I'm so sorry for the shortness of this update but I really wanted to update this fic. Maybe the next one will be longer, especially considering it goes back to Felix.
Review responses:
m: Thank you as always, you little cutie.
Guest: Chapter is here over a month later! Sorry about the wait, I was working on non-fanworks.
Turbo didn't think that it was possible to sleep while in his mind. But he could, surprisingly enough. Unfortunately, though, he could be woken by the smallest of sounds.
"Felix said that I should talk to you," Vanellope muttered. "And Ralph said that it'd be a good idea, too." Of course, she'd listen to him. Annoyingly, a hologram of her appeared in front of him. It was doing exactly what she was doing- sitting on a chair with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
"You may as well talk to yourself," Turbo scoffed.
"I may as well talk to myself," Vanellope laughed, and Turbo shivered. That was weird.
"Must be a side-effect of being in my own game," he figured. "Anyway, go on." And she did.
"Did you know that Sugar Rush has a beach?" He hadn't been expecting that.
"Yes," he replied in his head. She could probably hear him, at least on some level. Too bad Felix couldn't. "Of course I do; King Candy took you there a lot when you were a kid."
"That was before mum died," Vanellope agreed. "After that, he stayed in the castle. But I never forgot that beach. I still go there sometimes, although I spent a lot of time there when I was a glitch."
"For the first year or so, anyway," Turbo snorted. "Then all the other racers started going there so you had to hide." His mind tried to make a connection, but he squashed it. Her hiding from the other racers who wanted to hurt her was nothing like when he had to hide from everyone in the arcade. He paced, heart racing uncomfortably.
"Calm down," the King Candy hologram warned. "You still have poison in your system."
"I'm trying," Turbo hissed, turning to glare at him. "This isn't an easy conversation to have even under the besht circumshtances!" His body tingled, code seeming to crawl under his skin. He sat down heavily, wrapping his arms around himself.
"Now you're the glitch," Vanellope observed from outside his head. Turbo lay down on his side, trembling, arms still hugging himself tightly. Sweat dripped down from his brow, no doubt soaking the physical sheets. Lights began to flash around his no-space, casting red splashes everywhere.
"Fine!" he finally relented, just to get rid of the guilt and shame and terror that were slowly building to a complete crash. "Fine, I get it! I made you a glitch and you went through everything I went through back when I left my game. Only you had friends to miss you; I only had Felix." To his relief, his body began to relax. The red lights went away, as did the crawling feeling. He still trembled, and his face was wet, but from tears this time.
"Please, go get Felix," he pleaded, not caring how utterly pathetic he sounded. He needed someone who wouldn't make him crash. Needed someone to repair him. Needed a fixer. He grinned.
Felix wasn't too surprised to see Vanellope run into the room where he was waiting in Sugar Rush. Litwak hadn't come in to open the arcade yet, so he didn't have to be in his game. Quite frankly, he didn't want to be anywhere where he could accidentally run into Gene. He'd probably seen his act as something that would benefit the whole arcade by getting rid of their biggest villain once and for all. That was probably the worst part; that he could rationalise it.
Vanellope was a welcome distraction from his thoughts.
"Has something happened with Turbo?" he worried, jumping to his feet.
"Yeah, I guess so," Vanellope shrugged. "He started sweating and his heart monitor started beeping really quickly. And he was glitching. But he was calming down when I left. He asked for you."
"So you mean he's awake?" Felix squeaked.
"No." Vanellope shook her head, brow furrowed in confusion. "I don't know how he told me. But it's like we've been talking. I'll go ask Ralph." It was unlikely that her best friend would know any more than Felix would, but at least she had someone to talk to.
Felix quickly made his way to the hospital wing in the castle, his hopping sound echoing off the sugary walls.
The hospital wing was empty, save for Turbo lying in a bed right up the end of it. He looked so small in that bed; his hair a dark almost-shadow against the white pillow. Even his skin looked greyer than usual.
"Hey, Turbo," the handyman greeted him softly. He didn't know why he was trying not to wake him. It wasn't like he was going to wake up anytime soon.
Inside his head, Turbo sat up, grinning. Felix had come! He'd come to save him from himself!
"So, Vanellope said that something happened to you," Felix started. "He said that you started glitching. Did she upset you?" Turbo wished that he could in some way show his agreement. He settled for twitching his fingers. In return, Felix took his hand.
"I guess it'd be easier to just stick with 'yes' and 'no' questions," Felix chuckled. "Squeeze my hand once for yes and twice for no. Got it?" Turbo concentrated and his hand squeezed Felix's; just gently but enough so that he could feel it.
Felix ran his thumb over the back of Turbo's hand, causing the racer to make a strange sound of delight (though luckily only in his head). It had been their favourite thing to do with their ungloved hands, back before everything.
"Now to test the 'no'," Felix decided. "Do you want me to leave?" Turbo frantically sent the signals to squeeze Felix's hand twice. This time, it came out as a normal squeeze.
"Good thinking, fix-it," Turbo chuckled. "Now, if only I could use the game from inside my mind. Then we might be able to really talk."
"Now, Vanellope also said that somehow you talked to her without really talking to her. Is that right?" Felix asked.
"That was weird," Turbo laughed as he sent the signal to squeeze his hand. "Almost like it worked on you. But that'd mean something going my way for a change."
"And what did she say to bring on the glitch-attack?" Felix wondered, then amended his words. "I mean, were you talking about your past and what you did to her?"
Turbo sadly squeezed his hand. It had probably been Felix's intention that they talk about that, but it had probably made his health worse even as it mended his relationship with his daughter.
"I wish you could tell me what it was about," Felix sighed wistfully. "But there'll be time for that when you get better."
Inside Turbo's mind-scape, the blackness had changed to be Felix's penthouse at sunset when the sun from the human world shone through the screen and painted everything in Niceland a fiery red colour. It had been beautiful. The two sat on Felix's couch holding hands, the sunset light washing over them.
"Was the talk any good, though? Did it help or did it just harm?" the fixer worried.
Turbo squeezed his hand once. He had to admit that it had helped, if only to Felix. Maybe it had helped his daughter, too. Some traitorous part of him hoped that, anyway.
"Well, that's good. At least there'll be one positive thing taken away from this," Felix smiled. Turbo could just see his smile- all bright eyes and dimples.
"Two if you take your rightful place as mayor," he offered. He was definitely going to tell that to Felix when he woke up.
Felix was silent for several more moments before asking "Are you… in pain? The glitch-attack can't have been all that pleasant." Turbo struggled to find the answer. He wasn't in pain now but he had been earlier. So he squeezed twice. And then, after a wait, one more time.
"So you are?" Felix asked. Turbo squeezed his hand twice. "You were?" One squeeze.
"Well, that's understandable. I suppose you don't want Vanellope in here anymore?" He squeezed his hand twice, and then once again.
"This is confusing," Felix sighed. "We have to come up with a signal that's neither yes nor no."
"No, I just have to wake up," Turbo groaned. "Fix me, Felix, please."
"How about three squeezes?" Felix decided. Turbo squeezed his hand once and really hoped that Felix could see his smile.