AN: Apparently, the 24 hour clock does not have AM/PM. I apologize for the confusion (Ch. 9 has been edited, the previous chapters have not). XANA had been added to the ending chapters during the edit of Ch 9.
It is advisable that you do not replicate the actions here (especially the pressure points. That's a no-no).
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Code Apocalypse: Chapter 10- "Trust… in…. my…. Self-Righteous Suicide"
July 13, 15:45
"Uh…" Odd said, backing away slowly from the possessed Aelita. "Can't we just talk about this like the civil people we are?"
"Silence, you fool!" XANA-Aelita hissed, wild eyes training on his.
"Aelita!" Jeremie yelled, causing her to stop and direct her gaze to him with a snarl. "Aelita, please, stop…" he reached out and grabbed her arm in one swift motion.
Her emerald eyes flashed dangerously, but he held on, his hand shaking nervously. Clicking sounds that echoed around the room sounded as guns were loaded and trained on Aelita. A low growl sounded in her throat, and Jeremie gulped, his anxiety-filled eyes searching within her orbs for something recognizable, something that resembled human. His face whitened when he saw that there was nothing in those eyes, save for the hungry look in them that resembled a shark. The thudding on the door behind them continued to sound, but the door firmly held, keeping the robots out for the moment.
"Aelita… please… remember us… please remember… me… your kids…your friends… your parents…" Her response was for the growl only to sharply increase in volume and ferocity.
"It's no use." XANA gave a dark chuckle. "She's too far gone… and I must thank you for delivering the old man to my doorstep… it would make extinguishing his pitiful existence much easier…" He nodded to Waldo and gave an evil grin.
"You're not killing anyone today." William pointed his automatic shotgun in XANA's direction. "I want my revenge for the life you stole from me… for making me into a monster… for forcing me to participate in your sick…" XANA's grin grew wider. "… and your twisted, inhumane schemes!"
"Ah, William… I nearly forgot about you… how rude of me…" his gaze travelled to Clone Aelita. "You"
"Me" she coolly replied, a faint trace of a smile on her face.
"Your life is nothing. Your existence has no meaning. I often wonder why you continue to exist."
"As these humans put it in theological terms, 'go to hell'". XANA's expression turned into an angry glare.
"No mercy, Aelita. Now, sic them."
With a painful twist of Jeremie's arm, she freed herself from his hold and slammed his back against the cold metal floor. She pinned him down onto the ground with a snarl, curling a hand around his neck without actually squeezing it with the intention to kill. Jeremie attempted to free himself by pulling her hand away, but found himself picked up and slammed against the ground again. Her head whipped up to meet the stunned group, who were unable to determine whether to shoot at XANA and kill him- possibly letting Aelita kill Jeremie in the process-, or to kill Aelita and risk hurting Jeremie. XANA stood behind her, a grim smile of triumph directed towards the stunned Warriors.
"It seems that we have reached an impasse. You can kill either me and risk Aelita squeezing Jeremie's jugular vein and strangle him to death, or you can kill her to free Jeremie. Perhaps you might be able to kill both of us, but the question is… are you willing to?"
"Shut up, XANA!" Odd snarled.
"Such ferocious temper… humans… perhaps you might be willing to surrender and lay your arms down… and I shall reward you by giving you a quick death instead of a slow and painful one. Perhaps having a quick death would still be equally painful, perhaps it might not. So… what will your choice be?"
"What about this option?" Francis grinned and proudly presented the bomb. "It might be small, but it packs a lot of punch."
"Fool…" XANA hissed, realizing what the item was after a quick scan of it. "…You risk killing your allies to save the infernal race of humanity? It is a noble, but a very foolish act indeed."
"Who said that anyone else is going to die?"
With that, he tore off the paper with one fluid movement, the glint of the shiny metal catching the eye of everyone present in the room. Francis smirked and with a devilish twinkle in his eyes, winked at Yumi. Yumi stared at him for a moment, utterly confused before giving a small smile in understanding and winking back. Aelita gave a deep growl, as her attention was directed towards Francis, but it was suddenly cut off when Yumi's fist collided with her Solar Plexus. The breath forced out of her lungs, Aelita let go of Jeremie and rubbed the wounded area instinctively.
Yumi jabbed the part under Aelita's chin and began to apply pressure. Aelita's eyes narrowed and she swiped at Yumi, but her attack didn't connect- her body slumped as she was lost in the darkness of unconsciousness as Yumi applied more pressure to the area. Jeremie groaned and shifted the weight off of him, lying her body down on the ground gently. Even in her unconscious state, she still appeared as if she was going to attack them at any moment- though her eyes were closed, her fingers seemed to be twitching a little, and her mouth slightly curving into a snarl. Yumi cracked her knuckles and gave a small shrug to the surprised group.
"I've been taking classes on where pressure points were, in part of my lessons in hand-to-hand combat." She explained.
"Actually, I was egging you on so that you would make a comment supporting my wild claim of blowing thins thing up here and now." Francis said, still holding the bomb with his outstretched hands.
"Just go with it!" Odd hissed.
XANA, however, did not look bothered, or even angered at the turn of events. Instead, he gave a devious smirk and snapped his fingers. Almost instantly, the door behind them started thudding harder and harder as the sound and the ferocity of the pouching increased before suddenly cutting off. Ulrich out his ear to the door and listened for any kind of sound, no matter how loud or quiet it was. A loud crunching sound echoed across the room as the door was punched with the ferocity equal to that of a trapped animal's. Ulrich gave a shout of surprise and scurried away from the door as quickly as he could, just in time for the door to be punched once more and fall off of its hinges- slamming onto the cold floor below. Thick dust swirled around the air, obscuring most of what lay behind the formerly upright door.
The metal of a hulking electronic robot dimly glinted in the dust-choked sunlight, which instantly caught the group's attention. A quick shout had the group scatter to all corners of the room. They made it just in time to see a red laser had blast vaporized the ground where they had formerly been on- disintegrating everything up to the bare concrete flooring below. Jeremie gasped softly at what had fired such a destructive blast, and XANA gave a dark chuckle in response.
"You didn't think that all of the droids I had created and rebooted were the same obsolete models that I knew you could easily dispatch? No, I suppose you had thought that. As with the clones, they each have a level that they correspond to, which is given based on their skills, their vitality, and strength." XANA remarked, watching as the higher ranking robots filled the room and began cornering the scattered group against the metal-clad walls. "The clones you had met outside, wandering about the grounds, were the Level 1 clones- the clones that were close to being rejected and tossed aside. Now, prepare to meet the level 4 robots. It's a shame I was only able to only create one of each of the Lyoko Warriors that were precisely on par with the particularly exceptional skills you displayed during your fights on Lyoko." XANA continued, smirking as they realized they were completely trapped. "In just less than two hours from now, the clones and the robots I had specifically designed to create mass chaos and destruction will be deployed. Cities upon cities will fall as hundreds upon thousands of humans will be slain, their technology turned against them. I have personally signed their death sentences myself using the science and technology the humans had created in an attempt to protect themselves from harm. Now… prepare to receive your death sentence." A snap of his fingers, and the robot's arm cannons leveled to the cornered group members, pulsing as they charged with electrical energy.
"Aelita…" Odd whispered to the Clone Aelita. "Do you still have your super-strength?"
"Yeah… why?" she whispered back, keeping an eye on the sparking orb of electricity that was growing in the robot's open palm.
"I have a plan…"
"Don't do anything stupid, Odd…"
"I won't… don't worry about it…" Odd winked and motioned for her to grab on to his arms.
Perplexed, Clone Aelita did so, and firmly secured her arms with his. Odd gave a sly smile and whispered his plan into her ear. Nodding, and with a mighty roar, flung him towards one of the robots currently inhabiting the room. Though her throw was not nearly as powerful enough as she would have liked, Odd felt relieved when he easily closed the distance between them. With a high-pitched, ethereal screech that would have caused any sane person to cover their ears to protect them from being ruined, he slammed into the robot and clung on like a frightened cat would do to any object within reach. Using his weight as an advantage, he forced the robot to stagger to the side and fire, obliterating one of its partners in the process.
The events that happened next were simply utter chaos- laser blasts and bullets were being traded back and forth. Even XANA had to dodge a few particularly lethal energy discharges to avoid being wiped out sooner than he would have wanted to. Electricity sparked as wiring and electrical components were cut into, forcing the part of the building to have a small electrical shortage before the back-up generators kicked in.
"I hate robots!" Francis yelled as he ran away from a particularly resilient droid that was chasing after him.
"I've got you!" Ulrich yelled, using his supersprint to assist him in pushing him off of the ground, into the air, and onto the troublesome droid.
He covered its sensors with an arm, and tried to get at one of his sabers with his other arm. The robot gave a small grunt and attempted to buck him off, with little success. Ulrich groaned and clung on, tightening his grip on his saber to prevent it from slipping out of his hand. Struggling to maintain his grip, he shifted into a more secure position before shouting out the words he never thought he would get to say again.
"Ahhh! Impact!" he yelled, digging the saber into the robot's "head", pushing the saber in as hard as he possibly could.
By now, the robot had managed to locate the source of its tormenter and attempt to remove him from its barely functioning body. Grasping the scruff of Ulrich's neck with an enormous metal hand, it flung him off of its body, causing him to skid across the room. Losing the energy to power its systems, it tried to pry the saber out of itself, but only managed to make its situation worse, thereby spelling out its own doom. It fell to the floor with a great thunderous crash, the bright red "eyes" dimming as its electrical core failed to deliver the energy needed by the robot to continue functioning properly.
Ulrich gave a grim smile and retrieved his saber, bringing its twin out with a flourish of his other hand. He pointed one of his swords at an amused XANA, who summoned his black and blood-red sword with a wave of his own "arm". XANA brought the flat side of his sword to his head, and touched his "forehead" with it, accepting the challenge Ulrich proposed. With both sides using their respective powers, they charged at each other and clashed, red and blue sparks flying from the blades upon their impact with the other. Jeremie fired blasts from his rifle at one of the last two remaining robots in the room, using one of its fallen comrades as a temporary shield.
"Ow!" Yumi shouted as a laser grazed her arm.
Yumi shook her arm a bit as the affected part winked out of existence and came back again. The bracelet flashed '-30' in red lettering shortly before disappearing and shortly displaying her total life points left before she would be materialized back into the tower she had been energized in. Scowling angrily at the perpetrator, she tossed her fans in hopes it would enrage it enough for its aim to start losing its accuracy. It worked- though the fans had barely made a dent in its armor, the robot had reclassified her as a bigger threat, and started to rapidly fire weaker blasts of energy, which Yumi dodged easily.
Silently thanking the years she had spent in gymnastics in an attempt to make herself more flexible when fighting her adversaries in Pencak-Silat as she caught her returning fans, she executed backflips with ease, dodging around its wildly fired blasts while getting closer and closer to it. Though XANA might have not noticed it, she had developed her close-combat fighting techniques. Using her pent-up fury to further power her attacks, she began her assault with a barrage of kicks, pushing the robot exactly where she wanted it with every slam of her foot against its metal plating.
Too focused on trying to dodge Yumi's attack to keep from being beaten from existence, the robot had backed up into the crossfire that raged between Odd, Francis, Clone Aelita, William, and the other droid. Its metal was shredded by the massive amounts of fire being exchanged between the five, and it circuitry was increasingly being damaged as it struggled to regain the ground it had lost in the fight.
"Hasta la vista, baby!" Yumi said in her best Arnold Schwarzenegger impressionist voice before she tossed her fans to slice through the wiring exposed by the bullets and ill-aimed laser blasts from its comrade.
A flick of the wrist and a toss of a fan later, the robot was felled, leaving a clear path for the others to eliminate the last remaining robot. The group was eager to finish the battle as quickly as they could, for the surrounding area was becoming dangerous for them to continue fighting. Electricity was flying everywhere as severed wires protruded ominously from the damaged supercomputer, walls, and the ceiling, where holes had been created from the battle.
Wrestling with indecision for a moment, William picked up one of the live cables hanging from the ceiling and jammed it against the robot, being careful to avoid being electrocuted himself.
The robot's vision rapidly changed between a neutral shade of blue to a tortured hue of red, many of its core programs shutting down in response to the massive surge of energy it was not designed to withstand. With a groan that echoed eerily around the room, it fell to the ground with its arm still outstretched in a firing position.
Meanwhile, Ulrich was busy trying to survive in the fight against XANA himself. It was difficult to continue to dodge XANA's blows, since XANA was using tactics similar to when XANA-William was fighting Ulrich on Lyoko all those years ago. Using brute strength and the advantage of a large blade against Ulrich, XANA was constantly forcing Ulrich to continually rely on a defensive position.
Ulrich gritted his teeth and poured more strength in trying to maintain his defense against XANA's attack. He was forced onto his knees in an effort to keep his swords in their defensive X-shaped position to continue blocking XANA's blade. It was no use, he was exhausted, and XANA had a seemingly limitless amount of energy. With 40 life points or less remaining due to the damage he had received from XANA, there was practically there was nothing he could do. He could barely remain in his kneeling position, let alone keep his defenses up.
"Hmm… growing weaker, Ulrich. Tsk, tsk. I expected you to put up a better fight… ah, well."
With that, XANA lifted up his blade and slammed it onto Ulrich's blades. Unable to put up much of a resistance due to his current weakened state, Ulrich closed his eyes so he wouldn't see the blow coming. A dull pain throbbed throughout his body as the blade cut his form into two, both parts turning into static before fizzing completely out of existence. XANA stared at where Ulrich had been moments ago before frowning slightly and resting his blade on one of his "shoulders".
"Mercy killing…though I wasn't much of the mercy type, anyhow." XANA remarked, casting his gaze around the heavily damaged room. "Who's next?"
"You… I'm going to kill you for that!" Yumi snarled, whipping her fans out in an offensive position.
"Did I touch a nerve there, Yumi?" he asked, tightening his grip on the blade.
"You sure did, which is a pretty big mistake you made there." Yumi replied, using her athletic abilities to dodge XANA's attacks. "One rule you have to remember is…" Yumi kicked XANA, forcing him to stagger backwards in an attempt to regain his balance again. "Never make a woman mad."
Clone Aelita trained her newly-reloaded weapon where she thought it would deal the most amount of damage to XANA. With ammunition running low from the constant firing they had to do due to XANA's minions, she had to make every last shot count now. Sweat poured down her face and adrenaline was pumped through her veins by her rapidly beating heart. Her breathing hitched as she heard a low growling sound behind her, turning around to face the source of whatever had made such a noise. She was greeted by Aelita pouncing on her, knocking her weapon out of her hands, and furiously tearing at her midsection.
"Get off of me!" Clone Aelita yelled, elbowing Aelita's face, earning herself several bites to her arm.
Aelita responded by grabbing Clone Aelita by her shoulders and tossing her across the room, forcing Clone Aelita to land in a semi-defensive crouching position. She hissed in anger, and both of them leapt at each other with the intent to brutally harm the other. They collided in midair, and fell to the ground with a thump, still clawing at each other like wild animals. Their fighting soon evolved into more of an unpredictable sort of fighting- one moment they would be aiming for the other's pressure points, attempting to disable their enemy's motor functions, and the next moment, they would be at each other's throats using physical weapons.
Snarling with fury, Aelita tacked Clone Aelita, who responded by grabbing both of her hands with her hands in order to keep her from digging into her flesh. Yelling exclamations of anger at each other, they rolled over the floor, simultaneously attacking the other or defending themselves from the other's attacks. Though Clone Aelita had strength unparalleled by feats accomplished by humans, it didn't stop her from being wounded in battle, receiving cuts and bruises in return for giving savage punches and kicks to her opponent.
"Whoa!" Odd yelled, jumping to the side to avoid getting tangled within the brawl. "Catfight! Watch out!"
"Huh?" Jeremie asked, eyes widening in realization when he noticed both Aelitas brawling with each other. "Uh oh…" Too late! Poor Jeremie was knocked into the middle of the fight, and was reduced to try pulling them apart, only yielding unsuccessful results.
"Waldo, Antea! I need some help over here!" Jeremie groaned.
Jeremie suddenly felt pain searing through his arm as Aelita had missed her intended target and had hit him instead. Jeremie hissed in pain and was dismayed at the amount of life points lost by just that one attack. His arm faded into static for a few seconds before coming back into existence again as his form attempted to keep itself together until his remaining life points were lost. Worriedly glancing at the life-point indication that flashed on the interface of his blue bracelet, he looked around to try to find where Waldo and Antea were.
"Waldo! Antea!" He called out, shaking his head when he saw his two children looking at him with an extremely confused expression. "No, guys. I didn't mean you two. You guys have to stay safe."
"Sorry, but we we're kind of busy over here!" Waldo replied back, trying to avoid the live wiring that was strewn about the room.
"We have to disable the supercomputer in time before XANA manages to release those robots and clones into the world!"
"You are much too late!" XANA madly laughed. "The two hours I've been keeping you here have now passed! I was merely the distraction to keep you from splitting up and taking down my fighting force. Stage two has begun!" His laughter died down a little, and he gave the group a smirk before continuing. "I must thank you for playing your parts. Your reward is, as I possibly had stated before, a quick and equally painful extermination."
Yumi took the opportunity at his short distraction to score a hit on XANA, silently yelling in triumph at finally being able to attack him despite the rather impressive defensive maneuvers he had executed. XANA growled in anger and used his abilities to increase his speed exponentially, forcing Yumi continually dodge his attacks with little chance of being able to openly attack him again.
"Odd, William!" Jeremie shouted, pointing to XANA. "Assist Yumi in holding XANA off. Francis, you provide their backup from farther away, since you're not in a spectral form with ability enhancements, and therefore could be easily killed by XANA."
"I hate being away from all the action…" Francis grumbled, using Clone Aelita's fallen weapon to fire at XANA from the relative safety of a robot's body.
"Waldo, Antea! I need back-up over here now in restraining Aelita!"
By this time during the melee, Clone Aelita had tacked Aelita to the floor and landed on her back, her hands glowing a light pink color in preparation for her next attack. Clone Aelita had used the energy to power up her other abilities by redirecting the energy used primarily to assault enemies with an orb-like energy attack, which increased in effectiveness. Clawing at her adversary, Clone Aelita gouged two long, ragged marks in Aelita's back near her shoulder plates, surprised when she saw that they bled.
"She's… bleeding?" Clone Aelita asked in disbelief, suddenly finding herself lying on the floor with Aelita's hand drifting to the bow and arrows slung on her back, reaching for her weapons to finish off Clone Aelita.
"There was a minor error in translating her to my former base of operations that caused her to be partly stuck in the real world, and partially stuck in the supercomputer where her information is now hosted." XANA explained through gritted teeth, slamming his fist down to create a shockwave that knocked the Lyoko Warriors standing in close proximity to his location to lose their balance.
"Why are you telling us this?" Yumi asked, rolling on the ground to avoid being cleaved in half.
"It would have been fun to see you kill off your old friend, but, alas, you were taking too long, as usual."
Aelita gripped her weapon with a sinister grin, her movements mostly unrestricted despite Jeremie's best attempts to pull her arm away. Jeremie nearly sighed in relief when Waldo and Antea finally arrived and was able to somewhat restrain her for the time being.
"Aelita!" Jeremie shouted, hoping that she would be able to hear him deep inside.
"Mommy?" Antea asked, edging slightly closer to her. "Mommy, are you okay?"
Aelita closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, trying to free her arms from the tree adults that prevented her from finishing Clone Aelita off. The latter was still on the ground, her labored breathing and numerous wounds from battle easily discernable. Parts of her body were pixelating, indicating that she was too damaged for her form to continue to exist in the world. She lifted up a hand, and gave a grim smile when she saw parts of it breaking off and drifting away. With a small sigh of peace and the absolute trust that the Lyoko Warriors were going to be able to stop XANA once and for all, she closed her eyes, and let her body dissolve away into gray particles that floated, carried by an invisible wind, before disappearing into nothing. Among the digital particles was a pale pink-colored essence- the other half of Aelita, which formed into the yang part of the Taoist symbol.
"Aelita, please!" You have to remember us!" Jeremie was lightly shaking Aelita, who closed her eyes tighter as a battle raged within her mind. The memories of when she was with her friends played against the false memories XANA had instilled into her mind, Aelita groaning when she could not discern which of her memories were true.
"Hurts…" she muttered, shaking her head. "Stop… make it… stop…"
"Aelita! Stay with us!" Waldo shouted.
Inside of Aelita's head, memories played, though the colors were dulled to a Sepia tone. A memory sprung, unbidden, to the top of her mind. It showed a small girl following an aging old man through the maze of sewer tunnels before reaching a decaying factory that was no longer in use. Images flashed before her- a gigantic fire elemental's fist coming towards her to smash her into an icy landscape, the wolf staring at a young, sobbing girl, a mountain cabin, the Men in Black, and the digital landscape of a forest.
As if sensing the sudden change in Aelita's composure, the essence hung in the air for a moment before it entered through the still-bleeding wounds on Aelita's back. Aelita panted her breathing slowing down as a sense of tranquility filled her being. The two jagged wounds on her back glowed a golden yellow before the light faded away.
"Aelita?" Jeremie questioned, peering curiously into her eyes as she opened them. Waldo and
Antea had eased up on their grip, letting her arms fall to her side.
Instead of the cold, predator-like stare he expected to see, he saw her usual emerald eyes. Jeremie frowned when he saw the conflict that mirrored the internal battle within herself, eyes clouded over with the inability to recognize who she was anymore. It was if the Aelita he had known and loved for years was slipping away right before his very eyes. Her eyes drifted towards his, recognition flitting across her face for a moment after she had tried to remember who he was.
"Jer… rem…mie?" she mumbled, unsure of herself.
"Welcome home, Aelita!" Jeremie exclaimed, hugging Aelita with ferocity he had not known that he was capable of until now.
Aelita stayed silent, blinking in confusion. Being "away" for such a long time, she had forgotten what had happened over the course of the months she was not in control of herself. Her motor functions were slow, at best- getting used to moving on her own will was going to take some time getting used to again. Antea and Waldo was about to give similar actions of affection when Aelita, with some difficulty, held up her hand, and pointed to XANA.
"There…" she weakly said, trying to remember how to talk normally again.
Jeremie, Antea, and Waldo looked just in time to see XANA raise his blade with a mighty roar, and slam the sword towards William, who raised his own sword to block it. His anger level only being increased by the damage the group was inflicting on his form, XANA swung his blade around, and slammed it into Yumi, instantly sending her back into the tower Jeremie had used on Lyoko. Francis growled and shot bullets after bullets at XANA, clutching the bomb with his other hand. Aelita stared at the bomb, taking into account the amount of wounds she had and the effect of instantly killing most of XANA's forces versus leaving them to be and solely concentrating on XANA.
"You… uh… jarhead." Aelita whispered to Francis, crawling towards him.
"What do you want?" Francis growled, keeping up the near-constant stream of bullets.
"I want to make a sacrifice... that is, I want to eliminate XANA by using that bomb you have there." Francis stopped firing for a moment, and looked at her incredulously.
"It's a small bomb. It's not going to have much of an effect."
"That's if you don't know where to put it." Aelita gave a sly wink after a few attempts.
Francis gave a soft "oh" in understanding, handing the explosive device to her in the most secretive way he thought was appropriate given the situation- tossing it to her behind his back. Aelita held the device in her hand, studying its arming mechanisms. Jeremie, momentarily turning his attention away from XANA for a moment, turned towards Aelita, eyes widening in surprise when he saw her with the bomb Francis had given her.
"Aelita, what are you doing?" Jeremie yelled, making a desperate snatch for the bomb.
"Jeremie, no, I have to do this!" Aelita held it out of his reach, using her outstretched left hand to keep Jeremie at bay.
"No, Aelita! I just got you back! I'm not going to lose you again!"
"Jeremie, please, you have to trust me…"
Jeremie was silent, staring at her with his sapphire eyes that were pleading, and longing for a different solution that would cripple XANA's power. Her emerald eyes shone with the bitter sadness that accompanied making choices and sacrifices to save the world from XANA's wrath.
"Oh, I don't think you trust…
In… My… Self-Righteous Suicide…
I… cry… when angels deserve to die…"
"Waldo, make her stop!" he tugged at Waldo's arm, instantly drawing his attention. He sighed and looked at them with the grim realization of her determination to prevent XANA from completely taking over the world.
"It's no use, Jeremie…" Waldo gave a slow, sad shake of his head. "She's always been a determined girl, even as a child. You can't change her mind once she's made it up." Jeremie bit back tears. This was exactly what he had feared Waldo would say, experiencing her stubbornness firsthand when it came to several fights with XANA on both Lyoko and on Earth.
"I won't let her do this!" Jeremie cried. In the background, William was devirtualized.
"Daddy, get my children to safety. Take… jarhead with you. I'm not sure if he's in a virtual form or not."
"My name is Francis!" Francis yelled.
"If I was as strong as I was all those years ago, I would have taken the bomb away from you and done the action myself. …It would be the least I could do, since I had created this menace in the first place…"
"Good luck, dad. Take good care of mom, the kids, and Jeremie for me." Aelita gave a hug and heartily thumped him on the back.
"I will, Aelita."
"Good, now go!" Waldo nodded, picked both of Aelita's and Jeremie's children up and left with Antea and Francis.
XANA roared and attempted to stop them from reaching the exit- the door that the robots had blown open in an attempt to try to kill the group there-, but Odd reminded him of his presence, giving a cocky grin as he deftly dodged XANA's attacks.
"I'm not going to go!" Jeremie declared, defiantly standing with his arms crossed.
"I don't have time for this, Jeremie." Aelita growled through clenched teeth as she set the bomb onto the supercomputer and began to set the timer on it.
"I'm not going to let you do this… there simply has to be another way to eliminate XANA from existence!" Jeremie reached for her, but found himself being roughly shoved away.
"Jeremie, stop. You and I both know that XANA's forces are preparing to deploy at this moment, and the place where I am setting this bomb now is the most effective point there is. Once this bomb goes off, the entire collection of core programs stored within this supercomputer will be eradicated from existence, meaning that the system will instantly shut down, thus crippling XANA and effectively eradicating most of the forces he has prepared. Now, go!"
"I won't!" Jeremie yelled, stamping his foot down like a 6-year old in the middle of a tantrum.
"I said go!" Aelita picked him up and threw him out of the open door, and into the corridor.
"Nooooo!" Jeremie howled as Antea dragged him away from the supercomputer room, and out of the building.
Waldo, Antea, and Francis didn't stop running, not even when they were at a safe distance from the building. Jeremie struggled and attempted to free himself, but found his attempts highly unfruitful. He watched in horror as a part of the building exploded, sending a plume of orange and yellow fire shooting towards the sky, and then saw the whole building enveloped in flame as the fire spread to other parts of the building. The two stopped, and all six of them stared at the building, which was burning brightly- a start contrast against the darkening sky. Dark clouds created from the burning building drifted in the wind as the sky's color changed from dark blue to blood red.
The part of the building that had hosted the explosion crumbled, the rest of the building soon following after, slowly but surely. A shadow moved closer to the Lyoko Warriors in the forest, accompanied by other shadows fitting in the darkness provided by the darkening sky and the forest. A car pulled up about a half-hour later, and the rest of the Lyoko Warriors got out. They watched the building burn to the ground before collapsing. The shadows in the forest moved back, and melted into the forest without a sound.
[Page Break]
The bomb timer set to1 minute and 30 seconds; Aelita stepped back from the bomb, trying to find peace in the last few moments of her life that she had. The small pang of guilt and regret was growing in her, and she berated herself for causing Jeremie so much pain by doing this one selfish act of saving the world. Perhaps she had wanted to finally prove that she could save the world from XANA on a whole, after appearing fragile and weak after all this time. Perhaps she wanted to know how the other warriors felt like when they saved the day on their own. Nevertheless, it was just a selfish action that she had attempted to make into a heroic situation by trying to convince herself that it was for the benefit of the world. The beeping started- a sure sign that the countdown had initiated and there was no stopping it.
Once the bomb would detonate, a great explosion and burst of fire would result, with the rest of the building would following soon after the initial detonation. The systems XANA had put into place in his building would fail, and XANA would be weakened enough so that he would not be able to take the whole world in one fell swoop.
XANA roared in triumph as Odd was finally defeated, raising his sword into the air and shaking it viciously. He let the sword hit the ground with a 'thump' and let his piercing gaze bore into Aelita's emerald ones.
"So… this is the end…" he muttered wonderingly.
"I suppose it is." Aelita nodded, watching as the detonator passed the 1:00 mark.
"I meant for you." He gave a particularly cringe-worthy grin, showing his sharp teeth in what appeared to resemble a sadistic grin.
"It doesn't matter to me. In the end, nothing matters."
"I suppose so… I wonder what the afterlife is for you humans…" his grin widened. "Perhaps you humans don't have an afterlife after all."
"I'll see you in hell, then." Aelita gave a smile of her own, a grim smile that highlighted the loss that came with every victory in the world.
"Not likely. I'll leave you to the consequences of your actions." XANA darkly said before disappearing into the shadows once more. Aelita stared at the spot he had once been in, before turning her gaze back to the timer. Sixteen seconds left to go. She let her mind recess into some of the memories it stored, and play them in the few moments of life she had left.
Fifteen…
She was alongside Jeremie in the park, laughing happily a joke Jeremie had just made.
Fourteen…
She was with Jeremie and the group, waging a snowball war on the Kadic grounds. She managed to cream Ulrich in the face with a good sized snowball, earning a hail of snowballs in retaliation.
Thirteen…
Finding her father's secret files in a train station locker...
Twelve, Eleven, Ten…
Being ripped away from the world and placed in a virtual world, where there wasn't supposed to be danger.
Nine, Eight, Seven…
Laughing with her father as she played with Mr. Puck...
Six… Five… Four…
Aelita closed her eyes and blew on her cake, grinning when her mother playfully put a dab of the cake's icing on her nose.
Three…
Aelita spread her arms out, waiting for fate to come and claim her…
Two…
… waiting for death to come and find her…
One…
…recalled song lyrics that seemed to fit the situation…
"Father (Father!),
Father (Father!),
Father, right now!
Father into your hands, I commend my spirit,
Father into your hands, why have you forsaken me?
In your eyes forsaken me,
In your thoughts forsaken me,
In your heart forsaken… me… oh…
Trust… in my… self-righteous suicide…
I… cry… when angels deserve to die…"
Zero.
Grimly smiling, she braced herself for the explosion, suddenly finding peace among the chaos of the world. The explosion filled her ears, temporarily making her deaf. The burst of heat hit her, and she was vaguely aware of flames licking her body as she began to lose all feeling. The structure, weakened from the damage it had sustained from XANA's robots and the explosion began to start collapsing.
… she breathed in for the last time, her wounds beginning to sap her remaining life…
… she gave her last smile…
"Jeremie…" she breathed, not bothering to move from her position, nor give into her natural instincts to survive.
… spoke her last words…
… and drifted away from the world.
"In… my… self-righteous suicide…
Why… cry… when angels deserve to die?"
What remained of Aelita's body was buried under the fallen architecture. The full moon shone through the blood red sky, casting its glow upon the ruins. The smoke drifting to the sky made it appear that the full moon had transfigured into the Yin-Yang symbol. The balance of the world was disrupted. Nothing would ever be the same again.
The End is Here