up to in here, right?"

The blue woman shook her head firmly. "No, I didn't. Like everyone else in the arcade, I thought he put himself Out of Order years ago. If I had known he survived and was hiding out in Sugar Rush, that would be a completely different story."

"See? If there's one thing that guy was good at besides racing, it was lying. He was such a good liar that he had everybody in the arcade fooled, even me!"

"Yes, Turbo was always good at that. He could make anyone believe anything."

"Tell me about it," Vanellope agreed. "Even Ralphie here couldn't figure out what he was up to. Then again, he's not the brightest crayon in the box."

She waited for him to respond to her teasing with a grumpy retort, but nothing happened. Confused, Vanellope looked up to see Ralph staring off into the distance with an unreadable expression on his face. He was lost in his own world.

Frowning, Vanellope stood up in his lap and waved a hand in front of his face. "Yoo hoo! Earth to Stink Brain! Anybody home?"

Ralph blinked a few times and shook himself as if waking from an unpleasant dream. "Huh? Oh, sorry, I guess I zoned out."

The girl put her hands on her hips and pouted. "Didn't you hear anything me an' Sorceress were talking about?"

"Yeah, I heard some of it, but I'm still having a hard time believing all this." He looked at Sorceress, bushy brown eyebrows arched in confusion. "You and Turbo were really a couple?"

Sorceress rubbed one of her temples and sighed. "Yes... Truthfully, I'm surprised you didn't know about that already."

Ralph frowned, still confused. "Why would I know that? I never really talked to you or Turbo back in those days."

"You remember that big tantrum in Game Central that got me banished to my game for three months? The one with the black shadows and green slime everywhere?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I was there, I saw it happen."

"That was because of Turbo."

Vanellope gasped and balled her hands into tiny fists. "Oooh, now you gotta tell us the story!"

Sorceress hesitated. "Well… All right, I suppose I could tell you."

"Yes!" Vanellope cheered. She plopped down in Ralph's lap, snatched up the bag of marshmallows and ripped it open. "Go ahead, toots," she said, stuffing a marshmallow in her mouth. "We're listening!"

Ralph wasn't so eager to hear this story. He remembered the way Sorceress acted the one time he brought up the tantrum incident before. It was one of the first things he remembered about her, but he never knew what the tantrum was about until today. "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, Sorceress."

The woman folded her hands neatly in her lap and sat up straighter, looking very dignified. "I've already told you this much. I may as well tell you everything."

"Turbo and I started dating soon after my game was plugged in. His looks didn't impress me much, but he was very charismatic and I was lonely. Everyone else was too afraid to come near me and Bad Anon didn't exist yet. Our relationship barely lasted a week, however. While Turbo was charming, he was incredibly conceited." She rolled here eyes to the peanut brittle stalactites. "All he wanted to do was brag about how popular he was and how many trophies he won every day. It wasn't long before I got tired of it."

"And then you got mad and threw the slime tantrum?" Vanellope chimed in, her mouth full of chewed up marshmallows.

"No, not yet. First I told Turbo I didn't want to date him anymore, and he threw a fit. I think that might have been the first time anyone ever rejected him. So our conversation quickly escalated into a loud argument, and we were in the middle of Game Central then. Finally he started calling me ungrateful and that I didn't deserve a guy like him, and that there was no one else in the world who would ever care about me because..."

Sorceress paused, fists clenching in her lap.

"Because," she went on. "I was just a Bad Guy, and that's all I would ever be."

Ralph and Vanellope exchanged a serious, knowing look.

"That was when I lost my temper," Sorceress continued. "I threw a full-blown magic tantrum with shadow spirits, putrid green slime, the works. After ruining a good part of the station, I passed out from using up too much power. When I woke up I was back in my game and I was forbidden to leave for three months. By the time I was allowed to go out again, Turbo had already 'gone Turbo' and was presumed to be Out of Order. I was saddened by the tragic loss of Turbo Time and RoadBlasters, but I wasn't all that sorry to hear that Turbo was gone. And that was that."

Her story finished, Sorceress went quiet and waited for her audience to respond. Vanellope, still seated comfortably in Ralph's lap, had listened intently and was now chewing another marshmallow in contemplation. Part of her was disappointed that the story was so short, but considering what she knew of both Sorceress and Turbo it made sense that their history together would be short. He totally deserved a sliming for being a jerk to her, and worse.

As for Ralph, he was glowering out at the hot spring, bushy brows furrowed, teeth grinding against each other, thick fingers digging into the peanut brittle he was sitting on. Turbo was long dead, but he desperately wished he would regenerate right this second so he could punch him in his shriveled little face and knock all the nasty yellow teeth out of his skull. The little monster didn't deserve Sorceress. She was too good for him.

There was an audible crunch as his big fingertips cracked the peanut brittle under him.

Vanellope looked up at him with large, concerned eyes. "You okay, big guy?"

The wrecker sucked in a breath, carefully scooped the tiny child from his lap, placed her on the ground, and stood up. "I gotta go wreck something," he said, clearly fighting to control his temper as his huge, square fists trembled at his sides.

"Okay, you go do that," Vanellope said calmly. She easily recognized the signs that he was on the brink of losing his temper and chose her words carefully. "There's plenty of stuff you can wreck outside the mountain. Me and Sorceress will be here when you get back."

With a grunt, Ralph turned and stalked off toward the mountain's exit, muttering E-rated expletives under his breath and grumbling about what other punishments he wished he could inflict on Turbo if he were still alive.

Vanellope and Sorceress remained silent until the familiar SH-ZOOMP sound signaled that the grumpy wrecker had passed through the secret entrance. Then the young racer exhaled noisily. "That was a close one. For a minute there I thought he was gonna get us all blown up."

"Is he really going to be okay?" Sorceress asked worriedly, eyes fixed on the spot where Ralph had disappeared. "I don't think I've ever seen him that upset before."

The girl nodded and broke off a piece of chocolate from the king size Hershey's bar she'd brought to make S'mores. "He should be fine once he blows off some steam. It's not your fault, y'know."

Sorceress' eyes shifted to the five rectangular dents Ralph's fingers had left in the ground. "No, I suppose it isn't. I just wish there was something I could do for him."

Vanellope took a bite from her chocolate and shrugged. "Trust me, toots. When Ralph's in a bad mood, it's best to steer clear until he calms down."

"All right. I have to say, Miss Vanellope, I'm impressed at how well you're taking all of this."

"Let's just say I get where you're coming from. Not the breaking up, but I've had people tell me stuff like that for years. So I don't blame you one bit for doing what you did." She grinned impishly. "That magic tantrum must've been a real sight to see. I bet that creep was so scared he wet his pants!"

Sorceress chuckled in a somewhat sinister way. "I have to admit, the look on his face was pretty funny."

Vanellope perked up at the sound of her chuckle. "Oh, hey! You still have to teach me how to do an evil laugh!"

"Very well, Miss Vanellope, your lesson in evil laughter begins now."

Overjoyed, Vanellope leapt to her feet and jump up and down, bouncing delightedly around Sorceress' legs. "I'm gonna do an evil laugh! I'm gonna do an evil laugh!"

"All right, dear, pay attention. The first thing you need is good posture. Hold your head high, back straight, feet shoulder width apart, hands on hips." As she spoke, Sorceress demonstrated what to do. The result was a very striking and assertive stance, something Vanellope was eager to try.

The girl did her best to mirror the woman's pose. She raised herself up to her full, minuscule height, which wasn't much higher than Sorceress' knee. Small booted feet spaced apart and pink fists planted on her hips, she looked about as impressive as one might expect from a scruffy nine-year-old girl. "Like this?"

Sorceress nodded, standing in the same pose and looking much grander. "Correct. Now breathe deeply into your stomach… and laugh!"

Vanellope took a deep breath and let out a raspy, nasal cackle that bounced off the walls of the cave. It quickly turned into a noisy coughing fit and she had to stop. "How was that?" she asked, her throat tingling.

The woman frowned critically and shook her head. "No, no, something's not right. There's no belief in your laughter."

"Belief?" the girl echoed, tipping her head to one side and arching a curious eyebrow.

"A truly great evil laugh is more than just a hammy performance." Sorceress knelt on the ground and tapped the girl's forehead with her finger. "Just for a moment, you must believe you're invincible. You are a proud and mighty warrior and nothing can stand in your way. There is nothing you cannot do, no one who can stop you. This time, picture yourself triumphing over your enemies and relishing your victory."

Vanellope closed her eyes. She thought back to the Random Roster Race that day, how she glitched across the finish line at the last second and Taffyta Muttonfudge's look of dismay as she passed. A mischievous grin spread across her face, small chest swelling up with pride. Besides her Taffyta was the best racer in the game, and in the days of King Candy she had been the worst bully. While Vanellope had chosen to forgive her and become friends, it was always immensely satisfying any time she was able to top her.

Seeing the change in the girl's demeanor, Sorceress stood up and stepped back. "Try again.

Vanellope resumed her pose, threw back her head, and let out a hearty, resounding laugh. She poured all her confidence into it, fully believing in that moment that she was the best racer in the world and that everyone should know it. When she finished she felt exhilarated, like she just won a hundred races in a row. She didn't even notice any discomfort in her throat this time as she looked up at Sorceress with sparkly eyes. "How was that?"

Smiling proudly, Sorceress nodded her head in approval. "Much better. You learn well, my student."

"Yes!" Pumping her fists in the air, Vanellope bounced around the woman's legs excitedly. "I did it!" she cheered. "I did it! I did it! I did it!" Then she reached up and caught her by the hand. "Come on, come on! Let's go show Ralph!"

Yanked down and thrown off-balance, Sorceress nearly tripped as the energetic child started pulling her toward the exit. "Wait, wait! I can't go out there without my cloak!"

Vanellope pouted and released her, bobbing up and down impatiently in place as if she desperately needed to use the bathroom. "Okay, go get it and make it snappy! Come on, come on, come ooonn!"

She didn't have long to wait. Sorceress flew to the spot where she left her cloak, put it on, and flew back. The second she returned, Vanellope caught her hand and ran for the exit.

Sorceress couldn't help grinning. Her energy was infectious. "Whoa, slow down!" she laughed as the little girl dragged her along with her, stumbling to keep up with her and finally floating behind her.

Vanellope dashed to the secret entrance, pulling Sorceress behind her like a helium balloon on a string. The instant they passed through the wall and emerged on the other side, however, they stopped in their tracks to gape at a scene of destroyed candy before them. Giant boulder-sized gumdrops lay uprooted and overturned, and delicate lollipop trees lay shattered and strewn across the ground. There were also some gaping holes punched through the hollow truffle foothills.

"Whoa," Vanellope remarked, stepping up to a red upside-down gumdrop three times her size. "Looks like Hurricane Ralph's been tearing it up out here."

Sorceress, wearing her hood over her head, slipped her sunglasses on and glanced around. "I don't see him. Do you think he left?"

Just as they were wondering where he could have gone, there was a loud grunt from the other side of the mountain, followed by a distant splash.

"That way!" Vanellope announced, pointing toward the noise. "Give me a lift, will ya?"

"Of course, dear," Sorceress replied. Scooping the small child up in her arms, she flew to where the sounds were coming from.

Sure enough, Ralph was standing on top of a big chocolate truffle foothill behind Diet Cola Mountain. He was hurling basketball-sized gumdrops out to the Kool Aid Ocean, where they splashed a good mile and a half away, if not further. Each time he flung them farther and farther, as if he were trying to break his own record. Soon, after five gumdrops, Ralph had nothing left to throw. With a tired sigh, he sank down to sit on top of the hill.

"Feel better yet, grumpy guts?"

Startled, he looked up to see Vanellope in the arms of a cloaked Sorceress floating a few feet behind him. He shrank down in his seat an inch or two, realizing that they had probably been watching him behave like a bad-tempered toddler. "Oh, uh… Hi, ladies," he said, grinning uncomfortably. "What's up?"

"We were just wondering the same thing about you," Vanellope said, arms folded and eyebrows quirked.

Sorceress' hood shadowed her face and her sunglasses kept her eyes from view, but it was clear from her tone of voice that she was worried about him. "Are you alright, Ralph?"

His uncomfortable grin faltered and collapsed. He sighed and turned to stare out at the deep turquoise green ocean, puffy pink cotton candy clouds drifting across the sky in the distance. "I'm fine," he said with a listless shrug. "Sorry about the mess down there."

Vanellope and Sorceress exchanged a skeptical look. Both of them were too perceptive to believe Ralph's words. Then Vanellope got an idea. She motioned for Sorceress to set her down on the giant truffle next to Ralph. "Hey, sour puss," Vanellope said, nudging his huge arm with her tiny elbow. "Guess what Sorceress taught me to do."

Ralph's eyes shifted from Vanellope to Sorceress and back again. "What?"

"Check this out!" Vanellope adopted the hands-on-hips pose, threw back her head and performed her sinister laughter.

The noise startled Ralph at first, since he had never heard Vanellope laugh that way before. Then he looked up at Sorceress in mild annoyance. "You had to teach her that, didn't you?"

Sorceress smirked back, hovering around to sit on his other side. "Why not? I think she's quite good at it."

Vanellope giggled and plopped down in the wrecker's lap. "Hey, Ralph, why don't you try? I wanna hear what your evil laugh sounds like!"

Ralph rolled his eyes and shook is head. "Yeah, I don't think so, kid."

"Aww, come on!" the girl whined, rolling over in his lap and kicking her little feet in the air. "It's lots of fun! You gotta try it!"

He was about to protest some more when Sorceress put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't be so stubborn, Mr. Wreck-It," she said firmly. Then she smiled the sweetest of smiles at him. "What's the harm in trying?"

Ralph opened his mouth to refuse but no words came out. It was no use. With both Vanellope and Sorceress ganging up on him, there was no way he could refuse either of them anything. With a defeated groan, he raised his big hands helplessly. "Fine, fine I'll do it! But just this once!"

Both Vanellope and Sorceress let out the same excited squeal and sat back to watch him with anticipation shining in their eyes. Ralph sat up straight and gave a forced, half-hearted chuckle that didn't sound the least bit evil.

Vanellope pouted at him and punched his arm. "Weak! You call that an evil laugh? That was weak sauce! Do it again, weakling!"

"Let me handle this, dear," Sorceress said to the girl. Then she folded her arms and frowned at the wrecker in disapproval. "Ralph, from one Bad Guy to another, that was pathetic."

He sighed and shook his head. "See? This is why I didn't wanna do it."

"You're being stubborn again. Miss Vanellope can do it, and she's a child. Do you really want have gloating over you like this?"

Ralph frowned at her. "This isn't a contest, Sorceress."

"No, she's right." Vanellope chimed in. "You know what's gonna happen now that I can do an evil laugh?" She jabbed a finger at his nose to punctuate her words. "I'm gonna use it - every - chance - I get. And you can't do anything about it because your evil laugh stinks!"

He bristled, his temper starting to flare. "Oh, yeah?"

She raised herself up on her toes and looked him straight in the eye. "Yeah!"

Ralph dropped his face down to hers to glare at her better. "Yeah?!"

Vanellope butted her forehead against his. "Yeah!"

Sorceress clapped her hands together and beamed. Ralph was finally getting emotional enough to make this work. "Yes, yes, good! Now prove her wrong! Channel that fiery passion into your voice!"

Ralph whirled to face her, surprised by how excited she was getting about this. "How am I supposed to do that?"

She placed her hand flat against her belly to demonstrate, digging her thumb and forefinger against the base of her ribs. "Use those prodigious abdominal muscles of yours and belt it out!"

"Go on!" Vanellope added. "Are you a Bad Guy or aren't you?!"

Now fully motivated, Ralph got to his feet and clenched his massive fists at his sides. "I'm a Bad Guy!"

Sorceress flung her arms skyward. "Announce it to the heavens! Make it known to all that you are mighty and to be feared!"

He threw his head up to bellow at the clouds. "Ha ha ha ha!"

"Again!" Vanellope barked, grinning maniacally. "Like you mean it!"

Before he knew it Ralph found himself punching his fists in the air and roaring to the sky and with thunderous, unrestrained laughter. "Ha ha ha ha!"

Then Sorceress and Vanellope's voices joined his and they became a trio of lunatics wildly laughing at nothing, a cacophony of screechy, high-pitched, and hollering noises that would have terrified anyone for miles around.

They kept going until they ran out of breath and all collapsed in a panting heap. As the girls slumped against him for support, Ralph chuckled breathlessly. His anger gone, he realized how silly it was to be angry about Sorceress' past with Turbo. She had ended their short affair twenty-five years ago and now she was here with him. Plus it wasn't like Turbo was coming back to whisk her away any time soon.

He exhaled slowly, finally smiling again. "Thanks, you two. I needed that."

Sorceress grinned back at him, fangs glinting in the sunlight. "You're welcome."

Flopped over Ralph's leg, Vanellope was panting too hard to say anything but "We gotta do this again."

All too soon the time came for Ralph and Sorceress to leave Sugar Rush. Vanellope gave them a ride to the exit on her go-kart. This time Sorceress sat on the spoiler next to Ralph instead of passed out in his lap. The drive was as noisy and bumpy as before but being fully conscious and at peak health made it much more bearable for her. Ralph, meanwhile, was just glad everything had worked out fine in the end and that Vanellope hadn't embarrassed him too horribly today.

Vanellope pulled up to the rainbow bridge and parked, allowing Ralph to step down and help Sorceress off. "So can I expect to see you two at the racetrack again tomorrow?" the girl asked, grinning brightly with her bright pink goggles on.

Sorceress shook her hooded head firmly. "Thank you, Miss Vanellope, but I must politely decline. While I would love to see you race again, I can only take so much sunshine in a week. I hope you aren't offended."

"Not at all, toots. Drop in any time you're up to it." The girl paused to lift the goggles from her eyes. "And please, really, just call me Vanellope. No more 'Miss'."

The woman nodded to her. "As you wish, dear."

Ralph smiled, glad to see the two of them getting along. He raised one giant fist in front of Vanellope's face. "You can count me, kid. I'll be back."

"You'd better," the girl said, bumping her little fist against his. "Whatever plans you make with your new girlfriend, don't forget about me."

He winked at her. "Don't worry, that's never gonna happen."

Grinning, Vanellope tugged her goggles over her eyes. "Well, folks, I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm on the roster and there's a lot to do before the arcade opens!" With those last words, she revved her engine and sped off in a cloud of colorful dust and cackling dramatically as she went.

Ralph and Sorceress waved to her until she was out of sight. Arm in arm they climbed the rainbow bridge and entered the tunnel to Game Central Station. When the train arrived they sat side by side in their own candy boxcar. It was two times larger than the Niceland Express so it was a much more comfortable fit for Ralph to squeeze into.

Once the train was moving through the dark tunnel, Sorceress took off her cloak and sunglasses. "Ahh…" she sighed, brushing her hair back and basking in the shadows. "It feels so good to get out of that awful sunshine."

Ralph fidgeted in his seat next to her. "Yeah, sorry about that. I shouldn't have made you go in there, especially knowing sunshine was bad for you."

She folded the cloak in a neat bundle and held it in her lap. "Don't be silly. You didn't make me do anything. I chose to go to Sugar Rush because I knew it was important to you. And in spite of everything, I really did have fun with you and Vanellope."

He smiled at her. "Good, I'm glad to hear that. Next time we'll all go straight to Diet Cola Mountain and hang out where it's nice and dark."

"Next time?" Sorceress echoed, arching a thin blue eyebrow. "I thought we agreed it was my turn to choose our next dating locale."

Ralph blinked in surprise. Oh yeah, he'd forgotten that conversation. It was her turn to choose. "That's right, I remember now. Did you have something in mind?"

Her reply was instant and enthusiastic. "Let's go to Hero's Duty!"

The wrecker stared at her for moment. "Sorry, I don't think I heard you right. Did you say Hero's Duty?"

She nodded vigorously, eyes sparkling and fangs glinting in the dim light.

Ralph wasn't sure how to answer. His feelings about Hero's Duty were pretty mixed. The first time he went there was one of the most terrifying experiences of his life, and he only agreed to go back for Felix and Calhoun's wedding because it was in a heavily guarded facility. He had never returned since and had no interest in ever doing so. Yet here was Sorceress gazing up at him with stars in her eyes and an adorable if slightly sadistic grin on her face, wanting to go to the most dangerous game in the arcade and waiting for him to reply.

He cleared his throat to speak, doing his best to act cool and nonchalant about this. "Uh, are you sure you don't wanna go somewhere a little less dangerous? Like, I dunno, Fatal Assault? Or Zombie Apocalypse 3?"

"No, I want to go to Hero's Duty." She eyed him skeptically, sensing something off. "Is that a problem?"

Ralph raised his big hands and shook his head. "No, no, no problem! But, uh, are you really sure you want to go there? It's dark, it's dangerous, and there's giant killer bugs that could munch us up the way Pac-Man munches cherries."

"I know, right?" Sorceress clasped her hands and bounced excitedly in her seat. "There's no sun to drain my powers so I'm always at full strength there, and I love giant killer bugs. It's perfect! And Hunter will be so jealous. He got banned from the game for trying to sneak a Cy-Bug carcass out."

Ralph's bushy eyebrow twisted in confusion. "What could Hunter want with a Cy-Bug carcass?"

"He wanted to stuff it and put it on display in the trophy room. "

Yep, that sounded like something Hunter would do. "Well, I hate to disappoint you, but it's probably best if we don't go looking for those things."

"Why not? Hunting Cy-Bugs is the most exciting thing to do there. Back when I dated Corporal Kohut it was our favorite pastime."

The last sentence came as a shock to him. "Wait, you dated Kohut?"

Sorceress didn't notice his reaction and went on talking. "Yes, he was the last person I dated seriously before you. Obviously it didn't work out. So can we go? You're the hero that saved Sugar Rush from Cy-Bugs, right? If anybody can handle himself in Hero's Duty it's you."

Ralph hesitated, trying to come up with some way to get out of this. Sorceress had already made up her mind, though, and it looked like there was no way to talk her out of it. Then again, if she had fought Cy-Bugs before and survived, it might not be so dangerous going to Hero's Duty with her. And he certainly didn't want her to think he was a coward. If Kohut could handle it, why couldn't he?

"Okay, we'll go."

Squealing happily, Sorceress dropped her head on his shoulder and hugged his arm. "Thank you! You're the best!"

The sudden contact caught Ralph off-guard. His heart raced and jumped into his throat as he was reminded of the weird feelings he had when he snatched her up and hugged her down at the raceway earlier that day. While that hug had been an impulsive move on his part as he was caught up in celebrating Vanellope's victory, this time Sorceress was casually initiating contact. She wasn't letting go, and somehow he didn't want her to. She was soft and her hair smelled like cinnamon. Wordlessly, he raised his free hand and placed it over hers, face burning as red as the squares on his flannel shirt.

Sorceress moved one hand to hold one of his fingers and hummed contentedly, making no other move to detach from him. On their date in Fix-It Felix, Jr. Ralph had carried her on his back as he climbed to the top of the building to show her the view. She had enjoyed holding him more than she dared to admit, as well as the surprise hug at the raceway. When they were close like this it was like nothing could hurt her and all was right with the world. He was so much bigger and stronger than her, covered in firm muscle and always smelling like sweat, mud, and grass. It was wonderful.

As the train rattled on through the tunnel, Ralph and Sorceress stayed as they were, arm in arm and huddled close together in their car. Neither of them spoke; there was no need to. The only sound was the repetitive clatter of the train echoing inside the tunnel, interspersed with electric sparks crackling from the copper wiring. If only they could stay here like this just a little longer.

Before they knew it the train pulled into the terminal at Game Central Station. Reluctantly, Sorceress released her hold on Ralph's arm so he could get out of the car. As always he offered his hand to help her off the train. Once she was standing on the platform with him, holding her folded cloak under one arm, he held her longer than usual, studying her hand between his thumb and forefinger. Heat rushed to her cheeks and she wondered what he could be thinking.

After a pregnant pause, he lifted his gaze to meet hers. She wasn't sure, but there was a hint of sadness in his eyes. "Sorceress, I…" He trailed off, unable to complete his sentence.

"Yes, Ralph?" she said, hoping he would finish whatever it was he wanted to say. From all the suspense that was building it must be important.

Another moment of hesitation; then he spoke. "Do you wanna meet me outside Hero's Duty after I watch the kid's race tomorrow, or should I pick you up at your game?"

Sorceress managed to mask her disappointment with an awkward smile. "I'll meet you at Hero's Duty. It's more efficient that way."

"Yeah, good thinking." He broke eye contact and shifted his weight from one bare foot to the other. "So, uh… Can I walk you home?"

"Not this time. The arcade will be opening soon and I don't want to make you late for work."

"Okay. See you later, then?"

She smiled and gave his finger a gentle squeeze. "Yes, see you later."

He smiled back, rubbing her knuckles with his thumb, before finally letting her go.

Sorceress turned and floated toward the exit, hugging her folded cloak to her chest. Ralph stood watching her on the platform, not ready to go home yet. Just as she was about to leave the tunnel she stopped and turned to look at him. There it was, that mysterious sadness again. She couldn't just leave him like that. Not without giving him a proper goodbye.

Moving the cloak under her arm, she flew back to him and stopped just in front of his face. Ralph took a shaky step backward, unnerved by how suddenly she returned and how she was hovering so close that their noses almost bumped. "Uh, w-w-what are you doing?"

He fingers came up to caress his face. "I forgot to give you something."

Without another word, she tilted her head and kissed him on the cheek, the second kiss she gave him since their date in Tapper's days ago. When she pulled away Ralph was gaping at her in complete bewilderment, face quickly flushing bright red to match her lipstick mark.

She patted his clean cheek fondly and chuckled. "Bye, Mr. Wreck-It."

He nodded dumbly, a slow smile spreading across his face.

With that, Sorceress turned and floated out of the tunnel. Ralph stood watching her with the same dopey grin until she was out of sight. Then his fingers rose to touch the lipstick mark and his smile collapsed, eyes downcast and shoulders sagging.

"Bye, Sorceress…" he murmured to himself.

Author's Note: Finally, the end of the Sugar Rush chapters! I apologize again for taking so long to get this thing out, and that it was so slow. In hindsight I wish I hadn't dragged this all out for so long because it feels like it slows the story down a lot, especially since the Hero's Duty chapters are the ones I wanted to write the most. I've had plans for the next part of the story in mind for almost as long as this fanfic has existed, and now I can finally do it! The next chapters should come out much quicker since I've already written lots of material for them.

Also, don't get your hopes up about Turbo appearing any time soon. I have no plans to bring him back to life, and many other writers have already done that better than I could. I tried writing a flashback sequence for this chapter showing what Sorceress' life was like with Turbo, but it stalled the story even more and I just couldn't figure out how to write him. He might get a mention later, but he's going to stay dead. Sorry, Turbo fans! I hope this doesn't discourage you from following my story!