The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 14: One of a Kind

Something built up inside Lucy that she had never felt before. It was something that she never thought she would obtain.

Courage.

She stood between the monster and her friends, with a staff like stick in her hand. Ever since she could remember Lucy was able to produce magic to heal, but also she was able to conjure from her imagination. Whether it be a weapon, a painting coming to life, or even her memories; she never thought that with courage and her powers that she would be so strong. The monster stared at her dazed, as if it did not expect her to come out of nowhere.

Taking a quick breath, Lucy charged toward the monster, not feeling any fear. She managed to give a few whacks to the monster before it came to its senses. Roaring with anger the shadow monster swung its claws toward her. Lucy blocked its claws with her stick staff, pushing it away every time the monster tried to hit her. When it tried to charge at her, Lucy just simply moved out of the way in a flash of golden light. She was amazed to find this power much like Vanellope's glitch, quick and fast.

Lucy weaved back and forth between the shadow, angering it more and more with her swiftness. When its rage became unbearable, the monster swung with all its might, surprising Lucy and knocking her to the ground. The monster saw its chance and charged straight at her. Quickly she got up on her feet, but the monster was too fast to dodge. Lucy closed her eyes and raised her staff to block it. No attack came however when she opened her eyes, seeing the shadow's dazed face once more.

Lucy looked around herself and saw a golden bubble-like shield surrounding her. She blinked in awe as the shield disintegrated before her eyes. The shadow monster was still dazed when Lucy charged at the monster again, this time the staff doing more damage to it than before. When the shadow did come out of its daze, it tried to attack Lucy again. This time though every time it tried to hit her, the bubble shield would reappear and block its attack. The shadow became more and more furious as it tried to hit her with no success.

Now Lucy knew she had to finish off the shadow before anyone got hurt, including her. With the staff in one hand, she conjured from her hand an orb of light in the other. With one last breath she ran towards the monster as fast as she could, with it charging towards her.

She knew that this was their final attack.

Closing her eyes she thrust her hand forward towards the shadow. She felt the shock of the blow go through her whole body as she was thrown to the ground by the force of the hit. The shadow monster did not move shocked and wide eyed. Then almost immediately the shadow dissipated leaving a golden light shining for a moment before disappearing.

Lucy blinked at the spot where the shadow used to be, unsure of what she saw was real.

"D-Did I just do that?! Was that me?!"

She looked down at the hand that held the staff. To her surprise the staff was disappearing in a golden light, which faded completely as well as the staff. She closed her hand around where the staff used to be, and found herself shaking all over with fear and excitement.

"Amazing!" Arren's voice exclaimed as she looked to see her friends slowly come towards her.

Each expression they had on their face was pure wonder and amazement. She knew now that they had seen her use her powers. Lucy did not know what to do as they came closer to her.

"I don't want to put them in danger like that...I have to get away…."

As if answering to her request, she found herself teleporting farther away from them. She gasped still not used to the sudden teleporting, then got up and ran away as fast as she could. Lucy heard voices calling out after her, but she did not listen and only kept running. Everything went past her in a blur and soon she found herself lost in the candy tree forest.

"Why?! Why did I have to protect them?! I knew that the shadow was dangerous…I shouldn't have put them through all this!"

Lucy kept running until her feet couldn't take her any farther. She stopped and sat with her knees up to her chest. She lay her head down and started to sob, all the while hearing the splash of water nearby.

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Ralph stared after Lucy until she disappeared, then kept staring at the place where she ran off to. He could not believe it himself when Lucy singlehandedly took down the monster without faltering more than once.

"Lucy come back!" he heard Eris say as she tried to run after her.

Vanellope stood up and glitched to Eris calling after Lucy as well. The others followed suit running after her and calling her name. But Ralph knew she was already gone from sight.

"We got to find her." Archer said worried.

"Do you think we should split up and look for her?" Gen asked.

"Yeah, I think that's the best idea." Vanellope replied running ahead.

Ralph stood up and looked on as the group agreed to go look for her. He then looked to where Lucy had disappeared to.

"I better find her before she hurts herself." Ralph decided, heading in the direction that Lucy ran.

Instead of running he walked on, somehow feeling that he knew where he was going.

"Why am I so calm about finding her? I should be worried." Ralph thought as he continued walking along into the candy tree forest.

He looked back in the direction where he had left his friends, "I guess they'll be worried about my disappearance." he chuckled.

It seemed like he had walked a long time and found himself lost when he came across something glowing in the distance. Wondering if he had found something new, Ralph walked toward it slowly. As he came closer, the glow turned into the glittering waters of a mysterious lake. Finally he reached the lake, standing at the edge of a beautiful clearing. The trees were not candy cane trees, but rather they were tall, blossoming trees reaching up to the pink sugary sky. The lake's waters shone a vanilla color with little laps of waves brushing up on the shore.

It was then that he caught his eyes on a figure close to the vanilla colored waters.

"Lucy." Ralph gasped silently as he saw Lucy's tiny figure sat hunched over the waters. She was trembling a little, and listening closely he could hear her quietly sobbing.

"I've never seen her cry before."

Quietly Ralph slowly walked over to her, being careful not to scare or surprise her. He gently sat down next to her, but not too close to make her uncomfortable. Lucy did not look up at him but kept on sobbing quietly. As gently as he could be, Ralph placed one of his giant arms around her hunched figure and pulled her closer to him.

The sobs stopped only for a few moments as Ralph realized that as gentle as he was he managed to scare her.

"Hey, Lucy." Ralph simply said unmoving.

She turned her head to the side looking up at him. Tears had filled her eyes which were red from crying, and her eyes told him that she felt guilt and pain.

"Are you okay?" he asked cautiously, "Are you hurt?"

Lucy shook her head slowly still looking up at him. He was relieved she wasn't in pain, but something told him that not everything was alright.

"I just….need to be alone right now." Lucy finally spoke softly. She turned her head back to its original spot but did not move away from his gentle grip.

"Look, I'm not sure what's going on. But I want to help you—"

This time Lucy freed herself from his grip and moved away. "I don't need any help!" she exclaimed in choking sobs.

Ralph felt hurt and confused, for he had not seen Lucy like this before. It was like he was meeting a whole new person.

"Then I should at least know why you ran away like that." he replied in a sad and worried tone.

Lucy stayed silent, hugging her knees to her chest. Ralph waited patiently for her to respond, hearing the calming waves of the lake move back and forth.

"Okay." Lucy replied. She let go of her knees and gestured for him to come closer. He did so, looking expectantly at her.

"I…ran away because I was scared. Scared of what might happen to you guys." Lucy said speaking softly.

"What do you mean? We're safe thanks to you and your courage." Ralph said.

"It's not that…" Lucy replied sadly looking down.

"Then…what is it that you're scared of?" he asked gently.

Lucy did not say anything to him, but instead held out her left hand to him. On the tip of her forefinger there was a black spot that was darker than anything he had seen.

"What is it?" he asked nervously.

"A curse." Lucy answered, "When I was exiled from my game something came after me, and one day it managed to wound me. It had almost taken my eye out but I was too quick."

She turned her face, lifting the hair on her left side to show a tiny scar right next to her eye.

"It's a Shadow Curse from what I've heard from my game. If a shadow creature ever had a grudge against you and you got wounded, the darkness will spread through you when you are sad and in pain." Lucy said with her voice trembling as she explained.

Ralph was listening with worry and with a bad feeling in his heart.

"What happens…when it's complete…?"

"You turn into one of them." Lucy replied after a silent uneasiness.

The both of them stayed silent, the calming waves doing nothing to ease their worry and fear.

"I see…" Ralph replied after a while. He slowly stood up and looked out onto the lake.

"So this is why she has stayed away from everyone…to protect them from herself."

He heard Lucy quietly stand up with him, looking out over the lake as well. Her face showed sadness and fear with no hint of happiness at all.

Through a sudden realization and unknown determination Ralph found himself turning Lucy towards him, having shocked her in response.

"Listen to me Lucy, you are not a bad person. You saved us from that shadow monster using your courage and inner strength! I think that it's something to be proud of, so don't go saying that you are not a good guy just because of this shadow's curse! You are something special Lucy, one of a kind, and no one-not even a shadow- can take that away from you."

Lucy looked at him wide-eyed, shock spread across her face. Then she slowly smiled again, tears streaming in her eyes. Without any words she sprung onto him, holding him in a tight hug. Ralph's face went bright red as he found himself hugging Lucy back as gently as he could.

"Thank you Ralph." Lucy said through his thick shirt.

Ralph smiled as he held onto her a little tighter.

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Lucy found herself smiling like she had used to when she was a kid as she looked out on the beautiful lake she never realized she was next to. Ralph sat next to her smiling as well seeming like he was lost in this place.

"This place is quite beautiful." Lucy said softly to herself looking at the vanilla colored waters.

She reached out a finger to lightly touch the water. To her surprise the water turned a different color at her touch. A ripple of gold went across the lake from the point where she touched it.

"Whoa!" both her and Ralph replied as they watched the golden ripple disappear. Lucy blinked staring at the vanilla waters that took up the color once more. Smiling she placed one of her feet in the water, turning the lake to a deep golden color. She giggled happily and placed her other foot into the water.

Lucy looked thoughtfully upward towards the pink sugary sky. She wished that this peacefulness she felt here could last forever, but Lucy knew that she could not stay here forever. There were people expecting her to come back. Especially her new friends.

All the sudden Lucy felt something gently holding her hand. She looked over and saw Ralph's huge hand enveloping hers. Looking up at his face she noticed that he had turned red once more. Lucy smiled as she held onto his hand, feeling her cheeks grow very warm.

After a long while, Ralph let go of her hand and stood up. "We should get back. I…kind of left the group without telling. So they might be worried about the both of us."

"Okay then." Lucy said standing up as well.

As the two started to walk back, Lucy looked back at the wonderful scene that she was about to leave. She grabbed Ralph's arm to signal him to stop.

"What's up?" he asked with a confused expression.

Lucy shifted back and forth on her feet, "Well…I was wondering if um, we could keep this place a secret between us?"

Ralph gave her a confused expression, showing he did not understand.

"I-I mean, this place is something that I now cherish. It kinda reminds me of home. S-So, can we-"

"Sure." Ralph replied with a smile, "This can be our secret place if that's what you want to call it."

"Yeah! Our Secret Place!" Lucy exclaimed happily.

Ralph laughed at her outburst, leading Lucy to laugh happily with him.

"Alright then, let's go!" Ralph exclaimed, suddenly picking Lucy up from the ground and placing her on his shoulders.

Lucy was caught off guard as she held on tightly to him around his neck.

"Don't worry, I won't drop you." he said reassuringly as he began to walk again.

Lucy believed him, but still held onto him tightly as they went back the way they came. Soon after a long while they came out of the candy forest, right back to where the others were waiting.

"You guys are okay!" Vanellope's voice shouted to them as they came closer.

"Sorry I left you guys like that." Ralph said smiling nervously.

Eris crossed her arms, "Well, at least you two are okay."

"And not eaten by anything!" Arren chimed in.

"ARREN!" Eris shouted at Arren.

"What? It could maybe happen you know." he retorted.

Lucy smiled at the group, glad to be back among familiar people. Something then caught her eye up in the sky. She looked up to see a beautiful pink sky above her, finding herself closer thanks to Ralph's height. Something white in the pink sky fluttered above Lucy, a butterfly that she had seen before.

"So beautiful." Lucy thought reaching out to the butterfly.

"You guys look so adorable! It was so nice of you to give her a piggy back ride!" Vanellope exclaimed with a smug smile.

Lucy looked down to see Ralph's face turn completely red. She giggled quietly at the sight, "He's so adorable when he turns red."

"Wait, why am I saying that?!" Lucy felt her face grow warm as well, but not for the same reason as Ralph's.

"Kid!" Ralph said, his face growing redder.

"What? You two do look cute!" Vanellope answered still smiling.

"I agree." Arren chimed in.

"ARREN!" Eris shouted at him again.

Lucy could not help but giggle as they continued to argue. She wondered if the butterfly was still there, looking up into the sky again. She sighed sadly when she found the white butterfly gone once more. And yet she still kept smiling as she continued to gaze into the pink sky.

"I'll take this as a good sign then." she thought to herself, "Maybe this time…things will be different. Maybe…I can finally find happiness."

With that thought in mind, she put her head up against Ralph's, hugging him from up on his back.

"Ralph's right…I am special in my own way. A one of a kind. And no one can take that away from me."