Author Notes: Someone mentioned in a comment that it would make sense for them to ask Vanellope for help because Turbo would seem less of a threat in his normal avatar than in the cybug form—this is true, I actually address this at some point, but for the time being, keep in mind that Turbs is still glitching and part of his goal is not only to get his avatar back but to fix his glitch also. And a loose Turbo is more of an issue than a trapped cybug. Also, who wants Turbo messing about with code again?

Anyway, this is another chapter almost entirely new from the original draft. Can people be perfectly honest with me here? Has my writing still seemed strong throughout or has it started to waver? I'm struggling through this section and I'm curious if it shows. I'm trying hard to keep going strong! This chapter is -really- long compared to the others and I apologize for that. I kept having to add to it and it just kept growing, ha. Anyway. People have said some really kind things to me about this story this week and I just want you all to know how very much I appreciate your comments and just the fact that you're reading, even if you don't comment. I'm glad I'm putting something out there that people can enjoy. :)

Chapter 11 - Outbursts

That night, Vanellope allowed the twins to camp out in Turbo's makeshift room. She even offered them blankets and pillows, which the palace guards had piled into the chamber, and the twins had set up into a a fort which Turbo promptly knocked down when they tried to wall him inside it. At Ted's suggestion, the twins had agreed between themselves not to discuss what had come up in their talk with Vanellope, so they dodged Turbo's questions about it and tried their best just to keep him happy.

For the next two days, when arcade hours ended, Vanellope invited the twins to the track as she had been doing and they joined her eagerly, leaving Turbo with an unbearable amount of time spent alone in the palace, locked up and plotting. He was aware that Ralph and Felix had come to Sugar Rush the day after his capture, but he had burrowed himself into the fort of pillows and pretended to be asleep when the glitch brought them by to check on him. He had no mind to deal with with the wrecker ever again, and he was in no mood to have Felix trying to reach out to him with some half-assed speech about friendship and the good old days. He half-expected Vanellope to return later that night with her hoard of guards to move him to the Fungeon, but she never came. When they were finished racing, Ted and Ned returned, and no one mentioned it.

Whenever they were able, the twins continued to check on the vault, and confirmed that the guard was always heavy. But they assured Turbo that his fears about their being found out were unnecessary; Vanellope was treating them with the same friendliness as always and didn't seem suspicious of them at all. And although there were vague rumors of a cybug floating around among the Sugar Rush citizens, no one seemed to know that Turbo himself was hauled up in the palace, hiding away.

"You wrecked our fort again," Ted muttered as he stepped into the room.

Turbo had bunched all of the pillows together into a heaping pile, on top of which he lay curled up and gazing at them lazily as they entered from the hall. "You leave me in here all day with a bunch of ridiculously stacked up pillows and you really think I'm not going to destroy it. You're funny."

Ned stepped up to the pile of pillows with the cybug on top and walked around it quietly. "You made yourself a nest..." He touched Turbo's tail with his fingers as he passed round the cybug's back. Turbo flicked it lightly out of his hand.

"Shut up, Ned," he muttered.

"You are just so fun to come back to at the end of the day," Ted remarked, clasping his hands behind his back and stepping over as well. "Always in such a good mood." He grinned.

Turbo stuck out a striped tongue at him and plopped his chin down on the pillows.

Chuckling, Ned leaned forward and tipped his head on its side. "Grumpy, ain't you?" He reached out a hand and brushed the scuff of grey hair at the side of Turbo's head. Turbo hissed and tilted his head away, but he didn't move otherwise. Ted smirked. "We had a pretty good day, to be honest. Couple of the Sugar Rush racers raced with us and Vanellope and they actually played fair."

"It was fun," Ned said, sitting down on the pillows near Turbo's back, fiddling with his tail still. "Wish you could join."

Turbo scoffed. "Even if I get my avatar back, that is never going to happen. I'd settle just for racing with the two of you...No change in the guards at the vault?"

Ted shrugged faintly and shook his head. "You're gonna have to let us do something to distract them. It doesn't have to be obvious. But it should be soon."

Turbo glanced at Ned with a grim expression. He was still anxious about getting the twins into trouble, but his options were certainly dwindling. "I've had a few ideas, but..." Ted laid his hand against Turbo's forehead and Turbo glanced up at him with a sigh. Then he perked at a slight tug from behind and turned quickly to look at Ned. "Ned, what the hell? Cut it out!"

Ned jumped, looking up at Turbo with a sheepish grin. He had braided the two strands of Turbo's tail together and was holding the braid across his palms. Ted stared at this for a moment before sputtering out a laugh as Turbo's eyes flashed. Desperate to fix the situation, Turbo flicked his tail out of Ned's hands, but the braid held together. "Well thanks a lot, Ned!"

Ned smiled widely and snatched the tail out of the air. With a flicker of a glitch, Turbo glared sharply back at Ted, who was stifling the last of his snickers and smiling at him coolly. "Aw, are we annoying you?"

Turbo reached up a clawed hand to Ted's face and pushed him away. Ted stumbled and fell back with a laugh. "Don't you think there's something weird about all this?" Turbo snapped. "The way the glitch has been acting, the way I'm allowed to be here in this room instead of locked up in the Fungeon? The way you two can be here with me all the time?"

Ted brushed the tears from his eye with his forefinger, pulling his legs up to cross in his lap. He shrugged, smiling. "Vanellope seems like a pretty nice person, I'd think she'd have some hesitations about locking you up, even after what you did..."

Turbo frowned. That much had already occurred to him, but it didn't seem like enough. He was deeply bothered with how open-ended his life had become. It was as though he was in a sort of limbo, not free, nor quite a prisoner. Being treated with more respect than he deserved, and less punishment. He kept waiting for the ax to fall but it never came and he didn't know what to expect in its stead.

Ted, however, seemed quite a bit less concerned. He laughed it off and rocked himself forward, pushing himself up to his feet and looping around Turbo to help Ned unbraid the cybug's tail.

The three settled in the rest of that evening, surprised that they weren't disturbed by any visits from Vanellope or any of the guards. Bored as Turbo got lounging around in the mountain of pillows, the twins had had dozens of games that they played with the fluidity that only twins have, and a particular talent that only twins who have been ostracized and left almost entirely to their own devices develop. They invited Turbo to join them but he was content enough to watch as they ran the gamut of every card game in their repertoire.

It was strange, Turbo thought as the evening wore on, everything was strange. The way Vanellope had refused to tie him back up, the way he was still in the palace although Felix had undoubtedly repaired the Fungeon wall by now. The way the twins were allowed to stay with him, as long as they wanted. It was all very strange...And the more he thought about it, the more he wondered, how long could things go on like this? Surely it wasn't the glitch's plan to just let him loaf around in this room indefinitely? Or maybe it was, he thought tiredly. After all, what could she do with him? What he deserved was to have his code ripped out the way he'd ripped out hers, but she was a child, and a naive one at that. She didn't have it in her, he thought wearily. After all he'd done to her, the brat just didn't have it in her to give him what he deserved...

Or maybe he was wrong, he considered with a yawn. Maybe she was planning something out...or waiting for something...Waiting for the twins...to slip up?...

"Hey, Turbo...hey, wake up...come on, Turbs..."

Turbo opened his eyes with a start, gasping for breath as he was tugged out of the dream that had hold of him. Ted was there just in front of him, his face close, staring at him with concern in his yellow eyes. Still gasping breaths, Turbo scrambled away, shoving pillows out from under him and throwing his gaze around in a bit of a panic, his eyes wide and damp with tears he didn't realize he'd been crying. A few stray glitches ran the length of his body, red static flickering out at the ends. Ted reached out to him with anxious hands, his own voice shaky. "H-hey, it's okay, calm down, you were dreaming."

Turbo floundered momentarily before he stopped suddenly, his body twisted round, armor rising and falling with shallow breaths. After casting his eyes around a bit and realizing Ned wasn't in the room, he looked back at Ted suddenly, almost choking on a sob.

Ted managed a weak smile, although it was a struggle to hold. "Ned went to get somebody, it's okay...Are you alright? You were glitching really badly."

Turbo held his gaze for a moment before he lowered his wide eyes, his face red. "Y-yes, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be fine? Of course I'm fine."

Ted raised his brows as his smile slipped away. Turbo's voice had shifted, the tone raised slightly, the lisp just a bit more pronounced. Biting the inside of his lip, Ted leaned down closer to him and spoke softly. "...King Candy?"

Turbo groaned quietly, trying to rub the tears from his eyes with his claws, though it was like trying to dry his face with with blunt knives. Ted hesitated before he reached across to him, pulling Turbo's claws away from his face and gently rubbing at the tears with his own fingers. Turbo looked at him a bit desperately. Smirking, Ted tipped his head on one side. "Guess Turbo wouldn't want to be caught crying like this, huh? You're okay, calm down...It was just a dream."

Turbo sniffled as he closed an eye, letting Ted rub the tears away from under it. "Did I wake you and Ned up...?"

"Yeah," Ted said, rubbing his knuckle on Turbo's damp cheek. "But it's okay, don't worry about it." Turbo lowered his eyes again, still sniffling. A moment passed before Ted spoke again, softly, trying to keep his voice quiet. "What were you dreaming about...?"

Turbo was silent, gazing across the floor of the room with a weary expression. Ted could tell he was highly uncomfortable, although Turbo's usual embarrassment seemed to be absent so long as King Candy's personality was dominant. He suspected there was probably very little King Candy would be embarrassed about.

"N-nothing," Turbo finally said, biting his lip and flinching as his fangs pricked him, "i-it was nothing at all."

Ted sighed. "So 'nothing' was the reason you were thrashing around and glitching so badly?"

Turbo swallowed, his face red. He glanced at Ted briefly and away again, lowering his eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about..."

Ted stared down at him, breathing out quietly. After a moment, he leaned down and rested the front of his helmet against Turbo's forehead. The king's brown eyes flickered up to him quickly. Turbo hesitated only a moment before he suddenly raised a hand and clamped it around the helmet, hooking his claws under the back. Ted perked but he barely had a chance to move before Turbo tugged the helmet off him in one fluid motion and flung it across the room. "Turbo...!"

Turbo gazed up at him with large eyes as he let his hand drop back to the floor beside him. Ted paused before he smiled faintly, actually letting out a little amused laugh as he shook his head. "You could have just asked me to take my helmet off, geez." He ruffled the curly cropped strands of his dark hair before he took a breath and leaned in again, this time touching his forehead lightly to Turbo's. Turbo let out a breath of a sigh and relaxed a little. They stayed like this a while, silent, just breathing. Ted finally felt his heartbeat slowing down as concern over Turbo began to subside, then with a sudden leap, it started up again as he felt Turbo shiver with another sob.

"What's going to happen to me...?"

Ted leaned back from him a little. "Turbs..."

Turbo closed his eyes tightly, choking back his tears. "I was the king of this game, my subjects loved me! Now I'm...what am I?! If they knew I was still alive they'd want to destroy me...! It's all gone, I can never get it back, thanks to that stupid glitch and that wrecker, I lost this whole game!"

Ted frowned seriously, drawing his shoulders up. "Turbo, this isn't your game, it never was."

"No, but it's his!" Turbo's eyes flickered to Ted. "It's King Candy's, he belongs here, and he's part of me! It was his- no my, my game, it was supposed to be!"

Ted grimaced faintly. "King Candy wasn't supposed to exist, Turbo, you told us that yourself. His code was abandoned before it was finished, this game was never his. Never yours."

Turbo let out a sound like an anxious whimper. "What's going to happen to me, Ted? I-I've been hiding for so long, what now...?"

Ted gazed at Turbo quietly. He leaned back from the cybug, staring down at him, shifting his legs under him. Turbo tilted his head to look up at the twin, his brown eyes surprisingly sincere. And quite a bit shaken.

"Turbo," Ted said gently, "I need to ask you something...I know you don't want to talk about it, but I need to know..."

Turbo grimaced immediately, tugging away from him gently and shifting around, rolling onto his back and pulling his legs in toward his belly. He stared up at the ceiling, his brown eyes dancing as he bit at his lip again. He knew what was coming.

Ted placed his hands on his knees, staring at his old friend. "...why didn't you come back?"

Turbo glanced at him from the corner of his eye, then away again quickly, showing those distinct traits of awkwardness which suited King Candy much more than Turbo himself. "A-after-?"

"After Road Blasters," Ted finished for him, leaning forward. "I have to know, Turbo. Or King Candy, or whoever. You both know the answer and to be honest I think KayCee is probably more likely to admit it than Turbo, so maybe this is the best time to ask."

Turbo almost whimpered under his breath as he glanced at Ted again timidly. "We're the same person, don't tease..."

"Just tell me," Ted said, his voice a bit pleading, "please. All these years, we thought you were dead, we thought you didn't have a choice, but you did. You chose not to come back. You let us get unplugged...I have to know why. I'm not asking you to talk about the game jumping, I'm not asking why you left, I'll let you have all the time you want to explain that to us...all I want to know is why you didn't come back."

Turbo gazed at Ted wearily. His eyes were wet and red again and Ted reached over carefully to rub them for him. Turbo sniffled, closing his eyes and tilting his chin toward the ceiling. "I...was scared." Ted withdrew his hand quietly, listening. "I was terrified," Turbo murmured, "I-I don't know what happened, I knew right away what an idiot I was, that a stupid pointless thing I'd done, that I'd ruined everything, a-and I was afraid, I just...I-I...I didn't want this to happen! What will they do to me?" He tilted his head and opened his eyes, gazing at Ted weakly. "I don't want to be locked up...I don't want to be shut away, I want to race again, I want to race with you and Ned again, they'll take that away from me..."

"Turbs," Ted murmured, reaching out and touching Turbo's forehead, "Vanellope won't do that to you. And nobody would have done that to you back them..."

"Nitrus would have killed me!" he choked. "You know he would have! He'd have gotten the game unplugged himself just to do it!"

"You were afraid of Nitrus...? That's why you hid?"

"It wasn't just him, it was everyone! You know how they are, how they felt about me!" He shut his eyes again suddenly, flexing his claws in toward his palms, trying to withdraw himself inward as much as he could, but he felt the size and the awkwardness of the cybug body more than ever and he just couldn't shrink himself away. "They already thought I was crazy, everyone was afraid of me, they hated me...!"

Ted hesitated, then he let out a breath, shaking his head faintly. "You were a coward."

Turbo choked on a sob. "I still am..."

Ted blinked at Turbo, brushing his thumb on Turbo's forehead gently. "Yeah, you got that right..." He leaned down and rest his forehead against Turbo's again. Turbo shivered with breaths and closed his eyes tightly. "If you had come back, we would have protected you. We would have been mad, but we wouldn't have let anyone hurt you, you know that..."

Turbo whimpered again, nuzzling into Ted's touch lightly. "I'm so sorry..."

Ted smirked faintly, closing his own eyes before they filled with tears. "Are you really...? Thorry?"

Turbo almost laughed at Ted's impression but it immediately dissolved into a sob. "I worried about you two," he murmured, reaching for Ted a little hesitantly. Ted lifted his hand and caught Turbo's claws gently, rubbing his thumb into Turbo's palm although he doubted Turbo could feel it. "I was always...afraid to go into Game Central after I became King Candy, I was afraid of everyone, of everything, b-but sometimes I made the trip, and I looked, I always looked, but I never saw you...I was afraid to ask about you, afraid someone would figure it out, so I just...I gave up trying...I tried to forget you..."

"We used to game jump a lot back then," Ted said softly. "I mean, not...game jumping like you, just...hiding out. Loafing around. Anything to be in a game instead of stuck in Game Central. No one paid much notice to us after a while, so we were never missed..."

Turbo grasped Ted's hand as gently as he could, fearing the use of his own strength. "I missed you two..."

Ted laughed a little, awkwardly, closing his eyes with a tearful grin. "You have no idea how happy that makes me."

Turbo opened his eyes and glanced up at Ted, breathing out shakily. It was hard to take much charge of his thoughts or his emotions in King Candy's persona, he had spent so many years locking everything away, but he knew that a certain aspect of fear had faded from his mind, though in its place another had taken root. He realized for the first time that he utterly could not imagine losing the twins again, that the thought of being without them nearly petrified him, and that that fear went much deeper than King Candy, it was rooted deeply in his code, and it terrified him.

Turbo perked as he felt Ted plant a kiss lightly against his forehead. He blushed quickly and looked up at him with his eyes. Ted squeezed Turbo's claws and leaned his forehead against his friend's again, sighing. "God, I missed you..."

The door opened with a click. Ted lifted his head and looked toward the doorway, smiling as Ned stumbled in, panting slightly as Vanellope followed hurriedly. "T-the guards wouldn't let me in," Ned managed. "Is he okay? Did he stop glitching?"

Ted nodded with a breath of relief. Turbo glanced over at the two for a moment, but a red flickering glitch crossed his face when he saw Vanellope and he turned away quickly, twisting his body round to be back on his side, shifting from his defenseless position to something more aggressive.

Vanellope frowned. She looked from Ted to Turbo and back. "He's alright then?"

"I think he's okay," Ted said, glancing at Turbo. Turbo had placed his chin on the floor, his body arched slightly behind him, and was staring sharply, fixedly at Vanellope. Ted supposed it made sense. The king had more right to hate Vanellope than Turbo did. "It was just a nightmare..."

Vanellope nodded slightly and glanced at Ned, who let out a breath of relief as he looked in at his brothers. He glanced back at her with a guilty smile. "Sorry for waking you...We were scared."

"No, I'm glad you did," Vanellope said softly as she glanced back at Ted and Turbo. Ted couldn't help but notice there was a note of concern in her voice, though what it was aimed at was hard to tell. "Well...if everything's okay, then I'll let you three get back to sleep."

A glitch ran down Turbo's spine and he seemed to be fighting quite hard to keep from shouting something. Ted gave his clawed hand a squeeze, although he doubted if Turbo could feel much of the touch.

Vanellope watched the two of them for a moment with mild suspicion before she looked up at Ned and gave him a nod, raising her brows as she stepped back out into the hall and let the guard shut the door behind her.

Turbo seemed to immediately relax at the click of the latch. Ned approached him quickly, kneeling down next to his brother and smiling. "You're okay, then...?"

"He's more than okay," Ted said, "he's King Candy again."

Turbo's eyes flickered to Ted and back to Ned. "The guards wouldn't let you in to see Vanellope? I've never heard of such a thing, they ought to be reprimanded for that! I mean, look at you, what exactly are you going to do to their precious glitch?!"

Ned blushed faintly at Turbo, smiling as he leaned down closer to him. "I'm glad you're okay, Turbo."

Turbo blinked at him, then blushed a little himself, glancing aside. "Well, yes, I'm fine now...so...no need to worry." He glanced briefly at Ted and back at Ned again. "A-ah, Ned..."

"Tell him what you told me," Ted said gently. Turbo glanced at him and Ted smiled, nodding. "Tell him everything."

Turbo stared at Ted a moment, then he let his breath out slowly, looking back at Ned. "Right, everything..."

Ted and Ned woke early the next morning. In getting up, they accidentally woke a very sleepy Turbo, back to his default personality by now, who hissed at the two of them and made a scene of trying to keep them from getting up by pulling them back in against him with his insect legs. After a bit of struggling, the two of them managed to disengage the cybug and bid him a quiet farewell as they were slipping out. He was rather bitter, but too sleepy to do much about it, warning them to stay out of trouble (although he knew that's just what they were getting themselves into) and sleepily curling himself back up without another thought.

It was at least a couple hours before Turbo was awoken again by a sound in the hall.

The cybug tilted his head as the door opened. Goodbar had apparently been replaced once again, and an older gentleman whom Turbo remembered vaguely leaned into the doorway, holding it open for Vanellope before stepping quietly after her. She faced Turbo with the same cool gaze as always. Unintimidated. Angry, but but not spiteful. He shifted his shoulders slightly, but didn't get up, scuffling his legs into the pile of pillows as he tugged them up under him. "What do you want?"

Vanellope glanced around the empty room. "Where are the twins?"

"Who knows," Turbo muttered, watching her closely.

"Are you feeling better?"

"What do you want?"

Vanellope was silent for a moment, and the two watched each other in suspicious silence. There was a buzzing tension in the silence of the room, the empty sound of two people sizing one another up. "You've been here three days now," Vanellope said suddenly. "Pretty soon I'm gonna have to figure out what to do with you."

Turbo lifted his head slightly at this. His chest grew tight.

Vanellope glanced aside, shrugging. "There are options, of course. All comes down to what you deserve for what you've done."

Turbo scowled faintly, but in truth, he had grown anxious. It wasn't right that she should have this power over him, that she should have him at her mercy. Or was it right? Wasn't he the one who had taken power from her in the first place? He shook off the thought. Feeling the need to at least dominate her somehow, he hoisted himself up on his insectile legs and crept forward to tower over her. Vanellope's expression never changed and it wrenched at his pride to have no affect on her at all.

"And what do you think you deserve, Turbo?"

Turbo perked, blinking at her. A flicker of the glitch ran down his back. "What?"

"You know what you're guilty of better than anybody," she said. Her voice was cold. "So, what do you think you deserve?"

Turbo hesitated. There were two ways of answering this. He could suck it up and be honest, for once admitting his own faults, recalling those fears and guilts which had plagued him the night before, or he could-

"To be king," he said sharply. He craned his neck down, moving his face toward her. "I deserve to be in charge of this game and everyone in it. I worked for years reprogramming it to suit me, and you ruined the whole thing in a heartbeat." He clicked his claws against his claws, grinning. "I put a lot of work into this, and I deserve it back."

Vanellope's face had finally shifted. A deeper level of anger had flared up in those brown eyes of hers as she stared at him. "You think that's what you deserve?" Her voice cracked as it rose. "After all you've done?!"

He sneered toothily. "I deserve to be recognized for what I am."

"And what's that?!" she snapped.

Turbo drew a soft breath. "The greatest racer who ever lived in this arcade..."

Vanellope stared at him for a moment, long and hard, her eyes flashing with anger. Then she spoke, her voice at first quite low, though it grew in volume as the indescribable anger struggles out of her. "You know what you are, Turbo? You're a fraud. You're a liar and a tyrant and a fake. You burned anyone and anything that got in your way, and you did everything in your power to keep everyone else from ever knowing what you did. And you think you deserve to be rewarded for that? Rewarded for what you did to this game?!" She clenched her fists at her sides, her voice breaking with anger. "You know what you deserve, Turbo? You deserve to know exactly what you put me through! You deserve to spend the next thirty years of your life with half your code ripped out, being a real glitch, with all your memories and everyone's memories of you locked away so no one has to remember what you did to them! You deserve to be trapped someplace where you will never be allowed to race and no one will even talk to you because you don't belong to this game and you're nothing but a nuisance and an eyesore to everyone around you! How would you like that, huh? How would you like it if the twins forgot you, if they couldn't remember you so they treated you like a stranger?! A stranger who wasn't even good enough to race with them!" She stepped forward and to Turbo's abrupt surprise, he stepped back submissively. "I ought to do to you exactly what you did to me, Turbo! Because that's what you deserve!"

Turbo felt his heart pounding, he stared at her with large fearful eyes. He didn't seem to be breathing. What was happening? Why did he say that, why would he provoke her?! She had the power to control his fate now, why was he being so stupid?! "You...don't know how to..."

"No," she said sharply, her fists at her sides. "I don't know how to do that. But I'm sure I could figure it out, and in the meantime, I can just lock you up someplace the twins can't get to you, how'd that be?"

He stared at her, trembling, his thoughts racing. Then before he could stop himself, he took a sudden breath and red static rippled through him as he shouted, "Piss off, glitch!"

Vanellope froze, her face red and angry and hot. She seemed to be trying to say something but it didn't come, the words didn't come. So she turned suddenly and walked away. The guard opened the door for her obediently, glancing with worrisome eyes back at Turbo before he followed her out. It was only when the door clicked shut that Turbo felt the panic streak through him.

What the hell did I do that for?!

He began pacing in a panic, his mind racing as he tried to formulate some sort of plan. This was it, this was it. He'd screwed it up as badly as he could imagine screwing it up, and he had no choice now but to run. He looked at the window swiftly. If he was going to be locked up alone without the twins, what difference did it make anyway?! No, she couldn't do this to him, she couldn't ruin him like this, she couldn't take them away from him! They were all he had left, dammit! He had to escape, he had to run. He had to get somewhere, anywhere, and hide. He scrambled to the window, tearing open the panes. But how, how could he hide without being found in Sugar Rush?! No, he'd find a way, he had to! So he'd never get his avatar back, who the hell cared any more, he just couldn't be locked up forever. He'd leave the twins but at least they'd remember him, maybe they could find him someday, maybe they could go back into hiding-but dammit, right now he just had to get away!

The door opened again and he turned toward it quickly, half-clambered over railing at the window, his eyes wide and panicky. Ted and Ned stood in the doorway, looking at him and blinking in surprise. "T-ted," Turbo stammered, "Ned, w-what are you...?"

"What...are you doing?" Ted asked uncertainly, stepping in. Turbo perked, glimpsing the guard in the doorway, who was smiling faintly to himself as he pulled the door shut behind them. He looked back at Ted and Ned quickly.

"D-didn't you pass Vanellope? Didn't she say anything to you?"

Ted and Ned glanced at each other and blinked before looking back at him. "She...said we should pop in and visit you?" Ned answered uncertainly.

"Did something happen?" Ted asked. "She seemed a bit off. Didn't mention it though."

Turbo stared at them, his heart still pounding heavily. It was a bluff. That little glitch, it was a bluff, and she'd actually shaken him up with it. Of course she would never pull something like that, she was too much the coward for it! But this, dammit, he showed his own fear in front of her!

He perked suddenly, blinking as he felt Ted's hand on his face. He looked up at the twins quickly. They had come to stand beside him, both smiling gently. "You okay there?" Ted asked. "Looks like you were trying to break out."

"I-I was," Turbo muttered uncertainly. Without another word, he reached out and put an arm around each of the twins, pulling them in against him. They blinked in surprise at the sudden embrace, looking at one another curiously. Ted smirked faintly, taking his opportunity being close to Turbo to give him an extra little hug around the neck, nuzzling his face on Turbo's head lightly. Turbo tugged away with a grimace and released the both of them."I just...ah...where were you two?"

"Checking out the vault," Ted said. "We've got some incredible news."

"What's that?"

"As of right now, the vault's unguarded."

Turbo blinked. "...that's impossible."

"I was just there!" Ted said, grinning. "'There were about ten guards outside, but a messenger came for them with an emergency, and they all took off together! Course, there's still the password to get in, but there's nobody guarding it right now."

Turbo shook his head faintly. He knew the guards in the palace could be a bit lax, but this was ridiculous. "You're sure...?" he asked skeptically.

Ted nodded. "All the racers are at the track now, and Vanellope is heading out too, so the castle is pretty empty. We think we can get you there."

"What about the guard outside this door?" he asked.

Ted shook his head and pointed to the window. "You need to go out this way, go one window over to the next room. There's an adjoining door that opens onto another hall—there's nobody on guard there. You just have to get out the window and back in without being noticed from outside. We think if you time it with the race, you should be able to do it while the citizens are thoroughly distracted."

Turbo hummed softly, looking the two of them over. His heart was still pounding, but he swallowed back his fears. "You seem to have really thought this through. I'm actually a little impressed."

They saluted, in unison. "We're gonna head over to the other door. We figure you can get the timing on your own, but we'll open the other window and be ready for you."

Vanellope sat back in the candy chair, the licorice string from her hoodie draped through her mouth. Beside her, Sour Bill was standing low to the ground, his gaze moderately anxious. "Well, that's that then," she said softly.

"Your Majes-"

"President, Sour Bill."

"President...Vanellope, I must say that I really don't find this to be a very good idea..."

Vanellope sighed, removing the earpiece from her ear and placing it on the dresser in front of her. "Well, then, I guess it's a good thing it's my idea and not yours, hm?" Sour Bill glanced away, fumbling a little with his jellybean hands. She laughed a bit awkwardly and bit her lip, pulling her shoulders up. Then she frowned quietly."Thank you," she said gently, "for looking out for me—and for this game. I know how hard it is for you after what happened with Turbo. But sometimes a president's just got to make risky decisions, and this is one I'm willing to make."

Sour Bill nodded ruefully, glancing up at her as she stood and brushed off her skirt. "I just wish they hadn't lied to me. I mean, I understand Turbo's an old friend, but...I really hoped the twins weren't lying."

Sour Bill watched her as she stepped by, then moved after her quietly. "Miss Vanellope, Turbo is..."

She looked down at him quietly, but Sour Bill had lowered his gaze, the words seeming to fail him. Vanellope hesitated, then she knelt down to his level, looking at him solemnly. "I know King Candy meant a lot to you." He looked up at her a bit wearily. "I can't say I remember him fondly myself, but...well." She hesitated, then sighed, nodding as she steeled herself for her decision. "I've got to deal with this."

Sour Bill nodded slowly. "Please be careful, Miss Vanellope..."

She smiled at him gently and reached out, patting him on top of his green orb of a head. "You know I will be." That said, she stood again and hurried out of the room.