Reviews :

Snake557 : YES me too! This chapter does Gideon in, y'all will have to wait until next Monday unfortunately but it's SO CLOSE! They went, what, over 30 chapters apart. I think that's why I pumped out SO many chapters ahead of you guys, it was because I missed writing for the both of them together and was desperate to get to it haha.

chuckiboo : You know just what to say to make me feel like a trillion bucks. Thank you SO MUCH! Yeah, the whole Flint/Callum debacle spans the next 2 stories and gets progressively uglier and uglier. You'll get more tastes of it towards the ending of FG but yeah... It all runs much deeper than I've lead on, so far. Much like Lash/Turbo/Radex were the main issue for the first three(ish) stories, Flint and crew (and new ocs tba) are at the root... Far below the surface.


Song Listened To :

Color Sky by Ben Prunty


T/W :This chapter contains descriptions of vomiting


*Chapter 185*

An hour or so after game day, the code room murmured with life. Ace and Lash had returned to the code room, like promised, a date night Gideon wasn't technically too thrilled about. Although previously eager to rid himself of this nasty leftover coding, he now eased his shifty eye contact between both Ace and Lash as they cutely conversed with Tessa and Oliver. Koko only briefly stopped by earlier in the day, it was becoming clear that she was having to keep a wide berth from Sugar Rush, and from Gideon, due to Kepa and Sezeke now becoming mildly suspicious. The act of needing to be hard-reset with each visit, due to Sezeke and furthermore Kepa likely being able to pick up on Gideon's scent, Koko figured she'd only be briefly visiting, from here on out. Not something Gideon was technically too bent out of shape over, he squeezed his eyes shut in harrowing dread and was adamant about getting better. He wondered if this trick would even work, he knew the last time he was able to expel so much coding was due to his horrific nightmares and hallucinations right upon waking up, though he further pondered if both things maybe went hand it hand, if either the corrupted coding cued the hallucinations or if the hallucinations cued the expel of said corrupted coding. Before Gideon could get lost in the harrowing idea of being technically induced to ridding himself of this nastiness once and for all, Lash's phone suddenly started to ring.

"It's probably Mara, she wants to see Gideon so badly," Ace cutely mumbled as Lash pulled his phone from his pocket, smiled down to the caller ID in full nonchalance and jostled his phone a little.

"Oh, it's Kepa," Lash chirped cutely, though just as he hit the green button on the touchscreen of his phone, to answer the call, he bugged his eyes in sharp remembrance as he fervently stared headlong into Gideon's equally as stunned gaze.

"K-Kepa?" Tessa barely mouthed as she gently held the sides of her head, she dart her eyes to Gideon and then sharply to Lash as everyone froze, Lash huffed a shaky breath and urgently tucked the phone to his ear.

"Hey, Kip," Lash stated in very believable nonchalance.

"Hey, do you happen to know where Gideon's red hoodie went?" Kepa urged nervously, Lash furrowed his eyebrows in a swing of bittersweet delight and peered into Gideon's eyes in a sweep of floored stun; Gideon was sat stiff, his eyes had never peered harder into Lash's in full, dire curiosity, and though Lash wanted to turn around and very quickly conclude this private call with Kepa, he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.

"Hang on Kepa, sorry, gimme just a second, I have bad reception, lemme step outside," Lash smoothly fibbed, though as he pulled his phone away from his head, he swiftly muted himself and glossed his eyes about the group, though ultimately tight into Gideon's eyes, "Bud, you uh... You want me to put the call on speaker?"

"No," Gideon huffed in full terror, though he urgently shook his head and grit his teeth, "Yes... No. I-I..."

"You don't have to say anything," Ace cooed with a cute shrug.

"He probably SHOULDN'T say anything," Oliver grunted a chuckle, Lash gestured to the phone and gave Gideon an apologetic, loving little smile.

"...At least hear her voice," Lash's deep, lovely tone encouraged, a step in the right direction, and though Gideon held his breath and felt as if he didn't even deserve this, he squeezed his eyes shut and understood this was something he was desperate for, to so much as hear her lovely words, her adorable antics, just what could possibly be on her heart right this second.

"Yeah, I-I'd like that," Gideon whimpered nervously as he rubbed his temples, grit his teeth and now braced to become unglued all in the act of needing to keep silent; Lash bobbed a nod, gently unmuted himself and then put Kepa on speakerphone.

"Okay, sorry, User... There's certain parts of the palace that have terrible signal," Lash stated down to his phone, to Kepa, he winced a little and peered deep into Gideon's bewildered, readied gaze, "Sorry, what were you asking again?"

"I-I've searched the common room high and low, I can't seem to find Gideon's red hoodie anywhere," Kepa whimpered, it sounded as if she was beginning to want to come unglued; such a huge hit of words had Gideon immediately grimacing into a well of tears as he pressed his elbows onto the dining room table he sat at and hung his head in full, bittersweet dread. Kepa's teary words continued on, "My dad previously threatened to wash it, you guys aren't conspiring against me, are you?"

"No, you're so funny," Lash choked a laugh and lovingly smiled down into his phone, "I think Mara put it in our mudroom for safe keeping, you fell asleep in the common room last night and I think Sezeke just forgot to grab it. Mara has it, don't worry."

"You're p-positive?" Kepa staggered nervously, Gideon sucked in a huge breath and almost couldn't bear it.

"Yes, I promise, Mara has it. Unwashed," Lash stated in assured warmth, Kepa could be heard heaving a huge, nasally sigh.

"...I think my dad is doing everything he can to leave it in someone else's hands to wash," Kepa whispered cutely, to which Lash erupted into happy laughter, such laughter that eventually got a nasally chuckle out of Kepa's adorable voice, such laughter that had Gideon near-grinning through his tears, "That's all I was calling for. Y'guys have been in and out of Sugar Rush a ton lately, is everything okay? Even Mara keeps acting like the palace is the new place to be, or something."

"Yeah, everything's fine, Taffyta and Vanellope have been in and out of speaking terms and things are just flaring up, old news, y'know how it goes," Lash mumbled in warm regret, an act he had to diligently keep up, "Y'doing okay? Don't you and your dad have plans with Beaux?"

"Yeah, Beaux got a new board game," Kepa mused, she almost seemed uninterested, "I was just headed there but couldn't find Gideon's hoodie."

"Yeah, just text Mara, she's got it for yah," Lash warmly assured, to which he thought the call would then shortly end; it was something he was almost hoping for, due to the way Gideon was now becoming lost in silent, teary grimacing.

"... Lash, for the past two nights now, I've been having these AWFUL nightmares," Kepa started in concerned frustration; Gideon sucked in a trembling breath as his face was flood with tears, just so much as hearing her sweet musings, the kiss of her lovely voice through his head, his heart throbbed in patient wait for this phone call to end so he could erupt from the code room like a missile into the sky. Kepa nervously continued on, "There's like this HUGE pit of lava and... User, I just keep coming back to that nasty image of Callum on his balcony. But there's so much lava, like, SO much of it."

Gideon raised his eyebrows and felt his mouth hang open in a gape of stun. He bravely scoffed a shaky little whisper of a noise as him, Oliver and Tessa urgently peered into each other's eyes in full, equal stun. Lash cocked an eyebrow and felt the sweep of stun coat the room in silence as Kepa's dainty, shaking voice continued on.

"A-and then like... I wake up feeling insanely nauseous, like there's cement in my stomach," Kepa continued on, Gideon now covered his face and almost couldn't bear her connecting dots any longer.

"Are you gunna be alright? What's that all about?" Lash cooed in forced concern, though he, too, looked about the group before him in shock that Kepa was most definitely picking up on all of the energy Gideon was outputting.

"I have no clue, I just hope it ends soon," Kepa whimpered nervously, "I-I might need another code alignment later, if you're willing. My gut keeps telling me something's up, but I have genuinely no clue what it is."

"Yeah, sounds just like you need an alignment, grief comes about in stages and affects different parts of the body in different ways," Lash soothed, and though he wasn't wrong, he did absolutely everything he could to keep the idea that she was spot on under wraps. Gideon urgently wiped his face and looked as if he was due to becoming animated with purpose, shortly, and with such, Lash felt the urge to kick this all into high gear and get off the phone with Kepa, "I'll be back in Turbotime within the hour, y'want me to just text you when I'm on my way back?"

"Yeah, that'd be great, I'll be with dad and Beaux until then," Kepa stated warmly, although faint, Gideon could practically hear the smallest little smile from her words, "Thanks, Lash."

"'Course, buddy. Love you," Lash murmured warmly.

"Love you," Kepa concluded tenderly, though as Lash hung up the call and all eyes drew to Gideon, he sucked in a huge breath and fervently allowed his brain to record that last sound byte of Kepa's warm words, the announcement of love he was desperate for; without missing a beat, he drew to a stand and wiped his soaked face with the collar of his shirt.

"Yeah, that... That did it," Gideon whimpered, and though he tried to collect himself, he knew it was all downhill from here, "Get this shit outta me, my goal is to see her tonight and no later."

"I KNEW that'd work," Tessa hissed a whisper, though Lash and Ace stiffened into motion as Gideon began to animate into action, as proverbially promised.

"I-I don't care how violent it is, I don't care what has to happen, I'm done sulking and allowing this to hold me captive," Gideon staggered as he powered on towards the bathroom, to which Lash and Ace now had to jolt into step to keep up.

"Uhh, I guess we'll be back," Lash staggered through nervous laughter back to Tessa and Oliver, and though they stayed back with small, nervous waves across the code room, Tessa and Oliver diligently opened up all three men's code boxes so to spot both Users in on this drama, in case they needed extra back up.

"We'll be here," Tessa mused nervously, and as Ace, Lash and Gideon piled into the bigger bathroom, across the code room, her and Oliver nervously peered into each other's eyes, "Sh-should I sound proof the bathroom?"

"... Likely," Oliver grit his teeth in dread.

"Do we need to save anymore samples or did Zed have enough?" Lash wondered nervously as their voices bounced about their now glossy-tiled surroundings; a pristine white bathroom that mocked the code room in easy simplicity, the tether in Gideon's spine blipped through the ceiling and continued to cater to his code-cycling, now about to be put into overdrive.

"No, dad said he has more than enough to test. I visited with him earlier this evening, he said Gideon can just to throw it up into the toilet like normal," Ace stated knowingly as Gideon urgently knelt next in front of the toilet and peered headlong into the clean water with a sting of dread, though he ran on the adrenaline rush of wanting this nastiness out of his system, once and for all.

"Y-You guys don't need to brief me, I don't care what happens, I have to get to Kepa, just do whatever you need to do," Gideon whimpered through tears that continued on, and though Lash sucked in a nervous breath and wanted to rush to his best friend's aid and potentially calm him down from the high of hearing Kepa's voice for the very first time since he left, he instead chose to meet eyes with Ace in a swing of understanding dread, just what needed to be done.

"Just as we discussed," Ace mused knowingly as he raised his eyebrows in a further show of nervous dread, though as Lash and Ace came about Gideon, Gideon squeezed his eyes shut and now braced for whatever their course of coded action would be.

"Actually... M-maybe quickly warn me of what's to come," Gideon whimpered nervously.

"So... I don't know how you felt the first or even second time this happened, but I'm sure this time around, your body is going to want to resist, because this is induced and not coming about naturally," Ace instructed gently, and with silent cooperation, Ace cued for Gideon to take his grey t-shirt off. He got to one knee, behind Gideon, as Lash knelt down on both knees to Gideon's right side. Ace tenderly laid his hands to Gideon's bare back, one right underneath the code room tether tight between his shoulder blades and the other tight into the small of Gideon's back. Ace and Lash caught eyes in a swing of dreaded knowing as Ace bobbed a small nod, "...But, whatever you do, don't resist. Don't try and keep it all down, even though you'll want to. Your coding is going to probably want to fight ours, just keep the mindset of expelling and this should go smoothly, okay?"

"Okay," Gideon staggered nervously as he gripped the edge of the toilet and began to pant through his nose in teary panic that was set upon him, though as he could feel Ace's incredible User powers gently sag into his in an exterior swap of normalcy, he fluttered his eyes and could very quickly feel the snaking surge of authority rush the darkened, damaged coding underneath his tattooed skin.

Lash cocked an eyebrow and watched as the beautiful lay of swirling circuitry, on Gideon's body, began to illuminate with his purple coding, alongside Ace's golden coding, though he took note that the two colors weren't melting into a new color like they would upon a simple exterior swap. Chased by Gideon's coding was Ace's, a marbleized swirl of hot gold chasing electric purple, though as the surge of color shot down Gideon's trembling arms and chest, Lash could see blips of near-vanta black slithering in and out of the mess, as if to fervently avoid Ace's coding. Lash gently peered to Ace and awaited his father-in-law's word, the signal to cue the deeper, inner working of coding that mapped Gideon's stomach, Ace diligently did what he could to chase the mess of corruption there so it had an immediate out, upon the addition of Lash's coding. Like trying to catch smoke, Ace grit his teeth and did what he could to convince said mess of black to worm it's way deeper into Gideon's body and to his stomach, though with a final swing of his dominant golden coding, he stiffened the press of his hands to Gideon's back and sharply glanced into Lash's eyes.

"Now," Ace snipped, and with his word, Lash sucked in a breath and firmly sagged his live-wired hand tight into Gideon's bare stomach.

Like the boil of a dormant volcano, Gideon squeezed his eyes shut and could feel his angry coding do everything it could to desperately keep the mess of corruption inside his own skin, though with Ace's traps laid all through his grid work, and the push of Lash's coding and hand deep into Gideon's stomach, Gideon sharply lurched forward and began to viciously expel said harrowing mess of black tar, like the other morning. In the aggressive, hoarse, gagging cough of said first expel, he grit his teeth and was grateful Ace and Lash smoothly followed Gideon's movements, Gideon's lurch forward was confidently aided and mirrored due to Ace's and Lash's hands never losing contact with Gideon's skin. Ace squeezed his eyes shut and gripped his fingers deeper into Gideon's coding, aggressive, powerful User coding that now angrily chased every last ounce of corruption to the dead end of Gideon's stomach, and with a second cue, Lash grit his teeth and shoved his live-wired hand into Gideon's stomach, once more. Gideon's deep voice made the tiles rattle as he nastily coughed up more of the mess, though much to Lash's full terror, as said mess of tar hit the toilet water, a healthy splay of hissing steam came with it. Before Lash could put two and two together in his brain, Gideon's whimpering voice messily spilled out into the bathroom.

"It burns, it BURNS," Gideon loudly bellowed as his face leaked tears and sweat.

"Almost done, your full reset is on the horizon," Ace rushed sweetly as he nervously peeled his eyes open and kept his concentration tight to the chore of finding every single last blackened pixel of corruption in Gideon's body.

"Little longer, bud, it's okay," Lash staggered with a forced smile of apology, though Gideon's arms and hands trembled as he grappled the edge of the toilet, the veins in his jugular and temples bulged with the strain.

"It didn't burn like this, last time," Gideon gasped through heavy panting and fervently resisting the urge to dry heave, though due to Ace's words, he continued to move fast.

"Now," Ace cued to Lash, and with another push, they moved with Gideon's lurching movement as he violently continued to rid himself of the hot coals that wrongfully took refuge in his coding; Gideon groaned a loud cry and squeezed his eyes shut as he sucked in a quaking inhale, though as he lifted his head, Lash peered to him in a swing of new dread and noticed the glow of his eyes immediately sag to a minty blue of terrified sorrow.

"I-It hurts so bad," Gideon cried as his nose began to bleed with ease, the edges of his lips also began to seep with little brims of blood that threatened to spill, as well.

"Got one more, just one more," Ace lovingly pressed, his healing coding furiously surged every single last ounce of the coils underneath Gideon's skin, and with the final collection of every last pixel of black corruption to Gideon's name, Ace squeezed his eyes shut and forced it all to Gideon's stomach with one final cue to Lash, "Now."

Lash grit his teeth in a squeeze of dread as he pushed his hand deep into Gideon's stomach, one last time, and as Gideon lurched with the eruption of the final blow, said mess was now finally concluded with a finish of tail-end stomach bile and blood. Although harrowing, it promised Ace and Lash that there was nothing nasty left to get rid of. All three men sagged, Gideon's whole body shook, his bloody teeth began to chatter as his nose bleed dripped down his scruffly chin and jugular, and though this mess was horrific and awful, all three sat in the sound of Gideon's heavy, rapid-fire panting and sharp swallows to keep from dry-heaving. Ace and Lash kept their coding now glued to Gideon's, and in a silent tag team, both men urgently allowed their own coding to have it's way in the spirals of Gideon's vulnerable circuits. Adamantly laying fresh ground work, barriers of protection, sourcing weak spots and making sure not a single trace of corruption was left, all three men sat in a silent exterior swap for at least fifteen minutes while Gideon's panting and groaning slowly subsided. Lash eventually sagged his live-wired hand into Gideon's heart, his own teary eyes peered to Gideon's chiseled, bloody face, he silently admired Gideon through this whole entire mess. A harrowing journey to seek normality, in the midsts of corruption, betrayal and forgiveness, Lash lulled his eyes closed in admiring disbelief and fervently relished in the powerful drum of Gideon's thudding heartbeat. Nearing twenty minutes of now close-eyed meditation, Ace was the one to finally suck in a silent inhale through his nose and brighten with the kiss of consciousness to Gideon's now protected, clean and fully operating purple coding, only now anticipating a proper reset.

"You're gunna sleep SO fucking well, tonight," Lash warmly grumbled, he brightened with an apologetic, nervous chuckle as said notion got a small lift of a smirk out of Gideon's figure.

"I think we all are," Ace mumbled, Lash gently pat the center of Gideon's bare chest as all three men sagged their postures and removed their hands from one another; Lash grit his teeth and reached for the lever of the toilet, and with a flush, every last ounce of Gideon's worries were gone. Ace patiently continued on as he rubbed his forehead, "I haven't had THAT huge of a code workout in months."

"Me neither, holy shit," Lash hissed, he lovingly rubbed Gideon's upper arm, "Y'feel better? That sucked, huh..."

"Sucked," Gideon whispered in agreeing as he sagged his eyes closed and shook his head, "I signed up for it. Kepa's worth it... I told Callum to do this to me, in Kepa's name. I'd do this all over again if it meant seeing her."

Lash and Ace remained in tender silence as Gideon's raw, raspy deep voice so lovingly continued on through a spill of tears.

"H-hearing her voice like that... Sh-she uses my hoodie for security," Gideon now crumpled into tears, "I can't wait to hold her... I just pray she'll accept it. I abandoned her... I can't imagine she'd actually want to see me."

"Y'know... Y'got a long road ahead of you, in terms of building trust with her, but," Lash started in grumbly protection for Kepa's fragile heart, though he eyed Gideon in kindness and was glad to collect gazes with him, "I promise you... She'll fall into you and won't let go. Even if there has to be some trust building boundaries at first, she's... She's never going to question the universe, after this, ever again."

"That lighthouse is going to be her true north with you at the helm, my guy," Ace grumbled cutely, to which Gideon bobbed a weak nod and allowed a revive of fluttery, warm feelings to flood him, though his eyes began to sag close with the onset of exhaustion.

"C'mon... Let's go get you reset, maybe make some tea or hot cocoa... Mara and Elkuorra are gunna come over and visit with you in a little bit," Lash stated in a show of great warmth, though he cutely rolled his eyes, "I gotta head back to Turbotime and reset myself a million times so I can go give Kepa a code-alignment."

"I wish I could ask you to tell her I say hi," Gideon whimpered through his tears as he gave Lash a sweet look of understanding, though Lash lulled his eyes closed and shook his head.

"I think, come tomorrow, you won't need me for that," Lash whispered sweetly, to which Gideon nodded in full confidence; although a reunion just around the corner, likely the most important one in his whole life, he squeezed his eyes shut and wondered just how the hell he was going to prepare for such intense emotions, such notions and scenarios he only mused about, until now.