Hey, does anyone read these things? I was being serious about what I said in the beginning of the last chapter. I am out of creativity, at least for the little blurb that tells what this story is about. Please, if you wanna give me a little help, my e-mail address is on my profile. So, us yeah, please do so... Thanks.
Oh, by the way, this chapter is a clifhanger...
I didn't like the man standing in the doorway. I wasn't sure what it was but I felt something, evil, coming from him. It was like he was thinking of hundreds of horrible things to do. It creped me out and I tried to avoid his mind as much as I could, but I could still feel the darkness seeping off of him... I began to feel sick, and considered leaving the room.
"Yumi, are you ok?" Ulrich asked me.
"I," I paused for a moment. It would be rude for me to say that I thought the man was evil. He was obviously Ginda's associate, and that meant that he was here to help as well. "I'm just not feeling well."
I glanced over at the man and noticed that he was looking at me, a look of concern on his face. I was shocked to see that, and then instantly ashamed. He couldn't possibly be what I had thought. That was impossible. I sensed so much good from Ginda that it was impossible that she could ever work with someone as evil as I had thought the man was.
Unfortunately you aren't correct. a voice in my head told me.
"What? Who's there?" I asked in a whisper.
I am what you have sensed me to be. the voice told me.
"Who are you?"
My name is Gwydevis. If you really wish to know I am one of five parts of the traveler's personalities. There use to be four before I was found but... I truly am what you sense.
"I don't believe it," I whispered. "How can you be so..."
Evil? But I am not evil. What you are sensing are the most horrible, uncivil, and, of course, evil urges of humanity. They are all within me, all of them...
"How can you live like that?" I asked.
Because before they found me I lived doing the things that are within me. I never wanted to but there was something else controlling me. I had no choice. Because of that I have developed a capability to hold all of the urges and thoughts within me. I will never do any of them.
"But to have all of those, all of that muck in you..."
"I see you two have met." Ginda said interrupting my conversation. "For the rest of you this is Gwydevis. He is here to help you get out of this universe and back into your own."
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a movement and turned to see what it was. When I looked it took me a moment to understand what I was looking at. It was Odd, raising his hand in the air, as though we were at school.
"Uh, yes, Odd." Ginda replied.
"I was just wondering, when we are back in our universe, do you expect us to 'live a normal life' again or have you given up on that as well?" Odd asked, a bit of bitterness seeping through his voice.
"No, we never really expected you to be able to live much of a normal life." Ginda said and then sighed. "I believe some of you have seen the new television show 'Code Lyoko', or at least the first part of it... As you are either already aware, or are about to become aware of, your lives are a story. You live what someone else watches, or in this case reads. That, Jeremie, is why the traveler told you that there are multiple versions of Lyoko. There are, each and every story that is written with you as characters in it becomes a different universe, as long as it isn't compliant with what happens in the originals. This one is about number twenty three."
"You are kidding right?" Ulrich asked.
"I am afraid not." Ginda replied.
"So, um, why are we number twenty three?" Odd asked.
"Well, the one that aired in my birth universe was number six on the list. It has to do with how original everything is. Number one of the 'Lyokian' universes consists of the absolute original plotline where everything else is completely derived off of it."
"We can't go there." Gwydevis said. "Not until everything that happens happens, and everything that was previously recorded, in every other universe ends."
"So, we choose to go to the others first." Ginda added. "Obviously, since the sixth one aired in my birth universe we can't go there until years after this current time."
"I don't believe a single word of what you are saying." Ulrich said. "It is all lies, nothing but made up lies!"
"Actually it makes sense." Jeremie said. "Multiple variations of the same universe, but with different plotlines. It makes sense... but, then," he directed his attention to Ginda. "Why aren't there an infinite number?"
"That is a good question." Ginda said. "Ok, let's go on the belief that there is one infinitely powerful being, and for the sake of argument we'll call it God. Now if God created everything, but science says that everything, all mater, is made up of energy, just in various states, then think of how many 'big bangs' God would have to pull off to create an infinite number of universes... that is a large amount of energy."
"Uh, you do realized that you just mixed religion with science, right?" I asked.
There was a brief pause of dead, uncomfortable silence as we all pulled our thoughts back together. Then finally someone spoke up.
"Uh, Ginda, I think Odd fell asleep." Gwydevis said. "Perhaps we should get a move on with the story now."
"You're right, people aren't going to find this interesting..." Ginda muttered to herself. "In any case, the point is normal is boring. What people want to read or watch is action, drama, suspense, horror, science fiction, or fantasy. As long as there is one person hanging on to a story you can't live a normal life... so for that I am sorry." Ginda said. "Oh, and Jeremie, in case you are interested you can continue that conversation with the traveler once he manages to come here."
"Speaking of which why isn't he here?" I asked. "I mean I keep hearing you talk about him like he is some, all powerful... god... uh... anyway, so why isn't he here?"
"That is a bit complicated, and so we don't loose our audience I will explain it as thus. This universe doesn't want him in right now so he is currently unable to come here. He is locked out."
"So why are you two able to come here?" Ulrich asked.
"We are... different from him." Gwydevis said. "Thus the universe treats us differently."
"Anyway, how are we going to get out of here?" Jeremie asked, finally getting down to business.
---
"Ok, to escape this universe we have to get Jeremie to bring you out of it. This will be difficult because he has no idea how he got in here in the first place. Because of that I will have to show him how to use his ability just enough to get you back to your normal universe."
"'Just enough'? What is that supposed to mean?" Jeremie asked.
"It means that they aren't going to show you anything else." I said.
"Odd is right, we won't show you anything more than you need to know to escape this world, but that is only because we aren't allowed to."
"You know, I'm curious, who makes up these rules that you seem to have to follow?" I asked. "Is it the traveler?"
"Partly, but not completely." Ginda replied. "Even though we have acquired enough power, enough abilities... enough magic, to be completely sure that no rule will ever apply to us we still are bound by agreement to laws of the universes that we are in. We have to follow their rules while we are within them or... well if we don't keep our part of the bargain then they don't keep theirs."
"And what is their part of the bargain?" Jeremie asked.
"For now you don't need to know that. For that matter you may never need to know that, even when you do start really traveling." Ginda replied. "For now we should just work on getting you six out of here. This universe won't hold for much longer."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Ulrich asked.
"It means that keeping this universe real is taking its toll on me." Jeremie told him. "I can literally feel the energy being drained from my body."
"Oh." Ulrich replied.
"I am sorry but while I am showing him what to do the rest of you are going to have to be somewhere else." Ginda told us. "It is for your own protection, and so that this won't have to be an incredibly long dialogue between Jeremie and myself."
Ginda walked over to Jeremie and for a moment I swear she looked like a girl around our age. It was the way she walked and looked, I guess... When she reached Jeremie she waved her right hand slightly and a shadow appeared in front of her fingers. Before I realized what she was doing she moved her hand in two circles around herself and a black orb appeared around her and Jeremie. Then, they were gone...
At first I didn't believe it. How could they have suddenly disappeared, but then I realized that with all that I had seen within the past few months, not to mention all that I had seen from Lyoko, I guess I really wasn't surprised. Now all I could do was try and find them. It was my normal ability, though I very rarely used it. Every now and then I got visions of the future but that was very rare. This was something that I could control. I could see and hear things at a distance.
I got comfortable and tried to disappear from the room, just to make myself less noticeable. Then I allowed my mind to wonder until I was relaxed; now I was able to search outside of my body for what I was looking for. Jeremie, where was he? Not in the hospital, there was only the group of us in this room. Outside then, but where? Not around the hospital, this is much easier without other people around. Then, find the only two other people in here. A quick scan. Ah, there they are. But, is this... the factory? Why are they there?
As I watched Ginda showed Jeremie how to summon his energy. That didn't take very long. Then she showed him how to control his energy. Again he was a fast learner. Now, what is he doing? Sitting there, eyes closed... what is his mind doing? Ah, so he is searching for something. Now he has found it. But, what's happening now, he's gone... how? Where?
"What the heck?" I heard Sam ask.
I opened my eyes and looked around me. Something was happening. It looked like color was coming back to the world, but color had already been here. I was also noticing something that had been missing for the past couple of hours: noise. It had been like the entire world was mute and now suddenly it found its voice. I heard cars in the streets, and people, as well as people in the hospital. We were back, back in a world with people. Of course there was another problem, we were in a hospital full of people, and we weren't supposed to be.
"Stay calm, and let me handle this." Gwydevis said.
I looked over and noticed him watching the doorway. He turned from side to side looking down both ends of the hallway. Then he turned back and faced us.
"Ok, I am going to do a little spell. It will make the five of you invisible to everyone else, but for it to work you are going to have to hold your breath when ever we are near any people." he told us. "I would do a better spell but this universe won't allow it for now. Are you ready?"
We nodded our heads and took deep breaths. Then he snapped his fingers and I felt a tingling sensation go over my body. I looked down and saw that my hands were becoming transparent. It was a strange sensation, odd to say the least. I looked up and saw that the others were noticing the same thing but they were leaving the room. I quickly moved over to the door to leave with them; I didn't want to be left behind in a hospital.
As we passed by people I kept expecting them to tell us to stop and ask us questions but people acted like we weren't even there. The invisibility really seemed to work, and I quickly found myself becoming very impressed. This was far beyond anything that I had seen, even in Lyoko-but that was all virtual anyway, right? In any case, Gwydevis had said that this was a simple spell. I wished I could see something more advanced...
Suddenly I found myself floating through the vast reaches of space once again... Once again? Had I done this before? Anyway I was floating over a small silvery white planet with green, blue and brown specks and blotches. The sun was shinning directly in front of me and... I felt myself shudder as a massive wave of what looked like fire, but in a more liquid like substance, flew directly by my body. I watched as it flew towards the planet but was ricocheted away by a person. The person was wearing a white cloak with a white cape, though really it wasn't that white at all. There were colors flowing all over it. Hundreds of symbols were reflecting the light of the sun and illuminating on their own. The man's hair flowed behind him as though there were a brisk breeze even though we were floating in a void. I could see the look on his face and it sent shivers down my spine. It was a look of extreme anger and outrage, of immeasurable pain from loss and betrayal, of sorrow and anguish, but most of all of determination.
I knew almost instantly that I was getting my wish. This man, who looked vaguely familiar, and a lot like Gwydevis, was fighting fiercely against someone else. I turned to see who was behind me and was hit by a wave of shock and darkness. The creature behind me was so evil that even though this was just a vision I could feel the waves emanating off of him. Though I didn't have to be able to feel it, the thing was burning with dark black waves. No, that isn't fair. That weren't black, not black in the sense that anyone I knew would use the word. The flames ripping the air around the creature were of a number of colors mixed together into one horrid, putrid color that made me ill to see. But the thing that disturbed me the most was the look on its face. It was the same look as the man had, exactly the same.
Now I understood, this was not a battle, this was an all out war. These two had been fighting against each other for an untold number of years. They had fought as hard as they could; always trying to overcome the other and win the final victory... it was literally a battle between good and evil. Their war had stretched across vast universes and over many worlds, but now they were beyond that, now they were at their most powerful and now was the end... This was the final battle. This was the one that would determine who the final victor was. It all came down to this, and I would get to watch it all
It was the man who made the first move, but it wasn't a physical attack. Instead he spoke, "Antavok, this is it. I will not allow you to exist any longer. I will not allow your evil to continue spreading, purging innocence and spawning malice. This ends here and now."
And how do expect to ever win, Traveler? A voice said in my head and by the way it ripped through my thoughts I knew that it could only be the creature. You know that if either of us is ever destroyed our essence is replenished into a new form. If you kill me the only thing you will be doing is creating a new evil.
"Ba, I have known this since before I created you. It was that very reason that I did so in the first place." The traveler said. "I will find a way to destroy you without your evil being respawned!"
The fighting started. It was so incredibly fast that I could just barely see any of it. They fought, they spat curses at each other, and they didn't let up. It was impossible to describe, at least for me... until...
The traveler had just released a beam of what I had discovered to be energy at Antavok. Antavok was taking the full blast of it and it wasn't doing very well under all that force. The beam itself out shown and out sized the nearby sun, so I knew that this was no simple feat of magic. This was the most difficult and most powerful thing possible, probably. The peculiar thing about it was the traveler had said absolution, which meant: forgiveness for somebody's sins. I didn't know if this was meant to be the reference but that wasn't important. Anyway, Antavok was getting hit by the full force of the absolution and it seemed that he was surely going to be destroyed, he looked desperate enough. Then, when it seemed as though the traveler had finally won Antavok turned the tables and the absolution flipped around focusing on the traveler. There was no way anyone could have expected this, and the traveler had literally put everything he had into that final blast. When the light finally faded there was no sign of the traveler at all...