Episode 12:
"Goodbye"
Jeremy rounded the corner of the hallway and traveled down the stairs of the dorm building. He opened the door slightly to take a peek at the chaos taking place outdoors. He watched as his friends fought wave after wave of possessed students and faculty members, and he followed Odd break away from the group and run towards the dorm building. In fact, Odd was running right towards the door Jeremy was peeking through. Jeremy quickly walked into the corner and scrunched down on the floor as Odd slammed the door open and ran up the stairs.
Jeremy waited for the sound of Odd's footsteps to disappear before standing back up and slipping right through the door and out of the building. He observed his surroundings. The sky was blue and cloudless for the most part, and the sun was shining bright. Today would have been the perfect day for Jeremy's friends to plan to play outside and for Jeremy to continue working on his laptop, but obviously this was not the case. He winced as he watched Aelita be attacked by the school lunch lady, and Jeremy remembered that he had a task to complete.
For now, Jeremy had to focus on getting to the sewer entrance without being noticed, especially by his friends, who would no doubt rush to his aid. Jeremy bolted for the nearest tree to hide behind, and narrowly dodged a stray energy blast from Aelita. He breathed a sigh of relief, and relaxed for a couple moments, looking up to the sky. When he looked back down, Sissy, with the beating symbol of XANA in her eyes, was in front of him. Jeremy was frozen in fear as Sissy stood there, looking straight forward, as if through Jeremy and the tree behind him. After a couple of moments, she started walking forward, and her body turned into static as she fazed right through Jeremy and the tree.
Jeremy's heart stopped beating as he processed what just happened mentally. After some deep breathing, he looked around the tree and saw Sissy preparing to attack his friends. He then realized how XANA was controlling this. Jeremy smiled when he realized how XANA was working this time. Instead of controlling people individually, he was turning all their attention to attacking Odd, Aelita, Yumi, and Odd. All he did was set up a target and let his mindless drones do the work until they were incapacitated. When Jeremy faced Sissy, she was on her way to her target, and since XANA was not controlling her specifically, she would not attack anyone other than her targets. XANA essentially saw Jeremy, but was not about to change his attack structure that had been working so far. XANA was planning other surprises for Jeremy though.
Once he was clear of Sissy, Jeremy broke for the sewers. He picked up the sewer plate and kicked it aside and jumped into the sewers. He knelt down as he reached the ground to reduce the impact, as he was still not used to these stunts. Jeremy wobbled a little bit as he tried to regain balance on the ground. "Not easy, is it?" Jeremy heard from behind him. He quickly turned around and tried to scan the darkness for the source of the voice. "I'm behind you" the voice whispered into Jeremy's ear, and he turned his head around as he analyzed the voice, or rather the layers of the voice.
"William" Jeremy said out loud. "Close, but it's not just me in here" William said as he stepped out of the darkness. "XANA" Jeremy grinned. "Were you waiting for my friends?" Jeremy said. "Eh, waiting for anyone really" the virus said through William's body. "I thought you were using a group mind technique this time, just set a target and let the bodies do the work" Jeremy commented. "Indeed yes, but William is a special case, we all know that" XANA said. "My extended deep control of him in the past has allowed me to separate him from the group mind technique" he continued to explain. "But let's talk about you, how have you been? I noticed you upgraded yourself" XANA said with a smirk, and Jeremy smiled.
2 Months Ago:
"Video Journal 125" Jeremy said into his computer camera, now recording everything he was saying. He was in his room, sitting in his chair and facing the computer's camera, recording a new entry for his video journal. "I have finished repairs on the brain wave alteration helmet I created long ago to increase my intelligence through transportations through time". Jeremy looked down and wiped his glasses clean before continuing. "Indeed I destroyed the helmet, but I needed to repair the technology in order to combat ZAIA" he continued.
"I have yet to tell my friends about ZAIA, and I feel that is for the better" he said directly into the camera. "I don't want to bring them back into the battlefield. Ever since we shut down the supercomputer, they have been enjoying their freedom, I don't want to be the one to take it away, so I am going to get to the bottom of ZAIA on my own, and in order to do that, I needed to repair my helmet" he said without taking a breath. He then proceeded to open up a drawer under his desk and pull our familiar technology chip from the supercomputer.
"I intend to harbor the contents of this chip. Over the past few months, I have done research, and have concluded that the ability to launch digital specters is localized to this chip" he said as he examined the chip. "If anything goes wrong in the experiment preceding this video, and you are watching this, please utilize the information in the folder in which you found this video's information in. It will answer all your questions" he finished before shutting off the camera. "Here goes everything he said" as he put the helmet onto his head.
Jeremy took the computer chip and stared at it for a few minutes, reconsidering what he was about to do. He rethought his plan for a few seconds before deciding to go through with it. He plugged the chip into the side of the helmet in a slot specially developed for the chip. He let out a final sigh before activating the helmet. The helmet lit up a bright blue as its parts started moving around. The machinery started heating up around Jeremy's head, and without advanced notice, sparks flew out of the sides and the device began to smoke, but Jeremy was not alarmed. He knew what was going to happen.
The smoke flowed from the machine, but instead of spreading throughout the room, it flowed through Jeremy's ears and into his head. Indeed, this was not normal smoke, but a specter generated by the helmet. The specter flowed into Jeremy's mind and his eyesight began to fade, but only momentarily. His eyesight returned, and the smoke cleared his head as the machine turned off. He unhooked the contraption from his head and put it on his desk. He flexed his fingers in front of him, but he didn't notice anything different, which was good.
Jeremy rubbed his head, which was currently very hot from the machine overheating, and he grabbed bottled water from his desk and started chugging it down. "Nothing feels different" he said to himself once his head settled down. He started wondering if his experiment worked like it should have. He examined the helmet to make sure everything was hooked up right, and it was. He just did not feel the effects of his experiment, although perhaps the effects were not going to be immediate. Jeremy heard footsteps coming from down the hall, and fearing it was his friends, stuffed his helmet into a drawer. Unexpectedly, the door to Jeremy's room opened.
Jeremy immediately spun around, lifting his leg in the middle of his turn, and swiftly kicking the intruder's head, all within a second. Jeremy only realized what he just did when he saw Jim's body fall to the ground. "That was different" he said to himself, paralyzed with shock. "Jim?" he called out, but the gym teacher was unconscious. "This is not good" he continued to talk to himself as he walked over to the body on the ground. He leaned over and felt Jim's pulse and breathed a sigh of relief as it was still beating, Jim was just knocked out for the time being.
Jeremy rolled Jim over to lie on his back, and noticed something strange: His band aid was coming off. Jim had always worn a band aid, but no one ever knew why. When anyone asked, Jim's response was always "I would talk about it if I knew why". At the moment, his band aid was sliding off his face, and Jeremy didn't know if he should reattach it, take it off, or leave it as is. After some hesitation, he leaned in to peel off the band aid from Jim's face.
What Jeremy saw lied under the band aid made him jump back several feet. A small bullet hole lied on Jim's face, scarred into his cheek. Jeremy's mouth trembled as he observed the mark engraved in his instructor's face. He quickly but the band aid back on Jim's face and pressed it down so the adhesive would stick. His hands shook with nervousness as Jeremy sat back down at his computer and tried to clear his head. After some deep breathing, he reactivated his computer's camera.
"Video Journal 126" he said into his computer's camera. "My experiment has been successful, and I have uploaded myself with polyspecter skills" he said. "Using the chip and the helmet, I was able to launch a specter that uses the helmet as a base rather than a supercomputer. Without XANA's influence during launch, the abilities are completely under my control. I intend on continuing not to tell my friends about my progress against ZAIA, but if you are watching this, I assume you know all about this. The chip I have used is only one of many I have that are compatible with the helmet. The other chips are located and labeled with the rest of my ZAIA information" he said before shutting off the camera.
Present Time:
"Its amazing what technology can do" Jeremy said as he flexed his fingers. "You are right" XANA said. "But I am very surprised you were able to go so long without telling anyone, especially Aelita". "This wasn't their battle" Jeremy responded. "And yet you're the one who materialized them into a government facility" William/XANA replied. "And it was that very action that allowed me to continue with my plans. Jeremy Belopis, by sending your friends to retrieve the chip, you helped me in bringing down society". That was the last thing either of them said before Jeremy walked up to William's body and attempted to punch his head.
Jeremy's head passed right through William's body, which proceeded to turn into grey static lines. "You should know better" XANA said. "I do" Jeremy replied with a grin. Jeremy focused 10,000 watts of electricity though his arm, which made contact with William's already static body. The combination created unbearable pain for William's body, which flew backwards and hit the sewer wall violently. Jeremy proceeded to jump over the water and stuck his elbow out as he approached William's body, which was sliding down the wall. XANA/William opened his eyes and grabbed Jeremy's elbow as he approached from the air. He swung Jeremy from his elbow to the side.
Jeremy, rather than breaking all of his bones hitting the ground, fazed through the sewers. XANA quickly looked all around the sewer, trying to figure out where Jeremy would re-appear. "Come out, come out" XANA said chirpily. "I'm over here" came Jeremy's voice from behind William's body, and XANA turned around quickly, but no one was there. "Or maybe here" Jeremy's voice came from where XANA was just facing, and he rotated back in that direction. "Perhaps I am everywhere" Jeremy's voice emitted throughout the entire sewer. "Good enough for me" XANA said with a shrug.
William's body sunk into the ground with a bang, dispersing as lightning that crept up the walls of the sewer. Electricity flashed throughout the entire sewer path. However, XANA was so focused on killing off Jeremy that he neglected to realize that there was a stream of water in the sewers, and water and electricity are never a good combination. William's body reappeared in the center of the sewers, in mid air, unconscious but experiencing limitless torture. His body floated in mid air while being violently shook around as his body experienced the reaction of water mixed with electricity. After a few moments, William's body became limp, and fell from the air into the water stream.
Jeremy fazed through the wall and re-entered the sewers. He walked up to William's body, not sure if he should be happy about this particular success. He stared at the limp body before kneeling down and checking William's pulse. He was still breathing, just unconscious. Jeremy pulled William's body out of the water and shoved him onto the pavement. After that, Jeremy proceeded down the path in the sewers to the factory. He climbed up the ladder and walked onto the bridge to the factory. Jeremy took a few moments to observe the factory. The place where all of this started. The place where he spent a good chunk of the past few years of his life. The place where he bonded with his friends, and if everything went according to plan, the last building he would enter on Earth. He was the one who awakened XANA all those years ago, and he had to be the one to destroy him, regardless of the consequences. He needed to end this.
He walked into the factory and entered the elevator. He traveled down to the computer interface and turned it on. He went into the computer's archives and pulled up the information on the space station supercomputer. He replaced the digital signal from the computer chip with that of the space station. Following that, Jeremy set up a timer to automatically materialize him into the space station. Jeremy, walked back into the elevator and traveled down to the scanner room, stepped into the central scanner, and let the computer fulfill its programming.
As Jeremy stood in the scanner, he thought through his plan. He knew it would be tough. The main obstacle against him would be what he would not be able to access to complete his quest. Years ago, shortly after Jeremy went to Lyoko for the first time to become immune to possession, he deleted his Lyoko profile on the account that he did not intend on ever returning, and thus wanted to save computer space. He had thought about giving himself some weapons for this current mission of his, but that would take up a lot of time, which would raise the possibility of his friends dieing.
First there was a loud "whooshing" sound, a flash of light, and the next thing Jeremy saw was the technology encrusted wall of the space station. Jeremy, despite his task, could not help but awe at the technology surrounding him. It was almost enough to make him reconsider his plan, but he knew he had to complete this task. He wandered through the space station, trying to find the supercomputer when he noticed his nose was starting to bleed. 'It's starting' he thought to himself as he started to rush through the station.
As he entered a new hallway, his head started to ache in the center of his forehead. He then looked up and noticed a tower of technology at the end of the hall. 'Almost there' he said to himself as he took another step towards the supercomputer, and with that step came another wave of pain to his head. 'I'm not passing out though' Jeremy thought to himself before checking his watch. 'And I should not go into another one for at least another half hour or so'. He took a few seconds to put the facts together before he realized why his body was starting to shut down on him:
The space station supercomputer was the one powering his temporal displacements. The closer Jeremy got to the source of the signal, the more his body felt its immediate effects. The more Jeremy walked to the supercomputer, the closer he walked towards his own demise. He thought this through in his head, but he did not change his mind. His personal fate would be the same even if he was not already feeling the effects of death take over, so he proceeded to take another step forward towards the supercomputer, as a wave of pain flew throughout his body, and sweat started to break from his face.
He was now entering the chamber of the supercomputer, and he felt magnetic forces pounding every inch of his body as he entered the circular chamber. He grabbed onto the computers lining the wall as he looked at the supercomputer, and as a computer nerd, recognized the beauty of the tech. He marveled at the resources in the room, and fully understood why it needed to be destroyed. Not just because XANA was currently using it, but because technology like this should not even exist, or at least not for spying on other governments.
Jeremy took another step forward towards the interface for this particular supercomputer, and with that came a burst of blood that ran down his nose. He brought his other foot forward, and this time felt the impact all in his head. Jeremy fell back onto the ground as his head throbbed violently. A tear ran down his face as he thought about what he was sacrificing by doing this. Although he was taking himself out of the picture, he was helping his friends more than anyone knew, and Jeremy was the only person who could do any of this.
Now on the ground, he was crawling towards the interface, and once he reached it, he activated it. He pulled himself up with by grabbing onto the computer, and the interface asked for a log on account. Jeremy grabbed the keyboard and typed in "10.9.13.". The interface continued to the systems desktop. Jeremy pulled up the DOS command panel and started typing in commands. After utilizing various computer codes, a command prompt came up on the screen. "Self Destruct Activation Protocol" popped up on the interface. Jeremy jabbed the enter key, and a countdown appeared on the screen.
Jeremy turned back around to marvel at the supercomputer for one last time. He hoped that his friends were still alive and safe. He hoped they would read his note and follow the directions he left for them. He hoped that what he was about to do would stop XANA. He hoped he would be remembered by his friends. He hoped that everything would come out perfect, but he was smart enough to know that nothing would ever end up perfect. After all, sacrificing himself was not exactly apart of his plan for the day, but that is what it boiled down to: sacrifice.
Jeremy, with his bones aching, walked out of the supercomputer room, his pain easing as he walked away from the supercomputer. He walked back out into the hallway, and rounded a couple of corners until he found what he was looking for: A view of the Earth below. He smiled as he looked down at the planet, and reminisced over the good times he had with his friends. He placed his hands on the glass, and felt the coldness of space that surrounded him. He took one last look at the space station, before looking back towards Earth. Knowing his moments were numbered, he smiled and let his life flash before his eyes. There was a boom, a flash, and the entire space station was enveloped in a ball of fire.
