"Oh, so THIS is your big secret."

"Oh no…"

"Not this bitch!"

Ceria walked out from the trees and towards the friends. "A giant robot? W-O-W! What is he? Some kind of alien spaceship, cyborg, magical giant toy or a bomb!?"

"ENOUGH!" Vanellope shouted, making the bully silent, as well as her friends. "Mettaton is NOT any of those things, and he's more than a random giant robot…" Val then turned to face the robot, who stared back at her in compassion. "He's my boyfriend…"

Ceria gagged. "Ewww, gross!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'Ewww, gross!'!? Val and Mettaton have an ACTUAL relationship! They are perfect for each other!" Abby shouted, storming over to Ceria.

"That's right!" Tia shouted along. "They may have met by chance and accident, but now it seemed like fate!"

"Ever since we've gotten to know him! Mettaton has given her new life, made her more confident and the chance to stand up for herself and teach you the consequences of your cruel actions!" The two brothers, Sam and Phil, said back.

As the other friends kept lecturing her about Mettaton, Ceria managed to sneak out her phone and took a photo of Mettaton; sending it to her father.

However, Millie noticed and gasped. "SHE SENT A PHOTO!" She screamed, pointing at Ceria. The others gasped and their stomach's dropped to the ground.

Mettaton's eyes widened in terror and his throat began to clog up. "W-w-what…?"

"Well, I of course have to protect the world from a danger like this one. I mean, it could crush people with their massive boots! Eat people and kill them! And they most likely have laser vision under that stupid hairstyle and could anyone of us at any moment!" Ceria shouted back, checking back at her phone. "And right now… Area 51 are on their way, just when I release the locate…"

Vanellope dashed over to her, screaming and crying as she snatched Ceria's phone. "NO! METTATON IS THE ONLY PERSON I HAVE LEFT…." Her tears poured out her eyes. "PLEASE JUst…listen…" She sobbed.

"I am…"

"Mettaton is the only thing to remind me of my parents, other than this brooch of course… Despite everything…He's helped me get other my sorrow and depression about my dead parents… While yes, they are still gone… They will stay with me in my heart and I at least said goodbye to them... And I couldn't have done those things without Mettaton's help…" She looked over at him and smiled. "So, please don't…"

Ceria walked closer to the girl, her tears still in her eyes. "Oh…I understand…" She replied. "I also have a dead parent too… I guess my anger clouded my vision and made me like this…" She sighed.

"Really…?"

"Nope!" She chuckled, snatching back her phone and sending the location of the area to her dad. "And they're on their way. Soon this town will be safe from him and we can all go to a normal life!"

Val's friends growled and dashed towards her, giving punches and attacks.

"No! This isn't right!"

"Val NEVER deserves this!"

"Why do you have bully and hurt our friend!?"

"Can't you just leave her alone!?"

"And now, she'll be sent off to the middle of no where!"

"Never to be seen again!"

"You really think that's 'going back to normal'!?"

"Yes! For me!" Ceria shouted, pushing all her attackers away.

Vanellope saw and yelled, dashing towards her and about to throw a punch at Ceria; only for her to catch Val's fist and punch Val in the side of her jaw, causing her to fall to the ground and cough.

"Val!" They gasped, running over to her to check on her. Val turned to look at them, blood coming out of the left side of her mouth. They gasped in shock.

Suddenly, loud mechanical noises and sparks could be heard, leading to all the humans to look up at Mettaton, who's appearance had now changed drastically. His right forearm had been replaced with a cannon, his pauldron clad shoulders had grown in size and in the shape of legs, the holographic neon pink wings from Val's first dream about him were on his back, the heart on his waist had now been turned upright, pointing to his head, his chest plate morphed into a heart shape and his hair had become all spiked up, revealing the right side of his face which Val had already seen, but it still terrified her.

"M-M-Mettaton…?"

"METTATON NEO ACTIVATED"

Ceria smirked and stared at the frightened friends. "See, I warned you about hi!" A bright neon beam of light suddenly covered the bully, indicating that Mettaton had used his cannon to show out a beam on her.

Just at that moment, unfortunately, little Mari jumped out from the willow trees and dashed into the open field. "Vanellope! Cousin! Ceria's trying to ruin your birthday party!" She cried.

Vanellope sighed and looked at her. "It's…a little too late for that warning… Now RUN HOME!"

"But!" Finally, she saw the giant shadow covering her, and she looked up to see the giant robot staring down at her. She screamed, naturally, and busted into tears; "Mummy! Daddy!".

Mettaton, annoyed by the crying, growled and raised his foot up, planning to crush her. Vanellope saw and got up onto her feet despite her injuries, she ran towards her cousin and managed to slip under her boyfriend's boot and catch Mari and push her out of the way before she got crushed.

"You ok?" Val asked, taking deep breaths while clutching her cousin close.

"Y-y-yeah…" Mari replied.

Just as they calmed down, Aunt Tabitha and Uncle Toby ran out from the willow tree. "MARI!"

Mettaton, seeing them made him realize that they'll try and take Vanellope from him, so he growled and began to throw his cannon down to the ground where she was.

Mari dashed towards her parents and they saw the cannon shooting down from the sky. "VAL!"

"Aunt? Unc!"

SLAM

Mettaton's cannon had completely trapped her inside, audible gasps were heard from both her friends and family. A loud click could be heard and Mettaton lifted his cannon up, but there was no sign of blood or a crushed human body.

Suddenly, from the inside of the cannon, there was banging and screaming from the inside; making everyone realize that she was inside. But before they could get Mettaton to release her, his wings helped him off the ground and he flew up into the air, going in the direction of the city.

"VANELLOPE!"

Mettaton continued to fly in the sky, his large shadow covering the ground belong and allowing nearly everyone to see him; causing a massive panic between them.

Inside his cannon, Vanellope was quietly sobbing to herself, not only was she injured, but now her giant boyfriend was missing, under a fake mask of anger and monstrous; and all of this was happening during her birthday.

Mettaton found an abandoned factory away from the main city but just in sight of it, he landed near it and ripped off the roof before climbing in and placing it back on. "There, safe and sound…" He smiled, reopening his cannon again, allowing Vanellope to fall right out. "My Thumbelina…"

Vanellope just stared into his eyes, filled with fear and panic. "Mettaton…where are you…?"

Back at her home, Val's family and friends dashed into the car and sped towards the direction of where Mettaton went. The family panicking and her friends worried; with a passed out Ceria in the back.

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT THING!?" Toby shouted, worried.

"I NEVER SAW ANYTHING LIKE IT!" Tabitha shouted along.

"That was Mettaton!"

"Vanellope's boyfriend!"

"They've known each other since she first moved into living at yours!"

"That was why she kept leaving the house, go to and see him!"

"But Ceria today just told her dad of his existence and send him to Area 51!"

"We tried to stop her but she kept beating us up and so when Val got injured…"

"He suddenly transformed into that version of him and he seems to be completely evil!"

The adults nodded. "But where do you think they went…?" As they asked that, they put on the radio, only to be received with the answer.

"In other news, panic is covering the city as reports of a fifty foot robot has been seen flying over the city and some say is currently hiding out in the old abandoned factory. People are waiting round, hoping it'll reappear and be sent to Area 51 so it won't hurt anyone."

"Well, now we know where to go!" Toby said out loud, slamming down on the gas pedal and speeding off toward the factory.

Vanellope stared deep into the eyes of Mettaton, who kept petting her like she was a pet; making her seem less like a person. That feeling crushed her and she bursted into tears again.

"Hey, what's wrong...?" Mettaton asked.

"Where are you...?" She only replied.

"What?"

"You're not Mettaton... You're a monster..."

"I am Mettaton!"

"No! My Mettaton is kind, beautiful,funny, caring and would do anything in the world to make me happy! You are a monster, keeping me to yourself only!"

Vanellope quietened down, sighing before singing the song why had claimed as their duet; it was shaky and was constantly interrupted every few minutes by tears but just enough as it awakened Mettaton's real personality from the NEO form and he gasped as the song ended.

"Oh Thumbelina!" He scooped her up and hugged her on his face! his hair turning back to normal and covering his right side of the face. "What happened...?" Vanellope then explained what had happened, his face turning into fear and upset. "Oh Thumbelina, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!"

"It's ok... You couldn't control it." She smiled. "But, what was that..?"

"My NEO form..."

"NEO form?"

"Yep... Remember how I was given this robot body by Dr Alphys?"

"Yeah?"

"Well...it was originally made to be a war machine... One time I accidentally became NEO and..." Mettaton went quiet, quickly turning back into his regular humanish self. "Hurt people... So Alphys made it so only when I get exremely mad and see someone I care for get hurt, I would automatically be turned into NEO mode and become a killing machine... Didn't help I was a giant..."

"Yeah... Glad I could help you get back to nor... Why do I smell burning metal...?"

Mettaton and Vanellope looked up and gasped in a panic, seeing as a small corner of the factory had gotten set on fire because as when Mettaton had changed forms, a few sparks landed on a flammable metal and caused it to get set alight; soon making the fire spread.

"Oh no..."

"OH NO!"

Just outside the building, Toby and Tabitha arrived at the factory, shocked at the massive crowd of people. Val's friends peeked out the car window to see the everything. That was when they noticed the police tape keeping people from getting inside the factory with a few news reporters doing a report.

"Oh no Toby... We can't..." Before Tabitha could finish her sentence, the whole gang heard the car door slam shut and Toby marching off towards them. "Oh god Toby!" She huffed under her breath, before jumping out the car herself and following him. "Kids, stay in there and DON'T LEAVE!"

Toby marched off toward the closest news reporter, about to walk through the tape when he was stopped by the police. "Hey! Get off me! My niece is in there!" He shouted, trying to get the police off him.

"You mean that giant evil robot?!" The reporter asked, holding his microphone to him.

"No! The robot kidnapped my niece and is keeping her in there with him!"

"How did that happen? Do you normally allow giant robots to kidnap family members?"

"Look! SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

"Oh aren't you a-!"

Tabitha sucker punched the reporter in the face and pulled her husband out of the police's hold. "SHUT UP!" The crowd, other reporters, the police and even the friends and children inside the car turned quiet. "Listen! My niece is in that factory and we need to recuse not just her but the giant robot! He is for some reason a close friend of her's and I-"

KABOOM

Everyone screamed and panicked as the factory suddenly caught on fire and flames were appearing out the windows. Toby and Tabitha gasped in fright and tears flowed out their eyes.

"VANELLOPE NO! GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" They cried.

"Val!" Her friends and Mari screamed from inside the car, forgetting would Tabitha told them and ran towards the factory while leaving Ceria, still passed out, in the car alone.

The police quickly panicked and went to phone the fire department to get help. "Fire department, we need you, the old factory is burning down and there's a teenage girl inside it!"

Meanwhile, inside the building, Mettaton was desperately trying to stop the fire as it was now getting worse, the whole room was starting to catch on fire and the roof was starting to shake and come loose. Vanellope however, was curled up in a ball, having a massive panic attack from the phobia of fire.

"Oh it's hopeless!" He growled, slamming his fist down on the ground. That was when he noticed the scared Val, realising that he should focus on saving her than them. He looked round before noticing a double door leading to what seemed like a clear hallway. He cupped his hands and surrounded Vanellope with them to protect her from the flames. "Hey..."

Val looked into his eye. "Yes...?"

"Look, you're going to make it."

"H-h-how...?"

"By letting you go..."

"What...?"

"Go and enjoy your life..." He then began to push and slide Vanellope towards the doors, allowing them to open.

"Huh?!" Vanellope turned round only to see Mettaton's hand blocking her out. "Mettaton!" She ran to the hand and started banging on it. "No! I'm not leaving you! I love you!"

"I do too... But as they say, if you love something, you let it go..."

Suddenly, his hand twitched and went limp, as inside the room, the roof of the room had came off the ceiling and fell onto Mettaton, knocking him out and turning him off. Val's eyes filled up with tears and she began to cry.

"METTATON!" She screamed, sobbing as she LAYED down on top of the hand and cuddled his fingers tightly. "Don't worry! I'll get help!" She promised, getting up and dashing down the hallway in search of an exit; but after time, she found herself getting lost and dizzy from the black smoke starting to fill up the rooms. It soon got so bad, she fell to her knees and lost all energy, memories of the fire in her home attacking her.

"Mum, Dad, Aunt Tabitha, Uncle Toby, Mari, Tia, Abby, Phil, Sammy, Brandon, Nigel, Millie, Mettaton..." And just like that, she went out like a light; not realising that the brooch with the glowing souls of her mum and dad still glowing as bright as ever, if not more brighter...