Reviews :

Burgie : Yes absolutely ! I'm about 15-20ish chapters ahead of you guys and have written loads for them so far, and they are among some of my favorite characters to write for, outside of the usual clan. Man they are so fun and I can't wait to introduce them to you guys!

Snake557 : Yes! Yes yes yes this a million times yes. I wanted to highlight on just how rare and peculiar Ralph's life is, how circumstantial it all is, this really REALLY comes back to bite Gideon in the ass much later on, it's a huge weight on Ralph's heart, this whole scenario. Because of the things Ralph did in the first movie, he would've never met Vanellope, and we all wouldn't be here lmao. A lot of this season of the story is Gideon reacting impulsively, he's a reactionary being, much like myself. I almost always look back on my actions and understand I could've put in a world's more thought into it, and this situation is definitely something that Gideon struggles with, here in Game Over-land, it's a long road of guilt and regret ahead of him, feelings he does whatever he can to escape from, but it definitely broadens his perspective, to know that fighting fire with fire isn't healthy or productive. A lesson I'm still trying to accept and learn, myself.


Song Listened To :

Turn, Turn, Turn Again (first half of chapter)

Hornbug (last half of chapter)

both by Gareth Coker


TRIGGER WARNING : This chapter has descriptive gore


*Chapter 153*

Kepa's blurry, swollen vision glossed Lash's and Mara's gorgeous, sparkly confectionary as she stepped inside. She unveiled her black hood, gently chuffed a cute noise in the act of freeing the top of her head and tips of her ears of raindrops, and slowly began to meander through the busy, golden tiles of customers, woven through tables of joyous, bubbly gatherings and conversation. Kepa's tail held hovered above the tile about a foot, she wormed past the final table of customers and pressed to the bend of the ice cream counter. She caught eyes with Lash's lead employee, everyone nervously ducked their eye contact away from Kepa and almost nervously acted as if she didn't exist. The sheer wall of blackened, harrowing sorrow the crew now properly adorned was the slug of a grieving period the entire game had to endure together, including Lash's staff. Kepa silently wormed through the back areas of the confectionary and hooked into Lash's office. The door was barely ajar, the only being inside was Lash. He sat at his desk, he did office work to the best of his mental ability, his eyes were swollen as well and had yet to move away from the sullen, sorrowful dark blue glow. Lash perked up a bit, inhaled a deep breath through his mouth, due to not being able to properly breathe through his nose, and gently cued for Kepa to sit and join him.

"Hey, you, come sit," Lash mumbled in the proof of mental exhaustion, he breathed a long, raspy sigh through his mouth and lazily sifted through a few papers, "I'm just finishing up... The staff have been super chill about us ducking out early. Probably will remain that way for the next few weeks..."

Kepa bobbed a nod and darkly looked about Lash's office, she was dressed in her black zip up hoodie, a tattered pair of grey skinny jeans and a rather strappy black tank top that hugged her figure nicely. She eased her hands into the gape of her hoodie's pockets and eyed Lash's sifting papers, the work his fingers did to separate certain papers from the rest. Her ears lay in a droop of stillness that angled behind her head, she remained unwavering and stood in an almost harrowing loom over Lash's desk, such looming had Lash nervously halting his sifting and glazing his dark blue gaze up to Kepa's in gentle dread.

"You, uh... You can sit, Keps, it's okay," Lash assured gently, "I'll be here for at least another ten minutes... Unless you wanna head back to the arena, I know Mara and Beaux are there with Koko and Nox."

"I have a confession," Kepa darkly muttered, she sighed and looked off as Lash froze his task and held his upward gaze tight into Kepa's. She nervously peered hard into Lash's eyes and narrowed her gaze, "I know it's my fault Gideon left..."

"Kepa, it's... It's not your fault," Lash guffawed in almost annoyed exhaustion; having only been about a day and a half since Gideon's disappearance, the whole gang was fully sleep deprived, fully running on fumes, it was here that Lash was beginning to feel the weight of standing strong for everyone else in this predicament. He pressed on, "He caught you at a wrong time... Just because you froze up and couldn't return the 'I love you' doesn't mean you don't actually love him-"

"Callum goaded him to leave for Game Over," Kepa stabbed in nervous reveal, to which her and Lash held in prickled silence. Kepa inhaled a trembling breath, and without looking, she lurched her long, strong tail out behind her, grappled with the edge of the door and properly shoved it closed with a clack.

"Callum," Lash returned darkly, he narrowed his gaze and began to mean-mug Kepa, "Kepa, if you're right about this information, you understand I'm going to be headed to Sugar Rush, after this, to raise hell and make sure that boy pays for it, right?"

"I need you to listen to me," Kepa instructed as she gently laid her palms on Lash's desk, leaned over a little and hooked her scary gaze tight into Lash's, such a gaze that had Lash frozen in rising terror, "The morning of Valentine's Day, I did a terrible thing. Something a girlfriend probably shouldn't be doing, but I had a moment of insecurity... I snooped through Gideon's and Callum's text conversation and found that the two had been discussing Game Over, where to find the arena, who to talk to, what to prepare for, all dolloped with the help of some guy named Flint."

"Go on," Lash snipped in rising anger, thus cued by the way his eyes now began to glow a fervent kiss of electric purple, the pure mixture of sorrowful blue segueing into angry red.

"I bookmarked sitting Gideon down and having a hard conversation with him, about all of this, because that was the morning of his art show... It was the day I was going to meet Vanellope, and little did I know, it was the evening Gideon had secretly planned to hopefully whisk me away for good," Kepa muttered through her fangs, she pressed on with a hiss of fervor, one that had Lash flinching, "Like an IDIOT I bookmarked the hard conversation..."

"You're one hundred percent certain of this information?" Lash stabbed above a whisper, he narrowed his harrowing, becoming-red gaze and shook his head, "You're one hundred percent certain Callum is the culprit, here? You say yes and I'm about to leap out of this office and have my own little version of Game Over, Sugar Rush-style, right here, right now... All palace dragons involved, you just say the word."

"I'm not saying the word until you let me at him first," Kepa suddenly stabbed through a scary cat snarl, a bare of her fangs, the slit of her scary pupils had Lash settling into his seat with a nervous sag. Claws drawn and hooked into the wood of Lash's desk, she flattened her ears and dared to exhale a bout of smoke through her flared nostrils as she continued on, "I don't care what you have to do to keep my name off of Sugar Rush's grid, I don't care what needs to be done... I'm begging you to buy me an hour of time. I don't care if you never look at me again, never do me another favor in your whole life... I will only ever ask for an hour of bought time."

"To do what," Lash huffed darkly, he knew her answer, Kepa narrowed her gaze and stabbed her conclusion through her fangs.

"Claw his eyes out, rip his head from his shoulders," Kepa's arms shook, she inhaled a deep, angry breath and just barely shook her head, "I don't care if he's safe to regenerate inside Sugar Rush... I need him to know how much I hate his guts. I need him to see just who he's messing with. I'm begging you to cloak his section of the palace and give me an hour to mangle him silly."

"You have an hour," Lash muttered nervously, he narrowed his now reddening gaze and shook his head, "You better give him what for, cause after that hour, he's mine."

"Sorry I didn't say anything sooner," Kepa huffed as she finally stood to normality and took a gentle step back, "I'll forever kick myself over this... I could've prevented all of this."

"Kepa, this isn't ALL on y-"

"I didn't ask for your opinion!" Kepa suddenly yelled, the sheer strength in her voice was enough to make the water inside the glass, next to Lash, to vibrate. Kepa flattened her ears and stabbed her grieving, hardened gaze tight into Lash's in full desperation, "Please give me an hour."

"It's yours," Lash reiterated nervously, he cocked an eyebrow and glanced at the closed door behind Kepa.

"Thank you," Kepa whimpered as she took a step back and gave Lash one last look, a look that harbored a slivered shred of love, she shook her head and finally turned heel, "I'll... I'll be back."

Lash exhaled a long, trembling breath as Kepa swung open his office door and vanished, the last thing seen was the lithe slither of her gorgeous tail. Lash sagged his shoulders and shook his head in the now detrimental stab of new information nailed to his forehead, he sagged his face into his hands and grimaced a gentle noise of grief as the papers sagged to his desk in disarray. He croaked a quiet noise of continued sorrow as his elbows splayed to his messy work desk, he shook his head and now understood that this element of betrayal was due to rattling the palace nearly at its core. With Rancis being Zed's right hand man, with Callum being now in deeper shit than Lash could even begin to comprehend, he was almost grateful Kepa was en-route to beating him up first and giving Lash the hour to really think about how to move forward with this news. Dread continued to thump through his veins like molasses, he tossed his exhausted gaze across his office and wondered how the hell he'd ever make it out of this, with the sheer force behind this hit, Lash squeezed his eyes shut and understood that nothing in his life would ever be bright and beautiful ever again.


Callum raised an eyebrow in almost annoyed curiosity as his phone lit up, though as he lurched from his sit on the couch, he furrowed his brow, brought his phone closer to him and read a text message from Flint, the only two words Callum was genuinely stunned to see splashed across his screen, 'Gideon won.' Callum clutched the chest of his shirt in an almost blood-drain of cold, dreaded shock, he nearly grinned in maniacal delight and began to dart his eyes about his living room. He knew now was his time to move into action, his plan of preparing for Gideon to potentially come home and plan his take over was now working in Callum's favor. He grinned, pumped his fist, danced in a skip of a hop into his kitchen, though flinched as something out of his big, balcony bay windows caught his eye. He sucked in a breath of frozen terror as Sugar Rush's cold, haunting moonlight caught with a frozen, winged figure stood dead in the center of Callum's balcony, out near the edge. Callum eyed it in dreaded suspicion and did whatever he could to deduce if this was one of the flyers, though taking note that this individual was much smaller than any of the flyers on palace grounds, Callum grit his teeth in a rush of protectiveness and grappled for one of his swords that laid fresh and sharpened on his lower dining room table.

With a rush and a push of heightened defenses, Callum popped out of his balcony's large sliding door, he jolted in shock as he came to realize that this figure, about twenty feet across the gorgeous splay of moon kissed balcony, was a stone gargoyle. Callum's mind ran a million miles an hour, he knew, full well, Gideon's girlfriend was a gargoyle, and though he had never seen her before, he quickly understood that this was probably Kepa. He furrowed his eyebrows and ran a million different scenarios. He wondered if Kepa would possibly have information for him, if she was here to somehow join Callum in his wild delusions of grandeur, though just as he got within half a dozen feet of Kepa, he opened his mouth to volley her a nervous greeting and was instead met with the pop of life she suddenly deployed. With said pop of life was the unfortunate reality of an immediate fight, she bared her fangs, erupted with a bone-chilling cat scream and took a jump-scare of a lunge straight for Callum, claws and fangs on full display.

Callum sucked in a gasp of terror and managed to tuck and roll to his left. He skid to his knees, got to a crouch of a stand and whirled around just in time to see Kepa skid on all fours, claw his stone tiled balcony to correction and take another agile, snarling lunge straight for Callum, claws and fangs first. Callum huffed a loud utter of desperation and took a solid, educated swing of his sword, though he was entirely jarred out of his movement the second his sword collided with her stone figure. He flinched and took a stumbling step backwards as she popped back to life, from stone, and successfully collided with Callum. Callum uttered a hard noise of full terror as Kepa erupted a core-shaking roar of full fangs into his face, her claws immediately sagged into the tops of his shoulder like butter, the two collapsed to the ground with her wings and tail at full mast, stiff with balance, every single move she made was poised and agile. Callum choked a trembling noise as the back of his head hit the concrete with enough force to kill him, right then and there. He blipped with the obvious game over and came back to the grid, though unfortunately for Kepa, he somehow regenerated a few feet away in a general, normal stand to perfection.

"Stop! STOP!" Callum's deep voice bellowed, and though the two were outside, he took note that his voice seemingly was bouncing around, as if the two were inside of an invisible dome only secured to Callum's balcony.

"Ohh, say it again," Kepa's hoarse voice loudly yelled, her terrifying, crazed eyes held tight to Callum's eyes as her lithe figure nearly pounced in poised readiness to Callum in another lunge of an attack, "BEG for it!"

"Wh-who are you!?" Callum staggered in terror as he urgently tried to flee Kepa's presence with another tuck of a dive, though Kepa firmly swat at his figure and managed to catch him, this time, with her razor-sharp, inch-long daggers of claws.

With such force of a swat, she hooked deep into the meat of Callum's left arm and successfully yanked him back down to the ground. Although not hard enough to give him another game over, he still collided with the concrete with the obvious hit of damaged coding that blipped about with urgency. Callum gasped in terror and watched as Kepa yanked her claws from Callum's arm and pinned both her hands to Callum's shoulders with yet another sink of her readied claws. Callum urgently cried out in agony and squirmed, although he was successful in giving Kepa a difficult time in pining him, he ultimately failed the second the dew claws of her wings shoved Callum's lower arms in a pin to the cold balcony they scuffled on. Callum felt the world spin about him, he was grateful he was inside his own home game, though there was a shred of him that was terrified that this torture was now going to go on for a lot longer than he anticipated.

"I'm EVERYONE!" Kepa screamed down into his face with fangs bared, though with a sudden lurch and a dig deeper of her claws, Callum gurgled a harrowing scream of terrified agony as Kepa dove into Callum's jugular and clamped her fangs down at the center.

Callum's screams were abruptly interrupted as his body writhed and squirmed in the jolt of searing pain, and with a harrowing, snarling growl of a yank, Kepa tossed her head back and managed to rip Callum's jugular wide open, tendons splayed, blood shooting in two different directions. Before she could dive back into her meal, Callum immediately regenerated in a upright stand a few feet away, leaving Kepa to deflate to the ground with the absence of Callum's body underneath her. She splayed her paws and claws out in the tight, snarling inhale of crazed anger as she peered across the balcony and sourced Callum, once more. She dove to a stand and prepared to continue to make Callum's life a living hell, to which she meanly cackled at the sight of Callum's trembling hands clutching his throat in full, traumatized terror. Kepa sprawled her wings, came to a full stand and began to menacingly stomp in Callum's direction, of which Callum began to stumble backwards with his hands drawn out in defeat towards her.

"I'm Gideon, I'm Vanellope, I'm Ralph, I'm Turbotime, I'm Sugar Rush, I'm Fix-It Felix Jr., Castle Run!" Kepa's loud, snarling voice pressed in full dominance as a huge mess of Callum's blood dripped down her face and heaving chest, she shook her head and laid her cross-haired pupils tight into Callum's eyes, he looked absolutely rocked from the face of Arcade, "I'm EVERYONE underneath the palace's reign... I'm Kepa Sezeke Ketton... Your WORST nightmare."

"What the fuck do you want," Callum huffed in a trembling whisper of wide-eyed terror, he dared to mean mug Kepa in the process, though as she drew closer in full preparation to continue her hour-long gift of vengeance, she shook her head and grinned with bloody fangs.

"I want to make your life a living hell," Kepa snarled loudly as her wings remained sprawled to full span, she glowered Callum down and now successfully began to back him into a corner, a balcony wall that met with the wall of his sliding glass door. He sagged into it and began to nervous melt, knowing he had nothing to defend himself with, "You will rue the day you tricked the man I adore into applying to Game Over. You will rue the day you ever had that thought come into your head... You took the ONE home I had and RIPPED it away from me! You will never be safe leaving Sugar Rush, ever again, because the second you step into Arcadia..."

Callum trembled as Kepa drew within inches of his face, the pungent smell of his fresh blood sapped their bubble, his arms and hands visibly shook with terror as Kepa bared her fangs and sharply whispered into Callum's face.

"I'll be there," Kepa stabbed in the hiss of her quiet death sentence. Due to her fervor, her words caused her to spit blood into his face, "Ready to end your life... You ruined mine, so best believe I'll be living the rest of my pitiful days prepared to ruin yours..."

"Gideon won," Callum stabbed quietly as Kepa hung in his face, and though this was brand new information Kepa somehow knew she shouldn't be surprised over, she flinched in the gut-wrenching shock that hit her head on. Callum gently covered his head and began to woefully weep in traumatized terror, "H-He won Game Over... Gideon's alive..."

Kepa tightened her lips, flattened her ears and suddenly thrusted her hand and arm forward with a grapple to the chest of Callum's shirt. He gasped in startled disarray and jolted as Kepa yanked him forward and slammed him back into the corner he was sagging into. She bared her fangs in a grit and continued to sharply whisper into Callum's face.

"His days are no longer numbered, but yours are," Kepa hissed.

"Ruin my life... Spare me the existential bullshit," Callum shakily spat, and though he was becoming brave with his words, Kepa knew turning on him, once more, would have him running with his tail between his legs. Kepa glowered deep into Callum's eyes the second he allowed his snide, callous tone to coat her soul in liquid, poisonous truth, "You know damn well all your secret-keeping wasn't officially awarding you Gideon's feet to be permanently glued to your square on the grid anyways."

"Fuck off," Kepa growled, Callum dared to sneak a cheeky smile.

"You knew Gideon would flee at the knowledge that his girlfriend was Vye Ketton's little sister," Callum's deep, raspy voice muttered, it was here did he cackle a small laugh as Kepa's shoulders sagged in a fur-raising prickle of discovered terror, "Your skeletons are FAR uglier than his... Sure, I aided Gideon to greatness... But your true colors would've only sped it along."

Kepa flattened her ears, shoved Callum to the wall in a firm snarl of a thud and was successful in knocking him into another blip of coded damage. Callum huffed a dry choke and squirmed a little as Kepa kept him pinned to the wall in fervent, trembling frustration.

"My threat still stands... I'm at least grateful you know who's bloodline you're dealing with," Kepa sharply whispered into his face, "The next time you set foot outside of the game... I'll be there... Ready to rip your throat out, once more."

"Noted," Callum muttered in a cynical, though nervous tone, and as Kepa yanked him in a hearty unhand, she took a few steps backwards, sprawled her wings and lifted off in an agile, educated flap.

Callum heavily panted and grappled for his jugular, knowing full well it would take him a very long time to recover from the idea that he was basically eaten alive. Grateful to have regenerated, he watched as Kepa swooped out of sight, around the bend of the palace, and vanished into the night, just as stealthily as she arrived. He glowered down the point in the sky where he saw her last and now understood he had to move quickly so he could successfully free himself from the eventual lay of doom Kepa was about to sic upon him. The entirety of the palace heads, the entirety of every game she mentioned, Callum knew he had a whole entire army against him, and leaving was likely his best bet. With a scuffle of terror, he rushed inside his home, grappled for his phone and began to make an urgent phone call. He tucked the phone to his ear and was grateful said recipient answered, he darkly glowered down the rerun episode of Game Over that played on mute, in his home, his voice crackled with the onset of tears.

"I need to talk with you in private," Callum's voice trembled as the adrenaline rush finally began to escape him, he squeezed his eyes shut and grappled his phone in rising dread, "C-Can you please come over?"

"I'm on my way," Rancis assured, and as both men ended their call, Callum darkly glowered down his television and knew this was only the beginning, this new divergent of his plan was now rapidly set into motion at break-neck speeds he could hardly wrap his brain around.


A/N : I painted a picture of Kepa in this chapter, doing the cute kitty-like things she was doing to Callum lmao. It's on my Twitter if you're interested! If you're sensitive to gore/blood, I suggest maybe not looking at the painting lol.