Chapter Six- Evidence
Taffyta wasn't used to being escorted in the royal charter but seeing as King Candy INSISTED that she come by, she had no choice. The girl sat in silence as she rode the candy carriage back toward the track, a bit of a nervous shiver going up her spine as she lay eyes on the crash site, pieces of the stands still in a twisted heap from the impact.
"I wonder what King Candy wanted me to see…" the girl thought to herself, wringing her hands.
The carriage stopped at the garage, two little candy nurses helping Taffyta on her crutches as she made her way inside. A few mechanics were working about but aside from them, the other racers were gone. She stood the lone racer in the building.
Save for one man.
"Thaffyta…." King Candy said in a grim tone "I'm glad that you decided to thum. I…I just couldn't tell you the news of what we found in your cart while you were still so weak."
"Ya found something?" Taffyta said in curiosity "Like what? A broken spark plug? A snapped fan belt?"
"If only it were that thimple…" the candy monarch said, shaking his head "What we found was much more troubling."
The strawberry racer stepped forward, a serious look about her "C'mon, King Candy! Don't hold back on me! What did you find?!"
Without saying another word, King Candy took Taffyta's hand and placed an object inside. Uncurling her fingers, the girl's eyes were met by something that made her heart skip.
A clump of peppermints, a gummie bear, and a heart-shaped candy.
All personal hair decorations of Vanellope Von Schweetz.
"W-where did you-?"
"These items were found all over the engine…." The king said "But it wasn't just that we found those in your car, it's what we DIDN'T find."
"L-like WHAT?"
"S-several pieces of your kart had been taken, while others had been completely the-stroyed." The king said "In fact, some parts of your engine were tho scratched up from vandalism, I was surprised you made it as far as ya did in the race before crashing!"
"B-but…ya can't POSSIBLY believe that Vanellope-!?"
"THAFFYTA! STOP THIS!" the man yelled in anger "What is it going to take for ya ta see what she has been doin' to ya?! Do ya hafta finally DIE an' RESET before ya realize that Vanellope wants to HURT you!?"
Taffyta stood frozen in front of her king, her heart aching.
This couldn't be true. It just couldn't be! Vanellope couldn't have done this to her kart!
She was a friend, an ally, a person who always had her ears and her heart open!
No, Vanellope Von Schweetz could and would never do something this heinous!
"I don't believe you!" Taffyta spat out, throwing the pieces of candy to the ground "There has to be something else to this! Maybe a jealous fan did this and wanted to pin the blame on someone else! I know Nelly too well to-!"
The monarch put a hand on Taffyta's head, his face dropping.
"Child….there is more."
"M-more?"
King Candy nodded sadly, going over to the one of the surveillance cameras from the garage. He pressed play on the remote, the rosiness in his cheeks disappearing.
"I knew ya wouldn't believe the thmall evidence….so….." he paused, a bit too angry to express himself "I just want you to thee this…"
King Candy pressed play and before Taffyta's eyes unfolded an image that would haunt her for the rest of her days.
There on video were the images of Vanellope.
"W-what is she-?!"
On the video, the girl pulled her hood up and began o make her way towards Taffyta's car and without any sort of hesitation, she grabbed the nearest wrench and.
BAM!
"No!"
WHACK!
"TURN IT OFF!"
POW!
"STOP IT!"
By now, Taffyta was on her knees crying but she wasn't crying because of the damage that was being done to her car. While she put a lot of pride into Pink Lightening, there was something much more important that was being destroyed.
Her trust.
Her friendship.
Her heart.
She couldn't take it. She couldn't take the images of Vanellope purposely breaking the cart, she couldn't take the images of the girl ripping out pieces of the engine for her own use.
She couldn't take the images because they proved that King Candy was RIGHT.
He was right all along.
He was right about Vanellope using her. He was right about her stealing parts. He was right about her wanting nothing more than to use the game for her own gain.
The sight of the crying child saddened the King and he placed a hand on her back, trying his best to comfort her.
"I'm not showing this to you as a punishment, I want you to know that." The man said "But you needed to see this. If ya didn't….ya wouldn't know tha truth an' as ruler an' protector of this game, I couldn't lie to my subjects."
Taffyta clenched her fist, a lump forming in her throat as the burning feel of rage formed in her heart.
She was angry, she was furious, she was ENRAGED.
No one uses Taffyta Muttonfudge and gets away with it.
Especially not a GLITCH.
GLITCH!
Vanellope glitched over to the throne, a tape measure held in her hands. She had been keeping track of how far she could use her powers but as she was starting to find out, she could only take herself so far and for only so many turns.
"It's as Swizz said, I gotta watch myself…" the girl thought to herself, rubbing her chin. Just then, the sound of an engine caught her ear. A smile on her face, the girl ran over to the window and saw Taffyta pulling up at the castle doors.
"'Bout time she came back!" the girl said happily, running towards the entrance. Vanellope was beside herself with excitement to hear any more info on what Turbo had to say but as she saw Taffyta walking up to her, she noticed just how drained the girl looked. She stopped in her tracks, a little scared at the sight.
"T-Taff?"
Taffyta didn't say a word, only looking up at the monarch with a sad look about her eyes.
"Taffy….w-what's-?"
"I-I don't wanna talk about it right now…" the strawberry racer said "I just need time to relax."
"Really, then why not go home? I mean, what is there here that can make you relax?"
Taffyta threw open the doors that lead to the great hall "You know where I'll be…."
Without saying another word, Taffyta walked from the throne into the far reaches of the vast palace, Vanellope standing alone.
Alone.
That was a feeling Vanellope hated but she knew better than to bother Taffyta at the moment. She would respect her friend's request for privacy but at the same time, she just wanted to know what was going on.
"This Turbo business is gonna drag the whole game down!" the racer thought "An' tha worst part about that? He's not even in the game himself to do it!"
Taffyta made her way down the halls, greeted by candy guards every step of the way.
"Hello Lady Taffyta!"
A nod.
"Good afternoon Ms. Muttonfudge.
A wave.
"It is nice to see you, Little Miss!"
A slight smile.
Taffyta was much too focused to greet people when she came upon a door; the royal archives.
Here, all the records were kept from EVERY game that had EVER been recorded in the memory banks of the game, as well as some of the trophies that the racers wanted to store. To say that the room was huge would have been an understatement; the place was every changing and ever growing and Taffyta knew this was the place to go not only to look at old records.
But old memories as well.
She stepped on a lift, the little box lighting up.
"Hello, Ms. Muttonfudge…" the voice of the box droned "Is there anything you would like to see today?"
"Take me to all records from our first year."
"Of course…"
The lift glowed brightly, hovering up into the air and taking Taffyta further and further into the archives. As she watched the went by years and years of race scores, records, and pictures flew by her, but what disturbed her the most were how many of them had King Candy in them. It pained her to know that of all the records that had been kept, only a short span of time showed the true face of the game….
That first year and the year when Vanellope once again regained her spot in her own home.
"Sugar Rush records; year one." The box droned as it came to a halt "Please remember to place all records back accordingly, or the data will become corrupted and damaged."
"Y-Yeah, I know…" Taffyta said, thumbing through the archives "Let's see…let's see…"
The girl reached for a record, the data set resembling a photo album more than anything else.
"Ah, this was day one!" the girl chuckled to herself "We had a LOTTA trouble that day, mostly from the kids that didn't know how to work the game!"
That was a good day; the random roster had selected Taffyta and Vanellope as two of the daily picks for the day and it was great to get a taste of racing. There were so many crashes, so many wins, but at the end, everyone was happy. The smile on Taffyta's face only grew larger as the flood of happy memories filled her brain.
But she was looking for something else.
She continued to look through the archives of the first year. Nothing out of the ordinary was coming up but then.
"AH-HA!"
There it was.
The day that everything changed.
Taffyta took hold of the data and thumbed through it; in it were pictures of King Candy.
How she hated that smug grin on his face, the man leaning on his cane as if he owned the place! If only people knew beforehand that it was all a lie!
The files of that day showed that King Candy had indeed shown up and taken over the roster, winning almost every race that day over the other racers and as Taffyta continued her investigation, the pattern remained the same. Even on days when she came in first, King Candy was ALWAYS there, no matter the circumstances, no matter the race.
King Candy was ALWAYS in the roster.
"Betcha the man cheated his way every time…" the girl growled "But where is it?"
Taffyta scoured all the books once more, her eyes growing weary from looking through the albums for countless hours.
"I-I know it has to be here! It has to be! If it's not in the OFFICIAL records, it should be in the stuff that we took and stored!"
Again, the girl peered through the album containing the data from those first few days when Turbo wasn't even on their minds. She looked at the off-data pictures, junk that she and the others had taken for fun. Vanellope was there, dressed in her racing outfit instead of her gaudy princess dress but the most important thing wasn't that Vanellope was still princess…
But rather she was having fun with everyone else.
If only those who doubt the racers' relationship with Vanellope could see these, perhaps then they would see that their friendship was genuine from day one, and not fake as they claimed.
Or as Turbo had claimed.
Taffyta turned the page, more pictures meeting her eyes but she felt a bit discouraged. She was coming up at a lost and her search was running on empty.
"I-I was sure it was here! I was sure-!"
Suddenly, a small photo slipped from inside the archive. The girl squeaked, almost letting to fall all the way back to the ground but as she caught it, something caught her attention. She looked harder at the picture, her eyes growing wider in shock.
"There it is! I can't believe it, BUT-!"