WHY!? WHY AM I DOING THIS!?
If anyone hasn't figured it out, I HATE this episode. It is my least favorite episode in the whole series. Yeah, SERIES! It is so stupid! And you will see why, now.
Chapter 13: The Girl of the Dreams
"Hi guys." I greeted Ulrich and Odd as I walked to their dorm.
"Hey, Emily." Ulrich replied. He then laughed as I zipped up my jacket. "Do you wear that thing to bed?" He jokingly asked. I shrugged.
"Depends on the temperature." I answered, causing him to roll his eyes. "So, where's Jeremy?"
"In his room. We're gonna get him if he doesn't come out in the next few minutes." So, when he didn't come out, Odd did just that.
"Hey, get a move on, Jeremy! You're gonna be late for school again!" Odd pointed out. Jeremy turned back with a surprised look on his face.
"Wow, is it that late already? Ok, I'll be right there, Odd." He swiveled his chair back to his screen, however. "Anyhow, useless or not, I'm gonna try one last thing." Odd rolled his eyes. It seemed to have become a running thing that Jeremy was nearly late because of Aelita's materialization.
"Ok, I get the picture. See you later." He said, then closed the door. Ulrich looked over at the time.
"Hate to bail on you, but I promised to help Yumi with something. See you in class." He ran down the hall and to the stairs. Jeremy walked out of his dorm.
"You ready to roll, Einstein?" I asked, to which he nodded at. "Then, in the words of a certain Italian plumber, 'Let's-a-go!'" I said in my Mario impression.
We walked out of the dorm building and over to the Science Building. We saw Ulrich say bye to Yumi, then run over to us.
"So, what did she need?" Odd asked. "Did she want you to propose to her?" Ulrich shot the feline warrior a nasty glare.
"She just needed help with something for her history project. That's all." He answered. We entered Ms. Hertz' class, and took our seats.
Before class even began, however, Jeremy let out a yawn. Odd and I turned to look at him, as Ulrich rolled his eyes with a smirk.
"Y'know Jeremy, most people use the night hours to sleep." Ulrich joked.
"No kidding. You look like crap, Jeremy." I commented.
"I was trying a new for materializing Aelita." Jeremy explained. "With this last one I tried, I almost succeeded. I was nearly there."
"And what are you gonna say to her when you do succeed? You never knew how to talk to a girl." Odd joked, making Ulrich and me snicker.
"With Aelita, it's not the same." Jeremy insisted.
"You're right, it's not the same." Odd teased.
"I doubt he'll be saying that when she's here in the flesh." I whispered to Odd and Ulrich.
"We'll be lucky if he ever speaks again." The three of us began quietly laughing at our banter. We stopped as soon as Mr. Delmas walked into the room.
"Excuse me, everyone, but before the start of your first class this morning, I'd like to introduce you to your new classmate. Come in, Taelia, I'm sure your fellow students are anxious to meet you." Mr. Delmas said, ushering the new girl to come in. Odd and I turned around to face Jeremy again.
"Ok Jeremy, here's your chance! Imagine she's here in front of you right now in flesh in blood. Now, what're you gonna say?" Odd asked. Jeremys eyebrows shot in surprise when he looked at Taelia, however.
"Oh, wow!" He said, making the three of us laugh.
"Beep! Sorry your time is up!" I joked as I turned back around.
"You could use a few pointers in flirting." Odd noted, then gasped as he looked in the front.
I literally I had to put up my hand up to my head to stop it from hitting the desk. "Why, why, WHY ME?!" The girl named Taelia... Looked almost exactly like Aelita.
After Class
After class was let out we immediately sought out Yumi.
"Hey guy- hey!" She said as we practically dragged her out of the door. She sent me a confused glance, at which I would only offer an apologetic smile and shrug. "What is up with you guys?" She asked. We soon found out look-a-like reading a book on a bench.
"That.. would be why we're boarder line insane today." I answered. Yumis eyes widened.
"She looks a lot like Aelita, doesn't she?" Odd pointed out. Yumi couldn't help but nod.
"You're right, she certainly does LOOK like her, but if she really is her, she aught to be able to recognize us, right?" She pointed out.
"Not necessarily." Jeremy quickly said. "She could've lost her memory when she was materialized."
"Well, talk to her! It's the only way you're gonna find out!" Odd suggested. Jeremy sent a worried glance at him.
"But what if it's not her?" He asked. Odd shook his head, and looked over at Ulrich, who nodded at him. They walked up to Jeremy and began pushing him towards Taelia.
On the bench, I watched Odd talk to her, and shook my head. Yumi looked over at me.
"What's up with you? You've been pretty quiet about this whole thing." I sent Yumi a worried look.
"That isn't Aelita. I'm sure of it." I said to her.
"What makes you say that?"
"I just have a feeling." I said. I admit that this was an episode I didn't really know. I didn't even know it existed the first time I watch every episode, but when I did watch it, I absolutely hated it. I thought the entire premise was stupid, but I especially hated our little look alike friend. My thoughts were interrupted when Taelia suddenly got up and walked away from the boys, which was our cue to go over to them.
"Well?" Yumi asked.
"It's not her." Odd said bitterly. Ulrich let out a good long laugh at Odd's expense.
"He's only saying that cause he just got the brush-off, big time. 'Watch an expert and learn', huh?" Ulrich looked over at us, collecting himself and putting on a more serious look. "Anyways, if it IS Aelita, it's for sure she's got amnesia."
"Wait a second, hold on." Jeremy said. "Let's say it's her- if it's really her, I mean for sure, then she can't still be on Lyoko!" He pointed out.
"You can check it out later." Ulrich said as the bell rang. "Right now we have a date with Ms. Meyer." I let out a sigh.
"If only we didn't. I can't stand geometry." I let my chin fall into my hands before standing up. Ulrich let put a small smirk.
"We must be related then if you of all people is terrible at it."
"Wish me luck on my report!" Yumi beamed. But her grin quickly faded when all three of the boys walked past her without a second glance. I gave her a quick pat on the back and smiled at her.
"You'll do fine!" I assured her, then ran up to catch up with the others.
I sat next to Ulrich in math, but I could plainly see Jeremy staring at Taelia, to which I shook my head at and rolled my eyes. "Jesus and I thought I was blind."
"I have to check out Lyoko now, I can't wait any longer!" Jeremy finally whispered.
"Ok, we'll go together." Odd decided.
"Um, Ms. Meyer? Can I go to the infirmary? I feel kind of sick." Jeremy lied.
"How exactly does this always work?" I muttered to Ulrich, who simply chuckled and shrugged.
"Yes, of course, Jeremy." Ms. Meyer replied. Odd then stood up next to him.
"I'll take him there I mean you never know, huh." With that, they walked out of the room. I looked at Taelia and let out a sigh, catching Ulrichs attention.
"What's up with you?" He asked. I sent him a worried glance.
"I just can't believe that she's Aelita. It just doesn't make sense."
"What do you mean?" Ulrich questioned with a quizzical glance.
"Well, say Jeremy DID somehow manage to matrialize Aelita without being aware of it, and she does have amnesia, how did she get into Kadic so quickly?" Ulrich remained quiet at that one for a few minutes. He stared at the desk, then peered up back at me.
"I have no idea. Maybe it is just a coincedence, but knowing Jeremy, I doubt he's going to be inclinded to believe that." He finally said. I grimaced and returned my attention to Ms. Meyer.
Lunch
Jeremy was firmly convinced that Taelia was Aelita, but I think the rest of us weren't convinced. Yumi, however, was believing something a tad more plausible. At least, plausible for a group like us, anyways. Apparently, she brought samurai armor to school for sort of grand finale for her report, but when she opened the cabinet, it was gone.
"Maybe one of the kids took it." Ulrich suggested. Yumi shook her head.
"Don't forget the electrical outlets." Yumi reminded him. Odd poked around at his brussels sprouts in his tray, seeming only vaguely interested in his food for once.
"Yeah." He agreed. "Look, if XANA is in on this, we better not count on Aelita. We can't reach her on Lyoko." Jeremy sent an annoyed look to all of us.
"Odd, we can't reach her on Lyoko because she isn't ON Lyoko!" Jeremy exclaimed, standing up to put more emphasis on his words. I stood up and glared at Jeremy. We had a small staring contest before sitting down a few seconds later. We all looked over at Taelia, who sent us a small wave. Yumi let out a sigh and shook her head.
"Sorry you guys, but I can't believe that that girl is Aelita." She said. I let out a breath of relief.
"Finally, someone makes sense!" I said in an exasperated tone. Jeremy sent a look of disbelief our way.
"Well, I know someone who's dying to believe it." Ulrich said slyly, a smirk plain on his face. Mr. Delmas then walked in with a detective next to him.
"Children, please give me your attention." He started. "Several of your fellow students, as well as our own Jim, whom you all know and whom you you respect, I know-"
"Let's not go overboard, huh?" Odd joked. Whether or not Delmas heard him or not, I'm not sure, but he went over to our table anyways.
"Their attacker was a person who, uh well, a person who wearing armor, the armor of a samurai." Alarm bells started going off in my head at that one. "And this individual is still at large. Any information you can contribute to the police would be more than welcome." We all looked at each other.
"I refuse to sit here any longer while XANA is hurting others." I said, which Ulrich nodded at.
"We have to go to Lyoko, find Aelita, and deactivate the tower!"
"When are you going to get it into your thick heads that if the samurai is controlled by XANA, then he's after Taelia!?" Jeremy exclaimed as he stood up. "It makes sense, doesn't it? Because Taelia is Aelita!" I sent him a look as he walked out of the lunchroom.
"The only one with a thick head is you, hardhead!" I shouted at him. Yumi put a hand on my shoulder, which I took as my cue to quiet down.
"Wow, he's really flipped his lid, huh?" Odd jokingly asked. The detective then walked over to us.
"Excuse me, miss." He said to Yumi. "It seems that this armor belongs to you."
"Uh..." Being unable to deny the truth, Yumi went with the detective to the administration building. We followed in hopes that the questioning would be short, but we quickly realized the longer we waited, the more people were at risk.
"Look, we can't do anything here for Yumi, Ulrich. We have to call Jeremy and tell him to meet us at the factory." Odd pointed out. Ulrich seemed to agree, as he wordlessly pulled out his mobile. He let out a sound of annoyance, then slipped it back into his pocket.
"Jeremy's voice mail is own now." I let out a sigh.
"Well, if it comes down to it and he isn't there, one of us is going to have to virtualize the other two." I said. "Now, hopefully no one ends up in the Digital Sea." I shuttered.
Lab
We came literally just in the nick of time. Taelia had just about convinced Jeremy to shut down the computer.
"Jeremy, stop!" Ulrich exclaimed as the elevator opened.
"Have you gone mad or what Einstein!? What if Aelita is still on Lyoko!?" Odd asked.
"But she isn't I tell you! She right there in front of you!"
"Don't give us that, Jeremy! Don't give us that crap!" I said.
"Jeremy, we know you've dreamt of seeing Aelita in reality for months. But please come down to Earth!" Ulrich said. "You can't be sure!" Jeremy looked down at the metal floor. "And what if you were mistaken?"
"You mean you're ready to take the risk of destroying Aelita by destroying XANA?" Odd asked.
"We've got to make sure. You've got to let us go to Lyoko!" Ulrich insisted.
"And if Aelita's not there, who's going to deactivate the tower?"
"Jeremy, if you don't send us to Lyoko, I will send Ulrich and Odd in myself, no matter how long it takes." Looking at all of our gazes, he collapsed. He jerked his head towards the elevator.
After taking it down, we each went to a scanner. "The last time I saw Aelita, she was in the Mountain Sector. Transfer, Ulrich. Transfer, Emily. Transfer, Odd. Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Emily. Scanner, Odd. VIRTUALIZATION!"
Lyoko
We landed in the, um well, mountainous Mountain Sector.
"Can you see anything?" Jeremy's voice called out.
"Yeah. Mountains. Lots of them." Ulrich deadpanned.
"I was gonna say that too actually." I remarked.
"I'm starting the scan to trace the tower that XANA's activated."
"Great, but without our deactivator, that won't do us a whole lot." I said. We then began running and jumping over gaps and onto rocks to move ahead.
"Boy oh boy, finding someone around here is going to be harder than finding an idea in Jim's head!" Odd joked. He then got a familiar far off look in his eyes as Ulrich approached. "Guys! I just saw Aelita!" He exclaimed as Ulrich hopped down.
"Really?" I asked excitedly. "Where!?"
"In a kind of flash vision..." He elaborated. I looked up at the sky.
"I told you you were hardheaded!" Jeremy then received a call from Yumi.
"Oh, hi Yumi. Is everything ok?"
"Yes, they finished questioning me. But I just saw Taelia, and she looked like she was in a hurry to go and see the principal." Yumi replied.
"Oh no, this can't be! This is awful, horrible!" He gulped. "Yumi, I took Taelia to the factory."
"You what?!" Yumi exclaimed. "She's going to tell the cops everything! I'm on my way!"
"Ulrich, Odd, Emily! The tower XANA's activated has been localized at 30 degrees north in the Forest Sector!" We ran forward.
"Without Aelita, that's not going to to do us a whole lot of good." Ulrich reminded him. Odd looked down at winding path. At the end, it had Aelita, trapped in a Guardian!
"Look there! That ball of fire! That's exactly what I saw before!" Odd exclaimed. "Aelita's inside it!" We jumped down and began running on the path.
"Jeremy, we found her!" Ulrich reported, to which Jeremy let out a sigh of relief for. We stopped in front of the Guardian.
"That ball is what's blocking communication with Aelita!" Odd deduced.
"It's a Guardian." Ulrich stated. "The same monster that imprisoned Yumi."
"Right, and Aelita saved her by convincing the monster he had the wrong prisoner." I finished. "But Aelita isn't exactly available today."
"So now, the only solution is to use force." Unsheathing his katana, he stabbed the Guardian, which worked about as well as it did when Yumi was trapped. Odd also tried firing an arrow, but it also failed.
"Somehow I get the feeling this plan was a bad one." I sarcastically commented, earning an annoyed look from the boys. "Jeremy, nothing's working."
"It's like this machine is invincible!" Ulrich quipped. Jeremy let out an annoyed sigh.
"Oh wow, XANA must have designed it's program... Right, it's a program! And if it's a program, I should be able to-"
"Hey, what're you mumbling about? You've got an idea, I hope." Ulrich said.
"Maybe, but give me a couple of minutes here."
"Ok, no problem man. We've got all the time in the world." Odd sarcastically remarked.
"Oh no, I just had to blow our cover by talking to a perfect stranger." Jeremy muttered. "That means the samurai wasn't after Taelia at all, he was after us, Yumi." I noticed the now panicked look on Ulrich's face.
"Jeremy, try and block the elevator! That may buy us a little time!"
"R-right!" Jeremy said.
"Hey, how about that idea of yours?" Ulrich asked impatiently.
"It's ready. Here it goes." Then, a false image of Aelita appeared next to the Guardian, confusing it, and ultimately causing its demise.
"A decoy! Jeremy, you're the greatest!" Aelita then lay in front of us, unconscious and likely weakened.
"Get Aelita to a tower, she's got to regenerate herself!" Ulrich picked her up bridal style, then followed Jeremy's directions to the Way Tower to the Forest Sector.
Soon enough, she regained consciousness. She sat up and looked at all of us gratefully.
"Oh, you found me at last." She said. "What about the Guardian?"
"You mean that big fat fore bubble? Ha! He won't bother you any more!" Odd assured her. I bent down to her level.
"Are you ok?" I asked.
"Yes." She said with a nod. "Much better thanks to your help." I stood up with my hand extended to help her up. We all went to the edge of the tower.
"We're off Jeremy. Destination, the forest." Odd reported. We then found ourselves in the new tower, and exited.
"Jeremy, we're here!"
"Look guys, you better hurry. I can't reach Yumi. I'm afraid she's having problems with the samurai." Jeremy said.
"There's no time to lose, let's go!" Ulrich said, the ran ahead with the three of is following behind.
"While you're at it, you got any other good news?" Odd asked.
"Oh yeah, plenty! The elevator block wore off, and Taelia saw me lunch in the access code to the lab. And the principal and the police are here now." He paused. "Um, and XANA's monsters are around. Two Bloks. Watch out for their laser gel guns or it's game over."
"Geez, this is an eventful day!" I noted as we turned to face out enemies.
"Hey, Bloks! Cool! My favorite monsters!" Odd cheered.
"More like the first monster you were devirtualized by." I remarked. Odd attempted to fire a few arrows, but to no avail as he missed. The Bloks began their cold assault, forcing him to run. Noticing the ice on the tree, I couldn't help but make a bad pun. "Looks like these Bloks really know how to, 'Let it go!'" I said in a singing voice, earning a groan from Ulrich and Jeremy.
"Haha! You've been trained well, Emily!" Odd laughed.
"That's kinda what happens when you have 22 and 19 year old brothers." I attempted to fire a blast from my staff, but I once again missed. I let out a huff of annoyance.
"Odd, Emily, you take care of Aelita. I'll stay here and handle them, alone. Well, almost alone. "He said, using a kind of tone that implied no time for arguments. Odd and I, realizing that we had to be quick for Yumi's sake, ran off with Aelita as requested and as fast as we could. He gave an intimidating look to the Blok before shouting "Triangulate!" and surrounded the monster. The Blok shot Ulrich's two clones fairly quickly and with incredible ease, but was unable to avoid its demise. Ulrich hopped up on top of it and stabbed it in the eye, blue electricity sparking in its eye. The brunette samurai leaped off of the Blok right before it exploded. He took only one moment to catch his breath, but it was one moment too long, as the other Blok used its gel to freeze and devirtualize Ulrich.
Meanwhile, the three of us had neared the activated tower without losing any Life Points. Odd and I looked over at Aelita.
"It's your turn, Princess." Odd said, using a nickname he had come up with while pointing at the tower. Aelita nodded and began making her way toward it. However, we didn't notice the other Blok Ulrich was unable to get making its way toward the tower either. It made itself known right as Aelita was about to enter. Odd uttered a growl.
"Man, XANA really knows how to ruin things." I muttered. The Blok was preparing to fire, so we had to act fast. We each charged up our weapons, catching the monsters attention. It fired the ice at us, which while Odd was able to completely dodge, it froze my right leg. "Aw c'mon! You're gonna regret that, XANA!" Odd did another flip to catch its attention, giving me te to throw my staff blade first at it, killing it. We both let out a sigh of relief when we watched Aelita enter the tower.
I knew it wouldn't help, but it decided to hit the ice with the side of my hand as we waited for the return trip. Odd flashed a toothy grin at me as he watched. "Looks like you need to chill out."
"Oh dear lord..."
"But then again, it is a pretty ICE look for you."
"Odd-"
"Emily, I need you to freeze real quick!" He paused while giggling. "That's perfect! Snow doubt about that, you're a really cool person." I was doing my best not to laugh, but it only made things escalate quicker. "Wow, talk about giving a guy the cold shoulder." That one did me in, and I found myself hunched over laughing.
"Ok Mr. Freeze, that's enough." I somehow got out as a white bubble engulfed us.
So, of course, we course, we found ourselves right where the problem began earlier in the morning, science class. Odd and I were still doing our best to stifle our giggles (which heavily confused everyone, even Ulrich and Jeremy) as Delmas introduced Taelia.
"I heard Sissi say that the new girl was an orphan. That's why she didn't want to talk about her family." Ulrich said to us. I nodded my head. Things were starting to make sense now. Well, in a crazy kind of cartoon logic way anyways.
"Well, anyway," Jeremy began. "if you look closely, you can see their eyes AREN'T the same, the nose is different, and so is the hair.
"Oh, he is NOT doing this, is he?" I asked.
"How could you've possibly thought she was Aelita?" That one broke it for all three of us.
"Did you just say that we thought-" Ulrich exclaimed, but couldn't form the words to finish.
"He sure did." Odd confirmed.
"You'd have to be blind to think that." That one was also a sore spot for myself.
"Ok, Ulrich, Odd, pin him down after class. I have some business to settle with Einstein here!" The others all laughed at my expense.
Yumi's Class
Yumi's report had gone rather well, or at least, it had seemed to. She could tell a view people were interested, and if nothing else, everyone else faked it very well. Now, it was time to finish it off with a proper finale.
"And now, to finish my report, I'd like to show you something that's been in my family for centuries." That seems to pique a few more interests. "It's a living symbol of Japan, here." She opened the cabinet doors to reveal the samurai armor that had been chasing her only "minutes" before, but now had shackles attached to its feet.
After all, she could never be too careful, right?
That Night
I was having difficulty sleeping that night. It just wasn't coming easy to me. I have the occasional insomnia, but it was weird this time. Stuff like that usually happened becuase I either stayed up too late, or watched something scary, but even then I would at least know that cause. I hadn't done either since I arrived at Kadic (well, with the exception of XANA attacks).
However, at one point, I closed my eyes, and saw a strange image. It wasn't a dream, that much I know, but anyways, it was a figure cast in shadows, with one of their hands and head raised toward the sky. A blue energy was coming from their hand, and suddenly, a necklace of sorts appeared around their neck, looking kind of like a house key. I opened my eyes after that.
"What was that?" I asked myself, but decided to just shrug it off. I had a tendency to create strange images in my head, so I decided to shrug it off as my overactive imagination.
FINALLY DONE! My god I despise this episode. As Jeremy said at the end, IT'S OBVIOUS THEY'RE DIFFERENT! This episode os awful, for reasons I pointed out in the chapter of that Jeremy's reasoning DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER.