A/N: Hey guys. *glances at the word count* Whoa, someone's just started writing like she doesn't care, right?

Anyhoo, I wanted to get the next chapter of Unlocked on here before summer is over, so here you go!

Warning: extreme mood whiplashes and heel face turns here. And also slight language.

Chapter 10

Ralph

"WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!" I practically yell in disbelief. As I look at the wrecker standing in front of me, I shake my head wildly, as if to shake off what I think I had just heard. "You're kidding me; you've got to be kidding me."

"I'm not, that's the point." RJ lets out, tears welling up at his absurdly green eyes. He lets his hands fall down at his sides and glances at the ground. "It really is my fault, and I'm sorry that I haven't told all of you earlier."

"You can't be serious, RJ!" I shoot back at him, "how can you be the cause of this? You're just standing here, not even engaging in any wrecking! How can you cause all of this?" Although while I am saying this, my mind briefly drifts back for my conversation with Felix back at the clearing near the dump, where he says he found something is wrong with RJ; but I dismissed it as utter nonsense. But now, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I know more than I think I do.

"I-" RJ starts, and then groans painfully as his body bursts into sparks again. The ground beneath our feet literally rips apart at the same time, and jolted by the rough movement, we all fall down onto the cracked ground simultaneously. Out of the corner of my eye, I see RJ get back up on his feet and starts to walk away from the rest of us, but then he stops in his tracks and turns back at us. I plant my hands on the ground and hoist myself up, looking at RJ at the same time. I then step forward to RJ, as if to confront him on whether what he has just said was indeed true. After all, the ground did shake and quake when he glitched, there's really no denying it.

"Is that really true, RJ?" I ask my brother, "I thought it is purely coincidence that the ground shook when you glitched, but…"

"Felix has already busted me." RJ mutters softly, his voice wavering; his eyes glued to the ground, not even looking up at me, "and I figured that you have caught on when he told you his theory about me. And I'm so sorry, Ralph, I'm sorry!" His voice breaks on the last syllable and suddenly, without any warning, he falls to his knees, his arms clutching at his sides, sobbing hard. "I'm so sorry…" He repeats.

By now Felix and most of the Nicelanders have stood up and formed a circle around the two of us, and there we stand, looking on at the person curled up on the ground. The world is quiet, apart from the sobbing person on his knees.

"I shouldn't have lied to you," RJ chokes out, his posture unmoving, "I should have gone straight in and told you the truth, but no, I didn't. Instead I made up a story, hidden secrets about myself, and put you all into trouble. I lied, Ralph, I lied! And I can't seem to stop!"

"But…why could you lie to me?" I half-yell, half-ask him. Inside, I am fuming that RJ had been lying to me all along, but at the same time, I know if I show it, I may not be able to coax RJ to reveal his true intentions. So instead, I simply stretched out my arms, asking "I'm your brother, RJ; why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you?"

"Because you would never trust a clone!" RJ looks up at me, eyes red from crying, tears streaming down his face. He is a mess, a literal emotional wreck.

Unintentionally, I step back from RJ, aghast by what I just heard. As far as I'm concerned, clones of characters indeed exist since the first day the arcade came into action. Unlike recolors, in which certain characters were palette swaps of other main characters, but bore different personalities than their originals; clones tend to be unpredictable glitches, the scraps of an unfinished project left behind by the developers of the game, never to be released. Although it is true that some clones may be quite different from their originals, and even worthy to claim the title of a palette swap, one thing is sure about clones: they are dangerous; their codes can cause disastrous changes to the game's coding, and must be immediately locked up when seen, for the safety of the game.

…At least, that's what we've been told over the years. If I remember correctly, the last sighting of a clone in the arcade was probably about 15 years ago, in another racing game I think. The clone was probably caught and locked back up in about 2 hours after her appearance. But that was such a long time ago, long enough for us to believe that there are no more so-called clones hidden in the arcade, that we stopped looking out for them.

And now, seeing RJ sobbing at my feet and recalling all my past memories, I cannot help thinking what an idiot I was. Of course RJ is no twin brother of mine, but a badly programmed recolored clone of me. His code linking to the main core of our game; the earthquakes rocking through the game at the same time of his glitches; our game's code going completely haywire after he appeared; my failure to remember him in any of my past memories; my parents unlike what RJ had described…of course, of course, of course. All the time, I was so excited to meet another person who claimed to be similar to myself that I failed to obvious threat standing right in front of my own eyes.

And now staring at my brother-no, cross that out, the clone, tearing up completely at my feet, I cannot help feeling disgusted towards him. To believe that I had been completely fooled by his lies, just to get us to like him, to believe that he is one of our own, to dismiss the fact that he is someone completely different from us and we should be wary of him, I felt extremely ashamed by my own actions. Felix was completely right: I should be wary towards RJ, and should try to know him better. But no, no; instead I took RJ under my wing, treated him as if he is really my brother, and even defended him at times. Oh God, I was so stupid, why have I even treated him like this, like an actual brother of mine?!

Furious, I want to raise my fists up and plow them down on RJ; angry at him for lying to us, angry at him to not stand up for the damage in our game, angry at myself for trusting him all along! I don't care if he regenerates or not, all I want is to see him get hurt, to humiliate him the way he humiliated me! With a growl, I raise my fists and hold them up high, ready to bring them down on RJ.

But while every fibre in my code is screaming for me to clash my raised fists on him, I somehow manage to resist the tempting urge to do so.

Because there is still something I want to know about RJ…

"So, you're a clone, just a clone of me?" I ask in a half-mocking tone, my face still scrunched up in anger. "Did you know this all along?"

By now RJ has somehow stopped his sobbing and managed to get back on his feet. He looks up at me and slowly nods his head. "Back then I had avoided answering you what my name stands for, it is just another lie of mine."

"Well, what does it stand for then, clone?" I snort, my fists still raised, not actually caring for a word he will say.

"Ralph, maybe you…" Felix begins, but stops abruptly as he realizes that I'm so angry to the point that I'm not interested in what others think.

"Come on, clone!" I yell at RJ "Cat got your tongue? I haven't got all day, you know."

RJ sighs and lowers his head again. "It's…Ralph Junior. The developers gave me this name just to show that I wasn't a real character, just merely a shadow of you, Ralph. But…when none of you asked much about me I had thought that you had neglected the fact that I did not belong here, so I didn't reveal it. I was afraid that if I told you the truth, then you'll lock me up again."

"You knew that you were dangerous all along, yet you still continued to fool us. Being a glitch, you're not allowed to leave our game, meaning that you could wreak more havoc than what just has happened! If not for the fact that Litwak has deemed our game Out of Order I'm sure that you'll still be able to hide from us!" I yell back at him, glowering. "What I don't understand is that why you made such an elaborate story about yourself, such that we would never suspect that you are not one of our own. Give me a believable reason!"

"I don't wanna go back, okay!" RJ shouts back in my face. He then looks away, blinking back tears. "I don't wanna go back…"

I roll my eyes and snigger. Of course he doesn't want to go back: he just wants to stay and watch as our game falls to pixels! "You don't wanna go back; ha! What an excuse." I mock "You know, clone; there's no escaping the fact that you'll probably will be locked up again. Say what you want and I'll tell you: you're getting back in your prison before this day is over. No excuses!"

"Please! I love it here. I don't wanna do back. I don't wanna get locked up again." RJ puts his head in his hands and starts sobbing again. "Please…"

Seeing Ralph Junior, clad in his rumpled green polo and dark blue overalls, tears streaming down his face, looking very sorry to everyone around him, a small part of me tries to surface; a part that is compassionate and loving, a part that is so unlike the person I am now, a part that will somehow be able to toss RJ's wrongdoings away and lift his spirits up…

But instead, I squish that small, compassionate part of myself back down, and angry, I do the most unbelievable thing I have ever done in my lifetime, one that will make me regret as long as I live.

I slap him.

RJ falls to the ground, his body glitching again. I quickly fall on all fours, bracing myself as another earthquake tries to rip our game apart. As the others all fall to the ground, I glare at RJ with immense hatred. Just his existence in our game makes my blood boil like crazy. Quickly, as soon as the earthquake ended, I get on my feet, just quick enough to beat RJ, and plant one giant hand on his body pinning him to the cracked ground.

"You selfish scoundrel." I say in a low voice. "You have caused enough havoc to our game, and you still want to continue to do so."

"No, I-"

"And I don't freaking care about a word that you'll say, you disgusting creature." I continue, then I release my hand on him "Run all you want, clone; I don't want to see your face ever again."

RJ stands and rubs a tear from his eye, now completely red from crying. His left cheek and eye have completely swollen and blackened, the results of my slapping from earlier "Please…" He pleads me again "I want-"

"NOW!" I roar.

RJ literally shakes at my voice, like a single leaf hanging from a branch, trembling in the wind. My eyes bear into his, and I let out a small growl. Then very, very slowly, he backs away from me and runs off, still wiping endless tears from his eyes.

"Jeez…" I mutter. I let my hand fall, and then turn back to the others. Felix and all the Nicelanders are standing still, as if dumbstruck by all what just happened. "Well come on, why are you still standing here?! As long as that clone is still here, we'll be dead by tomorrow. I'm now going home to pack, and I assume that you should do the same." I turn and stomp across the crumbled building and up the alley that led to my home.

No one follows me.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" I yell, bringing my fists down to the bricks again and again and again. I didn't care how much I am wrecking; I am on fire, fueled by my hatred for RJ and my past stupidity, so angry that nothing is able to quench me.

On the ground nearby rests a fairly small bundle, warped up in haste, containing all the things I need to take for my journey beyond Fix-it Felix jr. I haven't packed much, though: a spare polo shirt and overalls, identical to the ones I am wearing now; some towels and a toothbrush: Vanellope gave them to me, saying that she wouldn't accept anyone with body odor and bad breath; a few novels: Felix told me to read them, as if to say that game-jumping isn't entertaining enough, ha! As if…

Suddenly, the ground beneath me jerks and I fall to the ground, the earthquake causing some of the bricks to slide down from the dump. I growl and get up, brushing the stray brick flecks from my overalls. RJ's still in the game, glitching -and wrecking our game- like he doesn't care.

I bang my fists down, trying to blink away my thoughts of RJ…RJ, RJ, RJ. God, why do I always think about that parasite?! I shouldn't worry about him, he'll be gone with the game when it gets unplugged and Felix and the rest of us have gone to other games for refuge. Since we cannot completely delete him, and he said he loves it here, then why not let him die with the game! Satisfies both his wishes, right?

"Ralph, I-AAAAAAHHH!" I hear someone scream. I snap open my eyes, only to find Felix shrinking in fear in front of me.

And that my fist is just centimetres away from his head.

I sigh and carefully lower my fist. That's when I notice that Felix, unlike myself, has not bought anything with him. "Where's your stuff?" I ask him "you know this game cannot be saved, right?"

"Well," he starts, looking from side to side, then back to me "well, I can pack later if I have to. But please, Ralph, listen to me, can you?"

I sigh again and bend down to Felix, "well, go on. What is it?"

Felix coughs "I think you should, um, talk to him."

"Who? Ralph Junior?! You've got to be kidding me!" I scoff "If I remember correctly, just before I started our game day, you've been against me for keeping RJ in our game. Now, he has revealed himself as the criminal for our damage, and you've seen how much destruction he could do, you're actually going to stand on his side?!" I shake my head fiercely "You're strange, Felix, that is all what I can say."

"Ralph, just…listen to me." Felix says softly and slowly to me. "RJ may be a clone, but that does not mean he is dangerous."

"You've just seen what he can do! Felix, he is beyond-"

"I'm just saying, maybe there is some reason that he does not want to get locked up again! That's all!" Felix shouts back in my face. With his angry tone and his face flushed completely red, I admit I haven't seen Felix look so furious before. Unintentionally, I step back a bit, slightly because I'm shocked by his words.

For a while, both of us are silent, Felix's face still flustered with rage. At this particular moment, the small, compassionate part of me tries to muscle back up inside me, as if to try and sway me towards Felix's words.

I stand back up. Somehow, deep inside, I realize that Felix may be right. In my anger, I realize that all this time I may have misjudged RJ, treated him far, far worse than he should, and burnt all my blind rage upon him. RJ may not want to go back, but not because of the fact that he wants to continue to wreak havoc here. Maybe there is something more he is hiding about himself, something that frightens him, to the point that he would rather stay in our broken game rather than getting locked up again.

Maybe there is more I need to know about him, more enough for Felix to sorta give him a second chance.

All I need to do is to make the right move…

"Ah all right." I finally let out, turning away from the dump "but you better know what you're doing."

A/N: University classes will be starting in September, so I won't be here that often. However, I do have a few more WIR-themed projects in mind, and I hope I'll be able to share them with you soon.

Anyhoo, I really hoped you enjoyed reading this, and that I'll see you again soon! :)