A/N: Sorry I accidentally uploaded this chapter twice by accident... IDKY that happened lol
Song Listened To : Bad Kingdom - Moderat
*Chapter 116*
Tessa clenched her fists, cocked her head lightly, bit her tongue and gave Lickity a hard smirk, as if to taunt her dragon. Lickity exhaled a hard chuff of hot steam through her nostrils. She shook her head lightly and scuffed the ground with her front paw, as if to get ready to charge. Lickity glared Tessa down and, as if now her allegiance had temporarily only resided with Zed. She flattened her ears and let loose another loud growl, as if to argue with Tessa farther.
"This is all Zed's fault!" Tessa hollered to Lickity, who easily roared another complaint. Oliver and Penny took a few more wary steps back, as if to politely stay out of an intelligent argument between the two, "This was a setup, Lickity!"
Lickity jolted forward and skid to a halt, all in one action. She barked another noise, as if to threaten that she was bound to let her full rage fly, if Tessa kept it up.
"Zed doesn't need us, he doesn't want us!" Tessa's whole figure was rigid as she held the dominant position over Sugar Rush, though her boat rocked with Lickity inside of it, "Remember what I told you, all those months ago? When we left Zed in the Flip Side's entrance? It's clear I should have just left your sorry ass there, too!"
Just as Tessa was about to let more nonsense fly, she suddenly felt her heart sink straight into the core of the entire planet. Before she could exhale a yell of terror, she covered her face just in time for Lickity's molten, cough of fire to engulf her existence. Oliver and Penny largely scrambled away as Tessa's raw pixels exploded outwards and away from Lickity. The true alpha of the game marched forward and patiently waited for Tessa to regenerate, though once she did, she crumpled to the ground and held up her hands in pure terror. Lickity snarled, the angriest she ever had. She made sure her fangs were eye level with Tessa, as she continued to scoot backwards, with terror written all over her face.
"O-okay, okay," Tessa urged loudly as tears pitifully welled in her tired, defeated eyes, "I know when I'm wrong, I know when I'm beat!"
Lickity exhaled a hard snort and, with one final, loud holler straight into Tessa's face, she hunched over her, sprawled her wings, and with one last sisterly glare, Lickity immediately turned heel, bound away, and gracefully took to the air. She pushed out the castle doors, which hung cracked open, though her large body barreled through the doors, and left the scorched, crumpled Great Hall in painful silence. Tessa largely panted and held her hand over her heart. She immediately felt the pang of regret hit her hot skin, leftover sensations of the fire that took her soul; her first game over. She shook her head in a sorrowful manner and knew everything that everyone was saying was right and true. She knew she was doing no one any favors by being a stubborn, shelled away tyrant. She peered to Oliver and Penny in hard fear, as if to convey that she saw that coming and didn't, all in the same feeling.
"So, do you want me to repeat Lickity's argument, here, or have you finally had enough fire up your ass to realize just how wrong you are?" Oliver largely crossed his arms and gave his older sister an angry, dominant look.
"I get it," Tessa hissed as she slowly stood, her knees wobbled in fear as she shook her head, "You guys win, I get it."
"So what are you waiting for?" Penny largely gestured to the open castle doors, in let in Sugar Rush's painfully cheery sunlight. Tessa glanced down the hall, in confusion and gave them both an utterly humbled, exhausted look.
"What do you mean? I need to get to the Hull, for Oliver," Tessa stated calmly, her whole face was washed with renewed humility and innocence, as if a fire bath was just what she needed to be brought back to her senses, "And, clearly, for our youngest brother or sister..."
"I'll be fine," Oliver urged as he gently nudged Tessa towards the castle doors, "You need to go get Zed. He knows how to fix this mess."
"But, Oliver," Tessa finally argued, though for the sake of his well-being, this time. Oliver shook his head, grabbed both of her hands and gave her a stern, loving look.
"I'll be FINE," Oliver repeated dominantly, though he largely looked over to Penny and swiped her hand into his. The three huddled close, though Oliver knew he had to be the strong one in this situation, "Penny will keep me company. You GO. Go get Zed. He's the villain and the hero, in this mess. We need him..."
Tessa's scared eyes dug into Oliver's with a wash of neediness and growing anguish. She shook her head quickly, though just barely. Oliver, in turn, shook her hand and dug his gaze harder into her teary one.
"YOU need him," Oliver concluded kindly. He finally exhaled a small chuckle and gave Tessa a loving look, "You know you can't live without that idiot. None of us can."
"We already consider him our brother," Penny urged kindly, though quietly, as she too, took Tessa's warm, shaking hand, "We're each other's family. Remember what we told Otto? Our moms would slaughter us, if we somehow lost one another."
"Family sticks together," Oliver stated softly as he grew closer to Tessa and squeezed her hand, "We may fight, and hurt each other, and say things we don't mean."
"And blow each other to firey smithereens," Penny said with a small, knowing giggle; she was thrilled to finally get a small smile out of Tessa.
"You would never forgive yourself, if you let Zed and Lickity get away," Oliver's dominant stare dug into Tessa's, though as if to conclude his notions once and for all, he softly nudged Tessa in the direction of the exit, "Go. We will be here when you get back."
Tessa softly took a few quick steps closer to the exit, to obey orders, though she looked back at Penny and Oliver. They eagerly peered back at her, the three were painfully still. Just as Tessa was about to worry on, some more, Oliver laughed and waved his hand. Him and Penny shouted at her to go, yet again, before she finally turned heel, for good, and slipped out of her disheveled, worn out castle. Tessa finally peered out to her odd looking land, though the purpose in her step was renewed and enlightened. She knew she had to hurry, to set things straight.
Through scared, crazed eyes, Zed finally tore into his loft. With an angry swipe of his hand, he rocketed his light-cycle, which was raveled into it's baton form, across his loft. It easily caught a glass, on the kitchen island, and it tore to the tiles beneath. Zed angrily let out a groan of growing insanity and messily marched towards his code room. He slapped his hand to the wall and pushed inside, with much force. As if his brain was slowly crumpling in on itself, he swiped for information and hologram indexes, of his code room. Before he could even begin to talk himself out of climbing into this mess, he opened the menu that harbored his brain activity. As it expanded, he was suddenly, and loudly graced with echoing voices of haunting memories, ones that seemed to only plague him in his sleep, and leave him cold and breathless in the morning, not to remember exactly why.
"You say you just haven't found the right girl?" Radex's voice taunted, as if playing a recording from the fateful day Zed's memories were halted. Zed felt his knees buckle as he quickly swiped to get to the hologram that gave him access to all the circuity in his brain, the one that Tessa so carefully handled every single day.
"Get out!" Zed hollered as he could feel tears gather in his eyes, "I don't need you anymore!"
"I'll make sure you find the perfect one," Radex's deep voice was slick and almost too pleasing to listen to, like watching a bee drown in it's own delicious honey, "How does Sugar Rush's princess sound?"
"I don't want to hear this, I don't want to hear this again!" Zed shouted in a raspy voice to the memory that replayed, in his bubble of a code room.
He finally came to the hologram that showed every single last strand of his brain activity, as well as Radex's yellow coding, so far hooked into his coding, though there was only so little of it left. His crazed eyes darted about his own circuitry, though as if he had a death wish, he knew he had to somehow accomplish the impossible. As tenderly as he could, he attempted to prod at Radex's code, though as if to viciously be reminded that not one single gamer, in all of Arcade, can toy with his or her own brain coding, the code room buzzed a loud, angry alert and, to painfully remind Zed that what he was doing, was impossible, a shock wave jolted through Zed's skin. His knees finally buckled and he hit the ground. He grunted a noise of pain and, as if pushing the brink of insanity, his trembling hand reached for his hologram, yet again.
"You say you're holding out for the right woman?" Radex's echoing memory teased, "Let me play match maker, for you, friend. She may be a wee thing, right now, but... I believe she will suit your needs, just fine, one day."
"Get... Out of m-my... Head," Zed darkly uttered as he finally grappled for the hologram, which hung a foot or two from him. With one more gentle, though clumsy swipe, he tried again to tap into the yellow circuits that haunted his very existence. He arched his back and was jolted with another angry warning, from his game. He finally settled and exhaled a hard, deep cry of the utmost pain, though somehow, he knew he had to keep trying.
"You will avenge me, whether you like it or not, Zed," His dark voice eased, as if he was kindly putting someone to rest, "You won't be able to resist her... Somehow, you'll be desperate to give back to Sugar Rush... Whether it's her decision, or not."
"I-I would never hurt her," Zed argued, to essentially no one, though he could swear he could see his whole life flash before his eyes.
He grunted a cough of a noise and was almost delightfully, and horrifically surprised, to taste the sensation of blood in the back of his throat. Before he could question if this was a dream or not, he largely swiped at his brain activity yet again, though as soon as his finger tips came into contact with the forbidden coding, he was not allowed to touch, he felt the mind numbing jolt of his code room give him one final warning too many. His whole world rocked into the galaxy over, though before he could reopen his eyes and argue further with the ghost of his memories, his vision tunneled to a painful white.
With beyond boggled thoughts, Tessa glitch-hopped through Sugar Rush's beckoning wires. She felt her heart race with uncertainty as she approached Game Central Station. She wondered if leaving Oliver was truly a good idea. She had to think just how long it'd take to convince Zed to leave his game, return to hers, and help her, at no cost to him. She slowed to a stop and replayed every hateful word she said to him. She felt her skin grow cold at the final, hateful words she spat to him, words she thought she'd never say to him. Words she knew she didn't mean whatsoever.
As she slowly, and clumsily, moseyed down the golden arch of her outlet, she felt confusion hit her over and over. She wondered just how all of this could potentially pan out for the better. She scanned her brain for every single little thing, Zed could possibly do, for Sugar Rush. She knew there was absolutely nothing any of them could do, with Radex already mixed into Sugar Rush's coding. She began to feel hopeless. She longingly peered to Dead Zed's outlet and suddenly let a sick idea hit her. She furrowed her eyebrows and secretly dreamed of running away, finding Lickity and hulling away in Dead Zed, forever. The responsibility, she signed up for, urgently tapped her on the shoulder and begged her for help, though somehow, she wondered just where there was a shoulder for her to tap on, when she needed help.
Just as she was about to let more tears escape her face, she felt a presence hang near her outlet. She slowly dragged her tired eyes to the figure, amongst the light crowd of Game Central Station, though she wondered just when the universe would stop kicking her when she was down. Selka stood, with surprisingly kind eyes. He slowly approached Tessa, though Tessa was confused with herself. The fact that she didn't tense or try to get Selka to go away was what added to her further confusion.
"Is everything okay?" Selka wondered as he glanced back at Zed's outlet, "I-I saw your dad and dragon running into our outlet. Where's Zed?"
"What's it to you?" Tessa snapped darkly, she knew letting Selka in, in this crucial time, was suicide.
"Look, I'm just trying to be nice," Selka's voice pushed, as if he had enough of being treated like an enemy, "I see someone I used to get along with, crying in her outlet. I'm going to come over and see how I can help. I'm not heartless, y'know."
Tessa furrowed her eyebrows and finally looked into Selka's eyes, albeit in a disgruntled way. Before she could argue, she heaved a hard sigh, shooed her thoughts, and looked down to the ground. She shook her head and felt weird letting Selka stand next to her for as long as he was, without attempting to hug her waist or kiss her hand. She wiped a few tears from her cheeks and finally looked up.
"Sugar Rush has a virus," Tessa croaked, "A bad one..."
"So, where's Zed? He's the core of our game, surely he knows how to fix it," Selka said in a tone that led to suggest he thought Zed was a pretentious jerk. Tessa lightly glared at him and shook her head in annoyance.
"He caused the virus," Tessa heaved as more tears spilled down her cheeks. Selka raised his eyebrows in surprise and glanced back at Dead Zed's outlet. He opened his mouth to question a thousand things, though Tessa pressed on, "The game is downgrading, on itself... It's erasing everything, that didn't exist, in the older version of Sugar Rush."
"Is your family okay?" Selka lightly worried as he finally peered down Sugar Rush's wire, though he flinched once Tessa shoved her face into her palms and silently sobbed.
Selka gazed down at Tessa in shock, though he remained still. He knew, with their past, that any sort of affection given would likely be turned away and treated as if it were a crime. Selka bit his bottom lip and did everything he could to remain neutral, though he felt nervous, the longer Tessa cried. He furrowed his eyebrows in growing anguish and, as lightly as he could, he let his hand slide to Tessa's shoulder, as if to inquire if it were alright to potentially comfort her, as if he had to ask permission. He was delightfully surprised to feel her take a wary step closer to him, and with a thud, she pushed her forehead to his shoulder and cried. Selka frowned, though with an inner, accomplished smile, he hugged his arms around her shoulders and squeezed her to him.
Tessa felt as if her brain now was riddled with needles. The things that unfolded before her were easily things she knew were only the stuff of nightmares. She gripped her hands to Selka's sides and continued to cry, as if he was potentially the last crying shoulder left on the face of the Earth. She shook her head and knew Selka was the last person she would seek comfort from, though as if to be kindly reminded that Selka was never up to anything good, she lightly pulled away, and was thankful he released her. She inhaled a shaky breath and wiped her cheeks, though she nervously peered down Sugar Rush's wire. She knew she had to go take care of Oliver, and fix that problem first.
"It'll be okay," Selka eased as he lightly bowed to meet her eye level. His glorious green eyes hooked into hers, though even in this moment, Tessa could tell he was not as sincere as he would like to make everyone believe.
"Oliver's in trouble," Tessa said through a raspy sigh as she kept her gaze glued to the wiring of her home, "I need to help him, first... If you see Zed, can you please tell him that Sugar Rush needs him?"
"Sure, I can," Selka said softly, though he furrowed his eyebrows in growing annoyance, as if he was disappointed his comforting act didn't totally phase Tessa to his liking.
Before he could get anything else out, Tessa pushed away from him and head back into Sugar Rush's wiring tunnel. Selka watched her glitch-hop away, at the speed of light, though he bit his bottom lip and felt a wave of a decision come over him. He eagerly peered back to Dead Zed's outlet, though with a slow, slinking posture, he began to follow Tessa into Sugar Rush. He slipped out of the station as quietly and secretively as he could.