Im really proud of this chapter for some reason peeps... Im not sure how much your gonna like it though.. heehee.. just wait...
"What's wrong Jeremie?" Ulrich asked.
"Well... I'm... I don't know how to..." His head dropped.
"Jeremie??"
"It's Odd and Kiks... they... there was something wrong with their materialization coordinates...they're....umm.... well...." He used his head to gesture to the lab.
"What's wrong with them!?!?" Yumi cried, jumping up immediately.
"You two better go see for yourselves."
When the elevator doors opened to the lab, they spotted Aelita, who was guarding two objects. Walking towards her, their eyes widened in horror.
"That's not... what... they're not..." Yumi asked hesitantly.
"They're not breathing... they can't."
They stared on at the two fragile forms. The body of Kiks was in a chair, hanging limply over the back with her arms drooping and her eyes wide open. Odd was lying on the floor next to her, eyes also wide open. What made the sight more unusual was that these were not material bodies, they were virtual bodies, both of which would spark every now and then.
"Computer programs can't breath... and they can't survive outside of a computer." Jeremie remarked, his voice cracking. "I don't know what to do... I feel like its all my fault." A tear began to run down his face and Aelita got up to comfort him.
"It wasn't your fault. It should have been me... not them... Kiks was just...trying to help... and Odd... he was helping me find Yumi..." Ulrich slammed his fist into the wall. "I should have gone alone!"
"No.... everyone... it was my fault. You all went in there looking for me... Poor Odd...Kiks..." She too began to cry. "They're not going to—to—you know..."
"I don't know Yumi.." Jeremie replied sadly. "What makes this worse is that their programs aren't on the computer anymore. The disappeared when the virtual versions transferred through the scanner."
Yumi looked down and detected the slight movement of their hands, which appeared to be trying to reach each other.
"Their hands are moving!" She cried.
"That's the program trying to work. It's kind of like a computer with a virus. It strains to work, but goes very slowly and eventually restarts or gives you a blue screen to say that it can't work."
She looked at them again, and grabbed Odd, pulling him closer to Kiks and placing their hands together.
"They wanted each other..."
"Yumi—"Jeremie began to comment, stopping when Yumi turned on him, her eyes full of tears and a hateful tone in her voice.
"JEREMIE! THEY WANTED EACHOTHER! I know that they know what's happening to them! I know... I can see them thinking! If I were dieing.... All I would want is the person I love... that's how things are! Think about what would happen if you and Aelita were dieing!! What would you wish?!"
"That... that I could comfort her...."
"EXACTLY!" she yelled, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
Ulrich had stooped down onto the ground and picked up Odd's other hand with both of his.
"I'm sorry Odd... I don't know how to stop this... but I know you're going to make it through... you always do... because you're my best friend... and you wouldn't leave me here without you... I know you wouldn't."
"We should go... I want to check the computer back in the dorms for their program information... maybe then I'll be able to reboot them later."
"What about them!?" Yumi and Ulrich cried together.
"There's nothing we can do right now... and you know as well as I do that they would want us to be working on a way to bring them back after their gone!"
They both looked down at the two seemingly unconscious friends.
"I guess you're right.. We'll come back later..." With that, they walked solemnly out of the factory.
'This bites... I can't die this way... I don't...I never... I CAN'T DIE AS A COMPUTER GAME!! No!!! This isn't right! Why me?? Why Odd... I can't... I won't even be able to say goodbye to Odd...'
'Don't worry... we'll be alright.'
'Odddd!?!?!?! How are you... how are you doing that???'
'Fusion of info, remember?'
'Thank god for that.'
'Yeah... don't worry Kiks'
'Odd... we're goners.'
'No. Don't think like that. What ever happens... we'll be together... and I want you to know something.'
'What?'
'I'll love you no matter what... and you're going to hand on... for me...'
'I already knew that... If you decided now of all times that you hated me... I wouldn't still be here... would I?'
'Hehehe. Any ideas on getting us out of this mess now?'
'WHAT!?'
'You're the smarter one between the two of us!'
'Yeah... and.. I can't...I...'
'What?'
'My... my program is... its... shutti—'
'KIKS!'
Jeremie threw his head down on the keyboard with a feeling of failure in his heart. Aelita put her arms around him from behind, trying yet again to comfort him.
"Their programs are erased from here to. All that's left is a graphic." He said, pulling up two graphics of Odd and Kiks' forms. "Two graphics that are going to haunt me for the rest of my life." He scowled, hitting his head on the keyboard again.
"If you break your keyboard you wont be any help Jeremie." Ulrich said quietly.
"I'm trying to do things Odd's way. Think about it... he dropped candy on the stupid thing and magically made my materialization program for Aelita work... I just... I want... I want to get them back so bad..."
"We all do."
"Why can't we just put them a scanner and send them back to Lyoko? Skipping the virtualization step?" Yumi asked.
"Because their programs are missing, and without the programs they can't go through the scanners."
"You can't make a new form?"
"Not when they already have one... plus they would have to be virtualized to get a new form... and they already are virtualized..."
"Oh."
"What are we going to tell Odd's parents? OR... What about... Kiks? We don't know anything about her... nothing about her family or anything..." Ulrich asked.
"Why don't you check the school records out Jeremie?" Aelita asked.
"Good idea." He replied, pulling up the school database and shuffling through the names. "Uh... we don't know her full name..."
"Check there!" Aelita offered, pointing at 'new students'. When opened, the only folder inside was that of Kiks. He opened it and looked at its contents.
"She's from the U.S. Umm... Kiaka ... She has one sister, Sol. It mentions her mother, her father died over 10 years ago... ummm.... That's about all it says..."
"A mom and a sister... oh man..."
"I didn't know that she was from the U.S. Her name made me think that she was from somewhere in Europe." Yumi said quietly.
"Well... you never know..."
"I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THIS!" Yumi cried suddenly. "I WILL NOT TELL MY FRIENDS PARENTS THAT THEY ARE DEAD!" She got up angrily and stomped off out the door.
"Back to the factory I suppose." Ulrich said as she exited, following after her as fast as he could.
"They're gone... WHY ARE THEY GONE JEREMIE?!" Yumi asked in shock when they reached the lab.
"It would appear that their programs finally froze up and quit on them..."
"THEN WHY ARE THEY GONE?!"
"Because... programs that don't work are deleted..."
"WHAT!?"
"I told you that it was going to happen Yumi..."
"I can't believe this... their completely gone?"
Jeremie nodded sadly. "Unless there was some kind of miracle that we didn't catch... they're gone Yumi. Sorry to tell you and all... it makes us all sad." He turned around to find Ulrich sitting at the computer.
"What are you doing!?"
"Well... if you don't mind, I decided that the computer know nothing should get a chance to try to find this so called program that we need to bring back our friends...and I'm starting with this screen that Odd was hiding from Yumi earlier."
"You're crazy! If Aelita and me couldn't find it... how are you going to?!"
"Don't know yet... haven't thought about it..."
"Please don't break that Ulrich."
"Why would it matter? We have Aelita... you can't find Kiks and Odd... well.. let me rephrase that... you found them, but you couldn't save them... so the worst thing that could happen is that I get angry, throw a fit and break down the computer, leaving Xana to rot in his stupid little world."
"Not that easy Ulrich... and if there is a chance of saving them, I won't be able to if I don't have a computer!"
"You've said five million times that you can't possibly find the solution to saving them, if there even is one... so back off Okay? They were just as much my friends as they were yours."
Jeremie thought for a moment. "Okay, you're right. You're absolutely right... they are just as much your friends as they are mine.." He sat down and waited patiently, beckoning for Ulrich to do what he wanted with a hand gesture.
"You're mad now... aren't you?"
"No, of course not. We've just lost number 1 and 2 on dearest friends list and on my not want to lose list... now I can't help but be worried about number 6."
"The computer?"
"I like computers okay... that one is very high-tech..."
"Get over yourself Jeremie."
Yumi and Aelita had begun to laugh at the brawl between the two boys. Ulrich turned and looked at Yumi.
"I'm glad that you find this amusing." He said with a small smile.
"Sorry..." She replied. "Listen.. I think... as much as I don't want to.... Something's telling me... that Jeremie was right when he said that they weren't coming back. I don't know why but... its weird."
"Yes Yumi... they aren't coming back... because they've died already."
"Wouldn't there be a material body somewhere."
"No... they were virtual. That means that their material bodies are lost in the super computers scanners. There's no way for us to find them. They probably don't even exist anymore. What's confusing me is why both of them had the problem."
"May I offer my thoughts?" Aelita asked politely.
"Of course!" They all said together, just now realizing their exclusion of the newly materialized genius.
"I believe that when we fused Odd and Kiks, a code change was made, creating a virus just like the one that Kiks placed into the tower. The virus would have slowly destroyed the program, and since they were fused, they both had it... creating a ripple effect, deteriorating Kiks and then Odd... the attempt to materialize from the spot where the infected tower had been, probably caused them to stay in virtual form, but from then on it was their own viruses."
"Why didn't I think of that?!?!" Jeremie said, jumping up and down in a tantrum. "EEERRRGGG... ALL WE WOULD HAVE NEEDED WAS A REALLY GOOD PROGRAM TO DEFUSE THEM AN ISOLATE THEIR VIRUSES SEPERATELY!"
"Wait... they were fused... did Odd hear Kiks thoughts the same way I heard Aelita's?" Ulrich asked.
"Yeah."
"So then..." He turned to Yumi. "They did get to say goodbye. That's probably what was happening earlier when you said you could see them thinking... and grabbing for each other."
"That makes me feel a little bit better." Yumi admitted. Ulrich picked up the headset and placed it on his head, opening up a visual of Lyoko. Jeremie looked on in amazement that he had gotten this far.
"I would like to make an announcement to all of you creeps on Lyoko... YOU SUCK!!! IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU XANA.... NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.. AND I'M COMING AFTER YOU!! THEN I'M GOING TO GET MY FRIENDS BACK!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.
He took the headset back off and walked silently to the other side of the room taking a seat against the wall and smiling.
"What was that for?" Jeremie asked in silent perplexity.
"Oh.. that... that would be me assigning blame, finding a target for my anger, and letting Kiks and Odd know that I'm going to find them.."
"Ulrich... have you not learned anything?"
"Oh no... I learned... I just know that it can't be right.."
"How so?"
"Go take a look at the screen I pulled up earlier... for the towers fractal code... you might find it coincidence... I don't though... I think it was left for us by our dear virtual friends... Not to mention, added from the outside... not the inside."
They all walked over to the screen, leaving Ulrich by the wall.
"WHAT?!?!"
Angel Soleil: All I'll say... is... (Ahem) ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! And I could mention that I killed my character or did I?? No.. I did. sorry... but I'll leave that out... lol.... Heehee... sucks to be you! Luv YA!