First Code Lyoko fic! Be nice, alright? This will, in fact, be a chapter ordeal, yes? And I actually have good ideas this time.
(Disclaimer) I don't own anything...in this chapter, at least. Yet.
A filmy light illuminated the barren ice of Lyoko as, in the shadow of a dormat Tower, a white palm pressed languidly against the cold wall that imprisoned it. Whispered words echoed and fanned out in the small space, finding their way over the barren permafrost and dead, empty chasms.
"Find me soon…Odd."
"Hmm?" An open-faced youth with yellow-and-purple hair turned to look behind him. Curious, the older girl next to him gazed around as well.
"What is it, Odd?" she asked him, seeing nothing. Beside her, Odd shrugged, mumbling that it had been nothing.
They arrived at Odd's class, and waved good-bye. She still stood outside the door, and looked up and down the corridor for someone. Rolling his eyes, Odd walked to his seat and shrugged his pack off.
A minute later, his friend Ulrich came to sit next to him, a faint blush still painted across his cheeks. Odd knew his two friends well enough to know something approaching romantic had happened.
For a moment, he surprised himself by wondering exactly what that sort of thing was like.
"Now, now, class, quiet down…" the teacher began, startling the boy uncomfortably from his thoughts. The day was somehow giving him a very unwelcome feeling.
"Odd, Ulrich, Jeremie, look!" Aelita ran up to all the rest of the gang – minus one Yumi, who was making up a test – and waved a test with a grade on it. Jeremie took it, examined it for a few seconds, and looked a bit agitated.
"Um…Aelita…a 'C' isn't a very good score." She looked disheartened, and Jeremie became flustered. "B-but it's only biology! The study of life wouldn't really be your strong suit, would it? I mean, after only being here a little while?"
This (to say the least) did not cheer her up. In fact, it did the contrary; she glared at him, and then snatched her paper back. Giving a small 'humph' sound, she stalked away again.
"Wait, I didn't mean it!" Jeremie practically pulled a chunk of hair out, panicking over hurting her feelings. Ulrich chuckled lightly, while Odd stepped over to his blond friend and proceeded to exude knowledge.
"There, there, calm down, lover boy. You just have to be nice to her…consider what she's gone through. Xana (evil dirty bastard that he is) tried for months to erase her memory and very existence from Lyoko. Then, after only weeks as a living, breathing, flesh-and-blood girl, you go and say she wouldn't know anything about life. Honestly, what could she not have already experienced?" Odd was acting very knowledgeable indeed, but he laughed at himself inwardly.
I can't believe he's going to take relationship advice from a guy that can't even find a steady girl to date, Odd ridiculed himself. I'll be lucky if I even get someone before I'm old enough to vote. Consider it; Jeremie has Aelita, and Ulrich has Yumi. While nothing's happened yet for anyone, they all at least have prospects.
Jeremie attempted to stride confidently to where Aelita was standing, but when he was within ten feet it all diminished it a nervous cower. The two remaining boys watched with mild interest as he apologized. Suddenly, and, in retrospect, with a lot of warning, Aelita grabbed for his shirt lapels and pulled him in for a kiss.
Both the boys' jaws dropped. When had Aelita gotten the nerve to do that? As they didn't part, life went on around them normally enough; no one laughed and pointed, at least. This development had been in the making for as long as people had known about Aelita. Odd felt a flare of jealousy mushroom, and was frankly shocked at his alien emotion.
It wasn't that he liked Aelita. He was very, definitely sure that he hadn't had feelings for her since he realized that his best friend was in love with her, which was about…after only a few days. No, instead his envied that they were finally getting somewhere.
From then on, Jeremie and Aelita were a couple in the gang's eyes.
"Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, Aelita – look out! This Tower is on the very fringe of recognizable code. I can barely keep track of you. It looks like whole sections of traversable ground keep flickering in and out of existence." Jeremie's voice sounded loud in all their ears, making Odd wince at the volume.
"Heard you, there, Boss," he panted as he took point, leading the way through the uncertain terrain. Aelita followed him, and Ulrich was taking the rear. Yumi had taken a hovering vehicle to reconnoiterer the area, and reported back every thirty seconds that all was clear.
They broke through the line of trees – for they were in a forest Zone – and Odd immediately crouched in a fighting position. His virtual-reality tail swayed back and forth as he glanced around him, alert for any disturbance. Nothing moved.
He waited for an attack, as the others guarded Aelita and moved to the red-tinted Tower.
Nothing continued to taunt him.
"Um…guys? Why isn't Xana attacking on this one?" he ventured to ask, earning a don't-jinx-this look from Ulrich and Yumi both. Jeremie, meanwhile, started in on a litany of possibilities on the matter. Odd listened only enough to know that the computer whiz had no idea either.
Of course, he berated himself later, I relax at the exact moment anything big happens. Without warning, the patch of land under Ulrich sputtered unsteadily and vanished. Ulrich, showing his usual aptitude for the English language, cried out, "Huh?"
Yumi had better reflexes than either of the boys, apparently, which grated on Odd's nerves a bit since he was a cat-version of himself in Lyoko. She whirled around and grabbed a hanging vine, jumped to Ulrich and caught him, and then proceeded to drop twenty feet until the plant played taut.
Time stood still for a moment, as they heard Jeremie talking to Aelita. "Try a different code, sweetie, if that's alright. We need to find out what Xana's up to."
"Jeremie! Hurry up, or Yumi and Ulrich will be in a lot of trouble!" Odd yelled at him. He ran forward to try to help – if anything, he could do that much – and grabbed hold of the vine. Suddenly, the end completely snapped free of the branch and Odd felt the full weight of his friends dragging on his shoulder.
Both of the dangling kids yelled as they dropped another few feet, and stopped. Odd had laid down on the edge of the hole, in an attempt to take the weight more easily. Still, he dug his feet into the ground, resisting the extreme drag against him. Odd gritted his teeth, and dug his elongated nails into an above-ground root near him. Losing his temper, he screamed, "Jeremie! Come on!"
"I know Odd, I'm trying!" the clear voice rang out around him. "We're trying to do our best, but it's like there's something interrupting our code before it can all be – there! Devirtualization Yumi, Ulrich, Odd!"
The next thing any of them knew, they were falling from the yellow stations. Aelita fell out of Odd's after it snapped shut, and she didn't show any signs of tempering the fall. Rolling onto his back, Odd caught her and felt the strain against his already-tired hands and elbows. His head whipped around to Ulrich. "Get Jeremie on your cell, right away!"
"...Right!" Ulrich grabbed his phone and pressed an automtic number, and started talking to the blond genius hurriedy. Odd rolled his eyes and held out on of his hands, twisting Aelita carefully and laying her out on the floor beside him.
He took the phone. "Jeremie, Aelita's unconscious. Would you mind elaborating on that?"
There was a moment of shocked silence. Then, "I hoped it wasn't too late." Odd tapped his foot, and motioned for Yumi to check for any injuries on the other girl. Taking the hint, Jeremie said, "When I was devirtualizing all of you, the code was interrupted before Aelita got through. Now, half of her information - like her personality and memories - is trapped on Lyoko."
"What can we do?"
"I...I don't know, alright?" Odd stayed perfectly still, and finally heard, "I'll start on it, right away."
"Yeah, hurry up, okay?" Odd knew that he didn't have to encourage the worried boy.
A faint outline of a hand danced along a crack in the ice sheet preventing its escape. A faint laugh was heard, as though from a distance away, and the hand's movements became, if anything, more fluid.
"So, you're stuck again. I wonder if they'll figure out the problem this time, or if..." The voice faded to a ghost of itself as a faint image of a girl with short, pink hair was reflected in the multi-faceted wall, "Or if this time he'll really manage to kill you."
"Quick! Odd, we've got to get Aelita into Lyoko! I can't keep track of all her code, and at this rate, she'll...die," Jeremie could barely gasp the word, and gritted his teeth. "I can't find her over there, though."
"Jeremie? Are you saying that-"
"I need to virtualize her. Odd, she may never be able to come back to the real world again."
In the end, Jeremiehad been able to send her into Lyoko. Hehad actually seemed more calm then usual the past few days. Yumi, Ulrich and Odd could see that he was in shock; they had come too close to losing Aelita.
What was worse, the was no sign that she was alive. Lyoko gave no hint that it still had her data at all.
Aelita might be gone forever.