((I'm so glad everyone enjoyed the previous chapter! I'm not often good at writing action scenes but I'm happy that I was able to pull it off. Hope you enjoy the new chapter~))

Chapter 26

The candy citizens were following all the action live on a jumbo video screen. They were screaming in horror when they saw Vanellope in the race. Swizzle, who finally reappeared at the starting line, hit the gas is now speeding down the track again, trying to reach to Vanellope as quickly as he can. He passed by Minty, Jubileena and Adorabeezle, who all nodded at his direction.

"You make sure Vanellope crosses that line, no matter what happens!" Minty told him. "Don't let us down, Swizzle!"

"Got it!" Swizzle replied.

Taffyta Muttonfudge is driving leisurely down a windy track of Sweet Ride, a wooded area full of candy trees, gumdrops and oreos. At the end of the track is the long Chik-O-Stick tunnel that will lead her to Frosty Rally. She can't wait to catch up to King Candy and win the anniversary race. She can almost touch that Platinum Cup now...

She heard the roar of an engine approaching and a go-kart cuts her off, taking the lead. Taffyta almost choked on her strawberry lollipop when she saw who was the driver.

"V-Vanellope?!"

"Hello, Taffyta!" Even though the strawberry racer is her enemy and did an incredible low thing to Candlehead, Vanellope couldn't help but torment her.

Taffyta was stunned for a moment but she crushed the lollipop in her teeth. She and Vanellope are now zipping through the forest, driving alongside each other in furious determination.

"Why are you still here?!" Taffyta demanded. "I told you, Vanellope-King Candy says you can't race!"

"Taffyta, listen to me!" Vanellope tried reasoning with her. "King Candy isn't what you think he is! He's a fraud and he's manipulated our game's programming-AAAHHH!" Vanellope found herself and kart getting violently smushed against the guardrail by Taffyta's Pink Lightning. Vanellope can even see the hate and spite in the racer's blue eyes.

"You are spouting lies against our ruler! she snarled. "King Candy promised me that he will put me on the roster board every night as long I keep you away from the race! And there is no way I'm letting you destroy our game and take the Platinum Cup away from me!"

"GET-AWAY-FROM ME!" Vanellope managed to push Taffyta away. Unfortunately she missed her chance to get a sugar cube while Taffyta drove into one. She briefly looks up ahead and saw they were approaching Chick-O-Stick tunnel fast.

The announcer shouted out the random item, "Sweet Seekers!"

Vanellope could feel her heart drop in panic. She's not fast enough to dodge or outrun the missile candies before she can even make it to the tunnel.

"Stay sweet, glitch!" Taffyta cackled as she fired all three Sweet Seekers at Vanellope's direction.

Hearing the last word, Vanellope had an idea. She closed her eyes and concentrated hard, repeating herself. "Come on, I know you promise you wouldn't do it again... But I need you to glitch, glitch, GLITCH!"

And then she did glitched and teleported forward into the tunnel, exactly just in time for the Sweet Seekers to miss their target and they hit the walls of the tunnel instead. The entrance crumbled from the explosion; Taffyta was taken by shock so much that she didn't slam the brakes and her kart smashed into the rubble.

Swizzle, after a couple of speed-boosters combined with luck, drove up and saw Taffyta bawling on top of her kart, which was snapped in half.

"Well, Taffyta," he smirked when he saw her mascara running. "Looks like you... have finally gotten your just desserts."

"Shut up, Malarkey!" Taffyta whimpered.

Since he can't use the main tunnel to get into the next track, Swizzle zoomed off to find the nearest shortcut.

Vanellope easily sped the down the Chick-o-Stick tunnel, laughing because her disability actually has some benefits after all, and she had underestimated her glitch all these years without taking advantage of it. It was like her own super power!

When she become a playable racer again, she wouldn't dare give it up...

She made the jump at the end of the tunnel and she found herself flying into the air; her kart flew through giant Life Savers ring candies over the Jell-O Marsh. She whooped; she is having the best time of her life.

Back at the grandstands, the candy crowds couldn't help but watch with excitement when they saw how much of a good racer Vanellope is. In fact, they're now now cheering for her to win instead of screaming in terror. NPC cheering fans only have limited programming personality after all.

On top of King Candy's podium, a weak and bruise-covered Sour Bill crawled up to the microphone. He had spent long, uncomfortable hours inside a tight, round container and a cage. It took him forever to pick the lock and escape from the Castle, but now he's here to tell everyone the truth before it's too late.

"Citizens of Sugar Rush..." he gasped weakly into the mike.

Back on the race, Turbo drove along the frosty, creamy track of the Ice Cream Mountains, humming happily since he's now leading the first place. He glanced sideways just in time to see Vanellope and her kart, a smug smile on her lips.

"YOU?!" Turbo screamed. "How did you break out?!"

"I'm a glitch, Turbo!" Vanellope answered cockily. "You should know by now that I'm one step ahead of you! And I'm going to take back what's rightfully mine!"

Turbo gripped his steering wheel tight. "Never! This is MY kingdom!"

Vanellope took the lead and drift along the curves on the track. Turbo was so busy trying stop Vanellope that he accidentally crashed into a closed off ledge. Vanellope headed down into the Nougat Mine and is speeding crazily down an icy, rainbow track.

Suddenly, Turbo's kart jumped out from the shadows and is right behind her fender. She screamed and she glitched away from him.

"How did you... You CHEATER!" Turbo snapped. "Get off my track!"

"YOU'RE the cheater!" Vanellope snapped back.

She glitched again and her kart teleported further away from Turbo. She didn't see Turbo removing the Hero's Duty and pistol and aimed it at her head. However, since he had one hand on the wheel and the other hand holding the gun, he misfired but the blast hit the back of Vanellope's kart.

"HEY!" Vanellope shrieked as her kart spun in circles. She tried to gain control but Turbo slammed his kart against her and began pushing the Whipper Snapper along the track sideways. Vanellope tried to hang on for dear life but she she was paralyzed with fear when she got a strange gun pressed hard against her temple and saw Turbo glaring down at her.

"Good-bye, Vanellope von Schweetz," he taunted her in a deadly whisper.

He was about to pull the trigger when the Tongue Twister finally appeared and rear-ended Turbo's kart. Swizzle jumped from his seat and tackled Turbo. The two of them struggle over the Hero's Duty gun while Vanellope regain her focus. She wanted to glitch away before all three karts crash into something while moving in a dangerously high speed, but she can't leave Swizzle behind with a mad man with a deadly-looking weapon.

She jumped on Turbo's back and glitched a bit, forcing his disguise to flicker and glitch as well. She wanted to show everyone in Sugar Rush the truth about who 'King Candy' really is.

The citizens and the racers stare at the jumbo screen in shock when they saw their beloved king transform into a red-and-white racer whom they never seen before.

Even Sour Bill was confused and horrified. He realized another reason this stranger, in his King Candy disguise, locked away everyone's memories; this Turbo wanted to fool everyone that he belonged in this game.

Turbo realized the jig is up when he saw his true form exposed and he can guessed that everyone is watching. "You've ruined everything!" he yelled at both kids while his body glitched back and forth between his disguise and original self. Swizzle is trying to pull the gun away from him while standing on top of Vanellope's kart. His pony-tailed friend is trying regain control back to her kart before it will get slammed against a thick pillar.

"Get out of our game, Turbo!" Swizzle yelled. "You're not even welcomed in the first place!"

To the boy's surprise, Turbo chuckled darkly, as though he knew something. "You are so naive, Swizzle Malarkey," the racer sneered. "The reason why I was able to get past security and find the code room is because I was actually invited to this game."

"What?" Swizzle asked in surprise. "Who invited you?!"

Turbo's yellow eyes glowed menacingly in the dark, his yellow grin widened.

"You did!"

Swizzle immediately stopped struggling and he stared wide-eyed in shock. Even this revelation took Vanellope by surprise. Turbo took this opportunity to pry the Hero's Duty gun from the boy's hands and point it at Vanellope. He pulled the trigger.

"VANELLOPE!" Swizzle quickly jumped in front of Vanellope just in time and took the blast in the stomach. His body fell back and landed on her kart like a rag-doll.

"SWIZZLE!" Vanellope cried.

She quickly glitched aside and Turbo's kart, with the Tongue Twister, crash into the pillar. Turbo yelped in pain.

The Whipper Snapper zoomed out of the icy cavern and head to a vast lollipop meadow where the finish line is just beyond the hill. Vanellope, however, cuts the engine and quickly laid Swizzle on the side of the road. She looked down in horror when she saw his body began to glitch in red, flashing codes and he was fading.

"Swizzle, it's going to be okay," she whimpered as tears began to build up in her arms. She made his head lay on her lap."We're almost to the finish line... W-we can make it together as s-soon you re-re-regenerate... You'll be fine!"

Swizzle's face contorted in pain and his breathes are growing rapid and shallow. But he looked up and gave her a weak smile, hoping to comfort her.

"Vanellope," he gasped, "I don't think I can regenerate after being blasted from that outside weapon... This is definitely not a normal death for me..."

"Don't say that!" Her tears drip down on his face. "You're going to survive because... because I'm going to make you win the Platinum Cup! You can't permanently die, Swizzle! You're going to be a winner!"

Swizzle could feel his body becoming numb and he was quickly disappearing by the second. Every time his body flickered and twitched, he began to remember memories that he thought were locked away, but are slowing coming back to him... probably because of the effects of the glitching... He remembered meeting Turbo at Game Central Station fifteen years ago, on the very same day Sugar Rush was plugged in. He saw his past self hanging out with Turbo and showing him around the castle before Swizzle headed down to the very first Random Roster Race. What a naive fool he was back then! ... Vanellope was there, right? But why was she wearing a fancy-looking dress...? Then Swizzle remembered becoming horrified when he saw Vanellope's body flickering and flashing after she won their first roster race, and he was helpless to save her...

Swizzle placed a non-glitchy hand against Vanellope's face.

"I don't need trophies or coins to prove I'm a winner," he said weakly. He was smiling despite his body flickering away. "Because I finally got what I really needed, a friend like you..."

Then he remembered something else. He removed a small piece of object from his jacket pocket and dropped it into Vanellope's hand. Vanellope look down and saw it was her heart cookie that she had given to him. It had been broken by Taffyta but it appeared that Swizzle must have glued it back together. On the side that said "To My Friend", he had added extra words underneath the first writing so the entire thing read as, "To My Friend. Thank You, Vanny."

"Vanellope," Swizzle whispered. "I hope I can race with you again..."

Vanellope saw Swizzle's eyes closed and his hand fell from her face, lying limply on the ground.

"N-no... No, please! Don't leave me!" she begged. "No!"

She desperately tried to hang on to bits of his glitching body but they slip from her grasp. Swizzle Malarkey's image flickered into red-colored codes until he was gone...

"Swizzle?" Vanellope called out his name and looked around the meadow for his regenerated form. "SWIZZLE...!"

Her pained screams filled the air and her tears couldn't stop from falling.

((I'm terribly sorry that I have to kill off Swizzle like that... *sniffs* Stay tuned for the next chapter featuring the climatic battle between Vanellope and Turbo!

Note: I went back and edited the part Turbo shot Swizzle. He still has the HD gun.))