Reviews :

Jay Sketchin : Aww that's so sweet! Thank you! :D

Burgie : The ENTIRETY of it is what scares me the most hahaha

Snake557 : Aww, wow. Thank you friend! I assure you though, whatever any one else writes is likely magnificent in of itself. Don't compare yourself to me, I'm positive that your stories, as well as anyone elses, are just wonderful and unique in their own right. Keep doing your thing, and don't look back! :D

Nikki Firesong : Hey! So sorry, I uploaded too soon before I could see your review on the previous chapter. To answer your question, I believe that Ralph, Vanellope and those 'older' gamers would probably be considered 'baby boomers', then. Because Tessa and Zed is mirrored off of me and my fiancé, as well as their crew/generation, they'd be millennials. I feel as if any generation after them would also be millennials, or the generation that comes after. I haven't put way too much thought into that aspect because they age so much differently in Arcade than they do in the real world. Thank you so much for loving on Wren so hard, as well! He definitely is very quickly shaping up to be another one of my favorite characters.


Song Listened To :

Let Me Down Slowly by Alec Benjamin


*Chapter 29*

In the dim, cold atmosphere of her code room, Tessa felt the weight of sleep paralysis taken over her coding. Although she had some shred of memory circuits in the back of her brain practically screaming that this was all just a bad dream, the insane amount of realness continued to plague her mainframe. In the dreaded fear of an exhausted long-blink, she tilted her head on the cold, dark, code room floors and peered to the gaping entry way, where Lash stood, his molten, golden glowing eyes held tight to hers in a rise of haunting success, he held Sugar Rush's trembling orb, and as Tessa laid helpless in her own blood, amidst the shred of deletion, she knew this nightmare wasn't the one where she was resurrected, by some stroke of an absolute miracle; that miracle being Berri's coding. Tessa grit her teeth and could feel her body safe and sound, asleep in her massive bed, next to Zed, jerk in the twitching desperation to come out of this night terror, the fact that she had to endure the sensation of deletion once was more than enough for a million lifetimes.

Tessa huffed a staggered breath through her lungs, airways that felt entirely flattened, the pressure on her chest only upped the second the angry deletion coding swarmed her mainframe, she remembered the stinging, ripping sensation on her tendons and muscles like it was yesterday. With trembling hands, she grappled where Berri's precious loading bar would be, she begged for the nightmare to be over, she was absolutely certain Zed could hear her cries into the night, though with just how many times she had this horrible night terror, coupled with the success of sleep paralysis, she knew she was making no noise, and Zed was soundly snoozing next to her, not a care in the world. It took every single last ounce of energy for Tessa to even open her jaw past the clench, and just as she blinked, Lash's figure suddenly was stood above her in a jittery, black mass of a figure, the only thing seen was his piercing yellow eyes, a much scarier sight than just casual conversation with one of the sweet TurboTime boys on the lot, an image Tessa was absolutely certain could scare her to tears, and was successful on more than one occassion.

In a final, knee-jerk of a jolt, Tessa huffed a loud gasping noise of unadulterated terror, sat up straight in her bed and grappled her thighs. She heavily panted, her breath was hoarse and raspy, her large hands grappled the comfortable downs her and Zed were encompassed in, and as her eyes nervously dart about their dark bedroom, she was thrilled to feel the stillness, to feel her silver coding functioning properly and living easy in a now alert and awake state of rising awareness. She finally heaved a trembling breath through her nose and knew that this horrific nightmare wasn't only a reoccurring one for her, but also one for Berri. Berri's entire childhood was littered with these night terrors, every few weeks, and what Tessa discovered was that her and Berri shared it in succession, something that they both have memories of, the very deletion and victory of Sugar Rush's code room was something only the two girls were there for, in it's entirety.

The need to take care of herself was very quickly overridden with the urge to take care of Berri. Tessa jolted, as if to potentially get out of bed, though she froze and had to recoil in remembrance. She knew Berri was no longer a child, her adorable baby voice no longer screamed and cried out into the night, for her mother, whenever she was struck with this particular night terror. Tessa knew Berri resorted to other avenues now that she was almost an adult, whether it be to seek her parents out physically, or through text, and like clockwork, Tessa's phone, on her nightstand, tenderly illuminated with the notification of a text message. Tessa tried to control the tremble of her panting, through her nose, and as she sleepily laid back, leaned over and grappled her phone, she sharply squinted through the brightness of her phone and swiped up to unlock her device. Upon opening her messages, she glossed Berri's text, sent just now, and desperately tried to get her veins to settle.

Blue : Mom are you awake?

Tessa lulled her eyes closed, locked her device, sagged it to her chest and thanked every single User and God in this universe that said deletion nightmare was just that. She knew she had typically gone into Berri's room to comfort her, to sing her back to sleep, to reassure her that this was just a terrible nightmare, though what Berri didn't know was that Tessa shared the same nightmare. Tessa gently lofted her thick blankets off of her legs, she tried to recall the last time she had this nightmare, the last time she had to ease into Berri's terrified presence and make her believe it was all just make believe, Tessa held her breath and allowed her feet to gingerly ease onto their heated, glossy white tiles. Her pupils shrunk a little as the grout lines just barely illuminated white, within a three foot radius of her being, so to be able to see where she's going in the dark, half awake. As Tessa crossed hers and Zed's room, eased out their massive round bedroom door and shut it behind her, with a silent clack, her eyes eased to her dimly lit corridor, one of which that lead up a few stairs and into the gape of the kitchen.

With their humble abode dim and still, dark and silent in the very early hours of their cold, winter morning, Tessa moved like a ghost through her home. As easily as she could, her bare feet hooked a right, soaked down the main corridor of their home and finally came to a swooping left, an alcove where only Berri's lightly secretive spiral staircase reside. In confidence, Tessa began to head upstairs, a small spiral, or two, that came to a sky-lit landing. Sugar Rush's midnight stars smiled down upon their Queen, a stark difference to what was previously smiling down upon her, in her nightmares. With a tender few thuds of her knuckles to Berri's gorgeous double doors, carved in intricate Sugar Rush detail, Tessa pressed her ear to Berri's bedroom door and awaited her daughter's tender voice. Upon hearing Berri defeatedly give her mother permission to come inside, Tessa turned the handle, stepped in and shut Berri's door behind her.

"I'm awake, baby, everything okay?" Tessa fibbed lightly, over the course of Berri's childhood, she had become an absolute master at masking her own fear of the very shared nightmare they both endured, unbeknownst to Berri.

"I had that damned nightmare again, mom," Berri complained with a sleepy, teary croak, it was clear she was at the end of her rope.

Sat up in her gorgeous canopy bed, Berri's lovely blue hair was down in a gentle mess, she wore a huge, comfortable, peach colored t-shirt and black underwear, her pretty long legs were criss-crossed with her fluffy downs and sheets haphazardly soaked in between her knees and thighs. The look of forlornness hung tight to her demeanor, as if she was absolutely certain this stupid nightmare was going to be the death of her, she shook her head amidst a defeated sigh and gingerly lifted her hands to her cheeks, in a girly fashion, she wiped away her tears and lulled her exhausted eyes closed. Tessa slowly approached Berri's big, fluffy bed, and like all the nights prior, she softly sat down on Berri's downs, though this time, she sat before Berri, mocked her sitting style and made clear to Berri she was going to get comfortable in preparation to stay and chat, something Berri easily welcomed.

After a few moments of Berri nervously peering into her mother's eyes for answers, Tessa finally heaved a gentle sigh of defeat and bobbed a nod, amidst a tender quip of revealed understanding, "I know you did..."

Berri's sleepy blue eyes peered to her mother through the dimness of her bedroom. Berri had a few pretty, girly string lights that encompassed the thick, sturdy posts of her canopy bed, her room was just dim enough to comfortably sleep in, though the thin fairy lights made for wonderful, relaxing ambience. Tessa sagged her shoulders, peered down to her larger hands and softly fiddled with the diamonds engraved into her wedding ring, the beautiful cross-striped bark. Tessa wore a lazy tank top and light grey sweats, her mane of a head of hair was in fluffy spouts of chaos, something that encompassed her jaws, shoulders and chest in an endearing way.

"...You know?" Berri lightly questioned as she shook her head in confusion, though she bobbed a nod of understanding and finally gestured to her phone, which was sunk into her fluffy downs about a foot from her figure, "Oh, because I messaged you?"

Tessa heaved a long, hot sigh through her nose, looked down to her right and to Berri's downs, she knew this definitely wasn't going to be an easy conversation. She wondered even just where to start; the beginning, when her own mother and father nearly lost Tessa's code box to Radex? When her and Zed game jumped to the real world and conceived a User? When they saved Sugar Rush with Turbo by their side? She shook her head just barely and knew this whole entire behemoth of an explanation was wild, she narrowed her gaze and dared to wonder if there was even the possibility of shortening it all, though she was aware that was likely a pipe dream.

"Your nightmare isn't a nightmare, Blue... It's a memory," Tessa tenderly started with a gentle nod, she could feel Berri's hot stare on her sleepy face, "It's one of my memories."

"You mean... You actually... Were on the ground like that? Bleeding?" Berri staggered in rush of rising fear, "Turbo standing over you like that? The hell kind of evening did you guys have?"

"Language," Tessa's motherly voice asserted, to which Berri meeped a small apology and sagged her shoulders, "To... Put it as short as I quite possibly can, this time last year, Sugar Rush was... Well... Under a different rule. A terrible tyrant that rearranged the game, separated us all, and put force fields over the entrances."

Although Berri looked like she wanted to interject, she shook her head, opened her mouth and failed to let anything out. She long blinked in tender, reeling surprise and huffed a trembling breath of confusion.

"Sugar Rush's previous castle, under your grandmother's rule, was teleported all the way to Sugar Rush's end... It sat over a void of white nothingness, we had to travel all the way there. It took almost two weeks," Tessa huffed a chuckle, looked off and let all of the wonderful and horrible memories hit her head on, "To... Put it bluntly, on the trip, your father and I conceived you. The closer we got to the end, the more our powers were sapped. We swapped codes to let our powers go back to normal, though in that we knew we were going to code a baby... Your loading bar showed up the next morning."

"I was made on an adventure to save the palace?" Berri pressed, she brushed past the awkward sex talk and beamed a wide, girly smile, a toothy grin that mocked Zed's to a T, "So, you got the palace back to normal, right? Weird to think that I was present, for it..."

"You were far more than present, my love," Tessa's voice crackled with sleepiness, she shook her head and lulled her eyes closed, and after the gap of silence, she sighed and peered down to her hands in humility, "You saved my whole entire life, Berri. If I hadn't been pregnant with you, that memory would've died with me... Bloodied, on the floor, Sugar Rush defeated."

Berri frowned and peered hard to her mother's figure. She knew, full well, this little story Tessa was telling likely had a million more arcs and twists to it, though she shook her head a little and tilted her head to get a good look into her mother's eyes.

"Why did Turbo do this to you? What exactly happened? How could've my unborn coding saved your life?" Berri asked, it was clear to Tessa that she would have a million more rising questions to come, something Tessa had to likely brace herself for, "I-I thought Turbo was a good guy, a Knight?"

"It wasn't Turbo that did this," Tessa assured, "If anything, Turbo got us closer to our goal than we could've ever dreamed. Without Turbo's help, we likely would've been at it for weeks and months after you were born. Surely... Your childhood would look an entire world different. There would be no palace, this house you're in wouldn't exist, none of Sugar Rush's goodness would be right at your fingertips, had Turbo not helped us like he did..."

Berri soaked in all of her mother's knowledge in a rise of conclusive fear, knowing and excitement. Tessa tenderly carried on, she bobbed a nod.

"My mother Knighted him... And once you and I saved Sugar Rush, mom immediately crowned me Queen," Tessa explained with a smile, "I've only been Sugar Rush's Queen for about a year now... You were born very shortly after Sugar Rush was saved, as was Theo."

"And Wren?" Berri staggered, Tessa sighed and heaved a small giggle.

"Your great aunt Taffyta stayed behind, in Dead Zed, to give birth to Wren, whilst we were on our last mission to save the code room," Tessa pressed, "Wren was born about a week or two before you and Theo. Weird that he's considered your uncle, huh?"

"I don't call him uncle Wren, he hates that," Berri blurt a giggle, as did Tessa, both girls relished in each other's tender conversation, though Berri allowed a gentle amount of silence to soak it all in, "How did my coding save you, mom? How is that possible? Why was Sugar Rush underneath this other person's rule?"

"Well... This intruder, whom of which we called Radex, deleted our code boxes from Sugar Rush, though when you were conceived, Sugar Rush's code room made you your own code box," Tessa warmly explained, "You were made in Sugar Rush, and whilst I didn't have a code box, your coding was still inside of me... Thus, we sort of shared your code box. So when I was deleted... Your coding saved both of our lives, and I was able to regenerate, alongside you."

Berri nodded in tender curiosity, her gorgeous blue lights twinkled underneath her fairy lights, she looked absolutely intrigued.

"This individual, we formerly called 'Radex', successfully deleted me once I got to the castle and tried to gain back the code room," Tessa revealed, she shook her head and shut her eyes tight, "That nightmare you keep having is the memory of me being deleted... That nightmare was a real thing that happened to me, to us... Every single time you have this nightmare, so do I..."

Berri wholly frowned, peered to her mother in entire sorrow and shook her head in nervous disbelief.

"Mom, all those nights you came to comfort me? You, yourself were dealing with this nightmare?" Berri begged, as if to now feel bad for Tessa's selfless acts, "I-I'm so sorry, mom, I-"

"Berri, you were a child, there's no way I'm going to lead you to believe that said horrid nightmare was actually a memory, while you were just a kid," Tessa defended with a teasing, nervous smile, "No way I was going to put that burden on your innocent little mind, like that... You weren't ready to know all of the crap that went down. I knew I'd tell you eventually, but it's been weeks since we've had this nightmare. I wondered if maybe it had gone away."

"I-I can't believe that was real," Berri staggered, she shook her head and grappled the sides of her temples, "All that blood you were laying in? The dark code room? This... Radex person over you? Clearly someone related to Nox, Turbo and Throttle?"

"The blood were from my burns, here," Tessa motioned to her temples, the gorgeous display of tan circuit marks that delicately laid over her eyes, eyebrows and temples, and easily vanished into her hair line, "And, yes... This individual is related to Turbo and them."

"... Who was he?" Berri prod in a rising tone of fear, "I-Is he still around?"

"No, he's not around," Tessa assured with a shake of her head, "He's... He's currently bubbled in the code room, safely tucked away in code room purgatory. He still exists... My soft and gooey heart got the better of me and I just... Didn't have it in me, to delete him."

"But, he actually DID delete you," Berri tried to fight it, she gestured her arm and gave her mother a look of wild disbelief, "If I were Queen, I would've deleted his sorry hide LONG ago!"

"There's more to being Queen than just deleting the people who have wronged you, no matter how massively," Tessa chuckled in tiredness and shook her head. She shut her eyes and remembered the memory like it was yesterday, the very image of Lash's terrified eyes peering up to Sugar Rush's rightful Queen, the full position of groveling, his quivering bottom lip, the whole entire wash of hot white regret, "Boy did I want to, but... After everything Turbo has done for the royal family, and for me... I didn't have the heart to up and delete his little brother."

Berri's eyes bugged in tender, sleepy surprise. She tucked her straight blue hair behind her ears, staggered on her words a little and shook her head in whole disbelief.

"I-I'm sorry h-his... His... Little BROTHER?" Berri wondered in a lilt of gentle terror, Tessa blurt a laugh and adored Berri's zest for life, the genuine cuteness she radiated.

"Little brother, yes," Tessa blurt a small chuckle, she narrowed her gaze and lovingly helped Berri tuck her hair behind her left ear, "There's four of them... Nox, Whiplash, Turbo and Throttle."

"Whiplash," Berri prod, she looked off towards her bedroom window, the glorious dome of the glowing code room could be seen, far across the palace lot and in between the trees of the flyer's enclosure in which their humble tower was tucked into, "So... Whiplash is bubbled in the code room? Does Turbo know? Surely he wants to un-bubble Whiplash, right?"

"He does, fervently," Tessa bulged her eyes, looked off in delirious exhaustion for the subject matter and gently shrugged, "Turbo and Rancis answer to me and your father, and we've told Turbo that the answer is no, for now... Seemingly, he's respected and accepted that answer, so I guess... It's all up to how time plays out."

"How does Turbo feel about all of this?" Berri prod in further inquiry, though Tessa sagged her shoulders and gave Berri a knowing smirk as she tenderly continued on, "I mean... If Ace was bubbled, I'd be clawing at the code room, I really don't know what I'd do. You think he's okay with Whiplash being bubbled? I guess with what Whiplash did to Sugar Rush, it's deserved, but..."

"Babe, why don't you ask Turbo these burning questions yourself?" Tessa delicately wondered, as lighthearted as her question was, Berri bugged her eyes and vigorously shook her head.

"Hooo User no, no, no no... Not after what happened yesterday," Berri held the sides of her head and peered her nervous gaze into her mother's eyes; Tessa furrowed her brow in a spike of delight.

"What? What happened?" Tessa prod, Berri heaved a raspy sigh, rolled her eyes and looked off.

"During our game of hide and seek, I... I was glitch-hopping to the garage, and... I accidentally hurled myself straight into Turbo," Berri staggered, her face turned red with remembrance, "We exterior swapped... It was sooo embarrassing."

"Aww, how funny," Tessa blurt a small laugh and scrunched her shoulders, "I'm sure he thought nothing of it... When he talked to me, last night, he didn't seem bothered or anything."

"He didn't say anything, did he?" Berri worried in girly horror, though Tessa giggled and side-eyed her young daughter.

"No, he didn't say a word," Tessa choked a laugh as Berri sighed with relief and looked down, "You're such a worry wart... I know you and Ace get that from me, but holy User is it amplified in you kids. Don't worry... Just talk to him! Maybe text him? Surely he'd open up to you, you're Sugar Rush's princess."

"I doubt it, mom, it was so awkward yesterday, he hardly knew what to do with himself," Berri shook her head and looked off in girly dread, "I couldn't just message him, out of the blue..."

"Sure you could, your father and I message him all the time," Tessa shrugged, "Here, gimme your phone, I'll put in his number, for you."

"Mommm," Berri whined as Tessa grappled Berri's phone, held it out for Berri to put in her password, and quickly tabbed to her contacts.

Tessa's larger fingers worked quick, and like clockwork, she successfully logged Turbo's number into Berri's phone, "There. Only really your father has been able to successfully get answers out of him on how he's feeling about this mess, so if you strike gold, be sure to let us know."

"'Hi, Turbo, it's me, Berri... Remember me? Berri? I somersaulted over your ENTIRE LIFE yesterday? Left you battered and bruised, both physically and emotionally?'" Berri listed off in cheeky sarcasm, she looked off and stiffened her spine for said act as she playfully continued whilst her mother was easily in stitches, "'No? Just me? Oh-you blocked my number? Yeah, sounds 'bout right, my dude.'"

"He won't block you," Tessa choked through laughter, Berri continued on.

"'Hi, Tessa? Your Majesty? Your daughter viciously assaulted me in the garage, I'mma need compensation for my therapy, thanks,'" Berri's forced her voice to go as deep as it could, she gestured her hands to her face, to poorly insinuate her eyes were glowing; Tessa was absolutely lost in laughter, though she caught her breath and grappled Berri's shoulder.

"Just message him," Tessa loudly giggled, she shook her head and began to show signs of wanting to go back to bed, "Your father and I can discuss this with you, in greater detail, tomorrow if you'd like."

"I would like that," Berri assured as Tessa began to get off of Berri's bed, and in a slow climb, she eased across Berri's gorgeous room and soaked past her bedroom door.

"Text me if you're scared or need me, I'm just downstairs hun," Tessa assured, to which Berri held her phone to her chest and bobbed a nod.

"Thanks, mom... Love you," Berri called, to which Tessa eased her loving eye contact back to her daughter.

"Love you more," Tessa eased, she soaked out of Berri's room once and for all and softly escaped back to her's and Zed's lovely, romantic abode.

Berri heaved a sigh through her nose, peered down to her phone and cocked an eyebrow. Still hovered tight in her contacts, the infamous 'Turbo Black' was confidently stated in bold letters, underneath was his phone code. Berri felt her hands begin to shake a little, all the information lofted at her, she stumbled through the memory of said nightmare that she kept having, and now lived in it, as if it were actually her reality. She grit her teeth in horror and wondered now just how her mother got said burn marks, how Turbo's little brother was able to reign in that much power, enough to take down an entire kingdom, so many questions raced through Berri's already lightning quick thoughts, though with her trembling thumb that hovered over Turbo's name, confidently plastered into her phone, she shook her head and wondered if she could potentially muster the courage to ever reach out to him. She figured gabbing to Wren and Theo about this, after a good night's sleep, was definitely in order.