IX

Deus Ex Machina

It wasn't long before an eerie red tint fell over the candied paradise. It was nothing other than the fabled out-of-service warning from the arcade over-world.

Vanellope understood this would be a result, and in all honesty wasn't too frightened about it. After all, Taffyta was far more dangerous than any incoming danger, at least right now. If they could simply put everything back together, it would be smooth sailing. This was all speculation of unfortunately.

The group had driven down a few back roads, along some of the paths parallel to main and side tracks. She wanted to avoid the main roads, fearing that Taffyta and her gang could be on any one of them, watching, waiting, and prepared to strike. Not that their karts were anything quiet, but it couldn't hurt. The worst case scenario: they successfully send everyone to oblivion—there, waiting at the regen point, they could simply capture and hold the regenerating racers, essentially shooting fish in a barrel. When all was said and done, Taffyta would go to the mainframe and rearrange it however she deemed fit, thus dooming everyone and everything to her rule. The whole thing seemed so ridiculous, so farfetched, yet after everything that had happened, it wasn't too unlikely.

As they went down a path aside the upcoming entrance to the starting line Vanellope saw the unmistakable shapes in the distance, stopping her kart immediately and halting everyone behind her. She turned back to everyone else, who one by one got out of their karts. She swallowed, her stomach aching a horrid sensation, a dread that she knew was destined. This moment she had awaited for a long time, it and all of its horrible glory. A confrontation between complete opposites, a finale between bitter opponents.

Getting out, she took off her helmet and took a few steps forward, beyond her kart, to the figures approaching. The faint breeze brushed her face, somewhat comforting her nerves that shook within. There was no mistaking it, it was Candlehead and Taffyta. Rancis was nowhere to be seen however—this was no doubt purposeful; more likely than not, he was hidden and prepped to fire some sort of power up at the group. Vanellope quickly scanned her surroundings, unable to find anything unfortunately. Candy Cane trees engulfed her right, another branch of the Candy Cane woods. To her left were the walls of the main track, the backsides of the towering bleachers the candy crowd cheered them on in. They were essentially trapped, bottle-necked into their demise. Taffyta had planned this, and Vanellope realized right then and there something she already knew, that this was not going to end well.

Snowanna had already walked out in front of the group. She had a mouthful of things to say to Taffyta; her fists were clenched and ready to meet the sociopath's face. Despite her confidence however, surpassing the group was not the right move. Almost as soon as she was between Taffyta and Vanellope's distances between each other she was suddenly engulfed in fire and smoke, noise and scattering pixels. This was the work of Zaki's Mentos Launcher without a question. Vanellope quickly scanned the area again-the explosion had been so fast that she hadn't been able to see where it came from. She gritted her teeth, Rancis was going to be a large problem, as they all were. Adora and Jubileena shrieked at the sight, after all it was quite a disturbing viewing. Not that they hadn't seen death before, but here, now, and under these circumstances, the specter of death seemed far more horrid, despite the knowledge that they would be regenerated. Snowanna's body was disintegrating and disappeared almost instantly. Malarkey quickly turned to Vanellope, a furious expression on his face, he wanted vengeance so desperately. Vanellope frowned at their immobility, they couldn't charge, after all they still couldn't see where Rancis was, and for all they knew Candlehead and Taffyta may be armed with foreign game technology from Crumbelina's hideout.

Just as this was happening Vanellope's winged guards swooped down and formed a wall between them, their cotton candy wings glimmering in the surreal light of the fading Mentos blast.

"Well Glitch? Aren't you happy to see us?" Taffyta finally called out, a big grin on her face. Her eyes gleamed in a strange light, the same that Vanellope saw that day on her file.

Vanellope figured that Taffyta had Zaki, Crumbelina and Orangeboar already taken hostage, possibly tied up and pinned down somewhere out there, along the tracks between them and the data stream. They must've found them at the regeneration point—or at least around it, just as she thought they would; this must be their plan. That being said, Taffyta may be planning to simply blow them all up and go wait for their regeneration. If that was the case, what was she waiting for?

"Look at me!" Taffyta hissed, noticing Vanellope lost in thought and pulling out a strange and tiny object. She pointed it at one of Vanellope's guards. It glowed an odd purple and made a faint whirring sound. It must have been from another world, most likely a first person shooter.

It suddenly fired an odd light and swallowed one of Vanellope's guards whole—consuming them just as effectively as a Mentos missile would. Everyone gasped and took a few steps back. Vanellope froze however, unsure what the next best move was. Taffyta desperately wanted attention, but she was precariously on the edge of complete insanity.

"Taffyta, are you just going to kill us? If you are, you could just do it now right? I mean it's not like we have the technology you do," Vanellope said, stepping out from behind one of her guards.

"What are you doing?!" Adora said, looking back and forth from Taffyta to Vanellope, a terrified look on her face.

"If you are planning on taking over, and under your control performing some reconfiguration, we won't stop you, we can't," Vanellope added, not sure if her plan would work.

Candlehead looked perplexed, staring down at her feet—desperately trying to calculate what Vanellope was doing. She couldn't figure it out, Vanellope wasn't worried about her. Taffyta simply stared out at them, an almost hollow gaze. She knew Vanellope was up to something, but wasn't patient enough to wait around to ponder it. She fired again and dissolved another guard. The guards however, the several left, stood their ground firmly.

There wasn't many options at this point, Vanellope could either go through with her plan or be dissolved and taken into Taffyta's custody upon regeneration.

"I know you can't stop me. We've come too far Glitch," she took a few more steps forward, "You think you can outsmart me but you're wrong, soon you'll be dead wrong." She pulled out a lollipop and waved it at them, a condescending smile on her face.

Was Taffyta planning on throwing them all over the naught? Surely she wouldn't be so foolish. The deletion of the main cast would be the demise of the entire game, they would no doubt be unplugged. Suddenly Vanellope realized that that may very well be the plan, Taffyta not only corrupted her friends, but in their madness, they planned on truly destroying everything, and bringing the entire system down with them. Her desire to win had been replaced with an obsession to consume. Her data had no doubt gone haywire by now.

"I hope you're ready, I've got a wonderful surprise for you," Taffyta said, taking a few more steps forward, now where Snowanna once was. Candlehead made a big grin just behind her, sickly in her insanity, her eyes gleaming a glossy haze.

Vanellope smiled, looking over at Adora and Jubileena, Malarkey behind them was still bitterly fixated on Taffyta.

Taffyta could see Vanellope's smile, her apparent lack of control of the situation only infuriated her even more. "What are you smiling at bitch?! I'll make you smile real pretty!"

Again she dissolved another guard. Now only three remained, they regrouped and formed another wall. Vanellope looked up at them.

"Spearhead," she whispered. They all nodded their lollipop like heads, understanding what she meant. Jubileena and Adora were still perplexed and confusedly shook their heads. Vanellope trusted they would understand. Taffyta however didn't find it funny.

"I guess you're ready to die," Taffyta hissed, signaling up to Rancis, who Vanellope now realized was up above on the wall hiding. This was it, there was no time left.

"Now!" Vanellope shouted, darting back to her kart. One guard immediately lifted off, heading straight towards Rancis, another behind him. Rancis fired the Mentos Launcher and it immediately engulfed the candy guard, dissolving it in a sick and hot mess of goo. Rancis wasn't prepared for the guard just behind him though, and in an instant was tackled by the behemoth—Vanellope simply wanted him subdued for now, and trusted that the guard had succeeded. Simultaneously, the last guard lunged forward at Taffyta.

By now Jubileena, Adora, and Malarkey were all completely confused, and it took a "Get in your kart and follow me!" from Vanellope to snap them out of their daze. Taffyta and Candlehead were both briefly caught off guard with Rancis' fall.

As they all scrambled to their karts, just as planned Taffyta raised her bizarre gun and fired at the creature, destroying it instantly—however, like Rancis, she wasn't prepared for what awaited her behind it. Taking the bait, Vanellope had time to get in her kart and start the power up—a large rock candy cannon rose from her hood, and in an instant it fired a large stream of sharpened fragments at Taffyta and Candlehead. Taffyta saw the gun and immediately ducked, lighting up in an odd bluish glow. This had to be the work of additional external technologies, it was an energy shield of some sort. It completely protected her; she smiled up at Vanellope from behind the odd wall. Candlehead wasn't so lucky however, and despite ducking out of the way and trying to start a similar shield, she was hit with a few fragments. She collapsed and went still, leaving only Taffyta.

Vanellope wasn't wasting any time however, and in an instant had already begun her race back to her castle, to The Registry. This needed to end.

She flew past Taffyta who quickly stood up, a seething rage boiling through on her face. Vanellope turned and gave her a merry smile as she drove off, only further infuriating the psychopath. Adora and Jubileena were not far behind, Jubileena took the opportunity to take some action of her own and as she passed Taffyta and got behind Vanellope, she abruptly ran over Candlehead and crushed her, killing her in a flash of pixels and strange light. Adora kept to Vanellope's trail, using her karts special ability and blasting a wall of frost and snow behind her, completely hiding the leaving karts from Taffyta and her trigger happy finger.

They had gotten away, Candlehead was to be regenerated, despite the guard holding Rancis captive—he was supposed to grab the regenerated. No doubt Snowanna was there by now, waiting for Candlehead and give her the, "Just Deserts."

"Fucking whore!" she shouted, insane with fury. She ran to her kart alongside the forest and started it up, readying for the chase.

By then Vanellope and the others had already made it to the main path to the castle, she was making good time. She checked her rear-view mirror, no one in sight. This was perfect, she may be able to succeed yet. Just as they got on the bridge to the castle something whizzed past her head—something hot.

A Mentos Missile.

Vanellope frantically watched her side mirror as Jubileena and Malarkey were engulfed in hot light. Their faint screams could be heard over the roar of her kart, the sound chilled her—but more than that it angered her. She was growing quite fed up with all of this. She looked over to Adora who was just as angry, activating her power-up she fired a candy spray shield ahead of them; Rancis—who somehow must have survived the battle with Vanellope's guard, fired another Missile, only for it to be blocked by the spray shield. He had stopped his kart just in front of the castle door and got out, waiting for them head on now. The candy spray shield faded quickly though, and soon they were vulnerable again. They still had a bit of the bridge to go, and Rancis was waiting at the end, at the door, at their end. Vanellope could see him raising the gun again, and as he fired it she felt a slam from her side. Her kart swerved off a bit and Adora's, who had hit her, had done the same—quickly shifting back to the side again. Her quick thinking had saved them both-although with the path closing in on Rancis, that wouldn't work forever. The Mentos missile barely missed both of them and exploded not far behind. They were closer now, only a few thousand more feet.

Vanellope wasn't sure how they were going to get in easily with Rancis there. He quickly reloaded his gun for one last attempt at killing them. They both had spent their saved power ups and had no other options—Adora didn't, Vanellope had her teleportation however. She knew this, but she didn't want to leave Adora. Just then, Adora turned to Vanellope, a faint smile on her face. They were rapidly closing in on the castle entrance, Rancis steadied his big gun and prepped to fire. Vanellope looked over at Adora again, uncertain what she was planning. She then looked back at Rancis who fired his last shot at them. Adora swerved into Vanellope again, knocking her out of the way. As she drifted off, she quickly turned to Vanellope.

"Glitch through it!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, before Vanellope could even register what she said, Adora was swallowed by the Mentos explosion. Rancis had gotten her for good this time.

Vanellope quickly looked forward at Rancis again, now furious. He was closer than ever now, less than a hundred feet away. Glitch through? Suddenly she realized what Adora meant. Rancis put down his gun, and smiled a sinister and sickly look at her, he too completely out of his mind, completely ready to die. He hadn't a care in the world; the somewhat kind boy had been warped into a maddened killer. As she approached she closed her eyes and focused—and in an instant, she was through the door, in fact she had glitched to her throne room. The teleportation had worked better than she had originally planned. She swerved to a stop and got out of her kart. Fearing any more interference from Rancis she hurried to lock the enormous cookie door.

She had only one place left to go now, The Registry.

She hurried to her throne, activating the passage and slipping into the sleek tunnel. It was lit with odd and surreal lights that seemed almost unnatural for the game itself—as if the area was a special land, almost a sacred realm.

She stood before the black expanse, the eerie light from the files afloat in the space dimly lighting darkness. It was empty out there, beyond the files floating within it. To be honest the black space somewhat frightened Vanellope, it vaguely reminded her of true death, of The Naught. Regardless, this was it, there was no other option now.

Suddenly she heard an enormous explosion from behind her, it sounded like—a kart. She knew immediately that it was Taffyta, that she had in a frenzy drove her kart straight through the gingerbread doors. The explosion was immense though, she may not have lived through it. Regardless, Vanellope hadn't the time to waste, she jumped into the space, moving towards the center as fast as she could. There at the core was her destination, their salvation. She couldn't move fast enough, and her drift across the expanse seemed as slow as ever.

"So this is it?!" she heard Taffyta choke out, wounded from the crash into the throne room. Vanellope turned and saw she was hunched over a bit, barely standing up and staggering to the entrance. In awe nonetheless she looked up and insanely smiled again. She leaned over the edge, taking in the naught like depth she watched Cottonuget fall into.

"Taffyta stop, you've done enough—you're hurt," Vanellope called out from the space.

Taffyta began laughing hysterically, falling to her knees.

"You, you don't—you don't think that's gonna stop me do you Glitch? I-" she began breathing heavily, her body was breaking down completely it seemed, "I don't need your sympathy bitch." She stood up again and aimed her strange gun at Vanellope.

"Don't! If you miss you may hit something important, permanently damage the game and screw us all over! Don't be an idiot!" Vanellope shouted.

Taffyta grimly giggled, "Is that all? Well I guess it's lights out then." She shakily aimed, firing the thing in a big purple glow there in the dark. The shot whizzed past Vanellope, luckily messing the floating files and the core, disappearing into the ether beyond. Vanellope knew she had to at least protect the core, and strategically made sure she was directly in front of it. If Taffyta were to hit it-there's no telling what would happen.

"Taffyta stop!" Vanellope yelled, looking back at the core.

"No—I, I don't think I will. . ." she said, heavily breathing again; she went silent for a second, her body lightly glowing a sickly blue. It was that same glow Vanellope saw that day, that she saw earlier in her eyes. Taffyta was corroding right in front of her.

"You're sick Taffyta, you've got some sort of virus," Vanellope said.

Taffyta's eyes widened, she somewhat lowered her gun. Her face held an expression of sheer horror, and just as much-disgust. Just as quickly she raised it again, a familiar anger appearing on her face.

"Are you saying I—I'm a Glitch l-like you?" Her body briefly shifted in space, the pixels twisting. It was a horrible sight-Vanellope somewhat understood what it must look like when she glitched. Yet, what Taffyta was doing seemed far worse and far more corrupted.

"No Taffyta that isn't what—" Vanellope froze up as Taffyta aimed again.

"Don't ever compare me to your sickness you fuck-up!" she screamed, a madness in her voice unlike anything Vanellope had ever heard, "Stay sweet glitch!" The virus was on the brink of destroying her now. In an instant she fired again, the laser hitting a few files to Vanellope's immediate side. She wasn't sure what they were, but nothing immediately happened so she could only assume they weren't too terribly important. Nonetheless, there wasn't any time left to waste.

Taffyta collapsed-however fortunately, and falling into the void Vanellope floated in she looked up at Vanellope, her eyes glowing eerily. Lucky for Vanellope she was slowly making her way to her objective point—the core—this whole time, and just then she had finally made it. She turned and put her hand on the glowing core, its tendrils reaching out across the void and connecting everything. She looked over at Taffyta, who's eyes widened, suddenly aware just how much Vanellope could do right there, and how she had lost the moment Vanellope touched it.

Taffyta began tearing up, the tears glowing just the same. Her form was a strange and hollow shape now, almost see through. Her ghostly torture was painful even for Vanellope to watch. She quickly looked back at the core, remembering her mission.

"Registry form—Vanellope, Password: Princess, Access User Taffyta—Override genesis protocol; Password: Sweetheart. Command: complete format drive dash memory. Execute." Vanllope said, quickly looking back at Taffyta, now undergoing a formatting. Her small and crumpled up body began glowing—but not an eerie blue, but a sort of soft white. It seemed somewhat peaceful, and Taffyta's face went calm just then. The matrix was at work, hopefully fixing her and her madness, hopefully taking out the corrosion inside of her. Now for part two of her plan.

She glanced once more at the core.

"Registry Form—Vanellope, Password: Princess, Access Mainframe, Password: Candyland, Command: Lower protector walls. Execute." The Core made a strange and loud beeping sound, Vanellope continued; "Access Mainframe, Command: select all available files. Execute." She continued at the Core's confirmation, at all of the files around her glowing with the matrix's selection. It was amazing, the files all simultaneously glowing lit up the area like the arcade itself, a the surreal and heavenly glow of systematic processes that governed their very existence. It was time, she yelled at the top of her lungs, bracing for impact. "ACCESS MAINFRAME, COMMAND: RESET TO DEFAULT! EXECUTE!" She didn't think she'd ever have to do this, a mass reset, but this was as good a time as any. After everything that had happened, it seemed only right.

She didn't know what was going to happen, she had no way of knowing, yet she was ready, she was ready for all of this madness to be over with; she could only hope. She could only beg the forces at be to finally end this.

To end this. The words echoed through her mind, her synthetic consciousness. Everything went dark, and for a brief moment she was afraid. Even then though, it was somewhat peaceful; there in the black space Vanellope closed her eyes and smiled at the much welcomed quiet. She just wanted everything to go back to normal, everyone to be okay again, and everything to be in order. This wouldn't respawn Cottonuget-he was permanently lost, but all the same, this was the next best thing.

She had pulled her last straw.

To end this. To end this.

"To end this, to end this—"

"What was that?" a voice said next to her. She turned to her right, it was none other than Adora. She looked confused. Vanellope had never been so happy to see her, despite not quite understanding what was happening at the moment.

"W—what?" Vanellope said, staring at her, then looking around. They were all on the main track. The candy crowd was cheering loudly as it seemed the racers were getting in their karts. It was a race, everything was running as it should. Suddenly her stomach plummeted, she saw Rancis a few rows behind her on the track—yet he looked, happy? He got in his kart, next to him was Candlehead, she also looked something normal.

"You said something about ending?" Adora added, putting her helmet on.

"Oh—it—it was nothing, sorry, good luck!" Vanellope replied. She had no idea what had happened, Vanellope was all that was left of that mess.

"Please, you'll win like you always do," Adora said, smiling and walking off. She got in her kart a few rows back. The reset had been a success it seemed.

Vanellope looked around again, a cyclic race, normality had finally been restored it felt. The crowd was going wild and Vanellope realized she needed to get in her kart and get ready. She hopped in and looked to her side at someone getting in their kart. It was Taffyta. Vanellope's skin crawled, her heart nearly stopping, she didn't know if the formatting had worke, she had never done one before after all.

"Good luck!" Taffyta said. Her voice—it was cheery, upbeat even. There wasn't even the faintest sense of patronizing or condescension. She was brand new. She put on her helmet and started her kart, flashing Vanellope a smile. Her eyes were even a bright and shiny. In all honesty it seemed eerie, so bizarre seeing Taffyta being nice and sportsman like. Vanellope smiled and wished her luck back. She was so relieved that she was alright. With that the race started and they were off. Everything was fine now, everything was finally stabilized. Vanellope felt happier than ever, after all, with this finally sorted out, the game could start running normally again. They appeared to be out of danger.

To no surprise Vanellope won again, and as she crossed the finish line, her heart finally let go of all the panic, dread, and worry that had been plaguing her with all of these recent events. Luckily for her she was the only one who even remembered them—her being The Core's user and all. And with her the memories and knowledge would stay—and if she needed to do it again, she just might. She sat at the finish line with a few of the racers and talked as the crowd cheered her victory. She wanted to forget everything as she talked to everyone, but she knew that it was also somewhat important not to forget, it was a twisted history, but history nonetheless.

At the same time, Taffyta got out of her kart and walked over to Rancis and Candlehead.

"She's too good," Rancis said, taking off his helmet, a small smile on his face. He waved to Taffyta as she approached.

"Yeah, guess we'll never beat her again huh? Oh well—she is our queen and all that right?" Candlehead replied, looking over at Taffyta, "What do you think Taffyta?"

Taffyta looked over at Vanellope in the distance. She smiled at her even, and it felt alright for a brief moment. She turned back to her friends;

"She seems nice but—"

"But what? You're not jealous are you?" Candlehead said, smiling wryly.

Rancis shook his head, "Come on, you can't always win Taffyta." he laughed.

She chuckled, trying to reassure her friends, "No, no I know. It's just, I—I think she cheated, I don't like cheaters."