Code Xana Episode 85: Common Cause
Author: James the Lesser/The Bunnyman
Disclaimer: I Do Not Own These Characters! Moonscoop Does! Actually, I own most of these characters, I made them up, but the place and the settings and the back round stuff is Moonscoop.
Please read my episodes, 53-119 plus the OVA of Code Lyoko to know what is going on. Oh and Code Xana the Movie and Episode 1-84
Well then, I got 3 reviews on my original so here is the instant update! Next update would be on the 27th
In a J INC laboratory in Russia three scientists are experimenting on a rat. "Pulse rate is still zero."
"Try it at three fifty." The amount of a liquid is raised then a button is pushed. "Rate?"
"We have a pulse." There is some celebrating. They had just brought a rat back from the dead after its heart had stopped beating for nearly an hour.
"We'll probably have to increase it due to size for the next experiment but it look like it works!" J INC had found a way to bring rats back from the dead. It was so far only those that died of induced heart attacks but if they perfected the technique rats everywhere could be brought back from the dead. Not to mention humans…
Of course the meddling of humans in life and death doesn't sit well with everyone. Someone whose life is about death does not like that the human race has decided to play God, or Death.
Sanne is in her room with Krieger making out and other things. After awhile they wear themselves out. "Sanne, I love you." Sanne stares at Krieger. "I love you so much I don't know what to do with it all."
"I, I," Sanne is hesitates and is conflicted. She did love Krieger, a lot. She loved him so much she wanted to do anything to make him happy but there was one thing she did that would make Krieger mad. But she couldn't stop it because she loved that person also. "I love you to Krieger." Sanne kisses him lightly on the lips. Sanne doesn't know how much danger she is in. It was bad enough with Xana after her but her father and his company have made someone far worse angry and he was going to take it out on the family's of the scientists and owner first.
After dinner Sanne calls Dante to see if he is on Earth and he answers. "Dante, what are you doing tonight?"
"I, I wanted to dream so I came to Earth."
"Well, if you're tired I'll let you go to sleep."
"I'm not tired yet. Just running some simple scans for Naia." Dante was tired but for Sanne he'd stay up.
"Well tonight I was wondering if you would want to come here. Skitz and Ark are back in America for their grandmother's funeral and I'm all alone."
"What about Krieger?"
"I was with him earlier. We did homework and things." Sanne wishes Dante hadn't brought Krieger up. She was conflicted and confused as it was. She knew she loved Krieger and she knew she loved Dante. But she also knew what Krieger thought and what Dante thought. Dante was purely in love with her and thought of only one other girl, Naia. Krieger's mind however was filled with sinful thoughts of other girls including his old girlfriend. This hurt Sanne since Krieger had done so much for her and she had done so much for him yet it didn't seem to be enough. Of course she knew it was hypocritical since Krieger's thoughts were just thoughts and here she was planning to do things with Dante.
"Well if you want me to come I guess I can. This scan has to run for awhile." Dante checks it. "For four more hours."
"Ok. I, see you when you get here."
"I will, love you." Sanne doesn't hesitate to reply.
"Love you to." They hang up and Dante heads for Kadic Academy going through the sewers.
As Sanne and Dante fool around on her bed the man J INC has angered appears on the Kadic Academy grounds. Naia is the first to feel him. She was watching Dante and Sanne through the window. Being a Ghost gave her time to learn how to use all of her powers. She knew there were times where she panicked, like falling over the edge, where she'd fly back to the Sector. Now she could control it at will. But now she sees this man, thing, floating across the campus. The grass dies as he passes over it. He goes close to a tree and it dies. Naia sees the black cloak, the black hood, and actually feels chills. The shock of feeling something after weeks of nothing is lost as the man actually sees her. "You, are not dead. What are you doing on this phase?"
"I, I don't know. I'm not dead?"
"Of course you are not. If you were I would have come for you." The man reaches towards Naia and she feels dread, cold, death creep over her. She looks down at the hand and sees it is skeletal.
"You're Death." Naia doesn't ask it she says it just knowing what, who, this man was. "Why are you here?"
"Some one has been interfering in what I do. I will teach them a lesson by doing what I do to their families starting with a young one first."
"Wait, Xana? You can't kill Dante because of Xana!"
"Oh no child not Xana's offspring. Although he has been close to bringing upon him my wrath."
"Could you kill him? I, I didn't know Xana was alive." Naia looks back into the room and sees Dante and Sanne still fooling around completely oblivious to the danger Sanne was in.
"I could. I am Death I can kill anything even if it's already dead." Death reaches towards Naia who pulls back. "But do not worry it is not your time Naia Cawasaki. Sanne Hopper's father has warped the line between life and death and will now pay the price for this."
"How do you know my name, Sanne's name?"
"I am Death, I know everyone's name. From the second they are born I know they're name and when they will die." Death turns towards the window. "You care for Dante but Sanne you hate. It is not her time but her father must pay for what he has done."
"Wait!" Naia blocks Deaths path. "I, can I ask you a question?"
"You just have. I will allow one more question."
"I, when will, when will," Naia knows she will only have this chance. She had to ask. "When will Dante die?"
"Do not worry he will die when it is his time." Death laughs a little. "You did not ask about your own death. Of course you already are but you should not be. You will live again. I will not see you for a long time." Death motions his hand and Naia floats out of his way.
Sanne is rolling around on the bed with Dante when she feels cold. Soon this cold becomes nothing compared to the feeling of dread and fear. All of her joy and happiness melts away. Dante is feeling the same and is sure it is Xana. "Sanne, we have to go to Lyoko." Dante gets off the bed and finds his shirt.
"I know." Sanne shivers from the cold. She looks and sees ice form on her window and her breath can be seen. She finds her phone and calls Krieger first. "Krieger, Xana's attacking."
"Ok, what is it?"
"Just get to the Factory! Wait, get Barack first." Sanne didn't want Krieger to come up and try to protect her. If he did he would see Dante and ask questions she didn't, couldn't, answer. She hangs up then goes to call Sora when Xana appears.
"Sanne you must get out of here!"
"Xana!" Sanne backs away from him.
"No! You must come with me I have to protect my host!" Xana sparks with energy. He is using his powers to block Death from coming into the room. "Hurry! This is not a trick!"
"We aren't that stupid!" Dante gets between Sanne and Xana. "Go away Xana we won't fall for your tricks."
"This isn't! Death is coming for my host! Please allow me to protect her! We have a common cause, keeping my host, your girlfriend, alive. If you do not allow me to protect her she will die!"
"What are you talking about? Death? You sound like Death is a real person." Sanne shakes her head. "Xana if that's the best you have you're losing your touch. Sanne makes her way towards the door.
"It isn't a trick! I will send Sora to, I will protect you!" Xana turns towards the window and opens his force field. Death floats through it. Xana uses his powers to make it so Sanne and Dante can see Death.
"Holy Frak on a stick." Sanne's jaw drops.
"Run! I will activate a Tower and posses Sora. Tell her not to fight it! I will release her once you are safe! I will make this a deal you just have to live my future host!" Sanne nods and runs out of her room with Dante following. They run to Sora's room and pound on her door waking her and her roommate up.
"What the hell is going on out there?" Sora's roommate is mad at being awoken. "Is there a fire?"
"No we need Sora!" Sanne slams the door open. Sora sits up and reveals that she wore only panties to bed. Dante's eyes open wide at the show then he looks away. "Sora, get dressed, its, Xana." Sanne didn't want to take time to explain what was going on until they got away from Sora's roommate.
"Ok." Sora is a little awkward trying to wake up and get dressed at the same time. She puts a shirt on backwards and inside out but doesn't care. She hurries out of her room once she gets socks and shoes on.
"Sora, we have to ask you to do something." Sanne sighs. "Death for some reason is after me. Xana is protecting me but he says he will activate a Tower and send a Ghost into you to make you stronger."
"What? But, I, he can't, we can't let him posses me."
"He'll let you go. We made a deal he will keep it."
"Ok. But Death? Are you sure this isn't a trick?"
"We saw him." Sanne still felt like ice was in her veins. That she would never feel happy again.
"Why didn't you answer your phone?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well if Dante had to run all the way here, wait, no." Sora looks at Dante. "Why were you here if it's Death and not Xana?"
"I, we were working on a program. Something that would detect the Tower in Xana's castle." This was partially true. They were working on that just not that at the moment.
"Oh, shouldn't you do that at the Factory?"
"I, well, there was something we wanted to keep away from Xana." Sanne thinks fast on her feet. "If we are there he will know what we are doing."
"Oh, well then what is he waiting for? He will let me go right?"
"Xana has some honor. If he makes a deal he won't break it. Sora don't die. Even with your powers and Xana's you will be fighting Death."
"Sounds like fun." Sora stops when a black mist appears out of a ceiling light. "Take me Xana." The black mist enters her. "You kiddies get to Lyoko. Death won't be able to get you there." Sora turns and walks down the hall as Sanne and Dante run to Mira's room.
After getting Mira they meet up with Krieger at the school entrance to the sewers. It was faster for now and at night they weren't worried about getting caught. "What's the attack?"
"No attack from Xana this time Krieger." Dante tells him about what happened and gives the same excuse to Krieger as they did to Sora about why he was there. "So we have to get Sanne to Lyoko."
"Ok." Krieger and the others hurry.
Sora is walking down the hall towards Sanne's room when she feels the cold. She feels dread and fear. Soon her power feels like nothing as Death's aura overcomes her. "Xana I, I need more power." Sora backs away as Death floats through Sanne's door. "I can't fight him like this!"
Sanne and the others are near the Factory when Dante stops. "Sanne, what if, what if this was a Xana trick?"
"But why? What does he get out of it?"
"He possessed Sora. She wouldn't let him posses him normally but now she gave him permission. Maybe we, maybe he will take her back because of this."
"He said he'd let her go." Sanne doesn't trust Xana but he kept deals. "Don't think about it Dante. We have to know that Xana keeps deals." Sanne and the others climb up the ladder and go into the Factory.
Sora is nearly to the stairwell when two more Xana ghosts come out of a light and go into Sora. "Now this should get interesting." Sora sparks with energy. "Death, you look exactly as how I'd expect you to look." With her Xanafied eyes she can see him. "Let's dance."
"Foolish girl it is not your time to die. Soon, yes, but now? No."
"Soon? How soon?"
"For someone like me soon can be a hundred years. Now step aside or I will have to put you in the astral phase until I have completed my mission."
"Just try it." Sora uses her energy to attack Death. Would she, could she beat Death? No one could but with three ghosts and her original powers she would try to at least slow death down.
Naia sneaks behind Death and sees Sora attack him. "Oh my Gods, how can they be doing this? Sora will, will, die." Naia watches Sora send an energy bolt at Death who merely waves his hand and destroys it.
"Sora, please do not delay me any longer before I change my mind on when you die." Death is unaffected by Sora's attacks.
"We can't let Sanne die. If she dies Xana will snap and kill the rest. I will be his slave forever!" Sora charges her hands with energy and creates energy swords. "Do you carry any weapons?"
"Why yes, I do." Death puts a hand out and a stick forms. He taps the bottom on the ground and the scythe blade appears. "I can make sure you do not become a slave forever by changing the order in which people die. If you were to die now you would be saving several others from dieing. At least for a few days as I would have to work the energy flow of myself to accommodate the change."
"A nice big stick, compensating for something?" Sora lunges at Death and slashes at him. She tears through his cloak when he lashes back at her with his scythe. Sora blocks the scythe handle with her forearm and shoves an energy sword into Death. "Of course I've just now realized how futile this is. You are death how can I kill you? But I can slow you down." Sora sends energy at Death pushing him away.
"No, you can't. I have allowed you to delay me enough as it is. Move now or I will do my job."
"You can't kill me!" Sora lunges at Death as more energy comes out. "Master Xana won't let you kill me!"
"He is starting to annoy me. He tries to kill people when it is not their time. Maybe I should move him up the list. It would save thousands but that would just throw everything out of phase. If the phase is disturbed enough it can and will cause the earthly phase and the ethereal phase to intertwine. This would lead to the deaths of thousands, millions even."
"Go ahead and kill him! A few million human's dead will be worth stopping Xana from killing everyone in the Universe."
"He would never accomplish this. I would know after all I am the one who would come for his victims."
"There's hope?" Sora stands back and her energy drops away.
"There is always hope. For you however no. For everyone else? Yes." Death motions his hand towards Sora and she steps aside. Death passes her and as he does Sora sees death. She sees people dieing, animals dieing, trees dieing. Entire planets becoming nothing more than balls of dirt. Then she sees her own death and starts to cry.
Sanne and the others are in the Control Room. The Super Scan detected three activated Towers. "Xana, I thought you were activating one Tower." A black mist appears and forms words.
"I was but she needed more power. Even then she failed."
"She, she's dead!?"
"No, she is still very much alive. But Death has made it past her. Death is coming you must hurry to Lyoko! I will not let my future host die!"
"Stop calling me that!" Sanne slams on the keyboard. "Guys, go to the Scanner Room and I'll send you."
"No Sanne," Dante puts a hand on Sanne's shoulder. "I'll send you. You have to get to Lyoko now."
"Ok." Sanne puts a hand on Dante's hand then squeezes it before getting out of the computer chair. She goes onto the elevator with Krieger, Mira, and Barack. They go down to the Scanner Room.
"Transfer Sanne, Transfer Krieger, Transfer Barack, Scanner Sanne, Scanner Krieger, Scanner Barack, and virtualization." They land on Lyoko in the Ice Sector. "Hide in the Tower."
"Ok." The three run into the Way Tower.
"Transfer Mira, Scanner Mira, and virtualization." She lands on Lyoko then runs into the Way Tower. "Sora better not die." Dante sets up the auto transfer and sends himself to Lyoko then runs into the Way Tower to wait with the others.
Death floats across the bridge and into the Factory. He knew Sanne was on Lyoko but he could wait forever. He was Death.
Sora is still crying when she feels a hand on her shoulder. She looks up and sees Naia. "Naia? But, you're dead."
"She can see me?" With Sora's Xanafied eyes she can see Naia just like she could see Death.
"I can see you."
"Tell Dante that I'm alive! That I, I'm not on Lyoko. Please, I need him to know that I am still alive. And to stop doing things with that slut!" Naia closes her eyes trying to calm down. "Just tell Dante I am alive, not on Earth, and that I love him very much and I know he is just confused and its Sanne's fault for what he is doing and that I don't blame him." Sora simply nods not sure if what she was seeing was real. She had never seen Naia in her Lyoko attire. She could only see the white mist that the others saw when Naia was on Earth.
Xana feels Death's presence before he sees him. "Death isn't going to leave my future host alone. We must, yes, launch a return. Then I will attack the lab destroying the work that has made Death angry and he will not come after my future host. But first I need Sanne to launch the return." Xana appears outside of the Way Tower. "Sanne! Come out here!"
"What?" Sanne steps out cautiously.
"Death is waiting for you."
"So? Have Sora fight him."
"She can not win. It is Death. Nothing, not even I, am more powerful than Death. We must launch a return then I shall attack the laboratory that the experiments were being done in. I will destroy the work and Death will not be angered. I can not lose you my future host."
"Don't, don't kill anyone. I'll launch a return but you can't kill anyone and you can't attack for at least three days after this attack."
"I agree. Three days, is that when the others will return?"
"Yes. Now get ready." Sanne runs back into the Way Tower and floats up to the second platform. She brings up the control panel and launches a return.
In a J INC laboratory in Russia three scientists are experimenting on a rat. "Pulse rate is still zero."
"Try it at three fifty." The amount of a liquid is raised then a button is pushed. "Rate?" A black mist comes out and affects the rat keeping it dead.
"Still zero. Try four hundred." The scientists try all the way up to one thousand but the rat remains dead.
"We have to go back to square one." The others groan. They had been working for months on this and so far were unable to bring back anything larger than a small vole to life.
Sora is sitting on her bed crying. Sanne comes in to check on her. "Sora, are, are you ok?"
"No. I, I'm sorry. When Xana possessed me I was so scared. I didn't want to be his Knight again."
"You weren't his Knight." Sanne hugs Sora. "I'm just glad you're ok. We're all glad you're ok."
"I, I," Sora thinks about seeing Naia. It had to be a trick. Naia was somewhere on Lyoko not on Earth in her Lyoko attire. It made no sense. "I'll be ok. Let's just hope Death doesn't come after you again."
"Yeah, I hope he doesn't." Sanne leaves the room then goes back to hers. Krieger is on her bed putting his history book away. "Krieger what are you doing?" Sanne sits down on Skitz's bed.
"Well now that our homework is done I was thinking maybe we could have some fun." Krieger smiles and sits up on the bed. "Come over here."
"No, you come over here." Sanne lies down on Skitz's bed. If Skitz and Barack had done things on her bed then she and Krieger would do things on Skitz's bed.
A/N AH yes, Death Himself. Muse said this was too much. Too, fantasy. And she may be right. But hey, I liked it. Death so civilized, so calm. And Sora, nothing could have made her strong enough to stop Death. And then she sees her own death, scary huh?