Death and the Swordsman
Chapter 5
By: Leelei
Author's Note: Aw, I love your reviews so much! : ) You're all so encouraging. Thank you!
The mournful crowd all stood around the gravesite, Ulrich's coffin waiting to be lowered into the deep hole. The audience included his family, his closest friends, the whole Kadic faculty, save a few teachers left behind for watch duty, and nearly his entire grade, along with a handful of other students a year or two older and younger than him who had known him well. A priest recited the usual prayers in French as everyone took one last look, Ulrich included.
"I told you, I don't want to see this, Death!" he exclaimed and waved his arms. "This is sick!"
"I must show you, Ulrich. It is a part of your journey." Death replied.
"Well, can we skip this part? Is there a detour anywhere?" Death put a finger in front of where her mouth would have been to silence him. He looked back to the funeral with furrowed eyebrows and folded his arms.
His features softened when he saw the five figures in front of the crowd and closest to his coffin. His mother and father were first, holding each other tightly. His mother cried gently. "Oh, my baby boy…" she mumbled through her tears and buried her face into her husband's suit coat. "My sweet baby boy." His father simply gazed at the coffin with an aggrieved expression and a glisten to his eye.
His best friends stood next to them. Jeremie and Odd held Yumi's hands, and all three tried to keep their composure throughout the funeral. Ulrich could see the pain in their features, and wanted to call out to them, to be with them all again. Looking around through the crowd, he noticed many familiar faces that all were filled with the same sorrow. He noticed Sissi a ways through the faculty group. His usual annoyance was then crying into her father's jacket as he gently patted her back and tried to quiet her. "No. This is for the best," Ulrich said.
"Whatever you say." Death replied and waved her hand again. The image jumped to the same place, but about a year later. Ulrich's coffin had been buried and a tombstone erected in place. The grass had already grown in, and a tall, dark-haired girl was sitting near the headstone. She had just placed a handful on flowers on the other side, and sat gazing at the inscription.
"Yumi…" Ulrich said in wonder and smiled at the sight of her visiting his grave.
"Ulrich…" Yumi spoke softly as she stared blankly at the stone. "I miss you."
"No, Yumi, you don't." Ulrich replied as he watched her. "This will help you, I swear."
"Ulrich….I lov-"
Death waved her hand again and quickly changed the image.
"Hey!" Ulrich exclaimed. "What did you do that for?"
"You didn't want to see your funeral."
"That was past my funeral, though." Ulrich defended himself.
Death made a sound as if she was sighing. "Ulrich, there are many images you must see, and many of them you will not like. I must show you the disheartening along with the pleasing."
"The…disheartening?" Ulrich asked.
Death nodded. "Your untimely death had many negative repercussions."
"Like what?" Ulrich asked.
With a repeated wave of her hand, Death made another image appear. They then stood in the factory, facing the Super Calculator with Jeremie sitting in his usual seat, yelling into his headset.
"See? They got along without me." Ulrich said, but stopped and gasped as they began to hear what was going on.
"Odd! Yumi! Aelita needs you! She only has fifteen life points left! Get over there and help her NOW!" Jeremie ordered frantically as he typed with speed and switched between several windows on the screen. "Oh, God…" he seemed to be panicking. "Please, no…not now."
"Jeremie?" Ulrich called his friend's name as he walked forward, reading everything on the screen. He noticed that his friends were loosing on Lyoko.
Jeremie grabbed the mouthpiece of his headset again as he spoke. "Forget it. Just get Aelita into that tower."
"Jeremie, we're too far. I'm out of arrows, Yumi can't use just one fan on all these monsters, and Aelita has created nine forts for us so far, all destroyed in under three hits. We're stuck!" Odd's voice replied.
"No!" Jeremie screamed back. "This is not the end! I haven't found the anti-virus for Aelita's program yet!"
"Jeremie, I just had a vision…" said Odd. "This is it. We can't do it without the team."
Ulrich watched the image of his friends on Lyoko from the Super Calculator's screen. They fought as hard as they could, but were both de-virtualized. Jeremie tore off his headset and threw it down in distress. "I can't believe this…" he continued panicking. "I'm not going to believe this…"
"Jeremie!" Aelita appeared on the screen. "Jeremie, I'm so sorry this is the end."
"Aelita, no!"
The virtual girl seemed as if she was crying. Ulrich never know that was even possible on Lyoko. "Jeremie, thank you for everything you have given me."
"No, Aelita, don't give up. We can get through this," Jeremie pleaded through his choked-up voice.
"Please, you must shut Lyoko down. X.A.N.A. will take over Earth now that we have failed. You can't let all those people die."
"Aelita…."
"Jeremie, please promise me."
"I….I…promise."
"I love you, Jeremie."
"Aelita, I love you, and I will never, ever forget you. Please, don't leave me."
A round of shots from monsters were heard and Ulrich watched Aelita's last words before she was hit. "Good-bye." She blew a kiss and waved.
"AELITA!" Jeremie shouted and began to cry as her card appeared on the screen and faded away.
Ulrich panicked as well at what he watched. "Death, do something! X.A.N.A.'s going to destroy Earth!" He looked around, but didn't see the apparition anywhere. "Death?"
The rest of the scene caught his attention again. The elevator appeared and opened up, Yumi and Odd hurrying out. Yumi ran straight to Jeremie.
"Jeremie!" she exclaimed when she saw his tears. She immediately crushed him in a hug and tried to hush his sobs. "Jeremie, listen to me," she said when she pulled him away. "We have to unplug X.A.N.A."
"No." Jeremie said through his tears as he shook his head.
"Jeremie, you know this is what she would have wanted," Odd added, nursing his arm as he sat near by to catch his breath. His own eyes were filled with tears after saying good-bye to Aelita before being de-virtualized.
"We have to," Yumi held Jeremie's tear-stained face in her hands and looked him straight in the eye. "No matter what it takes." The young blonde tried to reply, but his voice wouldn't work. "Show us how to deactivate Lyoko, Jeremie."
Odd walked over. "We can still save Earth."
Jeremie finally found the strength to move, and Yumi helped him down from the chair. Ulrich watched until they reached the room where X.A.N.A.'s core hard drive was, the entire program surging with energy as it reaped havoc on Earth. The image faded back to white just as Jeremie was about to pull the switch.
"Death?" Ulrich called after the image was gone. The apparition appeared again. "Where did you go?"
"I didn't leave you," she replied. "I'm always here with you now."
"Death, did they stop X.A.N.A.?"
The spirit paused before answering. "Yes. But at great costs…"
Ulrich started to worry. "Please, tell me what happened."
"X.A.N.A. began by attacking the town three days after your funeral," Death explained. "It was a simple electricity jam like he usually used to disrupt the human life that depends on it so greatly. But that time, he knew the team was short. He could sense your death, and moved in quickly.
"Jeremie sent Odd and Yumi to the desert region to help Aelita, and although he anticipated a harder task without your help, he never guessed that he would be saying good-bye to his virtual friend that day.
"After they had all lost their life points, X.A.N.A. took over on Earth briefly. Three deaths are still unexplained as of today." Death seemed to pause before continuing. "In the end, after over a year of his work for Aelita and Lyoko, Jeremie had everything shut down and destroyed in under an hour."
The image reappeared and had jumped to later that day when all three sat in the room with the Super Calculator again, Jeremie crying uncontrollably as Yumi hugged him and cried herself. Odd grieved as well as he laid a hand on Jeremie's shoulder to try and calm him down.
"Loosing two friends whom they loved so dearly was devastating for them." Death said, breaking Ulrich's gaze at his friends.
"It's…it's…." he fumbled through his words as he fought back his own tears. "It's for their own good…."
"You still believe so?" Death asked.
"Yes." Ulrich choked out as his tears began to fall. He hung his head as he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold his emotion in.
"Try to calm yourself, Ulrich Stern," Death said as she waved her hand again. "You will not like what is coming next."
A little more involving Lyoko in this chapter, but in a definite new light. Chapter six should be up within a day or so, but until then please review! :D