Chapter 17

"I've been rather careless, I must admit," the Cybrid monstrosity begins as he dangles Vanellope in his menacing clutches. "Using a virus to fulfill my mission was the most poorly-conceived idea I've ever had. Of course, once that fool Wreck-It Ralph tried to get in the way of things… I didn't have much of a choice."

"How DARE you insult Ralph!" I spit at him, glitching with rage as the emotion consumes me once more. "I've known you for fifteen years, Turbo, but I only met him once, and he was more of a hero to me than you'll EVER be!"

"Why, of course he was, my dear," Turbo grinned. "He merely had the misfortune of being foolish enough to attack me in the end, when it was I, Jubileena, that was fighting for the same cause alongside him the whole time."

Ralph and Turbo working together?! This had to be some kind of twisted lie the Bug King put together on a whim. "What're you talking about?"

"Let me share with you a little thomething I once told Ralph," explains King Candy-faced Turbo. "Jubileena… do know what the hardetht part about being the King ith?"

I shake my head at him, still glaring.

"Doing what'th right," Turbo says, raising his fist, "No matter what."

Doing what's right? Get real, Turbo, I think. "What're you getting at?"

"You thee, Ralph and I… we had thomething in common. All we wanted wath to be heroeth… To be forever loved by thoth we knew… to be remembered forever. You don't know what love ith, Jubileena… you never have," he says, grazing my chin with one of his dagger-like fingers. "Love ith so much more than you realithe… the key to immortality."

I look down at myself- my body bent and battered, my code now crushed to bits in wake of the loss of my sister. For fifteen years I had operated on a self-based assumption of what love really was- and look where all that's gotten me now. After all this time, could I have been wrong about everything?

The sickening possibility crosses my mind: Could Turbo really be telling the truth?!

"All Ralph wanted was his useless medal. All I wanted, on the other hand, was to be a just, fair ruler, forever cherished by gamers and royal subjects alike," continues Turbo. "But something got in the way of all that… for both of us." As if to present evidence, Turbo holds Vanellope inches away from my face.

"My quest to gain royalty was not without its drawbacks," he explained. "I had to jump through a great many loops to protect it. But I was careless, as I've said before, and in the process, I accidentally created… this."

Vanellope, still struggling, glitches at the sound of his word, and as she does I look down at my own hands, still flashing red.

"The Glitch."

"Yes… Finally, you understand," growls Turbo. "At last, you know what I had to do to keep you all safe! Don't you see why I had to keep her away from you? I had to! I tried using her in our favor, but… she couldn't be controlled! She couldn't be allowed to race! And look what happened to us when she finally had the chance to do so- look what happened to you! Nothing, I tell you, nothing but mere viruses! And it's all her FAULT!"

On his last word, Turbo slams Vanellope into the ground with enough force to break ribs. Vanellope doesn't attempt to fight back, doesn't even cry out in pain. I can only watch the insane spectacle, pondering the Bug King's twisted words, powerless to do otherwise.

But as he lifts Vanellope up off the ground again, I see the tears in her eyes and the look of sadness on her face. It was the same look I had seen in her before when I had called her a Glitch- the most damaging thing I could ever have done to her.

I can only stare at her helpless form ensnared in Turbo's arms, but Calhoun and her team- now retaliating from Turbo's attack- have their eyes trained instead on the royal Cybrid himself, the barrels of their guns pointed right at him.

"You're gonna pay for that, you overgrown cockroach!" snarls Calhoun.

The Sergeant fires, and the other soldiers follow suit, but Turbo harmlessly dodges the shots, before instinctively holding Vanellope in front of his face to shield him.

"Now, now, Sergeant… We wouldn't want Little Miss Glitch to get caught in crossfire, now would we? Tsk tsk," he taunts Calhoun. "Unless you're after some unnecessary casualties, I suggest you cooperate."

Calhoun and Kohut exchange looks before lowering their weapons in defeat, allowing the now King Candy-faced Turbo to go on with his explanation.

"They've got no idea what the Glitch really ith, do they? But you, Jubileena… you've theen what the Glitch ith capable of… power beyond control, power that can corrupt all they come in contact with," Turbo grimaces. "After that latht fateful rathe, I knew thith game wath done for. I thearched far and wide to find her and put a thtop to her for good. But it wath no uthe- try ath I might, I never found her. But then… I realized thomething."

"And what was that?" I ask, now more inquisitively than angrily.

"It occurred to me at last," the Bug King grins, "that if Sugar Rush of all places can't be safe from the likes of a Glitch… no game can."

I gasp as the pieces of the puzzle finally come together in my mind.

"So, Jubileena, I took it upon myself to spread my Bug army across the arcade, in search of any character that dares call himself a Glitch. After all… what a more perfect way to be forever remembered and loved than to be the one who rids this arcade of the threat of Glitches everywhere? Yes, some have lost their homes and loved ones, I don't deny that," Turbo sighs, with a look of sorrow on his face. "But all for a great cause… Once the Glitch menace is finally gone, those who remain will prosper under my Glitch-free rule! I will be hailed as the greatest, most benevolent King this arcade hath ever seen!"

"You'll rule when Hell freezes over!" yells Calhoun.

"Oh, hoo hoo, it looks as thought someone doesn't like my plan!" chuckles Turbo. "Well, regrettably… neither did Ralph. I gave him my plan, I made my case, and still he refused to cooperate. What else was there to do? Silencing him was the only option I had left. What a shame… he could've been rather useful in executing my plan. But no- he'd had his own wildly different ideas about right and wrong. And why was that?"

Once again, Turbo holds Vanellope out in front of him to answer his own question.

"Becauth thith one was playing with him the whole time!" the King snarls furiously. "Becauth once again, she'd gotten ideath in her Glitch head that she could uthe Ralph to take everything away from me! Well, Glitch, it lookth like you were wrong, weren't you?!"

"Put me down, you grey-faced creep!" she spits at him. "And don't say his name!"

Turbo glares at her. "Don't you dare pretend he ever meant anything to you-"

"He was my FRIEND!" she wails. "He was my hero! He was the only one in this crummy arcade who saw me as something more than a… a…"

"A Glitch?" Turbo smiles. "Well now, that'th too bad, my thweet, becauth that'th what you are: A Glitch. And that'th all you'll ever be."

Turbo effortlessly slams Vanellope into the ground again, and Calhoun and the Hero's Duty soldiers cringe at the sight. Hoisting Vanellope's bruised body into the air, he raises his hand in my direction as if to strike me, but instead he pats me on the head.

"But you, Jubileena… You are so much more," he tells me. "You have that what the common Glitch lackth: Reathon, loyalty, and above all… love."

Tears well up in my eyes. "You're wrong," I whisper. "You said it yourself… I don't know what love is anymore. I'm nothing but a… a Glitch…"

Turbo looks aghast. "My dear… how can you thay that?!" he cries out. "Reduced to a Glitch though you may be, I know for a fact that you're thtill the thame, ever-loving little Jubileena I've alwayth known."

A surge of anger sweeps through me and I begin to glitch again. "Prove it."

"Of courth I will," he says as he lifts Vanellope up to eye level.

"Too long have I let you run amok in my kingdom, too long have you messed with all my hard work," he snarls at her. "You don't know how long I've waited for this…"

"Please…" begs Vanellope. "Just leave us alone… Please don't kill me…"

"Hoo hoo, don't worry Vanellope, I won't be killing you…" chuckles Turbo, before thrusting her right in front of me. "…I'm going to let HER do it!"

In an instant, the barrels of half a dozen guns point themselves squarely at my chest. "Don't you dare do anything stupid, rookie," murmurs Calhoun.

"Jubi… Please…" Vanellope moans.

"No…" I whisper, backing away. "I… I can't do this… You can't make me!"

"Come now, come now!" the Cybrid creature eggs me on. "Thith ith what you wanted, ithn't it? The one who took everything you held dear away from you? Go on, Jubileena… Do it for your friendth… do it for Ralph…

Anger seizes me again, anger I can't control. I begin to flash red, and Calhoun readies the trigger on her blaster.

"Jubi, no! Don't listen to him! He's lying!" Vanellope yells.

"Do it… for your thithter…"

"Don't do it, please! Please, Jubes!"

"Make little Citruthella proud…"

"PLEASE!"

My anger finally explodes and I rush forward…

"NO!"

…only to glitch high into the air and sock Turbo with a powerful uppercut to his enormous head. The Bug King crashes to the ground, cursing and howling in pain, and Vanellope scurries out of his reach to the safety of Calhoun.

"Don't you ever say her name again, Turbo, or I'll end you," I snarl, eyes narrowed.

A multitude of emotions cross the evil King's face- shock from my attack, rage, and finally a sinister-looking smile as his face takes on its original Turbo form once more.

"So, you won't be a good little Glitch and kill Vanellope after all," Turbo snickers. "Very well then… I'll just have to do it myself!"

Vanellope shuts her eyes, bracing herself as Turbo sweeps in for the kill. But it doesn't come, and when she opens them again, she's greeted with the sight of me standing right in front of her, one of Turbo's talons protruding from my back.

Turbo had been right about at least one thing- turns out I was still the same old Jubileena I always had been. My final act would be an act of love.