King Candy's physical form was undergoing massive changes. He was shifting between identities and laughing maniacally while also crying out in agony over it.

His original pixels were fighting against the ones he crafted. Back and forth. Back and forth.

It was an unpleasant experience.

But soon, he told himself, the tide would turn and the fight between both identities would end. Because once he'd crossed that finish line, it would be all over.

Order would be restored.

Vanellope would be taken care of.

And so, he pulled on his white racing gloves, pulled his goggles over his eyes, climbed into his white marzipan royal kart, and started the engine.

"T-that little glitch wants a race?" He mumbled as he listened to the kart roaring. "I w-will give her a race she'll never forget."

…

"Y-you want me to what, now, Chumbo?" Vanellope yelled over the sound of her own kart rumbling. It was a bit of an effort to transport the three adults from the underground to the racetrack, but she managed to do it. And she did it without tipping over once.

"I got a theory," Ralph responded, tightly clutching the other two in his arms. It was only a little awkward for Calhoun, but Felix was perfectly content. "Candy doesn't want you crossing the finish line, right?"

"Y-yeah, him and every other candy person." Vanellope responded, still glitching but more in control.

"Maybe something'll happen to him if you do." Ralph continued, turning his head up to the sky as he spoke. Even the wind blowing through his hair had sugar in it and it was starting to irritate his eyes. "Like, I don't know, maybe he'll just… poof, no more King Candy."

Vanellope laughed. "That's a nice thought, Gladys, but you're forgetting that Candy ain't just any ordinary wacko that took over my game. H-he is the all-seeing overlord that controls an entire bug army six hundred feet below."

"So?" Ralph countered.

"She's saying your plan's a little lacking, Tiny." Calhoun answered. "If we're going to take this chump down, we need to use our heads properly."

"R-right!"

Ralph bit his lip and looked over at Diet Cola Mountain passing by. He contemplated telling the others about the makeshift beacon. More specifically, he wanted to tell Calhoun.

She wouldn't have objected. Riding the world of these critters was her job. Everything else came second.

Except there was one little detail.

There was no way he could get up there on his own. Unless one of them had a magic carpet, or a flying uni-candy-corn.

Maybe his plan was too hairbrained to actually work.

"Okay, fine, say that we- AH!"

Vanellope came to another abrupt stop and nearly knocked Ralph forward again. "T-there it is!"

Right before them, the racers were all lined up on a colored track. On either side of it, there were bleachers filled with various candies cheering for their respective racer. The announcer called the race, and they could hear every candy kart starting.

King Candy was nowhere to be seen.

Yet.

"W-wish me luck, guys."

Ralph stepped off. "You know how every button works?"

"Yup."

"Every power up and every special feature?"

"Uh-huh?"

"And if there's an emergency, you know how to-"

"Ralph!" Vanellope put on her goggles. "By the time you finish, the race will be over! I got this!"

"Alright, alright." Ralph stood back. "Knock 'em dead, kid."

"But play nicely!" Felix added, doing one last check of her vehicle. "Everything seems to be in order."

"Break a leg, pipsqueak." Calhoun said. "And if those kids play dirty, break their legs, too."

Vanellope gave all of them a nod and drove off.

And once she'd crossed her slot across the track, her name appeared on the scoreboard.

She was in.

…

King Candy knew something had crossed the track that wasn't supposed to. He could feel it in his code. And he searched through the map using his resources and he could see her.

She was approaching fast.

She was racing like a pro.

Exactly like how her code had made her out to be.

"Let her think she can win." Candy said to himself, cringing at the pixels. He wasn't going to get rid of her just yet. He still needed her.

He was hanging to his alternate self by a thread. The resources he'd salvaged from the game, itself, were running low.

She was the real prize.

And if he wasn't going to get her, she would come to him.

He made a change in plans and took a detour.

He hid in the corner of a track that ran through a dark cave.

There, he waited.

…

Vanellope had never been so focused in her entire life. She couldn't even stop to admire the beautifully decorated tracks she'd never seen or turn her head to the leaping animals that she didn't know existed.

She had a race to win.

And she was going to win.

She passed the less popular racers. Torvald, the Mintys, and Nougetsia were all trailing behind her as she accelerated up the curved track.

She passed Swizzle Malarky, and the boy was so astonished to see Vanellope von Schweetz racing, that he swerved the car and made an ungraceful exit off the track.

She avoided the Ralph-sized gumballs, made it over one cake ramp, and dodged every attack.

When she made it to Birthday Cake boulevard, she was in third place.

"Is that Vanellope?!" Gloyd Orangeboar shouted.

"It can't be!" Rancis Fluggerbutter said.

"Oh, it be, boys!" Vanellope shouted.

The two boys looked at each other.

"What are you waiting for?!" One of them said. "Stop her!"

"I'm trying!"

And Vanellope avoided the Sweet Seekers, Cherry Bombs, and the hailstorm surprise that Rancis pulled. She didn't even expect to miss all of those weapons, but she managed.

Just as she was managing her glitch.

She avoided using it for the first several miles, still worried that it could ruin the entire track. Her glitch was still not a part of the game's code.

Finally, she approached Candlehead and Taffyta.

Candlehead, being Taffyta's right-hand girl, signaled to Taffyta that Vanellope was approaching from a few miles behind.

"What is she doing here?" Taffyta hissed.

"I don't know, but she can't cross that finish line!" Candlehead cried out in a worried tone.

And they both formulated a plan just by nodding to each other. They brought their karts and their kart canons beside each other and fired a double popsicle stick bomb towards her.

"Uh oh!" Vanellope was miles away when she saw it coming for her. And she had no choice but to glitch her way out.

And when she opened her eyes – which she didn't realize she had closed – she was right in front of the two other girls.

Nothing happened. The track was still there. She was still there.

"Vanellope, you better drop out of this race if you know what's good for you!" Taffyta said.

"W-why?" Vanellope turned briefly to look at her. "You don't like that I finally have a chance to beat you?"

"No!" Taffyta's eyes were worried. It was almost a scary sight. "We were trying to keep you from racing to protect you!"

Vanellope's proud smile faded. "W-what? What do you mean?"

"King Candy's a lot scarier than you think, Vanellope!" Candlehead told her.

"Way scarier!" Taffyta was having trouble keeping control on her kart. "Like, you have no idea!"

"Yeah, yeah," Vanellope said, waving one hand. "I already know! I've seen the things he can do! If you're that scared, then the only thing you gotta do is let me win the race! Then everything can go back to normal!"

"How do you know?" Taffyta asked.

"Just trust me!" Vanellope sped ahead, leaving the other two to crash into the whipped tops on the side of the cake.

…

She was almost to his location.

He was waiting like a panther hiding in the darkness to pounce.

He could feel the vibrations of her kart approaching.

His pixels glitched in and out of his two identities.

Just a little longer and he'd be whole again.

He waited.

…

Vanellope could sense something was off when she drove into the part of Rock Candy Caves where the road cut through. Something was watching her.

Something had been watching her the entire time.

And before she was out of the tunnel, it lunged out at her.

King Candy's eyes were insane. His body didn't know which alias it wanted to be. He bumped his kart against hers and tried to ram her into the wall of the cave.

But she pushed her kart against his even harder.

"Let me go!" She screeched, glitching uncontrollably again.

King Candy cackled. "Y-years and years of hard work all about to be gone! Hard work for nothing, all because of an insignificant break in my plan! I'm not about to let you erase everything I've done! All that I've sacrificed!"

"Get off!" Vanellope kicked as hard as she could, but he grabbed her leg.

She tried to glitch but couldn't concentrate.

And then he pulled out a tiny dagger. But not any ordinary dagger. The blade looked exactly like the one from the Fungeon.

"No, you don't!" She pushed on the biggest button in her kart; that was the emergency button. And out from the front of the kart, an enormous boxing glove shot out and knocked King Candy far back away. His kart flipped over and landed atop of him.

He was now trapped between the ground and his vehicle.

"Woah…" Vanellope was suddenly feeling dizzy as she moved ahead. "Thanks, Ralph!"

The finish line was even closer now.

But Candy was not finished with her, yet. Not with her or any of them.

As a matter of fact, he was only getting started.

He wasn't getting out of this kart on his own. Nor was he going to take down Vanellope and those three trespassers.

He needed assistance. And he was about to get some.

…

"You're one hundred percent, absolutely, positively, no bullroar-ing, sure that this plan is going to work, Wreck-It?"

Ralph wasn't giving her his complete attention. He was too busy watching the screen for any sign of danger. He and the others were standing guard near the bleachers, with eyes and ears open. They kept sights on the exit, like they were waiting for the worst-case scenario.

He nodded his head. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure."

Calhoun really hated insincere answers.

"And if it doesn't?"

Ralph turned his head towards the towering mountain for the thousandth time. "It has to."

"Yeah? Why do you keep looking over there, then?" She asked him.

"No reason." Ralph folded his arms over his chest.

"Ralph?" Felix asked. "Is there something you're not telling us?"

His face was clearly worried, and when Felix was worried, Ralph couldn't hold back the truth from him. Felix's look was that powerful. Ralph was surprised Felix didn't use it more often.

"Okay, you got me." Ralph said, kneeling down to Felix's level. "If this entire plan goes South, that mountain could make a pretty good beacon."

"How?" Felix asked.

"The Hot Springs."

Felix took a minute to fully register what Ralph was saying. "But… how are we going to get all the way up there?"

"That's what I haven't figured out, yet."

Calhoun had all over her weapons on hand. "Well, you better use that hollow head of yours to figure it out before the plan fails."

Ralph straightened his posture and watched the little figures of the racers on the screen move.

"When all of this is over," he said to Calhoun. "I hope there's no hard feelings."

Calhoun looked as if she was still debating that statement, but then she relaxed her shoulders and nodded to him. "Not as long as you stick with the program, Ham-Hands. You want to play 'hero', do it in your own territory. Otherwise, you get a virus running amok in this arcade."

Ralph wasn't entirely satisfied with that statement. "Hey, look, I wasn't trying to-"

"I know you weren't." Calhoun cut him off. "All I'm saying is use your head a little next time. That's all."

Ralph figured it was easier for a Good Guy to tell him that he should have stuck with what he knew. But earlier at Bad-Anon, the other antagonists were telling him the same thing.

Was it just impossible for Ralph to be anything but a Bad Guy?

After all, this cy-bug apocalypse was about to take place because he wanted to be something more.

And he wasn't even going to return home with the medal he made such a fuss about.

But as he watched Vanellope easily skid past the other racers, and he looked down at Felix's smiling face, he told himself that he really didn't need to take the place of a hero, or a Good Guy.

They liked him. And Calhoun at least tolerated him enough to not grant him a game over.

His lifetime of isolation had come to an end thanks to them.

Maybe that's all he really needed.

Felix stepped towards him and snuggled against his leg. "No matter what happens, Ralph, you're a hero to me."

Ralph beamed and his cheeks tinted. "Thanks, Felix."

When he turned his head back to the screen, he froze up and his smile faded.

He watched King Candy, or Turbo, grabbing Vanellope and trying to push her off the road.

"Come on, kid," He whispered unsteadily. "You know how to get out of there, just do it!"

He didn't know what he or the others can do because they were so far away from her. So, he hoped that Vanellope would make use of that special feature he installed.

And she did.

"Good job, kid."

"Go, Vanellope!" Felix cheered.

Standing with pride over his work, Ralph turned to Calhoun. "See, Sarge? Everything's going to work out for the-"

"Shh, shut your hole." She bent her knees, turning her head swiftly like a pigeon listening to its surroundings.

The ground had just vibrated underneath their feet. The air had become silent, even with the cheering crowds, and a flock of candy birds flew away towards the exit. The sky had suddenly darkened and a cold wind was blowing.

"Felix." Ralph said looking down.

"Ralph…?" Felix responded, turning his eyes up at him.

Enormous holes opened up in the ground, with cy-bugs shooting upwards like a deadly geyser. They weren't the first-stage ones that popped straight out of their eggshells.

They were the biggest ones the crew had seen.

They invaded the bleachers, the track, and every corner they could find.

And Ralph turned his head towards the screen to see if Vanellope had been caught in the middle of the infestation.

But the screen was only showing static.

AN: Jeez, I've been busy. I have another kitten now, so I've got two little ones terrorizing my home.

I've mainly been working on my other stories on AO3 and some art stuff. But I'm getting close to the end with this one, and once I finish it, I'm going to work on finishing up my other projects.

I've mentioned this in my stories, but I feel like Ralph and Calhoun have quite a bit in common in terms of experiences and perspectives on the world. I feel like they would be good friends, which is another thing I wish I could have seen in the frickin' sequel.

But we don't talk about that around here.