A/N: Hey guys, I will be uploading the sketchdump sometime after PHX comiccon next weekend! I am SO SO SO very busy! But I'll keep you guys posted, and thanks for ALL your requests! I'm so excited to get started :D

Also, this was one long chapter of gooey romance, but I chopped it in half cause it was well on it's way to being like 6,500 words haha. Sorreee.

Song Listened To - New Love by Maroon 5

*Chapter 55*

"User, that is some storm," Tessa hissed as her, Zed and Lickity gently moseyed into Zed's dark home, high up and secluded on his jungle tree-ridden peak.

As Zed entered his dark home, with just the gentle presence of his footsteps upon the tile, a few, warm lights about his home lightly rose from a dim glow to a full, inviting presence. Tessa lightly flinched, though she curiously watched as Zed stepped up the two or three large, wide steps up into his home, from his nook of a front entrance. It led to his large garage, which also trailed to the outside of the mountain on the paved road she had seen the other day. A tunnel she was certain a flight from either Lickity, or Zed's light bike, would be interesting to test out. Tessa studied Zed; he heaved a soft, grunt of a sigh as he slipped his shoes off and slumped his dark grey hoodie to a hook on the wall. He ruffled his deep, cyan blue hair and exhaled a small noise, as if to be thrilled that he was home. He still wore his dark black tank and blue surf shorts; she was certain, by now, that blue had to have been his favorite color. Lickity, in all her exhausted, bumbling glory, moseyed into Zed's home and made herself comfortable. She had slept here the night prior, something that made Tessa feel a twinge bit jealous over. She had come to wonder just what a sunrise on Zed's peak looked like. She finally snapped back to Arcade and peered at Zed as he tenderly reached a hand out to her.

"May I take your hoodie?" Zed said, his eyes were billowed with gentleness as his strong hands reached for her in a sincere way. Tessa raised her eyebrows lightly before she began to slip the hoodie off of her body. She handed it to him with a grateful smile and straightened out her white tank top. Zed gently hung it on the hook, next to his, and gently gestured for her to follow him, "C'mon. Are you hungry or thirsty or anything?"

"Maybe a little thirsty," Tessa eased as she comfortably followed him as their bare feet slapped against his cold tiles. He glanced back at her and smiled, though she flinched once he eased into his kitchen; a light slowly turned on at the feel of his presence, just over his kitchen island. Tessa curiously peered at it, though she followed Zed to the same side of the island, closer to his fridge.

"That was some flying," Zed eased as he poured her a glass of ice water and handed it to her. She kindly thanked him, though she peered down at the glass in idle curiosity, as if in a daze.

"I don't really know where it came from," Tessa finally eased with a look of contemplation, "You were right, though... There was sort of this moment where it all came together, and it felt as if I had been doing that for my whole life."

"You're a natural," Zed chimed quietly as he gave her a sincere smile. She lightly rolled her eyes and smiled, as if to insinuate she didn't believe him. Zed slumped his shoulders and lightly nudged a giggle out of her, "C'mon, I'm being serious!"

"I-I know, I appreciate it," Tessa smiled bashfully before she finally took few gulps of water. She exhaled a satisfied sigh and peered at him, "I highly doubt Lickity is faster than your light bike, though."

"Well," Zed furrowed his eyebrows and shrugged, though he gently pushed past Tessa and began to back step a little, "It's easier to gain higher speeds in the air. On the ground, you're limited to the terrain you're on."

"Yeah, but what if it's really windy?" Tessa chimed as she set her almost empty glass on Zed's kitchen island, he cued her to lightly follow him.

"Well, then, that's where your skills come into play," Zed wagged his finger lightly as he continued to back-step, "You sort of learn the ways of the sky, in that aspect... C'mon, I'll show you the code room."

Tessa lightly raised her eyebrows in surprise; she was certain she'd have to jump through hoops for this moment, though she didn't question it.

"If it's anything like Sugar Rush's code room, you're gunna need a bigger mountain," Tessa mumbled as she gently followed him.

Zed breathed a small laugh and slowed down a little, so she could keep up. They crossed the large room and came upon the same wall that was shared with the entrance to Zed's home, though it was all the way across the room. They came up to his slick, white walls and Tessa wrinkled her nose in mild confusion, though she eagerly watched as Zed casually laid his palm flat on the white wall. She flinched once a glow of a dull, blue light scanned his hand in a quip of a whir and a mini snap of electricity. She peered at the sight of the wall gently turning to a positive blue as well, though before she could open her mouth to express her mild surprise, the wall sunk into itself and slid open, to the right, and revealed a surprisingly small, dark cave of a room. Zed tenderly stepped inside, though Tessa could tell he was on edge letting another being into his secret domain, even if it was just her. She tread lightly and kept her eyes glued to Zed's back.

"Or, not!" Tessa quipped softly as she crossed her arms and wondered just where everything was.

She largely flinched, however, once the door they had just passed through, came alive and closed them in; Dead Zed's safest hull, in all of the game, knew it was harboring outside code, though any soul Zed took under his wing was welcomed no matter what. Tessa swallowed a nervous gulp and looked back at the heavy, indestructible wall that had firmly, though warmly, shut the two in. She peered at it and suddenly felt her skin crawl, as if the electricity in the room was heightened tenfold. She could swear the game was spelling out her own thoughts for her. She felt a solid, electric connection to the core of the game as she slowly turned to peer back at Zed. She furrowed her eyebrows in nervous curiosity and felt the circuits in her skin crawl with eager delight, as if her Sugar Rush interior was very aware that the core of this game was exactly who she was interested in knowing on a deeper level. It left her with a lightly breathless feeling, as if flying Lickity was purely the beginning of this roller coaster. She could practically feel Dead Zed's core itching to get to know this new, female addition to Zed's lonely home, as if it was happily eager for a new soul to discover.

"It's small," Zed chimed, though his eyes lightly pierced hers; the blue glow, of his eyes, that Tessa was curious about earlier, was now a bit more prominent. He gently held out his hand to her and could sense her nervousness, though he continued, "But it packs a punch, I'll tell you that."

"No kidding," Tessa hissed lightly as she reached her hand out in a dainty way and dared to come closer to him.

"Alright," Zed eased as the gentle glow of the white tile grout, on the floor, got a little brighter. He gestured his hand a little as, a sudden swipe of information shot a few feet before him. Tessa flinched as the words merely appeared from the darkness, a small box with a drop down menu under it, as if it were controls and options on a computer. Zed lightly tapped a button that read 'core' and continued on, "I-I really hope you can possibly make sense of this nonsense. It's just such fine, minor strands of code, that it's really hard to see what it is."

"But, it's in your brain code?" Tessa wondered lightly as the two stood closer to each other. Zed lightly opened a few more options and got to the right section; the words flitted around, as if they were segments of a larger picture that wasn't shown. They darted about at Zed's aid and held onto the same blue glow of his code.

"More or less," Zed furrowed his eyebrows lightly and finally opened a small sized hologram outline of Zed's head structure. It showed the intricacy of his brain, and all of the coding that went into it. Tessa raised her eyebrows and fixated her eyes on the curious sight before her. She knew Sugar Rush had something similar to this, though it was safely tucked away in The Hull, a place only her mother and father could reach. Zed lightly hovered his hands under the hologram and, with as much tenderness as he could, he held it to the side and lightly pointed along the backside of his head, on the hologram, "Y'see? It's right there..."

"Hardly," Tessa squinted as she leaned in, though she tenderly glanced at Zed for approval, "... May I?"

"Sure," Zed said with more ease than he ever thought. He gently handed over his whole life source to his best friend and watched as she carefully took it, as if she were holding a newborn baby.

Zed curiously watched her and wondered just how far her knowledge, on this subject, went. He largely flinched, though as she suddenly gestured her fingers in such a way that zoomed in on the coding she needed to see, though the hologram remained the same size, as if she was simply holding an invisible, digital pad. She fingered her lip lightly and scanned over the magnified brain code, though Zed leaned in closer and opened his mouth in a fit of nervous stupor.

"H-How... How did you do that?" Zed wondered with a wide, befuddled smile. Tessa merely glanced at him and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Zoom in?" Tessa breathed through a kind, unsure laugh, "You just use your two fingers. No wonder you couldn't tell what it was. You were looking at this hologram at one hundred percent fixture."

"Oh," Zed raised his eyebrows and felt the pit of his stomach drop in a fit of embarrassment, "W-Well, what do you think it could be?"

"It's good that it's all a different color, so it's easy to distinguish from your actual brain code," Tessa eased as she continued to ever so gently prod at it, she tried to open an index of information on the strange, intruding code, though only a small box opened. She furrowed her eyebrows in annoyed dismay and shook her head lightly, "All it's really telling me is that it's exterior coding... A memory file, of sorts."

"Memory?" Zed wondered as he stood alongside Tessa and kept close.

"The good thing is, you CAN delete it," Tessa said kindly to him, though she pushed on before he could get excited, "But, it's going to take you quite a long while... These little strands of coding are so hooked in your own code, that you have to tediously go in and delete each hair-strand of this... this... yellow memory coding. Only downside is, you can't be the one to delete it. It has to be someone else... Or, me, rather."

"I can't delete it myself?" Zed furrowed his eyebrows in an almost grief-stricken dismay.

"No," Tessa gazed at him apologetically, "Not one single gamer... Not one soul in all of Arcade can alter their own brain coding. It's literally and physically impossible."

"You sure gained a lot of knowledge, of this stuff," Zed gave her an impressed smile as he put his hands on his hips.

"Well, I have my parents, two brilliant teachers... That, and Sugar Rush has been around for almost two decades," Tessa explained with a gentle shrug, "Mom and dad are adamant about me being up to speed on all of this coding stuff. That, and I have learned a thing or two at Academy, so far... Good news here, is that this exterior coding can be deleted, and you should be just fine."

"It's not harmful, is it?" Zed worried deeply, though he gave Tessa a grateful side smile.

"It doesn't seem to be... Has it always been this amount?" When did this show up?" Tessa asked softly as she handed the hologram back to Zed.

"I don't know, I only noticed it a few days ago when I-I... Well," Zed trailed off and bashfully rubbed the back of his head.

"When you what?" Tessa wrinkled her nose; Zed sighed and smiled into her eyes, though with mild embarrassment.

"I-I was in here seeing how I could code you to the game," Zed confessed softly with a shy smile, he held eye contact with her for a moment or two before he lightly exited out of the hologram he was holding and let it quietly zip out of his fingertips.

Before Tessa could respond to his notion, he lightly gestured his hand, again, and let a whole other row of indexes come up. She inhaled a gentle breath and intently watched his every move. She knew the two had very different sets of knowledge when it came to code rooms; both valid and advanced in their own way, though she was certain she could learn a thing or two from him, and vice versa. She crossed her arms lightly as he tabbed into a few options one at a time, such as 'add new code' and 'self programmed external addition'. Tessa gently waited for what was bound to happen, though she felt her heart jolt about in a needy, almost concerned way. She knew, being coded to someone else's game was a high honor and only really happened if you were on best-friend terms, or more, with the core of the game. It was similar to being given the key to someone's home. She knew she could finally be one hundred percent safe in Dead Zed, though for couples, she began to wonder if they were working in reverse.

She knew being added to your boyfriend's code room was a high honor, even higher than a code swap. She knew both were permanent, unless the other was killed, deleted, or if the game was downgraded by a stroke of bad luck. She wondered just why Zed was confident in skipping a few steps to their maze of romance they had slowly traipsed in. She figured the other definite steps would eventually follow, though she had to wonder if he was merely doing this because of his painfully shy demeanor, and it was all his bashful soul could afford, for the time being. She wanted so badly to brave his intentions, to ask questions she knew were too early to ask. She knew getting to the point of a code swap usually didn't require much talking, though the steps after that were typically being kindly coded to the game, as the final act of trust and vulnerability to each other. She tried her hardest to shrug off her thoughts, and figured it was maybe just the way Zed worked. She knew asking why he hasn't suggested swapping yet was way beyond where they were, at this standpoint, though the very idea made her stomach knot and her mind tried it's hardest to shove away any excited notions it had for the selfless act of the infamous code swap.

"Y'ready?" Zed asked deeply, his honey-coasted voice seemed as if it made Tessa's ears latch onto every single last decible, as if suddenly, her code couldn't get enough.

Tessa tenderly nodded and kept her almost nervous eyes latched to his. He gave her the kindest smile and faced her as the indexes, he was intently working in, faded and zipped away at his command. He lightly held her lower arms in his strong hands, as if to silently convey to her to stand still. Tessa glanced about his chest for a moment before the tile under her feet gently began to glow. It illuminated just under the soles of her feet in a hot, electric blue, though after a few moments, it transitioned to the hue of the color of her own coding, which was Ralph's and Vanellope's hot purple. She suddenly choked a nervous noise as Zed's small, though powerhouse of a code room gently began to work in it's own, unique way. She felt ten times heavier, as if the game was keeping her solidified to the game with upped gravity. She inhaled a nervous gasp of breath and peered to Zed for answers, though she relaxed her shoulders once his hands eagerly slipped into hers, as if to assure her that this was normal. He nodded softly, in response to her silent questions, and let a bashful, knowing smile sprawl his face.

"You're alright," Zed eased softly as he squeezed her hands.

"I-Is it supposed to feel draining?" Tessa worried over a gentle whisper as Zed's code room began to eagerly pull down on the circuits under her skin, as if it were curious, predatory coding that preyed on hers, though the feeling in the pit of her stomach was something she could equate to a vicious creature merely playing with it's food.

"It takes your code, realigns it, and gives it back," Zed reassured, his eyes held to hers confidently as he remained close, he knew she needed his warm presence, "Don't worry... Everything that's happening is normal."

She suddenly realized just how old the coding in her own game was, compared to Zed's. As soon as she began to feel drained, the code room decided to finally stop daintily toying with her and gave back ten fold. Her chest lightly rose and fell as her circuits were nearly wiped shiny clean, as if to put a new coat of wax on a car. She couldn't help but smile, though she gave Zed a curious look, as if the game had given her a deeper understanding to the Dead Zed universe. She knew being coded to a game came with the perks of understanding just what made the game tick, though in this case, she eagerly eyed Zed and had to wonder how the want, in her circuits, could even escalate any more than it already was. She shook her head lightly and felt as if she was given a light, electric buzz straight down her spine.

She flinched and suddenly gripped Zed's lower arms, near his wrists, though she gave him a nervous, apologetic smile. She suddenly glitched, unintentionally, and let her refreshed, hot purple, code zip straight down her arms in a way that was a bit more fluid and graceful than what Sugar Rush had blessed her with. Like rushing, searing water that had purpose, her code easily set Zed's alive; the circuits on his arm suddenly flared a tender, hot blue, as if it were eager to open up to hers. Though, in the rush of the mix of two, totally different sets of code, Zed's code room buzzed a heated, electric noise of estranged passion. The pixels that nervously dripped from their skin popped and flared in specks of anxious, silver sparks that wanted so badly to be friends, though like opposing magnets, it played a forbidden game of tug of war; Tessa eagerly yanked her hands away and felt her heart jolt in a large fit of curious fear, though the aftershock left a nice reminder, in the pit of her stomach, that their ember of love was something that shouldn't be merely toyed with.