Author's Note:
This story semi-follows the plot of the episode "Fight to the Finish" (second to last), and completely changes the plot of the episode "Echoes"(Last). The idea for this story from a plot twist I had wanted to see by the end of the series, as well as my disappointment in the last two episodes. I thought that it was interesting enough to write into a fanfict.
Constructive criticism is welcome.
:-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-:
Prologue: Manipulated
The inside of the hermitage was nearly silent. The soft but frantic sound of Jeremie typing on his laptop, Yumi's sobbing into Ulrich's shoulder, and the occasional nose blow by William or Odd where the only sounds that could be heard. They where still in shock, still hardly able to understand what had just happened. They had trusted him, helped him, and even tried to reunite him with his daughter….
Only he had used them. One minute, the perfect story-book ending to their adventure was unfolding around them, and then no one knew quite what had happened. Aelita had vanished like smoke in the wind.
Jeremie was the first to break the near silence.
"W-we were fools. We should have seen this coming- The signs were every where!"
Odd, who had been sharing a box of tissues with William, handed a tissue to Jeremie.
Ulrich looked over Yumi. From where Jeremie was sitting he could see the tears trickling down his cheeks, and the large wet spot on the back of Yumi's shirt.
"It's OK. He had us all fooled. You couldn't have possibly known what he was going to do."
The silence returned, only now it was complete. Even the clock, the one that had ticket steadily on the wall for over twenty years, had stopped. The soft rustle of leaves just outside of the window could have been heard if you listen carefully. William, who had been sitting quietly on the edge of the broken couch, cleared some old derbies off of the floor and sat down next to odd. Every one, including William, sat still as they remembered the horrifying turn of events that had occurred only an few hours before.
Coincidentally, that was at the exact same time that the old clock had stopped.