I apologize for the long delay I've been busy with school and I've been working on another story on a different website. If any of you wish to read it, all you have to do, is go to , go under the Writing Tab and click Search. Then, type in Tower of Swords. Look for the one written by Emiko (that's me) and then enjoy!
As for this story, I plan on ended it soon, probably the next chapter or so. I really doubt I'll be making a sequel, but if I do I hope you'll enjoy it. Anyway, here is chapter 24! Enjoy and please review!
Ulrich and I were sitting in the forest near the hermitage. Ulrich had his back against the tree and my head was in his lap. He stroked my hair and my eyes were closed. Birds talked to each other among trees but other than that, it was silent. Silent and peaceful. With Mike gone, Ulrich and I acted like nothing had happened. And it was great. Unfortunately, our peacefulness didn't last long as Ulrich's phone rang. He answered it but I kept my eyes closed.
"Yeah, Jeremy?" A pause. "You sure? Okay, we'll be right there."
I groaned at that and he hung up. "Dialla, guess what?"
"XANA decided to give us a few more minutes of peace?"
"No, Jeremy found a program to free Dan and William!"
I rolled out of his lap and sat up on my knees. "Seriously?! Let's go!"
We skated through the sewers and arrived at the factory where the others were waiting.
"Jeremy! Is it true? You found a way to bring them back?" I asked, running into the computer lab.
He nodded. "Yeah, we have to go to the Ice Replica though. There's a program that needs to be launched from the supercomputer there at the same time Dan and William are devirtualized."
"Basically, there's no room for mistakes," Ulrich simplified.
"What about that new monster, the Kolossus? How are we going to defeat it?" Aelita questioned.
"Ulrich, Yumi and I will take care of ugly. You and Odd need to focus on the program." I assured her.
Ulrich and Yumi nodded in agreement and Jeremy sent us to Lyoko. Aelita piloted the Skid and we arrived at the Ice Replica. Odd and Aelita were sent to Earth while Ulrich, Yumi and I protected the Skid.
For a few minutes, it was pretty quiet. Then Jeremy picked up William, Dan and some Mantas. He programed our vehicles and we took off. Yumi took care of the Mantas, Ulrich handled William and I battled Dan. Dan fired his beam and it devirtualized my Overboard. As I fell, I threw one of my boomerangs at him. It hit the Manta he was flying and it exploded. I reattached the boomerang to my shoulder and landed on my feet. Dan landed on his feet and staggered a little bit. We charged at each other. After battling evenly with each other, my eyes lost their pupil as did his. Our abilities increased dramatically, but we were still pretty even. He swung his sword down and I swung mine upward. My move was faster and I was able to cut through his sword and destroy it. He flinched and fired his cannon at me. I brought up my shield at the last second and the beam connected with the shield then exploded, sending me flying.
I bounced on the ground and slid a little bit. When I stopped, I rolled to the right as he fired his cannon again. I materilized my guns and fired at him a few times, then activated my booster and soared in the air. He copied me and fired his gun at me. Jeremy mentioned that he upgraded my booster so I could fly for five minutes now. We had a little air fight for a while until I saw William jump into the Digital Sea.
"Jeremy! William just--"
"Yeah, I know. XANA's taking power from all the other Replicas and I think I know why."
A moment later the Kolossus rose from the Digital Sea, William standing smugly on its shoulder. I forgot how ugly the thing was. Ulrich leapt onto the Kolossus' arm and Yumi threw a fan at the Eye of XANA on its head. Although it made contact, the Kolossus remained stable. I perceived another Eye of its arm. This thing was going to be tough to beat.
I turned my attention back to Dan as he continued to fire at me. I shielded his attack and tried to fire at him, but his beam pierced my gun and it exploded. I flew back a little due to the explosion and glared at him. I took out both my swords and attacked him, but screwed up and he stole one of my swords. We flew at each other and clashed for a brief second then swooped around and clashed again, struggling for dominance. Dan pulled away and fired his cannon at me, then his gun. I flew down, avoiding the whitish blue beam then shielded his green one. I told Jeremy to program me another sword, since I knew I wouldn't be able to take mine back. He did so, and a new sword appeared in my right hilt, but I decided to save it for later.
Yumi soon got devirtualized by the Kolossus' arm and Ulrich battled William on top of it. Dan fired his gun at me and I allowed my sword to take the blow and it spiraled out of my hand as I flew down then towards him quickly. I pulled out my sword and slashed his left arm, knocking the cannon away. Then I spun around quickly and kicked him in the back and fired twice at him. The first beam knocked his gun out of his hand and the second beam hit him in the chest. It wasn't enough to devirtualize him because I had to wait for Jeremy's signal, but it stunned him. He landed on the ground and I pursued him then planted my foot on his chest to keep him still. I looked over and Ulrich was in the same situation.
"Jeremy!" Ulrich cried.
"Right.....now!"
I brought my sword down but it pierced the icy floor. I blinked, surprised, then noticed a shadow looming above me. I looked up and saw the Kolossus' foot coming down on me. I was able to get away at the last second, but Ulrich was a little more unfortunate. Dan appeared in a cloud of smoke, his back to me and I took this chance. I fired at him and he dissipated in red smoke. I smiled in joy and searched for William. His sword sliced through my torso and I was devirtualized. However, Odd devirtualized him a moment later, having been devirtualized while on Earth he had appeared back in the Skid. I appeared in the Scanner and held my stomach, moaning in pain. I looked up and my little brother lay unconscious on the floor. I rushed to him, despite being exhausted and placed his head in my lap.
His green eyes flickered open and focused on my face. He smiled weakly and I sighed with relief. William stumbled out of his scanner and Yumi and Ulrich supported him. Aelita appeared in her scanner soon after. We celebrated briefly but Jeremy completely and utterly killed the mood by saying that the Skid was destroyed. I was going to make a snappy comment, but kept my mouth shut. I was just glad to have my brother back and now we could get rid of those stupid clones. Although, with the Skid destroyed, we couldn't destroy his replicas.
"Although, it's not nessicary anymore," Jeremy said.
We all stared at him, begging him to explain. "I've created a multi-agent system that should be able to wipe XANA out for good."
"What about my father? And Tyler?" Aelita asked.
Silence enveloped the area for a long period of time. We all knew what it meant. Thankfully, Dan changed the subject by arbitrarily yelling that he was late for lunch. We got a little humor out of that and strolled to lunch.