Alright, if you read the intro, this may be confusing. I'm so sorry that I didn't make it more clear... -;;

The rest of the story is narrated by Jeremie, beginning with this chapter. Only the Introduction was from Ulrich's perspective.

This takes place before Season 4!!!! THIS CHAPTER IS AN ALTERNATE SEASON 3 FINALE.


Only Time

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There was a sudden silence as Aelita flew backwards through the air. The glowing, blue geometry of the room whirled through her peripheral vision, but she saw only the cold eyes of her attacker. The ground rushed up at Aelita, taking hold of her as she watched her body vanish from the fifth sector. Her thin, nymph-like body decomposed into squares of data, retrogressing fast until only a frame remained to crash into the sharp wall. In her last moments on Lyoko, she had time to catch a glimpse of us—me, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, William…no, XANA. She cried out with her last virtual breath, and after a whir of lights and pictures rushed past her, she collapsed inside the scanner. She didn't have to step out of the small, cylindrical space to know that she was on the other side. Tears had formed and left her eyes even before she stepped into the darkness of the real world and the dismal atmosphere of the run-down factory. Before she took her seat in the tall chair, the throne of Lyoko, her face was wet with frustration and pure despair.

"Jeremie!" she cried through the headpiece, staring through tears at the mainframe of the supercomputer. "Jeremie, what do I do?! What can I do…?" Her voice boomed through the sky of Lyoko, announcing to the virtual world that its omniscient god had returned to watch over them. Aelita had always enjoyed playing god while I took my turns learning on Lyoko. She enjoyed looking after us even when she couldn't be physically with us, but then she always knew she would be the first to set foot on the world when it came time to deactivate XANA. This time was different. She was Lyoko's goddess, but there was nothing she could do to help her friends, her world, her home. Even with the power of the supercomputer there was nothing to be done. She didn't have to hear my desperate response to know that.

(Aelita?) It was Yumi. (How many more life points…?)

"You have thirty," Aelita answered quickly, trying hard to regain her composure. "The sphere only has…" She trailed off. "There's only one more shield layer."

She buried her head in her hands, shaking from the force of her emotions. It was only a matter of time, she knew, and so she averted her eyes from the screen and ripped the earpiece from her head, hurling it at the cold ground in rage.


(Aelita?) Ulrich called. (Hey, AELITA!!) It was no use. Whatever the case, Aelita had lost contact with the Lyoko warriors. He knew he only had a few moments, anyway, so what did it really matter whether she was there or not?

Yumi shot him a poignant, knowing glance and immediately took off toward the dark commander, her friend and enemy. William's pale face was framed with dark hair, and his contrasting black and white uniform almost reflected the moral battle proceeding within his mind. His eyes appeared vacant of life, but somewhere inside his own body William was being held captive by XANA. Though William directed the advance, it was XANA directing William's body.

(Careful, Yumi!) Ulrich cried after her. (You've got the most life-points.)

She nodded solemnly, and Ulrich felt his heart stop when he recognized the despair in her almond eyes. Yumi's mask of white paint couldn't hide the sad tone that overtook her body. She took off and hurled her powerful fans at the beasts barring her path, pressing ever forward to confront the monster that had been her friend.

"Watch out behind you, Ulrich!" cracked a voice through air. When had Odd been devirtualized?

Ulrich whirled around in time to parry an array of lasers from his body. The relentless assault continued until he found himself pushed up against the edge of the chasm. Below him the angular core room of Sector 5 jutted up at him ominously, and he burst into his super-sprint to escape the long fall. As a streak of yellow, he came around the Creeper and drove his blade into the circular eye of the monster. At the impact of his sword the thing exploded, and Ulrich turned his attention to Yumi and William. Though Yumi could have throttled the old William, XANA knew how to use his power and was actually putting up a fight. They were running out of time.

(Aelita can't help us anymore,) I shouted during the brief hiatus in the war. (She can't deactivate XANA. But if we can devirtualize William and send him back to our world we might be able to save the core.) My digital sword of light flickered blood red, flashing codes of data as it moved independently to protect me from the onslaught. Behind my wide glasses, my face reflected more calculation than it ever had on Lyoko before. Ulrich couldn't help wondering if this was the way I looked in my chair at the factory. He hadn't been sure how well I would respond to the stress of an actual attack, but we were both pleasantly surprised. I was almost as helpful on Lyoko as I was in the control room, even if I couldn't fight well enough to save my own life. Luckily for me, my weapon did most of the fighting.

"The last shield is about to break, you guys!" Odd's anxious desperation did nothing to assuage the weight pressing on us.

(Gotcha,) Ulrich muttered at me, and his body sped toward Yumi in a smudged stripe. (We've got to devirtualize William!) he roared, thrusting his body between William and the weakening shield of the core.

(Hyaa!!) Two fans buzzed past Ulrich's head, colliding with the mantas that encircled them. William, XANA's emblem imprinted on his forehead, rushed forward, swinging his cumbersome blade at Ulrich's vulnerable head. Ulrich ducked in time, but William's second swing hit him square in the chest and knocked him into the gorge below. As Ulrich fell, his body's substance dissolved into glowing, rudimentary wires. He watched the shrinking battle progress above him and silently prayed that Yumi would have more luck than him. Lyoko flickered away, and then there was white.


It took a few delicate moments for Yumi to realize what had happened. The instant she knew Ulrich was gone, a wave of panic hit her full-force. My shield had allowed me to survive the attack so far, but I obviously couldn't fight XANA. She would have to face William alone. William advanced toward her, and with a showy display of gymnastics she evaded his swings. As she fled from XANA she heard a heart-stopping percussion. The final shield had collapsed under the force of XANA's beasts, and the delicate sphere, the core that held the essence of Lyoko itself, hovered unprotected in the still air of the room.

Silence.

The tense quiet wasn't even broken by the furious beating of Yumi's heart. She could feel the panic, the thick lack of hope in the air around her, but here on Lyoko she had no heart to break, no ducts for tears, or nerves to soak up the cold. There was only the shadow of fear and the distinct absence of sound. Even the monsters had ceased their attack.

XANA must know that he's won…

Yumi and I could only stare helplessly up at William—XANA—as he rose in one motion on a dark cloud. The shadow carried him to the frail sphere, the fragile orb of light that shivered at his approach. William lifted his arms above his head, carrying the long blade up with him.

With one swing, XANA ended Lyoko's existence.

A terrible display of power erupted from the heart of Lyoko's dying core. Waves of energy swept over us, and William and XANA laughed a cold, victorious roar of glee. We watched in horror as Lyoko imploded into a formless, shapeless darkness that tore at the veins of the sector. The growing gulf greedily pulled William into its black mouth. Yumi shrieked his name, but William's consciousness had fled and his body was eaten by Lyoko's insatiable stomach.

(Yumi!) I shouted over the roar. (We've got to move!!)

But Yumi had become petrified in her spot, unmovable by anyone's means. The advancing, festering darkness prodded at me to take action, and, ignoring the sudden cries of my earth-bound friends that tore through the air, I swung my saber at Yumi. In the distance I could barely make out the vortex ripping at Lyoko's seams, standing like an omen where the core should have been. The weapon pierced her as the fiery, black nothingness ate our bodies. Before Yumi had time to react she had dissolved into white petals, leaving me smiling sadly in the vanishing world.


"Yumi?"

No response.

"Jeremie?!"

"Here, let me have it," Ulrich commanded, seizing the microphone from Odd's hand. "Yumi?! Hello?!" He shook his head and slammed his fist onto the arm of the chair. Aelita took control of the keyboard, looking much more calm than she had a few moments before. If she could just get into the system…but no. Lyoko was shutting down.

A cursory glance at the screen made Odd's heart stop. Errors clouded the monitors, the scans of Lyoko disintegrated. Aelita froze, her hands shaking uncontrollably with what might have been fear, or maybe it was sheer distress. The projection of Lyoko's map in front of them had vanished. Ulrich turned, and Odd saw in his eyes the same fear that was growing in his own heart.

"You don't think…"

Odd didn't give him time to finish the statement, but kicked himself out of the chair and ran to the corner of the room instead. Ulrich followed and ripped the lid from a passage, revealing a ladder that led through the ground and into the room below. Odd slid down the ladder first, wasting no time rushing toward the three scanners. The tall cylinders stood in an eerie darkness, closed and inactivated. Each had its own set of thick tubes and wires growing out of the top, snaking out of the room and through passages. Somewhere the wires led to the supercomputer, where they connected to Lyoko itself. These scanners were the portals between this world and their virtual universe. If Yumi, William, and I had survived, we should have arrived by now. Odd heard Ulrich's feet plod against the metal ground behind him, and silently the two friends stood beside each other. Odd stared at the pod in front of him, anxiously willing it to open and show him William or me or Yumi. He wanted to see his friends intact, safe. Alive. It was hard enough losing Lyoko…

He couldn't stand losing his friends.

"Come on, you guys," Ulrich moaned beside him. Suddenly there was a hiss, and a single scanner opened, casting a nimbus of steam and yellow light around the small room. Odd's heart danced around inside of him. He was terrified, but there was a sliver of relief disguised in his horror. One scanner. That meant…

Yumi emerged from the thick fog, the tears running heavily down her face. Odd's heart stopped. She burst into a run and flung herself into Ulrich's arms, burying her head in his shoulder. Her gasping sobs were the only sound to pierce the stillness of the room. Ulrich held her awkwardly for a moment before he wrapped his arms tightly around her, and Odd felt a sickening reality settle in the air. William and I were gone.

He would tell Aelita.