Song Listened To : Am I Wrong - Nico and Vinz
*Chapter 117*
With a lot more ease than Ralph ever imagined was possible, Lickity carried him across Zed's game, after finding him hopelessly lost at the very entrace of Zed's game. The sun boasted all of it's untouched glory, the magnificent jungle far below had Ralph ogling the different sights, though he held fast to Lickity's posture. She tore through the sky and made a bee-line for Zed's loft. They whipped past the clouds at enough speed to make Ralph believe he could likely choke on one. He shook his head, in confusion, though he largely grappled for Lickity's saddle as she suddenly dipped and dove for Zed's cliff.
After quickly shuffling to get into the hallways that lead to Zed's home, Ralph largely threw his fists into Zed's front door, after finding that it was locked. With a few hard pangs, the sturdy door crumpled with Ralph's raw power, and the two eagerly let themselves inside. Ralph skid to a stop, in Zed's painfully still home, and largely looked around. He panted in hard fear and wondered just where Zed laid off to, though a sudden spark of confused electricity, as well as a flare of a blue light, caught his eye. Ralph squinted and began to head towards Zed's curiously opened code room. Lickity grumbled a nervous noise as the two quickly paced towards the awkwardly opened sliding wall, which led into Zed's dark control room.
Ralph slowed his stance and, with as much stealth and gentleness as he could, he secretly peered into the dark room. It looked bare and confused, as if all of the raw, sensitive information inside was terrified and tucked away in hiding. He flinched once he finally noticed Zed's limp body on the ground, near his faintly glowing brain activity hologram. Ralph felt his heart jump in fear, though he largely pushed into the small room and knelt down to Zed. He clumsily grappled for Zed's shoulders and shook him a bit, though he was more than surprised to see Zed's eyes lazily and deliriously slide open, only half way. Ralph urgently pushed Zed's messy hair from his forehead and shook him once more.
"Zed, what happened?" Ralph urged in a scared tone, though he glanced at the hologram near Zed and noticed it was his very own brain. Ralph suddenly gave Zed an angry look, which made Zed open his eyes further in growing fear, "Are you really trying to tamper with your own brain activity?!"
"I-I'm trying to get rid of-"
"You can't get rid of Radex, like that, you idiot, are you serious?!" Ralph bellowed as he suddenly picked Zed up, by the upper arms, and made him clumsily stand. He held his massive, strong hands to Zed's fragile figure and shook him again, "Have you lost your mind?! You could permanently delete yourself, doing crazy shit like that, is that where your mind went first?"
"I wasn't trying to kill myself," Zed argued loudly as he suddenly shooed Ralph's hands away and began to step out of his code room. He lovingly rubbed Lickity's snout, as he pushed past her, though he gave his front foyer an incredulous gape, "You destroyed my front door?"
"You destroyed my game!" Ralph suddenly hollered, which surprisingly had Zed's wall of windows lightly quivering. Just as Zed was going to open his mouth to argue with the true King, Ralph suddenly grappled for Zed's throat and squeezed. Zed choked a noise and tried to grip his hands to Ralph's large one, "I'll destroy the entirety of your home before it even comes even a little close to how I feel right now. I know you're the middle man in this mess, but I also know you can fix my game. I'm not leaving here without you."
"It's pointless," Zed choked loudly as he grit his teeth, "The game is under Radex's control now... No one needs me."
"We need you!" Ralph urged through clenched teeth as well, though he shook Zed around a bit and nearly dared to raise him off of his feet, "Tessa needs you, everyone needs you! I don't care what she told you, down in the Great Hall, you need to get back there and right whatever wrongs you made!"
"I-I can't do it from Sugar Rush's code room," Zed wheezed as Ralph largely continued to grip his throat. Zed choked a noise and tried his hardest to get Ralph's grip to loosen, "I-It's not something that I can easily just fix!"
"I don't care what has to be done!" Ralph argued as he did just the opposite of what Zed silently begged for; he gripped Zed's throat tighter and began to feel desperate for answers, "Just get it done!"
"I-It involves finding Tron," Zed growled as he shut his eyes in writhing pain, though he was relieved his words finally made Ralph's grip relax.
"Tron!" Ralph wondered in hard confusion. Although he relaxed his grip on Zed's throat, even further, though he still continued to hold him hostage there, "Tron got unplugged! We've had this discussion!"
"It still exists," Zed uttered darkly, his electric blue eye contact was now riddled with all sorts of answers that Ralph wished they had time to delve into. Zed shook his head and let his eyes dart about Ralph's powerful chest, which quickly rose and fell with his nervous breathing. Zed continued on quietly, "You guys would never have known that, because I couldn't remember... Now that I have all my memories back, I know just how to fix this..."
"Is this something Radex told you?" Ralph side eyed Zed in dark skeptics.
"No," Zed choked softly, "I-I have always known this, but I never told anyone... Not even Radex knew Tron still existed."
"Do you have proof?" Ralph uttered, he kept his grip to Zed's throat, though not as tight and aggressive as prior.
"I have my light-cycle and a light disc," Zed wheezed gently as he scrunched his eyebrows in impending pain, "I-I know where Tron is."
"What would going to Tron do, why can't you fix this from Sugar Rush's code room?" Ralph wondered, his voice remained deep and nervous.
"You can't fix the game from the inside," Zed trailed off and, as much as he wanted to beat around the bush, Ralph suddenly jolted his hand and tightened his grip on Zed's throat and collar, which caused him to cough a startled noise of anguish.
"From the inside, what do you mean! The only thing opposite of inside, is outside!" Ralph bellowed in angry annoyance, as if that was off the table, though he furrowed his eyebrows in growing realization and shook his head, "You don't mean..."
"Hit the nail on the head there," Zed meeped as he largely furrowed his eyebrows and grappled at Ralph's massive wrist, though in a fit of dumbfounded realization, Ralph largely let go of Zed and clumsily dropped him to his feet.
"Outside," Ralph hissed in disbelief as he took a few brooding steps away. Zed largely choked a hard few hacks and rubbed his throat. He grimaced and sent a hard, disturbed glare to the back of Ralph's head, though the King acted completely un-phased to Zed's noisy, wordless complaints. Ralph finally looked back to Zed in a wildly incredulous way and shook his head, "There's no way."
"Quite the contrary," Zed mumbled in annoyance as he rolled his eyes and cleared his throat, yet again, though he began to push into his code room, "If I'm going to do this, I have to do this now. I've already lost a lot of time."
"Whose fault was that," Ralph argued as he quickly followed Zed.
"Tessa's," Zed muttered, though he knew he was wrong; he was even more convinced of his findings, and was well aware of the fact that he should've kept his mouth shut, once Ralph largely grappled for his shoulder and turned him right around.
"Wanna try that again?" Ralph said loudly in Zed's face, which made Zed largely flinch and hold up his hands in a defensive way.
"I-I'm sorry, I'm just upset," Zed assured with an exhausted frown, "I didn't mean it... I just wish she didn't say those things, to me."
"She doesn't hate you, if anything, you should be flattered," Ralph bellowed, which caused Zed to shrink farther into himself as the two hung in the doorway of the code room, "When a wrecker says they hate you, you should take that as a higher honor than hearing 'I love you'. It means you've done something so awful, that not even a wrecker themselves can wreck enough crap to make themselves feel better. You've cheated the system. You've made a wrecker so mad, that even SHE can't let enough rage escape her body to destroy stuff."
"I'm missing the part where the flattery comes in," Zed said with an overload of snark, though he flinched, yet again, and wondered just when he'd learn his lesson.
"The only other person, on this whole planet, that Tessa has told that she hated, was Penny," Ralph continued, "You know just how close those two are. They're practically sisters."
Zed raised his eyebrows in growing surprise and softly looked down, though Ralph largely shook his head and squeezed Zed's shoulder.
"She doesn't hate you," Ralph furrowed his eyebrows and gripped Zed's shoulder just a little harder, "Quite the contrary... I-I know she'd go to the ends of the Earth for you."
"Thank you," Zed stated softly, though he looked down in defeat.
Ralph leaned in a little closer and continued to just lightly shake Zed's shoulder, as if he was running out of ways to convince Zed that he was indeed still loved. Ralph shook his head and looked down in thought. He knew the two were on the brink of a breakthrough, finding where each other stood in their lives. Ralph knew Zed was now the main character in Tessa's life, and it wasn't going to change, even through this mess. For once, all day, Ralph let a kind smile sprawl his face, though he still looked totally exhausted with sorrow.
"Zed, I need you to realize, that... I'd happily accept this kingdom take over, if it were for just one thing to come back to me," Ralph urged, his voice croaked, as if he could potentially be on the brink of becoming emotional. Zed furrowed his eyebrows in growing anguish and honed his whole, undivided attention to the King as he continued, "I'd give anything to have not lost a child, today..."
Zed felt his heart sink harder and faster than he could imagine. He shook his head, in dire curiosity, and opened his mouth to question just what had happened, though Ralph shut his eyes tight and quickly shook his head.
"Vanellope had a loading bar, before this whole mess," Ralph rushed as his eyes gathered with tears of pure, writhing anguish. Zed slumped his shoulders as the horrible news hit him head on, "The downgrade made it so... The child was lost... Oliver is next out."
"Oliver?" Zed prod as he could feel his heart pang harder, "I-I... I don't know what to say."
"I don't either," Ralph's voice cracked as his eyes idly scanned Zed's chest and shoulders, "I-I can't lose any more children. I don't care what happens to Sugar Rush... I just want my kin to remain."
Ralph squeezed Zed's shoulder and shut his eyes tight, though he only lightly hung his head. Zed froze in impending fear and felt as if he was sat in the twilight zone.
"This includes you, son," Ralph uttered as he largely shook his head and shook Zed around, only lightly, "I don't care if we all live in a card board box, in Game Central Station... At the end of the day, at least I'd have everyone I love."
Zed slumped his shoulders and suddenly felt as if he was slowly becoming whole, as if energy was finally coming back to him. He couldn't help but let a small smile come across his face, though Ralph gently peered to him, the stern look of determination still hung true.
"I don't care what you have to do," Ralph shook his head, "Please... Wherever it is, you're going... Just please make sure you and Tessa come home safely."
Zed nodded and finally gave Ralph a look of kind humility, as if he was finally on the same page as Ralph. He could feel all the gears in his mind work at the speed of light as he ran over everything he had to do, so to bring order back to Sugar Rush and it's leaders.
"I promise," Zed's voice shook, "I always keep my promises."
A/N: Hey guys, I uploaded one of the painterly requests to my deviantART. The scene were Tessa and Oliver have that massive smack down and Tessa ultimately hands his ass to him XD It's on my dA titled 'Rivalry' - username Vyntresser. Thanks guys! You're the BEST! Stay tuned, it gets more intense from here!