After gathering the photo albums they went back upstairs and entered the throne room.
"Changed your color preference huh?" King Candiel guessed.
The throne room, originally pink (or salmon or whatever) was now in blues and greens.
"Yeah, after my memories were tampered with actually." Vanellope chuckled. "Even after my memories were restored I decided to stay the Vanellope I had been for fifteen years, the Vanellope Ralph knew, than revert back to my original self."
"Understandable." King Candiel smiled. "You can like whatever colors you want, it's the color of your heart I care about. And even though we've been reunited for a short time I can tell that your heart is still gold."
Vanellope smiled.
"Say, how about we look through those photo albums?" She suggested. "Uh, my memories are still kinda fuzzy."
"I'd love too." King Candiel smiled.
"I've been curious about them myself." Ralph agreed.
So they looked through all the photo albums, in order. Vanellope's memories slowly continued coming back until finally she remembered her father almost completely. She also saw what her mother, Queen Maltina, really looked like for the first time, for there was some photos of her in an album. She indeed looked like Vanellope's adult form, only her eyes were full green and her hair was brown. Vanellope realized that her eyes were a combination of her mom's and her dad's.
She also saw photos of her younger self wearing flamboyant princess dresses that were even worse than her main pink one. Since she was now mostly a tomboy she started to grow red at the thought of willingly wearing dresses like those (her younger self was smiling in the photos after all).
"I can't believe I used to wear those." She covered her eyes, a bit embarrassed.
"Heh, that was my fault." King Candiel said sheepishly. "I loved dressing you up in various gowns. You actually didn't enjoy it, but you did love making me happy so you went along with it."
"Don't be embarrassed Van, I think you look adorable in those dresses." Ralph smiled.
Vanellope uncovered her eyes and smiled back at him. 'Adorable' was one of her favorite compliments, especially when coming from Ralph.
Then Ralph remembered about Sour Bill, who hadn't left his bedroom. Ralph left to get him and returned with him. Sour Bill froze for a moment and then ran over to King Candiel and hugged him.
"Sire!" Sour Bill said happily, even shedding a few tears. "King Candiel! I thought you were dead! Oh I'm so relieved to find you alive."
"Sour Bill my old friend!" King Candiel laughed, hugging him back. "I've missed you quite a lot too while I was in the dungeon. But now I'm back, back with you and my daughter. Back for good."
"I'll make sure of it." Ralph declared. "If another rogue character tries to take over just let me know and I'll 'wreck' that character back into his or her game."
"Thank you Ralph." King Candiel smiled. "I hope that'll never become necessary, but thank you. I'm glad my daughter has someone like you for a boyfriend, a guy who loves her more than his own life and would do anything for her. When it came to boyfriends that's all I ever wanted for her."
Ralph and Vanellope just smiled. King Candy then looked sad which caused their smiles to fade.
"I do feel bad for what had happened to you Vanellope." He admitted. "If I had known what Turbo was going to do to you I would've also made him promise to not harm you emotionally and to not have the other Racers harm you in any way."
"Hey, it's not your fault." Vanellope hugged her father comfortingly. "You didn't know Turbo would be cruel enough to not leave me alone after taking over. Besides, if it wasn't for my past I probably wouldn't have become such close friends with Ralph, nor realized that he is my true love. No matter what happened in my past I'm just glad to be reunited with you and to have Ralph in my life."
King Candiel smiled and hugged Vanellope back.
A bit later, they decided it was time the other Racers and candy citizens know the truth. So they all went back to the track, where the other racers were still hanging out.
"So...did you find out about the real King Candy?" Candlehead asked.
"King Candiel actually, and it turns out he was the previous ruler...and my father." Vanellope admitted.
The other Racers looked beyond shocked.
"I know I know, it was hard for me to accept it too." Vanellope raised her hands. "But eventually my memories of him started to come back and I was able to accept him back into my life. More than that, I was happy to have him back. You see he had sacrificed his freedom to keep Turbo from harming me. Turbo then locked him up in the dungeons and combined their codes so that they could switch appearances. But don't worry, King Candiel is completely different. He doesn't have as big a head - literally and metaphorically - and is very kind and selfless. So, everyone, here is your previous ruler: King Candiel."
King Candiel then moved into view. The other Racers did feel awkward near him but they trusted Vanellope so they decided to accept him too.
"It's wonderful seeing all of you again." King Candiel smiled. "I missed you all. Not as much as I missed my daughter of course, but it was still painful."
King Candiel then talked to each Racer one by one, asking them specific questions. It was an awkward start but the other Racers eventually started to answer him with smiles. They also were starting to slightly remember him. Taffyta was the last one he spoke to.
"It's great seeing you gain Taffyta, have you and my daughter been having fun lately?" King Candiel smiled. "I still remember how the two of you would play almost every day in the castle."
"Wh-what?" Taffyta was more than a little surprised. "What do you mean?"
"Hm, I guess your memories haven't fully returned yet." King Candiel realized. "I mean you and Vanellope were best friends before Turbo took over, the two of you were even like sisters. You both became so close that Vanellope forbid you from using her formal titles, she wanted you to stick with just her first name or nicknames."
Tears came to Taffyta's eyes. She then ran away crying.
"What's wrong?" King Candiel asked, concerned.
"Uh, remember when I said that Turbo had the other Racers bully Vanellope?" Ralph said awkwardly.
"Yeah...I'm not mad at any of you for that." King Candiel quickly said to the other Racers, having just seen them cringe.
The other Racers relaxed.
"Well, Taffyta was the leader." Ralph explained.
"Oh..." King Candiel said sympathetically.
Vanellope ran after Taffyta, everyone else following.
She found Taffyta sitting and crying on a red-colored log-shaped candy.
"Taffyta?" Vanellope said.
"Vanellope..." Taffyta sobbed. "Oh Vanellope I'm so sorry."
"Taffyta come on, it wasn't your fault." Vanellope sat down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "It was Turbo's."
"Even so, they way I treated you...the awful things I said to you." Taffyta sobbed. "I don't deserve your kindness let alone your friendship."
"Of course you do, you're really a kind and fun girl deep down." Vanellope shook her head. "You are not a bully Taffyta, you never were. You and the other Racers had been brainwashed that's all. I don't really remember our past friendship, but I know that we still have it. I mean why else would you stop using my title when addressing me and be comfortable doing so? True friendship can never be destroyed, not even when it's tampered with."
Taffyta just continued crying. Vanellope hugged her.
"I really want our old friendship back, the friendship we had before Turbo ruined everything." Vanellope said. "I don't care what you were like during his rule, I care what you're like now. Please Taffy, I forgave you so you should forgive yourself."
Taffyta pushed away and looked at Vanellope stunned.
"Taffy..." Taffyta said.
"It just came out...maybe I used to call you that before Turbo ruined everything." Vanellope shrugged.
"I kinda remember you calling me that before..." Taffyta thought. "Wait...I think I'm starting to remember...we used to race together, just the two of us...we...we also used to play dress up and make believe..."
"Hm..." Vanellope thought it over. "It does sound familiar... I think you also gave me a nickname too...Van-something..."
"Vanny?" Taffyta widened her eyes. "It...it was Vanny, I remember now..."
Vanellope widened her eyes too.
"I-I remember too." She said; she then smiled and hugged Taffyta again. "I'm really glad to have you back Taffy."
"Same here Vanny." Taffyta sighed. "But I still really feel bad."
"Hey come on, you'll always be my best friend. Besides Ralph I mean." Vanellope thought for a moment and then pulled Taffyta away and grinned at her. "How would you like to be my Vice-President?"
"Wha-what?" Taffyta looked at her with shock.
"Well sure, I mean you are my best Racer friend." Vanellope shrugged, still smiling. "We still have our special friendship, Turbo or no Turbo. And you already proved that you have good leadership skills."
Taffyta just smiled. And this time, she hugged Vanellope. Vanellope smiled peacefully and hugged her back. They stayed like that for a long time. When they stopped the hug it was easy to see that Taffyta was already feeling better.
And so, Taffyta was now the Vice-President. She and Vanellope were also back to being the friends they used to be before Turbo ruined everything.
After the big reunion, Ralph decided to take King Candiel to Game Central Station to see the old characters as well as meet some new ones. Now King Candiel had only been to Game Central Station once, so only the oldest characters like PacMan and Q*Bert really remembered him and they and King Candiel were glad to see each other again despite having only known each other for a few hours. The newest characters, knowing about Turbo being disguised as King Candiel, were a bit hesitant but eventually accepted him.
Felix hadn't left his game since Turbo had been unplugged, so he didn't know King Candiel at all. King Candiel in turn only knew about the game Fix-It-Felix Jr, not about most of the characters. The only reason why he even slightly recognized Ralph was because Ralph had been sneaking some fruit out of PacMan while he and the racers were visiting Game Central Station, plus he had seen Ralph at work during 'non-play mode' after Sugar Rush had been installed. It was only a glimpse though, so he didn't see Felix at work.
So when Ralph and Vanellope introduced King Candiel to Felix and Tamora it was a very awkward meeting, Tamora was even cold at first. However when the story of King Candiel sacrificing his freedom for Vanellope was told, plus the fact that he cares about personality instead of titles was revealed, they warmed up to him. Felix warmed up to him first of course. Vanellope being happy with her father, even hugging him, had a lot to do with it as well.