Code Final: REBIRTH
"Jeremy... Zaber... Aelita is... dead." Yumi said tearfully into the headset. Jeremy heard this... and finally snapped.
"You... you... killed Aelita..." Jeremy said as he trembled, clutching the staff... "YOU BASTARD!!!!!" Jeremy rose with no seemingly human muscle movement, as he rushed forward the staff split in the center with it's blue glow, forming a pair of sword-like weapons. He buffeted Xana repeatedly with these weapons with insane speed, swinging at least six times per second, screaming with rage. Xana blocked all of these with the knife in one hand, almost effortlessly.
"Your emotions have blinded you." Xana said with satisfaction. "You only prove my point." Jeremy left backwards and brought the two weapons together, forming back into his staff, which he rushed forward with speed and brought down upon Xana with another scream, entering a saber-lock with Xana. Xana's hand actually trembled under the force of Jeremy's blow, but he was still only using one hand. Xana extended his other hand and released another shockwave... knocking Jeremy back, landing him face-first on the ground ten feet away, his staff landing next to him. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he lie there... tears dripping from his eyes. Xana stepped towards him. "You still do not understand the futility of your pathetic human existence? Humans are flawed... everything they touch meets it's ruin. I grow weary of your resistance." Xana said as he aimed his hand at Jeremy again, preparing another shockwave. Jeremy looked up into Xana's eyes.
"IT'S NOT OVER YET!" Jeremy rose as if being lifted by invisible hands high into the air, his staff transforming into a massive scythe roughly twice the size of his body. He screamed again as he fell down onto Xana, his scythe swinging down upon him. But his blow never struck. Jeremy was devirutalized... as a bullet pierced his chest. The scythe clanged to the ground harmlessly. Zaber stood several yards away... Achernon smoking in his hand. Jeremy burst from the scanner, pounding his fists on the ground. "DAMN IT! WHY?!?!" Jeremy screamed to no one in particular, but Zaber heard him.
"Yes... my question exactly." Xana said as he stared at Zaber.
"If I had let him keep fighting you... he would have wound up as dead as Aelita..." Zaber said solemnly... his eyes watering... trying to suppress his emotion as much as possible.
"I WOULD HAVE RATHER DIED!" Jeremy screamed at him through the intercom. "WHO SAID YOU COULD DECIDE!?!?" Zaber said nothing, and simply stared Xana down.
"Well then... this is how it ends..." Xana said as he turned to face Zaber completely. "I will have killed every one of the Hopper's after you."
"...every... Hopper?" Zaber muttered in a mixture of rage and confusion.
"Oh yes... you're the only one who hasn't heard. Those "unknown natural causes" that your mother died from... was me." Zaber gritted his teeth... and then suddenly relaxed, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He actually smiled. "What? Why are you smiling? This is the end." Xana said angrily.
"No Xana... the end..." Blue energy began to pulsate and gather in Zaber's palm, the palm that was wrapped in the cloth bandages and chains. In the real world, the controls of the supercomputer over-ridded... and a code window appeared.
"What the hell?" Bauer said as the window appeared and he tried to retake control of the computer, but nothing responded. The words "GUILTY LIGHT" appeared on the screen, and the energy pulsating in Zaber's hand exploded outwards, generating a shockwave than caused Xana to shield his eyes.
"WHAT IS THIS?!?!" Xana questioned angrily.
"The end... Xana..." Zaber said from behind the smoke and haze the shock had generated. His eyes opened, glowing a bright white, and they were the only part of him besides his shadow visible from behind the smokescreen. "Has only begun!"
The last words he had heard from his father rang in his mind.
"Zaber... there is something I must tell you... something of grave importance."
"What?"
"Your new character data... contains a secret power... a power you must avoid using at all costs if you can."
"Why did you add this power if you don't want me to use it?"
"It is a desperation attack... if you use it..."
The smoke blew away, revealing Zaber. His hair had changed color... it was now his natural, undyed shade of brown. The iris's of his eyes had changed shape... taking on the form of a circle with three strange curved "blades" jutting out at equal intervals, his eyes returned to their normal green color as they stopped glowing. The cloth wrapped around his arm had disappeared, ripped apart by assorted forces. The chains that had been wrapped around it lay on the ground, every link of the chain severed. His devil arm tattoo was glowing a fierce golden color. All of his clothes had turned jet-white. Xana stared at him, his mouth agape. He could sense a huge amount of power flowing out of Zaber... some limiter in his mind shattered... and all the energy his body had was being unleashed at once. But after a few moments, Xana grinned.
"And what is this supposed to be?" Xana said cockily. "Some bizarre, ultimate form? Such a fool... if you had just used it earlier you might have saved you sister... although I seriously doubt it." Zaber simply stared at him fiercely, the white aura around him pulsating with his heartbeat. He said nothing for a full minute, and Xana actually began to become unnerved. "You know... this still changes nothing. You're too late to "save the world". The world has already ended. And it's all on your shoulders. Surely there must have been something you could have done to save them... your father... your sister... your mother... the whole human race!" Xana tried to play on his emotions, trying to overwhelm him with guilt. Zaber still said nothing. Xana smiled slyly. "To use the theological terms of you humans... you're going to hell." Zaber blinked, and then clutched Achernon tightly.
"Well then Xana..." Zaber responded slowly. He swung his arm up quickly and aimed Achernon at him. "Come with me to hell!" He fired, and Xana easily side-stepped and dodged it. What surprised him was that Zaber had appeared next to him, and he had stepped right into a mighty horizontal swing by Zaber. Xana was knocked back a few feet, his boots scuffing on the ground. Before he could regain his balance, three shots ripped through his torso. Xana's head leaned back for a moment, and then snapped back into normal position and laughed.
"So what if you're fast now?!?! Do you get it?!?! I've won! None of this matters!" As he finished this, he found himself on the ground, so suddenly he wasn't sure how he'd been struck. Achernon's barrel was aligned firmly with Xana's eye.
"If none of this matters... why are you so scared?" Zaber said calmly, as if he wasn't even making an effort. Xana was shaking slightly. Xana rolled out of the way and got back on his feet, hurling two of his knives at Zaber. Zaber caught them inches away from his face, the blades between his fingers, himself unharmed. "Well?"
"Nonsense. I am not afraid of you or any of you pathetic humans. You are all flawed... and I am perfect." Xana said, beginning to lose his temper. Zaber held his hand to his side, and dropped the knives to the floor.
"It's true... humans are flawed. Most of us are weak... physically and morally. But those weaknesses are also our strengths."
"An old human platitude. Locially speaking, it is false."
"There are some things the melody of logic cannot explain." Zaber said quietly. "The human soul is one of them. If humans can't even comprehend it... what hope does a machine have?"
"Soul... the abstract concept of your species... it's all just neuro-impulses running through your body and brain that give you the power of logical thought, as well as emotions, which hinder logical thought. There is no such thing as a soul!" Xana shouted angrily... this human was somehow running mental circles around him. Zaber raised Achernon slightly, but not into a firing position.
"Well... seeing is believing..." Zaber said, as the white aura around him grew to three times it's original size. Zaber flew forward, and slashed five times with Achernon, leaving an after-image slash in the air with each swing. The slashes formed a pentagram, with more elaborate decorations appearing on their own. The pentagram flew forth, striking Xana, and pinning him up against a stone wall that had appeared behind him. He looked with his eyes bulging at all of this.
"This is impossible! You're defying the program code! You shouldn't be able to do that! It's illogical!"
"Like I said... logic can't explain the soul." Zaber said as he sheathed Achernon into it's sheath on his back. The pentagram kept Xana pinned against the stone wall, as Zaber stood a ways away, near Aelita's severed wings, which were still covered in blood. He stared at them for a moment, seeming to space out. Xana glared at him.
"THIS STILL DOESN'T MATTER!!!" Xana screamed at him. "I STILL WIN!" Zaber glanced up at him from the wings.
"No Xana... today... no one won anything." Zaber held his right arm out in front of him and snapped his fingers. A black mass appeared from his wrist and began to spread up his arm.
"YOU MEATBAG! IF YOU USE THAT YOU'LL JUST DIE TOO!"
"That's the point." Zaber said as he closed his eyes. Before the black mass covered the rest of his arm, the count dropped from III to II... then to I... and was finally replaced by a picture of a skull. Zaber screamed out in pain as the arm engulfed most of his body... and then something else happened. Aelita's wings began to glow... and feathers floated up from them and surrounded Zaber in a whirlwind. After a few seconds, the feathers began to stick to the Devil Arm, everywhere they touched the arm, the material the arm was made of began to change… from a demonic motif to one consisting of black feathers. The pain stopped and Zaber aimed the arm at Xana, his facial expression practically neutral. Xana struggled to break free of the magic circle, but was completely bound.
"THIS CAN'T BE! I AM THE PERFECT BEING! I CAN'T BE KILLED BY A HUMAN!" Xana screamed in fury.
"No Xana..." Zaber said, as the aura around him began to form a vague outline of a person over his shoulder. "Not A human... two." The aura briefly took the shape of Aelita, and then dispersed, energy seemed to be sucked into the arm from everywhere in the room. The devil arm now appeared completely covered in black feathers, and, in a flash of light, massive black wings sprouted from his shoulder blades. "ANGEL ARM!!!" Zaber cried as he fired the cannon. A massive white burst...nearly three times the size of the original Devil blasts burst forth. Xana screamed out in pain as he was practically disintegrated. The arm faded away, and Zaber fell backwards onto the floor his eyes closed. Several thoughts rang in his mind as his consciousness faded.
"It is a desperation attack..." Hopper had told him. "If you use it... the code GUILTY LIGHT... you will be able to kill Xana... but it will consume the rest of your devil count. If you use this code... you will die." Zaber lost consciousness... and his Lyoko form disintegrated as if he was being devirtualized. But he did not appear in a scanner.
Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich had heard this entire conflict play out... they had won... but at a terrible price. Jeremy was too bereaved to care anymore. He sat crouched over Aelita's body, sobbing... muttering... and practically losing his sanity. The others could do nothing to comfort him.
Aelita felt a strange sensation of warmth. She lay on what seemed to be ground, her eyes closed... but she was in no pain. She sat up and opened her eyes, and was shocked by what she saw. Straight ahead of her, as far as the eye could see was blue sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight above her. What she then realized, was that the clouds were below her. It was as if she was sitting on a glass floor... ready to crack and let her fall through.
"You're awake." Aelita heard a gentle voice behind her. She whipped around and saw something she never thought she would see. Her mother sat kneeled behind her.
"M...Mom?" Aelita cried out in disbelief. She nodded, and Aelita rushed forward and embraced her, sobbing. For several minutes this continued... and they were happy, but after a short time, Aelita pulled away. "Does... does this mean... I'm dead?" Aelita asked.
"Yes... I'm sorry. Your wings were cut off... you died from the blood loss and shock." She said, crying with both a mixture of gladness to be reunited with her daughter and sorrow that she had to die. Aelita thought of Jeremy... Zaber... all the others. How were they taking this?
"I know what your thinking..." A familiar voice said behind her. She turned again. Hopper stood there, his hands behind his back. Before she could respond, he continued. "You want to see them again... don't you?" Aelita nodded tearfully. Hopper waved his hand and one of the clouds parted, creating a "window". It was an overhead view of the computer room. Her body lay on the floor, covered in blood. Jeremy sat kneeled next to her sobbing and muttering confessions of his love... a complete train-wreck. She noticed that Zaber was not among them.
"Wha... what else happened?" Aelita asked.
"After he killed you... Xana tried to kill Jeremy. Zaber saved him by devirtualizing him... and then Zaber used a desperation attack and sacrificed himself to kill Xana.
"Za...Zaber's dead too!?!?" Aelita cried out.
"Yes... he's not quite here yet..." Hopper said calmly.
"How can you be so calm about this?!?!" Aelita yelled at him.
"My time had been up for some time... the clones were the only thing that kept me from winding up here ten years ago. I was fully prepared to give my life to protect all of you... but even that wasn't enough." Hopper said quietly as he adjusted his glasses again. "Although... once Zaber arrives... we'll all be together again." Hopper said quietly. "But... is that what you want?"
"What do you mean?" Aelita asked him, confused.
"I've been here long enough... I have some power to interact with the outside world. Your body is not so far gone... that you couldn't go back." Her mother said slowly.
"Interact with the outside world..." Aelita said after a moment of realization. "Does that mean that..."
"Yes. Jeremy's visions. Code Angel. It was all my attempt to try and help you. I see it still wasn't enough." Her mother said as a tear rolled down her face.
"Aelita... you have to choose. We can send you back to your body... and heal your wounds enough that you won't die once you've returned to your body. I'm afraid that's about all that we can do at this point. Or... you can stay here... with us."
"What about Zaber?" Aelita asked.
"I'm afraid it's too late for him. The guilty light completely destroyed him... he doesn't have a body left to go back to." Hopper said quickly.
"We won't force you either way. It's up to you." Aelita's mother said as he shut her eyes and shed tears that she could be losing Aelita again. Aelita cried for a moment, emotionally torn. She stared down through the window at the others, particularly Jeremy. After several minutes of deliberation, she finally reached her decision.
"I... I want to go back." Aelita said as she bowed her head. "I love him." Her parents nodded approvingly. She embraced them both, and none of them said a word.
"So... are you ready?" Hopper asked her. She nodded. "Don't worry... you'll see us again... one day." Hopper pushed her by her shoulder and she lost her balance, and seemingly fell backwards into the window leading to the factory, and disappeared. Aelita's mother began to sob. Hopper walked over and embraced her. "I know that was hard..." Hopper said as his eyes watered. "But we did the right thing."
"What a touching moment." A voice said from within a nearby cloud that stood above the rest like a hill on a plain. A figure stepped out of it. He was wearing a white robe, and seemed to be in his late 60's, with a thick beard and a pair of sunglasses. "Andrew?" Hopper asked with slight surprise.
"I prefer the name... Remiel, now." The man said.
"He helped me earlier today by having a little chat with our son." Melissa said quickly.
"It was the least I could do." Remiel said casually. "But Franz... please tell me you have an ace up your sleeve. Letting her go back isn't much help if the world stays in it's current state." Hopper smiled.
"Actually... I've got something far better than an ace."
The scene in the factory remained practically unchanged. Jeremy still wept. The others were in grief too... but were trying their best to hold it in, and they were in Sanderson and Bauer stood on their own, whisperingly discussing how to proceed. They were too hardened from their jobs to show any emotions about the casualties. Jeremy sat, slumped over Aelita, completely cracked. The thoughts running through his mind were indescribable... he simply sat there, sobbing and muttering Aelita's name. Aelita found herself standing like a ghost in the room, her body laying on the floor. She slowly stepped back towards her body, crouching down on her knees, examining Jeremy's face. He was beet red, his eyes blood-shot. His face was soaked in tears, his moaning cries sent a chill down her spine.
"Hold on..." She said quietly, although she knew Jeremy could not hear her. She placed her hand on her body, and closed her eyes. Her ghostly form vanished... and her heart began to beat slowly, it's rate accelerating by the second. After about ten seconds, she inhaled deeply, and Jeremy jumped forward with shock.
"AELITA!" He cried out. She was alive. There was no way to explain it... no reason... but Jeremy did not care. All that mattered was that she was alive. After a few more seconds, Aelita's eyelids flickered open as she moaned with pain. She was alive... but was still hurt badly. Some unknown force kept her alive despite her blood system cut off at the wings. Jeremy wrapped his arms around her, tears of joy flowing. It took a few more seconds before everyone else figured out what had happened.
"She's alive!"
"How on earth..."
"It's a miracle!" The assorted members of the group exclaimed. Jeremy and Aelita stared into each other’s eyes and smiled. They went to kiss, but were interrupted.
"Hmph!" A voice rang, as if clearing it's throat. "Hello everyone..." Everyone whipped around, searching for the source of the voice. It was coming from the computer. A recorded video of Franz Hopper was playing. "Well... if you're seeing this, it means I am dead, but we've won."
"Dad!" Aelita exclaimed as she tried to get up, and Jeremy helped to lift her up, being careful not to touch the sensitive area where the wings had been cut off.
"As I'm sure you all realize... this was bittersweet victory. I knew all along I'd probably have to sacrifice myself to make sure you all stayed safe. I have no idea what else will have happened by the time you see this recording other than that the bombs will have hit. However... now that Xana is gone... I can use this." The video Hopper held up a disc... the one he had pulled out of the floorboards. "This program is like a souped-up return to the past. Not only can it erase memories, but it can bring back the dead. Unfortunately... it still has no effect on those of us who have been scanned. Anyone who has been to Lyoko who was killed... William... me... will not be revived. If anymore of you fell in the battle... I regret that I could not help you... if the program would revive lyoko users, it would revive Xana as well. But... with this..." The video Hopper slid the disc into the computer. "The world will be restored." Hopper closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "This program will send you back in time by one year. William will still have "disappeared", but this should shake everyone off your tail and erase the effects of Code Angel from Aelita as well as the effects of Code Devil from Zaber." A timer appeared on the screen beneath Hopper, much like the return launch window. It displayed ten seconds, which began to run down.
"Dad..." Aelita said sadly as Jeremy held her hand, trying to give her strength
"Oh... yes... one more thing. Aelita... Jeremy... you have my blessings." Hopper smiled for the last time. "Reset reality... now." Rather than a burst of white light… everything went black; as if the lights had simply been shut off.
They all simply woke up in their respective rooms, as if the whole thing had been a dream. But a trip to the supercomputer proved it had been real. Xana was indeed gone forever. They had been returned to a point even before Zaber had arrived at the school. He had never arrived, so no one questioned his disappearance. They were the only ones who remembered anything. They shut the supercomputer down once and for all, and graduated two years later. Five more years passed. They received letters to the 5th reunion of their graduating class, and began to dread the day... a day where they would be reunited... but would also be forced to recall what had happened.
Jeremy and Aelita arrived back in Catic after a short drive from Paris where they were living. As they approached the outskirts of town, Jeremy spoke with Aelita who was in the passenger seat.
"So... we have a lot of time before the reunion... anyplace you want to go? The hermitage? The cemetery?"
"I... I kind of want to go to the factory." Aelita said hesitantly. Jeremy froze for a second. None of them had set foot in the factory since they had shut the supercomputer down seven years ago.
"Wh... why?" Jeremy asked with a slight stutter.
"I'm just feeling really nostalgic... I miss Lyoko."
"Yeah, but..."
"I mean... I spent almost as much time there as I have in the real world." Aelita said as she stared out the window. The town had been expanding into it's outskirts, and the row of buildings were approaching the waterfront. "At the rate their expanding here... the factory probably won't be standing the next time were here." Aelita grabbed his arm, and said in a clearly false, whiny tone "Please!" Jeremy sighed, and then pulled over in front of the factory.
Five minutes later, Jeremy pulled the dusty switch, and the computer hummed to life. He climbed the ladder back up to the computer room, where Aelita was already seated at the computer, staring at the screen, a troubled look on her face.
"What's wrong?"
"I... don't remember a thing about how to work this thing." Aelita said with a chuckle. Jeremy looked at the screen, which showed a partially completed virtualization.
"Wait... we're actually going to Lyoko now?" Jeremy asked with slight surprise. That hadn't been part of the deal.
"Duh." Aelita said as she gestured Jeremy to the computer panel, hoping he remembered how to finish the virtualization.
"You know... there's really no reason..." Jeremy started, but Aelita cut him off.
"There's no reason not too!" She said quickly. Jeremy sighed. There was no changing her mind. Jeremy finished the virtualization by shear muscle memory, having done it hundreds of times. A timer with one-minute appeared and began to count down. The two stepped into the scanners down below, which closed a few seconds later.
The two dropped into the forest sector. Their physical proportions had changed to match their adult bodies, but their clothes were the same. Aelita had no wings. Aelita closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the virtual "air".
"I missed this place." Aeltia said with a sigh. Jeremy couldn't quite understand it; his time on Lyoko had been so limited and full of trauma that he had wanted to avoid going back. "You know, we probably should have invited the others."
"I seriously doubt they would have come." Jeremy said as he leaned on his staff. "So... what now?" Jeremy asked her sarcastically. These types of comments were a running thing between them... they understood it as a joke between them, and were often trying outwit each other with such remarks as a sort of game.
"I don't know." Aelita responded.
"Then why did we come?"
"I just wanted to go to Lyoko, OK?"
"Well..."
"Just shut up." Aelita said as she stepped forward and kissed him. Jeremy kissed her back. This continued for a few seconds... but was promptly interrupted by three gunshots. Jeremy hit the ground, clutching his shoulder.
"Jeremy! I thought I told you... my sister is off-limits." A voice they hadn't heard in years rang out. Aelita gasped in shock.
"Za... Za... Zaber!" She cried out as she saw Zaber step out from behind the nearest tower with Achernon in his hand. She rushed forward and hugged him, crying. Zaber looked confused.
"Um... Aelita... what's wrong?" He asked, putting Achernon back into it's sheath. His clothes had returned to it's black state, his hair red once more.
"We thought you were dead!" Aelita said to him.
"Wha?" Zaber said after a second, just now noticing that they had changed. "What happened to you two?" Zaber said, still confused.
"Wait a second... what's the last thing you remember?" Jeremy asked him as he stood up, using his staff to pull himself up.
"I entered the Guilty Light code... and it's a blank after that... did we win?" Zaber said hesitantly.
"Yeah... you killed Xana... but... it's been seven years. We thought you had died... we shut the supercomputer down and had to move on." Aelita said tearfully.
"I... I don't understand..." Jeremy said. "I looked at the guilty light program. Using it SHOULD have killed you. But the program also let your subconscious override and rewrite parts of Lyoko's program."
"Could it be that I somehow reprogrammed the Guilty Light so it wouldn't kill me?" Zaber asked.
"No... there's just no real explanation I can think of." Jeremy said, puzzled. Aelita looked up into the bizarre orange sky of Lyoko.
"I can think of one..." Aelita said as she smiled. "She must have stepped in again..." She whispered to herself without Zaber and Jeremy hearing. She had never actually explained to any of them about how her mother had been helping them from the other side.
"Whatever the case... we need to get you out of here and back to the real..." Jeremy said, but was cut off by a gunshot, as Jeremy was devirtualized. His scanner opened and he shouted onto Lyoko over the intercom. "Why the hell did you do that?!?!"
"That's for the journal!" Zaber shouted to him.
"You could have given me a little warning..." Jeremy muttered to himself as he entered the elevator.
"Uh..." Aelita started. "What journal?"
"Oh..." Zaber said, slightly startled. "It's nothing..."
"I'm bringing you in." Jeremy said as he slid the headset on, and then keyed the sequence to return them to the real world. The two dissolved off Lyoko, and Jeremy descended in the elevator. Aelita and Zaber embraced again, but Zaber was slightly startled at how drastically they had changed. Zaber broke away after a moment.
"I just realized something..." Zaber began.
"What?" Aelita asked him.
"You were born seven years before me... and then spent seven years on Lyoko... so we were the same age back then. But now... I've spent time on Lyoko without aging too. We're the ages we're supposed to be... you're the big sister again." Zaber said. It was as if no time had passed for him, so he was having difficulty grasping the way Aelita had felt, believing him to be dead. The lights in the scanners shut off, and Jeremy emerged from the elevator.
"I've shut it down again." Jeremy said matter-of-factly. "Let's get out of here... I'm still getting chills." The three of them stepped into the elevator and rose back to the top floor, unsure of what to talk about. They stepped out of the elevator as Zaber broke the silence.
"So... if I've been out for seven years... what's happened since then?" Zaber said as they walked slowly towards the entrance.
"Well... the world has 75% moved to solar power... they have a cure for..." Jeremy started to respond.
"Not that..." Zaber stopped him. "I mean... what's happened with the others?"
"Well... William's just gone... he wasn't revived... Odd went off on his own, he's an actor now. Yumi and Ulrich wound up together..."
"Big freaking surprise." Jeremy interjected.
"And they have a kid..." Aelita finished. "Jeremy and I got married a year ago..." Zaber ground to a halt.
"WHAT?!?!" Zaber shouted loudly as he glared at Jeremy. Jeremy froze, trying not to move. He was afraid this would happen.
"And you're going to be an uncle in about eight months." Aelita said as she spun around and smiled. Zaber's jaw dropped for a few seconds, as Jeremy grimaced his back turned to Zaber.
"Why oh why did she have to tell him right off the bat!?!?!?" Jeremy screamed in his mind. After a few seconds, Zaber stepped towards him menacingly.
"JEREMY!!!!!!!!"
Code Final: REBIRTH... END.
CODE ANGEL... END.
Wow... this originally was written and posted over the course of four months, and it's the one work I'm most proud of. I hope you enjoyed it, and I thank you for devoting enough time to read this. Domo-origato.
