A/N: Behold, a collection of side stories for my Jerlita Roleswap AU—an alternate universe where Jérémie and Aelita have swapped roles, if you need a refresher. These are the stories that didn't quite make the cut for the main story "The Boy in the Computer", but are still canon to the general AU.
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way, shape, or form.
Chapters of TBITC to Read Before Reading This One: 9.5/Special – Worst Case Scenario, Ending B (what I consider the canon ending to that side story)
I know it may not seem like it when you finish reading this chapter, but I promise, this is canon to the AU.
Also, certain scenes will be in present tense—those are the scenes that take place in the Jerlita Roleswap AU. Other scenes will be in past tense—that's on purpose.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"Aelita goes to bed early in order to sleep off a headache, but the dream she has certainly changes how she views the universe."
The Girl From the Outside
Episode 10.9: Equivalent Exchange
The moment Aelita wakes up one Wednesday morning, she knows that it's going to be a rough day. Because she wakes up with a headache. She's also more exhausted than she normally is. It's mostly mental, but it translates into physical tiredness as well.
The pain is not particularly bad at breakfast, but it is noticeable. Ulrich and Odd both see her rub her head, not twice, but three times while eating, and they worriedly ask her if she's okay. She quickly reassures them that she's fine, shrugging it off as the mid-week slump. And yes, Odd, even the genius students have off days.
She can only hope that it doesn't continue or persist during a XANA attack.
But the pain grows steadily throughout the day. Aelita really wants to sleep in class, and she actually struggles to take (at least) decent notes for Ulrich and Odd if they need them later. She almost dozes off in Ms. Hertz's class, but Odd (her deskmate) quickly nudges her awake, just in time for Ms. Hertz to call on her.
Lunch hour is replaced by Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd escorting Aelita to the nurse's office—all three are (justifiably) concerned about her. There, Yolanda gives her painkillers. They seem to do the trick, as they mute the pain for the rest of the day, allowing her to finish the day without feeling out of sorts.
Fortunately, XANA remains silent throughout the day. So does Jérémie—not once does he contact them about any concerns or notings of pulsations. And that relieves her. One less thing to worry about.
After dinner hour, however, the painkillers wear off. Her headache returns while she's doing some late night coding with Jérémie on his materialization, and it comes back three times worse than before.
Aelita holds her head in both of her hands and audibly moans in pain, as her fingers and concentration are ripped away from her pink-colored screen.
"Are you alright, Aelita?" Jérémie's voice cuts through the pain. Glancing up at his interface, the first thing she notices is his concern, which is showing very clearly on his face.
A pang of guilt runs through her heart; she never likes worrying him. "I have a headache." But she can't find herself to lie to him either. "I've had it all day."
She wants to stay up and continue talking to him, but there's no way any progress will be made on the materialization program tonight. She knows this, and so does he.
"Why don't you rest?" Here, Jérémie offers a soft smile. "You look like you need it."
She wants to protest, to keep working because the sooner Jérémie returns to Earth, the sooner they can shut down XANA. But she doesn't. She can't. The pain and exhaustion she's feeling are both too much for her to power through.
"Okay," she relents instead. She then uses her mouse to close out the program window, saving any progress she's made so far (which isn't much). "Hopefully, XANA doesn't attack while I'm asleep."
"I can use the supercomputer to call the others myself," the blue elf reassures her, reminding her something that she already knows. What he's failing to add, however, is that doing so makes him vulnerable, because it requires concentration, so she's forbidden him from doing so barring an emergency. "And I'm currently within a tower. My safety is secured for the time being. You just worry about yourself."
Right. Jérémie isn't a risk-taker, unless he absolutely has to be in order to stop XANA. At the moment, everything is quiet and Jérémie has the means to call the others himself if Aelita is too deep in slumber to respond to his calls. She's also made sure that Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd all know how to virtualize themselves in a pinch.
She trusts them to take care of things without her if they have to (they shouldn't, but death by XANA attack is a very high possibility). And they have. More than once.
These thoughts make Aelita feel better—at least mentally—and it finally prompts from her a genuine smile. It's small and she's only partly into it, but it's real.
"Okay. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"I'll be waiting," Jérémie replies. "Good night. Sweet dreams."
He then logs off, leaving her in silence. She just sits in the same position, though, after he does. She only snaps out of her stupor when her pink screen fades to black from lack of use after about three minutes. Already in her pajamas, Aelita just flops down into her bed and pulls the covers over her body, before closing her eyes. She falls asleep surprisingly quickly.
She dreams of stars.
In fact, she wakes up in a void of darkness, the only light being the stars from galaxies all around her. Her headache is also gone, thankfully. It's weird—she's in outer space, but she's standing on some type of invisible solid ground. That shouldn't be possible...
Don't worry, she tells herself. It's just a dream. Dreams are weird. Now, the question is why is she dreaming about this.
She glances around in mild confusion as well as mild awe at the cosmic attractions surrounding her. She's not a space person (she prefers music), but she can't deny that what she's seeing is very beautiful.
Her gaze passes by a boy with short blonde hair. After double-taking, she studies him further. He looks familiar...
The boy has his back to her, and he's walking away, so he's getting smaller on the horizon, but she can see his maroon red turtleneck and moss green Capris with blue stripes down the sides. He's not wearing any blue other than his shoes, but she recognizes him from the blonde hair.
Her face lights up, and she promptly runs toward him to catch up. "Jérémie!"
The boy stops walking—as if he recognizes the name or her voice, or both—and cranes his neck slightly. He keeps his back to her, but it's clear that he's addressing her, "Aelita?"
Yep. That's Jérémie's voice alright. She loves hearing it. It's nice and soothing. But his ears aren't pointed; they're normal, human ears.
It's just a dream, she reminds herself, but it feels so real. This is the reason she asks him, "Wha...what are you doing outside of Lyoko? I haven't completed your materialization yet."
His response confuses her, "My materialization?"
Does he have amnesia or something? "Yes, yours..."
He immediately relaxes, "I see. So the switch was successful."
Now, her confusion is too much. "Huh? Wh-what switch? What are you talking about?" She needs answers now.
The boy finally turns to face her. His face shape is the same, as are his (beautiful) blue eyes, even if they're now covered by glasses with simple round, black frames—it's Jérémie alright. He's different somehow, she feels. He's the same, yet also different, and she can't place why or what exactly has changed.
But she focuses instead on how sad he looks, almost as if he's about to lose all hope. "I'm not Jérémie," he softly tells her.
"What...? But you responded to that name." He did. He also looks too much like Jérémie for him to be someone else.
"Well, I am Jérémie," he explains, "but I'm not your Jérémie." He sighs when seeing her confusion remain, "Let me put it this way. How familiar are you with the concept of the multiverse?"
"Moderately," she replies. "I know what it is, but I've never done a deep dive." She pauses, as it finally clicks for her why he asked her this question. "You're from an alternate universe. Aren't you?"
It's more of a statement than a question, but he nods in confirmation anyway.
That makes so much more sense. He is a Jérémie from another universe. No wonder he's so different from the Jérémie that she knows (and loves).
Here, she can see relief fill his eyes when he observes her moment of realization and understanding. Deep down, however, she can also see a calmness that only exists when you are familiar and comfortable with someone. An alternate her exists in his universe, she realizes, and they are, in the very least, friends (he recognized her voice, after all).
"So, what's different about yours?" is her first question. "You mentioned a switch."
The sadness returns, as if the story he's about to tell pains him, "In my universe, our roles were switched." Interesting. "You were the one trapped on Lyoko, and I was the one who found you. I wandered into the factory looking for spare parts for my robots when I came across the supercomputer, and there you were. And despite the dangers, I foolishly decided to keep the supercomputer on until I saved you."
She sighs, "I know how you feel. Complete with the dangers."
That seems to interest him, "XANA?"
She nods, "Mm-hmm. Fortunately, I'm not alone. I have friends that help me, and constantly remind me to take a break and not pull so many all-nighters."
"Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi?"
That surprises her, somewhat, "Yeah. Are they your friends too?"
His resulting smile is soft and fond. "Yes. I couldn't have saved you and defeated XANA without their help. I say that it was a foolish decision, because I believe it was, but I wouldn't have chosen otherwise. I couldn't. It was all worth it."
She smiles. That's exactly how she feels about it all—once she materializes her Jérémie to Earth, they would be able to shut XANA down. As long as he is safe and happy, all the pain they go through is worth it.
But it quickly fades, "You were able to beat XANA? How?"
The sadness immediately returns to his face, this time twice as worse as before. "It took a lot of hard work and sleepless nights, a lot of attacks during which I was constantly being pummeled by XANA's spectres, and..." he closes his eyes as if to hold back tears, "...and the sacrifice of your father...but yes. We did."
Why is he acting like it was all his fault?
But she can bring that up later, maybe not at all. Something else he said catches her attention.
"My father?" His sacrifice?
His answer is immediate. "Are your parents still alive in your universe?"
Her confusion returns, "Why is that relevant?"
"Please!" he stresses, before pausing, as if he's backtracking on his aggression. "Just answer the question..."
"Yes, they are," she replies, genuinely smiling at the thought of her parents, but inwardly becoming increasingly concerned about him. "They both are. They live in our Swiss Alps chalet, so I'm a boarder at Kadic. I love them. I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Are you happy?"
"Of course, I am," she forces herself to be honest, despite her worry and curiosity as to why he's asking her these questions. "Save for XANA, my life is going just fine. I know exactly what career I'm going to go for. I know my parents and friends will always support me, no matter what I choose to do. The only worry I have is your safety and materializing you. Or at least, my Jérémie." She pauses, before deciding to go for it, "Why do you ask?"
The Jérémie in front of her closes his eyes and takes a deep breath to calm his nerves, but it doesn't seem to do him much good. "In my universe, your father was the one who created Lyoko and XANA, both as a weapon against a military project that was against his morals to work on. I keep telling myself that it was necessary for him to die, because he's a perfectionist that hates loose ends, even if one of those loose ends was himself, but...!"
"My father a perfectionist?" Aelita comments. "Sounds right, and sacrificing himself to stop XANA as its creator definitely sounds like something he would do. 'But' what?" A pause, as the realization hits her once again. "You wrote a program, didn't you? And that program...he was providing the energy for it. Wasn't he?"
Again, more of a statement than a question, but he still nods to confirm it.
No wonder he feels guilty. He believes that it is his fault. But she doesn't address it out loud. She gets the feeling that he doesn't want to talk about it. So she doesn't, instead deciding to (sort of) change the subject.
"What about my mother? You haven't mentioned her yet."
That, however, only makes it worse. "She..." Aelita sees Jérémie swallow a lump in his throat. "The memories are fuzzy for you, and your father...never dove into the details, but your mother, in my universe, was kidnapped by government agents, assumedly to use her to control your father. At the moment, we have no idea if she's dead or still alive, but it's unlikely that you'll see her again."
Oh. No wonder he asked her if her parents were still alive and well.
But... "Why did you ask if I was happy?"
"Because in my universe, you weren't," his voice is hard, and it's evident that he's trying his best not to cry, and about to fail.
The use of past tense is not lost on her. "'Weren't'? What happened? Does your universe...no longer exist? Is that why you're here?"
He breathes a sigh heavy with stress and sorrow. "I don't know. I can feel my body somewhere else, so I know I'm still alive, but...I'm trapped here. I can't escape. I've tried! But I can't even tell how long it's been!" Both of his hands fly up to his head, as if too much input is rushing into his head—he's panicking. "I-I can't...!"
Aelita promptly grabs his hands with her own, and fortunately, it seems to work. Clarity begins filling his eyes as he turns his gaze to her, looking into her soft green eyes. "Breathe," she softly commands as she lowers his hands back down to his sides. "What happened?"
He takes the next thirty-six seconds to steady his breathing. When he opens his eyes again, they're still filled with sadness and pain, but her presence is comforting him.
"Remember what I said before," he sounds almost defeated, "about your father sacrificing himself to stop XANA?"
She says nothing, only nodding.
"Well, we expected you to mourn your loss," he continues. "And you did, long after we shut the supercomputer down. You seemed to get better. Things were looking up, but that changed after we spent the following summer break cleaning up the Hermitage..."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie's story began, "Apparently, all the memories came flooding back, resulting in you a realization that you were now the only member of your family left. Your parents were gone, you were an only child, and Odd was only your fake cousin in order to protect your false identity. You were now truly alone, and that was a thought that you couldn't seem to process. We tried to help you, but the best we could do was make up excuses for you while you skipped class to mourn."
The rain was pounding fiercely outside the window of the classroom Jérémie was in. Odd sat beside him, drawing Kiwi, as Ulrich was staring out the window and Jérémie himself was taking notes. Being the smart student that he was, of course his notes were thorough and detailed, but he was working especially hard on these. He planned to share them with Aelita later.
Ms. Hertz's lecture was nothing special, just on nuclear power plants. Fortunately, this was the last class of the day, because he really wanted to check on the pink-ette.
Yumi was waiting outside of the science building, standing underneath her umbrella, when their class ended. She greeted Sissi—who was now their friend—as the latter passed by, before the three boys emerged out into the rain.
A knowing concerned frown was on her face, "Aelita skipped class again, didn't she?"
"Yeah," Jérémie replied, his feet already moving in the direction of the dormitory building. "I'm going to go check on her."
"Call us if you need us," Odd called out as the young genius walked away.
"I will."
"I went to your room to check up on you and give you that day's notes. I was expecting it to be like all the days before—you lounging on your bed in your pajamas, depressed, maybe cuddling Mister Pück too. But apparently, that day was different. I found you instead in my room, fully dressed."
Jérémie promptly opened his door and when he did, relief immediately filled his being. There was Aelita, sitting in his chair in front of his desk. She was currently twisted around to face him, a bit surprised. Judging by what was on the blue screen behind her, she was probably caught off-guard.
"Thank goodness!" he breathed. "I thought..."
"That I had run away?" the pink-ette quietly asked. She then offered a soft, yet saddened smile, as if she was trying to reassure him. "Come on, Jérémie, have a little more faith in me than that."
"Well, can you blame me for being so concerned?" He didn't need to elaborate; he couldn't without making her sad again. She already knew.
The fake smile faded from her face, "No. To be honest, at this point, I'm concerned about myself."
"And we don't blame you," he softly reassured her as he slowly approached her. "If any of us were in your position, we'd be mourning too." She glanced up at him, looking so lost. "We're here for you. You know that, right?"
"Of course I do," she replied. "I just feel like being alone sometimes." Understandable.
He decided to change the subject, sort of. He nodded at his computer, "So why did you sneak into my room?" He took a closer look at the window open on the monitor. It was opened to and paused on a clip from Franz Hopper's diary...
She watched his curiosity turn into saddened realization. "I just...I just wanted to hear his voice again..."
He couldn't blame her. If he were in her shoes, he'd probably do the same thing.
"It's okay." The topic they had discussed before came back in this moment. "Are you sure you don't want me to give you a copy of the whole diary?" He would give her access to it from her personal computer if the supercomputer was still on. So copying it (a long and tedious process) was the only option left, but it would be worth it if it made Aelita feel better.
She stood up from his chair, "No, it's alright." She then took the folder of notes from today's classes out from under his arm. "It contains information too confidential for more than one copy to exist." True. "Thank you for taking notes for me again."
"Of course." Here, he offered a reassuring smile. "You know I'd do anything for you."
A sad smile crossed her features, unable to deny that fact. Then the smile faded, "Speaking of...I don't like asking too big a favor from you, but..."
She hesitated, very visibly so, and he quickly encouraged her, "But...?"
"Hypothetically speaking," she continued, seemingly because she had found a way to word it, "if there was a way to bring dead people back to life, would you take it?"
She tried, but she failed, because he immediately understood what she was really trying to ask. "Aelita..." It was obvious who she was referring to.
"Hypothetically!" she stressed.
"Regardless..." He was afraid of saying it. The last time he told her a harsh truth, she recklessly snuck off to Sector Five behind his back with Odd. He had to word this carefully. "There's a reason the Returns to the Past can't revive the dead, Aelita. It goes against the laws of nature itself."
"So does rewinding time!" She was angry now. He inwardly sighed; he could never win that battle, could he, so why did he even try?
"And each rewind made XANA stronger." But he tried his best to remain calm, to not get mad himself and poke the pink-haired bear in front of him even more.
She backed off here, however, when she saw tears begin to fill his eyes. And it happened so suddenly.
"You don't think I've tried?" he asked, his voice just barely above a whisper. "I searched every inch of the virtual world—Lyoko, the internet, everywhere—after his death. Seven times. Any hint of his DNA. Any sign that he had survived. Anything that proved that I didn't actually kill him! And no matter where I looked, I couldn't find anything!"
He sniffed back the tears that were now streaming down his cheeks, unaware that he was holding all of that pain back (it was all his fault, he killed Franz Hopper, he was the cause of all of Aelita's pain, his fault, his fault, his fault!). Aelita reached a hand up to wipe those tears away, with tears filling her own eyes as they radiated sympathy.
However, said tears quickly built up to where they filled up the entire bottom of her eyes. Unable to take the sudden emotion, the pink-ette suddenly ran out of the room. He didn't blame her. He wanted to be alone right now too.
"It took awhile for me to calm down, but once I did, I saw that the video clip that you were watching was still open and paused on where I interrupted you. My curiosity, I guess, got the better of me."
Now sitting in his computer chair, he pressed play.
"–careful. I'm not sure what exactly will happen if it is launched–"
He immediately pressed pause. That intrigued him. A program that Franz Hopper created that he didn't know the results of? How had Jérémie himself—the person who studied this diary in thorough detail, more than once—never seen this clip before?
After promptly rewinding the clip to the very start, he pressed play once again. Franz Hopper's voice came out crystal clear.
"6 June, 1994. Day 1,387. I'm running out of time. They're getting closer to finding me. I need to perfect Lyoko before it's too late. Fortunately, I just completed a program, one a hundred times more powerful than a standard Return to the Past. It's a last resort that I will launch only when I have to, when I am indeed captured and they find Lyoko. My intentions are to rewind time back to the very beginning of time, of the universe, except I will retain my memories of what happened, so I can avoid making the same mistakes. It requires too much power to use more than once, however, so the next cycle will require absolute perfection."
'Hypothetically speaking, if there was a way to bring dead people back to life, would you take it?'—Jérémie now understood why Aelita had asked that, where she got that idea from. It was from this clip.
A pause, as Hopper leaned in ever so closer to the screen. Jérémie had watched the man's diary enough to know that it was a sign to pay close attention to what was about to be said next.
"When activating the program, however, one must be careful." There it was. Where Aelita left off, and wasn't able to hear, no thanks to him. "I'm not sure what exactly will happen if it is launched. Yes, I have laid out my intentions clearly, but that is the hope. The reality is very likely that the time-space continuum will be altered beyond recognition, that there will be a rip in the fabric of reality unable to be repaired. Even a genius like me cannot predict what will indeed happen. Proceed with caution. This program is only a last resort."
'Only a last resort'—Aelita wasn't able to hear that, but Jérémie was becoming increasingly concerned that she would try it anyway. She had officially hit rock bottom. She had lost everything from her past. She had nothing to hold onto. So she would very likely view her current situation as a last resort.
He quickly grabbed his cellphone from within his pocket and dialed a familiar number, "Yumi? Grab Ulrich and Odd, and then come to my room. I need to show you all something."
"Sure, no problem. We'll be right there. What's wrong? You sound worried."
"Because I am. I think Aelita's about to do something reckless..."
"They arrived at my room faster than they ever had before. Turns out, they were just as worried about you as I was. So they had followed me and were listening to us from Ulrich and Odd's room. I showed them the diary clip and explained how I had found you watching it. They quickly began to share my fears, and together, we all agreed to keep an eye on you and vowed to stop you if you ever tried to run that program. But that very night, my fears were confirmed..."
Jérémie was immediately awakened to a familiar alarm amidst the heavy rain still beating against his window. He hadn't heard that sound in at least four, almost five months. No, there was no way...
He quickly grabbed his glasses before assuming a seat in front of his awakened computer. His panic quickly turned back into relief. The superscan remained completely silent; XANA was still gone. Thank goodness...
But something had caused the alarm to go off. It wasn't the superscan, but rather a general system alert.
He blinked in surprise, "'Connection to Lyoko established'?"
"I think, in your haste, you had forgotten that I had programmed my computer to immediately sync up to Lyoko. When you turned the supercomputer back on that night, it woke me up too..."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"I quickly got dressed and called the others as I raced to the factory. You were already on Lyoko by the time I got there, working away on Sector Five's interface. I tried to get into contact with you, but you didn't respond to me. I don't think you even heard me. The moment Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd arrived, I immediately sent them in after you, hoping that if I couldn't talk some sense into you, then...maybe they could."
Aelita studied the information on the screen in front of her, as she sat on the ground pretzel-style. That segment of her father's diary kept radiating throughout her mind. The way he had described this program made her suspect that it was considered dangerous or too risky, but she had to try. Any spot of hope, however small, was one that she had to take.
"Aelita?" The familiar female voice sounded from behind her.
The angel twisted around to see, sure enough, Yumi standing in the open passage leading back into the Core Zone, with Ulrich and Odd both standing on either side of the geisha. She had feared her friends being angry when they found out what she was trying to do (unless they didn't...), but looking at their expressions, she saw no hint of anger anywhere.
Instead, there was sympathy.
The three approached her. Odd held out a paw for her to take. She did and let him help her to her feet.
"Jérémie already told us what he suspected you were planning," Ulrich explained. "But we'd like to hear it from you." Jérémie had told them? Of course he did. She never exited out of that window, she just realized.
"Don't be mad at him," she immediately pleaded softly. "He's just worried about me." As he should be, she felt.
"Oh, don't worry, we're not mad at him at all," Odd quickly reassured her. "We're just asking because we want to hear your side of the story too."
So she had just jumped to conclusions. That felt strangely relieving.
"...Is he here too? In the lab?" She had cut off the audio on her end from the interface. She didn't realize her friends were here too until Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd arrived just now.
Yumi just nodded.
Aelita promptly turned around and turned the audio back on. "Jérémie?"
"I'm here." She always loved hearing his voice. When she was trapped on Lyoko, waiting for him to finish that materialization program, she looked forward to their conversations every day.
"I'm sorry. Please, don't stop me. Any of you," she quietly pleaded. "I've already made my choice..."
"Princess..." Ulrich attempted.
But she didn't let him finish. "No." Her voice was stern and forceful. Emotions—the same ones that had surfaced earlier—were filling her soul. "When my mother was taken, I couldn't do anything. The age I was, I didn't even understand what had happened. My father just told me that she was, quote, 'going on a very long trip'. The memories are blurry, but I can discern the fear and pain I felt then clearly. And then my father took himself off the board without my permission! He wasn't allowed to die! Unlike with my mother, I remember his death like it was yesterday, and the pain I felt, the pain I still feel, hurts just as bad!" She wanted to cry, but due to being virtual, she physically couldn't. "But what hurts the most," she sniffed, "is that there was nothing I could do. Being the perfectionist that he was, he knew he was the one who had to die. But that clip from his diary...it gave me hope. If I launch it, then he'll go through the next cycle knowing what mistakes to avoid making."
In response, Yumi made no sound as she promptly wrapped the pink-ette in a tight hug, one that she desperately needed. Aelita quickly leaned into the geisha's embrace.
"Aelita, none of us blame you for feeling what you feel," Ulrich quietly told her. "But have you thought this through?"
The angel began to emerge from the geisha's hug, "I told you guys not to stop me!"
"We're not," Odd cut in. "We just want to tell you of the risks. You and your father weren't the only ones affected by Lyoko's existence. What about us—me, Ulrich, Yumi, and Jérémie? And William? Sissi? Everyone at Kadic? If your father manages to correct his mistakes like, say, not creating XANA, or not letting it become sentient and evil, then what happens to everyone else? He'd be altering fates, destinies, whatever you want to call it. He'd be changing an entire timeline, and if science fiction movies have taught me anything, it's that doing that is never a good idea."
"And before you say 'but we've altered fates before too'," Ulrich added, "remember, each jump back in time just strengthened XANA. It had a price, so we had to use it sparingly. We saw the clip too—Jérémie showed it to us—so we know what your father meant for the program to do. But if it works, what will the price be?"
A pause. Aelita didn't have an answer for any of those questions. They were right, about everything. Maybe this was a bad idea. It was still tempting, very much so, but she couldn't deny any of the points her friends were making.
Yumi directed her attention at the sky, "Jérémie? I think you're up. You should tell her about how the entry ended."
That caught Aelita's attention, "What? How it ended?" Oh, yeah, she realized, she never finished watching it. The following heart-to-heart with Jérémie had resulted in her running out in an attempt to hide the emotions hearing his rant had caused to surface.
"Yeah," Jérémie softly explained. "What your father created this program for was just what he was hoping. He actually didn't know what exactly would happen. A genius of his level could not accurately predict it. That's partly why he had named it as a last resort."
The pink-ette was quiet as she digested that. "What did he think might happen?"
"He predicted the fabric of reality ripping open, or the time-space continuum being altered beyond recognition. Basically, a level of damage on the cosmic scale." Jérémie took a deep breath to steady his nerves. "Whether or not you end up launching it, Aelita, is entirely up to you. None of us will blame or stop you. We just wanted to warn you of the possible risks."
Risks that even her own father, as brilliant as he was, could not calculate. Her friends were right: the risks, whatever they were, were too numerous and far outweighed what would be gained. To be honest, they didn't know what would be gained either. The outcome was too uncertain for the program to be launched.
Besides, she wasn't alone. Yes, she had lost both of her parents, but she still had her friends. If they didn't care about her, then none of them would be here to talk some sense into her.
But her mind kept going back to Jérémie's rant earlier. He blamed himself for her father's sacrifice, to the point where he had called himself her father's killer with tear-filled eyes! Knowing that he was in so much pain, and that it was only exacerbated by her current depression, the pain and trauma she was processing...she couldn't stand seeing him so upset, or witnessing his guilt firsthand the way she did.
Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd too—all four of her friends had sacrificed so much for her. They deserved a break.
"Thank you, all of you," she finally spoke. "And I'm sorry, but I'm not changing my mind." Not for herself or for her parents, though...
For her friends, for Jérémie.
She promptly placed her hand on the interface. It accepted her handprint, before it closed out.
The Core below them immediately began to shake, causing tremors over the rest of Lyoko as a bright white light engulfed all of them, and soon the entire world...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Despite our best efforts," Jérémie concludes his story, "you ended up launching the program anyway. The holoprojector emitting a bright white light is the last thing I remember. Then, I woke up here. I've received visits from alternate versions of all of us, but while they're allowed to leave, I'm not. I can't."
Aelita is sympathetic. She wants to comment on his tale, but she doesn't. She can't find the words. She instead asks, "Why not? Do you think something is keeping you here?"
He shrugs, "I don't know." Here, he looks at her directly in the eye. "But all of those visits have taught me that there's another law of the universe that we tend to ignore: equivalent exchange. To gain something, you must give up something of equal value. We are all like actors on a stage. Someone must always fill a role, no matter who the actor is or which role they play."
"You're waiting for a specific universe to visit you, aren't you?" Like before, it's a statement, not a question. "That's why you can't leave. You're choosing not to."
But he still answers, "I already told you. I can't. There's a universe where you don't exist, one where you really are an artificial intelligence, one where I'm replaced by a girl named Laura, one where you've switched places with your mother, one where we're childhood friends and both of us get tangled up with Lyoko, one where Sissi was virtualized instead of Yumi, one where you and I switch places with Ulrich and Yumi—I-I could go on and on! But none of the universes that I've met are ones where you are completely happy! You either have only one parent, no parents at all, or you are still traumatized regardless! I can't leave this place until I find one where you are!"
"Because you just want me to be happy," she quietly finishes, "no matter what universe I belong to."
He says nothing, but his silence speaks volume.
She finally chooses to address his story, "I'm sorry–"
He cuts her off before she can continue, "Don't apologize. Besides, I think your universe is the one I've been waiting for." He turns his back to her. "You're not in a role that requires you to lose something. I mean, if our roles were the only things changed, then you will suffer. XANA will make sure of that, but that's okay. I can live with that."
"But because of me launching that program," she continues, "it caused the you in my universe to be placed in a position where you will go through the same pain that your me went through!" Part of her feels responsible, feels guilty.
"Better me than you." He doesn't sound defeated here, though. He sounds hopeful.
He briefly turns back to face her, giving her a good view of his face and the reason why he turned away just moments before.
He's crying tears of relief.
He turns away again and begins walking away from her, but she's not done. There's something she has to do. She quickly grabs his hand before he can get too far away with a "Wait!", and when he glances back, she presses a quick kiss to his lips.
The way he immediately leans into and returns her affection tells her all she needs to know: he and his Aelita are more than friends.
His Aelita launched the program in hopes it would stop his guilt—she can feel it like the emotions are her own—while he just said he was willing to suffer in her place so she didn't have to. It's a love so selfless, so pure, that it makes this Aelita's heart ache with desire. There's even fireworks; they definitely have chemistry.
Her Jérémie has no idea what love is, but she knows exactly how she feels about him. Maybe one day, she won't be too shy to tell him, and he'll understand emotions enough to tell her how he feels.
The kiss is only about three seconds, but it feels like much longer. She's the one who breaks it, and he lingers close, as if wanting more, his face flushed. She gazes into his eyes (they're just as beautiful as her Jérémie's) and sees the emotional longing in them.
She smiles, needing to say the following on behalf of his Aelita, "I'm still sorry. I only did it for you, because I want you to stop blaming yourself so much. Believe me, the last thing I would ever want is for someone else to get hurt because of me. Least of all, you. I love you too much." Here, she reaches up to his cheek the same way he had described in his story. This time, she succeeds in stroking his skin, wishing to calm him. "It's time to wake up now. I'm waiting for you."
Underneath her touch, Jérémie relaxes completely, finally feeling content, like everything between them in his universe will work out.
The world for both of them promptly fades to white...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
It's morning when Aelita wakes up with a start. She's in her bed, in her pajamas still, and her headache is completely gone. Apparently, all she needed was a solid night's sleep (thank you, Jérémie). Man, what a crazy dream...
She can't remember who she met, but she does remember a slight attraction to them. Who was that? Who did she meet? She can't remember.
A sense of guilt permeates her soul. Guilt, and it's lingering from somewhere. Why does she feel guilty? What did she do? Who was her victim? Again, she can't remember any of what may have happened. What did happen?
The memories of her dream are too blurry to make anything out clearly. It's impossible to tell where one thought ends and another begins. But she does remember stars...
She briefly glances at her clock, and sees that it's 6:52 am, eight minutes before her alarm is scheduled to go off. She quickly turns it off before getting out of bed. After gathering up her toiletries, ready for her morning shower, she heads to her door, but she lingers her gaze on her monitor.
It's still asleep, and not once did Jérémie interrupt her slumber to warn her about XANA (to her knowledge, at least). The guilt returns as she thinks about him, about the promise she made to him.
"Don't worry," she feels the need to reaffirm her promise, "I will complete your materialization," and she doesn't know why. "You'll be experiencing the joys of the real world in no time."
There's no response, but the guilt promptly fades away, and a sense of closure quickly replaces it (for some reason). This makes her realize that she was probably dreaming about Jérémie. Again.
Feeling a blush crop up on her cheeks, Aelita smiles before leaving the room to start the new day, closing her door behind her.
Today's going to be a good day—she can feel it.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
~Original Canon Universe~
Jérémie's eyes opened rather easily, like he was waking up from a long rest. His experience in the void of the multiverse could've very easily been shrugged off by his mind as just a dream, but his heart was screaming otherwise. That kiss...
It wasn't his Aelita, his brain knew that, but again, his heart helped him understand that she was briefly channeling his Aelita.
"Mr. Belpois?" a man's voice asked him, from off to the side. It was Dr. Delacre, a doctor that previously treated Aelita for her heart issues caused by a malfunctioning supercomputer. Was he in the hospital? "You're awake. How are you feeling?"
He chose to be honest. "A little disoriented. What happened?"
"According to your friends, you passed out from overworking yourself on a school project," the doctor explained. Jérémie's stomach sank in disappointment. "They brought you to the school nurse, who couldn't wake you up, so she called us. You've been in a coma for nearly three weeks."
He didn't know how long he'd been trapped in the void of the multiverse, but it felt a lot longer than almost three weeks. So he was mostly disoriented because he had no sense of time within the void.
But he didn't say any of that. "I see. Could you call my friends here? Is that possible? I really need to talk to them." What time was it anyway? Was it a school day, a half day, or a Sunday? Looking out the window, the sun was shining (thank goodness, the rain had stopped!), so it had to be daytime.
"They're actually waiting for you in the lobby as we speak," Dr. Delacre revealed. "About an hour ago, we noticed that your brainwaves were getting stronger, as if you were getting ready to wake up. We made them leave to make sure it wasn't bad news instead."
"Is there anything wrong with me?" Just out of curiosity.
"No, not that we can see," the doctor replied, and a weight was lifted from Jérémie's shoulders. "It seems like you were just exhausted and needed proper rest. Would you like me to get your friends?"
The answer was immediate, "Yes, please."
"Alright."
The Doctor then left the boy in silence. Said genius proceeded to occupy his time by looking out the window. The sun was shining bright; it felt good to see it. He missed it; too much rain lately. Holding his head in his hand, his elbow rest on his raised knee, he smiled softly. Hope was shining for him just as brightly as the sun right now.
This peace was interrupted by four familiar voices all exclaiming in unison, "Jérémie!"
The moment he turned to the open doorway, he was bombarded with a group hug from his friends. He'd never been one for physical affection, but this hug he didn't mind. Because he missed them too.
"Thank goodness you're okay, Einstein!" Odd cried, as they loosened the hug. "We were so worried that you'd never wake up!"
"I'm fine," he reassured them, not sure what else to say.
But Aelita—his Aelita—was still tightly embracing him. "I was so scared that something had happened to you!" She was also crying. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize that being so close to the holoprojector would hurt you!"
'Believe me, the last thing I would ever want is for someone else to get hurt because of me. Least of all, you.'
Again, it wasn't a dream. It was real. And the alternate Aelita had briefly channeled his Aelita—he already knew all of that. But it was really nice to get confirmation regardless.
"You guys told the doctor that I passed out from overworking myself," he told them. "What really happened?"
"Sorry, it was an excuse," Ulrich replied. "It seemed like the best way to describe what had happened to you without revealing the supercomputer's existence. It's been turned back off, by the way."
"Aelita launched the program," Yumi was the one who explained, "and while it seemed to work from our end, however scary it was, when it all stopped...nothing felt like it had changed."
Here, Aelita embraced him ever so tighter. It hadn't worked. At least, that's what she was convinced of. So she was upset about it, especially how it seemed like he had gotten hurt for nothing.
"We tried to contact you," Odd continued, "so you could materialize us and let Aelita cry actual tears and let it all out of her system. But you didn't respond, to any of us. So we devirtualized each other and went to the lab to check up on you."
Aelita sniffed back her tears, still tightly clinging onto him, "You were passed out on the floor. We couldn't wake you up..."
"The holoprojector was also burned out," Ulrich revealed. "The program was launched on your end too, but your proximity to the source affected you. Like Aelita said, we found you passed out, unresponsive. We took you to Yolanda, but she couldn't wake you either, so she called the hospital. Apparently, you had no sustained no damage; you were just...sleeping, as if your mind was absent." Because it was lost in the void of the multiverse. "You've been here ever since, for almost three weeks."
"I see," was all Jérémie felt comfortable saying. Numerous thoughts were running through his mind as he processed this.
"We're sorry, Aelita," Yumi sat down next to the pink-ette and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We're sorry the program didn't work..."
Aelita removed her head from his chest, but her arms remained around his torso. "I don't care."
"You don't?" Odd asked, worried.
"Not anymore. I'm just glad that Jérémie is okay."
Hearing this made said blonde let loose a small, soft smile, before he wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. He was glad that she was okay too.
But there was still hope, and she needed to know that, "Actually, I...I think it did work."
All four heads turned immediately to him. "What?" Ulrich asked, his eyes wide with surprise.
"The memories are fuzzy," a lie; they were very clear, "but I remember meeting an Aelita from another universe. When I asked, she confirmed that her parents were still alive."
"Really?" Odd couldn't contain his excitement. "An alternate universe?! That's so cool! Did you meet me?! What did I look like?! Did I have a cooler avatar?!"
"Odd," one simple word was enough to make the crazy-haired blonde shut up, "I told you, I don't know. The memories are fuzzy." Again, a lie. "I just remember their Aelita being happy."
His Aelita, still so very close to him like she had no concept of personal space, just softly smiled. "Good. As long as a version of me is happy, and my parents are still alive somewhere out there, then I can live with my life here. Besides, I still have you guys. Especially Jérémie."
His face flushed at the mention, as his mind went back to, 'Believe me, the last thing I would ever want is for someone else to get hurt because of me. Least of all, you. I love you too much.'
And he responded here, "I love you too."
It was her turn to blush, but she smiled, a real one. Because it was the first time he had ever told her those words out loud.
She didn't know, however, that in order for the alternate Aelita to keep her parents and freedom, the alternate Jérémie had to lose his. Equivalent exchange, like actors on a stage. But he kept that to himself.
Aelita was finally happy, and he was the last person who would ever ruin that.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
A/N: If you have any ideas for side stories of this AU, please let me know in a review or a PM.
Chapter Notes: This side story was heavily inspired by özberk özen's Code Lyoko movie that he's currently working on (look up the trailer on YouTube; I'm so excited for it). Other inspirations are "Worst Case Scenario" (TBITC, Chapter 9.5) having Aelita experiencing Ending A through a nightmare and IFSCL, Chapter 3: Fighting Spirits, in which Jérémie is in a slump throughout the chapter, complete with a headache that he goes to the nurse's office to take medication for, and at the end, his future self briefly takes over his mind.
About "Worst Case Scenario", I know I said it wasn't canon when it went up, but I changed my mind when writing this. Ending A just takes place in a different universe. Furthermore, every AU in this fandom thereby becomes canon when you think of it all as a multiverse. The animated series is the universe where everything branched off of, with other official content like Les Enfants, Garage Kids, Antefilm's Season 1 and the ideas they wanted to but couldn't use, Evolution, and Chronicles all taking place in different universes. Fan games and fan projects—all the same way. Any of them crossing paths is very rare, though. Canon-Jérémie is the only person who is aware that the multiverse exists (and why), with Jerlita swap-Aelita, as well as every other alternate he's met, thinking it was just a weird dream.
AUs that Jérémie cites in order: Garage Kids pilot, Antefilm's Season 1, my "Missing Piece" story (Jérémie/Laura swap), my "Code: MEMORY" story (Aelita/Anthea swap), Jerlita as childhood friends AU that I'm currently working on (called the Duality AU), Sissi/Yumi swap that I'm working on (called the Lyokowarrior Sissi AU), and Jerlita/Ulumi swap I'm also working on (and that might be posted after I finish TBITC).