A/N: Well, I'm back again. It's been a while, I know. Sorry for the delay. Taking a summer drawing class and working extra hours really hurts your writing time. None-the-less I did get an update published. I'm seriously getting excited about the last chapter, you guys. Don't forget about my special surprise I have for you. It's coming soon.
JLyoko: Well, more-or-less yeah that's what happened. As I'm telling everybody, I'll explain more on Tristan at the end.
Doggiegal: Thanks again for your words of encouragement. Enjoy the story.
Siberian-Tigress: I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for reviewing.
thesuperdot: Sorry, you weren't right but the battle does have a very small part in the foreshadowing. I'll explain what will happen with it later.
RaptorK Beta: Yep, you're right. They're red. As for the cost keep in mind of the exchange rate. I don't know what it is exactly but I was going by about 1.8 euros per dollar when I wrote that.
D Wolf Falls: yes, it does. Like I said, foreshadowing is my favorite technique. I'll tell everyone what I really foreshadowed at the end of the story. You'll find more about Tristan in this chapter too. Enjoy.
Kay: I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for reviewing.
Janika: Me? Jealous of Odd? Nahhh. My character just doesn't like him. It's a personality conflict. As for Aelita dying, I was thinking of that but then I decided not to. I have enough drama for one story. Dan…sure.
aZn sIsTeR: I hope you passed your grade. Anyway, the part with Herb and Nick was a little foreshadowed. I'm sure that those two will end up doing something like that.
renayumi: I'll take that as a compliment because I'm actually going to collage to become a teacher. Not one of writing or English, though. I'm studying to be a computer science and/or math teacher.
yumi & ulrich: I wish I could help you but unless you tell me what you don't understand I'm afraid I can't do anything for you. Sorry. Try reading my author's notes on every page.
xx Painful Bliss xx: The exchange rate that I was think of is like 1.8 euros for a dollar but the main point that I wanted to make was that Aelita and Jeremie had an expensive date. Thanks for being my 70th reviewer. Now, I can sleep happily.
This chapter is dedicated to:
xx Painful Bliss xx
For being my 70th reviewer and putting me overmy 10 reviews/chapter goal.
"Ulrich" raced with his younger self, both Yumis, the older Jeremie, Odd and "Aelita" into the platue above the elevator in the lifeless factory. He unstrapped Jeremie's on-line girlfriend and carried her down the ladder and into the elevator. The others slid down the ropes. When all were joined in the vertical transport "Jeremie" pushed the button for the next floor and took "Aelita".
"Jeremie," while holding his best friend, couldn't concentrate on the task at hand. The elevator door opened to the main console and he just stood there stunned. It was so dark and unwelcoming as he eyed the walls of the room. Combine that emptiness with a dying friend in hand and you have one emotional person. He couldn't take the pressure.
"Yumi," he said in a saddened almost crying voice, "Do we really have to do this?"
She answered, "Yes, we do. I'm sorry Jeremie but we have to turn X.A.N.A. back on." There was another pause of unwillingness from Jeremie as he didn't want to proceed with the plan. "Yumi" turned towards the younger Ulrich and Yumi and said, "Ulrich, Yumi, help Jeremie to the console."
"Sure," Ulrich replied in his normal calmed voice, "Come on, Jere, everything will be okay." Yumi followed.
The four exited the shaft and the elevator went down to the last floor. There, the older Ulrich ran to the center of X.A.N.A.'s mainframe and turned the electrical switch back on. His eye that covered the pull lever lit up, indicating that the power was on. He hurried back to the elevator and the three went up to the scanner room.
"Yumi" told "Ulrich" and Odd to come to Lyoko with her. She suggested that the younger Ulrich not come because between the two selves they shared the same life points and the younger Ulrich wasn't familiar with the changes to the virtual world over the past five years.
"Yumi" and "Ulrich" were virtualized and to his amazement Odd was too. It had been years since he had seen his dead friends' outfit in Lyoko. He had no idea that "Jeremie" kept his profile after all these years. A flood of memories came over him and he felt like he had in the hospital again.
"What is this place?" Odd exclaimed viewing the landscape. He had seen nothing like it before.
"It's the fifth region of Lyoko," "Yumi" replied, "Not to mention it's also the grossest thing on the planet."
The fifth region was a swamp sector. It had an additional ten towers and joined the other four regions together in a cross-section. This was indeed the heart of the fake world.
The landscape was also quite different from the others. Not only was it different in color which was a black and gray monotone palate and appearance consisting of marshes and decaying trees it was also by far the most deadly looking. Jagged rocks could be seen in the background stretching out into the void. Trees whose roots were ground in poisoned soil extended their branches towards the gang in an attempt to grab them and hold them down. The swamps on both sides of the group seemed to be full of trouble since many of the dead trees that gave the land its character had been swallowed by mucky waters.
"Ulrich" saw the vine trellis crawl along the floor and chopped it off. He pushed his emotions aside and focused on the mission. The plant withered and devirtualized.
"Ulrich, your digital saber is fully charged," "Jeremie" announced. The swordsman activated his weapon and it transformed from shiny silver into a glaring green laser blade, the technical term being digital saber.
After looking in a 360-degree circle Odd responded to "Yumi's" comment, "What's a matter Yumi? Don't like getting dirty?" He then picked up and threw a handful of black goo at her and hit her upper back. The troublesome teen laughed and "Ulrich" smiled. However, "Yumi" was furious and tackled Odd in the muddy walkway.
She whitewashed his face in the dirt and replied angrily, "No, Odd I don't!" She went over to "Ulrich" who was also sharing his friends' comic relief and scorned, "What's so funny, Ulrich?"
"Nothing," he responded instinctively. "I was just reminded of the time you and Aelita mud wrestled in here."
"If you want to live you'll keep your mouth shut," the girl warned.
She walked off from the two guys and headed for the tower. Odd joined "Ulrich" and walked beside him. He inquired about this mud wrestling incident and his older roommate told him that when they first discovered the new territory "Aelita" and "Yumi" had a mud fight that turned into a mud wrestle and eventually "Yumi's" outfit came loose with all the water and mud slinging and fell off. Her bottom and top were exposed for all to see but fortunately for her, she was wearing underwear…red underwear.
"Jeremie's" voice came over the line air waves, "Hey guys, I hate to interrupt your tea party but we have a tower to deactivate and I'm seeing two serpents, one on each side."
"We understand," "Ulrich" confirmed and caught up to "Yumi" with Odd in tow.
A thin dark fin submerged in the left side of the pathway. It cut the water for about five feet and then went back under. No one saw the fin but they caught site of the ripples in the lake. The swordsman drew his sword and prepared for a fight. "Yumi" unwove her fan tried to track the beast.
The monster again showed off its fin in the same manner. "Ulrich" saw it and pointed to it. Odd stared in awe of the new creature. It came closer and closer until it was within ten feet of the group. Then it came out of the water and gave a loud roar.
The thing they were fighting looked like an overgrown snake with two fins on its back, the larger one was in the middle of its body and the smaller one acted as a rudder on the end of its tail. Its head was big and fearsome with large fangs and behind those fangs was a laser cannon. The signature of X.A.N.A. was displayed brightly on the top of the robot's head.
"Ulrich" diverted the first three shots before it went under again. It reemerged closer to "Yumi" who was on "Ulrich's" right and she threw her fan. The throw hit the beast and killed it after it launched two more volleys at Odd and "Ulrich", hitting Odd once.
"Yumi" caught her fan and told Odd to be careful. The monsters in this area are more deadly than those in any other area. Odd agreed and looked behind him in the other lake for the second beast with his arm extended.
The second serpents' tail slithered underneath the pathway and wrapped itself around "Ulrich's" leg. Because one cannot feel in Lyoko the eighteen-year-old had no idea what was happening until he was dragged into the water. His sword got wet and deactivated making it of little use against the monster.
"Ulrich!" Yumi cried and ran along the shore searching for him in the mucky water.
"Yumi, you have to save him!" Jeremie shouted just after she dove in the polluted delta, "There are holes in the bottom of the swamp that lead to the void and if Ulrich is dragged down one of those then he'll be virtualized forever!"
The man fought with the beast and forced him to the surface. They went up in a rage and the snake monster roared and sank his teeth into his shoulder. "Yumi" tried to cut the eye of X.A.N.A. with her fan but the beast was moving too randomly. She held onto "Ulrich" and helped him stay afloat.
"Shoot him!" she demanded Odd do.
Odd came over to them and aimed his hand then fired. It hit the monster's eye dead-on but only stunned him. He had to fire two more times before he was dead. "Yumi" pulled her love to shore and laid him on the ground. She asked about his condition and Jeremie told her that the bite took twenty life points out of him and the poison will do another forty over the next minute.
"I thought you hated mud," Odd reminded.
"I do…but love makes you do crazy things," she replied wiping the excess mildew off her face and "Ulrich's" body.
Due to the poison he could barely walk so "Yumi" helped him travel down the dirt road.
A minute passed by as the trio ran towards the burning tower. "Ulrich's" poison wore off and was at a total of forty life points. "Yumi" was at one-hundred and Odd was at eighty.
A split screen on "Jeremie's" computer desktop appeared and showed a live video of a reporter outside the factory. The genius said to the three in Lyoko, "Hey guys, guess who made the eight-o'clock news."
A young intern reporting for the eight-o'clock news was filming live from outside the factory. She had red shoulder-length hair and was wearing a light blue jacket with a pink undershirt. The sleeves were half-way rolled up on her arms.
Her camerawoman, a black lady with braided hair, gave her the go ahead signal and the reporter began to convey the current events.
"This is Milly solovieffand TamiyaDiop reporting live from outside an abandoned factory in downtown Paris where apparently a young man who knocked a doctor unconscious and stole his patient from the local hospital in town just minute ago and is fighting the three security guards from that hospital."
Her camera lady panned away from Millie and captured the fight scene. Two guards were already knocked unconscious and their bodies lay in the street. The third who wore red shorts was about to engage the perpetrator who had a several bruises on his body. Both were getting tired.
Tristan stood confidently some feet away from his next victim. He glanced at the camera and smirked.
"This is a new record for them," he stated, "Usually it takes at least a half-hour for them to get here."
The cop in the red shorts charged at Tristan, recklessly. He had no sense of position and with all honestly looked like a Neanderthal. His brute force was the only thing that kept Tristan from going after him first. Always go after the weakest first.
Now that the odds were even, one-on-one, the man grabbed the cops' arm and pulled him past himself and kneed him in the stomach as hard as he could. The policeman recoiled and conformed to his leg. Tristan took advantage of his position and dropped his right elbow on the base of his head, rendering him unconscious.
Tamiya filmed every second of the bout. She was amazed that she actually knew the person who was fighting. During grade school he was the nicest and kindest person in the world. She and Millie had no idea that he would stoop to this level.
Millie walked over to the victor and asked him, "Daniel, can we ask you a few questions? We'd like to know why you did this."
To that Tristan responded, "First off, the name is Tristan and second, I have a friend who is in grave danger and must leave. Good bye." The man ran off into the factory and the two reports followed but were too late. Tristan had already taken the elevator to meet with Jeremie.
Jeremie informed his friend of the situation and he climbed down to the second level avoiding the camera crew. Even though, the camera crew could use the elevator they couldn't gain access to the lab or the lower levels because they didn't know the password.
The three scanners were full so he waited patiently for one to open.
Two hornets and a mega fly swooped in and attacked the three virtualized friends. Each dove to a side and evaded their shots.
Odd was told that a mega fly was twice as large and strong as a hornet and can fire an ice beam in addition to normal laser blasts.
"I have to ask," Odd asked, "Why didn't you guys name it a super fly?"
"Haha very funny Odd," "Jeremie" replied, sarcastically. They ignored his question.
The swarm split up. Two hornets went on the left and right of the group and the mega fly went into hiding.
The two hornets appeared over the horizon and fired viciously at the three. "Yumi" whipped her fan out and killed the one from the left. "Ulrich" managed to deflect all of the other shots from the one on the right but the mega fly's actions went unnoticed. The older Ulrich was frozen and devirtualized.
Odd and "Yumi" turned to the giant creature that was arming itself again. As it was charging Odd launched a storm of arrows at it and the bug blew up. "Yumi" then took care of the last bug with a flick of her wrist.
Tristan helped his roommate out of the scanner and set him down next to it. He entered and the computer controller brought him to Lyoko.
Tristan greeted "Yumi" and Odd with a hello and viewed his surroundings. The man's outfit was a sleeve-less black leather vest, a white shirt and blue pants. His arms caught Odd's attention as they were both metal. Tristan wore no bandana and had no scar on his forehead.
"So what's your weapon?" the curious boy asked. Tristan responded without words and extended three claws from his right fist coming to an inch away from Odd's face. He was amazed yet frightened at the sight.
"Come on, let's go," "Yumi" criticized. The two boys went with her.
Jeremie announced, "Oh hey Tristan just to remind you, your soul cube is at two."
"Kay thanks," he replied.
"Soul cube?" Odd asked.
"You'll see," Tristan responded.
Not too long after he entered the virtual reality, Tristan heard the distant sound of flapping wings. These weren't the wings of hornets or mega flies or any other flying monster but rather were ones of a ground creature.
The sounds got louder and the other two noticed the noises. "Jeremie" confirmed their hearing by informing them that five hoppers were coming from the north, the direction of the tower.
"Let me handle this," Tristan insisted. "Yumi" nodded and he ran ahead of the two into a clearing.
"What's a hopper, Yumi?" Odd inquired. She told him to be quite and that she'll explain it later. Tristan needed to concentrate.
The man in the clearing exposed all six of his claws and shielded his torso with his arms in a defensive position. He bent his knees and turned slowly from side to side trying to notice any discrepancies. Many things didn't make sense to him as he peered over the landscape. He knew that he was surrounded.
In anticipation of what would have followed, Tristan preempted the bombardment of lasers from the hoppers by slicing and dicing the area he was standing in. To Odd, it looked like he had gone insane. He was violently slashing in all directions, supposedly fighting a foe that only he could see.
As Odd was about to speak and tell him to stop messing around an explosion occurred near Tristan and laser blasts came out of nowhere from his position. Tristan was hit twice but he did several back-flipped to avoid getting devirtualized.
He pointed his left arm at a tree and a claw flew through the air and a bug looking much like a large grasshopper was pinned to it. "Yumi" told Odd that they can cloak and sneak up on people very easily.
Tristan, being experienced in many armed and unarmed combats, made quick work of the last three. He asked Odd to retrieve his claws that he fired because he was more flexible and agile than himself.
"I got some bad news guys," "Jeremie" regrettably informed the trio, "It looks like there are two spyders in front of the tower."
"Here you go, Tristan," Odd said with two claws in hand.
"Thanks. Devirtualized me, Jeremie," he instructed. The computer genius did and he left the scene.
"Hey!" the nimble Odd remarked.
The younger Ulrich and Yumi looked at the new sector of Lyoko. They were surprised that X.A.N.A. could accomplish such a task as making a new area. "Jeremie" told them that it wasn't as bad as it looked.
"Aelita" twitched and fell on the floor. The two kids went over to her and checked her pulse and heartbeat. It was slowing and they became even more worried. They told "Jeremie" and he relayed the info to the others.
The younger Jeremie and Aelita were on the balcony of the Eiffel Tower observing the explosions in the sky. Aelita had no idea that such things as fireworks could make such beautiful images.
The girl moved closer to the edge until she was against the railing. She leaned on it and Jeremie told her to be careful. He trusted her but since she was so unfamiliar with the world he didn't want to take any risks. Her date put his arm around her waist for balance and comfort.
Aelita didn't even notice his arm and made no attempt to remove it. As a matter of fact, she didn't even hear Jeremie's warning because the cracks and bursts of the works were louder than his voice. She leaned over the edge of the railing and viewed the surface that they had come from.
Jeremie didn't make too much of a deal of this until he saw her necklace that she won from the dart game fall off her neck. She shrieked at the loss and he pulled her away from the edge.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied and inched back over to the spot were it fell off. Aelita looked down just in time to see her jewelry shatter into a thousand pieces. She gasped and stood back from the edge.
The image of her fake diamonds breaking played endlessly in her mind. This was her first experience with a personal loss and it left her with a very bitter aftertaste. It reminded her of Odd's death.
Her eyes started to excrete water. Crying was so painful for her since she had never done it before. It just came out and wouldn't stop. One tear followed another. Jeremie embraced her and held her close to himself. There was another couple but they were on the other side and paid no attention.
"Aelita, it's okay," Jeremie comforted her, "it's just a necklace. We can get a new one."
"Jeremie it's not that," she said glumly, "It…it reminded me of what's going to happen to Odd." Another wave of tears escaped her eyes and she buried her face in Jeremie's chest. He rubbed her back and she eventually put her arms around him. "He's going to die and it's all because of me…" she added.
"What do you mean it's because of you?" he asked.
"If I hadn't have been so curious to come to Earth then he wouldn't have to die. It's all my fault!"
"Aelita…" he said in an understanding voice. She looked up at him but couldn't look him in the eye. "You didn't do anything wrong." Aelita just leaned on him and rested on his shoulder, hoping that he was right.
Odd, "Yumi" and Tristan hid behind three decaying trees in the swamp region of Lyoko. The tower was now in plain sight but there were two problems, two spyders. It's another creature that the younger gang had never scene before. These spyders looked similar to spiders in real life except for the fact that these only had four legs instead of eight and were about the size of two Jims, in other words, really tall. The symbol of X.A.N.A. was, again, on top of its head.
"Well, they aren't moving," "Yumi" said, stating the obvious.
"Any guesses as to why?" Tristan added.
"Nope," she replied, observing the two droids timidly.
"Mine field," "Jeremie" announced over the communication-link. "It's the perfect defense for them."
"At least we have long-range weapons," the metal-armed man remarked.
When Tristan was devirtualized, he came back to Lyoko with a different kind of metal arm. Odd couldn't put his finger on what was so different about it but it seemed like some sort of addition was put on.
"Well, since Yumi is still at one-hundred life points," Tristan said, "I'll go on ahead and fire some rounds off to disable them. Yumi, Odd, between the two of you, you need to kill one of those beasts." They nodded at the plan.
Odd didn't have an understanding of how Tristan would go about doing such a task but over the past day that he shared with him, he realized that he was someone who always knew what they were doing and shouldn't be doubted.
The man crawled on the dirty floor of the swamp being careful not to alert the two mechanical monsters. Mine fields were something that X.A.N.A. hadn't used in a long time and he was surprised that he was bringing up such an unusual tactic. However, that didn't bother him, though. As a matter of fact his only real concern was when the field started and ended. Unfortunately, even "Jeremie" couldn't tell him the answer to that.
Tristan crouched behind a half-disintegrated bush and transformed his arm into the e-pulse, a weapon that shoots electronic magnetic pulses. It temporarily paralyzes an enemy.
He ran out into the mine field, praying that he would step on one and fired continuously at the two spyders. At first sight, the two went into their firing positions, a stance in which they prop themselves up on their two hind legs and use the front two and a rapid-firing laser machine-gun. Spyders were fast to move but once they get positioned they have a hard time maneuvering.
Some of Tristan's rounds hit the beasts and they were shocked for a split second. "Yumi" threw her fan but couldn't the top. Odd was of no use either because his laser arrows couldn't dip down onto the head. The monsters lost sight of the man in metal arms and directed their attention to the other two friends.
"Odd, stay here!" "Yumi" shouted.
"Where do you think you're going?" he replied, "If you can't see, I can't go anywhere so where are you going!" However, it was too late the Japanese girl had already disappeared from his sight.
The tree that was protecting Odd was getting a serious beating. Bark and debris was all over the place as the two creatures pounded his surroundings. Then, out of nowhere, Tristan reappeared in the field and distracted the angry robots. He fired his weapons at them until he was out of ammunition and then ran behind another bush.
The spyder on the right-hand side exploded and next to it was a translucent outline of "Yumi" with two daggers. Odd stared in awe at her as then began attacking the other beast. However, it saw her and swatted her to the ground like a fly with one of its long cylindrical arms.
"Yumi" hit the ground and a mine exploded, sending her through the air. She would have fallen into the void if she hadn't lost all of her life points first.
"Yumi!" Odd shouted and stepped out from his hiding spot. He fired the last of his arrows at the spyder with no impact.
"Odd no!" Tristan shouted as he saw his new friend devirtualize. It was now up to him to save "Aelita's" life.
The beast repositioned himself. Tristan took this time to take out his soul cube from his left arm. It was his special ability. He had originally got the idea from a video game.
The man pushed a button on the silver cube and selected a target with it.
"Alright, you," he began to say with a western like ascent, "This place ain't big enough for the both of us. I'll throw this here cube in the air and when it hits the ground, draw. Got it?"
Through its limited understandings of the human language and communications the spyder gave a roar in agreement with his proposal and Tristan tossed the cube in the air. It sparkled in the atmosphere even though there was no sun in Lyoko. As it neared the ground about three feet from impact the three-dimensional square made a ninety-degree angle in its downward descent straight into the spyder's X.A.N.A. symbol.
The monster yelled and twitched and the cube sucked out all of the thing's remaining power and transferred it back into Tristan's body. Finally, it devirtualized and a clear path to the tower could be seen.
"Way to go Tristan," "Jeremie" said, "Now just watch out for the mines. I'm sending you the hover board."
"Gotcha," he replied and the purple board was imported next to him. He stepped on it and moved very cautiously over the death field.
The board caught part of a mine and it exploded sending Tristan deeper into the field. Luckily, he didn't hit any more mines. Carefully, he got up and leaped right into front of the tower.
"Okay, Jeremie, I'm here," he announced. "Jeremie" let go of his breath that he was holding in and virtualized "Aelita".
The metal-armed man caught the limp girl in his arms and walked into the tower with her. She was showing no signs of life wondered if it was too late.
They went to the top level where Tristan used her hand to gain access to the tower and inputted her code for tower deactivation.
Aelita was watching the fireworks display in Jeremie's caring arms. It was almost night and she was getting tired so to lean on him for support seemed natural for her.
"Aelita, don't worry about it," Jeremie said softly.
"I'm afraid, Jeremie," she replied.
"I know but we'll make sure that it won't happen."
To ease her emotional trauma Jeremie was a lot more affectionate than he normally would have been with her that night. He wasn't being himself completely but it was enough that it made Aelita happy and forget about certain things.
She turned around to face him and said, "Jeremie?"
"Yes?" he replied blushing at their closeness. At this time the white light from the return to the past program was called online and began to assimilate the world. She inched closer and closer until she was close enough that the she noticed the space between them and stopped abruptly.
The young girl had no idea what her body was doing. She had never before experienced such a deep emotion as just now. Her heart rate increased and her throat became dry for some unknown reason. She tried to speak but nothing came out of her mouth.
Jeremie understood what she was trying to do and was amazed that a girl, any girl, would want to do that with him. He responded to her fear, "Aelita, I think I know what you're trying to do."
She just stared at him as the light surrounded them. Then, in an instant she felt something gentle touch her lips. The naïve girl had no idea what just happened and it was only for a split second but it made her forget about all of the day's horrid events.
The older gang was in the scanner room and "Jeremie" was at his desktop. They wondered around a bit and checked the date on their watches. It was a day-and-a-half ago from when they deactivated the tower.
Tristan checked his wallet and his UID card was there.
"Jeremie, is Aelita okay?" asked "Yumi".
"Yeah, she is," he replied and the three erupted it shouts of joy. "She's alive and well."
The older gang finished their victory celebration and went their separate ways. "Yumi" and "Ulrich" were going to prepare for the fashion show in a few hours which meant that "Ulrich" had to buy some more Sissy repellant, the code word for something that will keep her away from him.
Tristan would go to a store and buy some disposable cameras. He wanted this event to be shared with their younger selves and for his roommate. Even though, him and Odd didn't really get along he still cherished and respected his roommate's friendship with his dead friend. Unfortunately, Tristan also knew the bitter taste of death and sympathized with him.
"Jeremie" would get back to work on the firewall program. Although his hope was shattered again he still would not give up on his angel.
On the way out the elevator "Yumi" asked, "Hey, Tristan, what did that note you wrote say?"
The man wasn't surprised that she'd ask this question so he had already thought of a response before-hand. He replied, "It pretty much said that I should trust you guys and that I shouldn't rush to judgment. I also put a few personal remarks in the letter too."
A/N: Well, another chapter done. I have about 1 or 2 more to go you guys so the end is near, sort of! Also, thanks for reviewing and getting this story up to the 10 reviews/chapter. I appreciate it. See you later.