Jeremie closed his eyes and concentrated in front of his computer. If Odd and Aelita didn't make it to the tower... He shook his head. He didn't like thinking about what might happen if, for once, the Lyoko warriors failed. It was all of their biggest fears.
That's what they all thought.
But some things were worse than failure. Some things were scarier than failure.
Jeremie glanced at his closet. No matter how much he tried, he could never entirely put some experiences of XANA behind him. He hid his demons in his closet.
The others don't know how terrifying it is, being trapped in the real world during an attack. Some people think being trapped in Lyoko is scary. They think it's the worst thing in the world, besides failure. But in the real world, you don't have second chances.
There's no open scanner waiting for you. No life points. Either you have what it takes or you don't. Sometimes, Lyoko was much safer.
But Jeremie couldn't go on the supercomputer to help fight. If Jeremie wasn't there, they wouldn't be there. They wouldn't be able to fight, or save Aelita, or even be there. It was Jeremie's fault that they had been dragged into this.
Sometimes he thought that maybe he had found the supercomputer too early. They were all barely teenagers, and they had to save the world almost every day. It terrified him.
"Einstein, I'm out of arrows!" Odd called. "And there's still at least fifteen krabs left!"
Jeremie rubbed his eyes. Odd needed more arrows. Right. He keyed in the correct code and sat back.
He sometimes felt like a robot, just there because no one else could be. Just a prop.
Just a program.
A virus.
A code.
Whatever he was, he wasn't real. Being real meant taking risks. And, ironically, Jeremie couldn't risk taking a risk since he would be risking the risk-takers.
Jeremie just keyed in the codes.
SLAM! The metal factory door fell with a crash into the young supergenius's haven. He spun the computer's chair to face his enemies. In the door way stood Jim, Mr. Delmas, and Sam Knight. Each had the Eye of XANA on their foreheads, and showed no signs of stress even after knocking down the door. Jeremie burst up and ran from the trio, though he knew it wasn't possible to get away from them. After Jeremie has traveled five yards, Sam is more than halfway to him. Jeremie screws his eyes shut and begins to chant his mantra.
"Save the tower, save the tower, save the tower, save the tower..." Jeremie's breathless whisper was cut off abruptly as the XANAfied Sam slammed him to the ground, cutting off his air supply. Jeremie struggled briefly, his face slowly changing color from vampire pale to tomato red to arctic blue. Finally, Jeremie's heart begins slowing down, beating more and more slowly until...
Thump
Thump
...thump
...thump
...
"Jeremie! Launch a return to the past, and hurry! The XANA slaves are getting into the elementary school!" Odd shouted.
But Jeremie wasn't there to hear Odd anymore. He wasn't there to be his robot. To save lives.
To save Aelita.
Jeremie Belpois was gone, and he was no one's code.
So, this is going to be one of the soon to be four Code Lyoko/Doctor Who crossover fanfics! Review if you know where you are on the site and what you're doing.