This chapter was written by me and edited by AwesomeFanFictionAuthor.
Disclaimer: Code Lyoko is owned by Moonscoop.
Cameron is owned by Undeadmonkey8. Mary is owned by AeroJester203.
Author's note one: Hi everyone! I've decided to update Changing Destiny: Lila's Journey a week in advance. However, the next chapter will not be up for two weeks. I also have news! The Adventures of Lila Belpois is offiicially live with its first filler chapter: Plagued. Due to The Adventures of Lila Belpois not being updated like how I usually update this fanfiction, I would ask that you favorite and follow The Adventures of Lila Belpois to get updates on chapters when they are released.
Author's note two: Readers discretion is advised.
What is Death?
Inside the lab
What is death? We've all been trying to wrap our minds around death. Lila's death. Lila died on March 27th and it's difficult for us to believe that just a week ago she was alive. When we aren't at school, grieving with our classmates, we're at the factory, grieving silently with each other. We don't talk most of the time. Sometimes we'll try to talk about her… but it's difficult to do so. Our tears have dried up.
Lila was someone who worked so hard and risked everything to come back to our time and change our destiny… failing like that, and the consequences of that failure… It was enough to depress anyone.
Is death unavoidable? What is beyond death? We've asked each other about what we each think what death is. As for me… I don't really have an answer. I can't. I'm not human, the human experience of death never really crossed my mind, not from a personal point of view, anyways. Do people just cease to exist on the other side of death, or is there some other place they go? Where is Lila now, or rather, where is her consciousness?
"Um… there's still one thing, the funeral home is waiting for an answer…" Jeremy trails off, breaking the silence.
"About?" Odd asks.
"They want to know if we should have a burial or a cremation," Jeremy replies. I slowly look over at him.
"I… I think we should cremate her Jeremy. We can spread her ashes on Lyoko. I think she'd like that."
"Then, what about the funeral for our classmates?" Odd asks.
"We can have a closed casket. Lila's body wouldn't be in there… but it'll give everyone at Kadic some sort of closure," Yumi suggests.
"Might be for the best," I nod, and get up, breaking my stasis. "I'll go back to the room to continue working on entering more combinations in MB's laptop. Jeremy and I worked on it a lot this week, and with our notes, we've entered 37,000. There's still 3,320 to more possible combinations to go, though."
"What? 37,000? How did you and Einstein do that?" Odd asks.
"No class, no sleep, no Xana, that's how," Jeremy explains. "Anyways, I'll give the funeral home a call and let them know. Are you guys going back to school?" he asks.
"I can stay here," Ulrich offers.
"I'll go back to our room with Aelita," Yumi says. Her parents were nice enough to let Yumi move in with me, so I didn't have to be alone in that room. She smiles at me.
"Thanks, Yumi," I nod.
"I'll stay here. I'm not really hungry," Odd says.
"Still? You haven't really eaten a lot in days, Odd," Ulrich mentions.
"I know. But I just can't eat when I'm upset. It'd help if Kiwi were on campus, but..." Odd trails off. Ulrich nods.
"Well, uh… we're off. I'll see you guys tomorrow," I say. They acknowledge me and wave as Yumi and I climb into the elevator. We make our way to our room in relative silence, talking about nothing in an attempt to distract ourselves.
Inside Aelita and Yumi's room
The room has changed a bit… Lila's stuff is off to one side, in boxes. There are all sorts of things, useless knick-knacks, school supplies, a time travel book, her diary, and, of course, her copy of Jeremy's laptop. I can't bring myself to look at either of those things. I feel like it would be an invasion of privacy...no matter what might be in there.
The bunk bed has been taken down. The top bunk placed on the floor… Lila's bed… which is conveniently my bed. It's hard to explain… but I feel, I'm not sure what the word is I'm looking for, but I feel some sort of strange comfort that Jim has allowed me to keep Lila's bed. The desk moved. My old bed is now by the window, which Yumi uses. So it's really her bed now. Lila's old desk has been pushed to the side of my desk. Yumi uses it now. It really isn't her room anymore…
I shake my head free of those thoughts and pick up MB's laptop. There's work to be done. I sit down at my desk, open the laptop, and take out our notes. I flip to the last one we crossed out and start typing in combinations.
58406875
Nothing, I cross that off the list of possibilities.
37581276
I stare at the screen and sigh, then cross out the number. I keep entering combinations, and it's all the same. It becomes repetitive and I sort of go on autopilot. The next time I check the time, it's three hours later. I'm down from 3,000 combinations to 2,000 combinations. If I can keep this pace up, I'll have it cracked by the end of the day. Still...this laptop is harder to crack than we initially thought. It looked simple, it was just an 8-digit code… but it was taking so long.
Maybe that was the whole point? Just because something looks easy, doesn't mean it always is. Appearances can be deceiving.
"Come on Aelita, one more number," I say to myself like a silent prayer, enter another number, and press enter.
Nothing.
"Why isn't anything happening?!" I pound on MB's laptop out of frustration, and it completely turns off...making a noise like it died.
"What?! No!" I exclaim, shaking the laptop.
"Aelita, Aelita stop!" Yumi exclaims, waking up. She gets up from the bed and rushes over to me, holding me back.
"The laptop just died on me! I was so close! There were 2,000 combinations left to enter! It… it must have died because we put in too many combinations. Maybe that was a security measure MB built in. It died…suddenly… just….Just like Lila did!"
As soon as the words leave my lips I break out into tears. This is the first time I've cried this week. I didn't think there were any tears left… but I guess that isn't the case…
Yumi pulls me into a hug, trying to comfort me. She's a good friend…
"She's gone Yumi. She's just gone…" I trail off.
Yes, she's gone. Tomorrow I get to be with the others just as usual, but three days later, we prepare to say our final goodbye.
April 8th
Inside the funeral car
We're all dressed in black. I even dyed my hair black with temporary dye. Some people bring the empty casket out from the building where we had the service, and into the hearse. The rest of us get in a limo behind the hearse.
I still have the time machine necklace, stained with Lila's blood. I wear it under the clothing, so nobody sees it. There's glass separating ourselves and the driver, so we have the privacy to talk.
"I still can't believe MB's laptop just died like that…" I trail off.
"It wasn't meant for us to find out who MB was, Aelita…" Jeremy trails off.
"I guess… it just feels like the whole thing was a big waste of time. I'm not sure what we should do about Lila's things either. They're still packed in the boxes."
"We could burn them…" Odd mutters. I look at him.
"Even if we do, what about her diary? What about the copy of Jeremy's laptop Lila hid from us? There could be some sensitive information in both of them on how to defeat Xana."
"Is that really a good idea? Wouldn't we be changing the timeline or something?" Ulrich asks.
"Xana's already changed the timeline Ulrich!" I nearly yell at him, but then I feel bad and look down at my feet.
"I'm sorry… I shouldn't have shouted," I say.
"It's okay…" Ulrich trails.
"I think we're here you guys," Yumi says.
Afterwards
It's a long ride, but we finally get to the cemetery. Words are said, tears are shed, and the empty casket is buried. She's given an engraved gravestone. Sissi cries the loudest. She and Lila finally made up... but now she's gone Nicholas and Herb console her.
Milly and Tamiya are there, too, beside themselves, comforting each other. This might be the first time either of them have gone to a funeral. Principle Delmas puts a bouquet of flowers down on the casket and walks over to us.
"Children… I want you all to know how very devastated everyone here at Kadic is. We truly cared for Lila."
"Thank you, sir," Jeremy says.
"I must ask you: Where is Mrs. Smith? Lila's mother?"
"We're not sure, sir. She may be out of the country and on one of her business trips. She travels often. We've been trying to get in touch with her, but haven't been able to," I lie.
"I see, I see. Miss Stones I understand this must be a difficult time for you. All of you. But I needed to speak with you on another matter. The police have accepted all of your statements… but, there are some discrepancies concerning you, Miss Stones."
"Me, sir?" I ask.
"We haven't found any adoption papers linking you and Miss Smith as relatives. On that matter… we haven't found a birth certificate verifying who you are, Miss Stones."
"Oh… well, Smith certainly is a common name sir. You may need to ask Lila's mother about the adoption papers. Some people like to keep paper files instead of electronic ones. Same for my birth certificate."
"Right, well… you'll need to forward this information to the police as soon as possible."
"I will sir. May I ask where Jim is?"
"Jim was very depressed when he heard about Lila. He couldn't bring himself to come here today. He sends his condolences," Mr. Delmas explains. I nod.
After a brief awkward silence, Delmas walks away to sit next to his daughter. The funeral people were kind enough to give us seats, instead of standing up and grieving for Lila.
"What do we do now?" Ulrich whispers as soon as Mr. Delmas is out of earshot.
"I'll create Aelita's fake birth certificates and adoption papers. It seems that Lila had created a fake birth date a while back. I noticed on the death certificate that her birth date was October 11th, 1992. She covered her tracks," Jeremy replies.
"After this is done, we'll go to the lab and start on those fake papers. I know she's not really in there… but we should still be here. Then we'll give Lila a sendoff she'll be proud of, if she's watching us," I say. Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi nod.
She is watching. I know she is.
One by one, everyone leaves, until it's just us and the limo driver. I look at her gravestone.
Lila Smith
A best friend, a good student, and a kind soul.
Born October 11th, 1992. Died March 27th, 2007
She would have been 15 this October…
"I… I'm going to miss her," I say, climbing into the back of the car with the others. We put the glass up for some privacy.
"We all will, Aelita," Jeremy says, holding my hand.
"I know, I just… I don't understand why any of this happened. I mean… why did Cameron do it…?" I trail off.
"Who knows why that guy did it? Honestly, Aelita, I think if we ever see him again we need to deal with him ourselves. The law isn't going to help any of us," Ulrich says.
"Ulrich…" Yumi trails off.
"He's right. Cameron purposely infiltrated our group. Xana has always tried to drive us apart… but he could never succeed. But now he's used someone else to do his dirty work. I'm not sure if Cameron was ever an honest person… or if Xana got to him," I say.
"I've been wondering about that… remember the time in the gym? With your first DJ mix?" Odd asks.
"I do," I reply.
"Cameron was possessed back then. Do you think Xana found a way to keep him possessed, even though we deactivated the tower?" Odd asks.
"But he didn't show any signs. And I did destroy those chips, twice if I might add," Jeremy replies.
"True, but we know Xana's getting more and more powerful, right?" Odd asks.
"Yes, he is… I just hope we can handle him. We're down two warriors now…" Jeremy replies.
"We'll figure it out," Odd says. I just hope our numbers don't continue to drop.
At the funeral home
We pick up Lila's ashes from the funeral home, the limo drives us to Yumi's house, and from there we walk to the factory.
Inside the lab
Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and I watch Jeremy make up the information for the police. He sends it via a fake email from Mary. We see he successfully sent the info, so he ushers us to go to the freight elevator and we make our way to it.
Lyoko's Forest Sector
After that, we virtualize into the forest sector. Jeremy thinks it would be symbolic since that's where Lila had her first mission.
"Alright, I'll be there in a minute," Jeremy announces over the intercom.
"Huh? You're going to Lyoko, Jeremy?" Odd asks.
"I am. Remember Odd, on a cosmic sort of level, I am Lila's father. When she told me that… I was a bit upset. She lied to us, but now I understand why. She was under a lot of pressure, keeping those secrets to keep the timeline in check. So that's why I'm going," Jeremy explains.
"Okay, Jeremy, we'll wait for you. Are you materializing our vehicles?" I ask.
"I will, Aelita. One of you will have to use Lila's broomstick since we need the extra vehicle."
"I can use it," I say.
"Okay. Materializing your vehicles… now."
Our vehicles materialize, including… including Lila's broomstick. Then we wait for Ulrich and Jeremy to materialize. First comes Ulrich, landing in a perfect three-point pose… then comes Jeremy, falling on his butt. Normally, we might have a good laugh about it, but nobody is in a laughing sort of mood right now.
"Thanks, Aelita," Jeremy says, getting up and looking down at himself. He's wearing a futuristic bodysuit with boots, a belt, and holes at the ends of the sleeves for his fingers to go through. He seems to have some sort of repulsor firing mechanisms in his palms. He gives the outfit a shrug.
"These repulsors seem promising," Jeremy nods. "Much better than my last outfit."
"Where should we spread her ashes?" Yumi asks.
"The digital sea. It's the safest place," Jeremy replies.
"Right, let's go," Yumi says.
"Okay," Ulrich nods. Jeremy gets onto Ulrich's Overbike with him and the rest of us, hop on our vehicles and head to the edge of the sector.
Yumi flies the Overwing with one hand and Lila's ashes in the other. We fly high above the forest to avoid any trouble. We all make it to the edge of the sector without incident.
"Looks like Xana is going to leave us alone for this," Odd surmises.
"Seems like it. He already succeeded… there would be no point in interfering," Jeremy agrees. We get back on the ground. I do not want to fly that broomstick again, it feels wrong.
"Does anybody want to say some final words?" Yumi asks. I speak up.
"Um… Lila, we all miss you. We're all going to miss you. We know you took a risk, traveling from your future to our past. And we won't let your sacrifice be in vain. We all care about you, and we will continue to care about you for as long as we live."
"Anyone else?" Jeremy asks. Everyone is silent, so Jeremy turns to Yumi.
"Okay… Yumi you can open it now," Jeremy says. Yumi opens it, and we each take a handful of Lila's ashes. I don't feel right touching them, but she deserves a proper send off.
"On the count of three. One," Odd fires a Laser Arrow into the air. "Two." He fires another Laser Arrow. "And three." He fires a final Laser Arrow into the air. We release the ashes over the cliff and into the digital sea. There's no wind here, so it just sort of drops. A moment later, six beams of light erupt the sea to pierce the sky.
"Well, it's done…" I trail off. "Xana may have gotten what he wanted this round, but we will not let him win again."
"And it was so sweet. Such a heart-warming send-off," Cameron taunts.
No. No. No, no, no! Not now! Would Xana, no, would Cameron REALLY desecrate a funeral like this?! This is not, in any way, shape, or form, ok!
But yes, Cameron is here. His normal Lyoko outfit has changed to a black and white color scheme, but otherwise, it's the same as it was when he was pretending to be our ally. Well, not entirely, he has an eye of Xana on his chest and a long-barreled pistol instead of a flute. The overall effect is... much more intimidating, admittedly.
"What are you doing here?!" Yumi exclaims.
"Oh, you know, just taking in my master's victory. And all of you will fail. I will not allow my master's plans to be threatened by the likes of you anymore."
"We'll see about that," Ulrich says and takes out his Katana. The others ready their weapons. I press the shield time machine necklace, and it surrounds me in a force field since all I can do is try and get a good few punches in.
I'm connected to Xana, so I know he shouldn't be able to hurt me, but I worry about the others. Cameron has already shown he is willing and capable of killing us, and I can't take another loss.
"CHARGE!" Odd yells. We add our voices to his and run at Cameron. We will fight him with every ounce of our strength. We will not be defeated.
TO BE CONTINUED...
IN: Chapter 3 of 5 of The Dark Saga
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