Tenth chapter! You know what that means, right? Ten opportunities to review! So get to it! XD
Also, I think I forgot to mention – I come from Australia, so some of the words in my fanfics have alternate spellings to what you might think (e.g. realise, colour, flavour etc.).
Now we've got that cleared up, on with the story!
Ulrich ran back to the clearing where Yumi was imprisoned, Odd, Aelita and Sissi in tow.
There was the tree, standing in the middle of the clearing – there were dead vines everywhere, forming a carpet for the forest floor.
Ulrich searched the scene. She was here, she had to be here – he glimpsed a flash of black among the poisonous green of the vines underneath the tree.
He ran toward it. Yes, it was Yumi all right, but she was unconscious. He tore away the vines clinging to her body. It looked like they had been attempting to smother her. He clutched her hand tightly, willing her awake.
Yumi stirred, eyelids fluttering. She sat up, red welts vivid in her pale face where the vines had stuck. She focused on Ulrich, and blinked a few times. Then she smiled.
'Why does XANA always go for me?' she said ruefully, getting up and brushing herself off. Then her brow crinkled. 'Were you holding my hand?'
'No,' Ulrich said hurriedly, flushing. Yumi laughed. Then she noticed Sissi. Her manner stiffened considerably.
'How's Lyoko?' she asked politely, as if they were discussing nothing more than a trip to her grandmother's.
'Good,' Sissi replied, keeping her tone as sweet as possible. Yumi looked sharply at her, then at her watch.
'I'm lucky my parents are away this week,' she murmured. She glanced up – the sun had just started to rise. 'Well, I'd better get going,' she said, and walked slowly away.
Ulrich nodded. 'Come on,' he called to Sissi and the others. 'We'd better get back too.'
Meanwhile, Odd had been talking quietly to Aelita. 'What are we going to do now?'
Aelita passed a hand over her eyes. 'If only I knew.'
Odd rolled his eyes. 'We've got to find some way of getting Jeremie back!'
Aelita flinched at the sound of Jeremie's name. 'Well, the anti-'zoa idea was pretty good, but-'
'It didn't work, yes, I know,' Odd interrupted. Aelita scowled at him.
'Let me finish! We need something that will suck XANA out of their systems, just not what we tried before – it was too weak. Now that we've lost the element of surprise, it's going to be harder than ever.' Aelita ended in a sigh.
Odd rolled his eyes again. 'And what exactly do you propose to do, ma'am?' he asked.
'I don't know, think of something yourself for once!' Aelita snapped, walking away to follow Ulrich.
Odd blinked. 'Did I say something wrong?'
PARAGRAPH BREAK
Aelita sat in a cross-legged in the middle of a small, secret clearing in the forest. She was meditating: an art Ulrich had taught her to clear her mind.
She took deep breaths, and emptied her mind. Soon it was blank of everything.
Save one thing.
Jeremie's face floated across her mind. It smiled at her sweetly. Then the smile turned into a malicious snarl, and his face twisted. It grew larger and larger – in his icy eyes she saw herself, reflected, terrified.
Then her friends' faces materialised beside him, also grinning with a terrible mirth. Their bodies arrived soon after, then the landscape.
They were standing on Lyoko. As Aelita watched, the two Scyphozoas melted out of the air and began to trail toward her. She was rooted to the spot, unable to move. She struggled to cry out, move…
A shimmering white sphere faded into view. It gave off a reassuring feeling to Aelita, made her feel safe. She felt calmer as she watched the sphere melt into Jeremie's body, forcing a slimy-looking smoky black substance out.
The black substance gave a strangled roar, and disintegrated into nothingness. The sphere floated back out of Jeremie's body, and faded into nothing.
Aelita started to see it go. She tried to plead with it to stay, but her body was paralysed. She liked it, liked the feeling of security and that of her responsibilities lifted off her shoulders which it gave her.
Her friends smiled at her, and settled into easy chatter, joking and laughing. The scene changed – they were now sitting in a spotless Hermitage, how it had looked before it went to ruins.
She felt so happy, so carefree – but there was one thing missing. 'Daddy,' Aelita thought. Suddenly, a blinding white light filled the room, rendering everything invisible.
The white light compressed into a slender, pink figure. Herself. It was the only thing in sight. Her reflection held out her hand, smiling mysteriously.
'Push, don't pull,' her twin whispered, staring at her intensely with burning green eyes. Then she vanished.
Aelita jerked awake, sweating. She was shocked to discover tears coursing down her face, mingling with the sweat. She looked at her watch, and was shocked to learn it was almost midnight.
She took a minute to calm down, stood up, and walked back to school, deep in thought.
Once in her room, she took a piece of paper and a pen, and recorded her vision as closely as she could. She reread it, then yawned and glanced at the clock
She would look at it and try to interpret it tomorrow, she decided, with the help of her friends.
Then she stumbled into bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
End of the tenth chapter! Hope you liked it!