A/N: Hey guys, yeah, I changed my username, hope that wasn't confusing lol
I know this took like 4 months, I was kinda on a hiatus. I really appreciate your patience and thank you for still keeping up with this story. I hope this chapter will make up to it.
(Where we left off)
Vanellope stood still at the spot she had been standing before Shank had driven off, glitching consistently The young racers had been off to check on Taffyta, the elder racers had tried to approach but the kid was too stunned to respond.
The recolors, being the only ones left there with her, were arguing in themselves on whether it's better to try an approach or leave her alone. At the end, Citrusella was the first one to slowly approached the glitching racer.
"Van," She whispered; the raven-haired racer did not reply. "Vanellope." The recolor repeated and poked her. "…Are you okay?"
"That's it. She chose her over me," Vanellope muttered after a while, her voice shaking. "I can't believe I…lost both of my best friends." She continued, wincing at the word 'lost'. "All because of her."
"Come on, how do you know she 'chose' her? Taffyta did need a first aid after the disaster in the race." Torvald commented dryly, Sticky elbowed her. "But hey…right or wrong, you won at last. That's what you wanted, right?"
"That's not what I wanted!" Vanellope complained. "Well okay, yes, I kinda did, but I did it because I wanted to prove myself, I wanted to prove I'm worthy! What's the point of winning the race when I lost my only friend?" Vanellope screeched, turning to them, eyes clearly watering.
Citrusella hesitatingly took her hand. "Sorry to break it to you, Vanellope, but if that's really what you wanted, why did you do what you did on the track?"
"And what about what Taffyta did, did nobody saw me die? You guys said you were with me!"
"We said we were with you into defeating her and getting to a conclusion, that's it! You say you wanted to prove yourself, did you really think murdering Taffyta was going to prove you better?"
"I was-asn't tr-tryi-i-ing to MU-RD-DER he-e-er!" Vanellope bellowed, as the glitches took over, her speech came out distorted. Citrusella quickly withdrew her hand as some of Vanellope's glitches contracted her, sending a wave of errors down her code. "And sh-e-e's not sn-natch-ching Shank fr-o-om me! I won't le-et her and I do-on't care what it ta-akes!" Startled at the outburst, the rest of the recolored racers protectively pulled their friend back, cautious looks on their faces. Vanellope blinked, surprised at this reaction.
"Guys…?" She approached them, but they all only backed further. "What…why are you guys acting like that, as if you're afraid of me or something?! Are you with me in this or not?!"
Nobody answered, instead they all just avoided looks. Sticky and Nougetsia pulled Citrusella back, Torvald shook her head in disappointment.
Vanellope's heart sank, they were not with her, but why was she surprised? Of course they didn't want to trust her, she almost killed Taffyta out of rage, why would any of the racers want to trust her? What if they became the victim of her next outburst? She noticed Citrusella slightly rubbing her palm after the strike of violent glitch that had contracted her, sighed and slowly walked over to Citrusella and gently took her hand.
"Sorry 'bout that." Vanellope apologized, gaze set to the ground in guilt. "And…I understand if you all don't want to help me anymore, you're right; what I did on the track was wrong. I thought that maybe if I could help you, I could also make up to getting Sugar Rush unplugged because of my actions." She confessed, not daring look up and hence letting the tears drop to the ground. The racer's expressions softened. "But I was wrong…I failed you."
She finally looked up at them one last time and without another word, turned back and marched back to her car. Sitting down, her gaze fell upon the big red button on her dashboard. Gritting her teeth and shaking her head in frustration, she looked ahead and just started up her engine, driving off.
#####
Once back to the garage, Vanellope peeked into the room, glitching nervously as she saw the elder racer seated on a pile of tires in a stooped manner, hands over her chin in a distressed way as she silently smoked a cigar. Vanellope gulped and took a deep breath, she had to get this through, and make her understand.
"Shank…" She called softly as she stepped in. The racer did not react, or even flinch. Vanellope walked up until she was standing next to her. She glanced at her friend and called out again, louder, hoping to get a reply. "Shank?"
"What is it?" The adult racer snapped, Vanellope almost jolted back at her harsh tone.
"Y-You know, I just wanted to talk…about, y'know, all that stuff that happened. Maybe some of it was my fault, but it was not intentional, I swear, there's some kind of misunderstanding."
"Some of it? Not intentional? Misunderstanding?" Shank hissed every word with even more annoyance as she crushed the cigar in her hand and got to her feet. "You race battled on a prohibited track, locked Candlehead up in a basement where she almost died, violently knocked Taffyta off the track on purpose, and you presume it a misunderstanding?"
"Wait, Candlehead almost died? The recolors were supposed to take care of her-" Vanellope cupped her mouth. Shank narrowed her eyes and folded her arms. "No, I mean, I…of course I wasn't really a part of all that,"
"You did know about it, didn't you? And you tried to hide it."
"I swear it was Taffyta's idea!" Vanellope defended, glitching rapidly.
"So, who came up with the dare?"
"Um, that was…me…" she tipped her fingers together nervously.
"I've had enough of your nonsense, you clearly tried to injure Taffyta, we all saw it happen; if it wasn't for us, she'd have died permanently, and it'd be all your fault, you know it!" she replied, accusingly pointing a finger at her.
Vanellope recoiled. "Well, uh, I mean, she was clearly alright with everything at first, this was all under the agreement of both of us. And the only reason was because she cheated by cutting off my brakes to make me crash. And jeez, I even literally DIED, only to be regenerated by code's mercy! So, is the blame really solely and entirely just on me?" she asked, starting to glitch. "But no, you'll put it on me because that strawberry-themed cupcake is such a good friendto you now!" Shank huffed and rolled her eyes.
"It's nothing like that. Stop being ridiculous."
"Just tell me, Shanky, who used to be yer sister-in-arms ally before she came here? What is it you think she can do but I can't, other than bullying others of course!" Vanellope started to tear up. "I left my old home, my best friend, everything I loved behind so I could be a part of your game. All I did so for the first time in forever, I would finally fit in," She spoke between sobs. "…all I did so I could be your best friend."
"But I never asked to be your best friend, V." Shank turned to face her little sister who was in tears, which stunned Vanellope for a moment, Shank acknowledged it hurt her, but kept on a stoic look. "I never asked you to leave Ralph or your home for me. You fell in love with this place and were desperate to make it your 'normal', even if it meant leaving everything you knew behind. True, I saw the spirit of a real racer in you the first time we raced, I believed your super power and talent was astonishing and deserved to be seen by the world. I only told you it was your call, I did not tell you to just chose this place over everything else without a second thought, it was always your own decision. And since you were more than determined for it, I let you stay because your superpower was always a great benefit against the players."
Vanellope jolted back and blinked on hearing the last words, her surprised look slowly changing into a fuming one. "Woah, woah. Okay, hold it for a sec. Benefit? You mean to say that the only reason you wanted me to stay here was because of my glitching ability?" She hissed; her fists clutched tightly in fury. "That's it? A 'benefit' against the players is all I ever have been in your eyes? My friendship never mattered to you, all you ever cared about was the sake of your own game?"
"Just like how all you ever cared about was the sake of your own amusement and entertainment, more than your own people." Shank folded her arms, frowning at the kid, "That's not what a good leader is supposed to do, but how would you know? I didn't know this place would lose all its harmony in barely a week, just because you can't the hang of things not going 'your way' for once."
"Oh, the 'Harmony'of this place!" Vanellope mimicked with a scoff. "Just drop the dramatic wise-sage routine already, Shank, it's cringer than Fortnite memes!"
Shank frowned. "I'm serious. What do you think, our game is some kind of toy that you can use for your amusement and just throw away when you're bored? Just like Sugar Rush? Just like Ralph?" She asked sternly. Vanellope stared at her silently, glitching between intervals.
"So, basically you're saying you never wanted me here?" She squeaked, her voice cracking. "…I knew it. I knew what I heard was true."
"Heard what?"
"Don't play innocent. Back that night when we played Truth or Dare," She hissed. "I overheard you and Felony talk about it, how you want to get rid of me, I should've known it right then!"
"Huh?" Shank blinked. She clearly had no idea what Vanellope was even talking about. "What are you talking about? …Wait, so you were spying on us, V?!"
"Don't change the subject! I probably wouldn't have been as disappointed if you'd just came and said that to my face instead of talking behind my back!"
"Sorry, V, maybe you're too… broadminded to understand, I don't know, but my game means everything to me. And as I've said it before, this place may feel like home to you, but if you can't bother to follow the one rule we have here, to treat everyone like family, then maybe you're not worth it."
"If there's someone 'not worth it', it's your fussy butt to befriend!" Vanellope used one of her tightly clutched fists to wipe the tears off. "Guess what, Shanky, I am SICK of these stupid unofficial rules of your STINKY game! "I stayed here with a hope to be able to live my life, not to get bounded by another set of code-wrenching stupid rules! But turns out I shouldn't have, I should've never chosen you and this place over my home, over Ralph!" she sobbed. "I thought you were the coolest person ever, Shank. But I was wrong, this place was never my home, and you were never my friend."
Shank closed her eyes and took a deep breath before speaking up. "Think what you wanna think. Our game has always functioned without you, and it always will."
"I made a mistake." Vanellope gritted her teeth, tears flowing down her heated cheeks, glitches continuously running down her body. "You're all the same. You, Taffyta, those racers, Turbo, you're all the same!" Vanellope searched for something in her pocket and tossed it on the ground. "I'm outta here for code's sake, hope y'all will be happy with me gone. Sayonara!"
The last thing Shank heard was Vanellope slamming the door shut before everything went silent. The adult racer turned back to glance at the spot where her former friend was standing a moment ago and saw two objects laying on the ground: A bunch of car keys and a pair of pistols.
She stared at them silently, a whimpering sigh escaped her throat as her knees begun to shake. She slid down to sit on her knees, and took the items in her arms, she remembered giving them to the young racer the day she had joined their game. With a pained expression filled her face, her eyes begun to water, and her breath became heavier.
"How could you?" Shank glanced back to see Felony standing at the door. She spoke with a glint of disgust in her tone. "…How could you say such things to her? I know she was being stubborn and what she did was wrong… but she's still just a little girl." Shank wiped her tears with a frown, getting to her feet.
"H-How long have you been standing there?"
"When you were telling V you never asked for anything she ever did…"
"Well, that isn't entirely false."
Felony walked up to her, looking at her friend with a frown, who just tried to avoid an eye-contact. "She really did leave everything for us, you have any idea how much her arcade meant to her? Is that it? Is that really what you think?" Shank looked away and sighed. Felony grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her closer so she could look into her eyes. "Don't look away, answer me! Why did you say all that to her?"
"I had to, okay?!" Shank exclaimed and pulled back. "It was the only way I could convince her to leave! It's the only way she doesn't get deleted!"
Felony blinked in surprise as she realized what the matter was. "Wait…you mean, you said all that to Vanellope just so she'd leave out of distress, and…"
"And won't get deleted by the developers with the next update." Shank finished. "How else do you think I could possibly make her understand? She has no idea what kind of a life-threatening danger she's in, and you know she's way too stubborn to understand and ever leave this game on her own wish, this was the only way to convince her to be gone and never return."
"But, didn't you see how much it upset her? She looks up to you, Shank, and your words struck the kid like a dagger."
Shank closed her eyes and sighed. "I know…I know I've hurt her, she'll probably even hate me now. But… her safety is what matters the most. Sometimes, you gotta do the wrong thing for the right reason." Felony put a hand on her shoulder.
"You're right. I'm…sorry snapping at you like that."d
Shank slightly nodded and shoved her hands into her pockets. "I don't know, maybe I'll apologize to her later, whenever we get some way of resolving this."
#####
Vanellope sniffed as she walked down the street leading toward the exit, wiping her eyes that were now red from all the crying. She couldn't believe it, she felt so betrayed. She couldn't help but keep recalling Shank's words, tearing up every time she did. How could this happen? How could Shank suddenly be like this, after a whole year of their friendship, all she had to say was that she was supposed to be a benefit to the game, and had only made everything worse.
'Should've known it…' Vanellope cussed herself, 'How foolish of me to think she was my friend. To think my feelings ever meant anything to her. To think…she and this place ever worth everything I did.'
Her entire life she was forced to believe that she wasn't supposed to exist, and would only mess up whatever she put her hands into. And now that she was finally starting to think she could fit in; reality had once again smacked her in the face. Her thought process was interrupted when she heard a call.
"Vanellope?"
She turned back to see Candlehead approaching. Vanellope glitched once and turned her back at her, sniffing. Candlehead noticed this placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Vanellope, a-are you crying?"
"What do you want, Candlehead?" Vanellope snapped, trying to sound casual despite the shuddering in her voice. "How is your friend doing now? Is she…okay?"
"Taffyta is in her room, resting." Candlehead replied and sighed, looking down and twiddling her toes. "She hasn't woken up." Vanellope stayed silent and glitched once slightly before finally speaking up.
"Shank said that something happened in the basement?"
"Well, yeah, there was this arson that we all got stuck in. Luckily, we all worked together and escaped."
Vanellope shook her head and muttered. "Maybe I really shouldn't have pulled the recolors in this."
"It wasn't really their fault."
Vanellope turned to look at her. "I… did not mean it to be this bad."
Candlehead slowly walked up to her, facing her. "Vanellope. What really happened back on the track?"
Vanellope blinked and raised an eyebrow. "Why do you care about my justification?"
"If you really didn't mean it to be this bad, then why would you do what you did?"
Vanellope's expression hardened. "Taffyta cheated. And cheaters are worse than losers."
"And still you decided to do the same?" She argued. "I told you to stop, Vanny. I told you hatred and rivalry won't lead you to good. But neither you nor Taffyta listened to me."
Vanellope sighed. "Look. I know you must be mad, I'm sorry you had to be hassled along because of us, Candlehead. Guess I was trying and fight for something that was never meant for me. I was being stupid thinking friendship and dreams could ever come true together."
Candlehead raised an eyebrow curiously. "So…are you gonna be over with this rivalry?"
Vanellope turned to meet the girl's eyes. "Actually, I'm over with this game. I'm gonna be goody gone, for good. Go on, tell Taffyta, after all this is what she always wanted, crushing my dreams, isn't it?"
Candlehead stared at her in surprise. "What? But why? Vanellope, you said this place felt like home to you, wasn't that what all this was about?"
"Yeah, it was, apparently. That victory…didn't change anything, however. Shank said I don't belong here, and of course Slaughter Race has gotten all of you now, it doesn't need me anymore, it never did anyway. So yeah, for the sake of monkey milk, it's better I'm just gone." Vanellope started to walk away but Candlehead grabbed her hand, she glitched in surprise.
"Wait, Vanellope! There's no way Shank would ever want that, I'm sure there'd be some kind of misunderstanding." Vanellope shook her head and struggled to free herself. "You are one of us, Vanny, you always have been, you don't have to go, I'm sure we can amend this." Candlehead influenced, pulling her back as Vanellope writhed to break the hold.
"Ugh! Let go of me!" Vanellope snapped and glitched out of her grip, which made Candlehead stumble back clumsily. Vanellope grimace at her, finally letting the tears roll down her warm, reddish cheeks. "No, I'm not. I've never been one of you. From the very moment we were first plugged in, from the day I reset Sugar Rush, to the day y'all joined me in here, I was never one of you guys. I was just stupid thinking I'd finally found a place where I was accepted and actually a part of the crew."
Candlehead got up as Vanellope started stomping away. "Where will you be going?" she was curious.
"Anywhere away from this place! Away from all of you! But first I gotta go to the arcade, apologize to the one person who was always worth more than this place ever did."
Candlehead watched sadly as Vanellope stomped over to the exit of the game. "Sweet Sourdough…" She shook her head in distress. "This is really, really bad."
#####
"That's it! I need this to be done NOW, Maybe! This is getting out of hand!" Yesss exclaimed, both in frustration and stress as she looked at a progress report. She was on the edge of her seat in her office at BuzzzTube dot com, with her assistant Maybe next to her with an utterly terrified expression. "What do they think the Internet is, a joke?!"
"This…is going to take some time, Yesss." Maybe replied nervously. "Cyberpolice authorities are doing their work. YouTube keeps denying any knowledge of this activity. They refuse to take them down."
"Denying?! What do you mean denying? The proof is all clear, and their database is fraud!"
"Yesss, you know YouTube is no minor site. And then, there's all these dirty tricks like bribing the cops."
"It's all a conspiracy," The blue algorithm hissed and clenched her fists. "They are all integrated. But we're no inferior. I'll burn YouTube down, I'll make them regret ever being developed!"
"Well, rageful outbursts are never the answer."
Yesss shot a glare up at her assistant and seized him by the collar. "What did you just say?! You know I can fire you anytime, Maybe!" Maybe shook his head fretfully and pointed behind her. She let him go and turned to see Flint there in his usual leather jacket above a white hood, his head covered by his hood. "And who are you supposed to be?"
Flint took the hood off his head and smiled. "Apologies for coming in directly. You were probably shouting too loud to hear me knock."
Yesss stood up and approached him. "Wait, are you the guy I asked Double Dan to send?"
He nodded in response and offered a hand. "Flint."
"Oh, I was so willing to see you!" Yesss grabbed his hand, pulled him over and pushed him down on a couch. She snapped her fingers. "Yo, Maybe, grab us a drink." Maybe nodded humbly and left. "Well, I think you might know me. Name's Yesss, the head Algorithm and content curator at the Internet's most popular video-sharing website."
"Do you ever get tired of giving such a long introduction?" He rolled his eyes and muttered but Yesss seemed too lost in astonishment to notice. "So, Lady Yesss, or Miss Algorithm…whatever you prefer. Didn't thought you'd remember me. We met like, just once years ago." Flint commented as Yesss sat down. "Ever since your…certain deal with Slaughter Race, things changed."
She chuckled. "Ah yes, things like that are common in business, you know, that's how it works. You sometimes gotta help each other in order to get a job done."
"Yeah, yeah, I know you're proud that you're the reason that game has always been overrated as heck." Flint complaied, rolling his eyes.
She raised her head proudly, "Well, I mean if I hadn't put up a 40000 dollars prize over Shank's car on that local LootHunting website and attracted greedy players to the videogame, Slaughter Race would've aged faster than Pokémon Go. And they can't steal her car anyway, nah, Shank ain't gonna let them. And in return, she and her crew advertises BuzzzTube in-game, it's a win-win deal in 40 grand investment. That's business." Yesss finished with a grin and placed a hand on his shoulder. "…But I understand why you don't like it, Flint."
"Did you call me all the way here to talk about ominous stuff like Slaughter Race?" He demanded.
"Says a dude coming from the darknet." Yesss joked, Flint rolled his eyes. Maybe entered and served the two drinks. "Whatever, I was never a part of the drama anyway. If you'd ask me, I'd say you need to be wittier about what you use your skills for, baby. Like, for my website."
Flint huffed and slumped back. "Let me guess. You want me to make some stupid videos for your site? In that case, don't even think about it, cuz' I'd rather get eaten by a virus than do that."
The algorithm shook her head with a laugh. "Oh no, no, heh, no way. I just need you to…well, sabotage YouTube."
He straightened up and gave her a look. "What? Hack YouTube?" He confirmed.
"Shh, don't be so loud!" she shushed. "And yeah, in a way."
"And get arrested?"
"What? No!"
"Can I ask why are you suddenly into this? I mean, what have you got with them? Your website's already huge and been running well already."
"No, it's not. Not since they've been stealing my videos." She replied exasperatedly. "I know they are doing it on purpose. They're denying the copyright and cyber police is taking a lot of time, I'm even afraid they've been bribed. I need my website to keep up with the demand, and YouTube needs to pay for the mess. That's why I need your help, do something so that at least 50% of the viewers don't get recommendations, hence a decrease in watch-time, more dissatisfaction from public and more traffic shifting to BuzzzTube. Tit-for-tat, how cool is that?"
Flint kept on stony look. "I see what you mean, Yesss. But still,"
"This will stay between us. You need not to worry about legal issues; I'll get it being taken care of. You just do your work; you'll be paid well." Flint exhaled and stared down for a moment, thinking. "I know what you're thinking. You can take your time to think about it." Yesss begun with a smile. "But isn't having your skills appreciated what you've always wanted? Now you get the chance."
Flint looked down, thinking. Then something hit his head, perhaps the deal wasn't too bad, it was quite a good opportunity to put his skills to some use. He turned to look at her.
"When do you need it done?"
#####
Vanellope walked down the busy streets of the Internet, hands stuffed in her pockets and gaze set down at the ground. The feeling was terrible. She couldn't believe she was so wrong about…well, everything. How could Shank be so mean? She had always looked up to the racer, and admired everything about her, ever since she had first met her. She looked cool, she talked cool, she raced cool, her hair was cool, her car was cool, literally everything Vanellope knew about her was nothing but purely cool. Shank's companionship made her feel as if she could never ask for a cooler big sister.
Then how could she be so wrong? How could she fail to see Shank's true nature? She had made such a mistake.
After getting past the Gaming District, followed by a quick breather at a café in the Social Media District, she made it to the Passenger Terminal.
Vanellope hopped up into the bus with a grunt, carefully passing through the netusers and netizens present as she quietly made her way to the rearmost seat of the bus in order to avoid gaining much attention, and hopping over to sit next to the window. After a few moments, the doors closed and the vehicle begun to hover and move forward slowly and smoothly. Vanellope leaned her side against the window, glancing out at the magnificent scenery of the Internet. It reminded her of the first time she left the arcade and stepped into the world of the Internet, eager to spend the rest of forever exploring every bit of its new, big and surprising adventures; the day she thought she had found he destiny. And now, for the first time, it felt small…really small.
What was she gonna do? Where was she going to stay? She had not even properly thought any of it yet. Where in this huge Internet would she go? There were probably thousands of places she could go, but now for some reason, it felt like there were none. Would it even mattered where she was going if she had no place to return back to? If there was no place she could call 'home' anymore?
Vanellope rested her elbow on the window, slightly leaning her head onto her palm and getting absorbed in the beauty of the scenery outside while whirring quietly on the tune of the song playing on the bus radio.
'And the blood will dry…underneath my nails.'
'And the wind will rise up to fill my sails… so you can doubt, and you can hate…'
Vanellope started to remember the words Shank had said to her earlier again. The only reason of her attraction toward Slaughter Race was for nothing but the fulfillment of her own amusement…well, it was sort of true, but isn't that what video games were supposed to be for? There was no way she could ever think of intentionally leaving it on purpose like she did with Sugar Rush. She had always assumed Shank to be the person to understand.
Or maybe that was the problem. Maybe she was too busy looking so far up at Shank's 'coolness' she possibly couldn't truly see her on the inside. Unlike the way she had seen Ralph. Sure, the dude stunk and had no appearance of a hero, but he had a heart of gold.
'But I know no matter what it takes…I'm coming home…I'm coming home.'
'Tell the world that I'm coming home. Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday…'
Thinking of which… in what possible way was she going to explain it to Ralph? Was he going to forgive her? In what way could she assume he even wanted to see her face after what she did? She had told him that she was going to make the things 'her way' again, no matter what it took, that there could either be her or Taffyta who'd stay. And she had sworn to code that she would never be the one to leave.
But now she was. She had lost the place she once used to call home, the girl she had considered her best friend. And now she had no one or place left to go to other than her old friend, and her old arcade, her old home that she had abandoned.
'Still far away from where I belong…but it's always darkest before the dawn.'
'So you can doubt, and you can hate. But I know…no matter what it takes…'
Well, at least she could assume she could make things up with Ralph, and even if she couldn't, at least she could apologize. Apologize for leaving him behind, for neglecting and denying his friendship, for choosing Shank over him, for which the guilt was getting the better of her. The rest was his choice, even if he refused to mend things up, she was not going to force it down his throat…unlike she always had in past, every single time.
She glanced back to the path from where the bus had taken off. She could hardly but conceivably see the huge skull-shaped building of Slaughter Race far behind. A place, a dream she was probably never visiting again. But was it really supposed to be that disheartening? Why was she even feeling sorrowful for leaving it? At least now she didn't have to live with people who secretly hated her, despised her, or either loathed or wanted to manipulate her for her super power. Who knew maybe it was the dark before the dawn?
No doubt she'd rather stay alone like a hobo than stay in a place like that. She was not going to get herself stuck again into somewhere that'd eventually become a second nightmare like Sugar Rush. Wherever she was going to be, at least she could be free, and maybe find a place to truly consider 'home', either if it was the arcade or somewhere else.
''I'm coming home…I'm coming home. Tell the world that I'm coming home.'
'Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday.'
'I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes.'
She glanced at her half cookie medal. Maybe it was time she'd stop bellyaching for what she had left behind. Right now she had a more significant task to mind, apologizing to Ralph. And she was so going to fulfill it. His forgiveness was all that mattered now.
"Hello there, miss, are you going to get down or no?" Vanellope quickly looked up to face the conductor standing there at the open door of the bus that was now stopped at its destination. She had been so lost in the music and her thoughts she had not even realized they had reached the destination. The conductor gave her an impatient look. "This bus ain't going any further, that's the last stop."
"Uh, yeah! Yeah, it's my stop!" Vanellope hopped off her seat and quickly rushed over to the door, carefully stepping out of the vehicle, and glancing around at the crowded place. She looked up to see the huge banner that said the 'ARRIVAL PORT'. Vanellope sighed and stepped forward.
It was time. And there was no turning back now. She had to make things right.
To Be Continued.
A/N: The song used is 'Coming Home' by Skyler Grey, I do not own it (duh, lol)
Hope it was worth the wait! I've been pretty demotivated, so please let me know your thoughts in the reviews, they encourage me a lot ^^