Episode 3: Awakening

6th of Eluviesta

When his eyes finally opened, he wasn't in control of his body. His motions were not his own, but they were more precise, more controlled. Everything in his wider range of vision seemed faintly blue, but soon his eyes fell on a mass of energy that faded from bright red to snowy white. He pinned this energy to the wall.

He could hear his voice in his words, but it was muted, passive to the dominant, powerful voice that had taken over everything about him. "Elf. Female. Roughly thirty years of age. Vallaslin meaning 'inevitability.' Scent of magic." Slowly, his vision grew more narrow, and the lights started to fade. "This one recognizes your features." When Jeremie was finally in control, he said without any corruption obvious in his voice, "Edna?"

Edna visibly relaxed when Jeremie released her. She slid down the wall, pulling her knees up as she processed the events. "By the blood of the Creation Father! You scared me half to death!" She cried out. "What in the world did you do?"

Jeremie seemed as confused as the elven Hahren. "I don't know. I'm not even sure where we are." He looked at the dark room. The trees formed warm, sturdy walls, and the branches left a hole in the roof where the sun could shine. The leaves, and much of the walls, had been charred, and there were desiccated corpses in cages. The altar in the center of the room was covered in dry blood. "Where is Capital Lyoko? What happened during the battle?"

Edna didn't seem surprised. "You took quite a hard blow, didn't you? Your skull will be soft for some time." She said, picking up a bucket of water. She dunked a rag into the water. "Here, wash away that blood."

Jeremie took the rag and rubbed his face. His arm felt strange, but so did everything else. It was like his body was stiff after a long sleep. "Was I knocked out?" He asked.

"No, you died." Edna said bluntly.

He froze, dropping the rag. He had died? He didn't remember that. Jeremie tried to look at the elf, instead locking onto his new arm. It was made of roots and branches, a faint light flashing from inside. He tore at it until he found the crystal. His blood had formed veins and was using the crystal as a sort of catalyst. It was a brilliant idea, but still... "I... died? I'm dead?"

Edna shook her head. "No. Aelita resurrected you." She explained. "It required blood sacrifices and a spirit to cleanse the corruption of your soul, but you live." She began to pace. "I suppose that angry glowing thing you were doing was the spirit. Do you know what kind of spirit it is?"

Still in shock, Jeremie tried to calm himself. He could feel the blood in his body, flowing like a river. In that rushing life, he heard, or perhaps felt, a single virtue. "Vigilance." He murmured.

"Fitting." She said flatly. "How do you feel about this?"

"I don't know. I'm alive. Is that not enough?" He shrugged. It would take time to get used to his new condition, but life was definitely better than death, and his new arm gave him a way to study the elves' magic, and perhaps tinker to give it his own spin. Besides, he thought optimistically, a spirit may prove to be a valuable ally.

Edna wasn't impressed. "You would think that you would be angry. Or at least in pain." She folded her arms and leaned against the wall casually. "I studied your corpse before the resurrection. You were killed when rubble crushed your skull." He visibly flinched. Perhaps that was not the best way to segway into a new topic. "How fares your memory?"

"Fine, as far as I can tell. I remember the siege on Capital Lyoko, and I remember… pushing Aelita out of the way as the building fell. Before that… we were talking about my mother." He rubbed his head. His skull was still a little soft from the force of the impact. He was probably lucky that it hadn't flattened his head. "It's strange… I feel like… when I was in the stillness of death I heard my mother calling out my name… I remember being dragged and hidden. I remember her voice, telling me that it wasn't my time…" He laughed half-heartedly, and when he looked up at the elven woman, she could've sworn there were tears in his eyes. "That must sound pretty stupid."

"It doesn't sound stupid at all," She admitted quietly before shaking her head and continuing. "Anyway, you should go find your friends. Odd went to the library. He said that he had to check out some children's books for some reason? He didn't delve far into it. Aelita was taken to the infirmary after the ritual. I stayed to watch over you, so I have no idea if she's still there." She handed him a map, pointed out their current location and sent him rather hastily on his way.

Hiroki woke feeling as cold as ice, though his veins felt like they had just been burned. He sat up, and looked into his sister's eyes. She smiled at him, and she hugged him. "Yumi?" He asked, licking his teeth, feeling something foreign in his mouth. "What did you do to me?"

She smiled wider, revealing her vampiric fangs. "You're like me now," she said, "We're more powerful now than ever."

"You're crazy! You actually want to be a vampire?" He exclaimed.

"I didn't at first, because I felt so alone and wrong but…" She looked to her hands. Her nails had grown sharper, and her fangs were longer. They slightly poked out from her lips now, unless she focused on keeping them hidden. She could also sense that her telepathy was stronger, and that she could sense Hiroki in her blood. Becoming a forbearer must have made her a stronger vampire. She suppressed the urge to create a brood. "With this power at my disposal…" She looked back at her brother and exclaimed, "I think I can break Xana's hold on William!"

Hiroki was quiet for a long time. "You really are crazy, aren't you?"

She crinkled her nose at him and stood, helping him to his feet before turning her attention to the door.

Hiroki too turned towards the door then looked doubtfully back to his sister, "Uh... how strong are you... we?"

In answer she placed her fingers at the sides of her temple and closed her eyes. With a single thought, the door flew off its hinges, crushing the guard on the other side. She opened her eyes and offered her hand to her brother, with a small but dangerous smile. He took it nervously, and they ran out of the dungeon.

Ulrich opened his eyes slowly. He was blinded by a bright light, so he squinted and mumbled something incoherent. He sluggishly forced himself to sit up, which required a lot more self-motivation than it should have. When he finally managed to open his eyes fully, he saw Captain LeDuc staring at him from the end of his bed. She smiled at him, and pulled her hair over her shoulder so she could stroke it nervously. "Hey," she said, "you're finally awake."

He looked around, his eyes adjusting to the light. "Where am I? Is this your ship? How did I get here?" He asked as he noticed the bandages covering his shoulders. The Mercenary remembered being stabbed, and falling asleep.

"Heïdi brought you back here." Emily said, "I ordered my crew to aid in the attack." She stood and turned away from him. "The day was won, but unfortunately you were the only one that they found. One of my men set up a blackpowder bomb in a poorer part of town, and I fear that some of your friends may have been caught under it."

Ulrich started breathing heavily, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "My… my friends are…"

"We don't know that they're dead yet!" Emily exclaimed as she spun around. "Christophe came back this morning and said that Laura is still alive, and that she'd talked to Odd." She looked away again as she added, "But Laura also said that Yumi had been captured by someone named Dhaune? I guess she's one of Xana's lackeys."

He gasped. "Dhaune has Yumi! Fuck!" He stood up, only to be pushed down by the pirate queen. "What are you doing? I have to go find the others! Yumi is in danger!"

"And how exactly do you plan to get her back?" Emily challenged. "Do you intend to gain entry to Maera? Because good shitting luck with that!" She folded her arms. "Besides, we know at least two of your party members are M.I.A. Odd told Laura who told Christophe that he hadn't seen them, and he went out looking. He hasn't reported back, as far as I know."

"Shit. Shit!" Ulrich cursed. He paced for a while and then stopped. "Where is the Eluvian? Do you have it?"

"No; I think that the Empress ordered that it be taken to the palace." Emily said. "After all, your little group was the rightful owner of it."

Ulrich sighed. "Time to visit Laura then."

The pirate queen caught him. "Wait. You've only just recovered. You shouldn't be taking on strenuous activities."

"Are you a fucking doctor now?" He demanded, waving her off. "I've taken worse than this. I'll be fine." The Mercenary stormed out of the room, Emily on his heels.

"Neptune's ass. Slow down!" She ordered. He didn't bother. "I want you to join my crew!"

He stopped and turned to show that his expression was as stony as the castle of Capital Lyoko. "Seriously!? What about my friends? You don't have to be a fortune teller to see that shit is going to explode. I'm not sure what yet, but it will."

"Not now, of course! But yes, seriously." She answered. "I've seen you fight. You're talented. We could always use another swashbuckler and you'll need an escape route if this goes bad or something more than domestication if you win." She folded her arms, adding. "And you're not a half bad sailor to boot. I foresee minimum keelhauling." She meant it as a joke but he wasn't in the mood.

He didn't smile, the frown never leaving his face however after a moment his expression turned thoughtful as he considered what would happen after they won. Adventure, fighting and money appealed far more than retirement after all. But could he leave the others after this? "My question stands, what about the others?"

"Some could join us! I adore Aelita and her magic is impressively dangerous. Jeremie would follow her anywhere and I'm sure we could find a use for him. And I can think of worse fates than having a werewolf and a vampire protecting my crew!" Ulrich seemed surprised. "I'm not an idiot. My father used to be a magistrate, back when I actually thought family bonds meant something."

"Would you think me rude if I asked what you meant?"

Emily frowned, but she didn't refuse him. "You must know about Aelita's past." He nodded. "Getting grabbed by slavers is only one way to end up at a slave port. Sometimes, when your family is really poor, they sell mouths that they can't afford to feed. That's what happened to me." Ulrich seemed disturbed, but she kept going. "That's not the only way, though. I met one guy who'd sold himself, some criminals sold by some king or something in the Uncharted South, and rival slavers who had been conquered. But, yeah, my parents sold me into slavery."

"That's… horrible!"

"Yeah, but now I'm a pirate queen, so everything worked out for the best." She shrugged it off, but Ulrich could still tell that she was uncomfortable with discussing her past. Humor and compensation appeared to be how she handled that, whereas Aelita had handled it with lies and silence. "So, what do you say? About joining my crew?"

Now he was silent as he considered this. There was something just barely present in her eyes. Did she like him more than just as a potential crew member? "This seems like a big commitment. I'll have to consider it." He rubbed his neck. "For now, I have to get to Laura. I need to contact my friends. I need to know that they're safe. Or, mostly safe." She nodded, and helped him gather his things for the journey. It took two and a half hours to reach Capital Lyoko from the small makeshift port where Emily had docked, but since there were no civilians left to roam the streets, it was easy to reach the castle and gain entry.

Surprisingly, Laura seemed more than pleased that Ulrich was safe. She even hugged him, which was unwelcome, and came off as awkward. "I'm so glad to see you. Do you have news of the others?" Laura asked. Ulrich explained what he knew, and while she obviously worried about their friends, she expressed a faint hope that Yumi would find a way to escape with the information that they needed to enter Maera. "Anyway, we should probably try to find Odd. I know that he's still alive, and he was going to find Jeremie and Aelita."

She motioned for him to follow her and led him down towards the dungeon, explaining that she was keeping the Eluvian there in case anyone tried to go through it, like Anthea had done after the incident in the Beyond. As they walked, he noticed that the palm of her hand seemed a bit more red than usual, but she had also been under more stress. The Fair Empress explained that she believed that she could use the mirror as a conduit and reverse Jeremie's one-sided telepathy so that she could temporarily initiate the connection, at least long enough to learn his location.

"Are you sure that you know how to do this?" Ulrich asked. "Where would you even learn a skill like that?"

"No worries; I know exactly what I'm doing! I've watched Aelita use this mirror many times!" Laura said. She didn't even sound confident in her words. But still, she summoned a white light in her hands and approached the Eluvian. The glass rippled for a moment, and then it began to glow. Through the light, Ulrich could make out a forest-like city. He could tell that he was seeing through another person's eyes, and that person was not used to their surroundings.

A voice echoed through the dungeon. "Aelita!"

"No, Laura," The Fair said, her voice full of sadness, and Ulrich remembered why. "Ulrich is with me. Where are you right now? I can see you aren't hurt, at least not badly."

"You won't believe this." Jeremie said. "I'm in Arlathan."

Ulrich laughed. "No way. Where are you really?"

"I'm not joking. I'm honestly in Arlathan. Look at all of the elves." Jeremie shifted his head so that way Laura and Ulrich could see the busy marketplace that seemed to part for him. Truly, everyone they saw was an elf, and they seemed honestly disturbed by Jeremie's presence. "Wait for night to fall and then try using the Eluvian as a portal. Be careful, though. Security here is awfully tight."

The duo agreed, and the connection was severed. Laura folded her hand daintily. "Well, at least we know where our friends are. That's a start." She said quietly. She looked at Ulrich, and then smiled. "If only I could create a connection with a normal mirror. It would be a lot easier than trying to sneak past guards or civilians."

"You managed to contact Jeremie. Maybe you could." Ulrich said. She narrowed her eyes, but looked back to the Eluvian. "I'll meet you back here after dinner. In the meantime, I'll be… around."

The Mercenary left and Laura looked back at her hand. The whispers came into her mind, and she focused upon the mirror.