In Our Darkest Hour… Part 2: Nightfall
dedicated to my sister, Molly
and to Jessica
Chapter Eighteen: Interrupted
"What do you mean you can't find her?" shrieked Yumi. "She couldn't have just up and disappeared!"
"It's happened before, it can happen again," recited Odd distractedly.
Ulrich stuffed his hands into the back pockets of his cargo pants and exhaled loudly. The gang had spent an entire first period running around the campus of Kadic High searching for their pink-haired friend.
"Okay, when's the last time you two saw her?"
Yumi racked her brain for any recollection of her friend. "Wasn't it in the factory yesterday?"
Odd searched the sky for his answer. "I only saw her under the tree in the forest. That was when we had the fight. She's probably so mad at me…"
Just then, Sissi Delmas approached them prissily. "Hello, Ulrich dear. I'm glad you're back. I hope your grandparents are doing well?"
Ulrich's jaw dropped in confusion; he raised an eyebrow at Yumi who grinned sheepishly. It was she who answered for him, "They are, they are. That's why he's back, right?"
"But I see you are without your little Einstein friend," Sissi eyed the gang. "And I heard he's in the psycho ward because he tried to commit suicide."
"Hey!" Odd was not pleased with this rumor. "That's not true!" But because he didn't know what else to say, he closed his mouth slowly and backed away.
Sissi was about to walk away from them, but instead decided to observe, "What brings you three out of class at this hour?"
"And what about you?" defended Yumi.
Sissi put on an air of innocence. "Me? I'm delivering things to my daddy. I have a pass," she waved her green slip of paper in Odd's face. Odd groaned and rolled his eyes.
Ulrich, who was as tall as she was, took a few steps to face her and eye her. "For your information, we were getting some dirt on you-know-what."
Sissi's eyes widened. "You wouldn't…"
"And we're gonna tell you know who," he sneered, "Unless you pretend you didn't see us."
Sissi nodded furiously with wide eyes while backing up step by step. When she was a yard or so away from them, she pivoted and dashed in the direction of her father's office.
Ulrich cracked up so hard, tears were streaming from his eyes and he had to hold his sides. "What's so funny?" Yumi demanded.
"Yeah, are you going to tell us what this 'you-know-what' is?"
Ulrich calmed down and in between laughs managed to get out, "There isn't anything! I made it up to scare her! And it did!" Odd high-fived Ulrich and guffawed next to his best friend.
Yumi tugged Ulrich's sweatshirt and yelled at both of them, "Come on you two! We have to find Aelita!"
Chapter Nineteen: The Lab
They agreed it would be best to search in the factory next. Aelita may have gone into LYOKO by herself to hide from the cruelties of the real world that Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd were so experienced in.
The computer room, or sometimes referred to as "the lab," seemed empty and unfulfilled without Jeremie to occupy its oversized leather seat. The glowing electric sphere behind the computer reflected green light and coated the entire room in a shade of green.
Yumi was the first one out of the elevator and thusly the first one to reach the computer. It was on and running, as if Jeremie had just left it to go back to class. Odd and Ulrich came behind her and stood on either side of the chair where she sat.
"Is there a way to find Aelita on here?" Yumi murmured half to herself and half aloud. She stared at the keyboard.
"Hello!" a voice startled them. Yumi looked up and Odd gasped.
"That's EVE-10!" he whispered excitedly.
"I'm EVE-10, Jeremie's program," said the turquoise-haired youth on the screen. "Is Jeremie there?"
Ulrich answered quickly, "No. He can't come. Can you help us?"
"Wait a minute!" Odd waved his hands wildly in the air. "When could you talk?" he pointed at the computer screen accusatorily.
"I learned," was the nonchalant reply. "Isn't that how you talk?"
Odd was dumbfounded so he didn't answer. Yumi focused on the task at hand.
"Can you see if Aelita is there?"
EVE-10 shook his head. "She is not here. She is on LYOKO, though. But she is not safe. XANA has her."
"Is he taking all of her memory?" cringed Odd.
EVE-10 shook his head. "No, but he may do worse. He is fighting Franz Hopper, and Franz Hopper is weak. XANA will win," he recited. "I am glad you came not a moment too soon."
Ulrich chuckled, "This guy talks like Jeremie. That's just too funny."
EVE-10 raised one eyebrow and cocked his head. "Who is 'this guy' of which you speak of?"
"You!" Odd laughed at the robot's naivety. "We're talking about you! You're the funny robot, EVE-10."
"I'm a robot?"
Yumi looked uncomfortable and squirmed in her seat. "Well, sort of. I don't know. Look, let's just go okay?"
"Wait! Ulrich can't go," EVE-10 insisted.
"Why?" Ulrich couldn't wait to go back on LYOKO to fight.
"XANA doesn't know that you've escaped LYOKO, especially with the help of Franz Hopper. If you are seen on LYOKO by XANA, that could mean big trouble. You're friends can manage on their own."
Ulrich shuffled his feet angrily. "Fine, I'll stay. But hurry up."
Chapter Twenty: Game Play
"Alright! We made it to sector-5!" whooped Odd excitedly. "Thanks for not killing us, Ulrich."
Ulrich grumbled and muttered, "Three minutes, guys. Move, move, move!"
Yumi dashed in front of Odd and they both disappeared behind the enormous blue walls that made up the core of sector-5.
"I wonder where the key is… oh dear…" Odd halted in his tracks and saw that the interior of sector-5 had gone under a decoration change. The blocks were not moving, and they were arranged eight across and eight down.
The alternating squares were jet black, while the rest remained blue. There were monsters all over this board of sorts, and Yumi noticed something familiar. "It's a chess game!"
EVE-10 came behind them and startled the two warriors. "Hey, Eve," asked Odd, "what's going on?"
Without saying so much as a word, the boy in the golden-brown toga pushed past them gently and approached the board. Of course, Yumi and Odd followed him.
They ascended the staircase to the playing field. The monsters were not fighting each other; it appeared the game had not even begun. On one side, the monsters bore the XANA symbol; on the other, the monsters were completely white and plain.
A white cloud came behind the stark white monsters. EVE prodded Odd in the side and murmured in awe, "That's Franz Hopper!"
Yumi backed up into them as she saw the menacing blood-red cloud advancing towards them, towering over them like an impending doom of red fog. "XA...N...N...A…"she stuttered.
EVE-10 pointed in the center of the board. There lay Aelita enclosed in a glass casket, both her eyes and mouth wide open in sheer terror. Odd could have sworn she was moving, or at least trying to, but it was painful to be in such a position.
The casket moved itself to Franz's side, where there was a space for the obligatory queen. There were also spaces for a king, for a knight, and for a rook. Yumi gulped and pointed at the spaces, "Are those-?"
EVE began to show signs of fear, but he obeyed subconsciously. His feet dragged his body to a black square while his wide turquoise eyes focused ahead of him. He stood in the rook's position.
Suddenly, Yumi and Odd were hurled to their spots, the knight's and the king's respectively. Underneath Yumi rose a white manta from the block board. Odd waved nervously to her from his position next to the glass casket where Aelita lay.
A white pawn, in the shape of a kankrelat, moved forward two spaces against its will. Yumi gasped when she realized that the game had begun-
-and she had to finish it.
Chapter Twenty-One: A Visit
Knock, knock. Olivia looked up from her engrossing book. She was taking a break from her after-school volunteering duties to catch up on a surprisingly good read.
"Come in," she said uneasily. She wasn't expecting visitors, especially visitors in this room. Perhaps it was the friends of this poor patient. She stood up and put down her book.
An older man and woman had entered the room quietly. The woman nodded, her grim smile thinly stretched over her pale face. The man with white hair approached Olivia and stuck out his hand.
"I am Verryl Belpois, and this is my wife, Noelle." Olivia shook the man's hand and came to the conclusion that these two were the parents (or grandparents at this age) of the patient she decided to care for on her own with the help of a kind nurse named Janine.
"I'm Olivia Mare; I'm a volunteer here." She paused and added bravely. "I take care of," she nodded behind her, "him."
Noelle's eyes grew wide as she looked at her son truly. A bandage was wrapped around his forehead so that bits of blonde hair were sticking out. He was cleaned up with a blanket covering his lower half. His hands were put back into their normal position, with his right hand being the home of an IV-lock. The patient was lying stiffly and horizontally; Olivia wasn't sure if he was asleep or unconscious.
"Verryl," she hissed, "let's go. If it's true what they said…"
Olivia was confused. "Why are you going so soon? Isn't he your son?"
The old man was torn between the love of his life and the voice of reason. "I'm sorry, Olivia. I can't…" he seemed helpless against the menacing stares of his wife.
"You can't?" the volunteer echoed.
The man turned to his wife. "Please, Noelle!" he begged. "Can't we just forgive him? He needs our help!"
Noelle squeezed her husband's hand and went out the door alone, saying, "A son who doesn't appreciate life is no son of mine."
Chapter Twenty-Two: Battleboard
"You know, Yumi," Odd peered around a bishop in the shape of a white creeper, "I bet this game will be over soon. I mean, it's just a game, right?"
Ahead of them, another kankrelat moved forward two spaces. A block from XANA's side, used as a pawn, moved towards Yumi another space. A capture was ready to be played out.
But instead of simply going diagonal, the block fired rapidly at the kankrelat. The kankrelat shot lasers back, hitting the block within seconds of the first fire.
The block was obliterated and the kankrelat, which resembled an oversized roach, moved to its position. The white nothingness behind Yumi and Odd rumbled.
EVE-10 murmured for Yumi and Odd to hear, "Franz Hopper is pleased with the game so far."
Odd eyed Yumi with skepticism. "Do you think he can understand that cloud?"
Yumi replied exasperatedly, "I'm being used as a chess piece in a virtual game, I'm riding an albino manta, and I actually have my physics homework done. Anything can happen- whoa!"
Lasers from a hornet, used as a XANA rook, were bombarding Yumi. She quickly flipped out her fans and hurled them at the pesky hornet. The hornet dodged, but not quickly enough; the fan split the hornet in half on the return trip to Yumi's hand.
Odd shouted with happiness and EVE-10 smiled. Yumi and the manta she rode slid two spaces forward and one space to the left, right in front of the bishop creeper.
There was no going back.
Chapter Twenty-Three: Awakening
He could have sworn he heard Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich talking to each other. There conversation was intelligible, as well as meaningless. He saw, or at least he thought he did, a clear coffin similar to that of Snow White's. But the maiden who slept there wasn't peacefully resting; she was bound, tortured, screaming for no one to hear.
It was this screaming that woke him up. He was surprised to see that he was in a quiet sunlit room. He coughed unwillingly.
A sweet-looking black girl leaned over the side of the bed. She held his glasses and put them on for him. He smiled and mouthed the words, "Thank you."
His muteness did not stop her from holding a conversation. "I'm so excited you're awake! You've been unconscious for a long time- many, many hours. I have to tell the others!"
"Wait!" he croaked, as he tried to wave his bandaged hands. The girl stopped, confused. "What's going on?" he pleaded.
She held his hand and sat at his feet on the bed. Gently leaning over, she pressed the tiny up arrow to allow him to sit up in his bed. "There you are; now we can have a conversation like normal people."
He laughed, or at least tried to, at the sweet girl. Her outfit was that of a volunteer and he nodded towards her.
"I'm Olivia Mare; I'm a volunteer here at the hospital. I've been taking care of you because…" her voice trailed off and became sad. "I guess nobody believed you would make it." Then she quickly changed her mood. "But I believed! I believed!"
He was confused. Why was he here? Why was he still alive if nobody but some lowly teenage helper thought he would be alive? Did anybody care?
"Your friends found you in your room last night, all bloody and hardly breathing. They said your fingers were in weird angles and you weren't responsive. But they brought you in and the surgeons fixed your hands," she nodded at the bandage.
"And I was here yesterday taking care of you, and I came right after school, too. And your parents came…" She stopped abruptly, her own words twisting her face into one that scared him.
But he wanted to know, even if the truth hurt. He glared at her and set his jaw. "I must know everything," he said hoarsely.
Olivia lowered her voice. "I'll tell you everything. Your name is Jeremie Belpois. You are sixteen years old, and you live in Villenueve; and during the school year, you live in Sceaux. You were brought in yesterday, with people saying you tried to commit suicide. The doctors stuck you back in this room and thought you would die by the end of the day. Your parents traveled all this way to see if you were alive, but your mother disowned you. And your friends haven't come back from school yet.
"But I believed that you would wake up soon, and I stayed by your side," she added humbly. "God is truly merciful, and now," she stared into his eyes, "I believe in miracles."
Jeremie blushed and averted his gaze. "Thank you, Olivia," he choked out.
Olivia nodded, her soft brown skin illuminated in the soft sunlight pouring in. "Don't say another word; I'm going to get the doctors."
Chapter Twenty-Four: Comet
The game had been cleared out save for five pieces on each side of the board. The mini-battles between the monsters were mostly quick and painless; but the most interesting ones to watch (at least Odd thought) were those of the same species.
On his side, it was himself, Aelita next to him (still in the coffin), Yumi on the manta in front of Aelita, EVE-10 far up ahead of the three of them, and a white creeper two squares to the right of XANA's only remaining mega-tank.
Other than the mega-tank, XANA had three tarantulas, and a scyphozoan positioned as the king. It was XANA's turn now.
The mega-tank rolled two spaces to the already prepared creeper. The bomb-shaped monster opened up and fired two shots to instantly kill the creeper.
Odd gulped. That creeper was meant to take out the scyphozoan and win the game. Odd didn't want to move from his safe spot behind Yumi.
Endless moments went by. It was EVE-10's turn, Franz Hopper, the god, decided. Odd couldn't see the boy's face, but he could just picture the horror on it. The game was not looking good for Franz Hopper.
EVE-10 had been forced to go five spaces to attack the tarantula in that spot. The tarantula was firing rapidly and carelessly at the creature, but EVE-10 wouldn't stop moving.
He shouted something that Odd couldn't understand, and a silvery orb appeared in EVE-10's right hand. The toga-clad boy flung the orb with such immense force that the orb resembled a comet hurling through the air. Within a second, the tarantula was no more.
"Whoa, that was cool!" shouted Odd from his safe spot behind Yumi's manta. "What do you call that?"
EVE-10 shrugged and said, "I call it talent."
Yumi grinned, "I'll say. That was pretty sweet."
The scyphozoan in its full glory moved forward one space. "Oh no, Yumi," Odd moaned. "Does this mean the game's about to end?"
"Not on my watch!" she kicked the manta to go forward. Using her monster as a surfboard, she rode it for a couple of spaces as she flung the fan at the scyphozoan. She missed, and the fans returned quickly. The scyphozoan was moving at a steady pace.
But this attack attracted the remaining tarantulas. They fired at will: aiming at Yumi, but nearly missing the manta she rode instead.
"Yumi!" screamed EVE-10. "What are you doing?"
A tarantula's laser hit Yumi hard in the shoulder as she collapsed.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Connection Lost
A bolt of indescribable pain shot through Jeremie's shoulder. He cringed and caressed the hurt shoulder.
A nurse who was nearby ran to him. "Are you okay?" she enunciated each syllable.
He shook his head as his eyes began to smart. The nurse ran out of the room and shouted, "Can I have some help in here?"
Two other ICU nurses instantly appeared at the bedside. "He's hurt his shoulder, and he can't talk… he was the coma patient," the first nurse informed the newcomers. "But he hasn't done anything to aggravate it, nor can he tell me how bad it is or what the pain is from."
Jeremie, realizing that he had lost the power to communicate temporarily, clutched his shoulder and sat back on the bed while tears streamed down his cheeks.
Chapter Twenty-Six: If When Warriors
"Good God, what are you doing?" shrieked Odd. "Get up! Get up!"
Yumi got up slowly, staggering to retain her balance. Behind her, EVE-10 was preparing a fireball to throw at the menacing tarantula.
Odd glanced at Aelita and saw that she was still alive, but she was still screaming silently inside. He could only imagine what was going on inside her casket.
Yumi threw a fan blindly, hearing the yelps of a tarantula far away dying. A silver orb whizzed by her head which startled her to the point of unsteadiness. The scyphozoan was making its way towards Aelita still, without even so much as a falter in its gliding motion.
Yumi turned around abruptly. "Fire at the scyphozoan!" she shouted at EVE-10. The comet, like a glittering bomb, sped past her left and exploded at the scyphozoan. The explosion was huge and earth-shattering, causing the casket that Aelita was in to crack down the center. Yumi's manta bucked her off and she fell backwards forever.
Jeremie's shoulder hurt no more, but this pain was quickly moved to his entire body. He felt weightless, dizzy, and as if he was falling. He closed his eyes and tried to grab for anything to stop his fall.
With his hands bandaged, he could not find a single thing to stop his fall. He was falling forever and ever, and there was nothing even the most skilled nurse could do. The only thought that comforted him was that he was on a bed and he couldn't actually fall off.
He could feel the wind around him picking up, as if he were falling faster and faster. Starting to hyperventilate, Jeremie could hear his heart monitor racing furiously. There was a crack, and he tried to scream. The pain, oh the pain! He had stopped falling, but his bones were shattered and lungs collapsed.
Oh, what a way to die- to fall while laying down, to fall while… he wasn't dead… how could he be dead… Sweat beads dropped from his forehead and his tiny chest heaved up and down, just to make sure he was still breathing- he was still in pain- he was still alive…
Faster and faster, his heart monitor beeped until it was a constant stream of high-pitched beeps. His little heart stopped beating.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Hope
The dust cleared after the explosion. There lay Yumi, motionless, face down on the board.
Odd couldn't take much more of watching Yumi fall so many times. He fired laser arrows as he ran head first towards the dying tarantula. The tarantula did not explode, but it was so badly crippled that it did not bother to fire any more shots.
"Odd!" shouted EVE-10. "We must save Yumi!"
"No, we have to get rid of all these monsters," yelled Odd as he fired more laser arrows and dodged the shots that came from the remaining tarantulas. "I don't think XANA would give up this easy!"
EVE-10 hurled a comet unsuccessfully at the mega-tank and ran to Odd. "But what can we do?"
Odd put down his arm and looked at EVE-10. "Buddy, we just got to pray and hope for the best. Now watch your back and keep firing!"
"Look! It's a guardian! Watch out!" yelped EVE-10 as a large transparent orb with a girl inside appeared next to Aelita.
"That's not a guardian!" replied Odd excitedly. "That's Therese!" He was about to run over but remembered Yumi. Odd raced backwards to Yumi as EVE-10 fired a comet to shoot down one of the tarantulas.
Yumi's body was rigid, but she was light; it was easy to prop her on his shoulder. But in this position, he could only drag Yumi. He couldn't fight off the impending mega tank, the last and biggest tarantula, or the polymorphic clone that was closing in behind them.
"Oh no," moaned Odd, as he struggled to hoist Yumi up to touch the orb. She wasn't close enough, but the clone was. "What the hell-?"
Things were becoming desperate. He threw Yumi into the orb, and the soft white light appeared out of the nothingness, surrounding Yumi and Therese. Therese disappeared, and Yumi collapsed onto the ground once more.
Odd whipped around and fired two shots into the polymorphic clone of himself. But this clone was smart enough to cartwheel out of the way.
"Eve!" shouted Odd. "Help me!"
Eve's ears perked up and he turned around. No amount of comets could kill off this clone. "I can't-!" was the desperate reply.
Odd dodged and shot, dodged and shot. "Well, can't you get the mega-tank… or even the tarantula?"
"I'll try…" was the distant reply. Odd darted around the clone's laser arrows again; the real Odd was getting tired.
"I got him!" squealed EVE-10 as the mega-tank blew up in the distance.
"That's great, buddy, but we have bigger problems." The tarantula, which was the last true monster left, was marching towards Yumi and firing rapidly.
EVE-10 scowled and ran after the tarantula. He was shouting different things, much like a chant, and various colored comets quickly were blasting like fireworks from his hands. The tarantula was undaunted, and Yumi was still bombarded.
Odd watched all of this from the corner of his eye. "Come on, Yumi, come on…" he whispered as he deflected a laser arrow. He punched the clone Odd in the face, and the clone fell unconscious. Odd ran to Yumi's side.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Lay Me Down to Sleep
It had been at least four hours since Yumi and Odd left for LYOKO. Where were they?
Ulrich sighed and slumped in his chair. So many things were happening all at once, it seemed unfair. His mother's death, William's death, Jeremie's suicide attempt, Mariah's betrayal, his kidnapping, his stay on LYOKO (or whatever it was)… but there was still one thing that kept haunting his mind.
She was once the object of his affection, once the key to his depression, once the summer to his autumn. Without her, his life wouldn't be complete; with her, he was miserable and full of guilt.
She was beautiful, but weren't most girls? She was smart and tough, but weren't most students? She was indescribable… but Ulrich was a fool. Everyone loves angels; only gods can love them like they should.
He shuddered and closed his eyes. He moved on; he realized that life is fragile and cannot be tampered by those who break things, even hearts. But there was also no one else to love, at least, who would love him back twice as much.
With these thoughts, Ulrich fell into a restless slumber.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: No Problem
Yumi coughed and sputtered blood. It was the first time she could taste blood in LYOKO; then again, she had never been in a XANA vs. Franz Hopper chess game before.
There was a worried face hovering over her. It came into focus slowly, and she saw it was Odd's. "Thank God, you're still alive!" he said as he ducked under the path of a whizzing green orb.
"Did I miss anything?" she smiled weakly.
"Nope, nothing," smiled Odd. "But I'll tell you all about it later." He dragged her up to her feet. She staggered a bit, but didn't fall back down. "Glad your back, though; we have a bit of a problem with this stupid clone," he thumbed behind him.
Yumi half-smiled as she jumped, pirouetted in the air, and threw her fans at the same time. As if in slow motion, the clone's eyes grew wide and his mouth tried to emit a scream. One of the fans decapitated him, while the other lodged in his chest.
The head rolled off of the body, the body collapsed on the ground. Yumi clapped her hands and the fans came back with absolutely no blood on them whatsoever.
"Problem? What problem?" she replied smugly.
Chapter Thirty: Stability
"Doctor, we stabilized him, but there really isn't a point now," murmured a dark-haired nurse.
"Janine, I'll tell the staff when or when there isn't a point," growled the old doctor. "I think," he looked at the pale and pained body of Jeremie Belpois, "he has a shot as much as any other patient does. Keep him on life support; if his parents don't care, then I'll have to care for them." The nurse sighed and angrily left the room.
The doctor gingerly touched Jeremie's cold and bare body. "You, Jeremie, will be taken care of, like a son I had a long time ago. I'll take care of you, I promise."
He left the room and shut the door quietly.
Chapter Thirty-One: Emerge True Victor
The white cloud spoke clearly now, "I win, XANA! Your king has been defeated. It is certainly clear now who is the true victor."
"Not so fast, Franz," the red cloud replied. "You cheated. I should be the winner."
"Cheated? I am not responsible for what my pieces did by their own will." Yumi blushed, knowing perfectly well what he was talking about.
"Well, you should be. I kept my own pieces under control."
"You cheated as well, XANA," the voice was calm. "You connected Jeremie's and Yumi's nerve receptors. If I remember clearly, we agreed that we would not contact the outside world until the game was over.
The board cracked in half and a thunderstorm shook the room violently. "Take your stupid humans, Franz! This game isn't over."
The red cloud left, as well as the last remaining tarantula. The white cloud left soon after, with Aelita's casket being lowered gently to the ground. "Aelita!" shouted Odd.
Yumi and EVE-10 joined him, and together the pried open the casket. Aelita was unconscious.
"Ulrich!" shouted Odd as he picked up the limp body. "Hey, Ulrich!" tears streamed from his eyes.
A click and a firm response. "What's up, guys? It took you long enough."
"Get us out of here, Ulrich. Just get us out," Yumi sobbed as she looked at the lifeless, yet breathing, form of pink-haired Aelita Hopper.