A/N: And...here is Chapter 3! I hope that I can upload more chapters faster in the future, but sometimes it's hard to write. Please read and review, I would love to hear feedback.

Disclaimer: Wreck-It Ralph and its characters belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 3: Something In The Air…

Archer watched the big bad guy go as he was sitting attending to his wound. He managed to get a huge bruise on his face, especially his nose. Some of the characters came to see if he was okay, or gave him an icy glass to stop the swelling. Archer was in aching pain all over, all from the sheer force of being pummeled to the ground.

"Humph." He grumbled, pushing the icy glass to his face, "That brainless giant has no idea who he's messing with…"

"Archer, are you alright buddy?" came the sound of his Flying Arrows friend Garran; a short little boy who's programmed backstory was about him being an orphan, but was rescued and trained by Archer in the sport of archery. He was always concerned about Archer's health, but Archer was too angry to be soft to him.

"NO I'M NOT!" Archer yelled at Garran, who flinched and took a step back. Seeing as he was attracting attention from the crowd of dancers, Archer cleared his throat, and then slowly leaned in closer to Garran.

"I'm not okay because some giant ape interfered with what was to be a fight between me and that coward of a girl." He whispered menacingly. For a moment Garran remained silent, taking it all in.

"But…" he finally replied, "…why didn't you fight back? Surely you could have taken him head on and still come out in one piece."

Archer lowered his gaze, knowing how confident his student was at his strength against anyone, then quietly said: "Did you know who that giant was that hit me?! That was Wreck-It-Ralph. The look on his face was pure anger." Archer looked around to see the gamers went back to their dancing, "And when you see him angry when you're in his way, you know you don't want to mess with him."

"Good point." Garran replied, "But what about the girl, Lucy."

Suddenly Garran flinched, finding him being pulled in too close to Archer. "The next time I see that weak coward," Archer whispered intensely, "I'm going to make sure she had never set foot outside her game."

Tears came welling up in Lucy's eyes as she made her way out of the DDR party, into the train, and finally running down the stairs into Game Central Station. Slowing down to a brisk walk, Lucy started to cry out loud; no one was there to listen anyway. The tears she held back came rushing rapidly out of her eyes. After a full few minutes the tears stopped, and Lucy then opened her eyes to see her hands were wet, as well as her cloak, stained with tears. She suddenly heard the flapping sound of wings in the still silence.

Sophie flew down from her perch that was on one of the windows in GCS, seeing something was wrong with Lucy. Landing on her shoulder, the bird stared at her with big, concerning eyes.

"Hi Soph…" Lucy said softly. The bird did not move.

Lucy looked ahead to see she was still walking briskly forward, about to run into the wall at her place in GCS where she called home. She adjusted to walking slowly avoiding hitting the wall in front of her. A sad, lonely sigh came out from her, echoing the walls and reverberating around her.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" Lucy yelled out suddenly. Sophie jumped startled from Lucy's shoulder and flew a few feet up from her.

Lucy closed her eyes, her eyes starting to get tears once again. "What have I done?" she shouted, softer this time.

Opening her eyes, she started to notice that something seemed wrong in the now empty, dim station.
She looked around to find Sophie, concern filling her face.

"Hey Sophie, where are you? Come down! Something's wrong!"

She then heard the flapping of wings as Sophie slowly flew down to land on her shoulder. Lucy leaned her head to the bird, trying to comfort Sophie's constant fear in her eyes. A sudden creak made Lucy stop in her tracks, long since she stopped walking. Turning her head slowly, Lucy looked to see what made the soft creaking noise. Her eyes widened. The sound came from something moving forward in the distance. Yet she couldn't see what that thing was.

"A shadow…?" she asked herself.

The thing now seemed to have stopped in its tracks, as if it had a certain goal in mind. As if it was trying to find something. Lucy's heart stopped as she tried to contain a short yelp trying to escape her lips. There was no question, the thing standing before Lucy was looking for her. Without thinking in swift motion, she found herself flinging behind one of the benches, Sophie flying away, trying to keep out of sight of this thing that was slowly making its way towards her hiding place.

The anticipation to find the girl resonated in his mind as Ralph made his way to Game Central Station. In a part of his mind Ralph was sure to find the girl still there, but in another he started to think that she had disappeared forever, never to be seen again. He hoped that wouldn't be true. The train slowly made its last few stretches to the end of the DDR portal, each movement weighing Ralph down with more anticipation to be out of the train. Finally the train at last came to a complete stop, with Ralph running straight out and down the steps to Game Central.

As he approached the end of the gateway, Ralph had reduced his run to a slow walk. For some reason he could not go any faster than he already was. "If she is real, then what is she like? What if she's a bad guy that doesn't care about others? No…. There's no time to doubt, I have to get to her. I have to know who she…"

A loud scream interrupted his train of thought. Panic spread across his face, as he now started to run again into GCS, his breath exploding with sudden, rapid gasps. When he finally ran through the gateway into the station, a feeling deep down inside told him that something was wrong. Very wrong. The station was always full of life, even if it was only filled with a few characters and the SPs guarding the gates. But when he looked out onto the vast opening that was GCS, there was absolutely no life anywhere. It was much dimmer than he had ever seen it before.

"Where is everyone?" he wondered. Then he realized that he already knew the answer. "Ah come on genius! They're all at the party."

Suddenly he heard a flapping sound coming from the right side of the station. He didn't know where, but Ralph knew that he heard something. Slowly he turned to the right. His eyes fixed on a silhouette of a figure just standing there.

"Who is…?"

But when he took a step closer, the figure suddenly was gone. Like the person had disappeared into thin air. Ralph furrowed his brow in confusion; wondering what could have been standing there just a moment ago, then wasn't there anymore. Taking a deep breath, he straightened up, and then started walking toward the far right bench.

As the figure drew closer, Lucy heard that the footsteps were not of an ordinary person's feet. The steps it made were very loud, and sounded as if it was taking huge steps. The sinking feeling she had before became even deeper.

"What do I do? I can't fight like this, I'm a mess!"

Lucy frantically tried to figure out what in the world she planned to do. "I can't just charge out in a full frontal attack. By the way this…THING… is sounding, it's too big to take on by myself."

"And I can't just run away either; or else this big thing will come chasing after me. I wouldn't want that to happen, this thing would probably be too fast. The only thing I can do is…is…

…Hide."

As the word came out of her mouth, there came another sound. Lucy strained her ears, trying to listen closely to the new sound.

"Is that…more footsteps? No…it doesn't sound like footsteps, more like…a voice."

"Hello…i-is anyone…a-anybody…anybody here?" the voice called out.

Lucy was too terrified to move. "This thing had a voice. But, shadows don't have voices…

Do they?"

Slowly, Lucy rose from behind the bench and turned.

A pair of hazel eyes stared back at her.

Ralph's uneasiness started to grow.

"I've never seen the station so empty before, so…dark."

But Ralph did not have time to worry about that right now. He had to know if the girl was okay; and if in fact he had just seen her silhouette on the right side of Game Central. With his courage waning with each step he took, Ralph somehow managed to squeak out one sentence.

"Hello…i-is anyone…a-anybody…anybody here?"

In the corner of his eye, he saw a slight movement coming from the bench at the end. Doing the best he can to keep quiet; Ralph cautiously made his way over to the far bench. He had just reached the back of it, when something suddenly popped out from behind the bench.

A pair of golden eyes stared back at him.

For what seemed like a lifetime, Ralph stared at those eyes in silence. Then he caught a glimpse of fear in them, and without warning, the girl he was desperately looking for started to loudly scream.

The first instinct Lucy felt as she stared at those brown eyes was to fight back. But stricken with terror, instead she screamed as loud as her lungs could handle. The thing in front of her covered its ears as soon as her scream loudly came out. She could not see what happened next, but in an instant her scream ceased to a muffled squeak. Still stricken with fear, Lucy looked down to see something humongous covering her mouth. At first she thought it was a cloth that was put around her mouth, but as she looked closer she realized: it was a hand.

"Who is this thing?" she pondered in her mind, trying to struggle out of its tight grip on her.

"Hey, calm down would you? I'm not going to hurt you!" a familiar voice said in the darkness.

Lucy stopped struggling: "I know that voice…"

Ralph's ears were ringing as the girl's scream got louder and louder. Finally, after trying to block out the agonizing sound, Ralph jumped straight over the girl's head and firmly clasped his huge wrecking hand over her mouth. She froze for a few seconds as he tightened his other hand around her little body, being careful not to harm her.

"Hey, calm down would you? I'm not going to hurt you!" he explained firmly.

The girl squirming in his arms suddenly stopped, and stood perfectly still.

"Look…" Ralph continued, "I am about as scared and surprised as you are, but you've got to calm down. You could scare someone screaming like that."

She did not move. Ralph was sure that she would run away if by the chance he'd let go.

"Listen I'm going to let go of you, but you must promise not to run away, okay?"

After a long pause, he saw the girl slowly nod her head. Ralph let out a nervous sigh.

"Alright then." He replied, slowly letting go of the girl and stepping back. When she turned around to face him, Ralph noticed she was oddly troubled by the look she gave him. He was about to ask what was wrong, when a horrible growl came from the other side of the station.

After hearing what the thing had to say, Lucy pondered over if she should trust it. Then something cold made her shiver, something very cold. At first she thought it was the thing that was holding her tightly. Then from out of nowhere, came a feeling of warmth. Looking around with her eyes, Lucy didn't see anything else. Wait…

She looked back up, realizing that the warmth was coming from the one that was holding her. In her mind she started to worry; something was out there, an evil entity. Knowing now that she could trust this thing that might be a person, Lucy slowly nodded her head.

"I hope I know what I'm doing." Cautiously, it loosened its grip over her mouth and let go of her body. She gave a quiet gasp so that it couldn't hear her. When she was sure that she was okay, Lucy turned to face whoever was behind her.

It was then that a low, menacing growl shattered the silence of the station. Lucy jerked her head suddenly, realizing what waited behind her. What she and the thing behind her saw, was a looming darkness with no shape or form, coming right at them with haste. In one seemingly long second, Lucy grabbed the thing by the hand and jerked the person and herself out of the way just in time. They fell to the ground as the dark entity vanished into thin air.

Silence followed as the two of them lay flat on the floor. Slowly, they both sat up looking to where the thing had just disappeared.

"What was that thing?" Lucy turned and saw the person looking at her. She then realized the question was directed to her.

"U-uh…" she stammered bashfully.

The person lowered its eyes and looked away, apparently lost in thought. "THAT IS…I mean…" she blurted out, making the person turn back again surprised. Lucy took a long breath.

"It's a shadow." She finally answered, "It's a darkness that is made of pure evil."

She found herself looking closer at the person's face; she noticed that it was in fact a person; a guy. That's when she realized it seemed brighter in here that a few moments ago. She could clearly see him. There was another pause of silence as she stared silently at him, taking in what was in front of her. He was a rather tall person; taller than any she had seen. To her he seemed about 9 feet tall, with his broad shoulders bulging out to the sides. He wore large overalls, with one strap seeming to be broken, and two pairs of shirts right under them. But was mostly intrigued Lucy was his face. His big brown eyes mesmerized Lucy, and his expression seemed to be very blank. She noticed that when she looked at his face for the first time, his cheeks have turned a bit red, as if he was slightly embarrassed.

"I wonder…could he be that guy who had…saved me?"

For the first time, Ralph could actually see what she looked like. After seeing the thing that had stricken him with horror, as it was charging towards them, he was suddenly pulled down by her onto the ground with such force; that it shook his teeth from the inside at the sudden impact. In the process, the girl's hood had fallen off her head, though he realized that she didn't know it had fallen off because she was distracted by who was in front of her: him. But as she was looking at him, he couldn't help but notice the girl's features as well. The cloak still covered her body, but her face was as clear as daylight. Her hair was a delicate light brown that covered some of her face; mostly her left eye. Her skin was a very delicate pink, and her eyes were an odd color of a deep gold.

A moment ago he had asked the girl what that thing was that attacked them. She was hesitant to reply, so Ralph was about to look where it was again, when she had said something that made him jump and turn back to her, realizing then he was looking, truly, at her.

His cheeks had heated to a faded red. Ralph hadn't noticed until the girl gave him a curious look. He quickly fought down the redness in his cheeks and cleared his throat.

"So…uh…w-what's your name?"

Now the girl gave him a quizzical look. "My name?" she answered softly.

Ralph now was trying to fight the hot blood coming back to his cheeks. "Yeah, your name." he said as calmly as he could.

The girl first looked at him quizzically again, but then she gave him a bashful expression, looking downward more to his big bare feet.

"No one has asked me my name before." She faintly responded.

There was yet another silence, Ralph had noticed. He wanted to just run away, back to his little shack in Fix-It-Felix Jr., but he stayed; he still stayed: because of her.

"Well..." he shyly started, rubbing one of his huge hands on the back of his neck, "…my name is…uh…Wreck-It-Ralph…b-but you can call me Ralph if you like!" he blurted out loudly.

Ralph realized he had a bright red showing on his cheeks. He was relieved when he saw that she wasn't looking at him, but still looking at the floor. Giving up all hope in his mind, Ralph carefully got to his feet. He was about to walk away, when he heard the smallest sound from behind him.

"Lucy…"

He slowly turned around, to see that the girl was on her feet, staring right at him. Ralph stared back, dumbfounded.

"My name is Lucy." she replied again a little louder.

Ralph just stood there, looking at the tiny girl. He tried to say something, anything that could respond to her, but nothing came out.

"Come on Ralph…say something! Don't leave her hanging!" his mind screamed.

"It's very nice to meet you, Wreck-It-Ralph." Lucy said expectantly.

Ralph blinked out of his daze, "Oh! It's…very nice to meet you too…um…"

"Lucy." she finished.

"Yeah right, Lucy. It's nice to meet you."

For the first time, Ralph saw a little smile come from her lips.

A/N: Sooo... yep there's something happening here. And I'm excited to see what happens next! Please leave a review and tell me what you think.