Chapter 7 is up guys. Enjoy.
Nightmare
He was frozen in space and time. Unable to move, to speak, to breath. Unable to do anything. He saw pink haired girl kneeling while holding her stomach. She was in pain. And he couldn't do anything to help her. He saw some white orb getting attacked by some kind of manta like creatures. He felt urge to immediately help it, but he couldn't. There was some voice that didn't belong to that place.
"Aelita you need to do it" voice said.
Aelita. Why is that name so familiar? Maybe because he knew her. Maybe because she was his friend. He tried his best to remember but his thoughts were so slow that he could barely think.
"But- But my father" pink haired girl said.
That white orb. It was her father. And it was getting destroyed right in front of her. That pain must be unimaginable. For some reason he felt the same pain as she did. He didn't know why. Maybe because the two were close. Maybe because they went through a lot together. Maybe because that orb became like second father to him.
"Don't let his sacrifice be in vain Aelita" voice said "Launch the program".
Program. What program? It surely sounds important but what for? There was something strange going on but he felt like he knew what it is. He looked at pink haired girl. She shook her head and started sobbing. That hurted a lot.
"No. No!" she cried and shot some kind of pink orb at the creatures but she missed it and creatures kept attacking.
Few shots later and orb started to blink and exploded. He felt like some kind of cold piece of metal went right trough his heart. If he even had one that is.
He saw girl reaching her hand out to get to some kind of holographic screen but before she could do so it disappeared.
"No. No" she said in disbelief "This can't be happening".
Suddenly he felt cold surrounding them. It was so cold. Few moments later total darkness engulfed them and his eyes were closed once again.
When he opened his eyes he saw that he was in different place. Some kind of city. But that place didn't look normal at all. Buildings were destroyed, roads were overgrown with grass, trees were ripped out and tossed all over the street. Sky was dark and he could also feel darkness all around him. It was hell on earth. He was floating towards the square. There were crowd of people standing around the center. He looked closer and saw some kind of 7 foot tall black creature sitting in his throne with black haired teen by his side. People were kneeling to him. Around creature's throne five teens were tied to metal poles.
"Kneel to me my faithful servants! Obey me!" creature ordered.
People were obviously scared of the Emperor of this new world.
"Or you will end like this" creature said and snapped his fingers.
Some kind of black flames engulfed those five teens and they screamed dying in horrible pain being burned alive.
He screamed but sound of his voice couldn't be heard.
End of nightmare
Odd jumped up awake and looked around himself. He was still inside his room safe and sound. He breathed heavily and sweat was dripping down his face.
"I- What was that?" Odd asked.
"I told you that is unavoidable. I'm sorry son" Franz answered with a sigh.
"I'm not talking about that" Odd told him and that left Franz surprised "How could that happened to our world?".
"I'm not sure exactly. But from what I saw it looks like after he destroyed me there was nothing you could do to stop him. XANA used this opportunity and took over the world".
"After everything we did we still failed?" Odd shook his head in disbelief "That can't be happening. Is there any way to prevent that from happening?"
"You know the answer already".
"We need to convince Aelita to activate that program before it's to late. And what kind of program is that?".
"You will need to ask Jeremy, I don't have any idea"
"Okay sure" Odd agreed and Franz went quiet again.
"Odd?" someone called for him and he turned towards the other side of the room. Aelita just woke up and was looking at him worried.
"Are you okay?" she asked him.
"I'm fine Princess. Why would you ask me that?".
"You were just sitting there looking somewhere in the distance. I got worried if you are not feeling okay" Aelita said and looked at the ground.
Odd smiled at her kindly "Don't worry about me Princess. I was just talking to my smarter self".
She could only chuckle at that "You are already smart Odd. You were talking to that person inside of your head, weren't you?".
He nodded.
"And you are still not going to tell me who it is?" Aelita asked.
"Not yet. I really want to tell all you all of it but it's simply not the right time. I-".
"It's okay Odd, you don't need to tell me anything" she reassured him "It can wait".
Odd smiled at her again "It sounds weird when you say it".
"What can I say? I'm just avoiding making same mistake twice" she smiled back.
They were just sitting there in silence looking at each other.
Odd suddenly got nervous "Why am I getting nervous all of a sudden? It's just Aelita. And this silence isn't helping at all, I need to get some fresh air".
"Hey um- I guess I'm going to take a shower" He said and rubbed back of his head.
"Oh okay- Right" Aelita cleared her throat in awkwardness.
As soon as he left Aelita walked towards the window and looked outside.
"He is acting so weird. I just hope he really is okay".
After few minutes Odd came back.
"Alright Princess, you ready to go to breakfast" he asked.
"Sure" she said with a smile and grabbed her bag "Let's go".
Duo was walking towards the cafeteria and talked about group's habits to see if anything changed in past years.
"I'm mostly the first one to arrive there. Jeremy still sometimes sleeps in front of his computer and those two lovebirds are just being themselves" Aelita told him "So I'm mostly having my breakfast alone".
Odd felt sad for her "I'm sorry princess".
"For what? That isn't your fault so there in no reason to be sorry".
"I know, but it's still making me feel bad".
"Odd relax. It's okay".
He simply nodded and they kept walking.
Once they arrived at cafeteria bunch of girls surrounded them.
"Odd! Come eat with me!" one of the girls shouted.
"No Odd, come with me!" other girls joined.
"Ignore these two Odd. I'm the one you should eat with!" third girl joined.
"Why would he eat with you and not us?" two girls turned against the third one.
"Why would he eat with any of you?" someone else shouted.
"Who said that?!" three girls now joined against fourth one.
Girls started dragging Odd in different directions shouting at each other.
"He is coming with me!".
"No, he is coming with me!".
"He needs to go with me!".
Aelita looked at the scene in front of her with said eyes. There is no way for Odd to escape from this situation.
"Another breakfast to spend alone" she told herself as she looked at the ground and started to walk towards their table. But before she could walk away she felt hand touching her shoulder. She turned around and saw Odd smiling at her.
"I would really like to come and eat with you ladies but maybe some other time" Odd told them.
"What? Why?" girls asked surprised.
"You see, there is someone important that needs company today and I'm not going to let her down".
Their expressions fell and they walked away felling rejected.
"Come on princess, let's go eat".
Aelita looked at him and nodded.
When they sat at the table both of them were silent for few moments.
"Why would you do that?" she asked him suddenly.
Odd looked at her confused "Do what?".
"You refused those girls Odd, that's not your stile. Why would you do it?".
"You heard me when I said it. There was someone important that needed company" he answered with a smile.
Aelita could only chuckle at that "Odd I'm not that important".
"You are important to me" Odd told her and kept eating.
His answer left her feeling stunned "Is he serious? I'm important to him? But it doesn't make any sense for him to feel like that".
Odd could feel her getting more and more tense but he didn't know what to tell her to reassure her.
Luckily enough others arrived just in time.
"Hey guys!" Ulrich called for them and started walking towards them.
Ulrich, Yumi and Jeremy sat at their usual places.
"Hey Aelita" Jeremy told her and they exchanged quick kisses on the cheek.
"Good morning Jeremy" Aelita told him and smiled "How come you are already awake?".
"Thanks to Ulrich" Jeremy answered with a chuckle "He used his oldest trick".
"What did he do?" Aelita asked and drank some water.
"Nothing special" Ulrich answered instead of Jeremy "I just told him that you and Odd are dating. It works every time".
When Aelita heard that she choked on her drink but resisted to spray it all over the table. She swallowed it slowly and started coughing. Yumi patted her on the back.
"What?" she asked after she stopped coughing.
"Hey, it's nothing serious" Ulrich answered confused "It's only my way to wake Jeremy up that's all".
Odd was quiet the entire time and tried not to look at Aelita.
"Did I do something wrong?" Ulrich asked even more confused looking back and fourth between Odd and Aelita "Odd?".
"No good buddy, everything is fine" Odd answered and looked at him.
Ulrich looked at his eyes and what he saw there made explained all this tension between him and Aelita. His mouth opened a little but he decided to close them.
"O- Okay I guess" Ulrich said and leaned back inside his chair "Damn".
"What is it Ul?" Yumi asked her boyfriend "What's wrong?".
Ulrich looked at Odd and answered "It's complicated".
Now it was Yumi's turn to be confused. She looked at Odd, than at Aelita, than back at Odd, than back at Aelita and than she started to realize it. She immediately looked at Ulrich and he nodded to her. She didn't know what to say and just decided to drop it.
Group sat in silence for some time before Jeremy broke it.
"Did you think about situation with Jason?".
Others exchanged looks and nodded.
"We had little time to think about it but I think we can get some assumption right now" Yumi said.
"Alright, what should we do than?".
Yumi was the first one to speak "I think we should trust him. I know that his story makes little sense but I still feel like he is trustworthy. We can allow him inside of the group".
"I agree with Yumi" Ulrich joined in "I'm still suspicious about his story but we can't deny the fact that he did his best to help us and to save Odd from XANA's claws and he did it without having second thoughts. We can allow him to join us".
Jeremy looked at Aelita "What about you Aelita?".
She was silent for some time before finally answering "I agree that we can trust him but I'm not sure if we should allow him to completely gets inside our group. He can be in same position as Sissy but no more. He stays outside the group".
Others looked at her in shock.
"Are you sure Lita?" Yumi asked her "I expected you to support him the most".
Aelita looked at her "Well your expectations were wrong".
Others exchanged looks and nodded.
"What about you Odd?" Jeremy asked him.
Odd answered without having to think about it "He can join us. He helped my family and me even tho he didn't need to. Yesterday he came here to help us and he saved me from the scyphozoa. He earned my trust".
Jeremy looked at them "So we settled that?".
They nodded "It looks like it".
Ulrich looked towards Aelita "I know how you feel about trusting him Aelita but all of us voted for him to stay with our group".
She suddenly got up from her chair "Do whatever you want to do".
With this words she stormed towards the door and left cafeteria.
"What happened with her?" Yumi asked Jeremy.
He tried to think about what could cause this but nothing came to mind "I really don't know. She was perfectly fine minutes ago".
"She is just going through a lot. Finding about her father's project was pretty hard to take. Last night she told me that this makes Jason her brother, not biological one but still".
Yumi thought about that for a moment "It actually makes sense. Jeremy you should go and talk to her".
"Actually" Ulrich stopped her "I think it would more sense to send Odd to talk with her".
Both Odd and Yumi were surprised by that.
"What?" Yumi asked "But Jeremy is her boyfriend, she will listed to him".
"Odd is better at listening to others problems Yumi, you know that. And what Aelita needs now is a good listener".
"How about we send both of them? She needs her boyfriend with her all the time" Yumi suggested but Jeremy suddenly joined in.
"No Yumi, Ulrich is right, it should be Odd to go after her" than he turned towards Odd "Go on, do what you have to".
Odd just stood there like an idiot looking at Jeremy and after few seconds he nodded "O- Okay". And with those words he ran after her.
Yumi looked at the two boys in front of her and shook her head "I can't belive this". She finished her meal and left towards the dorms leaving two boys behind.
They were sitting in silence for some time.
Jeremy looked at Ulrich with sad eyes "You noticed it too, didn't you?".
Ulrich tried to act surprised and confused "What are you talking about?".
"Don't play dumb Ulrich, I know you better than that" Jeremy told him with a chuckle "I know you noticed it".
"Well maybe I did notice something" Ulrich said and rubbed back of his head in awkwardness "But I still don't know what to think about it".
"There is something between them, some kind of stronger bond that didn't disappear even after he was gone for years. And now that they are together again that bond is more noticeable" Jeremy said and sighted "I knew there was something. I knew it all along".
Ulrich looked at him and could feel his heart tearing apart "I'm sure there is nothing between them Jer, she would never do that to you. Same goes for Odd, he wouldn't do that to you".
Jeremy could only chuckle at that "That gold hearted idiot. Always putting someone else's happiness before his own".
Brunette didn't know what to say to him after that. He finished his meal and went towards his room to talk with Yumi leaving young genius alone at the table.
After being left alone Jeremy could finally stop acting like it doesn't touch him at all. He could feel tears forming inside of his eyes.
"But it still hurts" he whispered and pressed his face inside of his palms "It still hurts".
Odd was looking after Aelita for some time without any success in finding her.
"Where are you Aelita?" he asked nobody in particular. Only one place came to mind. Hermitage.
He ran towards the old house but what he found there surprised him. Old stuff were taken out to the back yard. Odd thought that some robbers entered the house so he got ready to fight them off. He picked up the crowbar and slowly walked inside the house. He walked toward living room and peeked inside and noticed man trying to lift up some boxes. He knew who that man was.
"Jason?" Odd called out to him.
Jason quickly turned around being taken by surprise.
"Oh, it's just you Odd".
Odd looked at him confused "What are you doing here Jas?".
"Nothing much" Jason answered him honestly "Just cleaning out this mess. What about you Odd? What are you doing here?".
"I'm looking for Aelita, have you seen here?".
"Actually I did. She came here few minutes ago and after seeing me she started yelling at me. It was pretty scary".
"Do you know where she went after that?".
Jason thought for a moment "If I was you I would check the factory. She probably went there".
"Oh my god" Odd whispered "She didn't go to Lyoko did she?".
"No. If she did I would know it. She is probably just sulking there".
"Okay than. I'm going there now. Thanks for the information Jas".
"Of course".
Odd started to walk away but he suddenly felt the urge to turn around. He did so and he saw Jason grinning at him.
"What?" Odd asked him annoyed.
Jason kept grinning "Oh it's nothing Odd. Go get her".
Odd groaned and left the house leaving Jason behind still grinning and shaking his head "Sitting in a tree…".
After few minutes Odd arrived at the factory and he didn't even need to look for long. Aelita was sitting near the river that flowed under the bridge. He approached her slowly.
"Hey princess".
She jumped in surprise because she didn't hear him approaching.
"I know you aren't in mood to talk to anyone right now. I understand if you want me to leave" he told her and looked at the river.
"No, don't leave" she said quickly "I- I just don't know what to think anymore. Everything is so confusing".
"I know princess, I know. But you know you can talk to us about it, we are your friends".
"I know, but all of this is so hard to go through that I didn't know if you could understand" Aelita said and looked down at the river.
Odd sat down next to her "Well I'm here now and I have a lot of free time. Tell me about it".
And she did so. After she was done her story could only be understood in one way.
"I'm just afraid if one of you will get hurt because one of my father's creations. I simply don't want for that to happen, not again. Yeah I know Jason is a great guy and all but this fear is still present no matter how much safe I feel. That's why I got mad when I saw him inside the house even tho I had no reason to do so. I should go to apologize to him first chance I get".
"You can do that when we get back to dorms. Okay?" he asked her with a smile. She looked at him and nodded "Okay".
Odd got back on his feet and offered his hand to help Aelita get up which he gladly accepted.
Duo started walking towards the school.
While they were walking both of them were having strange feeling between themselves.
Aelita glanced at Odd few times and she could feel herself blushing.
"What's happening to me? Why do I feel so nervous now? I don't understand" Aelita wondered for herself. Suddenly she remembered the same feeling that she had that night when she was finally brought to Earth. The same night she and Jeremy spent their first walk toward Yumi's house together. Just two of them. It was the same feeling she is feeling right now.
"That's not possible, I don't have any feelings for Odd. I will always be thankful for everything he did for me, every danger he was in so I could be safe, being there for me when I needed the shoulder to cry on. But that's not the same thing. It's not love. It's not adoration. It's just pure friendship. I love Jeremy with all of my heart and I always will. He brought me here and that counts for a lot. Why am I feeling like this than?".
Odd was wondering the same thing.
"This can't be happening, not now. She is my friend and so is Jeremy. I don't have any right to feel like this. I don't have any right to interfere with their relationship and to be some kind of obstacle to their happiness. I buried these feelings long time ago hoping that they would never resurface ever again. Why is this happening?".
"Maybe your heart is just speaking loud enough for you to hear what it has to say" Franz got back again.
"No Franz, that's not okay. Aelita and Jeremy are perfect for each other. They love each other. I have no right to be part of any love triangle".
"For how long are you going to put someone else's happiness before your own?"
"For as long as it takes. That's just how it's going to be"
"Than at least tell her about your feelings towards her. It will make it easier for yourself. You are hurting a lot because of that"
"No, I'm not hurting. At all"
"Alright than, keep telling that to yourself. But know this. You can lie to yourself but you can't lie to me".
Duo finally arrived at the dorms and went towards Yumi's room. Once they were there Ulrich opened the door and led them inside. Yumi, Jeremy and Jason were already there.
Once she saw Aelita Yumi walked over to her and hugged her "Thank god you are okay Aelita".
"Are you okay?" Jeremy asked her as he hugged her.
"Don't worry Jeremy, I'm fine" she told him with a smile.
"I see it was right choice to send Odd I see" Ulrich said and Jeremy nodded in agreement even tho he could feel his heart breaking.
Odd noticed that and felt bad for his friend "What am I doing?".
Jason looked at them and decided to change the topic "So guys. What is your decision?".
Jeremy turned towards him and cleared his throat "It was three against one. Three votes were in favor of letting you join us, one was against".
Aelita walked towards him "That vote was me. I'm sorry Jason. For voting against you, for yelling at you without any reason. I was just so worried about my friends. I'm sorry".
Jason reassured her "Aelita, there is nothing you should apologize for, I understand you. Hell I would probably do the same thing you did. Don't worry about it".
After settling that little argument Jason brought up the questions.
"Since this is settled, does that mean I'm part of the gang now?".
Others looked at each other and smiled. Aelita spoke for everyone.
"Welcome to the group Jason. Glad to have you on our side".
This is it for this chapter guys. I really hoped that you enjoyed it and until next time. Peace out.