Tiana kept on running. She didn't know where she was going, but she had to get away from Calhoun and find somewhere to hide!
She ran past candy cane trees and dashed to a cliff.
"Not good, not good! What do I do?" Tiana was frantically thinking of a way out. Then Tiana remembered something. She went into her small purse she had with her. "Come on, please be in here…"
Tiana pulled out a baby blue umbrella. She opened it and remembered the golden letters written on the handle: Tiana B. Tiana remembered her parents. She remembered her sisters. She was very close to crying her eyes out, but then remembered that she's running from that military girl.
She closed the umbrella, leaped off of the cliff and opened it again. She slowly drifted down, giving her a good view of the place.
There was candy everywhere, and everything was made out of it: the lollipop and candy cane trees, the small gingerbread houses in the distance, the bonbon mountains, the chocolate lake, the mint words that spelled "Sugar Rush", and much more that Tiana couldn't make out in the few seconds.
She didn't have much time to take in the scenery since Tiana had to dodge a laser blast. She looked up and saw Calhoun trying to blast her.
Tiana remembered her drill move. She closed the umbrella, went stiff like a board, and rotated like a corkscrew. This helped Tiana fall a lot faster. Right before Tiana hit the ground, she opened the umbrella at the last second to slow down her falling. She had a rough landing but was far from hurt.
"I missed you." Tiana closes the umbrella when she touches the ground and hugs it. She put the umbrella back and took off running. Since she lost Calhoun, she had some time to think to herself.
"I wonder what Sugar Rush is about? I hope it's a platformer! Like my…" Tiana pushed that thought back down to the deepest part of her mind. She rushed over to where she saw a race track she walked to the center of the track. "A race track? Oh, it's a racing game! This could be fun! And I like how cute everything is!"
Suddenly, she saw race cars coming her way. For a second, Tiana forgot that she was standing in the middle of it!
"Aaah, wait!"
The racers raced around her in panic, and one boy swerved into a wall and crashed.
"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry, are you okay?" Tiana rushed over to the crash.
The boy turns to her and replied with an irritated tone. "There's a race going on! We're on Coin Alert, why are you standing on the track?"
Tiana had forgotten that the arcade was open. "Oh boy, I really messed up."
"You're lucky nobody's playing as me. But get off the track!"
"Okay, okay." Tiana ran off the track and decided to watch the racers from afar. The blonde boy that crashed tried to get out of the cart, but winced in pain.
"You're hurt! Do you want me to help?" Tiana hollered to the boy.
"I think you've helped quite enough!" The boy barks.
Tiana was feeling worse and worse about this accidentally happening. She decided to keep quiet the rest of the time.
When the race ended, the racers all came over to check on the boy.
"Francis, what happened?" A girl with aqua hair tried to pull him out of the cart.
"That girl over there happened!" The blonde boy points to Tiana, who backs away a little.
"Who is she? I've never seen her before!" A girl with an orange and purple afro added her two cents.
"Is she going Turbo and trying to take over this place?" A girl with a candle on her head comments.
All of the racers start bickering between each other on what to do.
"Girls, girls! I'll handle this." Tiana sees a girl with black hair that has candy stuck in it. She wears an aqua jacket, small black boots, and multicolored striped stockings.
The girl steps in and stops all of their talking. "I'm not racing, so everyone back to start."
"I can't. My leg is sprained, I think." Francis says.
"Get some ice on it. Sit out the next race; someone can replace you." The girl keeps on walking closer to Tiana.
Tiana backs away from the girl. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to cause trouble. If you want me to leave, I cou-"
"Hey, hey. Calm down, I'm not gonna do anything. I just want to know what's going on. I'm Vanellope. What's your name?"
"Tiana Belle." She replies.
"I know what you did was an accident. But I need to know where you're from."
"I don't like to talk about it."
"Please? I only want to help you."
"I don't need help!" Tiana snaps. She's heard people say that way too often, and she knew that it was never true. No one can ever help Tiana. What's done can't be fixed.
Venellope pauses. She tries to find something to say. "Listen, I'm trying to be nice, but if you keep shouting at me I'm gonna have to do this the hard way.
"What's the hard way?" Tiana needed to know what risks she was in.
"I can always have you kicked out of here. And I don't want to do that." Vanellope says, narrowing her eyebrows.
Tiana can't have that happen. Not when Calhoun was still looking for her and wanted to vaporize her. "Okay, okay. I'll… I'll tell you everything. It's not pretty, and I'm gonna cry while I say it."
Vanellope sits down in the grass. "Thank you. Take your time; I'm here for you."
Tiana sighs, and sits next to Vanellope on the grass.
"The Emperor's New Clothes. That was the name of the game I was in. It was a newer game that not many people have heard about. There once was an Emperor named Orval. He was the oldest of two children, and they were born into royalty. This meant that when he grew up, he would be the ruler of it all.
One day, for a feast, Orval was picking out clothing, but he was far too picky to simply pick something, and hated everything the tailor was suggesting. Eventually, the tailor pretended to pick out an 'invisible cloak' that everyone but him could see. Orval fell for it, and went to the feast in his birthday suit. He was laughed at by the folk and the other royal members called him a disgrace, passing the crown to Orval's younger brother, Azazel.
Azazel went on to become the Emperor for a long time, and even married to a beautiful girl Crystal. They ruled the kingdom together and had 4 children: Lucetta, Stella, Avaline, and me. I was the youngest of my sisters. We lived a good life for a long time.
Little did we know that Orval got into black magic and had been planning to get the crown back. One day, he covered the land in darkness, imprisoned my parents and captured my three sisters. It was my task to rescue my family and defeat Orval.
That was the setup to my game. When it came out, a lot of people were playing the game, and they loved it! But the problem was that it was a very easy game. It was a long game, but it wasn't that hard of an arcade game to beat. Orval didn't mind being the bad guy of the game. He didn't want to switch games or switch roles. He wanted to win. But that's what really got to him.
Since the game was so easy, I would beat him over and over again. He'd try so hard to get the crown, and very rarely did he beat me to get it. And even when he did, he only had the crown for the Continue and Game Over screens. Then the game forced him to give it back to Azazel for someone else to play. He wanted the crown for the rest of his life. But he knew he never could.
One day, Orval snapped. I had just beat him again in the game, but he got a crazy idea. Breaking the rules of the game, Orval started to hurt me and break out of character. He just tackled me to the ground and started hitting me with his cane over and over again.
At the time, I didn't understand why he was doing this. From the pure rage and craziness in his eyes, I knew he was purposely trying to get the game unplugged. But now that I reflect on it, he was thinking about his future. He knew he was destined to lose to me for the rest of his life, and he preferred to die than to lose for the rest of his life.
His plan worked. He kept on fighting me even though he lost, and no matter how many times I hit him, he wasn't going to give up on trying to get us unplugged. Even when our game was labeled Out Of Order, he still kept on hurting me. At this point, I knew that he had completely lost his marbles and was just hurting me to let out his anger.
My family… they stepped in and helped me get away from him. They held him off and told me to run for the exit. I thought they were coming, but they told me they weren't coming. I wasn't going to go if they weren't coming, but my mom didn't take no for an answer. She carried me to the exit and pushed me through right before the whole game was wiped away.
I myself barely made it out of there. A part of my dress was stuck in the gate and vanished with the reset of the game. Not only was part of my code gone, but everything I ever grew up with was gone. My home, my parents, and most importantly, my sisters. I… I loved them so much! I loved them with all of my heart!
They'd always pat me on the back and say 'thank you for saving us, Tiana!' Orval took away everything from me, and now I'm a homeless, friendless girl with no game to be in! I've been jumping from game to game, hoping to find a new home, but nothing is the same!"
Tiana buries her hands into her face as her entire face turns red and tears gush out like a waterfall.
Throughout the story, Vanellope's expressions go from calm to worried. Eventually, Vanellope almost feels like crying too. She wraps her arms around Tiana.
"I know what it's like to lose everything you love… but it's never been permanent. I still want to help you, Tiana."
This makes Tiana push away from Vanellope. "How? Nobody can help me! It's all gone! It's never coming back!"
"Maybe there's another way I can help you. Have you found out what the lost code does to you? That's never happened to anyone before."
"When I went to DDR, Tappers, and Hero's Duty, I realized that the game fills in the rest of my code for me. That means that I can have new powers based on what game I'm in."
"Does that mean you're good at driving?" Vanellope asks.
"Maybe. I haven't tried it yet."
Vanellope smiles. "If you can race, you can stay here. And I have a hunch you're gonna be a great racer."