Yumi pulled up on top of one of the remaining walls of the "arena."
Below her the others were losing the battle and were being pushed back when the mantas appeared over the treetops and the minefield appeared.
(I am not familiar with the function of the mantas, but I tried to figure it out (I know that Wikipedia isn't very reliable, but ya know))
"RETREAT! RETREA ahhh," Emily screamed as a laser hit one of her wings and it collapsed.
Jim caught her after crashing through a couple of mines. "Thank you," Emily whispered weakly.
Jim dropped his club and ran, grabbing Herve and calling the retreat. Yumi dropped down and killed an enemy before helping with the rear defense.
Jeremy laid a hand on Aelita's shoulder. Aelita looked up with fearful eyes. "Do we have to?" she asked. Jeremy nodded. Aelita nodded as she accepted his hand for a comforting squeeze.
Standing close to each other, they held their hands leaving a space in between them. In the empty space between their hands a black ball of throbbing energy began to build up. Up and down Aelita's arms, yellow electricity ran, while little neon blue tubes of light played of Jeremy's arms, occasionally even passing through his arms. . . as if he didn't really exist.
"aer uyo seru?" Jeremy asked looking into Aelita's eyes.
"Yes," Aelita said with a smile.
Together Aelita and Jeremy turned to the battlefield.
"For the future," Aelita called.
"For our friends," Jeremy called.
"Amireal Energy," they both shouted as they launched the energy ball at the battlefield. The ball hit the center of the field and for a second, time seemed to freeze as the yellow electricity and neon blue light bounced around. Then in a bright flash of light the ball exploded and the forest was covered in a mushroom cloud of dust and thick black smoke.
"Aelita," Yumi half cried, half choked.
"Jeremy," Odd echoed.
The dust began to settle down and a lone kinkerlot stood turning this way and that, completely lost. Tamiya and Milly shrieked in joy as they ran forward. The kinkerlot saw the enemies and fired, but its aim was off.
"FORE!" Tamiya called as she hit the kinkerlot head on, launching it halfway across the "arena". Tamiya and Milly ran after it as if nothing was wrong in the world.
Finally the dust settled enough to see everything clearly.
"Oh no," Yumi whispered. Looking up at the wall on which Aelita and Jeremy had once stood. "Oh no!" Yumi whispered again as she ran as fast as she could towards the wall. With a powerful jump and a twist she landed on the top of the wall to see the bodies of Aelita and Jeremy next to each other. Yumi knelt next to Aelita. "Aelita," she whispered as she gently shook Aelita.
Many of the others joined her as fast as they could.
"Jeremy get up." Ulrich said shaking Jeremy not as carefully as Yumi.
Aelita sat up with a groan. "Thank goodness," Yumi whispered as she looked over to check up on Jeremy.
"No, Jeremy!" Aelita exclaimed as she reached over to lay a hand against his cheek. Carefully she put his head in her lap.
"Herve can't you heal him?" Odd asked a little desperately as he turned looking for Herve. "Where's," Odd began.
Herve screamed and then groaned as he landed next to Odd. "Thanks Jim," he muttered as he sat up. Herve was sweating from the effort of healing everyone during the battle and he looked like a beast. He sighed before gathering his healing magic around him. "His life points are at zero. I can't raise the dead. I can only heal the living," Herve said as he released his magic and sat down with a tired sigh.
"No, not yet. Why you and not me?" Aelita asked the dead Jeremy as she punched the ground.
"What do you mean?" Ulrich asked.
"Jeremy just told me that the Amireal Energy requires a life," Aelita whispered. Everybody gasped. "Why didn't you tell me that ahead of time. I wouldn't have done it if I knew this would happen," she continued.
A tear rolled down her cheek and onto Jeremy's still face. Down at Jeremy's feet the devirtualization began. Slowly his shoes became bits of data that slowly floated away and died. "No, not yet," Aelita whispered.
"Come on!" We'll ride to the tower. Won't that change something?" Jim asked.
"No," Yumi whispered. Jim turned to stare at Yumi with a questioning look. "Jeremy . . . he'll just disappear from memory and be forgotten. . ."
"No," Aelita whispered to the disappearing body. "Jeremy, we still need you . . . I need you."
I figured this would be an evil place to leave you off and after taking so long on the last chapter, I figured I have to make it up some how.
The devirtualization had reached his shoulders. Everyone was crying in his or her own way. Yumi was crying on Ulrich's shoulder and Ulrich was trying to fight back the tears. Odd wiped away his tears as he rubbed Kiwi's back and Sam sat next to him trying to look strong. Tamiya and Milly held each other while they wailed and cried. Emily was sobbing. Sissi was crying in her dad's arms. Jim was trying to look tough, Herve sat with his head against his knees, and Nicholas stood off a bit, the mask hiding his expression.
"I love you Jeremy," Aelita whispered as she leaned over and kissed Jeremy's forehead.
Jeremy's eyes flew open. "Yipee!" The head exclaimed. "I'm free, I'm free, I'm free!" The head exclaimed as it jumped into the air and exploded into colorful fireworks a couple of meters above their heads. Each tiny virtual piece disappearing before it got with in hand's reach of the gang.
Everyone watched the sky in confusion. Most of the fragments had disappeared when Odd asked, "What just happened?"
"I hope that wasn't XANA," Ulrich muttered.
"What just happened?" Jim asked, echoing everyone's thoughts again. Everyone turned to Aelita.
Aelita was staring at the sky where the head had exploded with her mouth wide open. "I have no idea." Aelita said as she put her hands on her knees and closed her eyes, so that she could think.
"Jeremy's dead," Tamiya wailed.
"What are we going to do?" Milly wailed.
Aelita opened her eyes. "No," she whispered. Tamiya and Milly went quiet. "Jeremy's not dead and I'm going to find him before I deactivate the tower."
"Look in the sky," Emily exclaimed. "One of the fragments haven't disappeared yet." Everyone looked up to see a small piece of digital fragment floating down, but even as they watched it started to disappear. "No!" Emily exclaimed as she saw it start to disappear. She spread her wings and jumped, but her wing was only partially healed, because Herve hadn't had the strength to finish the healing. Emily flinched as she noticed that her wing wouldn't hold her aloft. She tried to grab the fragment, but her hand went through it. "tower code," Emily read upside down to herself, before the piece disappeared forever. Emily squealed as she fell. She tucked in her wings to protect them from harm, but that only made her fall faster.
"Oh no," Sissi squealed as everyone watched, frozen in fear, as Emily plummet.
Jim exhaustedly looked around at his options. Painfully he got up and grabbed Odd's Overboard that he had left near by. With a mighty swing he threw it at Emily.
Emily felt the breath knocked out of her as she felt the side of the Overboard make contact with her stomach, but she held on, as the Overboard made a slow decent to the gorund. Everyone cheered as Emily touched back down. Jim collapsed and fell asleep.
On Emily's "flight" down she noticed something next to the overwing. Emily pointed it out as she fell into Sam's arms. On the ground was Jeremy's bostaff.
"Why?" the principal asked as he brought it back to the others. "I assume Jeremy left this," he said tossing the staff to Aelita.
"See, he's still alive," Aelita said handling the weapon almost reverently. "Was there anything on the fragment?" Aelita asked.
"It said tower code," Emily replied as she lay down and passed out unconscious.
"I hope you know what your doing Jeremy," Aelita whispered. Aelita turned the bostaff over and about three quarters of the way up was a small piece of wood that kept the bow sting loaded and pulled back. Aelita pressed the block down and a blue screen popped up. It was just like the one in the tower.
Aelita put her hand on it and it read her handprint. "Aelita" it read. "Code"
"Wait," Yumi intervened. "How do we know this won't start a return to the past and mess everything up again?"
"We don't," Aelita replied. In the distance a tranchula screeched. In answer to the Taranchula's scream, the ground began to shake as if an army was coming. "I guess we have to try our luck," Aelita said with a grin. Yumi nodded reluctently.
A little keyboard popped up and Aelita typed in Lyoko. The screen disappeared. In the rear entrance to the "arena" the Tarantula appeared only to screech in anger. The rumbling stopped and the Tarantula retreated.
"We did it!" Sissi exclaimed jumping in the air. Everyone started to jump up and down and celebrate, except for Aelita.
Taking the bostaff in her hand she jumped down to the ground and turned to face the wall that they had been standing on. Gripping the bostaff with both hands Aelita sliced the wall creating a long jagged line in the wall. The jagged line grew wider and wider until Aelita could see inside of the wall.
It was like looking into a dark virrutal cave. It was almost completely black, except for the ocassional bright green line that drew a grid on the sides of the prison. In one of the far corners Jeremy sat meditating. Jeremy opened his eyes and smiled at Aelita.
"Aelita!" he exclaimed. He jumped up and ran into her open arms. They embraced and wept tears of joy. Behind Jeremy the opening closed and the wall looked normal again.
"This is the real Jeremy," Aelita said as she kissed him.
