Reviews :

Snake557 : Yeahhh... All is quiet, for now, but it eventually gets a bit hairy, in reference to a target now being on Sugar Rush... Thanks for keeping up, friend :) Means a lot to me.


Song Listened To :

Stop This Train by John Mayer


*Chapter 174*

Vanellope felt exhaustion plague her, though the second her consciousness returned to the backs of her pink eyelids, she held her breath and firmly fluttered her eyes in full remembrance of the night prior. She flinched and came face to face the raw image of Gideon's new face, though as the image hit her brain, she continued to hold her breath and allowed every single wave of emotion hit her dead on. Initial sorrow segued into relief, right into joy and firmly plowed into heartache that made her eyes well with tears. The three silently had snoozed with each other into the later hours of the morning, and it was only now did Vanellope feel fervent gratitude that today was a Sunday, the raw fact that no one had to jump up and leave was what had Vanellope melting back into the snuggle pile that she was so grateful that it included Gideon. Ralph laid on his back on their couch's massive sectional with Gideon nearly on top of him, the only part of Gideon's body that wasn't sagged into Ralph's comfortable, huge front was the lazy drape of his legs. Both men heavily snoozed, their mouths agape, steady, thick, big inhales, Vanellope fluttered her eyes and urgently glued this image to her brain as she snuggled into Ralph's side.

Never taking another single second of Gideon's presence for granted, she took this time to really assess Gideon in the silence. Ralph and Vanellope had successfully laid Gideon's wounds with bandages, including the ones on his face, save for his lip. Dressed in a clean pair of lazy cotton blue shorts and a loose tank top, so not to restrict or constrain his bandages, he was cleaned and void of blood or dirt. Although clean, his whole body was riddled with terrifyingly gnarly bruises, of which Vanellope's eyes nervously trailed to the bend of Gideon's left arm, visible to her. It was ruined with injection sites, and as Vanellope's teary, crumpling though silent disposition reached her hand to so carefully stroke Gideon's arm, she desperately tried not to come unglued with the harrowing idea that Gideon had been abusing drugs while he was gone. Eternally grateful they had him in their grasps, she relished in the bold, striking kiss of his powerful tattoos all splayed along his back, neck, shoulders and face, even the piercings on his face were strategically placed, a walking piece of art that Vanellope was happily growing to appreciate. Expressive, daring and unique, Vanellope wiped her tears and finally moved her hand to so lovingly stroke and comb through Gideon's wild, auburn hair on the side of his head.

After about ten minutes of her loving hand combing through Gideon's clean hair, he finally inhaled a deep, reviving inhale and scrunched his face in the tender arrival of his consciousness. She had been staring headlong into the innocent gape of his plump lips, the way his methodical breathing cutely matched Ralph's and the way his jaw and face was smooshed into Ralph's broad chest, Vanellope felt her heart jump the second his golden eyes squinted open in a flutter. He stiffened in preparation to jolt upwards, though Vanellope was grateful his eyes sharply caught with hers and eagerly halted the only mere inch of movement he made. With a huge, heavy sigh of relief, he fluttered his eyes closed and flopped back into Ralph's chest with a drape, of which Vanellope happily smiled to through her tears. Vanellope eased a steady breath and felt a billion questions rush her mind, a billion that had to do with Gideon's escape and experiences, though she wondered if starting out fresh and light was a better option. With love, she continued to stroke his head in firm pets, stroking in which he happily succumbed to in the form of his eyes sagging closed in relief. Unfortunately, now that he was awake, his tremors set back in. His head began to just barely involuntarily shake, as if to silently say 'no', semi-permanent quaking Vanellope was hoping resetting him would fix; this also included his hands and arms.

"I like your piercings," Vanellope whispered lovingly, her heart leaped clear out of her chest as he afforded her a gentle smile, though he winced once his split lip stretched, due to said smile. She inhaled a trembling breath and watched as he grimaced and settled, once more, though his golden eyes pierced hers with every ounce of fiery love he had to offer, still lazy and heavy with slumber, "I'll bet they hurt, huh..."

"Like a bitch," Gideon's voice hoarsely and silently croaked, to which Vanellope blurt a trembling giggle amidst the lull close of his eyes and a knowing little smirk.

"Looks good," Vanellope continued to whisper due to Ralph being asleep, "Your tattoos, too. Crazy clean lines."

"Jukkit," Gideon mumbled in whispering, bittersweet sorrow. He sighed and aimlessly peered to his father's upper arm as he remained lazily slumped into Ralph's body, "Game Over's third winner... His tattoo work was impeccable. I'm a testament to it."

"Did you make friends with all the winners?" Vanellope asked kindly; not even hardly a joyous conversation she wanted to be having with Gideon, though connecting with him in this moment of sunny, Sunday morning, quiet love was what was most important to her in this instance.

"Yeah, I did, they're all... Really wonderful people, ironically," Gideon huffed a trembling little whimper as his eyes welled with tears. He long-blinked said tears down his cheeks, to which Vanellope's tender hair-stroking now moved to his cheek to catch his falling tears.

"Not ironic... You're one of the winners, and you're a wonderful person," Vanellope whispered as his wet, golden eyes pierced hers in apologetic, adoring disbelief. He finally heaved a hot sigh through his nose and sagged in full defeat as Vanellope wrinkled her nose and leaned a bit deeper into his face, "Admit it."

"Maybe later," Gideon grunted quietly, though Ralph suddenly was the one to suck in a long, steady, thick inhale of revived consciousness and maneuver his big hand in the jar to want to roll over, though swiftly stopped himself, popped his eyes open and suddenly clammed his big hand about Gideon's broad upper back in frozen remembrance. Gideon grunted a whispery chuckle and grimaced, "Please don't crush me dad, I'm still here."

"Last night wasn't a dream," Ralph groaned quietly in relief, he sagged back to his positioning and firmly began to rub his face, though he closed his eyes in sweet, snuggly remembrance and cupped his huge hand about Gideon's upper back, once more, officially snugging him tight into his body, "Thank User..."

"How are you feeling?" Vanellope tenderly wondered, birds could be heard happily chirping outside.

"I-I'm okay... For not having my coding or powers, that is," Gideon staggered in a croak, to which Ralph furrowed his brow and angled his head so to catch with Vanellope.

"You don't have your powers?" Vanellope worried, she only barely began to collect herself to a sit.

She groaned, adjusted herself on the couch and cutely watched as Ralph and Gideon began to do what they could to make very slow work of sitting up. Ralph utilized both of his hands to ever so carefully press them into Gideon's shoulders without hurting his bandaged gashes, and as both men climbed to a slow, groaning sit, Ralph aided Gideon in getting situated where Ralph's feet previously were laid. Gideon huffed a trembling breath and now sat upright in a sag against the bend of the couch in normality, now sitting adjacent to Ralph and Vanellope. His tremor shaking now began to become a bit more apparent, though it was clear he was in much better spirits than last night. Gideon sighed and opened his palm, of which heavily quaked. He grimaced and shook his head as his sorrowful gaze peered down to his opened, weakened palm.

"Glitching, wrecking, manifesting... It's all gone," Gideon stated in a downswing of dread, though Vanellope shook her head and nervously shrug.

"Obviously not right this second, but... Surely once you're willing to be reset, your powers will come back, right?" Vanellope glanced to Ralph's sleepy eyes for approval, to which he shrugged and nodded as if that was a no brainer.

"I guess I'm not so much worried about never getting my powers back, I'm... I-I'm more worried about who CURRENTLY has my powers," Gideon's voice was deep and raspy, tired and overused. He looked a bit brighter due to getting a decent night's sleep, though it was obvious he was desperately in need of a reset.

"Who?" Ralph worried, to which Gideon grit his teeth and felt dread continue to climb over Sugar Rush.

"Callum," Gideon concluded, to which Ralph sucked in a huge breath, looked off and finally covered his face in equal dreaded realization. Vanellope held the sides of her head and peered into Gideon's eyes in a swing of terror, to which Gideon choked a dark chuckle and shook his head, "Lemme tell you... Seeing Callum as I was pinned to the platform that was robbing me of my coding last night? Seeing HIM run that operation? Yeah, never in a million years expected it."

"He's been gone for nearly as long as you have, you only JUST ran into him?" Ralph staggered in full confusion, Gideon furrowed his brow and long-blinked in equal confusion.

"Yeah, yesterday, I had ZERO idea he was there consorting with Flint and such," Gideon's voice trembled as his shaking continued on, he struggled to swallow and did everything he could to sit still, "I-I don't want anyone to see me, like this, but... Maybe if you want to warn the Users that Callum's behind this bullshit. Dunno how or when or... W-Well, I know why."

"Why?" Vanellope begged nervously, Gideon furrowed his eyebrows and shrugged.

"The same reason I left, I had a chip on my shoulder," Gideon darkly grumbled, to which Ralph and Vanellope now nervously pumped the brakes on this conversation. Gideon eyed them for a moment before shrugging and looking off in defeat, "Guess Callum's chip was bigger than mine. Who'da'thunk."

"Are we in danger because you're here?" Vanellope's voice grew stern and serious, and it was only here did Gideon succumb to her motherly authority with softened eye contact.

"... To be honest, I'm not sure," Gideon mumbled with a hopeful shrug, "Vye handed me over to Kepa's mother, who was the one that escaped with me. Her escape was quiet, from what she told me. They gave me to Vye with the idea that I was gunna be taken away for questioning and torture, but then-"

"What? Why?" Ralph grunted quietly, riled protectiveness he had over Gideon which was now due to multiplying tenfold.

"I-I begged to leave," Gideon murmured shyly, he innocently peered to his mother and father and was glad this gave them delighted, bittersweet pause, "I... I realized what an idiot I was. I'm really REALLY fucking pissed at every single last one of you, but I just... Woke up."

"You have every right to be angry," Vanellope mumbled nervously, she knew explosions of conversations would be due, though she began to panic, "Gideon, y-you're not gunna leave again, are you? Please... You have every right to be angry with us, but please let us solve it with you, please..."

"N-No, I'm... I'm here," Gideon mumbled, almost in regret, as if to make clear he wanted to be loud and proud about the idea that they could potentially lose him, once more, though he knew that at this point, it'd be a bluff, a mean one at that. He heaved a trembling sigh and knew toying with their emotions, in this instance, wasn't needed. Anger was allowed, though he bobbed an affirming nod and lulled his tired eyes closed, "I don't want to leave ever again... I had my fun. I'm here, just... Incredibly angry."

"Okay," Vanellope whimpered as tears escaped her, she used her hoodie sleeves to wipe her tears as Ralph lovingly reached for her and rubbed her shoulder in understanding, "We love you... We'll solve this together, okay?"

"I love you guys too," Gideon assured with a nod and another sigh, as if to show a swing of relief; it was here did Vanellope feel brave.

"Gideon... Please let me wrangle your siblings in and let them know you're home," Vanellope pleaded, she was floored that Gideon only cocked an eyebrow and peered his haunting golden gaze tight to hers and patiently allowed her room to present her shivering ideas, "I won't tell anyone else you're here, and I'll let them know to keep it to themselves, as well... We just HAVE to get you reset, bud, you're trembling and shivering over there, I don't think it's good to be sitting inside a shell of coding, like this."

"Yeah," Gideon whispered with a nervous nod as he lulled his eyes closed and accepted defeat, "Just the three... I guess it'd be wise to tell Zed, too. Can I ask a favor, though?"

"Anything," Vanellope assured, Gideon sighed and struggled to keep his lungs functioning properly.

"It'd be best if you also told Lash... I-I have no clue where Kepa is, in all of this, but I'm BEGGING you guys not to tell her I'm home," Gideon whimpered, his eyes immediately filled with tears, his lip quivered as so much of the thought of Kepa destroyed him, "I CANNOT have her see me like this, right now... I don't want to hurt her anymore than I already have. I want to see her soon, but just not right now. The only reason I want you telling Lash is because he's skilled with his User abilities... If there's ANY way he can cloak mine and Elkuorra's coding, somehow, that needs to be done, just in case."

"Who?" Ralph prod kindly, Gideon wiped his unwounded cheek and hiccuped a small cry as he tried to answer.

"Kepa's mother, she's... She's taken refuge in Orion City, we need to bring her to the palace," Gideon staggered through tears, and though Gideon had mentioned Kepa's mother once or twice now, it only just now hit Ralph's and Vanellope's tired brains.

"Elkuorra," Ralph hissed in an swing of uprising shock, him and Vanellope bugged their eyes and peered firmly into each other's bewildered gazes, "Sezeke's gunna FLIP."

"Who?" Gideon now volleyed, Ralph blurt a chuckle and grinned.

"Kepa's father," Ralph rattled, to which Gideon inhaled a stagger of a breath and became more animated than they had seen of him, this whole time.

"I-I'm sorry, WHAT?" Gideon erupted, he sat up a bit, though in getting animated, the tremble in his neck and head only got worse, to which he grimaced and rubbed his forehead.

"Yeah, uh... LOTS going on, on our end," Vanellope muttered through a giggle as she grunted to a stand in preparation to go to Tessa's, rally her other children and brief them on everything going on; Gideon sagged in on himself in full, terrified dread and bugged his eyes as he looked off.

"... Oh, shit, that man is going to beat my ass, isn't he," Gideon whispered in full terror, to which Ralph now fully erupted into knowing laughter and bobbed a nod.

"Bud, there's no rage like a father having to endure his daughter's heartbreak," Ralph was almost blistered in this joy, something that had Gideon narrowing his gaze in still dreaded, terrified frustration, "That man is incredibly kind, but... Yeah, you're in for it."

"Fuck," Gideon whispered in a hiss of sagging defeat as Vanellope eased a shaky giggle and began to step away, so to tidy her hair and prepare to leave and quickly return.

"I'll be back with Tessa, Oliver, Koko and Zed," Vanellope cued with a nod as Ralph struggled to get to a stand with the usher of kind words in Gideon's direction.

"Alright, bud, let's take off your bandages and let your wounds breathe, clean them up a bit," Ralph instructed, he held his hand out and down to Gideon's figure in preparation to help him to a stand, "I know you're gunna be reset soon, but... This reunion could end up taking awhile, if I know you kids like I think I do."