Disclaimer: I don't… you know I don't.
Chapter Eight: Are You Willing to Kill Yourself?
"Permanent deletion, huh?" our blue Odd mused, grinning and readying his wrist. "Just makes the game more interesting."
Purple Odd shook his head, also readying his wrist. "Reckless moron," he muttered very softly so his counterpart wouldn't hear.
An armada of Kankrelats began running toward them while behind them, the Giants the dimensional travelers were so new to lumbered slowly along. The small, bug-like creatures began to attack, shooting at them.
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XANAfied-Jeremie grinned as he watched the arrows indicating the Lyoko warriors head toward the arrows indicating XANA's minions. He turned and saw Jeremie still sitting where he had thrown him, leaning up against the wall and hugging his arms.
There was nothing the boy could do. There was nothing in the room that could be used as a weapon, besides the gun, which was too far away to get to without his counterpart getting to him first, and he wasn't good at fighting. There was nowhere to run because of XANA's monsters patrolling the whole factory.
The cyborg stood up and approached the boy, now that he was done with the computer. He stared at the boy, who looked up at him fearfully. He reached down and grabbed the boy's chin with his flesh hand. He tried to flinch away from him, but the cyborg's grip wouldn't allow him to.
"Why do you wish humans life?" he asked, his voice soft. "You realize that it only brings suffering to both the planet, and the creatures you mean well." They could hear the sounds of the struggle from the computer. "You're only hurting rather than helping. Why don't you join what was once thought of as your enemy? XANA is a perfect being with no emotions to cloud its judgement. Make your decision soon, XANA or humans. Hurry or I shall grow impatient."
He pushed his head to the side, tilting him forcefully, before turning and taking a few steps away. He held his mechanical hand in front of him while his flesh hand stayed behind his back.
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Our blue Odd took deep breaths as he stared down a Creeper. He had been on Lyoko for too long. The numbing sensation seemed to fade as his mind started creating phantom pains to compensate for no real pain. He could feel a sensation of suffocation, as he had been running around. The deep breaths couldn't really help him, but his mind recreated a feeling of relief for every useless breath he took.
The Creeper shot at him and he dodged to the side, trying hard to ignore the feeling of the mental pain in his legs, making them feel sore.
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Jeremie sat there for a moment, fearing for both the lives of his friends and his own. If he chose XANA's side, which was highly unlikely, his friends would die. If he decided to stay in the side against XANA, his friends would die, and so would he. Either way, the world was doomed.
"I see you've reached your decision, by not answering," his counterpart turned slightly in his direction, the blade sliding out and replacing his hand on his mechanical arm. "That's too bad. Our mental capacity combined would have been of great use." He grabbed him by his shirt and lifted him up off the ground, practically choking him. "Here's a little something you'd just love to know. Remember my dear, sweet Aelita, how mangled she was in my operation room? Not only did I do that to her…" He leaned his face very close, bringing his mouth close to the boy's ear. "… I finished the job."
The absolute horror in the boy's eyes made the cyborg sneer. He lifted up his mechanical arm, the blade glinting in the light. Shouts of panic and frustration continued to sound from the computer. The boy tried looking at his counterpart directly in the flesh eye for the first time to see any hint of mercy. His heart felt cold when he saw the madness. His mind was broken, used to XANA's will.
The worst thing was… he was looking into his own eyes.
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"We can't go on much longer!" Yumi shouted over to Ulrich as she blocked a barrage of lasers. "I don't know how many life points I have left!"
"Hang in there, Yumi!" Ulrich shouted back, killing one of the Giants. It was the third time he stabbed the XANA eye that it finally died.
The geisha heard Ulrich grunt as she was shot in the leg. Her eyes widened when she looked over at him and saw him fading away as pixels of his body broke away.
"I'd be careful if I were you. There is no returning to Earth this time my friends."
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"Goodbye, Jeremie," the cyborg said, almost excitedly.
"GRRRRWAAAWWWR!" Jeremie was dropped to the ground as a familiar little gray dog attacked his counterpart, snarling furiously.
"STUPID DOG!" his distorted voice screamed in anger as he tried to get the dog off of him. "I tranquilize rather than kill you and this is the thanks?"
He tore the dog off of him and threw him against the wall. Kiwi yelped as it hit and slid to the floor, unconscious. He whirled on Jeremie, his eyes glowing with energy and anger and electricity flickering across his fingertips. He laughed at what he saw.
Jeremie had retrieved the gun and was pointing it at him once more.
"For a genius, you really are an idiot!" the cyborg snickered. "Are you willing to kill yourself?"
He approached the boy without fear once more, and held out his flesh hand.
"Yes," Jeremie uttered before pulling the trigger.
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"Jeremie!" Aelita shouted as she heard a sound a lot like a gunshot.
The others gasped as, all around them, XANA's minions faltered and twitched, unable to fight for the moment. Purple Odd quickly turned to Aelita and shouted. "Go! Head for the tower!"
The girl nodded and ran as fast as she possibly could across the room of slowly recovering creatures.
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"I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I did that. I can't believe-" Jeremie was cut off when he heard the sound of the door opening behind him. He gasped and turned away from Aelita's unconscious form, quickly wiping the tear from his real eye, the other having been recently destroyed and replaced by a mechanical one.
"Jeez, Jer, don't be so jumpy," Ulrich gave him a friendly smile while he, Odd, and Yumi stepped inside.
The boy sighed and nodded slightly. He turned to another part of the room and approached his computer. His hands began to dance around the keyboard as he began to work in one of the most difficult systems he had ever had to hack. Of course, he had done all the hacking beforehand, them needing all the time they could get.
"You guys ready?" he asked, turning to his friends. They nodded. "Alright, then. I'm activating the towers… now." He pressed the return key and on his screen, two towers appeared, one glowing green and the other, black. He entered a quick command, and his friends disappeared from the room, waving at him.
He let out a shaky sigh and returned to Aelita's unconscious form. As he awaited his friends' return, he operated on Aelita's body, trying to repair it as much as he could to avoid her death.
Behind him, out of the computer, a small black mist floated quietly out into the room. It hovered toward the boy, stopping for only a moment before lunging into his head. He gasped and his hands unconsciously grabbed his head, unknowingly covering his face with Aelita's blood.
He stumbled away from the table, his breathing labored. "Not again," the boy uttered as he dropped to his knees. He began to shake his head, clutching at his hair and spattering it with blood. He took deep breaths as the creature had its way with his mind, twisting it into what it wanted.
"Stop it. Stop it! STOP IT!" he threw his head back, screaming as his mind was torn apart. He let out a sob as his screams slowly died out. His flesh eye slowly lost the fear, to be replaced by a cold indifference. He stood up off the ground and began to clean himself of the blood and awaited the return of Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi.
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"U-Ulrich …" Yumi uttered as he stared, unmoving, with wide eyes at the spot he had seen the samurai's grid disappear. She was shot in the head with a laser, but didn't bother to hold herself up, falling to the floor.
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Author's Note
The author is currently too busy slapping herself upside the head to write an author's note.