And welcome back once again, my woefully under-appreciated readers! Today Vanellope finally has a sit down with Nell, I touch upon stuff that I should've gone over in Action Replay, and stuff may or may not advance in the actual plot!

Seriously, Vanellope and Nell just talk; I think it's super interesting, but it's actually super boring lol

Disclaimer: I have no claim to the copyrighted materials presented within this story; please do not sue, I have nothing of value since I am a poor college student

"So if I stay here any longer, I won't be able to go back, huh?"

"That's mostly correct."

Vanellope kicked her legs over the blank, wondering if maybe she and Nell should hold this sit down somewhere less ancient and fatal. But as it stood, the psycho wasn't around to make them leave the event horizon, and Vanellope appreciated the freezing thrill of slipping off the edge and becoming scattered code in the Sea. Maybe that was her teenage hysteria bubbling up, but whatever.

Nell untangled a lock of hair from her little crown and Vanellope asked, "So are you wearing my other default costume? Not for nothing, but we don't really look alike."

"We don't," Nell said,"because our model went through several design changes in the making of this game. This is what your "national costume" started off as, but down the line it changed into the one the Other is currently wearing."

"You can see her?"

"Somewhat," Nell played with her pendant, the little peppermint radiating sickly warmth back to Vanellope's fingers. "I am as much of a mirror program as Mirror Vanna is, so I can feel her through the other side of the mirror. Not exactly though, but I know she's alive and well, wearing her queen outfit, and taking tea with the rest of the Triple Threat Circuit racers."

Vanellope winced, the idea of Taffyta and Rancis unknowingly betraying Vanellope for the Other hurting her healed hip. "C-Can't you do something? How am I supposed to get back?"

Nell hummed, staring off into the Sea. "That's a question with a lot of loaded backstory...but then again, you said that you wanted all the answers, correct?"

Vanellope met the swirling mint gaze, and she steeled herself, "Tell me everything."

The not quite doppelganger, not quite ally smiled, and she began, "I'm not sure if it stands for all of the World Circuit arcade machines, but this console in particular was activated 17 times in order to assure that the special gaming parameters were met. The testers only raced with Vanellope, so the other racers' minds, memories and emotions were left blank until the download.

"This meant that for everyone else but you, there was no cognitive conflict between upgrades. Mirror Vanna recalled that you know of someone who has been through this situation before?"

Vanellope nodded, "One of my Codebusters, Honey, her boyfriend/best friend/pretty much soulmate integrated from Sega Sonic Arcade into Sonic the Fighters once it was plugged in."

"Because he entered the game right at plug in, he was melded and essentially upgraded into the new role. Granted, because the game mechanics of each game were different, he suffered some internal conflict, yes?"

At Vanellope's nod, Nell continued, "Had he entered any time later, allowing the blank slate Sonic to materialize into an individual, two things could have happened: he could have been rejected from the melding and continued to be homeless, probably dooming your friend Honey in the first place...or he could have melded with the new Sonic anyway.

"Our game was turned on 17 times, and for long enough periods that essentially, 17 Vanellopes came into existence. But with every upgrade, those Vanellopes were intended to be melded into the next for continuous development—on our side of the screen, this would have allowed Mirror Vanna to recalibrate the Vanellope role and make sure everything was running nice and smoothly."

Vanellope butted in, "So wait, 17 individual Vanellopes? All with different minds and personalities and..." Souls?

Nell shrugged, "The way that history went, yes. It wasn't supposed to—you'll understand better when Mirror Vanna explains this—but as it stands, there were 17 Vanellopes. The Other that currently took your place was the first in line, and I was the second."

The girl looked down at her hands, and her calm voice operator voice took a softer edge, "I think she was convinced that she was going to die, or be erased. Only that kind of terror could drive someone to do such an evil act..." Nell cocked her head, "Remember the empty space back by the Sugar Rush circuits?"

Taken back by this change, Vanellope slowly nodded, "By the Cool and Crumbly Circuit, right?"

"The Cool and Crumbly Circuit is rather oddly designed, yes? Adorabeezle Winterpop, Crumbelina DiCaramello, Lemonetta Creameringue, Minty Candlezaki, and the new racers Iceabel Doublefudge, Royalotte Biscake, Keyston Limerick, and Velvetina Littlecup race in there. Half are pastries, half are ice cream, and the Double Dipped Zone between Adorabeezle and Crumbelina's tracks is particularly dangerous due to conflicting textures.

"It's also one of the few circuits to have eight racers instead of six; this quirk is shared with a few other international circuits, and Sugar Rush's own Flavor Rush Circuit, which is admittedly better put together, although Bubbebetty Gummipop and the twins Pepper and Winter Doublemint don't really mix perfectly with the other, more caffeinated racers."

Vanellope raised her eyebrows, "Where are you going with this?"

"What I'm saying is that the empty spot between those two circuits is where the dummied out Bite Sized Battle Circuit was supposed to go." Nell counted on her gloved fingers, "It was a 6 racer set with Crumbelina, Royalotte, Bubblebetty, Pepper and Winter, and the racers Oreanne Wonderfilled and Chip Sailcrunch."

This should have been where Vanellope made the connecting epiphany, but there was just so much information in her already overloading brain that she just sort of shrugged, "And this is important because?"

Nell snorted, "Fifteen suits you. But regardless, this is important because the agreement between Tobikomi and Nabisco fell through during the first upgrade—when the Other was being used—and Oreanne and Chip weren't allowed to be used; Chip wasn't even completed yet when they pulled the plug.

"It left Oreanne as a dummied out shadow of a character in the empty space where her circuit was, her personality scrambled and fried due to her mirror being deleted with the deletion."

Vanellope shuddered because Honey once was a shadow of a character; by the grace of Sonic the Fighters she was viable and so was her mirror...Vanellope widened her eyes, "Oreanne is the psycho that's been chasing me, isn't she?"

Nell fixed one of Vanellope's candy barrettes, "The Other found her when she did A Very Bad Thing, and warped her mind so that she became the mindless cannibal that the Other uses as her attack dog. It's just so easy," Nell's voice was calm and quiet and so filled with razor blade rage that Vanellope's heart bled, "to push the next Vanellope through a mirror when she's blinded by the HD sparkles. I was a fool for not pushing back, but it was so sudden, and I didn't expect another Vanellope to appear from the shadows and lock me behind the mirror."

Vanellope took Nell's hand, "She did this to you too?"

Nell smiled, "It was so long ago, I don't remember what it feels like to not be a mirror program. But I do know what it's like to be hunted down by Oreanne...and I know what it's like to watch her eat my successors. All fourteen of them I tried to save, and all fourteen of them were...well, you remember how Oreanne attacked you."

Vanellope paled and Nell gazed out over the Sea, "The Other Vanellope is a sadist. If she just wanted to get rid of us, she would open a mirror directly over the Data Sea and drop us in. No fuss, no muss, no risk of us getting out and exposing her lies. But she hates us enough to want us to be hunted down and devoured by the poor little beta girl she turned into an accessory for murder."

"W-Why?"

Nell was quiet, "Because she was afraid to die."

Vanellope hugged her knees to her chest, inhaling the vanilla extract still staining her suit. She was afraid to die in Paradice Cream Pier, afraid enough to summon a serving knife from the game's inventory and stab Oreanne in the eye and leave her to rot in the waves. Had they been outside World Circuit, Oreanne would have died and Vanellope would've been a murderer and this is different than what's happening, right? Because the Other killed 14 other Vanellopes over something that wasn't an issue, right?

"I'm not sure," Nell drew out her words slowly, a blunt knife from an eye socket, "if melding with a preexisting character would kill the one being "overwritten", or if they would become one, or whatever else. Mirror Vanna would know, and she's on her way now to explain more things better than I can, and get you on the right side of the mirror."

Vanellope felt herself nod, head aching from bobblehead agreements. The mirror world was becoming less repulsive and more comfortable, the chill leeching away the ache and malcontent in her bones, and that was unacceptable because her life was on the other side. She missed Ralph like a sweet seeker to the chest and now she was terrified for Choko because she was going to find out and the Other was going to throw her in and Vanellope didn't want her dear friend to be eaten by a creature that might be beyond a Codebuster's help.

"Can..." But Vanellope had to ask anyway, "can anything be done to help? I mean, for Oreanne, and for you?"

"...no." Nell folded her hands on her lap, "I might have started out as a playable avatar, but now I am promised to this mirror world, and were it not for the Other and Oreanne, I would be completely content here." She smiled, "I have Mirror Vanna, she is more than enough."

Vanellope blushed at the emphasis and Nell tittered, "Don't worry, it's hardly incestuous when you are refused the actual mirror-avatar connection." Nell's laughter picked up at Vanellope's mortification and it was only when Vanellope stopped hiding in her suit front that Nell remarked, "You don't feel that way about anyone, do you?"

"Nope." Vanellope popped her lips on the word, and she spoke without thinking, "And I don't think I ever will." Romance was for Candle/Minty and Sour Apple/Emmareld?, for Felix and Calhoun, for Honey and C. Sonic, for Skrillex and his girlfriend Elsie from DisneyQuest, and for Choko and whomever caught her little shoujo heart.

Vanellope had her friends, had her allies, had her Ralph, and that was enough. And Nell's accepting nod made Vanellope that much more comfortable in this brand new teenage skin. Vanellope looked back down into the Sea and sighed, "Choko would lose it if she could see this, she'd certainly appreciate it more." Her little Codebuster twerp, who survived death twice and reminded Vanellope just how dear her assortment of friends were to her; if Choko could see this now, who knew what kind of shenanigans she would get into.

"If it makes you feel better," Nell kicked a leg over the abyss, "Choko is not on the Other's radar. From the Other's point of view, Choko left earlier in the day when she was summoned by the Surge Protector, and so far hasn't directly interacted with the Other."

Vanellope nodded, "A month ago, Choko and Honey and Skrilly modified Fix-it Felix, Jr. so that a bunch of homeless characters could live in it and play in a bonus level. She must be checking up on them." Ralph was excited to get Q*Bert and others off GCS's streets, Vanellope felt a powerful urge to go check on him and bit her knee when she realized it meant leaving the mirror world.

Strange, how the need to stay was growing. Nell adjusted Vanellope's crown, "That's the mirror override talking. But the game day is almost officially over, we can get in contact with Mirror Vanna, get you out, and perhaps end the Other's reign of madness."

And save Oreanne, Vanellope decided. Sure, the psycho reminded her too much of Virus-Van for their own good, but she couldn't just leave her like that, not when Vanellope now knew that it wasn't entirely her fault. Brushing more blood crystals from her arm and hip to die in the Sea below, Vanellope stood up. She could smell cookies on the edge of the Sea' primordial musk, and with her luck Oreanne would push her over the edge. "Do you have a cart, Nell?"

"Afraid not," Nell ran her hand over Vanellope's cart, tracing the names iced on the side. "Impressive handiwork, although Ralph's name is a bit...rough."

"One day you'll meet him," Vanellope grinned as she got in the driver's seat and Nell perched on the back fin like a little queen out for a Sunday drive. And maybe this was to Nell, since Vanellope had yet to be cannibalized in front of her eyes; Vanellope kicked the cart into gear and drove away from Oreanne's dismal theme and the untold horrors lurking in her stomach.

The met Mirror Vanellope on the other side of the mirror world, the boundary between the mirror and the game's physical motherboard hazy and brimming with electricity. Mirror Vanellope grinned that Oreanne nearly met her death here when she and Vanellope #12 had their last showdown at the motherboard's limits, so she would be slow to come here again.

Vanellope clasped hands with her mirror, and it was like the great Sugar Rush Meltdown all over again, with Vanellope feeling absolutely certain that her mirror knew exactly what to do and how to fix this. Evidently Nell felt the same, because her mint swirl eyes were lit up with some of that same awe and heroine worship. She looked young for once, and Vanellope gave them a moment's privacy to check the tread of her mirror cart's wheels. They weren't as glossy or defined as her beloved Candy Kart, but she appreciated them for getting her around this hellhole in one piece.

One the two lovebirds were done being oogaly, Mirror Vanellope started the sit down. "The arcade is closed, which is a first for the Other Van because now she has to interact with other characters outside of racing. She's a good faker, as previous Mirror Vanellope's archives are telling me, but unfortunately, her secretary Nilla is getting more and more suspicious."

Vanellope gasped, "Is she going to pull something?" Not Nilla, not the girl who filled Choko's secretary position with zeal and helped keep Vanellope's head on during the Bad Week and every moment before and after. "W-We can just add her to the party if she gets thrown in here, right?"

Mirror Vanellope nodded, "If it comes to that, yes. The Other Van doesn't like getting her hands dirty, letting Oreanne do all the bake work, so Nilla isn't in physical danger quite yet. However, this means we need to get you out right away."

"Vanna," Nell said, "the mirror overwrite is accelerating in Vanellope's code."

"Double reason," Mirror Vanellope straightened her gloves, "and double the fun. I have a plan, and it involves all of us together." She grinned at Vanellope and it was like watching her defeat Virus-Van's mirror counterpart all over again, "You ready to go home?"

Vanellope found herself grinning back, "I was ready yesterday."

And as hundreds of racers on both sides of the mirrors adjusted into their new homes and new lives, Vanellope sat on a gilded throne. Her billowing royal mint wrapper skirts brushed against the ground as she welcomed Choko back into World Circuit after her check up of Fix-it Felix, Jr. Choko was happy as ever, reporting no faults and that the old game was taking to the gamers' interest of the bonus round swimmingly. Nilla stood faithfully at Vanellope's side, still overawed by her avatar's upgrade from vanilla bean creature to actual humanoid, and it was just another lovely day in Vanellope von Schweetz life.

So when Choko left just a tad more quickly than she would have before, or when Nilla's eyes averted from Vanellope's a second longer that necessary, Vanellope smiled. She sent Nilla to go meet up with Sour Bill and King Candy over plans for a great get-together with the new racers, and once left alone, pulled out a little hand mirror.

She listened to the three Others plan to topple her, to overwrite her, to kill her. How her own mirror conspired to delete her, when her mirror should do nothing more than be her partner in living a fulfilling life. Vanellope scrunched up her face, pain welling up in her throat before she swallowed it down and smoothed out her skirts.

They couldn't hurt her, she was Queen and she was beautiful and she was alive. Others had tried, Others had failed, and she refused to let a beta-class reject and an entitled download fragment take away what was rightfully hers and leave her to die cold and alone, with no one to care for her memories or for Oreanne's insatiable and unfortunate blood lust.

Well, they could try their hand again, and Vanellope vowed to cut them down and feed Oreanne with the code she so desperately needed to survive, and free her game from future strife. Vanellope was a good Queen, a kind one...and one prepared to arrest Choko and Nilla if they were seduced by traitorous thoughts.

The Others laughed from beyond the mirror and Vanellope steeled herself for a bloody confrontation. Long live the Queen of Sugar Rush, her personal theme sang, and who was she to deny what was rightfully hers?

And there we have a LOT of talking and not a lot of doing! Along with me literally handwaving the inclusion of Q*Bert and friends into FIFJr, which was in the actual movie and an intended chapter of Action Replay. Funny how I can fit in DisneyQuest but not a canon event...and sorry about this whole chapter, I just got carried away with Vanellope and Nell talking :/

I wish I had this story's original outline; it was lost when my old laptop broke, along with the master list of all the Sugar Rush: World Circuit OCs. It's a tragedy I honestly want to cry over because I was SO EXCITED to write this story because the original outline and story idea was one I knew that would be as good, if not better, than Action Replay and Gratitude and Life in 16 Flavors.

Unfortunately, I'm just desperately trying to string together the fragments I remember, aaaaaaand I'm not feeling so hot about it :(

If you guys could review and help give me pointers on what's working and what's not, I'd really appreciate that because this story is fundamentally broken and I'd prefer to write a broken story with reader input than my own frantic rambling.

Please? I promise to release artwork of Nell, Vanellope and other racers if you do :3