Chapter 4: How it could end

... or ...

Chapter 4: Aelita's Barrier

You could say Jeremy Belpois has had a lot of luck since the beginning of the invasion.

Just before the invasion, he had decided to skip gym class again to go to the lab in the factory, to create a multi agent program to destroy XANA once and for all. So he was the first to know XANA attacked earth with a long planned attack, but he couldn't warn his friends because he forgot to recharge his phone and because XANA locked him up there. Eventually, he could escape, yet he knew it was too late when he arrived at Kadic. He almost got hit by one of the Kankrelats, but he had to admit that, without those monsters, he would have never found Aelita.

Just before Jeremy arrived, Aelita had been shot to unconsciousness. She was lucky he found her before she could be killed, and he took her back to the factory, to a place which could have functioned as the infirmary when people still worked in there. The news about XANA quickly was known all around the world, and Jeremy shut down the supercomputer. It didn't do anything to XANA, who eventually already had taken over France by that time. Not long after this, he installed the force field he created a few weeks ago, in case of emergencies – and this invasion was some serious emergency, he couldn't have monsters in his factory. But he never would've guessed the force field would let people pass, and so Jim, a few students he brought with him, and other refugees who had heard about a safe heaven, could continue their life under Jeremy and Jim's custody.

But soon there were problems, other than the monsters walking around in the city. Like, the problem about the food rations. Luckily, Jim knew what to do about it – he once was a hunter (he'd rather not talk about it). He also knew the basics of cooking a decent meal so they could give everyone at least one meal per day, but the amount of food and drink was always different. Normally, the amount wasn't that big, but enough to live through the day. Also, Aelita's medical situation grew from bad to worse, and eventually they had to place her in an artificial coma, or else she wouldn't survive for sure.

Yet, the biggest surprise came four months into the invasion, when Yumi and Ulrich by accident decided to visit the factory.

Jeremy was pacing in his room. He just had visited Aelita again, but she still was in the same situation. It didn't worsen, it didn't get better. Sometimes he wondered if he could just shut down the machine keeping her alive, so that electricity could be used somewhere where it would be more useful. The infirmary could be used as an extra sleeping room for the growing amounts of refugees. And, to be honest, Aelita couldn't be saved, so it might spare her some pain if he just shut the machine down. Too bad the return to the past wouldn't work.

That's how his head watched the situation, but his heart had a whole other point of view. This was Aelita Stones, the fighter, the princess of Lyoko, she who fought to get to the real world, to break the link between her and XANA. She has – they have – been working too hard and too long to just make an end to it so suddenly. He's known her too long to let her go. Another reason was that Jeremy wouldn't know what to do without Aelita. Every time he felt hopeless again, every time he wanted to end his misery, he visited Aelita and when he left again, he had found the courage to continue. She inspired him, and it was no secret to the refugees that he was in love with her.

Oh, and Jim was a good friend, too.

Somebody knocked on his door, getting him out of his thoughts, and Jeremy turned his head, surprised. At this time, just after the sun had risen, nobody needed him. Unless it was a complete emergency, nobody needed him at this hour. Oh no…

It was Jim who opened the door, and he walked inside immediately. He hadn't even waited until Jeremy gave permission to come in. Darn it, something must be really wrong. "He, Belpois, I've got someones who wanna talk to you." He stepped aside, and in the port stood two of his friends, Yumi and Ulrich. The two smiled at him, and Jeremy smiled back at them. He was glad that those two had at least survived until now. Not like Aelita, who was put in a coma to survive, and Odd, of who he had no evidence he was alive or dead, but Jeremy was pretty sure he wasn't here anymore. Jeremy decided not to talk about Odd, just in case they didn't know about him.

"You're alive," Jeremy noticed his voice sounded surprised, unlike the neutral voice he had wanted to use.

"You too, Einstein," Yumi responded. Jeremy didn't see Odd, which confirmed his deductions. He turned to Ulrich and Yumi. He noticed Ulrich looked a bit paler. Well, that was what could happen after four months out in the woods. Then why wasn't Yumi a bit paler?

"Hey, where's Aelita?" Ulrich asked, and Jeremy frowned. He only then realized the two didn't know what happened to her, where she was. He turned to Jim.

"You didn't tell them?"

"I thought they had to hear it form you. 't Is only fair," Jim replied. Jeremy sent a grateful smile towards Jim, before their old PE teacher left. Jeremy did want to tell Yumi and Ulrich what happened, and Jim had thought of it. Yumi and Ulrich looked at each other… nope, they didn't know what happened to Aelita at all. Jeremy breathed in deeply, before bringing them the news. Alright, here goes nothing…

"Aelita… she's attacked during the invasion. When I found her, she was… we were almost too late, but we could safe her. Sort of." Yumi and Ulrich had listened carefully, of which Jeremy was grateful for, when he explained it with difficulty. He only knew how bad the situation was when he just talked about it, but it would probably always be a painful topic. The two friends nodded in understanding, as if they just found out they lost one of their best friends. For a moment, he wanted to ask about Odd, but eventually, he didn't. He couldn't.

"Well, where is she now?" Yumi wanted to know, and Jeremy sighed. He didn't want to just tell them, they wouldn't know what place he meant. He knew they wouldn't be able to find it.

"I'd better show you," he said, and he lead them out of his room, to the infirmary, to Aelita. Yumi and Ulrich silently followed. There were a lot of questions he wanted – he needed – to be answered: where Odd was, how they were doing, where they've been all those time, what brought them here, if they noticed Ulrich's wound on his leg, how Hiroki was doing… he shook all those questions off of him. He knew they would be answered by the course of time.

Then, he abruptly stopped, and the two bumped into him. They were here – the infirmary. His trembling hand made way to the door knob, and he touched the cold metal. He wondered why it took him so long to open it, when it usually went so easily. That's when he noticed he was nervous. How would Ulrich and Yumi take the situation? Would they blame him for not finding anything yet? He quickly pushed away that feeling – for now, it was easier not to feel than to feel – and opened the door.

Ulrich stood there, as if he were stunned, and Yumi practically ran towards Aelita, who was placed in the middle of the room. Jeremy calmly walked towards to Aelita, and finally Ulrich seemed to move again. Jeremy didn't really come any closer – he visited Aelita almost every day, and gave Ulrich and Yumi the space to stay next to her.

"How did this happen?" Ulrich wanted to know. Jeremy shrugged.

"I… don't really know. But I do know that if the machine gets shut down, she'll die. She… if she hadn't gotten back to Kadic earlier, this wouldn't have happened," as Jeremy continued, it became harder not to feel anything as guilt took control, "If I didn't let her go back… If I just got there sooner… If I saw this attack sooner, she would… If I were just a little faster… I'm –" he got cut off by Yumi.

"This isn't your fault, Jeremy," But Jeremy shook his head. Off course this was his fault. He was the one to blame, the only one.

"No, it is. I was here when it began. I could have…" And again, he got interrupted.

"This is XANA's fault, Jeremy, not yours," Jeremy wanted to go against that, but Ulrich wouldn't let him, "We can still stop him, avenge Aelita. We can still win from him. We'll make him pay." It seemed impossible to change Ulrich's thoughts, looking so confident about his opinion. And yet, Jeremy shivered. Ulrich had talked about Aelita as if she were already dead – like there was no hope for her. But he shut his mouth about that.

Oh yeah, that's right! He had a small surprise for them! He couldn't remember when he created them, or how he got the idea. The point was he had made them, and could give his creations to Yumi and Ulrich – they could use them. He walked to the closest closet (why did he put them away in that closet?) and opened the doors, and surprised Yumi and Ulrich again. Not by opening the doors, but by what's inside – two tessen fans and a samurai sword. Their Lyoko weapons. Jeremy took the three weapons, and handed them over to their new owners, who were astonished.

"Wow…" that's all they could say. It was an understatement to say they were impressed. Jeremy had, on his own, recreated their weapons, who looked exactly like their Lyoko equivalents, even if Jeremy had never seen those weapons before. Yumi and Ulrich inspected them for at least three minutes, before Yumi turned to Jeremy and he sent her a shy smile.

"How did you…" This time, it was Yumi who got interrupted by Jeremy.

"That doesn't matter. I figured that, with XANA controlling the whole world but the USA, you might need them in the future." For now, he hadn't launched an attack on the USA yet, but it would most likely happen soon enough. Knowing XANA, he could be attacking the last independent country on earth already. And Yumi nodded – it was logical he would give it to them when the world needed them.

"Er," Jeremy began, just remembering something else, "If you two would stay, we'd really appreciate it. We could use some good fighters like you two. But the choice is all yours to make, off course." Yumi and Ulrich had their doubts, like Jeremy predicted. Jeremy waited patiently for their answer. It took them five minutes to decide they would rather keep travelling around the city. Even though it was sad they didn't stay, Jeremy respected their decision and carefully watched how the two tested their weapons by destroying the Kankrelats and Hornets swarming around the force field.

Just before they disappeared out of sight, Jeremy wondered how they still couldn't have seen Ulrich was wounded all those time.

"Belpois." Somebody called him. In his thoughts, the young boy moaned. No, he thought, just a few more minutes. People needed their sleep, even if they didn't keep a refugee's camp running in an environment completely useless for said refugees. "Belpois!" the voice called out again. Jeremy was too tired to identify the voice. It was a big chance it was Jim, but it could also be somebody else. He moaned – why wouldn't the person just let him sleep? He'd better not moaned at all. "BELPOIS!" this time the person had screamed, and right in Jeremy's ear. Jeremy shot up and fell of the chair – yep, he'd fallen asleep during his work again. He rubbed with his hand over his head and then turned his head towards Jim.

Off course it was Jim. He was the only one who wanted to – or had to – talk to Jeremy.

"What is it now, Jim?" Jeremy asked, oppressing a yawn. Last few days he'd been trying to find a way to get the supercomputer working without giving XANA his old and most powerful weapon back. And every time he started, something else would occupy him. He wanted to keep up the force field, he wanted to give Aelita her life back, he wanted to protect and fed the refugees under his custody, and, off course, he wanted to defeat XANA. Too bad he couldn't fix all at once.

"To begin with the worst, two more have… you know what I mean," Jim started, "and also, we're almost out of food again. And, er, three of those crab-thingies passed the bridge. They were keeping their distance, but I suppose Dunbar's getting suspicious of this place." For Jim, it was always crab-thingies, flying creatures, or creeper-thingies (Kankrelats, no real Creepers) and he normally used 'Dunbar' to say he's talking about XANA, because it sounded more defeatable. And that's not even a real word. Anyways, just before Jim wanted to leave again, he turned back to Jeremy.

"We really need to give the force field more power," Jeremy turned back to his PE teacher.

"What?"

"We don't know what'll happen, Belpois. Those crab-thingies were seen much more than this, you know it. Maybe Dunbar will attack with these, and then? We know the force field can hod those flying creatures and the creeper-thingies, but we don't know if it'll hold the crab-thingies." Jim's got a point. It could stand with ease against Kankrelats or Hornets, but will it be able to exist if a Krab, or even a Blok, tried to take it down? Jeremy thought about it, and noted down his ideas – he didn't want to use anything electronic, just in case – and then he turned back to Jim.

"We could just feed the force field with more energy, but…" Jim sighed – 'but' normally meant the idea was 'impossible', "but all available energy is being used elsewhere. The lights, the warming system, the cooking fires…"

"Miss Stones?" Jim guessed, and Jeremy's cheeks went from the normal color to tomato red. Yes, he'd thought about Aelita too, but he hadn't mentioned her because it would sound like he found her more important than the force field keeping all of them alive, for now. And Jim thought a force field was way more important than some teenage girl.

"Belpois, we need that energy," Jim insisted, trying not to come over too uncaring. Yes, he'd rather see Aelita alive than dead, but he also didn't want to see the energy was wasted to her. In her situation, she was as good as dead, so they'd better use her energy to feed the force field protecting a small hundred people. They would shut down her machine and mourn her, seeing as she somehow gave her life for those of others. They could call the force field "Aelita's Barrier", and live through this barrier – at least as an elf with pink hair who died protecting the humans from her arch enemy.

Try and explain that to the boy madly in love with her.

Jeremy shook his head. Taking energy from Aelita's machine… no, he wouldn't let Jim. He wanted to protect her, to love her, give her the chance to live again. If they shut down the machine and Jeremy would stumble upon something that could have saved her life, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. He did not want to lose Aelita already.

"But not her energy," Jeremy said, "take some from something else." Jim shrugged.

"From where? Not the warming system, we'll freeze. Not the light, we'll be blinded. Certainly not the force field, we'll die. Belpois, we waste energy to her, and you know it. If we took away just a…"

"I said no," Jeremy said harshly, "not Aelita's." Jim sighed – man, Belpois really could be stubborn!

"So one life is more important?" Jim snapped, "One life is more important than a hundreds of them? You would risk hundreds of lives to safe hers?" the expression on Jeremy's face confirmed that Jim had been right, too. Jim doesn't know, Jeremy thought, he doesn't understand how important she is. If a tower would be activated, Aelita is the only one who can deactivate it. Then, they needed Aelita. He didn't understand how useful she could be. How much she means to us. How much she means to me.

Apparently, Jim understood what Jeremy went through – he wanted to help, and at the same time safe Aelita. A very hard choice, he knew; one which killed you from guilt either way. He put a comforting arm around the boy's shoulders.

"Listen, Jeremy," the computer wizard looked up when Jim called him by his first name, "I just want the best for all. Why not stay on middle ground? Just… just half of her energy, okay? A part for Stones, another part for the force field. Wha do you say?" Jeremy thought about that. He would be taking a big risk. The force field would grow a bit stronger, but what would happen to Aelita? Would she survive? Would the machine stop working if half of the energy was taken away? What would Aelita do in his position? The last question came totally unexpected, but was the only question he could immediately answer, she would take the risk. And if I would die, she'd know that at least she tried.

With a small nod, Jeremy confirmed he agreed on Jim's idea and next morning rumor had it that Jeremy Belpois gave part of the energy original for his girlfriend Aelita Stones to the force field, which they started to call Aelita's Barrier from then on, with a bit of help from Jim's part.

Aw, poor Jeremy... And now the force field is called Aelita's Barrier. Will Jeremy find a way to safe Aelita's life? When will Jim realise he's a better leader than Jeremy is (at the moment?) Will Aelita's Barrier stand long? Whaddya think will happen next? Well, we get back to Sissi within a week, so stay tuned. Chapter five: Would you forgive me?, will be posted on the 23th of January! On with the reviews:

Bluedog197 (Wow, you've got some serious ideas, mister! And yes, there will be a twist, but I don't tell you what kind of, and how big/small the impact is. You'll have to find out in one of the future chapters)

See ya next time!

-DutchWriters2