A/N: I have finally returned! That writer's block was so hard to shake! But thank goodness that I was able to finish this chapter and upload it. So guys here is the 9th chapter to my story! This has got to be the longest, monstrous, painful chapter I have ever written. I just hope all that writing does not go to waste. Anyways, enjoy this one my lovely readers!

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 9: Minute to Win It

Archer's mind was racing with so many questions. Everything went fuzzy as he tried to remember what had happened to him. The first thing he remembered was the night at the DDR party, where he had encountered Lucy. The night where the wrecker had gone into harm's way just to protect her.

The night that he had met a terrifying creature.

His first thought then was to remember who or what that creature was, and why it had taken control over him.

"There must be a reason...a reason that it took control of my mind and made me almost-"

He gasped as he realized what he had almost done, going out of his way to find Lucy and put an end to her. Not realizing that he only wanted to tell her something that he had held back for a long time.

"I'm such an idiot." he muttered frustratingly.

"Why? What do you mean?" Garren's voice said from beneath his hug.

Archer was silent still not letting go of his friend. He looked around for Lucy, but she had strangely disappeared. Archer narrowed his eyes in confusion still looking at his surroundings.

"Where are we?" he asked, a blank expression coming across his face.

"We're in Sugar Rush Archer. The candy go-kart game over by the Whack-A-Mole." Garren answered muffled by his bear hug.

Archer kept looking around dazed. "Huh, no wonder this place smells of candy and sweets." he muttered.

At once Archer got onto his feet letting go of Garren in the process.

"Where did Lucy run off to?" he said turning to Garren.

"Over there. I think the wrecking guy is hurt or something." Garren said pointing in the direction of the racetrack.

Without hesitation Archer proceeded to follow in that direction. He hoped that he did not do too much damage, or even get someone hurt. For he would never forgive himself if he did.

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The pain grew more and more as Ralph cradled his wounded arm. No matter how much he tried to tend his arm it would only get worse. The pain was getting hard to bear, and he knew that right then from when the arrow grazed his arm.

The only other thing that Ralph could think about to make the pain stop was what he had seen Lucy do. Not only was he shocked by the events that had occured, but he was also amazed. He had never seen Lucy so serious before. It was strange,and yet...it all felt as if he knew right from the start.

"Ralph!"

He looked up to whoever called his name. It was the familiar voice of Lucy, who was running as fast as she could towards the two of them. Ralph smiled at her feeling his cheeks grow red as she came closer.

"Ow!" he winced realizing that Vanellope was doing her best as well to try and wrap his arm.

"Would you stop moving you big baby?!" she scolded him.

"Hey it really hurts you know!" Ralph fumed as he held his arm away from her.

"Well I wasn't the one who got a gash in their arm, am I!" she replied with a smirk.

Ralph was now fuming, but always felt this way around the kid. He could not help himself, she was his best friend after all.

"Are...you okay?"

It took all of the strength to supress the red glow in his cheeks. Lucy was looking him right in the eye, her big golden eyes full of concern but still filled with curiousity.

"I'm fine, really. It's nothing." he said managing a smile.

"Except that you can't seem to hold still!" Vanellope huffed, "What about you girlie, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." she replied smiling.

"Wait, you two know each other? When did that happen?" Ralph asked turning to Vanellope.

"Yeah, we met here in Sugar Rush." Vanellope leaned in closer to Ralph, "She's pretty...interesting." she whispered.

Ralph could only nod as the three of them remained silent. All the while his wounded arm was becoming too painful to bear.

"Ralph...your arm." Lucy exclaimed.

She took his arm, making him wince in pain again. He quietly groaned in pain as she gently held his huge arm one hand, and placed her other on top of his arm. Lucy then looked down at his arm intently.

"What are you doing, girlie?" Vanellope asked.

Lucy did not answer, still seeming to concentrate. Ralph gave a look of confusion back at Vanellope. She returned the same look.

"Lucy, I'm okay. Don't worry about me." he tried to persuade her.

Lucy still said nothing as she still fixed her eyes on his wounded arm. Ralph followed her eyes down to his arm, and got to see it fully for the first time.

His arm had gotten darker than before, with some black spots around the wound. A redness grew around where the arrow grazed his arm. "No wonder there was so much pain." he thought, "But...what are these black spots?"

Before he could ponder it over, Ralph was astonished to see that his arm had started to glow.

"What in-"

Ralph's eyes immediately turned to look at Lucy, and was amazed to see her glowing radiantly. Her eyes were more golden than before, shining in the glowing light that surrounded her. He looked down at his arm again to see that from where she placed her hand, his arm was slowly beginning to heal. For a moment Ralph could not believe what he saw. His eyes widened as he gazed in awe, not moving at all fearing that his arm would get hurt again.

Then the glow subsided, and Lucy slowly let go of his arm. She closed her eyes, still seemed to be in another place. Ralph looked down at his arm, and saw no trace of any injury at all. He gasped silently, blinking several times. Is this...real? Did she just...heal my arm?

"Whoa!" he heard Vanellope say in awe.

"Yeah." Ralph whispered, "Whoa."

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Lucy could feel this strange power fade away as she let go of Ralph's arm. Wanting to try her powers again, she had amazingly healed Ralph's arm. As she closed her eyes, she could feel this strange power still churning inside. As if it had been there all along.

"How...did you do that?!" she heard Vanellope's voice exclaim.

She still kept her eyes closed, and did not say a word. The strange power was now slowly fading away with each passing moment. Lucy became confused, wondering how she was able to summon her powers at all.

A noise made Lucy snap out of her thoughts, realizing that the noise was footsteps that came from behind her. Still keeping her eyes closed she tried to concentrate on getting back this strange feeling again; but the noise kept snapping Lucy out of her concentration.

"YOU!"

Lucy flinched at the sound of Ralph's booming voice as she heard his footsteps stomp away from her.

"Wait! I can explain what happened!"

"I recognize that voice." Lucy gasped, "Archer!"

With that she finally opened her eyes wide. Turning around sure enough she saw Ralph and Archer up on the hill. Ralph was eyeing at Archer intently, while Archer (no longer seeming confident) was doing his best to stay out of the reach of Ralph's huge fists.

Lucy blinked a few times as she remained motionless, watching the two of them arguing.

"Ahh, those idiots!" Vanellope exclaimed sarcastically, "You've just saved our skins, and now they are at each other's throats!" she turned to Lucy and gave her an annoyed look.

Lucy smiled back down at the little kid, making Vanellope look at her confusingly.

"Hey girlie, aren't you going to stop them?" Vanellope asked her.

"Hmm?" she replied dreamily.

Then she noticed Vanellope had gotten close and was right in her face.

"They are up there fighting each other! You've got to do something about it!" she yelled at her.

Lucy blinked a few times, shocked by Vanellope's concern about something like this. She looked back to the two guys, who were still going at each other.

"I-I'll try." Lucy stammered nervously.

She stood up on her feet, brushing the dust off of her dress. She then started to walk up the hill towards them. Lucy knew that what she was doing was really scary for her. But she had to stop them somehow.

"Please! I only want to talk to her!" Archer's voice wailed as Lucy came closer into their range of hearing.

"You almost tried to hurt her!" Ralph's voice boomed in reply.

Now Lucy found herself running the rest of the way. She stopped just behind Ralph as he was facing Archer head on, poised to strike at any moment.

"Wait Ralph!" she shouted, "Let me talk to him!"

Surprised Ralph turned around to face her, apparently shocked at her sudden appearance. Lucy smiled warmly at him, patting him on the hand as she passed by him without any trouble. Now she could see Archer fully, his face having been striped of all of his courage as he stood before her. As she got closer to him, she saw Archer bow his head in shame. She could tell that he wasn't trying to kill her anymore. He was asking for forgivness for what he had done.

"I'm-I'm so very sorry." he whispered sadly.

Lucy now stood in front of Archer, looking down at his bowed head. She did not know what to do. "On one hand, I could treat him still as an enemy...but...he never did anything wrong to hurt me."

"I never meant to hurt you Lucy, you've got to understand." Archer whispered auidibly only to her, "Please you've just got to."

She stared down at his small figure, her eyes not wavering from his lowered head. Then, she found herself smiling warmly once more, and her big eyes growing soft and big with warmth as well as her smile.

"You're forgiven Archer." she said softly.

Lucy extended her own hand towards Archer as he looked up at her in bewilderment. He stared at her outreached hand, still bewildered by what she had said. He reached his shaking hand and took hers, giving her a weak smile. Lucy smiled warmly back at him as she shook his hand firmly twice.

"Come on then, let's go!" she exclaimed happily letting go of his hand.

Lucy turned and skipped happily as she passed by the watching eyes of Ralph and Vanellope, who were as speechless as Archer was.

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"What...just happened?" Ralph questioned Vanellope as he watched her skip away down the hill.

She replied with only a confused expression and a small shrug.

"She just...forgave me. Just like that." Archer said breathlessly.

Ralph turned back to Archer's small figure. He was just as bewildered as Ralph was, his eyes clouded with questions without answers.

"I thought...she would be angry with me, not cheerful."

"That was...rather odd, but..." Ralph rubbed the back of his head, "...I figured that she was a forgivable person."

"Why do you say that Ralphie." Vanellope asked him.

Looking at her Ralph gave a little smile, "Well...because she's never angry. Lucy always seems to be happy no matter what."

"I still can't believe she forgave me that quickly." Archer mumbled.

"I HAVE AN IDEA!" Vanellope suddenly shouted making Ralph flinch.

She hopped off his shoulder, running off towards Lucy's direction. Blinking once, he followed her as she glitched away. When he finally caught up with her, Ralph was out of breath. The kid was fast, it's hard to keep up with her now.

"Lucy!" Vanellope called.

Quite suddenly he saw Lucy's head pop up from out of nowhere. Her curious expression made him a little uneasy as he felt his cheeks glow red again.

"Hey guys!" Lucy smiled waving her hand high.

Ralph felt his cheeks glow red as he came closer to the girls, who were now talking happily to each other. In the corner of his eye he saw Archer strode up behind them keeping his distance from Ralph. He gave Archer a gentle look to his nervous expression, but was still ready to stop him if he had any ideas.

"No...hard feelings I hope?" Archer said weakly.

"For now." Ralph replied.

"Ralph! Come on, I need you for something!" Vanellope's voice called him.

"This something had better be worth it." Ralph muttered to himself as he walked up to the two girls leaving Archer behind him.

Lucy smiled up at him innocently, but Vanellope gave him a knowingly look.

"Ralph...i-if it's okay with you...I would like to try racing." Lucy stammered looking down at the ground.

Ralph gave her a confusing look, turning to Vanellope. She only grinned back at him as if she knew what was happening. He turned back to Lucy and smiled warmly down at her.

"I think that's a great idea." he said warmly.

She looked at him fully, her golden eyes having grown wide with glee.

"I can?! Really?!" she exclaimed happily.

He couldn't help but smile back at her energetic happiness.

"But...I don't have a kart." Lucy said, suddenly frowning.

She crossed her arms, frowning in thought. Ralph did the same thing, crossing his huge arms across his chest.

"How about...I help you build one?" he spoke slowly.

As soon as he said those words, Ralph felt Vanellope nudge him in the arm unawares.

"Really?!" Lucy excitingly exclaimed.

"Yeah sure, why not." Ralph nervously grinned showing his gaped toothed smile.

Lucy's eyes got bigger with glee as she seemed to glow with happiness. Suddenly she grabbed him by the hand and tried to lead him somewhere. He felt his cheeks grow warm as she took his hand.

"Come on then! Let's go!" she joyfully exclaimed as she tried to pull him along.

"Lucy, the bakery is that way." Ralph chuckled pointing in the opposite direction of where Lucy was dragging him.

She looked where he had pointed, a look of puzzlement coming over her face.

"Oops!" she smiled, "Um...you lead the way then."

He chuckled lightly as he lead Lucy by the hand towards the bakery seen in the distance.

"Have fun you two."

Ralph turned as Vanellope gave him a wink. He rolled his eyes and gave the kid a sarcastic look. Narrowing her eyes she smiled smugly at them before glitching away towards the racetrack, leaving the two of them walking alone towards the bakery. Suddenly he realized that he was still hanging onto Lucy's small hand. His heart was now pounding in his ears like drums.

"I'm holding a girl's hand!" Ralph thought in awe as they kept walking.

Lucy meanwhile was swinging her other free hand back and forth, happily humming quietly to herself. She was still smiling brightly, glowing with pride and joy at what was about to unfold. Like she had forgotten the danger that she was in only moments ago.

"So...you got to make your own karts to race?" she asked him curiously.

"That's what I found out when I first met the little guttersnipe. Vanellope I mean." Ralph corrected himself realizing she did not know the names he called the kid.

"Oh, I wonder what mine would look like." she joyfully cried softly.

"Well...first you got to make one, then we'll see." he replied chuckling softly again.

They walked along in silence as the columns of the bakery became bigger in their sights. He felt her hand squeeze his as she looked up at the colorful smoke billowing from the columns. She gazed at them in awe, her smile growing bigger and bigger with each passing moment.

"Come on Lucy, over here." he squeezed her hand gently, being careful not to crush it.

She blinked once, then followed him as he lead her down through the gate that lead to the bakery.

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Going through many twists and turns, Lucy felt herself almost lost as she blindly followed Ralph through the building. She still clutched her hand in his, not daring to let go for fear of losing him. Finally they stopped inside a curtained room with nothing but a red button in the center. Slowly Ralph let go of her hand, gesturing towards the giant red button on the floor.

Hesitantly she step forward looking down at the glowing button. With one foot she stepped on it lightly. Suddenly the whole room lit up with more buttons, this time on the walls. Curiously she gazed at them all, which held different pictures of karts on each one.

"Which one do I pick?" she said aloud, still in complete bewilderment.

"Which ever one you like." she heard Ralph reply softly.

She looked around once, and then twice before stepping cautiously off the button on the floor. Blinking a few times she set her gaze on a picture of a kart that seemed big enough for her size. Walking up to it, she lightly pressed on the kart of her choice.

Blip!

Lucy flinched as the curtains unexpectedly rose up to reveal another wonderful sight. The room was big, really big. It stretched before her in a long, hallway-like manner, stretching as far as she could see.

She turned to Ralph, not knowing what to do next as he caught up with her.

"Now what happens?" she asked.

"Now we make the kart." he simply said.

"You have one minute to win it!"

Lucy blinked in shock, "I only have one minute?!"

"COME ON! HURRY UP!" Ralph's voice bellowed as he ran past her.

She followed in pursuit, but Ralph was so fast that it was hard to keep up with him.

When she did catch him, they were standing in front of wht seemed like the first stage. All there was to work with was a wheel attached to the front facing the first stage. Knowing that she did not have time to figure out what it was, she grabbed the wheel and started to turn it back and forth.

"What am I supposed to do? I have no idea how to do this." she worried in her mind.

Facing the stage she saw many things come down a ramp leading to two containers on each side. On the left side Lucy recognized the container as a trash can (seeing that she had seen one before in Game Central Station). The other to the right looked like a bowl of some kind.

A bowl...mixing...

She finally understood what she had to do. She turned the wheel quickly, but carefully putting the contents in their right place. She knew the things that were trash, and the things that were for making and mixing together. Sugar, flour, eggs, milk, they all went into the mixing bowl on the right.

"Wow, that's impressive." she heard Ralph gape in awe. He tugged at her hand, "Come on, we're not done yet!"

"There's more?!" Lucy thought as she ran to catch up with him.

The next stage they came across was what looked like a huge oven. The only thing on the platform was what looked like a bike pump.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" she asked herself.

Looking back and forth, she tried to figure out what to do, with only 30 seconds remaining. Suddenly she developed an idea. Using quick motions she pressed down on the pump, but it would not go down very far.

"I got it."

Lucy flinched as Ralph cautiously pressed down on the pump. She felt her cheeks oddly grow warm. She shook the feeling off, looking instead towards the big oven. The temperature had steadily increased within the course of a few seconds.

Ding!

"Wow!" Lucy muttered as what was made of the base of the kart moved to the next stage.

Without hesitating Lucy ran after it, with Ralph following closely behind.

The last stage was full of all different kinds of tubes, each with something different inside. At this time Lucy knew what to do. Standing behind the last device, a cannon-like shooter with a little red button to fire with, she looked for the wheels to the kart first. Her eyes spotted a pair of wheels that were frosted around the edges, with a solid brown cookie in the center. Four times she hit the button hard, and four times it hit exactly on the target. Now she turned her attention to the other candy decoratives.

"There's so many of them..." she unexpectedly found herself turning back to Ralph.

"Wanna try?" she asked him smiling.

With one swift motion he took her place at the cannon. She watched with joyful anticipation as he readied his fist over the little button. Then like a hurricane he slammed on the button three times.

The target he had aimed for had held up the first two times. On the third time though, it the glass on the tube had cracked causing it to tilt and fall over. The tube hit the other ones, and they fell down one by one like dominoes. Lucy watched silently as the scene unfolded.

"Oh no, not again!" Ralph groaned frustratingly.

Time's up!

Lucy saw Ralph hang his head low, defeated. She looked back at the messy scene, most of the tubes having fallen over or broken glass. The candy condiments were all scattered everywhere on the floor, but she could not tell where the kart was.

Worried, she ran down the last few steps to the last stage. The only thing she saw there was a box with the picture of the kart that she had picked back in the curtained room.

Congratulations, you did it!

Her heart was beating in anticipation as Lucy waited for the final product to come through the door.

Then the kart slowly made its way through. Although many tiny candies came out before it could even come down the ramp. Lucy found herself staring at what she had made: a messy-looking kart.

She must have been staring at it for the longest time because a few minutes later Lucy heard Ralph's heavy footsteps walk slowly up to her. His head was still hung low in defeat, a look of guilt and sadness was plastered on his face.

"I-I'm sorry. It's just...I can't make anything good...I can only break them-"

"I love it."

A huge smile spread across Lucy's face as she said this.

"You-you do?!" Ralph whispered softly, lifting his head, "Really?"

Lucy nodded her head as her smile kept growing bigger. Then without thinking she did something that Lucy herself did not expect she'd do. Turning to Ralph she jumped right up to his shoulders and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a warm hug. She felt Ralph stumble back a little in surprise from the sudden flying weight of her pummeling into him. Finally realizing what she had done, she felt so embarrassed that her whole face turned red on the spot.

Quickly she let go of him and jumped back down to the floor. Her face was still beet red and warm.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't know what got into me." she stuttered looking down shyly, "It's just...the kart's-"

"It's okay." Ralph interrupted, "You don't have to apologize. Besides...I was worried that you would hate it more than you loved it."

Lucy looked up to see that Ralph's whole face had gone red too. She stifled a giggle covering her mouth with one hand.

"What?"

"I'm sorry Ralph, it's just...you're face is as red as mine!" Lucy giggled louder as she could not control herself.

Ralph's blank and shocked expression to her statement only made it even harder for Lucy to control her laughter. Finally she could not hold it back anymore and bursted out laughing as hard as she could.

"You're right! My face is as red as yours!" Ralph chuckled loudly.

They both laughed in unison for the longest time until all their laughter was pushed out. The red in Lucy's face had slowly faded away as she laughed, as well as Ralph's. They stood there in silence, looking at the beautiful kart that the two of them had just created.

"It's so pretty." Lucy said softly.

"But messy." Ralph chuckled, "Which now kinda reminds me of making Vanellope's kart with her."

"You made Vanellope's kart?"

"Yeah, I did...sort of." Ralph nervously replied.

"So...what do we do now?" Lucy asked.

Ralph grinned broadly at her, "I think it's time to show you how to drive a race kart."

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A/N: Next chapter I will finally get Lucy to race, so hold on for a bit longer. That bakery scene was so very hard to describe, ugh! Helpful and positive reviews are always accepted, see you next chapter guys!