A/N: Hey guys! Just a quick update with me and etc.- I've been super busy with holiday orders on commissions, as well as the cup commissions I've been getting. I have about half of the sketches, for the Defying Code sketchdump finished, and I should have it up sometime soon! I've been swamped with quite a bit, so please bear with me!

ALSO I'm really glad you guys were so shocked with Penny's, erm... 'Rancis' side showing through xD Penny's character is extremely special to me... In Rectifying Origin, she sort of morphs into your resident badass, and you'll find out why. She goes through a ton of turmoil, a ton of change and character development. I am VERY excited to carry on writing for her, because she is very special. She even garners the attention of a certain BOY! xD Yes, Penny gets a love interest (of sorts) in the third story. I could tell you now, who it is, but I'm pretty certain you guys would slaughter me.

Soooo I'll wait :D

Song Listened To : Iris - Goo Goo Dolls

*Chapter 122*

With a hard jolt and a shivering wave of her familiar, rare purple coding, Tessa pushed through the portal and coughed a small noise. She largely whirled around and was quite pleased to see that she was back in the Hull. She beamed an accomplished smile, though as soon as she tried to set her sights to her aunt Taffyta and mother, in the portal she had just stepped through, it flickered to black and vanished before her. She frowned and waved her hand, in attempt to give one last goodbye. She furrowed her eyebrows and, with that one simple moment, she shook her head and felt that familiar of tears sting her eyes yet again. She scoffed an annoyed noise at herself; she knew she had to shake her emotions and focus at getting Oliver and everyone to return to normality. She looked down at her clothes. She was pleased to find that she had returned to her normal state, a pair of comfortable Sugar Rush jeans, which were tattered at the knees, and her lazy mint shirt. She felt her hair; the familiar pricklies, of buzzed hair on the left side of her head, made her slump her shoulders in relief, and the fact that she was now confident she made it back to the right time, in Sugar Rush.

She forced a smile and slumped her arms to her sides. She knew she had to have somehow fixed everything, though she suddenly felt a weird wave come over her as she could hear Zed's voice, as well as a few other muffled voices, coming from her mother's workstation. With a confused smirk, she slowly wormed her way through her mother's dark, warm Hull and slowly approached the workstation, as if she was kindly interrupting someone's conversation. Through curious, sparkling eyes, she let her eyes melt into the four large monitors that seemingly played home videos. She beamed a curious, almost annoyed smile and shook her head, though she suddenly flinched and, with hard realization that suddenly coursed through her brain, she froze and was hit with one large fact. Tessa covered her mouth in growing surprise and was beyond shocked to see that she had somehow been graced with a front row seat to all of Zed's locked up memories.

She furrowed her eyebrows and suddenly felt her skin get hot, the fact that she had a rare view of something only Zed could remember. She shook her head and locked her eyes on the screen dead in the center. As if looking through someone else's vision, the picture blobbed about in easy fits of wonder, though she suddenly scoffed a laugh, with a wide, nostalgic smile as she recognized a certain, little, pig-tailed wrecker come into view.

"This is my little cousin, Tessa," Tammy's voice could be heard, though little Tessa lightly waved her fingers and shyly peered up at Zed, in which was the view point.

"Hey, Tessa," Zed urged happily, his soft voice was innocent and kind, though his hand came into view as the two shook hands, "My name's Zane."

"Hi," Tessa's little voice meeped, though her familiar smile shone through, "Your hair is so cool."

"Thanks," Zed chuckled as the two pulled apart, though Zed's vision shot to Tammy, it was clear Tessa and Oliver began to bicker in the background.

"Wow, you actually got words out of her," Tammy furrowed her eyebrows and looked on, "She's usually too grumpy or shy to function. How'd you do that?"

Tessa chuckled, though she could feel her heart becoming sore as she messily covered her mouth and was still in awe of just what she was watching. She could feel tears still hanging in her eyes, as if she was certain any more of this would push her over the edge. She flinched and quickly looked to the screen to her right. She shivered with all of the information hitting her, though she was more than surprised to see, through Zed's point of view, his hands reaching for Lickity; she was strapped in a tight muzzle, and her face was covered in fresh scars. Tessa widened her eyes and took a step away from the monitor, though all of them continued to show messy memories without fail.

"It's okay, it's okay," Zed whispered, Tessa could tell this memory happened at nightfall. Lickity grumbled a concerned noise and looked more than frightened. She attempted to ease away from Zed, though he persisted, "I-I'm going to free you. You don't deserve this torture... You've been trapped for far too long, huh."

Tessa felt a sweep of anguish course her veins as Zed's clumsy hands swiped Lickity free of all of her restraints. Before Lickity could dart away, Zed softly held her chin. Lickity's eyes looked terrified, yet grateful. She was a lot skinnier and a lot more fragile than what Tessa was ever used to.

"I-If you ever find me again, I'll take care of you," Zed rushed in a whisper, though he began to push on her side as suddenly another voice could be heard, though it was muffled, "Go, go! Come find me later!" Zed hissed as Lickity finally, and clumsily, opened her wings and darted away. The last view of her, thankfully taking to the sky, held for a solid few seconds, as if Zed was slowly contemplating the metaphor at hand.

Tessa finally felt the tears roll down her cheeks, as she could hardly believe everything hitting her. Another monitor caught her attention; she knew exactly who was speaking. Finn's familiar voice pierced the darkness she was surrounded in.

"Zed, you can't reason with Radex," Finn barked, his dark blue eyes hooked straight into Tessa's, though she knew it was merely Zed's memory through his eyes. She flinched as Zed largely looked away, took a few steps and was halted by his younger brother, "He doesn't want anything good for Sugar Rush."

"He wants an alliance, Finn, it's not a big deal!" Zed urged darkly, definitely not as soft and sensitive as Tessa was used to.

"He wants a game-wide take over," Finn begged, though Zed largely swiped his hand away.

"Did he tell you that himself, or something?" Zed argued.

"No, but Sugar Rush has been plagued with virus issues, as of late," Finn rushed, as if he had to hurry to get his two cents in, "I-It's clear he's waiting for the game to be at it's weakest! He's using you!"

"Radex wouldn't do that to me!" Zed's voice yelled, though the memory largely flickered to an angry bout of white noise, as if the computer was trying it's hardest to find another memory.

Tessa took yet another step back from the monitors, as if she didn't want to be a part of this mess, anymore, though somehow, all the flickering memories continued to reel her in, deeper and deeper. She fixed her gaze to one of the monitors she was previously looking at, though the memory quickly swapped to that of Radex in Zed's cozy code room. Tessa covered her mouth in hard fear and was stunned to see just how similar to Rancis he looked. She felt more tears well in her eyes as he looked down to his hands; the sinister smile on his face easily mocked Rancis's facial features, though it was clear Radex's notions were purely dark.

"So, you're wanting an alliance with Sugar Rush, to help them with the virus issues?" Zed wondered softly, though Radex chuckled and shook his head.

"I guess you could say that," Radex shrugged, his dark blue eyes hooked into Zed's, "As thanks, they'll give me their kingdom."

"...That's not how alliances work," Zed dared in hard annoyance.

"So, you're not going to help me?" Radex's voice sternly wondered.

Tessa flinched as the memory largely blobbed to a snippet of another memory.

"What should I do, girly?" Zed wondered down to Lickity; the warm sunshine flood his loft, and Lickity happily garbled a noise of question. She looked healthy and as beautiful as ever. Zed continued on, his voice was soft and concerned, as if he was talking to himself, "I-I really like her... I just get the feeling she would reject me if I told her I was actually Zed."

Lickity grumbled a noise, as if to reassure him that what he was saying wasn't true. Tessa giggled a small noise and shook her head with a widening smile, through her confused tears. She inhaled a sharp sniffle and flinched, yet again, as the memory tried it's hardest to go back to what it was, though it showed a few random memories, glimpses of Penny could be seen through the fuzzy white noise, though Radex's voice urgently carried on, as if their conversation had gotten out of control since the last snippet Tessa heard.

"I-I don't want this!" Zed urged angrily, he continued to talk, though Radex shut him out.

"If you're not going to help me right now," Radex growled, "You will avenge me. I will make it so you won't be able to resist her! She could have four legs and you'd still want to give her your coding! She's related to Wreck-It Ralph! It's almost comical that you will be FORCED to find her attractive!"

"Wh-what would that even accomplish!" Zed barked, though their voices largely crackled as the memories faded in and out.

"I'm going to hook my coding, so far into your brain, that not even the coding master Vanellope Von Schweetz can get it out of you," Radex cackled, "With that one, infamous code swap, with Sugar Rush's princess... The game will be mine, again."

"I-I never signed up for THIS," Zed's voice sounded as if he was on the verge of being strangled, though the memories vision wasn't coming through. Tessa squinted hard into an image of what she could swear was a memory of her and Penny, though she jolted once the image of Penny became clearer.

"I know you love her," Penny's soft, kind voice, and girly smirk, was just what Tessa's scared heart craved. Tessa shook her head and scrunched her face in crumpling anguish.

"How do I tell her?" Zed wondered bashfully, though just as Penny was about to reply, the memory strangely flickered to an image of Tessa's sleeping face, close to Zed's. Tessa raised her eyebrows in soft surprise and bit her bottom lip, though Zed's tender, warm hands tucked her hair behind her ear as she slept. The memory of Tessa's and Zed's first nap together, after a long morning of studying for Academy finals.

"Just... Be yourself," Penny's voice rang true, "You'll know when the moment is right. And you know Tessa... She's bound to jump right into your arms."

"I love you," Zed's voice tenderly urged to Tessa's sleeping figure, of which he thought was awake.

Tessa covered her face and took a small step back, though she softly sobbed into her hands a few times, as if the realization was way too painful to even be in front of, anymore. She audibly cried out, to the room, though her eyes suddenly caught with a memory that largely flickered in an angry light display of confused circuits. Radex's cloaked figure could be seen, as well as Zed's hand outreaching for help. The angle was of him, from the ground.

"Please," Zed urged in a croak, "W-We can work out a deal!"

"It's too late," Radex uttered darkly as he tucked the hood over his head, "When you wake up, you won't have a single memory of any of this."

Tessa urgently took a few steps closer to the monitor and uttered a noise, as if to somehow urge Zed to stand up, though it were as if she had forgotten where she was.

"Sweet dreams," Radex's voice dribbled out.

"Stop, stop!" Tessa hollered loudly as she clumsily swiped her hands on the touch-based desk top underneath her. All at once, the memories largely swiped away, as if to be confused.

Tessa barked a soft cry and hung her head. She scrunched her face in hard anguish and audibly sobbed to the desk underneath her. Tears hit the glass in messy slaps of confusion. She shook her head and clenched her fists, though she had to wonder if there was any truth to hers and Zed's relationship. She shivered and felt as cold as she had ever felt, in her entire life. Her arms trembled as the memories continued to haunt her, like needles that prod at her brain. As if she couldn't feel pain anymore, she let sorrow and grief overcome her. She uttered a few angry notions, towards herself, and softly wiped her face free of tears, though it was only replaced with more tears. Just as she was about to try and complete the deed, of reversing Oliver's disappearance, the game suddenly chimed a loud, familiar 'game-over' noise. Tessa froze and, as quickly as Sugar Rush could accomplish, a map of the Hull came into view on the monitor before her. An angry red dot hovered in the room she was next to, to express that someone had died, for good, in said room. Tessa froze in cold terror and wondered if all of her hard work had just gone down the drain.