A/N: Okay, so, apparently, I broke a lot of people with the previous chapter. I'm sorry I made so many of you cry, but it just means that I succeeded in writing Laura as a sympathetic character. So, I'll take it as a victory.
For this chapter, you just need to re-read 98: Contingency Plan and 116: Vis à Vis, if you need a refresher.
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or CL: Evolution in any way, shape, or form.
Beta read by FP7ETDP43
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
"XANA launches its deadliest attack yet and goes all out to prevent the tower from being deactivated. Will Aelita reach the tower in time?"
A World Without Danger
Code Lyoko: Evolution Rewrite
Season 5, Episode 25: Massacre
Laura Gauthier had essentially disappeared off the face of the earth.
Her laptop's hard drive had been wiped clean of everything. Her wardrobe had nothing in it, and furthermore, there was no trace of her DNA anywhere. The only thing she had left behind was her cell phone, the battery of which had died by the time authorities got to it. However, when they recharged the battery, they realized she had done something to wipe the device of its memory—including its service somehow—when the battery died, so there was nothing on it either. Her health and school records were also erased from Kadic's database, while her birth certificate had been switched to her real one.
The Lyokowarriors kept their promise, only telling the headmaster and authorities, when questioned, that Laura was really upset due to a recently developed family situation.
Mr. Klotz's reaction when hearing this was particularly jarring, "If she felt like she had to run away, either the situation was really traumatizing or, most likely, it's not 'recently developed', but rather, it's been going on for a while now."
The authorities ran into a dead-end very quickly, due to a severe lack of leads commonly used to track people down. Meanwhile, the Lyokowarriors kept their mouths shut about what they knew.
But while not an official Lyokowarrior, Laura had still helped them a great deal by giving them the last step of their final mission—the plans for the Green Phoenix headquarters, especially the prison block (likely unaware that Anthea was already free) and the supercomputer's location.
One week later, the police presence at Kadic had died down, with the unfortunate implication that the case would soon go cold (but that's probably what Laura wanted). The following Saturday, the Lyokowarriors were free to search the Cortex for more information about Laura's background, her parents and maybe why they wanted to free themselves from Tyron in the first place, or perhaps even more about how those memory-snatching gloves worked.
And that is exactly what Yumi, Jérémie, and Aelita were currently doing. Meanwhile, Ulrich, Odd, and William were back at school in order to mitigate rumors and suspicions that the Lyokowarriors had anything to do with Laura's disappearance.
On the Cortex, Yumi piloted the Overwing side-by-side with Aelita on the Overboard. The atmosphere was relaxed, yet slightly sad.
"Jérémie," the geisha announced, "we're approaching the Core. Everything's fine; nothing to report."
"Everything's quiet on my end too," he replied. "The coast is clear for now."
"Roger that," Yumi acknowledged. Beside her, Aelita was quiet, and the elder took notice. "What's wrong, 'Lita?"
"It's nothing," the pink-ette shook her, attempting to send a reassuring smile. "I'm just thinking about William. He's been awfully quiet ever since Laura ran away."
"He misses his 'Sunshine'," Yumi cut in.
"Of course, he does!" Aelita exclaimed, before her friend could finish her thought. "The two had a bond, and things were looking up so well for them! He probably also feels guilty for suggesting that she dig through Tyron's database for answers in the first place."
Yumi was quiet as she digested that. She was about to comment on William's bad luck with romantic interests—first herself, then Laura—but that seemed rather shallow compared to Aelita's point.
"It's not his fault..." Jérémie softly interjected, breaking the silence. "He actually allowed her to discover a truth that would have done irreversible damage if it was uncovered later, and not just to us."
He had a point. Laura now had to process the fact that not only had her old life stolen from her, but she also had no way to go back to that life. Her biological parents were dead, and not even the Return to the Past could bring them back.
Aelita understood that feeling. The pink-ette missed her parents so much and often wished she could return to her life before her mother was taken by Tyron, but she couldn't.
But Laura had discovered it, and acted on it, before Tyron could use her against her friends.
"We'll stop Tyron," Yumi vowed. "For Laura." She then reported, "The Core is in sight."
Both girls straightened up, as they returned to the task at hand. It was time to focus on the mission now.
"It'll have to wait," Jérémie replied. "Tower activated in the Desert Sector."
Aelita was already steeling up, as Yumi took the lead, "Roger that. Come on, Aelita."
The angel didn't have to be told twice. Together, the girls reversed course and began traveling in the opposite direction, back towards the Skid.
"We're on our way, Jérémie," the pink-ette said. "Do not go to Lyoko. I'll handle it."
"I wasn't planning to," the blonde genius reassured her. "The next shift is in thirty seconds."
The duo promptly began gaining some altitude in preparation for the next geological change that was part of the Cortex's security system.
Meanwhile, Jérémie began calling the other three to ensure that they were on their way.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Life just wasn't the same without Laura.
The wind was louder, the clouds were grayer, and the sun was gloomier—all as if they were trying to fill in the void that she had left behind. It could've just been his imagination, but nothing felt quite right without her here. It was like the uncanny valley effect, where something seemed off, but you couldn't quite explain it; everything just seemed a little too fake.
William was in the school courtyard, reading the book that Laura had gotten him for Christmas last year. It was filled with poems, something she had found herself liking, so he naturally found himself gravitating towards them if only to relieve the pain temporarily.
His reverie was broken by an alert sounding from his transwatch. XANA had activated a tower; it wasn't a good thing, but for William, it was actually a welcome distraction.
As he placed the book of poems back into his bag, his cell phone rang. He quickly picked up, "Jérémie?"
"Activated tower. I'm just calling to make sure you know."
"I know," William reassured his friend. "I'm on my way."
"Okay. I'll meet you at the factory." Jérémie then hung up.
William wasted no time in making his way towards the secret passage in the park.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Ulrich and Odd were in the library, studying and doing homework alongside their fellow students, with Jim watching over everyone.
Ulrich and Odd, of course, received the transwatch alert. But the faint alarm that accompanied it was heard by Jim, "Quiet! You're in a library!"
So the two had no choice but to silence said alarm, doing so while exchanging a knowing look filled with anxiety. There was no way that Jim would let them go, especially after what happened with Laura last week.
Ulrich's cell phone began vibrating, indicating a call. He quickly answered in a soft murmur, "Hello?"
"Activated tower." It was Jérémie. "Are you and Odd on the way? And why are you whispering?"
"We're stuck in study hall with Jim," Ulrich answered, still quiet. "Remember how the rules about leaving in the middle of class have gotten more strict since Laura's departure?"
So it wasn't just Jim. Mr. Delmas had immediately released a statement about how he and the teachers wouldn't be lax on excuses to leave class anymore, in fear of someone else following in Laura's footsteps. The authorities were looking into Laura's birth certificate, and why it suddenly switched, but the headmaster wanted to mitigate parents blaming him and his lack of rules as the reason their kids ran away.
"Oh, I'm aware, but you have to think of something," Jérémie urged them. "Aelita and Yumi returning all the way from the Cortex, and while William is already on the way, that doesn't mean that you two get to drag your feet."
"Don't worry," Ulrich quietly reassured his friend. "We're on it." He then hung up, before turning to his roommate. But the brunette didn't have to say anything.
Odd already knew. "Talk plan?"
Ulrich nodded.
And the blonde did not disappoint, "Screw you, Stern! The comic relief character is always the best!"
"Are you serious?!" Ulrich quickly played along. "Just because I said the stoic swordsman was hands-down the best archetype?!"
"Yeah!"
The two stood up, to help sell the charade. "Is this really the hill you want to die on, Della Robbia?!"
"Yes, it is!"
Their argument came to a halt when Jim cleared his throat behind them.
It took them both every single bit of their self-preservation to keep themselves from laughing, or even smirking. "Oh, we're sorry, Jim. Are we being too loud?"
The man sharply inhaled, before letting out a slow sigh to release his frustrations. "Out."
He didn't need to tell them twice.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie was hyperfocused on the screens in front of him, monitoring everything, which included Yumi and Aelita's trek back to the Skid, the holomap surrounding the activated tower, and the vitals of those not virtualized, all while typing in rapid-fire commands. It didn't help that no one knew what the attack was yet.
So when he heard the elevator doors open, he couldn't be bothered to look at who arrived, "William, is that you? You sure got here fast."
When he got no answer, he finally ripped his attention away from the screens, only to find himself face-to-face with none other than Lowell Tyron.
Jérémie suddenly found himself unable to breathe, or move, as he was rendered paralyzed at the sight of the man in the elevator.
What was he doing here? How did he find them? How did he find the factory? Was Laura okay? Was she still in hiding? Was Tyron going to use those gloves on him now–
Tyron suddenly lunged at him. The man was so fast that Jérémie had only one second to react. The speed displayed was superhuman, as was the strength, as Tyron grabbed the boy's arm.
Jérémie immediately began struggling, but it was difficult with the ringing now in his ear. His breathing becoming ragged, he couldn't ignore how strange he felt. He kept fighting the man's grip as he met his eyes with Tyron's.
The eye of XANA flashed threateningly.
Glancing back at the screen—on which was the memory count window, of all things—proved Jérémie's hunch. The memory count window was open on it, and the number was only decreasing, and the pain was increasing.
"Get... OFF OF ME!" the blonde growled.
With a sudden burst of adrenaline, Jérémie gained the strength to pull his arm out of Tyron's grip. The XANA-controlled spectre lunged at the boy again as he made a break for the elevator, but Jérémie, fortunately, managed to close the door in its face.
Breathing harshly as if working through a panic attack, Jérémie felt very weak. The sounds he was hearing around him were strange, with the usual sounds of the factory—the mechanics of the elevator, the clanking of metal, the humming of the boilers—all around him, far too loud and distorted, so much so that they hurt his ears. It didn't help that he could also hear his own frantic heartbeat among those sounds. It felt an awful lot like a sensory overload...
He held his head in his hands as he pleaded with the others to hurry up and deactivate the tower.
Jérémie Belpois had been electrocuted (more than once), almost poisoned by fog, thrown down the shaft in the scanner room, attacked by laughing gas, trapped in virtual limbo, possessed in order to destroy Franz Hopper's diary, driven to the brink of insanity by a neuronal headset, was turned into a zombie, nearly suffocated by an angry XANA, attacked multiple times by his own clone, trapped inside a sabotaged military jet, among others. For all the near-death experiences he went through, this was much scarier than all of those combined.
XANA had somehow found a way to steal the Keys to Lyoko through touch via a spectre.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
On the Cortex, Yumi and Aelita were advancing through a gorge, on their way back to the Skid. Jérémie had been quiet for a while, but they didn't think much of it; he was probably establishing contact with William, Odd, and Ulrich. That is, until a Megatank suddenly rolled out from behind an approaching wall, before opening its shell and firing its wide laser—all without any warning from Jérémie.
The two girls both dodged to either side in order to avoid the shot. While Yumi made it through without losing the Overwing, Aelita wasn't so lucky. The Overboard was shot, prompting her to don her wings.
The Megatank fired again, but this time, the girls were ready. Aelita blocked the laser with one of her force fields, long enough for Yumi to take it out with a fan. They didn't stick around for its explosion, but they heard the sound behind them as they flew off towards the Skid.
"Where's Jérémie?!" the geisha asked. "He would've warned us!"
"I'm not sure!" the angel replied, feeling a familiar anxiety deep in the pit of her stomach. "But something's telling me that he may be in trouble!"
Before Yumi could respond, two more Megatanks emerged from a wall behind them. One of them fired, but hit no one. The girls began to zigzag to avoid the following shots.
"We need to reach the Skid!" Aelita was visibly concerned, obviously about her boyfriend.
Yumi got an idea, "I'll hold them off. You just go."
"What? Are you sure?"
"You're the only one who can deactivate the tower. It has to be me."
Aelita was unable to deny that point, but she was still worried, "But what if you're not devirtualized by the Megatanks? You need the Skid as a relay back to the scanners!"
"I can just hide until you come back to get me," the geisha was steadfast in her choice. "Deactivating the tower is top priority, especially if Jérémie's not answering us."
Again, another excellent point that could not be contested. With no other choice, Aelita replied with, "Okay. Good luck."
"You too."
With that, Yumi halted the Overwing in its tracks, turning around to face the two Megatanks, as Aelita continued on towards the Skid. The geisha let the following shot take out her vehicle, as she simply leapt up into the air to avoid it. She summoned her fans mid-air and promptly threw them both. Both weapons met their marks, and both monsters were destroyed.
She glanced back to check on Aelita's progress. The pink-ette was a small dot on the horizon by this point, her size shrinking down to the tiny blob that was the Skid in the distance. Seeing this, Yumi sighed in relief.
While her back was turned, however, a Krabe appeared, crawling on top of a nearby column. It took a shot straight at the geisha's back, devirtualizing her.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Well, was Yumi's first thought when emerging from a scanner, that solves that problem.
Despite her exhaustion, she wasted no time in climbing the ladder (the faster route) up to the lab. If Jérémie found himself in trouble during an attack, that was logically the first place the others always looked.
Nothing. The lab was empty.
Her worrying increasing by tenfold, she ran towards the monitor and sat in the chair. After donning the headset, she called, "Aelita? Jérémie's nowhere to be found, and there's nothing here to indicate what may have happened to him."
"I see," the angel replied, miraculously managing to remain calm, despite this development. Her yellow triangle was soon overlapping with the larger blue triangle of their virtual ship. "I've reached the Skid. Embarking."
Aelita's icon appeared in the window that showed who all was on board, taking her usual place in the main cockpit. The blue triangle promptly dove into the Digital Sea and emerged from the Cortex's gateway.
As the Skid began traveling back to Lyoko, the pink-ette spoke up again, "Yumi, what do Jérémie's vitals say? Is he still alive?"
The elder quickly glanced at that window. "Yes, but they're elevated, as if he's panicking." At least, he was still alive.
"Call him. There's a reason he's under so much stress."
Yumi typed in the commands for the cell phone program, bringing up the window. She clicked on Jérémie's icon—the equivalent of speed-dial—and waited for him to answer, listening intently for the sound of the tone cutting off...
After what seemed like forever (but was only about eight seconds), she heard a very quiet, "Yumi?"
Despite her relief, she was still concerned about her friend, "Jérémie, what's going on? You're not in the lab and your vitals are elevated as if you're being chased by your worst fear."
"Maybe because I am," he whispered his response. "XANA has sent a spectre after me. It can steal my Keys just by touching me."
Yumi's blood promptly ran cold. The implications of that...
He continued, frantic, "I'm trying my best to hide from it, but I'm really counting on you guys to deactivate the tower as soon as possible." On his end, there was a sudden clang, before he sharply gasped, "I have to go." He then hung up without elaborating.
But he didn't need to.
The Japanese girl took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Aelita?" But her anxiety was still clear as day.
"What's wrong?"
"XANA's learned from its past mistakes again," Yumi explained, conveying the stress that Jérémie was feeling perfectly. "This time, it got tired of relying on the Scyphozoa, so it created a special spectre that can steal the Keys to Lyoko just by touching someone." With the 'someone' in question being obvious.
Aelita caught on quickly, as she switched from anxious to determined and unforgiving, "Then we've already wasted too much time. Call the others, and tell them that someone has to stay behind and protect Jérémie. It doesn't matter who."
"Okay." Still having the calling program active, Yumi clicked on the first icon she thought of.
As the tone rang, the elevator doors opened. William, the real one, stood there. "Yumi?" He sounded surprised to Yumi at the controls. "What's going on?" he asked, just as Ulrich picked up.
"Yes, Jérémie?"
Yumi held up a finger towards William, as she addressed her boyfriend, "Ulrich, it's me! Jérémie's in trouble! He's hiding somewhere in the factory, being chased by a spectre! You have to find him, and whatever you do, you can't let the spectre touch him!"
Ulrich got the message quickly, to her relief. "I'm on it," he replied, before hanging up.
She then turned to William, but his confusion had turned into determination, having heard what she had told her boyfriend. "Send me in. I'll clear the passage for Aelita."
"Okay." Yumi turned to the controls and began warming up the scanners, as William took the ladder down to the scanner room.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Ulrich and Odd were crossing the bridge to the factory when the brunette received Yumi's call. He was shocked at hearing her news—the implications of them needing to keep the spectre away from Jérémie was anxiety-inducing by itself—but he managed to swallow it down.
When he hung up, Odd was understandably lost, "What's wrong? Where's the fire?"
Now in a hurry, Ulrich seemed a little impatient. "Jérémie's in trouble. We need to deactivate the tower ASAP. I'll search for Jérémie. Odd, you help Aelita on Lyoko."
"Right!"
The two swung down the ropes, and when they touched down, both wasted no time in going their separate ways.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"Virtualization!"
William's avatar formed in the sky of the Desert Sector, before dropping down onto the ground below. He immediately began scanning his surroundings, as he got to his feet.
"The tower is due north," Yumi told him. "You should see it from your current position."
"I see it," he replied. It was small on the horizon, and it was protected by a forest of large, slanted rock slabs, but the red smoke stood out like a sore thumb. He was about to run towards it, when he heard the humming of Hornets through his Second Sight. "I also hear enemies nearby."
"They're using those rocks as cover," Yumi told him. "There's twelve of them in total."
He promptly took on his smoke form and began traveling in the indicated direction. When he arrived, resuming his human form, the twelve Hornets were ready for him. Each of them attacked him one-by-one, shooting at their enemy before quickly taking cover again to avoid being taken out.
They put him on-guard right off the bat. He took a couple of shots, before he learned how to sense their attacks coming. After he destroyed three of them (though not back-to-back), the next Hornet to surface shot a pool of acid at his feet.
He quickly bailed, diving behind a nearby rock slab for cover. As he did so, his Second Sight picked up a new development made by a certain AI.
"Yumi?"
"What's wrong?" She sounded worried. The anxiety he was feeling must have been bleeding into his voice.
"I know you probably can't see it on the holomap," he revealed, slowly, "but XANA's just placed a spawn point for the Scyphozoa right by the tower."
"I see," was Yumi's reaction. She seemed awfully calm, despite the situation. To be honest, he appreciated it. "Breathe, William. If XANA was after you, the Scyphozoa would have appeared by now. But it's not."
"It's after Aelita," he breathed in realization.
"Yeah. It's waiting for the spectre to drain Jérémie of his Keys first."
He had to stay virtualized, if only to keep the passage clear for Aelita. He already lost Laura; he couldn't lose anybody else.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
As the Skid approached the hub, the one that would take it back to Lyoko's network, Aelita witnessed the water around her turn from a calming blue to a tension-filled red. her guard went up, anticipating XANA's next move.
Out of nowhere, the Skid was suddenly surrounded by a familiar series of glowing red rings, trapping the submarine inside of a barrier and forcing it to a halt. Aelita pushed against the front of the force field, but it eventually snapped back like elastic under the strain, as she expected. The lights inside the cockpit flickered, as an alarm went off and the controls fizzled with electricity, as if they were shorting out.
"Aelita?" Yumi began, unaware of this phenomenon.
Said pink-ette beat her to the punch. "It's a firewall, a present from XANA." She started tapping on the touch panel in the middle of her controls. "Don't worry. I know how to get out of it." A screen popped up, showing the status of the Skis and its various components—all were flashing red.
"How?"
Outside, the Skid pressed against the front of the barrier again before being forced back.
"The firewall's energy is set up along a fairly basic algorithm," Aelita explained. "All we have to do is crack it, and we'll be able to slip through a breach in security."
"How are you so sure?"
"Because I've seen this before," the angel reassured her friend. "You weren't there, Yumi. You were too focused on an impending meteor shower."
The memories came back to the elder, "Oh, right. So what will it take to slip through?"
"Rubber band system. All I have to do is calculate how long I need to initiate the turbo-prop. It shouldn't take long."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
William eventually gained enough courage to emerge from his rock slab cover. Using his Zweihänder, he managed to slice through a Hornet, before being shot at (but not hit) by two more. Now alerted to their positions, he threw his weapon at them, the blade spearing through both Hornets, before landing farther away, its blade stuck in the ground.
"Behind you!" Yumi suddenly warned.
Before he could summon back his Zweihänder, however, he was suddenly hit in the back twice. He glanced behind him, seeing three Bloks crawling towards him.
"You're down to thirty lifepoints," Yumi told him.
Great. With Bloks on one side and Hornets on the other, along with very few lifepoints to spare, William was in a jam. He was nowhere close to clearing the passage for Aelita.
"If anybody asks, Yumes," he began, "tell them I did my best. I'll never get through all of this."
But it wasn't Yumi who answered.
"Not with that attitude, good buddy!" Odd exclaimed, as he flew in over the Overboard, firing a flurry of Laser Arrows at one of the Bloks, destroying it.
"Odd!" Boy, was he sure glad to see one of his friends.
"I've got the Hornets!" the cat called out, speeding towards the six flying monsters and leaving the two remaining Bloks to William.
Said raven-haired boy smiled, before summoning his Zweihänder back to his hand.
This was evidently the best idea, with William striking down the Bloks with ease, and Odd's long-range abilities and the Overboard's speed making it painless for him to take down the Hornets.
The two eventually regrouped in front of the group of rock slabs.
"Nice job!" Odd exclaimed, as they shared a high-five.
"You too," William replied. "You arrived just in time. Now, just in case I get devirtualized, I need to warn you that once Aelita's here, XANA will probably spawn the Scyphozoa by the tower. As Yumi said, it's probably waiting for the spectre to steal all of Jérémie's Keys first."
Odd saluted him, "Roger that."
"A Megatank is on the approach," Yumi cut in.
The two glanced behind them in time to see a large metal sphere rolling quickly towards them. Their reaction time was faster than the monster, fortunately, with both boys dodging the Megatank—William in his smoke form and Odd with his Overboard—before it could roll them over.
"Two more are spawning by the tower," their mission control warned.
Sure enough, they glanced over in that direction, in time to see two more Megatanks rolling out from behind the base of the tower.
XANA really didn't want them winning, did it? Its desperation was becoming obvious.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"I knew it!" Aelita had finished her calculations. "The weak link is the same as before: the system overcompensates pressure, but it takes three milliseconds to reverse its polarity."
"Which is where the rubber band system factors in," Yumi caught on.
"Exactly." The pink-ette pressed the three small white buttons surrounding the larger propulsion button, "Reverse propulsion." She then pulled back on the joysticks.
The engine kicked into reverse and started moving the Skid backwards. The firewall reacted to the movement, but let the vehicle move backwards a small bit. It stretched and contorted, as one of the rings in the middle disappeared. The firewall and the Skid both shook under the strain.
"Cutting off the turbo-prop... now!" She slammed her fist on the retro-brake button, cutting off the rear propeller.
The Skid blasted out of the firewall, obliterating it. Aelita was pushed back into their seats from the speed she was traveling at, as the whole ship shook. Once the Skid slowed down, she sat forward again and shook it off.
"I made it, Yumi. Where's that hub?"
"Bearing 1-30."
Aelita made her way for the hub, as the lighting turned back to blue. It didn't take long to approach it. "Hub in sight." She switched the Skid back to its vertical position as it approached the hub. "Hyperfluid aspiration in three seconds."
After a pause, the Skid was surrounded in swirling blue lights before shooting down into the vortex, making a splash. It traveled at high speed through a bright pink tunnel full of many sharp turns before emerging through a blue portal on the side of another hub. The submarine came through it in a horizontal position, sending a ripple of blue across the vehicle and the hub.
Aelita slammed her fist on a big red button, "Retro-brake!" The ship came to an abrupt stop. before moving forward at a normal speed. She was back in Lyoko's network.
"Aelita?" Yumi worriedly asked. "What if you don't make it to the tower in time? Should I help Ulrich find Jérémie, or stay with you?"
As much as the pink-ette wanted her friend to find Jérémie, she knew what was truly best in this situation. She reluctantly answered, "It's best if you stay here, Yumi. It's too risky to not have someone at the controls while the Skid is undocked. Besides, if the spectre grabs Jérémie, you will at least see the memory count window pop up. If that happens, then you must alert the rest of us right away."
Yumi was unable to deny any of that, so she was equally hesitant, "...Right."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
William peeked out from behind his rock cover, watching all three Megatanks waiting by the tower for the two humans to come out. When the centermost one spotted William's raven hair, the boy pulled an akanbe (learned from Yumi). Understanding the gesture as the taunt it was, the Megatank promptly opened, only for Odd, on cue, to destroy it with a trio of Laser Arrows.
In response, one of the remaining two monsters opened up its shell and fired. While Odd was able to dodge the shot and destroy it in quick succession, the laser unfortunately hit William dead on, devirtualizing him.
The third and last Megatank retaliated by firing its own wide laser. Odd managed to dodge, but it cost him the Overboard.
The cat rolled to the ground, before quickly scrambling back behind a rock slab.
"Yumi!" he exclaimed. "I just lost William!"
"I know." His distress contrasted her calm demeanor. "If you're worried whether he safely made it back, he did."
"No offense, but that's not what I was about to ask!" he replied. "Where's Aelita?! What's she doing?!"
"She ran into a small delay in the network," Yumi informed, now sounding a bit worried, "but she's on her way! Be patient!"
Odd pouted, "Yeah, well, tell her to get her act together! It's getting hot here!"
Yumi scoffed in annoyance, "You think she's having fun or something?! She's trying her best, you know!"
The purple just humphed in response.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
William emerged from the scanner and promptly ignored his exhaustion, heading towards the elevator and pressed the 'up' button. While waiting for it to rise to the factory floor, he used his cell phone to call Yumi.
"William? What's wrong?" she asked.
"I'm heading up to help Ulrich look for Jérémie. Good luck to you, Odd, and Aelita."
She accepted his choice with gratefulness, "You too."
He hung up. A couple of seconds later, the lift reached the surface. He picked a random direction and ran, unsure and not caring if Ulrich was already down that way.
He could only hope that Jérémie was hanging in there.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Ulrich was calling Jérémie's cell phone on repeat. The blonde wasn't picking up, which was really concerning. Regardless, the ringtone was getting louder the more Ulrich called his friend. He followed the sound all the way down to the assembly room. The machine parts and conveyor belts were unstartingly quiet as the phone ringing came into view.
Just the phone. Its owner was nowhere in sight.
Hanging up upon reaching the device, Ulrich picked it up before glancing around, hoping his eyes were deceiving him.
"Jérémie?" he worriedly called out.
His concern only increased when he received no answer.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"Jérémie?"
Said blonde immediately slapped a hand over his mouth to keep himself from responding to his friend. As much as he would love and appreciate some assistance, right now was the worst time to make noise.
The spectre had followed him here, to the turbine room, still wearing Tyron's appearance. Jérémie was hiding in a corner next to one of said turbines, but XANA was dangerously close to him. It was stalking throughout the area, using the waterways as a guide. One sound would be all it took to have everything descend into hell.
Honestly, it was a miracle that XANA couldn't hear the boy's heartbeat.
He was tip-toeing, not daring to stay still. He had to escape somehow, but he had to act fast, unable to ignore the feeling that he was only running out of time, delaying the inevitable—and that scared him more than the sensory overload still burdening his entire body. His eyes grazed across a crowbar, and that's when he got an idea.
Staying as quiet as he could, he carefully picked up the crowbar as well as a nearby rock.
The spectre approached the area Jérémie was hiding in and went to look around the corner, when it was suddenly distracted by a loud splash behind it. It jumped across the channel and stood in front of the rippling water, waiting for the boy to surface. He couldn't hold his breath forever...
...Only for it to suddenly glitch out and fall to its knees.
Jérémie was standing behind it, having used the rock to lure it here and then the crowbar to temporarily knock it out. He wasted no time rushing out of the room, his makeshift weapon still in hand.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The Skid propelled itself through the Digital Sea at full speed. Aelita's concentration was unbreakable; she was Jérémie's only hope. Her mood turned from anxious to sour when the water, once again, turned from blue to red.
"Three Mantas are approaching you from behind," Yumi warned, the stress audibly starting to get to her.
Aelita checked her radar, and sure enough, there were those red dots, "I see them."
Lasers rushed towards the submarine, but the angel executed an evasive maneuver, evading the shots. The Mantas gave chase, and the Skid slaloms between the infrastructure cluttering the Digital Sea.
"Great," the pink-ette muttered. "They're chasing me."
"Do you think you can lose them?" Yumi worriedly asked.
Aelita switched the controls, "I can always try."
The Skid turned sharply and plunged into the depths of the Digital Sea. The Mantas gave chase. Aelita attempted to escape by zigzagging, but the laser shots kept coming.
"Hurry!" Yumi exclaimed. "Jérémie's in trouble and XANA's clearly trying to delay you!"
Her teeth gritted, the angel replied, "I'm aware." The Skid kept moving, but Aelita's mind paused. "I might have an idea, but it's pretty risky."
"Keep talking!"
"You and I are going to boost the Skid's sonar," Aelita explained. "It should jam the Mantas' detection system, but I have to attack head-on and deactivate the shields, and you need to type in exactly what I tell you. Okay?"
"Okay." The elder was as ready as she would ever be.
Aelita deactivated the shields on the console, then toggled the controls, before finally sending Yumi a string of code. "Just type in that command. It should work."
As the elder entered that precise command, the pink-ette turned around and headed towards the Kongres. The turbo-prop engaged, suddenly boosting the ship's thrust. The three Mantas each fired a laser...
Yumi pressed the 'enter' key.
A high-pitched sound suddenly escaped from the submarine, creating a sound wave in the water outside, just as the shots were about to hit it. The lasers, now disoriented, veered off course of the Skid (which passed close to the monsters) and began to spin.
The surprised Mantas didn't have time to start chasing the submarine again, as the crazy lasers ended up hitting them, mercilessly disintegrating them.
Aelita sighed in relief, as Yumi exclaimed, "Yes! It worked! You're a genius, Aelita!"
"I couldn't have done it without you, Yumes," the pink-ette replied. She pressed the big white button on her right, "Maximum propulsion!"
The Skid sped off like a bat out of hell, as the water turned back to blue.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Ulrich's search led him to the boiler room, and it was just as empty as the turbine room he just came from. He felt like he had already searched this entire factory high and low for Jérémie. His concern was only growing, and it would decrease only when he found his friend.
He took out the cell phone he had found, wishing that said friend still had it. From the opposite end of the room, a metal door opened. Ulrich looked in that direction, hopeful, only to be disappointed when he saw that it was William—not the friend he was looking for.
"Oh, hey, Will," the brunette muttered, as the elder ran towards him.
"Did you find Jérémie yet?"
Ulrich shot the other an unimpressed look, "If I did, I'd be with him and not here."
"Fair enough." William nodded at the device in the younger's hand, "That his phone?"
"Yeah. I tried calling him, but he didn't pick up. This was all I found." A thought suddenly came to mind, and Ulrich began mentally beating himself up for not thinking of it before. "Then again, of course he's not going to answer us if he's trying to hide from the spectre."
William's response was rather depressing, "Yeah, despite him probably wanting to. I can't imagine how scary this is for him..."
A spectre that could steal his Keys just by touching him, thus inevitably leading to his death—it was like a real life horror movie. That was leaving out that Jérémie was being forced to defend himself, always on the run because he was too scared to risk staying in one place...
"Let's keep searching," Ulrich proposed, though he already made up his mind. "Split up; we'll cover more ground that way."
"Right."
The two went their separate ways, William entering the path towards the turbine room, and Ulrich taking the path on the opposite side.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie walked slowly along the corridor down to the control room, leaning against the wall for support, as his adrenaline continued to make his sensory overload worse. He'd experienced overloads before, but they were never this bad.
When he reached the control room, he briefly leaned against the door, before closing it, barricading it with the crowbar that he still had. He then slowly made his way to the next door and pushed it open. After closing that door behind him, he pushed a rusty, metal cabinet over to barricade himself in the adjoining room.
As the boy slowly moved away from the door, the computer monitors inside the control room began flashing with the eye of XANA...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
XANA was definitely going all out today.
Odd had destroyed the last Megatank, only to be immediately surrounded by seven Krabes. Already at the edge of the plateau, he was surprised when a shot from a Krabe hit his chest. The cat rolled across the ground and stopped at the last second. The six Krabes closed in on him, and he raised his fists, only for his gloves to flash and disappear.
"I'm out of Arrows! Yumi!" he cried out, now effectively rendered lost.
"I'm on it," she reassured him, the code to refill Odd's Laser Arrows. "Just watch out. If you keep moving backwards, you're in for a dive!"
Odd grimaced as he dodged the incoming shots, "Thanks for the tip! I think they're doing it on purpose!"
Indeed, the remaining Krabes continued to fire at Odd, but were taking care not to devirtualize him. Instead, they were shooting at his feet, as if to force him back.
His heels were very nearly hovering over the edge when he asked, "When is Aelita going to get here?!"
"She should already be there!" Yumi replied, before muttering, "Come on, Aelita, where are you?"
There was no response, and Odd's blood ran cold, as he asked, dismayed, "She's not coming, is she?"
The elder hurriedly exclaimed, "No! She is! I promise!"
Discouraged, he muttered in response, "No need to strain your voice box, Yumes. I heard you clearly the first time."
Suddenly, the Skid appeared, rising up right behind him, intimidating.
Odd smiled, "Yes!", before jumping up on top of the main cockpit. He shouldn't have doubted the girls.
In the cockpit, Aelita activated the dual torpedo tubes of the Skid, and fired at the seven Krabes in a massive barrage, without mercy. Each Krabe was hit with a torpedo and promptly disintegrated one after another.
"Yes!" Yumi cheered.
The pink-ette returned it with an elation of her own, "Yes!"
Inside, Aelita sent Odd a reassuring smile, who gave her a thumbs-up from the outside.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie was hiding behind a column as the spectre started slamming on the two barricaded doors protecting him. The adrenaline promptly went into overdrive, sending his head spinning, as he heard the two doors break down like they were both wet sheets of paper.
When the spectre finally spoke, it was Tyron's voice backed with XANA's. The sound that resulted was terrifying, like Tyron and XANA had joined forces. The boy couldn't get rid of that instinct, despite knowing that this was only a polymorphic spectre.
"Come on out, Jérémie Belpois," XANA taunted. "Just a few seconds and the pain will be over."
The boy didn't dare speak and give away his position, but it was his primary tactic today, so it was no wonder why XANA decided to force his hand. The spectre began firing blasts of energy at every single column. When it got to the one Jérémie was using as cover, he had no choice but to come out of hiding to avoid being hit.
But that's exactly what the AI wanted.
The spectre—still wearing Lowell Tyron's disconcerting smirk—walked over to him in a threatening manner. "I knew it was a good idea to wear this man's face, however much I fear and despise him," it confessed, as Jérémie got to his knees, "because you fear and despise him too."
It suddenly lunged at the boy, who quickly ran away, or rather, tried to...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
As Odd jumped to the ground and joined Aelita, who teleported from the cockpit, Yumi suddenly started panicking, "Aelita, the spectre has Jérémie!" On the screen in front of her, the memory count window had opened, with the number only decreasing.
The pink-ette wasted no more time. Before Odd could say anything else, Aelita summoned her wings and took off towards the tower about hundred meters away. Thanks to her speed, she reached the base of the structure in no time, phasing through the wall before XANA could spawn the Scyphozoa.
She used her wings to ascend to the upper platform, bypassing the first one altogether. Said wings still active, she logged into the interface, hoping with all her heart that she wasn't too late.
AELITA_
CODE_
LYOKO_
The tower panels fell to the bottom, and she announced to Yumi, "Tower deactivated."
In the lab, Yumi breathed a sigh of relief as the countdown stopped at a very low number, before the window itself closed.
Using her wings, Aelita exited the tower and returned to Odd. She landed in front of him, finally dismissing her wings.
"Yumi, materialize us," she ordered.
"Already on it," the elder replied. "Materialization Aelita. Materialization Odd."
The two avatars disappeared from the virtual world in a shower of frantic pixels...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Odd and Aelita exited the scanners at the same time, as Yumi was descending the ladder. Together, the trio ran towards the elevator. Odd pressed the 'up' button as Yumi dialed her boyfriend's number.
"Ulrich, the tower's been deactivated," the Japanese girl reported. "Jérémie should be safe now."
"Roger that," he replied, breathless, as he ran throughout the factory. "William and I still haven't found him yet, so it would mean a lot to us if you, Aelita, and Odd joined the search as well."
Aelita lowered her own phone from her ear, a frightened expression across her features, "I can't reach Jérémie!"
Ulrich heard her, "Because I have his phone, and I turned it off to preserve the battery! Just get up here, all three of you!"
He sounded panic-stricken, and worried themselves, the trio wasted no more time. Once they reached the surface, they joined the search, going their own separate ways to cover more ground.
Hopefully their greatest fear—finding their friend dead—wouldn't come to pass.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The five teens searched the entirety of the factory high and low for their friend. Their hope was decreasing with each passing minute, being swiftly replaced with dread.
The only promising development was made after about ten minutes, with Ulrich texting the other four the same message, "I found Jérémie in the hall just beyond the control room."
It was swiftly followed by a second text, "Hurry up!"
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita was the first one there, but the other three were hot on her heels. The first sight was the busted down door of the control room. Jérémie had clearly tried his best to barricade it, but XANA had shown it no mercy as it tore down the door like it was a piece of cardboard. And the next door hadn't fared much better. Yumi covered her mouth in shock when she saw the doors.
"Ulrich?" Aelita asked.
"In here!" the brunette called from the other room.
The four hastily entered said room. The sight that greeted them was an out-cold Jérémie in Ulrich's arms. To the brunette, his friend was cold to the touch, his face was pale, and his entire body was limp.
Aelita promptly ran over to them, kneeling on her boyfriend's other side, as she cried, "Jérémie!"
She began gathering him in her arms, and Ulrich chose to let go, understanding her position (he would hate to find Yumi in a similar manner).
"Jérémie, wake up!" Odd exclaimed. He and the others watched intently, scared that they had truly lost their friend the way they had previously (though temporarily) lost Aelita. This time, however, there was no one around with the power to revive someone.
So if Jérémie really was dead, then he'd remain dead.
"Jérémie!" Odd tried again.
A tense and heartbreaking pause, before there was a twitch in their friend's hand followed by an exhausted groan, "Odd... please shut up... I'm really dizzy and I have a massive headache..."
Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd all breathed sighs of relief. Aelita, tears coming to her eyes, just cuddled Jérémie closer to her. He was clearly still violently feeling the side-effects—exhaustion, lack of strength, disorientation, and a headache—but that was fine. Thank goodness...
'Sorry, Papa,' she said through her thoughts, 'but you can't have Jérémie as a companion just yet.'
She didn't have to say goodbye to him today.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
A few minutes later, the six descended back down to the lab. As Jérémie sat against the wall, resting due to still lacking strength, Aelita was at the controls, remotely piloting the Skid back into the hangar. The other while hovered protectively around the blonde genius, shaken up by the fact that their friend had almost died today. A tense stillness permeated the air.
Only when the Skid was properly docked in Sector Five, Aelita broke the silence, "Do you guys remember the decision we made concerning my mother?"
They did. Jérémie's words returned to their minds: "If you decide, Aelita, that XANA or Tyron come too close to victory for comfort, then we'll use the completed patch for the Anti-XANA program to destroy Tyron's supercomputer. No questions asked."
She didn't give them any chance to gather their thoughts, "I'm initiating that compromise. It's time we destroy the Cortex's supercomputer."
Her sounding so steadfast in her decision was what made the others react.
"What?!"
"Are you sure?!"
"Aelita, think about this for a minute!"
But her eyes were on her boyfriend as he, though still weak from the attack, got to his feet, "But, Aelita... I am nowhere closer to finding a way to bring your mother back without the Cortex's supercomputer than the day we first discovered that she was still alive."
But Jérémie's current condition was only fuel to her inner fire. "You guys said it was my choice, didn't you? Well, I've made my decision, and I'm not changing my mind."
The others were silenced, unable to refute that fact. She was right; they did give the choice to her.
"Aelita," but her boyfriend wasn't so easily shot down, "I chose for you then because I knew it wasn't a choice you wanted to make."
She was calm as she replied, "I know, Jérémie, and I'm very grateful for that consideration, but my mind's made up. I'm not sure Maman will understand, but she's safer on the network than she is here on Earth." She turned to her friends, "I can't thank you all enough for everything you've done on my behalf, all of your sacrifices and the risks you've taken. I lost my father and I'm on the verge of losing my mother a second time." She took her boyfriend's hands into her own, "but if I lose you, Jérémie, it will be one one loss to many. Ever since I recovered my memories, I was afraid I'd have to choose between Schaeffer and Stones, and my choice is Stones. Because Schaeffer is gone. She's lonely. She has no one left. But Stones..." she began tearing up, "she has an amazing family that saves the world with her, right by her side through it all. I'm serious. You guys are my family, and I will always fight to preserve that."
By the time she finished her speed, her friends were smiling, tears filling their own eyes as they were moved by her words.
Jérémie softly smiled as he ever so gently tightened his grip, "Aelita, have I ever told you how amazing you are?"
Aelita tearfully returned his smile, "Plenty of times."
He wrapped her in an embrace, and any cold he was still feeling quickly turned to warmth. Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and William, each of them with tears filling their own eyes, quickly joined in.
XANA wanted to regain its strength. Tyron wanted them destroyed. Both of them wanted to take over the world. But no more.
The Lyokowarriors' final stand was now.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
Inspiration: CLE's "Massacre"/"Disaster"
Up next: Episode 26, Extreme Prejudice - "Everything must come to an end. This is the final mission, where everything collides. But XANA will not go down quietly. Neither will Tyron."
A/N: Chapter Meaning: References XANA's plan; said 'massacre' would start with Jérémie, then Aelita, and then the rest of humanity
-My beta reader had an idea to have XANA actually pose as Mago, like a ghost back from the grave. I had to veto it, because it wouldn't have worked as well as XANA posing as Tyron.
-XANA's tower is the same one (or a copy of) the one used in "Big Bug". The firewall also makes its second appearance since "Hot Shower" (I don't know why XANA didn't use it more; it's a great way to waste the Lyokowarriors' time).
~Evolution concepts~
The EVO episode is a good one, with the writer once again being the animated series' Bruno Regeste, and the characters once again being able to show a whole array of emotions (the final scene legit makes me tear up every time I watch it). The plot is generally the same here as it is in EVO, with XANA sending out a spectre to steal the codes it needs to regain its power, with one of the Lyokowarriors being victimized for the majority of the episode. At the end, XANA comes dangerously close to regaining its power, prompting Aelita to make the choice that leads directly into the final episode.
Now for the changes. In EVO, the code-stealing spectres are nothing new, but like I said in earlier chapters, the threat falls flat due to what we see in "The Codeless", with Odd surviving and being perfectly fine after having his codes stolen. The main victim I mentioned prior is Yumi, with William deliberately devirtualizing himself to help her despite Ulrich already being on the scene (making it feel like one last attempt to keep that love triangle alive). At the end, the agreed-on percentage (95) has been reached because of the attack, and Aelita reassures the group that she understands that it means that she'll have to say goodbye to her mother (because of the Cortex being the only way to contact Anthea).
Here, this is the debut of the code-stealing spectres. The concept has potential as being a legitimately terrifying attack/enemy, with the only change here being the fact that we know for sure that Jérémie and Aelita will die if the Keys are extracted (plus the placement of this debut being the penultimate episode). That leads us into the chapter's main victim being Jérémie due to circumstances, with the added trauma of the spectre posing as Tyron, the other big bad of the season. At the end, Aelita finally makes the choice she's been taunted with this entire season, and she chooses Jérémie, acknowledging that she can never go back to who she was in the past. Anthea being free from Tyron in a sense also helps.