Chapter 9: Revelation
"The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom."—Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Are you sureshe said no?" Odd asked again at lunch, frowning over lasagna at her. "I mean, she didn't say no, did she?" Odd had a feeling that she was about to stab him with her fork if he didn't stop asking. But he still didn't believe that Gabby was telling the truth. "There's always the possibility that she was lying, you know. Maybe you just didn't ask her right."
"Odd," Jeremie interrupted. "Look, she said no. Stop bothering Aelita about it. Just accept that you're wrong and we can go back to eating lunch in peace."
"I'm not wrong," Odd argued, taking a large bite of his food. "Look, maybe it's just a big coincidence, I get it. But some of the things she said when we got stuck in the boiler room were obvious hints that she knew what I was talking about."
"Odd, you were both on the verge of being boiled alive; you were probably hearing whatever you wanted to hear," Ulrich put in, nudging his own lasagna around on his plate. "I'm not saying that it's impossible that she's there, or that she didn't say something, or that you're only obsessing over this because you're obsessed with her. What I'm saying is that we have no proof either way."
"I'm not-"
"Hey guys!"
Everyone turned to stare at Gabby as she sat lightly next to Odd. Odd himself didn't think he could move. He felt like this was probably a trick: she was looking at him with a bright smile. And she was so close.
"Uh, hey, Gabby," Aelita managed, breaking the moment. Odd scooted away from Gabby, nearly moving himself into Ulrich's lap.
"Hey, we were just talking about you," Ulrich muttered, pushing Odd back towards her.
"Really? Nothing bad, I hope! I mean, we're all friends here. Is this lasagna as good as it smells, Odd?"
Odd stood up abruptly, more and more suspicious by the second. His lasagna was only half finished, but for once he didn't care. Without answering, he almost ran out of the cafeteria. Gabby stared after him for a few seconds, a flash of annoyance crossing her face.
"What did I do?" she asked after a second, moving to take his seat.
"You're awfully chipper this morning," Jeremie responded, putting his own fork back on his tray and glancing at Aelita.
"Aren't I always?" Gabby asked with an innocent smile. No one really had a response to that, so the others just stayed quiet. "So I was thinking," Gabby continued, as if there had been no awkward silence between her statements, "we should all hang out together today! We can go to that new botanical center! They're supposed to have all kinds of beautiful flowers! I thought Odd might like to come too... but obviously that was a no. Anyone?"
And she was in such a good mood that no one could really refuse.
~ $*GABBY*$ ~
The first laser missed me by inches. It hit a foot or so in front of my feet, but I didn't stop. I didn't even bother trying to fight with my guns; if I fumbled, I was going to get hit; if I got hit, there was a decent chance that my self was no longer connected with my body for me to return. If my father and X.A.N.A. were trying to get rid of me this way, that chance was growing more and more. My only chance was to run, but I couldn't run forever. I could hide, but I didn't know where to, or how much time that would buy me. I saw the tower in the distance and wondered if that would be enough to protect me. They never followed Aelita into the tower; maybe they couldn't enter. If I made it into the tower, maybe I would be safe.
It was my best shot, so I dashed madly in that direction. I felt pain in my shoulder as one of the hornets hit me with a laser. I chanced a glance behind me and narrowly avoided a couple shots from some blocks, then dodged to the side to avoid the megatank. I hurtled over a fallen tree, almost tripped on an exposed root. There was a terrifying minute when I was afraid I wouldn't make it; and then I was there. I ran through the tower wall, finally tripping over my own feet and collapsing in a puffing mass at the center of the platform. Not sure if the monsters could follow or not, I tried to catch my breath quickly; at the same time, I brought out my gun. I switched it to BULLET for now, then turned and sat facing the wall I'd entered from, still gasping for breath.
It was silent for a few seconds; then for a few minutes. I thought I was safe; but then ripples appeared in the wall (I leapt to my feet), and my father-no, not anymore-stepped through, already holding his gun. There was a bored look on his face. As if this were just another boring errand for him to do.
We stared at each other for a minute: me still panting with my gun raised in his direction, and him just looking bored, gun in hand but not raised. At least not yet. I was regretting my choice of BULLET. I would have felt safer with the BOMB. But it felt like any movement might unfreeze the world. And I was afraid that this was it.
"You know, it really is a shame," he finally said, taking a step forward. I took an equal step backward. "You always used to be such a wonderful daughter. A daughter I could be proud of." Another step forward, another step backward. "I made it out because of you. You've made your mother very happy, Gabrielle."
"You... you made it out?" I whispered, taking another step back for his step forward. "But... you kept telling me..."
"Yes, well, we still have work to do. But you just aren't capable of everything I thought you were." A step for both of us.
Before I could respond, his gun came up and he fired a few rounds; the first one hit me and I stumbled backwards. The next ones missed because I did something neither of us had accounted for: I tumbled over the edge of the platform and fell into blackness.
~ $*ODD*$ ~
Gabby was definitely in way too good a mood. She hummed the whole way to the botanical center, checking every minute or so to be sure the gang was still behind her. They'd managed to drag Odd along, but he was hiding in the back of the group, too thrown off by Gabby's change of personality. And since when did she walk along humming anyways?
Something was up. And it was up to Odd to figure out what.
The sun was shining as they reached the center, flowerbeds in bloom around the doors and trees with leaves waving gently in the wind. Odd paused at the door, letting the group get ahead of him a little.
Why had he let them talk him into this? He should be back in his dorm playing video games, just like any other Sunday. Not walking around a botanical center admiring flowers (though they were pretty) with his paired off friends and Gabby. Odd sighed and walked through the door.
No one was in sight. Not his friends, not any of the workers. No one.
Okay, so now he really wished he hadn't come. And his bad feeling that something was wrong had increased tenfold.
"Uh, hello? Hey, Aelita, Ulrich? Where'd you guys go?" There was no response, and he couldn't help but feel a little creeped out. "Ugh, I knew I should have just stayed at the school." With another sigh, he started along to the concrete path to the flowery greenhouses at the back of the building. It was as good a place to start as any. "Helloooo?" Odd called again. It was too quiet for Odd to be comfortable. Spying some hedge trimmers and figuring that they were as good a weapon as any, he picked them up and went through the door.
He was only half surprised to see his friends, tangled in vines but putting up a good fight. Without hesitation and with a primal yell, he leapt at Ulrich, who was the nearest, and tore through the vines with the hedge trimmers. It took a few minutes to get him completely free; every vine they cut renewed it's attempt to ensnare them. Once or twice, a vine wrapped around Odd's ankle, only to be shorn. Finally, Ulrich was free, and he grabbed his own weapon, a nearby axe, and went to rescuing Yumi while Odd tried to free Jeremie.
"Odd, look out!" Aelita yelled, just in time for the shovel to make contact with the side of his head. Jeremie continued to struggle with the vines while stars burst in front of Odd's eyes. What had hit him?
"ARGAGH!" Ulrich screamed, having handed a partially freed Yumi the axe and taken up what seemed to be a broom. But what was he attacking? Odd asked himself, still reeling from the strike. Wood on wood rang above his head, and he saw a flash of orange and teal.
Gabby, Odd realized. Gabby had hit him over the head with a shovel. Jeez, what a bitch, he thought groggily, while Jeremie yelled something at him and the clash above him continued. Now Yumi was free and she was kneeling next to him and asking him something. She frowned at him and went to work on the rest of the vines on Jeremie.
Gradually, things became more clear; Odd realized that they were asking him if he was ok. Frankly, he was probably lucky that he was still conscious, and he most likely had a concussion. Jeremie was next to him, occasionally batting off a vine or three that came near while Yumi tried to free Aelita, and Ulrich was still locked in battle with Gabby when Odd finally managed to sit up slowly.
"What happened?" Odd asked, feeling the bump on the side of his head gently and pointing at Ulrich and Gabby.
"The replica hit you over the head with a shovel," Jeremie informed him. Replica was the only word that stuck in his head. Replica. Not the real Gabby.
"Then where's Gabby?"
Aelita joined Jeremie and together they helped him stand. "I don't know, Odd, but this is probably a X.A.N.A. attack. Do you think you can walk?"
Yumi had gone to aid Ulrich, which was probably good because the vines were still pursuing them.
"Yumi and Ulrich will handle the plants and the replica; we're going to Lyoko. Will you make it, Odd?"
Odd nodded slowly as they moved towards the door. He had to. He had to find the real Gabby.
~ $*Gabby*$ ~
I was on another platform now, identical to the one in the other tower. I guess that was the nice thing about virtual worlds: even when you fell down into darkness, you never knew where you would end up.
But I still wasn't safe. He would be right behind me. He knew this place better than me; he had to know that this was nothing but a way to another tower. Taking a deep breath, I stepped out of the tower.
And into the desert. There were no monsters, yet, but I surely wasn't going to stand there and wait for my not-dad to get there and kill me. It didn't matter the direction, so I chose a path that I realized would quickly hide me from view from the tower and tore off that way. Really, the desert was probably ideal when it came to hiding: the first thing I did was jump ten feet off a ledge. Bam, tower hidden. That being said, it was probably going to be difficult to hide for long. I don't know how long I ran for, but when I stopped for breath, I was definitely completely lost. There wasn't a tower in sight, there were some arches and some cliffs, and at the moment I was leaning against the ledge of another cliff. Glancing around, I thought maybe here would be the best place to stay for the moment. With my back against a wall, but guarded.
No sooner had I thought this then a megatank rolled around the corner. I cursed and took a shot at it; I missed, but I didn't wait around to see if it would fire at me. I went the other way along the cliff face. Only to find a gang of Kankralats waiting for me. I broke from the cliff face and ran away from it.
But after a minute of running I came to a gap. Looking down between it I saw nothing but the yellow/orange color far below me. I looked back and then across the gap again. I could make it... with a running start, I could make it.
Probably.
But it was my only option. The monsters were getting closer. So I backed up a few yards, hearing the charge of the kankralats lasers. I took another deep breath and sprinted for the gap, jumping right at the edge. But I wasn't gonna make it. Fear burst in me as I took in the sea below me, terror of falling all that distance and never being found again.
A laser hit me square in the back, and I tumbled onto the solid ground, rolling, breathless, unable to move in my terror for a moment. When I regained control of myself, I managed to bring my head up to look.
The monsters were stopped on the other side. And behind them, my not-father was looking at me cooly. Smiling. Promising.
Maybe I would be better off falling, I thought. I stood and dusted off my leather pants. I located the gun that had skidded past me when I'd rolled onto solid ground. I put it in BOMB. And then I started walking away. But it wasn't long before I was being chased again, by what felt like all the monsters in Lyoko. I didn't have time to turn and shoot. Every time I thought I was safe, I was proved wrong. At one point, a laser beam hit me in the leg, knocking me off my feet. A quick bomb shot, and then I was up and running again, though albeit with half the monsters chasing me. Another time, I was hit in the shoulder again, and I lost my grip on my gun. I had to scramble after it, and barely had time to grab it and then dodge a megatank's blast.
I was going to die in Lyoko, I realized, dashing across a narrow rock bridge. I was beginning to resign myself to the fact. I had a horde of monsters behind me, my not-father would find me in any tower that I hid in, and no one knew that I needed rescued. I was going to die. That... whatever it was would continue to inhabit my body and no one would ever-
A heavy weight brought me to the ground as it smashed into my back, not at all like the lasers from before. It crossed my mind that this was the end, and I closed my eyes.
"Hey, Jeremie, I thought we were going to the Forest Sector?"
My eyes flew open at Odd's voice. The weight got off my back and Aelita came into view.
"Gabby! I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Oh, wait, I mean..."
"Oh, nevermind. Ugh. What did you do?" I jumped back to my feet, ignoring Odd's question, and Aelita's too.
"Get down!" I yelled, snatching up my gun and whirling around. To my relief, they both listened; the shot flew over both of their heads and with a blast, most of the monsters that were following me disintegrated. Odd straightened up and shot the last few with his laser arrows. I breathed a sigh of relief and went to my knees.
"So, how do we know you're the real you?" Aelita asked, coming to stand over me and folding her arms over her chest.
I looked between the two of them for a second before answering. "I'll tell you guys everything. I promise. But can we save me first?"
"Isn't that what we just did?" Odd asked, one eyebrow raised.
I shook my head. "I meant my body. If we save my body, then I won't need saving. It's... difficult to explain. I don't know how any of it works. But right now... X.A.N.A. or whatever has control of my body. So if I-"
"If you get devirtualized here, you'll have nowhere to go," Aelita finished for me. "How many life points do you have left?"
I stared at her. "Uh..."
Odd sighed and said, "Jeremie?" I can only assume Jeremie answered, because they both paled considerably and scowled at me. "All right, so... you've got maybe two hits left in you. So just don't get hit and you'll be fine!"
Aelita glared at him. "All right, I think the best option may be to hide you and let me and Odd handle this. A transfer tower should be able to-"
"No," I interrupted. "No, nothing will hide me. Especially not the towers. Trust me, I already tried that. I got shot. I already said I'll explain after. If, you know, I don't die."
They seemed to accept this answer, but they couldn't seem to get around the me dying part.
"Look, we'll just have to protect her. The same way you guys always do me," Aelita pointed out.
"I can't protect both of you at once," Odd argued, putting his hands on his hip. As he spoke, a hoverboard materialized next to him.
"Then don't protect me. I won't die. Not here, not anymore. She will."
Odd looked hesitant to agree, then looked at me and nodded. "All right. Shut up, Jeremie." Aelita laughed. "All right, everybody on. And hold on tight."
Minutes later, the three of us were huddled on the hoverboard, flying through the Forest Sector. I was sandwiched between the two of them, it having been decided that that was the safest spot for me. It certainly wasn't the most comfortable. But it was better than being dead. Speaking of dead, the hoverboard came to a slow halt, and I peeked over Odd's shoulder to see why.
The entire path was blocked by monsters. I swallowed and, behind me, Aelita gasped.
"All this, just to take out one measly girl? X.A.N.A.'s losing his touch," Odd muttered. Ignoring the fact that Odd had just called me a "measly girl," I drew my gun and fired. The explosion pushed the hoverboard back a foot or so, and then Odd shoved me off. "Hide behind that rock," he ordered, pointing to the boulder that was already hiding me from the monsters. "You stay here and pick them off one by one. Aelita and I will charge through. Once Aelita's through, I'll come back for you."
I wanted to argue, but Aelita was already nodding, jumping down next to me as Odd nimbly dodged the first laser shot. I glanced back the way we'd come, wishing more than anything I was back in my body and safe in the real world. I switched my gun to BULLET as Odd and Aelita prepared their attack.
"Ready? On three... one... two..." I was still staring wishfully at the path we'd travelled, and I could swear I'd saw something move that way, but as Odd yelled, "THREE!" I put it out of my mind and whirled back around, taking aim over the rock and taking out monsters in reach with my gun. We did a pretty decent job: most of the monsters within my range were dead within the first ten seconds, and a minute later I sighed in relief as Aelita broke through to the other side of the monster mob. She took off sprinting, and I prayed she'd reach the tower quick. I was ready to wake up from this nightmare.
I was brought harshly back to reality when something hit me in the back of the head; my face jerked forward into the rock, but I kept enough awareness to roll to the side from there. The rock where my face had been a split second before pixelated and reformed. Without thinking, I spun around and fired.
I got lucky enough to hit my not-father's gun hand, and his only weapon skittered backwards and miraculously over the side. Keeping my own weapon raised, we stared at each other for a moment, neither one of us moving. Hurry up, Odd, I thought desperately, flinching as my not-father took a step forward with a grim smile. Just because he didn't have his gun anymore didn't mean that I was safe. If Jeremie was right, I had maybe one good hit left in me. I couldn't afford to let my guard down.
If I did, I was as good as dead.
He moved and I shot again; my bullet struck his shoulder, but he didn't even slow down. I couldn't help it: I squeaked in fear and darted around the rock.
Fuck was about the only word that came to mind. I was about as safe on that side of the rock with my not-father as I was on this side with a slightly decreased number of monsters. At the very least, this side had hope. Odd was flying back in my direction, but he was being impeded by the hoard. And I could hear my not-father right behind me as I sprinted towards Odd as fast as my legs would carry me.
But it wasn't fast enough. I'd barely made it a couple yards before my feet were knocked out from under me and I landed on the virtual ground with a grunt. The next thing I knew, my not-father had me by the throat and my feet were dangling over the edge.
It occurred to me again that I might have been better off falling before. We were so close. For all I knew, Aelita was in the tower. Odd was fighting his way back to me, for once my knight in shining armor. I had had hope that I was going to be ok.
But my not-father's eyes crushed it. He was going to drop me. He was going to let go and let all that hope that I could go back to my body and keep living fall with me to that yellow-orange sea beneath my feet. My hands automatically clenched my not-father's: wanting to fight to make him stop choking me, but also wanting him to keep hold. Not wanting to fall.
Fear was welling up in me, bringing tears to my eyes as I looked at the man I had looked up to all my life. My father, who had encouraged me to fight for what I wanted, who taught me that life was what you made it, who wanted me to be the best that I could be. And here he was, dangling me out over a cliff and looking completely okay with it.
"Sorry, my princess," he muttered. He let go.
"NNNNNOOOOOOO!"
I'm not sure which of us screamed louder. My eyes squeezed shut, more from pain than anything as my shoulder nearly jerked out of its socket. I held on to Odd's hand for dear life. Literally.
When the pain receded, I opened my eyes enough to squint up at him. He wasn't looking at me; he was looking up at my not-father.
"Jeremie?" he called nervously. And I totally understood the nerves. My not-father did not look pleased at this turn of events. He squatted down and glared down at us, like he was wondering how to solve the problem. Then he smiled.
"Two birds with one stone, I suppose," he muttered, standing back up.
"Jeremie!" Odd yelled again; but this time, there was a response. A pink ball of energy knocked my not-father to the side as he reached down to pry Odd's hand free of the edge.
Aelita never looked more like an angel to me than in that moment.
"Odd!" she called down, keeping her gaze locked on my not-dad. "Do it."
"But... Jeremie, are you sure?"
"Odd, the tower's deactivated. But X.A.N.A.'s bugged the Return to the Past program. It's the only way..." Aelita trailed off, readying another ball of energy.
"But..." Odd looked down at me nervously, meeting my eyes with his own filled with fear. It struck me suddenly that he was actually afraid that I was going to die. The eye contact only lasted a second, but I felt my heart twinge in what was either terror or else joy. Yeah, it was weird. Either way, Odd continued as if he hadn't noticed (probably he hadn't). "Ugh, damn. All right. If you're sure..." He looked back down at me. "Gabby... I know this is going to sound stupid, but I need you to trust me."
My stomach sank. That was not what I wanted to hear. And there was no way whatever he was about to say was going to make me feel any better. "What?" I said fearfully, too unnerved to be annoyed at the tremor in my voice.
"Gabby, I need you to let go." I gaped at him, too shocked now to pay attention to the pink flash of Aelita's attack above us. Odd correctly read my expression and continued quickly. "It'll be ok, I promise. You'll be fine. Just trust me."
I opened my mouth to demand that he stop joking around. How could he expect me to just let go? Didn't he realize I would die?
But something his expression, or maybe his voice, kept me silent. Closing my mouth, pursing my lips, I nodded slowly.
"Okay..." I whispered.
"On three..." he said again. "One... two... three."
I let go. As I began my long fall down to the digital sea below, Odd smiled at me. And shot me with his Laser Arrow.