The Edge of Time
By Cybra
A/N: Inspired by the Sun and Shadow song cycle by Mercedes Lackey, which fits the whole Jeremy and Aelita season one relationship disturbingly well. Set during season one. Oh, and a quick plug for my huge, fanfic100 fic That's Who I Am, the link to the main table of which is in my profile.
Disclaimer: Code Lyoko belongs to the French.
He'd never opened his eyes during a Return to the Past trip before.
True, his eyes were open when he hit the Enter key and initiated the program, but his eyes somehow closed when the process took place. Maybe it was reflex like closing your eyes when you sneeze. Or maybe it was something the original programmer had coded into the program for some unknown reason.
Whatever the reason, it made the trips last only a few seconds. Or seem to. Who knew how long they really took. It wasn't like he could time them or anything.
But this trip, he opened his eyes immediately after the white light swept over him, intending to see what he couldn't before. Like his biblical ancestor Eve, his curiosity yearned for seemingly forbidden knowledge.
Jeremy Belpois opened his eyes to a world of white.
He heard the thundering echo of a gigantic ticking clock. There were whispers in French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Arabic, and dozens of other languages he couldn't even recognize. However, these weren't echoes of things that had been said before or things that were going to be said. They were all being said now because now was every point in time in Time.
Jeremy and his friends for a moment—minute? hour? lifetime?—were existing outside of Time.
But he didn't see the others. Maybe it was because they were elsewhere in the void. Or maybe they'd reached their destination already. Or would later. Odd was right: Time travel was one gigantic headache.
Then he saw her.
Oh, he'd seen her before: her shoulders up via a window on his laptop and computer screens and her image on her character card. However, he had never actually seen her. So while he had believed in his heart that she was real, in his head she was a collection of computer data.
Yet here was Aelita, the elfin girl, standing before him.
Jeremy wanted to open his mouth and say something, anything, to her. He longed to walk over to her. He yearned to touch her.
Even from this distance, he could see that Aelita wished to do the same, her brilliant green eyes revealing everything.
However, both remained rooted to their spots, as if the barrier of the real world and Lyoko continued to keep them apart even here.
The whiteness started to evaporate after a small eternity.
'Too short!' he mentally wailed. 'Please! Can't we stay!'
He saw her same distress, but they rejoined Time at the prearranged time.
Though he had been standing, he was now sitting at his computer desk. Aelita was no longer in front of him but a call away, still on Lyoko.
He didn't try to contact her just yet. Instead, he buried his face in his hands and wept.
All the while, his chest ached with a newly-formed bitter feeling.