When we are put to the test, it is the one thing we must always be…

16: Brave

YUMI

For the first time in Team LYOKO's relatively short history, it would be the five high school students striking first against XANA.

Sadly, they were unable to come up with a better mission codename. So, the Quest for Aelita's Missing Memory commenced following the end of another school day. The prospect of what was to be the final battle with the virus largely overshadowed the fact that this would also very likely be their last trip into the digital world. There would be little reason to keep the supercomputer running after reclaiming the lost recollection. And this initiative would surely keep electricity bills down.

November the first also turned out to be a mixed bag of sorts for Yumi. The good news was that she had won the 2006 Kadic's Best Halloween Costume Award for her rather attractive schoolgirl outfit. The bad news was that the honour made her feel just a tad more embarrassed by yesterday's Halloween happenings. It was blatantly obvious to her which group, or more specifically which gender gave her a majority of the votes. Sure enough, some of her classmates snickered and whistled when her name was called out over the PA system.

However, the humiliation was soon replaced by excitement and satisfaction. The distinction came with a grandiose prize: two tickets to see U2's Vertigo Concert at the Charles-Ehrmann Stadium in Nice, France. In retrospect, an opportunity to see her favourite band perform live had made it quite worthwhile to dress provocatively for a day. Not that she would ever consider doing such a thing ever again.

"You know, maybe you should dress like that every Halloween," Odd suggested jokingly as they approached the factory.

"Just a random question Odd, but how much do you value your life?" Yumi asked with an unusual hint of sweetness that didn't quite reach her cold eyes.

That wiped the grin off the happiest man in the world. Angry Yumi didn't scare him as much as pissed-off Yumi.

"Ah, you want me to fermez la bouche, don't you?" he asked timidly.

"If you wouldn't mind," she replied through a small forced smile.

"Anyways, why didn't we wait for Bryan? I mean, we'll need his help, right?"

Ulrich could have sworn that as soon as the question left his lips, the temperature around him dropped several degrees. All eyes were fixed upon Aelita, who looked down sullenly and said nothing.

Jeremie hadn't told them of her argument with Bryan earlier that day, nor did he tell them about her risky plan to end it all. However, sensing Aelita's sensitivity to the situation, he spoke up hastily. "We couldn't find him anywhere after school."

In fact, none of them had seen him after their morning classes. And unlike the others, who had music in the afternoon, Bryan had opted to take programming and digital computation as his elective course, stating that learning the art of computer-speak would be quite useful to him.

"We can always call him if we run into trouble anyways," Jeremie added, though he was confident that Bryan's services wouldn't be required. Beside him, Aelita nodded quietly. They were only down one team member; it shouldn't be that bad.

"You know, something else has just occurred to me…"

"Oh no," Yumi moaned, rolling her eyes.

"What are we going to do about William?"

Everyone suddenly remembered that the cockiest teenager in the world still had to be freed from XANA's control.

"I mean, he's a bit of a douchebag and all, but we still have to bring him back right?"

Aelita was in deep thought over how to possibly liberate William. Defeating him in battle never worked, he would just fade into nothingness and reappear next time still possessed by XANA.

"Hmm, would it be possible to dig up the Scyphozoa's code from previous encounters?"

As usual, only Jeremie's eyes lighted up several seconds later, having fully comprehended her suggestion.

"Maybe…"

"Maybe what?"

"Well, you know how the Scyphozoa tries to take Aelita's memories? I might be able to create a similar program to remove XANA's data from William instead."

"That sounds plausible, I guess."

"I'm pretty sure a search of the recent archives should give me all the code I need. Essentially, I'll just specify different parameters – namely changing the target – input the program onto one of your weapons and when it comes in contact with William, it will start the data removal process."

"You know, sometimes I'm glad we have an Einstein on our team."

"Wait, so why hasn't this issue been brought up until now?"

"Well, to be honest it hadn't really crossed my mind, with everything that's been going on lately," Jeremie admitted. "Plus, I've kind of grown accustomed to our literal, not-too-full-of-himself spectre."

"Ditto," Ulrich nodded approvingly while Yumi chuckled.

Within ten minutes, Aelita, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi had been transported inside Sector V: CARTHAGE – the nucleus of the digital world. Back in the control room, Jeremie had already started working on the dispossession program and was also consulting with Franz Hopper's logbook to pinpoint the location of Aelita's memory fragment.

"So Jeremie, you know the whereabouts of the memory, right?"

"I'm pretty sure. Apparently, the fragments are in a section of CARTHAGE that we've never been to yet."

"Really? The place never looked that big to me from the outside," Odd remarked.

"If I'm not mistaken, it's in the sublevels. Up until now we've always bypassed the Core and headed up to the database. And there's more. Apparently, this area was originally intended house large programs, including XANA."

AELITA

Today, the Core was like a large anechoic chamber. A maze-like configuration of blocks and walls awaited them. Unlike previous trips to Sector V, there were no monsters coming out of hidden partitions.

Jeremie double-checked for any activated Towers, but they all lay dormant.

So XANA hasn't detected us yet…this is good.

"Right then, three minutes to find the switch," he said as the countdown began.

It wasn't long before Yumi spotted the small button on the ledge of a high wall and began leaping acrobatically from one platform to another. The others continued to remain alert for any signs of movement.

With ninety seconds to spare, Yumi had crossed the final walkway and scaled along the wall, before pressing her palm against the circular switch. This time, the room reconfigured itself as if it could sense the group's intentions. The walls and partitions folded up and collapsed downwards, revealing a new winding staircase leading beneath the Core.

"Well there's something you don't see every day," muttered Odd.

"So we follow this path?"

Jeremie quickly consulted his virtual map. "Yes, it shouldn't be that much further."

As the LYOKO warriors headed down to the sublevels of Sector V, their surroundings grew darker. The only noise came from four pairs of footsteps and the faint buzzing of data that was being streamed to the other sectors of LYOKO. Upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, they got a better view of XANA's base of operations.

It had more or less the same decorum as the central Core area. The only difference was that there were more blocks, walkways and rectangular panels, some of which were spread apart by crevices revealing the blue backdrop outside of the spherical CARTHAGE superstructure. On one of the taller platforms was a Way Tower that currently had a sky-blue aura around it.

Aelita's eyes immediately darted towards the middle of the chamber, where a glowing white ball was sitting atop a small square landing. It was almost as if it was beckoning her.

"Jeremie…is that?" she asked, pointing at the glowing sphere.

"Yes. That should be your missing memory fragment. In fact, it matches the data on your avatar."

"Still, something just isn't right," started Yumi, who had been uneasy from the beginning the switch was deactivated.

"What do you mean?" asked Odd.

"Doesn't this all seem…a bit too easy?"

This was a common thought shared by the others. An unguarded hideout was not what they had in mind, especially for XANA. And then there was Aelita's memory, hanging right out in the open.

Then again, most conflicts and horror movies start off with an unnerving tranquility.

"Well, I think it's a trap. Let's just get the memory and get out of here. I mean, I like the peace of mind atmosphere and all, but this place gives me the creeps."

"I second that. Everyone form a perimeter around Aelita," instructed Jeremie, who had beads of sweat starting to form around his neck. His eyes darted from side to side of the computer as he tried to finish William's program and watch for any signs of XANA's monsters.

"You guys keep going, I'll cover you," said Odd as he leapt onto the top of a platform. The self-proclaimed professional sharpshooter's fingers hovered over his shooter as he beckoned the others onward towards the fragmented memory.

Aelita felt slightly anxious and excited. By reacquiring the missing pieces, she would finally be complete and this whole ordeal would be over. However, she was also slightly fearful of what her recollection contained.

She was highly skeptical that it contained any of her happy childhood moments – if there were any. Then again, it could provide the details that Aelita had been desperately searching for; the whereabouts of her mother and why she had ended up on LYOKO in the first place. Perhaps it could even provide some insight into the mysterious men in black suits she had been dreaming about.

With each step, she was closer to the centre of the chamber – closer to uncovering her past.

Aelita now had glowing pink spheres on the palms of her hands, which also served as an additional source of light in the darkened room.

Something just didn't seem right.

But it was Ulrich who felt it first.

ULRICH

It was as if he had treaded over an invisible line; a sudden gust of wind passed through his whole body. And then the Way Tower turned bright red, as laser fire rained down from the landings above.

Aelita barely had enough time to expand the area of her energy field to fully shield herself, much less Ulrich and Yumi, who both swiftly drew out their weapons to deflect the oncoming assault.

"We've got company!" shouted Odd as he looked over his hiding spot and saw two Tarantulas. He adjusted his aim and fired two shots, but only managed to destroy one of the monsters. Suddenly, he was hit on the back. He turned around to see three teams of Hornets approaching, forcing him to abandon his sniping position.

The ground began to shake where Aelita, Ulrich and Yumi were standing. Ulrich quickly leapt to Aelita's platform before his broke off. Yumi attempted to do the same, but the ground she was on had already begun sinking. She leaped and managed to get one finger up to Ulrich's hand. But before he could affirm his grip, the force of gravity pulled her back down.

"Damn it," Ulrich cursed.

"I'm fine. I'll find my way back to you guys. Just keep going!" she yelled as she prepared to engage XANA's welcoming party of Creepers.

"I hate it when I'm right," muttered Ulrich as he made to attack the nearest monster. But it was quite difficult to select his first target; there were too many of them. The monsters had seemingly virtualized from nowhere, as Creepers, Mantas, Tarantulas, Krabs, Megatanks and Hornets surrounded his field of vision.

A Megatank rolled into position and shot its continuous beam at Ulrich. He angled his sword and although he was able to deflect the blast, it was still slowly pushing him back.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Aelita coming to his aid. She extended her palm at the monster. Ulrich thought a pink ball of energy would fly out, but instead a sharp snap of air was emitted, which caused the monster to roll backwards and fall into the abyss.

Aelita then summoned another energy ball and hurled it in front of her, while Ulrich unsheathed his second katana and concentrated on blocking shots from behind her. However, it was too overwhelming; some of the lasers were still going through, steadily chipping away at their life points.

"I don't think we can hold out against this," said Odd, who was firing arrows behind his back trying to shake off the pursuing Hornets and Mantas.

Jeremie sat frozen in shock. Odd was right, there was no possibility of lasting much longer against this many enemies. The entire screen was now lit with red blobs representing XANA's forces. How many were there? And more importantly, which objective should they prioritize? Deactivate the Tower or obtain Aelita's memory?

Then again, perhaps they should just wait another day. He had tried contacting Bryan via his mobile device, but only reached his voicemail. Meanwhile, the others were hopelessly outnumbered and the odds of accomplishing either objective were diminishing by the minute. They had already lost the element of surprise and now, XANA was in the driver's seat once again.

"Alright, I'm getting you guys out of there. Hang on."

Jeremie closed the partially-completed dispossession program and opened up the devirtualization code. He pressed 'enter', but nothing happened. The four LYOKO warriors were still in the digital world.

"Oh no," he groaned as an error message popped up.

"More bad news?"

"I can't devirtualize you guys. I think XANA's managed to alter the code or temporarily block the program from activating in CARTHAGE."

To make things worse, a dark cloud then manifested and hurtled towards Ulrich, sending him plummeting into an embankment below. William Dunbar materialized wielding his massive sword and sporting the cocky grin Ulrich despised with the utmost loathing.

Ulrich vs. William, round two.

YUMI

Having destroyed the last Creeper standing in her way, Yumi looked up to see where the others were. She saw Hornets and Mantas firing into a secluded platform overhead and hoped that Odd was holding out on his own.

She continued her way upwards, occasionally hiding behind large pillars to avoid being detected by XANA's monsters. She had never seen so many of them. Then again, this was XANA's homeworld after all.

Peeping up from behind a pillar, Yumi could see a massive build-up of Tarantulas and Krabs up ahead. She quickly ducked, hoping that they didn't see her. She began considering her limited options. There was almost certainly no way she could defeat all of them single-handedly, and she had no idea how many lay ahead of the blockade. Yumi then scanned her nearby surroundings. Her eyes rested on a towering block floating above her, which gave her an idea.

She put her dual fans away and instead placed her hands over her temple, focusing all her energy on envisioning the block falling on top of the monsters. Bit by bit, the chunk of terrain began to move.

Suddenly, Yumi sensed something creep up from behind. She opened her eyes while her hands instinctively went for her weapons. To her horror, she looked down and that her torso had already been sliced clean through. Her body began to disintegrate into transparent square bytes of data as she was devirtualized.

But before disappearing altogether from LYOKO, Yumi saw a brief glance of her attacker. Initially, she had assumed it to be William, but the hit was evidently from a laser blast. And upon closer inspection, both the figure and the sword it held were much leaner.

Jeremie was also surprised at how easily Yumi had been defeated by this new enigmatic opponent. Even his sensors didn't register anything; one moment Yumi still had sixty life points and then they had instantly dropped down to zero.

In addition, it was clear that XANA was using advanced tactics he had never seen before. Every action had a specific purpose and not a single move was wasted. Furthermore, when one of its monsters was destroyed, another would simply take its place.

"I – I'm going to try debugging the devirtualization program. But that'll take time."

"How long?" asked Aelita.

"I–" don't know, Jeremie wanted to say.

"–as fast as I can," he answered softly, his cracking voice barely audible.

Having been constantly on the move avoiding XANA's air force, Odd was struggling to find another well-hidden sniping position. He tried to spot Ulrich and Aelita and provide covering fire. "Can't we just self-devirtualize ourselves?"

"Y-yes. Try that," said Jeremie hopefully as he continued to troubleshoot the maligned program.

Aelita conjured up a pink sphere and pressed it against her chest. However, her life points didn't hit zero as they should when her energy beams make contact. Instead, they just dissipated.

"It didn't work," she muttered sombrely, before conjuring two more beams of energy to deflect oncoming laser fire.

Don't tell me she's immune to her own powers…

At the same time, Jeremie flipped open his phone and called Bryan's number again.

Please pick up…the boy prayed. After a minute, he heard a voice from the other end.

"Hello. I'm currently unavailable to take your call. Feel free to leave a message after the tone. Cheers."

Voicemail again. Jeremie sighed in frustration.

"I'll go see if I can find him," came Yumi's voice over his shoulder. She looked thoroughly exhausted.

Jeremie nodded weakly as Yumi patted him on the back reassuringly and took off. Deep down inside though – barring from a miracle – he knew that help would not arrive on time; just like when the Titanic plunged into the Atlantic all those years ago.

ULRICH

The Scyphozoa had been deployed once again in pursuit of its sole source of prey. It spotted Aelita amidst all of the lasers and glided towards the girl in pink, who looked back in modest alarm.

She flashed her hand over her wristwatch and a pair of white wings folded out of her back. However, as soon as she began to take flight, a couple of Mantas regrouped and started firing at her. One blast managed to clip her back and Aelita fell back down to the surface. As the Scyphozoa loomed closer, she conjured another ball of pink energy, before retracting it with a frown.

All of her powers were useless against it. Her energy beams would merely bounce off or be absorbed, while using the wind element would only push it back momentarily. And she had yet to learn to manipulate the fire and water elements she supposedly possessed, according to Bryan. Aelita wasn't even sure if that would inflict any damage to XANA's energy-resistant multi-tentacled agent.

There was only one option left: earth. Aelita knelt down on the ground and folded her hands as if in prayer. The surrounding rocks began to move and collapse around her, forming a protective physical barrier. That would buy her some time, but not for long; several of XANA's monsters had already started firing on the rock shield and bits were starting to chip off.

Below, Ulrich was duelling against Captain Cockshaw. The two exchanged slashes and parries at a lightning pace. Even with two katanas, William had no problem keeping up. And while Ulrich desperately looked for a critical hit to end it quickly, William seemed to be in fine form. It even seemed as though he was amused and was just toying with him.

Ulrich engaged his super spring ability in an attempt to bypass his opponent. Unfortunately, William's smoke ball form was able to keep up and struck the yellow blur, as Ulrich reverted to his body form and stumbled. His main sword clattered several metres away from him.

William hurled another energy ball at him, forcing Ulrich to use his spare katana to block it. Seconds later William was back breathing down on him. He felt his energy draining away from him as his slender katana struggled to hold its own against the heavier Zweihander. Ulrich's moves were growing more and more sluggish.

He tried to fake a strike to William's chest, to which the possessed boy redirected his sword downwards with minimal effort. Sensing an opportunity, Ulrich instead focused his swing at his head. But at that moment, William sunk beneath the floor.

This can't be good… thought Ulrich as his eyes tried to keep up with the trail of smoke.

That emerged right under him and made a sudden slashing movement.

JEREMIE

With an emphatic thrust of the Zweihander straight through Ulrich, a smug-looking WilliXANA cried out in victory.

Only Aelita and Odd were left, with the latter having only five life points remaining. Jeremie rubbed his head. It seemed hopeless and there was nothing he could do. Odd was virtually incapacitated and too far away to help Aelita. One more hit would surely devirtualize him, and there was no possible way he could go commando and take down a whole platoon of XANA's monsters to reach her in time.

Meanwhile, Aelita's protective barrier was slowly disintegrating. If nothing was done soon, the Scyphozoa would take away the remaining parts of Aelita's memory. And then…she would be nothing but a lifeless shell.

"You know, there is one way out of this," said Ulrich as he climbed out of the stairwell.

Jeremie turned around abruptly, wondering what Ulrich could be talking about.

Huh? Yumi and Ulrich are out. Odd's done for, unless he can pull off a deus ex machina or something. And Bryan…well…where in the world was he?

He was still waiting for Yumi's call or text with the three simple words. Not "I love you," of course – Ulrich would ensure the death of him – but more along the lines of "I've found him."

It was as if Ulrich could read Jeremie's mind. "Isn't there one more LYOKO warrior remaining – besides Bryan?"

The boy gulped. Perhaps there was one small glimmer of hope. Perhaps there was still a way to stop XANA. But he would have to overcome his greatest fear in order to do it. Jeremie felt a tingling sensation in his stomach. His body trembled as if it were begging to remain planted on the seat.

The Scanners were an irrational fear for Jeremie. He didn't know why, but coming into contact with them gave him an unpleasant sensation.

In previous dire situations, all he could do was stare hopelessly at the screen in front of him, waiting for a miracle. Jeremie was still holding on the belief that any moment Bryan would emerge from the doorway, and for once he would be relieved by his presence.

But he wasn't coming. There was no other alternative.

He would have to go to LYOKO himself.

After all, this was Aelita. The person he cared for the most. Even though it had been just over a year since they first met, albeit in different worlds, she had profoundly changed him for the better. And now Jeremie was about to lose her, which was simply unacceptable.

Besides, XANA obtaining the Keys would definitely not bode well for the rest of the world as well. Global domination was never a good thing.

"Jeremie, we're running out of time!" Ulrich's pleading voice brought the boy back into reality.

"I–"

Have no choice.

Jeremie gulped as he got out of his seat. He could sense his body resisting, but his mind prevailed. Was he feeling confident? Not in the slightest. But he knew what he had to do.

He paused as he stood beside Ulrich.

"You know how to initiate the virtualization program, right?" he asked Ulrich quietly.

"Yeah. And Jeremie?"

"Yes?"

"Good luck."

In the scanner room, Jeremie's heart was racing once again. His hands felt clammy and negative thoughts filled his head once more.

I can do this, Jeremie said to himself as he stood in front of one of the Scanners. With each step forward though, a part of him still wanted to turn back, hoping that this was merely a dream.

With a deep breath, he shut his eyes and walked forward.

And hit the wall. Rubbing his forehead, he opened his eyes to find that he had embarrassingly missed the cylindrical machine entirely.

This time, he felt the entrance of the Scanner before stepping in. The scanner doors closed softly behind him with a faint 'swish'. There was nothing to hold on to, so with his eyes shut and ears plugged, Jeremie braced for the transfer into the digital world.

One of the reasons Ulrich and Odd both thought that Jeremie's LYOKO form was utterly ridiculous was due to the phenomenon known as the generation gap. In fact, had the LYOKO warriors been high school students during the 1980's, his outfit would have actually been considered very in-fashion and generate feelings of envy.

Jeremie's avatar was still in its original design. After all, since he had previously vowed to never step foot on virtual soil ever again, there was no point in modifying his LYOKO avatar.

He was dressed in a full grey jump suit that had glowing blue neon lines that highly resembled a circuitry pattern. He also sported a helmet with matching blue strips and a light blue transparent visor. From his point of view, it was as if he had never left his seat in the control room. His range of vision was further supported by two virtual screens on his visor located on either side of his eyes, streaming various data, including his life points and a visual map of the surrounding area.

In terms of weaponry, Jeremie was similar to Yumi in that he possessed armaments that could be used for both close-combat fighting and as a long-range projectile. Strapped to the back of his suit was a slender doughnut-shaped disk.

An Identity Disc, just like in the movie Tron. Then again, it came as little surprise to Jeremie since Kevin Flynn's 'digital frontier' was what he had always compared the world of LYOKO to.

Jeremie still harboured feelings of nervousness and uncertainty. He had never tested his LYOKO powers, nor did he know his full potential. On Earth, he was far from being considered even marginally athletic and rarely demonstrated any sort of physical prowess. And yet, he was now being pressed into battle against an opponent that had made short work of two well-seasoned combatants in Ulrich and Yumi.

Nevertheless, he knew that he would have to overcome the enormous odds and obstacles. And he had already passed the first hurdle of getting to LYOKO in one piece.

Aim for the eyes, Jeremie reminded himself.

As he ran through the narrow corridor of Sector V, he noticed how much lighter and faster he was. He couldn't remember the last time he ran such distances without collapsing, but on LYOKO it didn't feel exhaustive at all. But never mind any of that; only one thought raced through Jeremie's head.

He was Aelita's last hope. And he hoped that he wasn't too late.

Fragmented Legacy Fun Fact 016:

Conveniently, Yumi's favourite rock band was really on a worldwide concert tour that ran from March 2005 to December 2006. However, their performance in Nice took place on August 2005, and by November 2006 they were in Australia for the last leg of their tour. But, rather than give Yumi the opportunity to skip school and have a summer vacation in the Land Down Under, the dates were changed for this fictional instalment.

A|N's:

Chapter XVI is finally out! A couple of weeks ago, I went to see Pixar's "Brave", a movie that I had wanted to watch since the trailer came out last year. It was amazing. Incidentally, it is also the title for this chapter, in which Jeremie assumes a more active role in Team LYOKO. As always, thanks for reading Code LYOKO: Fragmented Legacies =)