Reviews :

Snake557 : Oh thank you! Yeah I had to throw in a tiny bit of comedic relief. This season of the saga isn't as heavy as what was previously going on, but yeah... Still feel the need to lighten the load. It eventually gets INCREDIBLY fluffy and fun, I'm still about 35 chapters ahead of you guys. This whole story is a rollercoaster, lets just say that lmao


*Chapter 183*

"It's safe to assume that this is the first time I've ever spent time studying throw up in our lab," Zed mumbled, though he wasn't too thrilled about it, he tossed Gideon a patient smile and made clear, in just his warm expression alone, that this wasn't something Gideon should feel sorry over.

"What did you find?" Vanellope worried, she fingered her lip in constant, anxious lip-nibbling; her, Ralph, their four children, Zed and Lash hovered about the loose kitchen and sitting area Tessa had created for the code room, the cloudy night sky hovered in darkened abyss throughout the magical bobbing of the colorful code boxes easily sanctioned into the glass dome of the code room.

"Well... Just what we suspected," Zed muttered sorrowfully, "It's simply corrupted coding Gideon's body is doing what it can to expel. This code-cycling is obviously inducing this need to get rid of anything toxic. He got reset, replenished with his fresh, original coding, so now his body is doing everything it can to get rid of the nasty, toxic over abundance."

"I know hard drugs isn't enough to corrupt his coding," Lash furrowed his brow in confusion, though in the lazy, alternating toss of eyes in Gideon's direction, Lash softened and peered to Gideon in a swing of hovering, bittersweet curiosity.

Gideon sat at the little, higher bar counter that could easily seat about three. Now dressed in his black hoodie, the code room tether wormed up the back of said hoodie, the messy ruffle of his auburn hair sprout from the forehead of the tighter hood he had drawn up and over his skull. He sat with his elbows on the counter, his big fingers interlaced and pressed up against his mouth, covering half of his face. His half-lidded eyes darkly held in an aimless glower to nowhere in particular, looking forward, a thousand yard stare, and though he was still, his arms, hands, neck and head lightly continued on in steady tremors. Looking a lot better since he arrived, the healed gashes across the right side of his face, paired with his menacing, golden glower, was enough for Lash to silently gulp a terrified swallow. He peered to Gideon in a swing of revisited underestimation he had made throughout their friendship. Now imaging a beast like Gideon powering towards him, in the midst of a killing spree in the beaming arena lights of Game Over, had Lash's spine wiggling at the nightmare of it housed in Gideon's tattooed skin, all sat perfectly still, outside of his light trembling, Gideon looked like a pure vision of nightmarish, villainous glory. Tattoos, piercings, battle-wounds, drug-withdrawn tremors, Lash swallowed another gulp and peeled his eyes away from Gideon's terrifying, darkened aura in the action of not letting too much time pass between his statements.

"Gid, would you have more info on maybe why your coding is corrupted like this? Surely there's more to the story, huh bud," Lash mumbled tenderly to Gideon, though becoming a new norm Gideon was now adamant about not masking anymore, it immediately was clear Gideon wasn't paying attention due to the lack of wavering in his aimless stare across the code room, parting through the big group that lazily stood about in deep conversation.

Lash opened his mouth to remind Gideon that he was spacing out, to which Oliver stiffened, to Gideon's left, and urgently shook his head to Lash in full warning, outside of Gideon's harrowing peripheral. Lash nervously snapped his mouth shut and watched as Oliver cleared his throat, shifted on the stool he sat on directly to Gideon's left and ever so carefully slid his much bigger hand to Gideon's left shoulder. Gideon sucked in a deep breath through his nose, long-blinked and softened said harrowing resting face, he loosened his hands away from his face and donned an innocent draw of gentle eye contact into Oliver's.

"Hey, Gideon? Would you happen to have information on maybe just why your coding is corrupted like this?" Oliver patiently ushered into Gideon's bubble after garnering his full attention in such a way that was tender and lacked jarring sarcasm.

"Y-yeah, it was that fucking hot plate Callum had me pinned to," Gideon's deep voice croaked, he darkly looked about the group, glanced into a few people's eyes and sagged in on himself, once more, though hovered in Oliver's presence, "I felt like I was being baked alive. It was like he carved my powers out of my coding with a rusty spoon. I'm serious, I would've rather been waterboarded."

"I'm thinking that maybe... Although there was still coding in Gideon's body, somehow the removal of his own natural powers was what his coding tried desperately to rewrite, though obviously was unsuccessful," Zed wisely instructed as he pulled down Gideon's code box, from high above, opened the lot of it, brought up a silhouette of Gideon's body and began to point to the lay of circuitry on the diagram. In true fashion to Gideon's body, the circuity lay in unusual, beautiful spirals and swirls as opposed to the stick-straight mainframe of gridding that everyone else's coding had, "On TOP of trauma, drug abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse... His coding did everything to fill the gaps only using what it had to work with. Corrupted coding at its finest."

"But... Not enough to be a virus," Koko chimed confusedly.

"Viruses develop through the brain coding," Gideon snipped darkly as he returned to lacing his fingers and skulking his darkened eye contact across the group.

"Guess we can add another myth in the bin... Corrupted gamer coding, lack of swapping with a swap-mate, neither of those things turn you into a virus," Tessa mumbled as she rubbed her forehead in exhaustion.

"It takes a sick individual to literally rob you of your powers, that's not just simply robbing me of my intact coding... That's ripping the ability from my very coded DNA and playing jump rope with it," Gideon muttered, he side-eyed the few individuals to his right and meanly concluded, "You all think maybe issues start with stressor points or the sexual health of swapped, reproductive coding, but it starts in the brain. Trust me."

"Why would Callum do this," Tessa huffed in aimless frustration, though Gideon stiffened with life, hot, spitfire outbursts that consumed him due to his trembling bouts of withdrawals.

"I want EACH of you guys to really sit and marinate in the idea that you are born without powers and are thrusted into a group of royals who DO have powers," Gideon's deep voice began to grow in strength, although his hands and arms shook, he firmly stabbed his big pointer finger into the counter below him and cockily leaned into his words, "Sure, I hate Callum for EVERYTHING he's ever done to me. Everything... But, it wasn't until that moment that my fucking BRAIN was being torn wide open and fried like an egg, did I truly understand the depth of his pain."

Everyone fell silent and nervously peered to Gideon in held breath, as if to hope Gideon didn't run away with the rising anger that was becoming of him. Oliver was brave enough to rest his hand to Gideon's larger left shoulder, as if to silently request that Gideon at least attempt to keep his temper under control. Gideon sucked in a shaky breath, his skull continued to shake, the visual of his golden eyes on fire through the harrowing gashes on his face had everyone as still as statues. Gideon fervently thud the tip of his bigger pointer finger into the counter, once more, for emphasis.

"It's far deeper than my own pain," Gideon's voice pressed, he narrowed his eyes and meanly continued on with whispery emphasis, "I had outlets. I had art, I had a best friend out of Lash, I had a wonderful romance out of Kepa... Callum? Guess who Callum had."

"Callum had us," Tessa worried sorrowfully, though she sharply flinched in a suck of a small gasp and scrunched shoulders the second Gideon slammed his fist down to the counter with the sheer swat of the strength in his muscles, thankfully excluding any wrecking power.

"Oh will you FUCK. OFF!" Gideon suddenly bellowed, his raspy voice pierced the code room, the boxes above reverberated with the power, though Zed sharpened his glower and gave Gideon a threatening look.

"Hey, HEY," Zed stiffened, and though he remained where he stood, he squinted in Gideon's direction and was grateful to keep Gideon's explosive eye contact, "Not only is she your sister, she's my wife. Our Queen. Show her and the women in this room some respect and watch your tone and choice of words."

"I know you're angry, but your sister means well, we're all on the same side here, you don't need to be mean," Ralph grumbled as he, too, eyed Gideon, all men in the group now fervently glowered Gideon down as if to warn him to be nice, though Gideon fought back with a deep inhale and knew not to back down.

"I don't care if anyone here means well, I'm sure ALL of you meant well when contributing to my mess of problems," Gideon loudly argued, "Does that make ANY of you right? No! Not even a little! You're WRONG! Callum had no one but Flint!"

"Gideon's right, even if your delivery could ease up a bit, bud," Vanellope murmured in dreadful remorse as she crossed her arms and looked down, "Rancis and I have discussed this... Many a-ball was dropped, guys."

"And I KNOW what you guys are going to say, I can practically TASTE it," Gideon squeezed his eyes closed in the hiss of sarcastic whispering as he gestured to his pierced mouth, he carried on in full-mocking of the majority of the beings about him, "Oh! But he had our numbers! He could've called us at any time!"

Everyone was silent, everyone knew that arguing Gideon wouldn't be wise, and with the floor given, he sharply carried on.

"That's not how that works. That's not how any of this works," Gideon fervently shoved his bigger fingers into his broad sternum and then firmly gestured to both of his parents, "None of us self-programmed kids asked to be put on this planet. NONE of us had a say in our creation. It is SOLELY the parent's job to keep tabs on their kin."

Everyone continued in their stiffened roll of silence, nervous eyes were sagged to Ralph and Vanellope, and in this proxy, Taffyta and Rancis were thrown into this equation. Gideon finally grunted a hearty chuckle and waggled his pointer finger in a matter-of-fact type of way.

"Y'know, I'm glad I've held out on code swapping or bringing children into this world, and part of me feels awful saying this, but I am FLOORED to have bad examples to look up to," Gideon meanly stabbed, "Sure, lessons are learned, we're all navigating our way back to sugar clouds and rainbow ponies... But I am so fortunate that I have these shitty experiences. My children will be treated VASTLY different than I was treated."

"What are you trying to say?" Tessa muttered in mean return, she crossed her arms and now began to grow defensive of her's and Oliver's parenting, as well as Ralph and Vanellope's, "You're saying a LOT to half the people in this room, you saying we're bad examples as parents?"

"It's not about you guys as parents, as a whole. It's not in the bad examples that happened... It's the good examples that were absent," Gideon sharply delivered, he quickly eyed everyone in the group and thwarted further arguing from the lot of everyone, "Callum and I were neglected... Prior to this mess of Game Over, I would very proudly proclaim that I had it worse. After seeing him for the first time at the arena? After feeling him take my powers for his own gain? That takes the mindset of a truly, horribly neglected person at their root... That's saying something, I murdered thirty-seven people."

"Your moves were made inside a sick and twisted game others consented to," Lash mumbled in gentle agreeing as him and Gideon tightly caught eyes, "Callum robbed you blind, likely no remorse."

"He sent me off to be tortured, Vye took me to a red room, you want to know what tools I saw hanging on the wall?" Gideon firmly gestured to his chest and then outwards, as if to recall the horrors of said red room, "Sounding tools, gags, saws, heavy-duty restraints. Something that would be live-streamed. SOUNDING. Do any of you guys even know that that is?!"

Tessa nervously glossed her eyes about the group, as did Koko, Vanellope and Oliver, and though Lash regretfully expanded his chest to speak, Gideon sharply carried on.

"I can promise you that's NOT something I would've consented to. The room? NOTHING was off limits," Gideon's hands trembled, he glared everyone down and circled around, "Callum knew what he was doing. My thirty-seven kills were quick deliverances... Kills that weren't innocent lives, we signed up to murder. Callum robbed me of my powers and then shipped my decaying body off to be tortured with a cold-hearted smile on his face. I'm sorry, I need you to REALLY think long and hard about the fact that this singular individual came from SUGAR RUSH."

Vanellope covered her face, heaved a tired sigh and began to crumple with teary exhaustion over the idea of betrayal, innocent lives neglected, Gideon shoved his pointer finger back to the counter and sharply continued on.

"Not only that, but he is PURELY Sugar Rush. Thoroughbred, a sweet and innocent little sugary game produced likely the scariest thing next to Flint, next to me," Gideon growled, Lash shrugged and looked about to everyone, as well.

"Everything Gideon's saying checks out. Sezeke and I have gone into thorough detail about Flint and is deeds... This all lines up," Lash muttered regrettably, Gideon tossed Lash a small look of tepid gratitude for having his back in this conversation.

"I just want to know how we break this to Rancis," Vanellope worried, though Zed heaved a nervous sigh and looked down to his feet.

"I hate to say this, but... Rancis knows," Zed muttered, nearly everyone stiffened.

"Rancis KNEW about this?" Vanellope pleaded, Zed shrugged and gave Vanellope an apologetic look of despair.

"It's why he's been temporarily removed, it's why he doesn't live on palace grounds anymore," Zed stated quietly, Vanellope and Koko sharply caught eyes in surprise as Zed warmly continued on, "There was that knee-jerk reaction to defend Callum, but... Lash gave him a good throw around, and then the knowledge of Kepa murdering Callum twice somehow got back to Rancis-"

"Whoa, wait, WHAT?" Gideon erupted into a huge grin of stunned delight as he dart his eyes to Lash and then back to Zed, though Lash bugged his eyes and looked down.

"Gideon... I'm telling you, you're fucked. That cat came back to Thunderbird Arena soaked in Callum's blood from snout to torso," Lash erupted into nervous chuckling as everyone else also cooed into notions of mild terror, to which Gideon sagged and gave Lash a bewildered grin of blistered, twisted gratitude.

"Sh-she went after Callum? For me?" Gideon gawked gently, Lash furrowed his brow and guffawed at Gideon.

"She, quite literally, tore his jugular out, no exaggeration... That cat went to war for you," Lash muttered, he rolled his eyes and firmly gestured to Gideon, "And now I have to reset myself like five times whenever I visit you, I went home yesterday and she kept sniffling at my shirt, thinking she caught your scent..."

"Rancis knows the root of this WHOLE issue is not only Flint, but now Callum," Zed stated after a moment of tender gawking from Gideon, "Beyond that... The palace's massive misstep. This COULD have been avoided."

"Well, now what? Rancis just has to grieve the loss of Callum for good, even though he's alive?" Vanellope worried, "There's no hope that Callum will wise up and come home?"

"If he comes home, it won't be for the reasons I did," Gideon muttered nervously, "I thought I wanted vengeance and justice until I had a bigger taste of it, until it was right in my hands... I eventually felt genuine remorse. If Callum can rob my body of coding, ship me off and not think twice? Not even feel a shred of sorrow? Yeah... Uncle Rancis is going to have to grieve the loss. There is little to no hope for Callum. Flint has him wrapped around his finger."

"I'm about to go all Game Over on Flint, myself," Tessa sharply muttered as she crossed her arms in her lean against the kitchen counter, the group roused into agreeing.

"Maybe one day," Gideon darkly dared, the kiss of a threat he was eager to put out into the universe, suddenly sights reversed from being set to everyone who ever wronged him, inside Sugar Rush, to the lubricant of this whole mess, the common denominator in everything horrible Sugar Rush has seen yet, Flint and any comrade he dragged along with him.