Disclaimer: I do not own Code: Lyoko. I tried to activate a tower and make a polymorphic clone of the executive producer and have him name me the owner…Yeeeah, that didn't go so well.
A/N: Ah, the magical chapter 26. Such a glorious number, it means that we're at the start of a new week. This is the start of the Ymir saga. I see that the chapter that dealt entirely with the psychological effects of Damon committing suicide was less popular than the chapter that Damon was reconstructed. I know that last chapter I didn't really do much with the remainder of the group. I realized that I hadn't really done anything with what goes on inside SAI's orb; so I decided to that entire chapter around that, since I had the chance due to reconstructing Damon. I'm surprised that nobody caught where I got 'Ymir' from. Ymir is the king of the frost giants in Norse mythology; I decided that SAI should rename Damon that because of his new power set. I thought that Damon's new appearance was pretty damn cool too. Some of you might even be wondering why I had 'Ymir' have those images go through his head when he saw the other members. That will be explained further in future chapters. This chapter will be dealing with the Lyoko warrior side of these and what happens when they get to Lyoko. Since this chapter is the second part of the last one, this one will also be dedicated to KatNGoomi. Now on to the chapter. Please R&R, I will hit you with a rubber tipped foam mallet until you do.
The eight friends were running to the factory at full speed. The super scan on Jeremie's laptop had picked up the activation of five towers. "What could SAI possibly be doing that could require her to activate a tower in every sector," Jeremie asked nobody in particular.
"Whatever it is it can't be good," Yumi stated, "Last time she activated four towers she launched an attack on Earth. I'm loathe to find out what she needs five towers for."
"Whatever it is, we're going to stop her," Erethyr declared, determination in her voice.
"I know that you feel strongly after last time," Xavier said consolingly, "But we don't need to go off the deep end. I'd love to take out my frustrations about Damon's death on SAI, but we need to keep a level head when we're dealing with her."
"We all want to get Damon back," Ulrich stated, "But until we can find a way to reverse his permanent virtualization without the materialization program, we have to live on like he would have wanted us to."
"Thanks, guys," Erethyr declared, "You're right, we have to stick this through to the very end. I'm just kind of nervous about going to Lyoko right now. We've lost one of our closest friends in this battle to save the world; I'm just unnerved right now because any one of us could be next."
"Well said, Erethyr," Odd proclaimed as they reached the manhole cover in the forest, "But if you talk like that, one of us might actually bite the big one. Lighten up, live a little; there's no need to act like each day could be your last. Surely with all this bad luck we've been having, we're bound to have some good luck just around the corner."
"It's times like this that we're glad to have you around Odd," Aelita declared.
"Why is that," Odd inquired, honestly puzzled by his friend's statement.
"Because you are always looking for a silver lining in every cloud," William stated as all the Lyoko warriors got on their sewer transportation of choice, "Sometimes, all anybody ever needs is a positive outlook on the darkest situations."
"Yeah, Odd," Erethyr giggled, "Sometimes I don't know what I'd do without you."
"You'd probably be wondering if any amount of purple or sweaty palms could ever get rid of all the cafeteria food," Odd joked. The entire group couldn't help but laugh at Odd's joke. He always seemed to know what to say to get everybody to laugh.
Jeremie's cell phone rang as they exited the sewer, "Hello, what is it?" Jeremie's next expression was one of dumbfounded shock.
"Who is it, Einstein," Odd inquired.
"It's Franz," Jeremie said, "and he says that Cid just sent him another message."
"That sounds like good news," Aelita responded, "So why do you look so shocked?"
"Because Cid's saying not to try to deactivate these towers," Jeremie blurted.
"WHAT," Erethyr shouted, "Does he honestly expect us not to even try to stop SAI?!"
"Apparently so," Jeremie stated, "Because Damon's life hangs in the balance…"
"We've got to talk to Franz in person to see what the hell he means," Ulrich groaned.
The Computer Lab
"So, from what Cid told us," William stated, "SAI activated all five of those towers to reconstruct Damon."
"Correct," Franz replied.
"And if we deactivate even one of those towers, we could end up killing Damon in a more permanent fashion," William continued.
"Also correct," Franz stated, releasing a sigh as he finally got the point of Cid's message across to the teenagers.
"I don't like this," Erethyr proclaimed, "I mean letting SAI reconstruct one of her arch-nemeses; doesn't that seem pretty foolish to anybody else besides me?"
"Knowing SAI," Xavier declared, "She's probably going to turn him against us."
"But how could she," Yumi inquired, "He'll still remember what has happened, won't he?" Xavier looked at the ground, and Yumi covered her mouth as she gasped.
"You don't mean that," Erethyr gasped.
"Falling into the digital sea is traumatic enough, as Yumi knows from experience," Xavier stated morosely, "But couple that with forcing that same person to be recreated after they've past the point of no return, and you'll be lucky to remember anything that happened beforehand." Everybody had a look of shock on their face, including Franz Hopper.
"He's not going to remember any of us," Odd asked worriedly.
"No," Xavier stated, "and knowing SAI, she's going to be feeding him a string of lies. She's going to be trying to get him on his side."
"The towers have just been deactivated," Franz declared.
"Maybe we should wait a little bit longer," Ulrich declared, "Just to make sure that he has actually been recreated."
"If we give her too much time, she'll be able to turn him against us though," Aelita exclaimed.
"I know," Ulrich responded, "But we have to make sure that he was actually recreated before we go in there."
"But how are going to know unless we go," Jeremie inquired.
"Because Cid is going to tell us," Franz stated.
"At least we can rest easy knowing that we have an informant on the inside," William stated.
"True, but he might get found out eventually," Jeremie stated, "If he hasn't already."
"I'm pretty sure that we'd have known by now if SAI had discovered him," Ulrich stated.
"What makes you say that," Jeremie asked.
"You remember when we tried to send you to Lyoko that one time and you ended up almost getting deleted," Ulrich responded.
"Yeah," Jeremie replied, then realized what he was getting at, "That's right, Franz would have seen him being deleted. Good thinking Ulirch."
"I have my moments," Ulrich declared.
"I think that we have given it enough time," Xavier said impatiently, "We need to get there and see what happened to Damon."
"Agreed," Franz declared, "All of you get to the scanners; Ulrich, William, and Xavier: you three will be taking the plunge first. Then Yumi, Odd, and Erethyr will go next. Aelita, you and Jeremie will be the last ones to enter Lyoko." The group nodded as the headed for the elevator and went down to the scanner room.
Five Minutes Later In the Ice Sector
"Thanks Franz; everybody's present and accounted for," Yumi stated.
"And a good thing too," SAI sneered, "I wouldn't want Ymir to get bored with there only being one or two of you." The entire group turned around quickly, and their jaws dropped. Right beside SAI were Cid and Damon, but he looked different-almost frosty.
"Damon." Erethyr said hesitantly, not believing her eyes, "Is that you?" Ymir didn't respond.
"Hey, whitey," Xavier yelled, his worst fears seeming to be confirmed, "She asked you a question."
"Oh, she's talking to me," Ymir responded, "I couldn't tell because my name's Ymir, not Damon."
"Damon," Erethyr muttered, "What happened to you?"
Ymir decided to get a good look at his last opponent, and he got another couple of images in his mind. The first one was of all of them talking to him in a room with mechanical parts strewn everywhere. They were all slowly walking over to his side of the room, but he had no idea as to why this was happening.
The second image was of the red-haired girl crying. This image seemed to bother him more than any of the other images, and he couldn't figure out why. Why should he, an artificial intelligence, care about a puny human girl crying? He was troubled by it, however; that was what was bothering him. He was eventually able to shake these images from hiss mind, but the image of the girl crying stuck in the back of his mind, constantly nagging at him.
"I'm going to make all of you puny humans pay for what you have done to me," Ymir declared. The group visibly winced; they couldn't tell whether or not he was talking about the string of lies that SAI had fed him or what had actually happened.
"Enough talk," Cid shouted, "Let's decimate these human children!"
"I agree with him, for once," SAI said, muttering the last part under her breath, "Now is the time for action, not words!" After that, they sprung into action, catching the group off guard. SAI took on Ulrich and William; Cid took on Xavier, Yumi, Odd, Aelita, and Jeremie; and Ymir fought Erethyr.
SAI's Fight
She detached her umbrella into a sword and shield and set off to defeat her two opponents. William was the first one to recover from the shock of Damon now being Ymir and blocked SAI's attack on Ulrich. This was now personal to him; she now had one of his friends like she had him scant months earlier.
After seeing William block SAI's attack, Ulrich came out of his reverie. They attacked in unison to fend off SAI. William went for an overhead slash while Ulrich spit into three. SAI blocked William's attack and went for a stab of her own. Her attack was knocked aside by one of the Ulrichs. Another Ulrich tried to stab her in the back, but she jumped out of the way.
"I see that this isn't going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be," SAI mused. She bashed her shield into William as the Ulrichs started to run around her in a triangle. There was an Ulrich at each point and a yellow streak between each point. She mentally calculated all the vectors within a second and stabbed into the middle of one of the streaks. She grinned with glee until she found out that it was merely a clone. One of the remaining Ulrichs slashed her arm. It crackled with electricity, signaling that she had taken damage from it. She spun around quickly and slammed her attacker with her shield. She smirked when she saw that it was the real Ulrich and that her dazed. Her attack left her open to another slash from William. As she started to turn into a puff of silver smoke, she stabbed Ulrich, getting rid of him and his clone.
"At least I got rid of one of them," SAI thought to herself as she retreated back to her orb to recuperate. William frowned before heading off to help his friends against Cid. Nobody noticed that a small diamond with a crack in it had fallen to the ground.
Cid's Fight
Cid fired two shots, both of them hitting Yumi and Odd. They was devirtualized instantly. He turned to Jeremie and Aelita, firing at them. His shots were shot down by Xavier's arrows.
"Not today, mother fucker," Xavier declared as he started firing madly at Cid. Aelita and Jeremie started firing at him too. It was all Cid could do to dodge all of these attacks. He aimed a couple of shots at Xavier so that they would go right in between of the oncoming arrows. He hoped that they would be disguised by the oncoming onslaught.
He smirked as he thought to himself, "He'll never see it coming." Cid fired his shots. One of them was destroyed by an arrow, but the other one found its mark. The shot that landed hit his hand, causing him to drop his bow. Cid took the opportunity and fired another shot into Xavier's nuts, devirtualizing him too.
"Not again," Xavier squeaked as he finished devirtualizing. Jeremie and Aelita visibly winced when they saw where Xavier got hit, again. Cid tried to take a few pot shots on them, but they managed to dodge them before returning their own fire. They saw William slice SAI. As she turned into a puff of silver smoke, she struck Ulrich, devirtualizing him and deleting his clone. William started to run up on them, trying to help them out before they were devirtualized as well.
Cid decided to put away his revolvers and pull out his sword. He needed to get in close to defeat his opponents; they were too skilled at projectile attacks to be hit by them. William came for a powerful overhead attack, but when he got close enough Cid just kicked him away and jumped on top of him with his sword pointed down. The sword was buried in William's chest, devirtualizing him. Cid was then hit by two energy balls, one from each of his remaining opponents.
He looked down then looked back up, a comic expression that just yelled 'FUCK!' Cid was pulled into his belly button before exploding. "I guess that is what happens when you aren't a monster and you get hit by polarity," Jeremie stated.
"Please Jeremie," Aelita pleaded, "Don't ruin how funny the look on his face was." She was trying her hardest not to laugh her ass off. They decided that they should help out Erethyr, it looked like she was in trouble. She didn't even have her scimitars out.
Ymir's Fight
Erethyr and Ymir just stood there in fighting stances, staring at each other. "We don't have to do this Damon. We don't have to fight. I was so grief-stricken when you jumped into the digital sea."
"I already told you," Ymir declared, "My name's Ymir, not Damon. And what do mean by 'jumped into the digital sea?' I was beaten by all of you humans. I woke up not remembering anything thanks to all of you."
"I'm not going to argue with you on your memory being gone," Erethyr stated, "That was all of our fault for not realizing how much stress you were under. But please, just come home, everybody is worrying about you." A tear escaped Erethyr's eye.
"Why is it that I can't stand to see her cry," Ymir thought to himself, "Why should I care if one of my enemies cries?" He threw his doubts to the back of his mind and ran at Erethyr. She hadn't even drawn her swords, she just dodged his punch.
"I'm not going to fight you, Damon," Erethyr said, more tears escaping her eyes.
"And why not," Ymir demanded, "Why won't you fight me? And more importantly, WHY DO YOU KEEP ON CALLING ME DAMON?"
"Because that is your name," Erethyr stated calmly as she continued to dodge his punches, "I don't know why you're calling yourself Ymir now, but I do know that whatever you call yourself: I still love you and I always will."
This threw Ymir for a loop. Why would she, one of his enemies, have ever loved him? Ymir actually reeled from this, taking a step back. He expected her to attack him in his moment of weakness, but she never did. When he looked at her, she looked hopeful, as if she was hoping that something would happen. He shoved these thoughts to the back of his mind too and started to attack her some more. Erethyr just sighed and started dodging his attacks again.
Around this time, Ymir looked over and saw Xavier get shot in the balls. Ymir started to chuckle at his misfortune before he got another image in his head. This time he saw Xavier falling out of a cylinder, clutching his nuts. Everybody in the room winced when they saw where he had gotten hit. He laughed at this mental image.
"What are you laughing at," Erethyr inquired as he threw another punch at her.
"If you must know, human" Ymir spat, "I just got an image of him falling out of a cylinder, clutching himself. Pretty funny actually."
"So you do still remember some things," Erethyr muttered, awestuck. She didn't even dodge the next punch; it sent her sprawling about four feet away.
"What do you mean by that," Ymir asked inquisitively.
"I think Odd might be right about that being a catch phrase," Erethyr laughed before she got back up. Ymir ran up to her and punched her back down. Erethyr decided to stay on the ground this time and just roll away from his attacks.
Now Jeremie and Aelita were running over to help out Erethyr. They were worried that she hadn't even drawn her scimitars yet. They started to fire off their energy balls. Ymir dodged them and shouted, "CRYSTAL ICE ARMOR!" All three of them were amazed when he was covered in a thick layer of ice. Ymir just smirked and ran towards them. Erethyr decided that she would have to fight him and pulled out her scimitars. She got off the ground and started to run up behind Ymir.
When Ymir got close enough, Jeremie and Aelita combined their attacks into one purple energy ball. They launched it at Ymir, hitting his ice armor. He didn't look surprised when the armor was destroyed, however. He did look surprised when Erethyr drove one of her scimitars through his chest.
"I'm sorry," Erethyr whispered as tears fell from her eyes. Ymir vanished in a puff of icy haze. The haze reflected the light to shine on the diamond that had fallen to the ground earlier.
"What's that," Jeremie thought aloud as he walked over to it and picked it up.
"We're ready to come back now, daddy," Aelita declared. The three Lyoko warriors were devirtualized. At the scanner room, Jeremie was surprised that he was still holding the diamond. They headed back up to the computer room.
"What is that," Aelita asked when she saw the diamond in his hand.
"I don't know," Jeremie responded, "I was actually hoping that somebody else might know."
"Let me see that," Franz stated. Jeremie handed it over looking fairly confused. Franz looked it over for a moment before gasping with realization.
"What is it," Yumi asked.
"This is the core of Damon's being," Franz responded.