A/N: It took me 3 days to finish something that took me weeks to complete before...

Just to show how much one can do if they're bored enough. XD

Here it is, the moment you've been waiting for: the great rescue mission. Will they pull it off? Well, you'll have to read to find out. :)

Enjoy! :D

Chapter 14

Ralph

When we got down to the Code Room, I find myself breathing in and out rapidly, and my code is buzzing wildly like I just done a full-blown workout. I put an oversized finger to my chest, trying to calm myself down, only I somehow got more and more nervous as I did so. On the one hand, if things go smoothly, we could bust RJ out of lockage quickly before he could suffer any possible damages; while on the other hand, if I make the tiniest mistake, well…

I could find myself holding a dead character in my hands.

And I would be totally responsible for it.

"Calm down, brother, he'll be alright." Felix reassures me, but even I can tell he is nervous, and really, I can't blame him.

"So, get him out of the chest, tap it open, tear out anything I find glitchy or connected to the main code, tap it back shut, fix it to the mains, and give it a reboot. Did I miss anything?" I ask as we are floating towards the main code, towards the shining, glowing boxes.

Felix shakes his head, "Nothing, other than the fact that you'll only be doing the tearing part: I'll fix and reboot RJ."

"Oh, and one more thing." I stop in my tracks, concerned with what I'm about to ask next. "That clone you mentioned earlier, the girl; was she glitching wildly like RJ did?"

Felix also stops. "Well…I was only called to fix her code, so I didn't know much about the specifics; they didn't tell me. I did know for a fact that she was out in the open for way fewer hours than RJ did, so the destruction might not be to its full extent. Nevertheless, judging by her appearance, I could definitely say that she was indeed a glitch, and that she was glitching not as intense as RJ did."

"Oh God, now I can't help thinking that we're making a terrible mistake. Even with a clone that didn't glitch as much as RJ did, she didn't survive the ordeal. What if RJ broke up immediately after being unlocked, or that my first tear would shatter him? What if…" I feel sweat forming on my forehead, code buzzing more intensely than ever. I start to turn to exit the Code Room, but then RJ…

"Don't' worry too much, maybe he'll be fine." Felix reassures me again.

"God, if I could be as optimistic as you…" I mutter back.

Soon, we reach the character code boxes, and sure enough, the chest-and RJ's code box inside it-are still there. I look over at Felix. "Are we sure we're doing this? Seriously, have we thought this through? I mean, there's tons that could go wrong…"

Felix glides up next to me. "Ralph, I know you're freaking out, but you need to calm down. It's not easy, but I believe I'm ready for whatever happens next, RJ too. We're just waiting for you."

I take a deep breath, then raise one fist directly over the chest, preparing to bring in down sharply. "Okay." I breathe in and out again, trying to calm myself down.

Three…two…one…NOW!

I let my fist fall and land on the chest, shattering it into a million flecks of wood.

RJ

I glance around at the room again. It is the same as when I left it: grey, windowless, sealed shut and blank. Obviously it is not a good place to be in, but hey! At least it does a good job of keeping unwanted things out.

At least now I'm not a threat to anybody.

I let my pixels slide on the floor, spilled out completely to the far corners of the room. When I entered lockage, I felt myself fall and shatter, and the Grey Lockage Cube, with the lid unfolded like a box, rush up to greet me. My pixels all tumbled into the cube and when they hit the floor silently the lid closed up with a satisfying boom.

I, too, was satisfied and relieved with myself when I lay unmoving on the floor, recalling how I plucked up the courage to stand up for my mistakes, my lies; and face the fear of being locked up again. Sure, it still terrifies me, but I've overcome it, and I embraced it entirely.

As I lie down, I find myself remembering everything that happened after I was unlocked, how I saw my appearance for the first time, how I was shown around the game, how I tasted the chocolate and cherry that Ralph and Vanellope gave me, how I watched Ralph enter gameplay for my one and only time…

How I deceived.

How I neglected.

How I lied.

My heart aches for more time, more days of freedom, but I push the thoughts back down sharply. I was never meant to be unlocked, not now, not ever. Being out a few hours is already a luxury to me, and I had gotten more than I bargained for. Sure, I would love to stay, but for what cost? Being a clone, I am forced to say when the game goes down, but for the others? Should they suffer because of my selfishness? Should they be forced to leave their home?

The answer is simple: NO.

No one should be forced to leave because of one person's actions; no one deserves to have their right taken away from them. No one should have to right to control others' fate because of their selfishness…

With this thought, I shatter myself completely on the floor, satisfied with my answer.

I am never going back out again.

I should have known better.

As at that exact moment, the space around me lurched, and my pixels slam into one another, collapsing. Then they change direction as the cube rolls sideways, and I find my pixels tumbling on top of one another. "Ow…"I mutter, uncomfortable at the jolting of my pixels.

That's when I realize it.

My voice is back.

Does that mean…?

Before my very eyes, I can see my pixels transforming myself into my true form, starting from my chest. I glance around, horrified to see that all my pixels have been condensed to a single spot in the cube, preparing for my unlocking.

NO!

YOU PROMISED!

But there's nothing to stop myself from changing. Frantic, I try to roll away from my still-forming pixels, trying to get away from them, but they stick to me like glue, fusing themselves to me. The cube keeps on lurching the whole time, and I see visible cracks running down on the sides. Soon they'll split open and I'll be released again, connected to the game once more.

And I'll become an unstoppable threat again.

As I am thinking this, I feel a small tingle and I look down at my still-forming chest, and I am surprised to see it glowing. It is a tiny spark, but it glows intensely, and slowly but surely, it seems to be spreading.

The tingle is spreading too, and has started to become stronger, and stronger. I gasp and jerk back sharply as the tingle has now risen to become pain, unmistakable pain, throbbing at my chest. I press myself against the wall, hoping that it would ease my pain, take it away from me. But it is no use, the pain is still there, and it has now gone up to a point where I find myself, despite the cube rolling back and forth, glued to the floor, gasping and squealing as my chest explodes with pain.

The spark on my chest has now become a fire, green and glowing and terrible, burning me alive, tearing my code with tongues of pixelated flame. I feel tears come of my already-formed eyes, the pain unbearable and intense, I try to escape, rolling around, save myself, but I find myself unable to move, my gaze fixated on the terrible flame that is slowly killing me.

I do the one and only thing that I can still do.

Scream.

Ralph

"Good work, brother, you're doing great!" Felix cheers me on, but I don't take it seriously. I continue to keep my focus on the code before me, tearing one icon out after the other, disconnecting wire after wire. With every disconnection I make, Felix swoops down and taps his hammer on that particular area, repairing it. Every step is a race against time: if I'm not fast enough, the particular mistake in RJ's code will be forever implanted in him, causing him to stay a clone, never to leave the game, never becoming normal…

It is hard work, but I promise myself that the reward will be worth it. With that said, I continue to remove bits and parts of RJ's code, breaking the 'broken' pieces of code away and chucking them down into the dark oblivion below, where they'll never reach RJ's code again. Once torn out, every single one of the glowing icons and wires loses its shine and color, and start to disintegrate in my hands, forming into nothingness.

At least now RJ won't even have the chance of getting those broken pieces of code back.

Just out of the corner of my eye, I see another icon flickering, and I automatically reach out a hand to tear it away, when suddenly-

"Oh God, brother! What is that?!"

I hear the alarm in Felix's voice, but still I reach for the icon. "Not now, Felix. I need to tear this away before-"

"RALPH, JUST LOOK!" Felix screams, grasping my shoulder tightly, digging his fingers into my skin. That's when I fully snap out of what I'm doing and look to where Felix is pointing.

When I see it, I draw in a tight breath.

For a portion of RJ's code is staring to glow, and not in a good way. A few of the icons in that area are starting to flicker and glitch, and worse of all, I can see it is slowly spreading. I put a finger onto the icons located next to that particular portion, hoping to block them from the spreading glitch…

"YEEEEEOOOOOW!" I scream, jerking my finger back. As I look at it, my finger has now become a mass of red pixels, glitching and sputtering with electricity. I stare at it for a few moments, before Felix taps his hammer a few times against it and it returns to normal

I put my fingertip into my mouth, sucking it as I look again at the glowing code, which has indeed now spread onto the other icons. My eyes widen as more parts of RJ's code are affected, glowing and glitching. Felix goes over to me and literally throws his hammer onto the affected area of the coding, where we see it glitch and flicker in a sparkling mass of yellow pixels before reforming itself and being spit out from RJ's code. Felix dives down to catch his still-flickering hammer before it falls into the darkness below.

As he grips his hammer tighter, he shoots me a worried look, and I return his nervous glance.

Something is very wrong. Very, very wrong.

"You go and stand on the side, Ralph. I'll try and fix this." Felix glides towards RJ's code and frantically tries to reconnect and fix the spreading glitch. Meanwhile I stand on the side watching, and then put one hand over my face, peeking through my fingertips, praying that he'll be able to pull this off.

But as I watched, the code always seems to be faster than Felix by a bit, for every time Felix manages to fix some parts of it, another part starts to flicker. And as I watch Felix darting to and fro, trying to repair everything, I can't help but feel that I'd made a terrible, terrible mistake.

I'd might as well have killed RJ already.

I close my hand over my face entirely, closing myself from Felix and the Code Room, trying not to think that is happening to RJ. Because although I can't see what he is currently going through, I have a sinking feeling that he'll going through hell-like conditions…

And I am the cause of blame.

My God, what have I done?

RJ

Pain, pain, pain.

I gasp and try to turn my body, but the fire keeps on burning, the temperature slowly rising higher and higher inside me. I feel the flames spreading, passing to other parts of my body, licking up my skin and clothes.

I cry until my tears ran out, but continue to scream even when my voice becomes hoarse. I desperately want to stop, but I can't control it; the fire is so painful that I keep on yelling, my voice becoming one like that from a strangled animal.

Is this what dying feels like?

As I am burdened in my pain, I don't realize that the cube has somehow stopped lurching. My back is still glued to the floor, and my body is still burning and glowing. But I few seconds later, I realize that more changes are happening as I feel my body being lifted from the floor, to halfway up the cube. My arms flailed, alarmed, as I simply don't know what is happening to me. I'm not being unlocked, but I'm not breaking back up either, and my body still hurts like crazy.

So…what's happening?

As I am lying in midair, I feel my body tilt itself slowly, until I am 'standing' in a sorta upright position. It is definitely uncomfortable, and I try to straighten my back, despite all the pain.

My back doesn't budge.

I try again, and still it doesn't move a bit. It is like that I'm pushing myself against a brick wall. By now, I have a terrible theory of what is happening to me, but I need to prove if it is true. Carefully, I turn my focus to my right hand, and try to open and close my palm. Easy action, right?

My palm stays outstretched; I cannot close it.

So it is true: I have now lost control on my body, simply lying limply in an upright position as my fire consumes me. I feel another pain on my limbs, and even if I cannot see it, I can feel my body dissolving once more into pixels. I let out an internal sigh of relief, since I know my code will be back to normal after I completely become pixels.

Stupid, stupid RJ; why won't you ever learn?!

I gasp suddenly, as my neck starts to stoop down, taking my head with it. My arms crisscrossed and fixed themselves to my chest, while my legs start to jerk upward. I don't know what is happening to me, I'm completely terrified!

My scream gets cut off abruptly as my throat closes in on itself, and my head has bent to impossible angles, resting on my crossed arms. I yell soundlessly, as the flames lick my face and arms, now transforming back into pixels. Meanwhile my legs somehow find themselves over my head and just touching my back. So now I've been forcefully scrunched up into a ball with a crazy, impossible pose while I dissolve.

As I am dissolving back into pixels, I feel that I'm crushing under the pain, that I won't be able to handle much longer. My code has gone completely haywire, totally out of my control, impossible to sustain. My vision has started to blur around the edges, and I start to nod off into unconscious.

This is it, this is really it: I am going to die. For good reason too.

As the darkness slowly inches towards the center of my vision, I start to pull up my memories of Ralph, Felix and all the others, saying farewell for each of them in turn.

Felix…thank you for not busting me out so quickly, so directly to everyone…

Vanellope…you cheeky little thing. Even if you appeared in just a few moments of my life, you'll be a hard one to forget…

All you pint-sized Nicelanders... Yeah, we didn't go along well, but thanks for letting me stay here for the time being…

And you, Ralph, my original…Sorry I forced you to take me under your wing: you never asked for a clone. Oh well, thanks for everything. You gave me more than I'd ever asked for, and I will treasure our memories forev-sorry, for the remaining moments that I got. I'm dying anyway.

I love you all, really. I'm just glad that you'll finally be better off without me.

Just as I finished thinking these farewell thoughts, my vision has completely blurred up, and I am plunged into darkness, forever closed off from everything I love.

And then I-

I-

…

…

Ralph

"RALPH! HELP ME!"

I brush my hand from my face and glance at Felix, currently trying to hold the icons and wires of RJ's code together. Felix yells my name again, and without a second doubt I launch myself at him, nearly knocking him and RJ's code box over.

Felix is sweating, his shirt slicked to his back. His hair has become messy under his cap, and I can tell he is extremely tired. "Ralph, the code's falling apart. I don't know what is happening, but I'm gonna go for the reboot. Maybe it can stabilize everything, but who knows? Unfortunately, RJ's code has begun to scatter, and I need you to help get it back together."

Halfway through his last sentence, I have reached out both hands and clamped them around RJ's sparkling mass of code. As I am squeezing them, forming them to clump together, I can feel it fighting to escape, to get out, to disappear. But I hold on with all my might, never letting go.

"THIS IS FOR YOU, RALPH JUNIOR!" I yell, encouraging myself to overcome the growing pain of my hands from trapping the icons that made up RJ. The electricity stung, leaving physical wounds behind on my palms and fingers, but I force myself to hold on.

"Alright, Ralph. Listen carefully, for RJ's code is now in a very critical condition. We only got one shot: if this goes wrong, I'm afraid we'll lose RJ forever, so I need you to do exactly what I'm about to say next."

I turn my head back, and I see Felix holding up a digital touchpad behind me. His expression was serious, and I can tell why. I nod, telling him that I will follow his orders.

We can't afford to lose more of RJ now.

"On the count of three, I'm gonna throw my hammer against RJ's code and type in a command on this pad that will force him to reboot. The hammer might not do much, but as you saw earlier, it acts as a slight delay for the code, which is just enough time for me to input my code for the reboot. So when I get to three, I want you to release your hands and chuck yourself away from his code box as far as you can; for since you are RJ's original, you might be affected as well. Timing is everything: if I tapped the command too slowly, the code won't reboot; and if you're too close to me, you might be the one getting the reboot. So, on three, get away quickly, and I'll see it I can save what is left of RJ."

I nod again, giving RJ's code a few final squeezes before the reboot hopefully takes place.

"On the count of three now. One…"

I loosen my grip on the coding.

"Two…"

I prepare to jump away from RJ's code as Felix carefully positions himself behind me.

"THREE! GO NOW!"

I leap away and make a mad dash to one of the walls of the Code Room, just as the hammer, golden and gleaming, whizzes past me and embeds itself in RJ's code. Like the last time, the hammer flickers wildly, but instead of simply watching it, Felix is now typing rapidly onto his pad, his fingers dancing across the screen. By now, I've reached the wall and put a hand against it, breathing deeply.

RJ's code sputters and flickers, and even from such a distance, I can see it is currently trying to get rid of Felix's hammer, and it will not be long until the hammer falls and Felix's time has run out.

With a final glitch, the hammer has been pushed out of RJ's code and started to fall, just as Felix slams his hand on his pad. Immediately, RJ's code sputters and flickers dark, its icons blinking out one by one as I see, until it has completely blackened. Even from a distance, I can feel the code for the reboot churning deeply in my code, not enough to affect me, but definitely enough to feel it. Seeing the hammer fall quickly, I dive toward it, barely able to catch it before it disappears forever.

Felix rests his head on his pad, exhausted as I return the hammer to him. "You got it?" I ask.

He nods. "Just in time." We turn our heads back to RJ's code, and see that very, very slowly, his icons light up again, starting from the center, spreading to the sides. I might have imagined it, but I thought I saw a few traces of random glitches here and there, but I shake my head, shaking my thoughts away. Finally, after a long time, RJ's code condenses itself into a code box floating in front of us, healthy and repaired, connected without danger.

Felix looks up at me with pride, beaming. "We did it."

"Yeah, I got RJ back. But what happened to him the whole time? I don't know…" I mutter; my face still deeply worried.

Just then, the door to the Code Room bursts open, and Gene rushes in. "Felix! Felix! The game-AHHHHHHHH!" He screams as he starts to tumble down. Without thinking, I glide over and catch him with one huge hand before it is too late.

"Thank you for nothing, you useless Bad Guy." Gene scowls at me, beady eyes boring into mine.

"None taken, jerk." I shoot back. I bring us back to where Felix is, and very carefully, lift Gene into the air suspended with the two of us.

"Gene, what's the matter? Why in such a hurry?" Felix asks.

"Long…long story short." Gene says back. "We were partying as usual when we felt the earthquakes again, only this time they came in strong from the start and the building started shaking. It was like what happened when that clone-"

"He has a name." I interrupt.

"Right, right; when RJ was glitching back in our game. Some of us knew right away that something was going on with the code, but none of us are able to go down there because of all the shaking. Eventually it stopped, so I came down here. Mayor's responsibility, you know. So now the game's completely ruined, so-"

"Fine, I'll do a complete reboot on the game. Hold tight." Felix starts tapping on his pad again, this time it took significantly longer than the last. When he finished, I feel dizzy, as if someone has rolled me on my side and flipped me over. Lines consisted of random letters and numbers jumbled together rolled in front of my vision, and kept on appearing even when I tried to blink them away. I sway and slam upon a stray code box, blocking me from rolling any further.

When the dizziness stops, I am surprised to see that both Gene and Felix are resting against the code boxes too, and are now shaking their heads slowly as of to clear their minds. "Think that did the trick, shall we go see?" Felix asks.

We nod and follow Felix back out of the Code Room, and I might had imagined it, but RJ's code seems to be flickering slightly again, but again I shake it off. When we walk out into the cool night air, I see the Nicelanders, minus Gene, standing together in a circle, whispering to each other. But what surprises us is that they're not looking at us at all…

"Hey, what's up?" I call.

Some of the Nicelanders shake at my voice, then very, very slowly, some of them part open their circle, and we can see that they were apparently surrounding something laying down on the ground, unconscious.

When I saw what that thing is, I draw in a very deep breath.

"RJ." I call out.