Filling in the Empty Spots
-o-o-o-o-o-
Chapter 13: A Heavy Crown
-o-o-o-o-o-
Jubileena drove as if she were on the speedway, Ralph holding on to the back of her seat for dear life, his helmet looking rather strange worn with the tuxedo. "Ralph, if you really don't want to tell me this next part of the story, you don't have to."
"Felix is probably right. You should know," he said. They were soon out of the main area of Sugar Rush and the land began to climb to the west.
"Is it that terrible?"
"It isn't terrible. It's wonderful in fact. It's just difficult to give up a secret you've been clinging to for so long. Only five people in the whole kingdom know it."
"Only five?"
"Myself, Felix, Calhoun, Sour Bill, and the preacher guy. But Jubileena, I want you to know that this doesn't change anything between us. Everything will stay the same."
"Good, because I don't want anything to change. I want to stay happy like this forever."
"You are happy?"
"Of course. I have everything a Sugar Rush racer could want—a fast kart and a lot of fans cheering for me during the day, and a cute house and loving husband to come home to at night."
Ralph felt his heart do a little joyful flip, and he placed h ujhis hand on her shoulder and gave it a tender squeeze.
When they arrived at the cabin Ralph ran inside while Jubileena parked the Cherriot. When she came in, she saw that he had moved the couch and was rolling up the rug that had been underneath it. There, beneath where the coffee table had stood was a trapdoor in the floor. "I didn't know this was here," she said.
"You weren't supposed to. Only Felix and I know about it," he said as he pulled it open. Beneath the panel was a small chamber, and inside it a large casket. Reverently he lifted the casket out of the chamber, set it aside, and then closed up the trapdoor again and rolled the rug back over it.
"What's in that?" Jubileena asked.
"The most precious things Vanellope ever gave me," he said enigmatically. And then he rose and grabbed his helmet. "Let's go. I don't want to keep the princess waiting too long."
-o-o-o-o-o-
Back inside the castle, the ball was still going, only now the orchestra had been replaced with a DJ and everyone was bouncing to the heavy beat of the music. Making their way through the crowd to the Royal Salon, the casket tucked under Ralph's arm, they entered the office and found Felix and Calhoun waiting. The Princess was out of her green gossamer gown and wearing a much simpler dress.
Assembled again, Ralph took a golden key strung on a chain and fit it to the casket's lock. The moment it opened his eyes filled with tears that threatened to fall. He reached inside and took out a cookie that had been made into a medallion. "This was the first thing she ever gave me," he said. "Besides a hard time..." he added with a little levity. He showed it to the others. Felix was looking rather misty-eyed as well.
"To Stinkbrain," read the princess. She gave Ralph a look.
"She always called me that, even after she was president." He flipped it over to show her the other side.
"You're my hero."
The tears began to spill from Ralph's eyes, and he wiped them away with his sleeve. It was too much hearing the same voice repeat those words. But he went on. Reaching in again, he took out a thick golden ring and he slipped it onto his finger where it clinked against the red wedding band he wore for Jubileena. "And then she gave me this," he said somberly, holding up his hand.
Jubileena whimpered. "You...you and Vanellope were married?"
He nodded. "In secret. Everyone thought we were dating, but it was much more than that."
"Why keep it a secret?" she asked, suddenly feeling a little hurt and inadequate and lost. Vanellope had been a princess and a president, and she was just a common racer avatar.
"He thought the citizenry of Sugar Rush might not like having their Princess married to not just a foreigner, but also a bad guy." explained Calhoun.
"And there was no real reason that anyone needed to know. Everyone thought that we were just boyfriend and girlfriend, and everyone was happy with that."
"That's what I always thought," sniffled Jubileena. She too began to cry.
"Aww sweetie, it's okay." Ralph took the casket out of his lap and put it aside. Then he quickly scooped up Jubileena and held her tightly. "Why are you crying. There's no need to cry about this."
"I don't know why I'm crying," she sobbed.
He wrapped his hand over her, pushing her head against his shoulder. "In that case, cry all you want to," he said gently.
"Well suddenly I understand why there was that giant chair in here," said the princess. "It was yours."
Sour Bill nodded to her. "She had it made so he'd not break all the others," he revealed, glaring at Ralph. "And it matched hers."
"But..." The princess suddenly froze. "Since you married my predecessor, then...are we married?" she asked, looking straight at Ralph. The emotions on her face were running all over the map.
"Thankfully, no," jumped in Sour Bill before anyone could say otherwise. "He married the president, not you. The obligation doesn't hold through her death."
"But there is something that held, right Bill?" said Felix. The handyman stood confidently. "The ranks she gave us continue until Sugar Rush is just a memory, right?"
The sourball looked pained and reluctantly nodded a yes.
"Show them, Ralph," said Felix smugly.
Ralph opened the casket again and took out a golden crown, holding it between his hands reverently.
The Princess suddenly glitched next to him, red sugar scattering everywhere, and stared open-mouthed, her lip trembling. "That crown... that's the missing one! There were supposed to be four crowns in the treasury, and that's one of them, isn't it?"
Ralph nodded.
She turned accusingly to Sour Bill. "You said that empty pillow was some error in the castle design, and that there actually only three crowns. One was missing, wasn't it?"
Sour Bill turned away shamefully, caught in his lie.
"Ralph, is this some sort of joke?" Jubileena asked. "Why do you have that crown?"
-o-o-o-o-o-
"Kneel, Sir Chump," said President Vanellope.
Slightly puzzled, Ralph did so and the princess waved Sour Bill forward for the second time that afternoon. The green candy obeyed and came forward, a red velvet cushion in his hands. Upon it sat a golden crown looking like a larger, heavier version of the one King Candy had worn. "What's this?" Ralph asked, looking rather startled, almost horrified..
"Now that we're married I'm crowning you 'Prince of Sugar Rush'. It's appropriate that the princess should have a prince."
"You can do that?" His eyes darted to Sour Bill. "Bill, is this legitimate?"
The sourball heaved a sigh. "Unfortunately yes."
Ralph looked worried. "I just wanted to marry you, Vanellope. I wasn't asking for this."
"I know," she giggled, taking the unwanted crown in her little hands. "But too bad. You're not just marrying me. You're marrying my kingdom too. You, like Felix and Calhoun, were ready to sacrifice your life for it." She lifted the crown up and gently placed it on his head. There was a sudden burst of glittering golden light, much as when she had been reset from the Glitch into Princess Vanellope von Schweetz. He looked up at his bride with a startled expression.
"I need your help protecting my game," she said ever so softly. "I'll always need your help protecting my kingdom." Vanellope bent toward him and kissed him on the forehead. "Congratulations, Prince Ralph of Sugar Rush."
"I...I..." Unable to finish the thought he closed his eyes and sighed. When she had asked him to marry her, he'd never expected this to be a part of the package. "I'll do my best."
"You already have, and I know you always will."
He opened his eyes and looked at her again, her impish face glowing. "You saved my life, Ralph," she said, her hazel eyes looking deeply into his.
"And you saved mine."
Seized by impulse and emotion, he took her in his huge hands and kissed her.
-o-o-o-o-o-
"The President insisted," he sighed. "She crowned me Prince Ralph right after we were married, right after the 'kiss the bride' part. And like our marriage it was kept a secret." He lifted the crown and set it on his head. As when it was first bestowed upon him there came the sequence of golden sparkling light, marking him as the rightful wearer of it.
The princess sank to her knees. "But all this time...why didn't anyone tell me?" choked Vanellope, sounding ready to break down. "So many secrets..." she sighed wearily.
"Yes," agreed Sour Bill. "Your predecessor had her secret little cabinet, her secret little marriage, and her secret little prince."
"I don't think 'little' is the right word for Ralph," quipped Calhoun.
"And for the year after her restoration, everything was just fine in Sugar Rush," defended Felix. "And then one day it was over. Vanellope died and her reign was at an end."
"So now I find out that not only am I the second Princess Vanellope, but that I also have two knights and a co-regent left over from the reign of the first."
"Essentially," confirmed Felix.
Somberly, Princess Vanellope walked to the bay window at the end of the room and stood staring out over the nighttime landscape. A single chime from the grandfather clock reminded her that in half an hour the fireworks would begin outside and the ball would be over. She sighed. This had been the grandest, most successful party in the history of Litwak's Arcade. But what a strange turn of events it had brought for her. Her whole perspective on her world had changed, and she had yet to decide if it was for the better.
Now sitting together on Ralph's chair, Jubileena took her husband's arm. "Ralph, I never had any idea that you and Vanellope were married, and that she made you a prince of this game...of my game."
Ralph rubbed the back of his head, still topped by his crown. "I hope you're not angry at me for hiding it from you," he said.
She smiled. "I can't be mad at you, not when you had your reasons. And you've been so good to me." And then she winked at him. "Besides, I can't be mad at you now I know that you could have me thrown into the Fungeon."
He chuckled and kissed her. "Don't tempt me," he teased.
About the time Felix was wondering whether they should dismiss themselves or go back to the party or try to talk to Vanellope, the princess turned and walked back to her desk determinedly. "I'd like to talk to Prince Ralph, alone," she stated.
The others had not been expecting her request, but they all departed without another word, the princess even shooing Sour Bill out the door. And then she took Ralph by the hand and led him to the large bay window that overlooked the kingdom. "At first I just thought you were that big friendly hobo that came to the races," she began. "I was surprised to find out that you were the bad guy of another game. And then you married Jubileena, and I thought to myself, 'he must be a really nice guy' because there's no way a girl like Jubileena would fall for anyone who wasn't. I would have never expected or suspected or even guessed who you really were in regards to this kingdom."
"Years ago, I never thought I'd ever have a reason to set foot in this game. And then it became my life."
Princess Vanellope went up to the window and put her dainty hands against it, standing there in silence for a few minutes. "Prince Ralph?" she asked, turning back toward him. He still stood waiting patiently for her. "What was she like? The first Vanellope?"
Ralph smiled a little. "She looked just like you of course, but her personality was somewhat different."
"In what way?"
Ralph walked over to the window and sat down with his back to the windowpanes. Looking back at the room, the memories of her swam through his mind. "She was exciting, daring...something of a tomboy, a bit brash, a bit unpredictable, quite feisty. And despite everything that had happened to her, she had this overwhelming enthusiasm for life. And she was crazy about racing. The dream of becoming a racer was the one thing that kept her going all those years of her exile. That kart we built together..."
He chuckled at the memory, and Ralph looked up to see the princess smiling. "I expect that she was once pretty much like you were, but her time as an outcast changed her personality into the girl I met. There was a brief glimpse of it when the game was reset, but it was quickly obvious that her personality had not been reset."
Princess Vanellope sat down next to him and took his hand and squeezed it. Ralph looked down at her, and for a moment, as he often did, he saw his little glitchy girl once again.
"A couple months after the Cy-Bug incident, she asked me to marry her. Or I should say, she insisted that I marry her. She was pretty caught up in the fact that Felix and Calhoun were now husband and wife, but more than that she always had this fear of being alone and out of place again."
"And you agreed."
"She'd look at me with those big hazel eyes and I couldn't tell her no...ever. And then she'd call me a big sap and a sucker and then kiss me so hard it would tingle for days. And, well, I was madly in love with her too but wouldn't have admitted it even under torture, even to myself."
The princess giggled, but then her tone went serious again. "Prince Ralph, will this change anything? The fact that you're now a prince of Sugar Rush?"
"What do you mean 'now'? I've been a prince here for more than three years."
"Oh...I guess you have. It all just seems so sudden to me."
"It's up to you to decide, Princess. But I told Jubileena that nothing would change between her and I, and how could I break my word to her?"
"Prince Ralph? What do you think should be done?"
He looked at her, the tiny monarch standing there with her hazel eyes fixed on him. Vanellope used to look at him the same way at times, wanting to know what he, a much older and much more experienced character thought she should do. "Personally, I'd just like to carry on as if all this information hadn't been spilled. The other racers don't know that I was married to their president, and they don't know that I was given this crown. There's no reason anything needs to change. But if you decide otherwise..."
The princess suddenly wrapped her arms around Ralph's hand and hugged it tight. "I should be jealous of Mrs. Bing Bing and President Vanellope. You really are a nice guy."
Ralph bent forward and hugged her, inhaling her sweet candy scent, a scent that held so many memories in its perfume. "I'll always be devoted to you and to Sugar Rush."
A blaze of pink light shone through the tall bay window, followed by a loud, low boom from outside. The fireworks were beginning.
"I have to get to the royal viewing stand outside," she said, a tinge of disappointment in her voice. "I'm expected there to give a closing speech to the ball." She let go of him and ran over to her 'Spirit of Summer' dress and glitched back into it, and then hurried for the door to the great hall. But then she stopped and ran back to where Ralph was tucking his gold wedding ring and his crown back into the casket. "Prince Ralph...would you join me on the viewing stand?" She held out her hand to him in invitation.
"Of course."
"And I'll have Sir Felix and Sir Calhoun brought over too. It's about time we four were together again," she said with a wink.
"What about Jubileena?"
"Of course! I'd not want her left out either. Besides, people would talk."
She glitched forward, grabbed his hand, and led him toward the door at the end of the salon.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Filling in the Empty Spots continues in:
Chapter 14: The Final Secret
Chapter 15: Filling in the Empty Spots Commentary
-o-o-o-o-o-o
Wreck-It Ralph and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Walt Disney Pictures. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.