Reunion
Aelita

(impromptu tumblr!fic based on speculation for the end of Code Lyoko Evolution . Warning for character death.)

The scanner doors slid open with a faint hiss, and in his heart he knew it was over.

A painful lump in his throat, Jérémie darted through the elevator doors before they had even fully opened, ignoring the others behind him. Those few steps from the elevator to Aelita, his sneakers skidding hopelessly on the floor as he dove to catch her, seemed to last a lifetime.

He caught a glimpse of her face as she fell; exhaustion evident in her eyes, pain etched into her face from the sudden wrenching of her conscience back to Earth. With a wordless gasp she fell, her fingers scrabbling feebly to clutch the fabric of Jérémie's shirt.

"Aelita," he said quietly, fighting to keep his voice level. "Aelita, I'm here."

She shuddered against him, her breath coming in laboured gasps, her eyelids flickering shut. He felt the damp of tears against his shirt.

"I-I'm sorry," she stammered. Immediately he hushed her, rocking her to him, uncaring of Yumi, Odd, Ulrich and William standing in a half-circle around them.

He murmured into her hair, breathing in the sweet, floral scent of it, reassuring, incoherent, tangled snatches of "no, Aelita," and "it will be okay." pressing past his lips. Jérémie's heart beat harder, hammering against his ribs as though to beat fast enough for the two of them, attuning to Aelita's own weakening pulse.

"Jérémie… I… it's over."

Her words were quiet but in the silence of the scanner room they rung clear. Their blood ran ice cold; they all knew just what she meant.

"XANA is… I needed to do it."

"Aelita, I-" Jérémie's voice cracked.

"It's over now, Jérémie. You can all… you can be safe, and happy. It can go back to how it was… before you ever met me."

His breath hitched in his throat. It was a few seconds before he could answer.

"No," he finally managed, his voice a whisper. "Aelita, don't say that. We can fix this, we can do a return to the past, we can do something-"

She cut him off weakly. "Not this time. I'm sorry, Jérémie." Here her voice wavered and her body trembled violently, shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs.

"But I need you."

She turned her head then and studied him through green eyes red-rimmed and wet with tears. "It's too late. I'm sorry."

Her eyes flickered closed once more and she drew a deep breath. She could feel Jérémie shaking her, and the others around her now, hands on shoulders, calls in her ear begging her to hold on, but slowly the world around her was becoming dimmed, blackness creeping in at the edges of her vision.

She was so tired.

Aelita forced her eyelids open, trying to see through the blur of stinging tears, trying to manage one last look of hope for her friends. How could she leave them like this, so despondent? And yet, with this last sacrifice, they would all be free.

And she would see her parents again…

The thought crossed her mind, igniting a spark of something, something like elation. I'll see my parents again, she thought.

The scanner room was distant now, the end beckoning her with open arms. Exhaustion numbed her through and through, casting a veil over her thoughts, enshrouding her instead in memories.

A roaring fire, a log cabin in winter… the soft harmonious sounds of a piano. Aelita strained to hold onto the memories, recalling - or imagining - sandalwood perfume, a scratchy beard and old sweater. Then the voices, of faces encroaching on the corner of her vision, the corner of these fragments of memory.

"Aelita, darling."

"Mama?" she whispered, the response only in her head. Her lips remained pressed to Jéremie's shirt, forcing out slow shallow breaths.

"We've missed you, darling", came another voice, deeper this time, flooding Aelita with a deep nostalgic longing.

"Daddy," she called out into the darkness. Then, "I've missed you both. But I'm ready now. I'm ready to come home."

On the cold scanner room floor Aelita's fingers loosened their grip on Jérémie, and her body slumped into dead weight. He wrapped his arms around her, but she no longer felt his touch, nor the voices of the others.

She floated in darkness, her tears drying as she reached out for two pairs of hands.

And, smiling, she stepped into the light.