The afterlife was a very strange place.
It was full of unanswered questions and undeniable truths, haunting spirits and weary ghosts and not to mention the lives upon lives upon lives trying to finding their way out. It was parallel in its own way, in some sense, it was the world that could have been. There were rivers, deserts and forests. There was the anger that easily corrupted, the pride at which humankind had accompished and the shame at what the world had wasted.
Many spirits had been human, which made sense, and emotions ran free here in the afterlife.
However, there were not just humans that existed here. There were also animal spirits, plant spirits, earth spirits and even star spirits. Mothers, fathers, brothers sisters. Creators. Fate. Destiny. There was also beauty here, a kind of beauty that would've taken his breath away...Well, if he had any breath left to take.
He could no longer breathe, for he was dead.
He was laying in a field surrounded by evergreen trees as snow began to settle around him, limbs sprawled out and eyes shut. He seemed drawn to this place and while he had explored most of the wonderous place they called the afterlife, he couldn't help but return to this meadow. It felt like France in a way, like this was where he needed to be. Maybe it was the snow...But it felt like home.
His mind wandered aimlessly. It did this often, for all he had left was his thoughts and an intense longing for her, a longing for a movement or disturbance in the cosmos to set him free, but no. He was imprisoned in a state of limbo, almost, as he waited for time to pass him by. He waited for a sign that time was actually moving, not like they had clocks in the afterlife.
Ulrich waited.
Not only was the world different, but time was incredibly altered as well, or at least it felt odd. Sometimes, seconds ticked by excruciatingly slow. Other times, they slipped by unbelievably fast. It was never constant, which confused him. He had no clock or calendar to tell him how long he'd been waiting. Decades and moments were all the same. Frankly, words like years or centuries didn't exist anymore.
Eternity felt like a billion moments and memories pieced together. Or...Was it? Maybe a moment was simply made of eternities. Honestly, the whole thought process behind it puzzled him and he ended up sitting there in the snow with a headache. He would never know. His merely human spirit had no access to such knowledge. That did not stop him from trying to understand.
Ulrich could explore the past, and that was something he did often. He relived pieces of his life, saw the delight and the victories he had achieved. Sometimes, this made the wait a little more bareable. Other times, it did the complete opposite. He watched regret claw its way into his life. He saw sorrow and tears. He saw pain and blood.
It was strange at times...To witness himself. He could watch himself as a child or as an adult. Both were bizarre, for his fit teenage body had returned to him in his death. Ulrich opened his eyes and examined his arm. It was strong and thin. It disturbed him...The fact that his body was now perfect. It didn't feel right. He sat up, running his hand through the snow, feeling the coldness creep through his veins. The sky was cloudy and a new breed of silence, the loud kind, hung in the air.
Ulrich could also observe the present, if he so desired. He would find a pool of water and gaze into it. From there, the rippling mirror would show him what he wished to see.
He liked to watch his granchildren from time to time. His nieces and nephews. His children, of course.
And Yumi.
He found himself watching her as she lived life without him more often than he'd like to admit. It hurt though. She was always so quiet and reserved, so much unlike the woman he'd grown to love. But he still loved her, and all he could do was wait.
He missed her so much.
So he lived mostly in the past where he talked to his friends and actually smiled. He drifted through the afterlife in his present, sometimes taking a peek at the mortal world. Many things had changed in the world of the waking. He spoke with other spirits. He traveled.
He'd reunited with his parents once. It was nice to see that his father was no longer the controlling, uptight figure he was on Earth. He told them stories of Lyoko and apologized for anything and everything he had ever said or done. They waved him off and explained that they were proud of him. Ulrich hadn't noticed until this point that it was possible to cry in the afterlife. With his mother in his embrace and his father's arm around his shoulders, Ulrich realized that he was very happy here.
Sometimes, he met up with them so they could watch his kids together and he enjoyed the grins that streched across their lips as they watched their grandkids play in the snow.
It still wasn't complete though. Yumi wasn't by his side. She wasn't here with him.
No, he didn't want her to die just so she would be there with him. He wanted her live out her life, just as they had planned to do together. Because of her absence, he was often lost in his past, longing for her like he'd never longer for her before. He let his emotions and memories carry him when he closed his eyes and relived every second of it all.
Ulrich stood in the meadow and began to shuffle through the white blanket. The snow crunched beneath his every step. He approached a nearby stream, flowing clear and delicate. He kneeled and dipped a hand in. It felt empty. Most things felt empty without her at his side.
When had he realized that he was his everything? When had he understood that she wall the love of his life?
There were just too many moments, too many eternities. His eyes slid shut and they came to him.
"I'm tired of just being friends." She whispered hesitantly.
"But with all that's going on, Xana returning and Wiliiam...I'm all for this, but I'm just really confused-"
Her lips were on his and his eyes widened in shock.
He was standing close to Jeremie then, tapping his foot nervously. Odd fidgered next to him and elbowed Ulrich in the side. He looked up and there she was. There was his bride, beautiful, radiant and incredible.
All eyes were on her.
It snowed on their wedding day.
Suddenly, the memory changed and Yumi was yelling at him. He snapped back with a witty remark. They were constantly fighting about who knows what-
No, wait, they were on their vacation in Japan. Yumi showed him around and introduced him to her family. They greeted him warmly and welcomed him to their family with open arms.
"I love you Yumi." He could hear himself confess.
And he was holding Naomi in his arms, his first daughter and child in general wrapped up in a fluffy white blanket.
"They're perfect." Yumi smiled, watching as four of their kids hurled snowballs at each other, their laughter filling the air.
"They are. They really are."
Kaylee was waddling up to him, a toothy grin on her face.
"We were playing Lyoko with Uncle Odd today, Daddy!"
Somehow, his kids were now the ones fighting against Xana.
"There will be plenty of great times, even without Lyoko." She was saying, taking his hands into hers. His heart was pounding and he tried the very hardest not to let the warm blush creep onto his cheeks.
And his heart was still pounding because he was trying to propose to her, but the words refused to escape his lips.
"Look, we've had so many amazing times together and I truely believe we were meant for each other!" The words fell clumsily from his mouth and she just laughed and kissed him.
They were meant for each other.
So...Why were they apart?
Ulrich's eyes opened and he was back in the afterlife, kneeling beside the stream. The water flowed between his fingers gracefully. His chest ached once more. He wanted the pain. The pain of the memories, of reliving it all with her because she wasn't here now. He wanted her.
It took death for him to fully realize the pure suffering of missing her, the hollow pain that filled him when he thought of her and when he didn't think of her. He'd watch over her, of course, it wasn't nearly the same. He could not really see her and he certainly could not feel her. His spirit could never return to the mortal realm again.
He still had the memories though.
He still had each contour of her face memoried in his fingertips.
He still had the smell of her skin when he held her close.
He still had her gentle laugh echoing in his ears.
He still had her kiss on his lips, the taste of her on his tongue.
He waited as he had for moments or eternities and the snow surrounded him.
Ulrich moved his hand in the stream once more, but it strangely didn't feel empty anymore. For once, it felt like it was changing, like there was life running through it. Like it was filling him and moving time and shifting the very stars. Everything began to fall into place around him.
There was a white light that came from behind him, from the snow blanketed field.
And then there was warmth.
He turned, but was forced to hide his eyes behind his arm. It was so bright. The light faded and he blinked.
"...Ulrich?" A quiet and unsure voice called out to him.
She'd died? She'd actually died?
She had come to him, after moments and eternities of waiting. It was like a dream and Yumi must've been thinking the same thing. He stood there wordlessly and looked at her, at his best friend and wife and mother of his children...The love of his life.
She examined around her, letting the snow land on her hands. "You know I hate the cold."
Then, she ran to him, her short black hair back to the way it used to be when they were teenagers. He ran to her. She was in his arms, laughing and crying as he spun her around. He held her face in his hands.
She was here. She was beautiful.
The afterlife was a very strange place. It had made him forget time and let his memories consume him. He could have sworn that he remembered her perfectly...
But her eyes were brighter than before. Her touch on his skin was stronger than ever. And her lips were even sweeter than before. He tasted them now when he bent down to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled. They fell, into the cold embrace of the snow, surrounded by love. When she pulled away, her hand found his and nothing had ever felt so right.
Nothing in the mortal world or the afterlife.
"I missed you so much." He said simply and she smiled before kissing him once more.
Their love lasted not a moment, but for eternity.