Disclaimer: Kiwi stole my speech notes for the copyright hearing. No, I don't own Code Lyoko.
"Jeremie, any news on the virus?" Aelita asks as she pushes through the waytower wall into the open space of Lyoko. Ulrich and Yumi follow her into the Mountain Sector.
"It connects you and X.A.N.A. somehow. This thing is extremely complicated; I need a good week focusing on this. Heads up! The tower is guarded by a Megatank and 4 Krabes." Jeremie cracks his knuckles as he peers at the incoming monsters on the super computer screen with worry.
Ulrich raises a hand to stop the group. "We need some sort of plan. Rushing in will cost us dearly at this point. Any suggestions?" Aelita ponders the distant tower for a few seconds.
She opens her mouth to reply, "Well, splitting the monsters apart could work. If Ulrich uses his Super Sprint to lure the Megatank away from the Krabes then we have an easier time of it."
Jeremie joins in with his agreement. "That will divide X.A.N.A.'s forces and maybe even drop the Megatank into the Digital Sea."
Ulrich nods at the group and unleashes his Super Sprint. He runs circles around the bewildered Krabes until the Megatank moves towards him. Seizing the opportunity, Ulrich heads for the edge of the glacier while the Megatank rolls behind. Yumi flicks a fan towards the nearest Krabe and smiles as it explodes. "So far so good, let's get some more sushi!"
Aelita jumps up onto a ledge overlooking the tower and wonders if she can do anything. 'I could distract a Krabe if need be. 40 life points left is a problem though.' Waiting is her only option at the moment. She spies Ulrich zigzagging back and forth to get the Megatank over the edge. 'He will be fine and Yumi's shredding those Krabes easily.' Her confidence in them morphs into horror as the battle takes a disastrous turn.
Two Krabes keep Yumi spinning through the air to dodge their lasers while the third Krabe aids the Megatank. Ulrich is too focused on drawing the tank into a fatal charge to notice the pincer swipe that catches him across the chest and smacks him into the ground. Ulrich realizes his mistake too late as the Megatank finally charges.
The black ball catches him in the chest and catapults both of them off the precipice. Screaming in fear, the samurai slips into the surface of the Digital Sea. Two thundering pillars of light skyrocket upwards as the battlefield temporarily stills. Yumi stops to watch the pillars fade from existence and yells her rage. "Ulrich, no! You bastards are going to pay!" A sheen of madness covers her eyes as she hurls her gleaming fans at the closest Krabe. Standing stock still, the grief-stricken geisha is blasted out of existence by the three Krabes just before the fans shred their target.
Yumi falls out of the scanner sobbing uncontrollably. Odd rushes down to the room and holds her tight, trying to stem the flood of tears. Jeremie's heart wrenches at the loss of Ulrich but an idea blazes in his head. "Yes! The materialization program is still around. I can recalibrate it in an hour or so to pull back Ulrich." Jeremie's euphoria dies as fast as it came due to the two Krabes advancing on a helpless Aelita. His face hardens in resolve.
"Odd! Get up here and hit the enter key when I say so. I'm going in. We have to stop this tower or all is lost." Odd gazes at his blond friend with concern.
"Are you sure about this?" he asks quietly.
"Yes. She's the only thing I can't afford to lose. Now hit the key when I enter the scanner and the program will do the rest." With that said Jeremie walks into the elevator and calmly descends into the scanner room. Instead of the usual nervousness that accompanies his thoughts of entering Lyoko, an unwavering determination fills Jeremie. The scanner surrounds him with its white light when Odd hits the key.
X.A.N.A. chuckles with delight when he feels the new entity enter Lyoko. Finally he had his two greatest enemies utterly vulnerable. 'Let the two weaken themselves even further before I reveal my ace in the hole.' He focuses his might to create a deadly specter on Earth and a new being on Lyoko to utterly crush the pathetic humans.
Jeremie lands on the ground with a thud and immediately feels disconcerted. This lack of touch really was bothersome. He looks down at himself and gasps. In his left hand was a long spear bladed at both ends crackling with blue coils of electricity. He was wearing a dark blue shirt and shorts with a black cloak flowing down his back. Emblazoned in the center of the cloak, a pink X.A.N.A. symbol shines. "I wonder what I can do." Jeremie raises his right hand and fires a sphere of blue energy into a nearby stalagmite. The resulting explosion sends bits of debris skittering across the ground. He laughs in delight and runs towards Aelita's position.
Exhausted from dodging laser fire, Aelita doesn't move in time to avoid the latest barrage. Sparks fly from her injured shoulder as she loses another 10 points. 'Down to 20, is this the end? I'm trapped against the wall with two Krabes on me.' A distant explosion distracts the crustaceans and Aelita runs in between the two towards the open glacier. She stops as a strange figure approaches her. "Jeremie, who is that?"
Odd's voice replies and she gasps with shock. "It's your boyfriend here to save the day!"
Jeremie smiles with unbelievable warmth as he views Aelita for the first time on Lyoko. His attention focused on Aelita, Jeremie casually raises his hand and fires an energy blast at one of the advancing Krabes. It fails to dodge and spews its remains across the icy floor. The remaining Krabe shoots Aelita in the back and she falls to the ground with a cry of pain. Jeremie jumps over her prone form and deflects the next laser with the strange spear back at the monster, which dies. The threat dispersed, Jeremie picks up Aelita and sprints for the tower.
Odd hears a strange noise behind him and looks up from the super computer monitor. A specter sends an arc of electricity into the boy and he crashes into the wall. Yumi grabs a steel pole and swings at the ghostly monster but hits nothing but air. Another bolt of energy strikes Odd in the chest. "Hurry Jeremie! We don't have much ti-arrghh." The steel pole wrenches itself out of her hands and shatters Yumi's arm. Panting with pain, Yumi drops to her knees and the pole sends her into darkness with a blow to the side of her head.
The two on Lyoko reach the tower and Jeremie sets Aelita down. "Go princess. Deactivate it." Aelita sways on her feet and feels Jeremie's body tackle her to the ground.
"What was that?" she yells as she gets up and turns towards the tower. A surge of weakness puts her to her knees again.
"Something shot me. Just stay back." Jeremie looks around but sees an endless view of ice and water in varying shades of blue. Suddenly a shadow appears above them as a Krabe drops out of the sky and rests a pincer on Aelita's chest. She screams in surprise at the monster above.
Jeremie jumps back in fright. "Wha-How did a monster fall out of the sky? Aelita! Are you alright?"
Aelita struggles to move but knows that it's hopeless. If Jeremie attacks the Krabe then she will die to the pincer resting on her stomach. 'X.A.N.A. might have nabbed victory here.' Jeremie paces in front of the watching Krabe as he racks his brain for a solution. A soulless laugh erupts behind him.
Odd stirs from the corner. Pain rushes through his body but with an extreme effort of will the boy stands. Yumi cries out as a sickening blow to her head topples her over. Before the specter can finish her, Odd screams a battle cry and grabs the steel pole. The specter almost seems to disdain his puny efforts at resistance and then strikes him with yet another blast. With no strength to recover, Odd slips into unconsciousness. The specter pulses with a dark glow before eradicating the two humans.
Jeremie faces a giant jellyfish-like monster with long trailing tentacles. "What is this?" The jellyfish resonates with evil as X.A.N.A. answers him.
"This is my newest creation. My scheme worked out exactly as planned. You only have one choice. There is no way out. There is no way to outsmart me. There is only your death. Your girlfriend can live if you submit to the Scyphazoa. Otherwise her code will be vanishing shortly. I give you 10 seconds to decide."
"What about Odd and Yumi?" Jeremie asks desperately. The Scyphazoa drifts closer.
"Already gone. Aelita joins them if you resist." Jeremie is filled with despair as he makes his decision.
The spear falls to the ground with a clatter as Jeremie sinks to his knees. He whispers, "I'm sorry Aelita. I failed you." The jellyfish wraps its tentacles around the vanquished boy and lifts him into the air. Aelita screams with despair and hate as her love is surrounded with a red glow. "What are you doing to him!"
"Simply extracting his code for my personal use. With the teeny tiny side effect of his deletion. You see, his unconscious mirrored you almost exactly. Including true death with a devirtualization here." Jeremie's lifepoints slowly drain away in the tentacles' grip.
Aelita struggles with all her might but the pincer keeps her firmly in place. Her anguish is more than she can hold yet it increases as eternal seconds drag by. Finally she stills as Aelita accepts defeat as inevitable. In that moment her true self shatters beyond repair. The life in her eyes dims while the pink stripes under her eyes darken in color until they eat all light.
The red glow intensifies as the jellyfish finishes its siphon. Pinpricks of light erupt across Jeremie after the Scyphazoa releases him and floats higher into the sky. Jeremie gazes at the stricken face of Aelita and sorrow flashes in his eyes. A smile grows across his face for the last time before he gasps out, "Aelita, I always will love you."
"And I will always love you." She stretches her hand towards him as the cracks of blazing light envelop Jeremie. With a thunderous crash Jeremie splinters into millions of glowing fragments that turn Lyoko into the most beautiful display of light for an instant before vanishing. The pincer releases her and Aelita immediately runs for the edge and flings herself off. 'There's no reason to exist anymore.' The virtual liquid envelops her.
She opens her eyes in the activated tower. "No! This is impossible!"
"Certainly not. You will find that there is no way for you to escape existence on Lyoko. You are stuck here for as long as I want you to be. Unless of course you join me in eradicating the humans." X.A.N.A. replies.
"Never! Not after what you did to my friends!" Aelita immediately screams back.
"So be it. Enjoy your memories." The voice fades from existence as Aelita curls into a ball and releases her bottomless sorrow.
-End Flashback-
Aelita shakily opens her eyes to find X.A.N.A. still standing above her. 'That recollection took me along for the ride. How long did it last?' The lingering feeling of the kiss on her lips no longer scares her. It reminds Aelita of the first kiss in all of its sweet sensation. Reliving those memories had fortified her with renewed strength even if the end was horrendous. She pulls herself to her feet and smiles at the shock that flares in the clone's eyes.
"What? How did you survive the experience twice?" he asks.
"Simple. You misjudged how strong emotions are. My heart will remain forever broken because of your actions but that same love keeps me sustained." Aelita shudders as a strange power courses through her body. 'I haven't felt this alive since the day he died.'
X.A.N.A, wary of any tricks, takes a step back. "Looks like you're going to defy me yet again. I'll leave you to the consequences of your actions once more." Before he can leave Lyoko, Aelita cries out and falls to the ground. The Jeremie clone stops and watches the spectacle. When she stands up this time the stripes under her eyes are no longer black. Instead they flicker with a radiant pink glow and tinges of red.
Her emerald eyes pierce X.A.N.A. They are flooded with light and electricity crackles around her pupils. Aelita feels the euphoria of this power and knows it is love. The pure love she had for Jeremie and her friends before the corruption of hatred and despair. She raises her hand as a red cloak materializes on her back with an electric blue X.A.N.A. symbol blazing on it.
"This cannot be! You somehow broke all my safeguards and manipulated Lyoko!" the evil AI yells in shock.
Aelita smiles grimly and sends a coruscating pink ball of energy into the Jeremie doppelganger. The AI tries to flee Lyoko but finds his escape routes blocked by the elfin girl. Blast after blast sinks into X.A.N.A. as Aelita vents a hundred years of justice. His code shakes apart under the unrelenting barrage and his true form is revealed. The black cloud hangs in the air before flashing toward its executioner.
"This is for you, my love." Aelita opens her mouth and releases a pure note of song into the air. The wave of sound barrels into the onrushing cloud and breaks its charge. Another immensely powerful vocalization rends X.A.N.A. apart. The dark specter releases an unearthly scream before vanishing. Aelita exults in her victory. Without warning an unendurable flood of agony rips through her insides. The scintillating pain forces her to the ground.
The strange manifestation of her love flickers out of existence as another pulse of pain flares through Aelita. Blackness eats at the edge of her vision. Her body begins to unravel in wisps of ethereal coding. 'So that's what the virus does.' In his death X.A.N.A. had ensured hers. An unseen presence gathers around the writhing form on Lyoko. The pain blissfully fades as Aelita feels a kiss on her cheek. "Jeremie…?" she pants.
The emerald eyes that had seen and endured so much slowly close. The haunted look of pain and loss fades from Aelita's face. Sighing, she releases her last breath through her parted lips. A final vision of phantasmal twisting towers of code fleeing her body greets her before darkness rushes in. A smile twitches on Aelita's face as a thought surfaces in her failing brain in addition with an emotion she hadn't truly felt in years.
'I'm heading to Jeremie with…hope.' All is still on Lyoko for eternity; its last inhabitant finally freed.