*Chapter 54*
Three weeks had passed since Sugar Rush's move. Vanellope had slowly become more distant from her friends, her sisters, and her kingdom. She slowly slumped into an unspoken leave of absence when it came to ruling over Sugar Rush. She had Taffyta and Candlehead to luckily lean on. About an hour had passed since the gaming day was over, and Taffyta slowly moseyed up to Vanellope's room to do her daily check up on her. Taffyta gently peered into Vanellope's room, her facial expression written with tension. She held her breath as her eyes caught on Vanellope across the room. She was sitting in her large, fluffy white chair. She held cute little Boba in her hands. He chirped and tweeted with glee, though Vanellope's face gazed sadly down at the bird. Taffyta heaved a soft sigh and slowly stepped into Vanellope's room.
"Vin," Taffyta said with a small smile, "How are you doing?"
"I'm okay," Vanellope croaked softly, her eyes never leaving Boba. Vanellope's shoulders and jawline started to show their edge. As the weeks went by, she began to look sick and skinnier than normal.
"You were great on the tracks, today," Taffyta said with a broken smile as she strolled over to her sister, hoping to cheer her up.
"Thanks," Vanellope breathed as she managed a weak, small smile; her eyes remained on Boba.
"Vin," Taffyta breathed as she sat on the ground in front of Vanellope's low chair, "Candlehead and I are really worried about you."
"Why?" Vanellope asked, her eyes were dull and sunk as she finally looked Taffyta in the face.
"You look ill," Taffyta worried, "I-I know, losing Ralph is the last thing you wanted… But we are really worried. You hardly ever eat when we make food, you look exhausted."
"I'm fine, Taff," Vanellope stated plainly through tired, almost annoyed eyes. She stood shakily and began to bring Boba back to his bird cage.
"Vanellope," Taffyta said firmly, but she tried to remain calm as she stood and faced her sister's back, "I know this is extremely hard for you. It's hard for all of us, but you have to understand that you're really worrying us. We don't want to lose you, as well."
"You guys won't lose me," Vanellope said with a small chuckle as she locked Boba's beautifully crafted cage and turned to face Taffyta. She hugged her arms to her chest and looked down.
"What do you need?" Taffyta urged as she stepped over to Vanellope and held both of her hands. Taffyta could feel tears sting her eyes as she gazed into Vanellope's sunken ones, "Just tell me what you need in order to feel better. Anything you need, I will get it for you, sister…Please."
"I would give up every single medal I've ever won," Vanellope said as she stared in a daze across her room, "I'd give up the fortune and fame of being in Disneyland's arcade. I'd do anything, to get back to Litwak's. I'd do anything, Taff."
"We could attempt to play poorly," Taffyta suggested softly with a shrug, knowing it was a bad idea.
"I would give anything to be back with Ralph, Tammy, Felix, Calhoun," Vanellope trailed off as tears effortlessly spilled down her cheeks.
"We all would," Taffyta said softly as she looked away. She contemplated telling Vanellope about Ralph's proposal idea, but she figured it'd probably make matters worse, "I wish there was something we could do."
"There's nothing we can do," Vanellope stated plainly, "We're useless. The only thing we will ever have, that is proof of Ralph's existence, is Boba."
"Boba?" Taffyta questioned as she looked at the beautiful blue bird in the cage across the room.
"We saved Boba from Ralph's bathroom pipe," Vanellope said gently as tears continued to fall down her cheeks.
"We'll keep Boba safe, then," Taffyta said gently as she wiped the tears from Vanellope's cheeks with her thumbs, "Now. Candlehead is making dinner. We would love it if you joined us."
"I'll think about it," Vanellope said gently as she looked down before giving her sister a forced smile, "Thanks, Taff."
"Take care of yourself, okay?" Taffyta urged as she tenderly gripped Vanellope's hard shoulder, "We don't want to lose our sister. We love you too much."
Taffyta slowly headed out of Vanellope's room and shut the door after her. She heaved a long sigh and rubbed the side of her face. She wished they could just travel the outside world without trouble. Litwak's Arcade seemed worlds and worlds away; she figured it was all a thing of the past. Countless times she hoped Vanellope would smile again, laugh again, feel again. She knew Ralph had a big impact on her life; he was her first love. Taffyta ran her hand along the rails of Vanellope's delicate spiral staircase. She was lost in thought before a faltering crashing noise could be heard from the hallway near the code room. Taffyta wrinkled her nose and froze as she gazed long and hard in the direction of the code room.
"Candlehead?" Taffyta urged as she quickly stepped across the castle's large main hall.
She slowly wandered down the blue lit hallways that lead to the massive code room of Sugar Rush. Her eyes widened as she stumbled upon a figure, through a puff of dust, crawl their way out of the large code room doors. The person coughed and waved their hand around a few times before the dust began to settle. Taffyta furrowed her eyebrows and mumbled a small, confused greeting as the air slowly cleared. Before her was a young gamer. She was a few inches shorter than Taffyta and she had long, dark brown hair that split into loosely hanging pigtails, similar to Candlehead's. Her hands were distinctively a little larger than normal and she wore a mint green hoody with the sleeves ripped off. She had on a pair of dark brown cargo shorts, and an orange polo under her t-shirt hoody. She coughed a few times before glancing up and catching eyes with Taffyta. She beamed an oh so familiar gapped tooth smile.
"Taffyta!" She called happily as she quickly began to approach Taffyta. Taffyta widened her eyes and took a few, stumbling steps backwards.
"Whoa, whoa, who are you? Where did you come from?" Taffyta hollered as she put her hands up, she suddenly felt worried, but she couldn't help but stare at this stranger, as if she had seen her somewhere before.
"I don't think you'd believe me if I told you," The young girl chuckled. She seemed to be a fully grown gamer, but she still had a lot of youth to her. Her eyes were a honeydew hazel, they gleamed with love and happiness.
"Y-you look…so familiar," Taffyta said in soft surprise as she wrinkled her nose and leaned closer to the girl, "A-are…are you from this game?"
"I guess you could say that," The young girl stated happily as she brushed her clothes free of dust some more.
"How come we've never seen you around before?" Taffyta urged, feeling so incredibly thrown off.
"Well," the young girl sighed. She slumped her shoulders and waved her large hands around, "I-I technically don't exist yet."
"Are you related to Wreck-It Ralph?" Taffyta suddenly said, finally remembering who she looked like, "You two look so similar."
"I-I…yes, I'm related to him," The young girl beamed with a small, sheepish chuckle, "My name's Tessa."
"Are you his younger sister?" Taffyta urged before she shook her head, "I'm so confused. How come you don't 'technically exist yet'?"
"If I told you, you'd never believe me," Tessa said softly.
"Try me," Taffyta challenged as she crossed her arms.
"Well," Tessa said, looking away and wrinkling her nose, "Would you believe me if I said that I'm your niece?"
"I don't have a niece, nice try," Taffyta said plainly in an annoyed voice.
"You don't…yet," Tessa chuckled as she shrugged. She gave Taffyta an almost annoyed facial expression; a facial expression only Ralph ever gave her. Taffyta flinched and gazed at her for a long few moments.
"Are you implying that you're from the future?" Taffyta said nervously as she looked past Tessa and into their large code room.
"It was your idea to send me here, actually," Tessa chuckled, "You told me you'd put up a fight of disbelief."
"Are you trying to mess with me?" Taffyta barked as she began to feel defensive; she couldn't wrap her mind around all of this new information.
"No, I'm not," Tessa suddenly said sadly as she put her hands up. She quickly pulled a necklace off of her neck and held a small trinket in her hand, "Here. You told me to bring this as proof… Proof that I'm not lying. You told me that this would do the trick."
Taffyta carefully took what was in Tessa's larger hand and peered down at it curiously. Taffyta's eyes practically bulged out of her head as she came face to face with none other than Vanellope's crossed stripe engagement ring. She inhaled a soft gasp and stared hard down at the ring. She could feel all the code in her body practically freeze as she gripped the familiar ring that Ralph had beautifully hand carved himself. She could feel her eyes sting with tears as she looked Tessa in the eye. She inhaled a shaky breath and gripped the ring closer to her heart.
"A-are… Are you Ralph's and Vanellope's daughter?" Taffyta said in a whisper. Tessa let the same, familiar gapped tooth smile spread across her face.
"Guilty."
