17: Death of a Dream, death of a Princess

BRYAN

Earlier that day…

He was still sitting in his room staring blankly at the wall after Aelita had stormed out. But he made no attempt of getting up and running after his friend.

Or should he say, former friend. According to her, they were no longer acquaintances.

"I – I thought I could trust you."

"Well, I guess you thought wrong then, didn't you?" he replied coldly, still not meeting her fiery gaze.

So many emotions were racing across Aelita's mind at the same time. She had come to Bryan in search of comfort. He had always seemed so understanding. After all, he was the one who reminded her that everything will always work out in the end.

However, when it mattered most, it looked like there were exceptions to this principle.

On the other hand, Bryan's face had turned pale as he fell completely silent. He felt a sudden desire to hit Aelita and make her feel pain. To get her to admit that she was wrong and take back the hurtful words that had come out of her mouth.

At the same time, he was rendered speechless and his thoughts were all clouded up. Furthermore, Aelita's words appeared to have taken a mental toll on him. He felt as if he had aged several years, which was reflected by the dull and deflated look of his eyes.

Words do hurt. Emotional intelligence was never Bryan's strong suit. Arguing with a girl was not his forte either.

In the end, perhaps Aelita was right and he was wrong. She had a right to know that her father – Waldo Schaeffer – had entrusted her with the task of maintaining order and stability on LYOKO, which included keeping XANA at bay. But would she have taken the news any differently than if he had told her when they first met?

Nevertheless, it was already too late. What was the point of going after her? Even if she allowed him to speak, she would only go back on the defensive and take a stab at what he had to say. Besides, telling her everything he knew wouldn't be that helpful either. She hadn't taken the bad news well, so telling her about the more dreadful news was unlikely to boost her mood.

In addition, Bryan wasn't entirely sure of his facts. A lot of it was still pure speculation work as he had only been assigned this project for a relatively short period of time. And feeding incorrect information to the others would undoubtedly have disastrous consequences. XANA was already proving to be a handful. And after several trips to the virtual world, Bryan had a feeling that the virus wasn't even at its maximum potential yet.

Then there was the fabled organization that both Aelita and Jeremie strongly believed to have existed and played an important, if not antagonistic role in the former's childhood and Project CARTHAGE itself.

The 'Men in Black'…really now…

Nazi Germany had tried to fight on two separate fronts during the Second World War, against the Allies in the West and the Soviet Union in the East. It didn't go too well for them. In retrospect, having six…no, seven high school students engaging two formidable foes simultaneously was clearly not a feasible option.

Still, Bryan was determined not to leave Kadic empty-handed; there was still something he had to do. There was one source that would very likely be able to provide him with the information he required to proceed with his…mission. How he would go about acquiring its services was a completely different story.

His cell phone suddenly started vibrating. At first, Bryan was still too furious at Aelita – and at himself – to care. After the fifth vibration, he became slightly agitated with his phone as well. He took it out of his pocket and was about to chuck it to the opposite corner of the room, when his eyes settled upon a familiar name on the caller display.

Bryan picked up.

"Valerie," he said a little too icily to his old friend. The girl on the other end was slightly taken aback by both the cold tone and the fact that Bryan had rarely ever called her by her full first name when they exchanged greetings.

"Sorry. Is this the wrong time?"

"Umm…no, it's fine. I'm just getting ready for class."

"Is something wrong?" she asked with a voice full of concern.

She's definitely psychic, Bryan said to himself. Then again, Valerie knew him all too well.

"Nothing I can't handle," he replied in an attempt to regain his typical calm demeanour.

Valerie chuckled on the other end. "That's good. Anyways, the main reason why I'm calling is because I have some urgent news."

Bryan tensed up once more. The morning had only just begun and he already felt like he had been put through the wringer.

"I think I've found a match from…that incident you were talking about. They might be coming."

The boy's expression hardened. Everything was happening too soon. He was by no means ready.

And now he was also running out of time.

ODD

Three Mantas glided past a string of crevices, searching for their final target.

Below, with his back lying vertically against the wall, Odd Della Robia breathed a sigh of relief when the monsters passed over him. He dared not communicate with Ulrich, and hoped that his friend would do the same. While this meant that he was without guidance or navigation, at least he wouldn't risk giving his current location away.

With the coast clear, he leapt to across to a higher landing and raised his head slightly. In the centre of the chamber, he could make out William standing next to the Scyphozoa, which swooped down and attached its long tentacles to either sides of Aelita's head, and her body instantly stiffened. Her lost memory continued to float above her, outside of her grip…

It had begun.

Odd knew that he could never get to Aelita in time. Even if he could, he was impossibly outnumbered, not that he was any good with close-range combat in the first place. Besides, he only had three arrows remaining. And he didn't have the life points to spare anyways; he guessed that he had five to ten remaining. He wouldn't manage to get one foot closer to her without getting devirtualized.

So that left him with only one option. And if he failed then it'd be all over, for him and Aelita.

For the first time in like, forever, Odd was not in carefree anti-serious mode.

He directed his shooter at the Scyphozoa, whose tentacles were now glowing red as it took in Aelita's recollections. However, it was more or less a rough approximation, since he was too far from it to have a clear shot.

He had to either cut off the Scyphozoa's tentacles or devirtualize Aelita. The latter was probably out of the question. The Scyphozoa had already begun draining Aelita's memories; if he sent her back into the real world, she would exist without the memories that also served as her lifespan…

Of course, the other alternative had an even lower chance of success. The narrow tentacles were undoubtedly a more difficult target, assuming that his arrows were able to make contact with the monster without interference from William or XANA's other monsters. And once Aelita was free of the Scyphozoa's grip, she would still be surrounded by enemy forces.

One shot was definitely not enough to pierce the two tentacles connected into Aelita's temple. Odd could fire all three of his remaining arrows simultaneously for a better chance of success, but he would also have to factor in the Scyphozoa's movement once it sensed that it was under attack.

And as soon as he fired his projectiles, XANA would know his exact location and make short work of the unarmed feline.

This was an all-or-nothing moment. Oddly enough, Odd never would've guessed that it would fall upon him again to save the day.

He placed his left hand over his right arm as he locked in, and to stop himself from shaking. Had he ever felt this nervous or been under this much pressure?

Concentrate…

He pressed down to fire.

Odd didn't even have a chance to see if his arrows had made impact. A Manta gliding overhead had spotted him and fired two swift rounds, wiping out the last of his life points.

However, another pair of eyes was able to see the result. Staring intently at the computer screen in front of him, Ulrich was dismayed to see that Odd's avatar had reverted back to its grey inactive state – he had been devirtualized.

But Aelita's memories continued to decline.

Odd's final attack had missed, though narrowly. The arrows took down a pair of Tarantulas right next to the Scyphozoa, which was of little significance in this situation.

And then there were none.

Or so XANA had thought.

JEREMIE

Jeremie Belpois was growing quite fond of his LYOKO regalia.

It had never felt this…cool the previous several times he set foot in the digital world. Then again, it was probably Ulrich and Odd, who couldn't comprehend the awesomeness that was to be a Tron lookalike.

He had everything at his disposal. His visor was constantly relaying data back to him, including his life points, current location and a map with red dots to highlight XANA's whereabouts. In some ways, they served as an extra pair of eyes.

If it wasn't for his phobia of entering the scanners, Jeremie would have frequently visited LYOKO just to test and tweak his outfit and abilities. But now was certainly not the time. He was on a rescue mission.

He had just reached the Core zone. This time, it did not rearrange itself into a maze-like configuration, leaving a straight path to the staircase which led to the chamber underneath. A pop-up suddenly appeared on the left side of Jeremie's field of vision, as if it was able to read the boy's thoughts.

Upload vehicle_?

Uh…sure, thought Jeremie. A list then expanded, revealing the three vehicular options. Again, Jeremie inputted his answer mentally and a baton materialized in the palm of his hand.

I know what to do with this, the boy who had seen Tron several times muttered as he broke off into a sprint and leapt. The baton began transforming, growing larger until it assumed the shape of Yumi's OverWing. In Jeremie's opinion, it was not only the safest of the three modes of transport; it also closely resembled his scooter, so he assumed that it wouldn't be too difficult to operate.

Jeremie continued on his way to confront XANA at a faster pace. But what would happen then? How could one untested LYOKO warrior possibly emerge victorious against XANA, when the other three seasoned members of the group had failed?

Tron's Legacy finally made his way down into the dark sublevel of CARTHAGE. Jeremie's visor provided ample light for him to see a chamber sector teeming with monsters, most of which were concentrated at the centre of the chamber.

From a distance, Jeremie could see the Scyphozoa slowly draining Aelita's life force. It looked even more sickening than when he saw it on the supercomputer. And oOnce her memory content reached zero…well, Jeremie didn't want to think about that.

He didn't have time to fight his way to the centre of the chamber. There was no point in concealing himself and trying to find loopholes in XANA's defence. Jeremie decided to simply travel straight into the heart of XANA's forces, incapacitate the Scyphozoa and escape with Aelita. It was all he could do. And it had to work.

As a precaution, Jeremie took out his Identity Disc from his back and activated it. It glowed blue and began humming softly. However, he passed by several Mantas and Hornets without a single shot being fired. The monsters merely appeared to acknowledge his presence, before moving on.

What were they waiting for?

Aelita was coming closer into view.

66%...come on, Jeremie, you're running out of time, muttered Ulrich, as Odd emerged behind him, shoulders drooped.

"I missed, didn't I?"

Ulrich affirmed Odd's suspicions and patted him on the back. He could hardly fault his friend for trying. Even the most professional of snipers probably wouldn't have been able to land a hit from that distance.

"Any word from Yumi?"

"No. By the looks of it, it's…not looking that good," Ulrich replied bitterly. There was nothing he could do, besides staring at the screen in front of him, hoping that Jeremie would make it through and had a sound strategy for saving Aelita.

Odd was sharing a similar sentiment. In all of their past adventures to LYOKO, he was never fearful of a mission going horribly wrong. Sure there were plenty of near-death experiences. But today…it was completely different. He felt so utterly useless, and put all of the blame on himself for failing to save Aelita. If he had made that shot…

"Couldn't we just program a return to the past?"

"Well, yes. But the Scyphozoa's in control of Aelita right now. What if Aelita's memories are fully removed before the program is executed? From what Jeremie said, her memories are like her lifeline. And if they are all gone…I don't think we can bring the deceased back to life, even if we do go back in time."

Odd sighed. At the bottom of the screen, only Jeremie's avatar profile remained active.

"Wait. Einstein…he's actually…"

"Yep."

"Hey… you don't think that Bryan has anything to with this?"

Ulrich looked back at Odd with skepticism. "What are you talking about?"

"I dunno. It seems fishy though doesn't it? He's not answering his cell. He got upset today when Aelita went to see him…"

Ulrich shook his head in disbelief over what Odd was suggesting. After all, there was no interpersonal value that he held more highly than trust.

"Bryan's always helped us out. He fought with us against XANA too, you know. And I told you guys that we should've gotten in touch with him before we went along with this operation."

Odd looked taken aback. "Sorry, I wasn't implying it like that. I mean, he's a good friend and all. I just feel like there's still so much we don't know about him, like he's holding something back from us."

Ulrich remained silent.

"I think I'll go to look for him as well, it's the most I can do now," added Odd. "After all, two heads are better than one."

"Okay. Good luck," said Ulrich nodding in agreement.

"Who needs luck when you have eyes that can find Waldo in three seconds?" he scoffed, though revealing a fraction of a grin as well, before taking off.

Even Ulrich had a small smile unfurling on his lips.

Typical Odd. Being able to joke around in a dire situation like this…he said to himself, before turning his attention back to Jeremie and his ridiculous LYOKO outfit.

BRYAN

Bryan Green really was an international man of mystery (IMoM).

No, he wasn't related to fellow IMoM Austin Powers, whose actor was also coincidentally a Canadian. Nor was he of British descent, although he did have a handy British accent in his cultural repertoire, albeit a terrible one at that.

But there was just so much about him that intrigued his friends.

His sky-blue hair for instance, to which he insisted was all natural and that he had never dyed his hair.

And it was this unique feature, coupled with sheer luck that Yumi Ishiyama was able to spot him before she was going to look inside the large school building.

He was outside swinging a tennis racket and having fun.

Of course, thought Yumi gritting her teeth despite having completed her objective. She distinctly remembered Bryan joining the tennis club last month, which met after school every Wednesday.

He was currently involved in a furious rally with a boy from Yumi's class. Every shot seemed to go by in a blur as eyes darted back and forth. Yumi tried to find some way to signal Bryan, but he was too focused on the set point to notice. It wasn't until he smacked a powerful forehand shot that unfortunately flew straight into the net, that his attention was redirected.

"Aww…nice try, Bryan. By the way, I think Yumi's looking for you," said Catherine casually on the court adjacent to him. Her hair still had traces of green dye from the previous night, but she was still amazingly pretty. Indeed, one of the reasons why there were actually spectators during tennis practice was because of her, and not the anticipation of someone trying to reproduce Federer's between-the-legs shot.

Drenched in sweat, Bryan turned around, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh. Yumi," he said, panting.

Yumi's mouth wanted to explode into a tirade of things she wanted to say: that a LYOKO warrior's life was currently on the line, why Bryan hadn't picked up his mobile when Jeremie called and where he had been the whole day. But she managed to condense the main point into three words.

"Aelita's in trouble."

For a split-second, Bryan appeared indifferent.

Good. She got what she deserved. He then quickly worked out that Yumi wasn't talking about minor trouble, such as detention. It was clearly something else. And Bryan had a gut feeling what that something was…

"XANA?" he asked quietly. Yumi nodded.

"We thought we could get her memory back ourselves. But XANA set a trap for us and –"

Well, this is much…quicker I anticipated. Trying his best to forget about his fight with Aelita that morning, Bryan headed off to the benches.

"Alright, I'm gonna go get my stuff," he said briskly while Yumi nodded and took out her cell phone to text the others.

Bryan then glanced upwards. The sky was of a rather sombre grey colour; rainfall was imminent and the wind was beginning to pick up. He frowned.

I've got a bad feeling about this…

JEREMIE

WilliXANA tilted his head lazily at the sight of Jeremie approaching him, as if he was evaluating on whether the LYOKO newcomer was a threat worth his time.

It turns out that Jeremie wasn't, as two Megatanks and a Tarantula were dispatched to confront him instead.

"Jeremie!" Ulrich's voice echoed throughout the sector.

The boy was visibly startled by the sudden announcement. But that could only mean one thing. "What is it?"

"Yumi. She's found Bryan. They're on their way."

A wave of relief rushed over him. However, the moment passed quickly. It would still take some time for Bryan to get into LYOKO. And by then, Aelita's memory might already be no more.

The game had changed. Deep down, Jeremie always knew that he couldn't possibly rescue Aelita on his own. His LYOKO powers, though he didn't know the full extent of them yet, were probably vastly inferior to Bryan's – who had taken down a platoon of monsters without any difficulty during his first trip to the digital world.

So now, the goal was to distract XANA long enough for Bryan to step in.

Jeremie held on to his disc even tighter as the monsters opened fire. He managed to dodge and deflect some of the lasers, but some managed to sneak through and take out twenty of his life points. And yet, Jeremie maintained his course towards the centre of the chamber.

More monsters gathered in front of him and prepared to fire. However, WilliXANA suddenly raised his hand and the monsters stood down. William then hurled a ball of energy at the OverWing.

Jeremie tried to swerve around the dark cloud, but it was coming too fast. The vehicle was instantly vaporized and he fell hard onto the surface, cracking a portion of his visor.

He got up slowly and from the corner of his eye, saw William calmly walking towards him. Behind him, the Scyphozoa continued to drain Aelita's memories. Through the still functioning part of his visor, Jeremie could see the memory content left in Aelita.

It was less than ten percent.

A red square in his field of vision locked on to the Scyphozoa. Jeremie hurled his disc in that general direction, hoping that it came equipped with homing capabilities to correct his dreadful aim. Sure enough, it curved and dipped, and was heading straight at its target.

Unfortunately, William stood in the way.

It was all over in an instant. He swiftly took out his sword and swung at the disc as if he was playing baseball. The projectile clattered several metres away, leaving Jeremie weaponless.

William came up to Jeremie, who tried lobbing a punch, which was easily stopped. He then grabbed Jeremie's shoulder roughly and the boy expected imminent devirtualization.

I've…I've failed…

But WilliXANA didn't slice through him with the Zweihander like he did with Ulrich. And it soon became clear why, as he forcefully turned him around so that Jeremie could personally witness Aelita's final moments.

Torture. XANA was good at that.

Jeremie wrestled and managed to break free of William's grip. He began rushing towards Aelita. But neither William nor XANA's other monsters bothered to stop him.

After all, there was nothing he could possibly do. The transfer was almost complete.

AELITA

Aelita Schaeffer was dying, although she was unaware of it herself. Her consciousness was beginning to return. It was like waking up from a very deep sleep, but instead of regaining her energy, she could feel herself getting weaker with every passing moment.

Although a bit fuzzy, her ears were still working. She heard quick-paced footsteps and with what remained of her dissipating strength, turned weakly to her side and struggled to open her eyes.

She saw a faint glimpse of someone approaching her. Aelita could make out certain features…

The boy looked very familiar.

Her lips tried to move, but it was no use. She could not make out his name in her head; her mind came up blank as her vision slowly faded back into nothingness. It felt like every part of her body was shutting down, she could no longer feel anything.

And with a rather mundane finality, Aelita's eyelids grew heavy and closed completely. Her body became limp and motionless.

"NO!" Jeremie yelled, which was also echoed by Ulrich back in the real world. The computer screen said it all, the bar representing Aelita's memory was empty, with the number zero flashing in bright red letters.

Without her chain of memories, Aelita ceased to exist.

Having fulfilled its objective, the Scyphozoa loosened its tentacles, before disappearing in a dark cloud of smoke. XANA's monsters followed suit, sinking into the ground. The last to depart was WilliXANA, whose face was barely able to contain his wide smug grin of achievement. He took one last glance at Jeremie, as if he was gloating.

What will you do now, Belpois?

Jeremie couldn't take it any longer. He felt his Identity Disc rematerialize in his hands and without waiting for a lock on his the targeting reticule, threw it at William with such force that it appeared to be sucking in its surroundings, gaining momentum. A small frown of concern sprouted on William's face, but just before the projectile could make impact, he vanished.

It took an age for Aelita's body to fall back to the now-deserted sublevel of Sector V.

Jeremie reached out in front of him just in time to cradle a lifeless Aelita in his arms. She felt incredibly light. This was the closest he had ever been in contact with her, and had the scenario been entirely different, Jeremie might have felt his cheeks turning red. If only tears were possible on LYOKO…

XANA had achieved a decisive victory. A large dark cloud suddenly emerged from the centre of the chamber. It shot upwards shaped like a large arrow before spreading out towards all four corners, before slowly fading into nothingness. XANA now possessed the Keys with which to gain its freedom from the supercomputer.

So close…

Back in the control room, Ulrich let out a soft groan. It seemed like a really bad nightmare. Aelita couldn't really be… He refused to use the d-word.

In fact, she looked as though she was resting peacefully, just like when Jeremie first found her in one of the Way Towers a little over a year ago. Jeremie gently shook Aelita's feeble body, holding onto the chance that she was really was merely asleep – that perhaps XANA had left a margin of a percent of her memory.

But that wasn't the case. This time, the slumber was eternal.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

Back at Kadic, the other students would be in the cafeteria enjoying their evening meal. Some would discuss their day's events, spread gossip and complain how much homework they still had to do. And yet, they would remain completely oblivious to the fact that they won't see one of their classmates – and for some, one of their friends – ever again.

Aelita was gone, just like the hope and optimism that had accompanied Team LYOKO earlier that day.

Fragmented Legacy Fun Fact 017:

Jeremie's LYOKO form is finally revealed! In the TV series, I remember Ulrich and Odd teasing him for his outfit, so at first I imagined him as some sort of wizard with a pointed hat, starry cloak and a long white beard of wisdom. But then I thought of the movie Tron due to the similarities to the Code Lyoko universe, as well as being slightly less embarrassing for Jeremie. Other concepts I considered included giving Jeremie a projectile-based weapon like Odd (but firing floppy disks instead), or some sort of large tablet with which he can use any LYOKO ability - including those of XANA's monsters. But that power sort of already belongs to someone else =)

A|N's:

Well, it's been a year since I've started working on Code LYOKO: Fragmented Legacies. And what an adventure that has been! In light of this milestone, I'll be reformatting/editing some of the older chapters in the next couple of weeks; the content will of course remain the same.

I also found out that this story has won a Carthage Award for 2012 on Xana's Lair. I am really beyond words (literally) =D. I haven't been writing for very long and this is the first time I've written something that wasn't for school. And so, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the judges and everyone who has read this story, and to those who have provided support and feedback. You all really inspire me to do my best, and the best is yet to come!

I know I haven't kept up with updating this summer and I apologize for that. As far as this story is concerned, I'm only halfway into the second 'season' (no, it's not over even though Aelita's gone…). I also think that this is the point where the story really starts to take off from the original TV series, so stay tuned! And as always, thanks for reading Code LYOKO: Fragmented Legacies =)