Chapter 6- Freedom? (10.31.07-11.12.07)
Yumi took deep breaths, barely believing that William was back with them. Odd grinned, and Aelita gave a sigh of relief. Even Ulrich was smiling.
“Are you okay, William?” called Jeremie.William lightly shook his head, as if to clear it. “Not really. I can barely remember anything. The last thing I remember was…being captured by the Scyphozoa on Lyoko.”
“XANA possessed you,” Yumi said, “but we just managed to free you.”
“There’s a lot to explain,” Aelita said. “Jeremie, should we get back to the Carthage Replika?”
“A Replika?” asked William. “What’s that? You mean we’re not on Lyoko?”
Jeremie had to cover a smile at William’s complete ignorance. “Yeah, I think you’d better,” Jeremie said. “I’m teleporting you all back into the Skid.”
“What’s the Skid?” asked William, turning.
“The Skid is short for Skidbladnir,” said a voice. Everyone turned. It was rather hard for Yumi, Aelita and Odd to believe that Ulrich was talking to his old enemy, even if he had just been freed from the control of a ruthless Artificial Intelligence/Super Virus. “We created it to hunt down XANA on the Network after Lyoko destroyed.” And you’ve tried to destroy it hundreds of times, Ulrich added silently.
Suddenly Aelita gasped, cutting across the rest of William’s questions. “Look!” she said, pointing a shaking finger.
Everyone turned.
“Uh oh,” Odd said.
The tower that had been deactivated in blue a split second ago had turned back to red.
“Jeremie? Franz?” said Yumi. “I thought Aelita just deactivated the tower!”
“What’s the worry?” asked William. “Why does it matter if that tower’s blue instead of red?
“The red means XANA just re-activated that tower,” Ulrich said, a superior edge hidden in his tone to William’s ignorance. “And a minute ago, XANA was using that tower to control you.”
Suddenly, black wisps of smoke started appearing out of thin air around William. William’s eyes widened in shock. “What’s going on?” he exclaimed. He struggled, but there was nothing he could do as XANA re-possessed him.
“NO!” everyone shouted. They ran forward to help William, but stopped.
There was nothing they could do as the re-possessed William shouted “Super Smoke!” and slid away from them through the door to the rest of the Core Zone in a black line of smoke.
Ulrich and Yumi ran forward in pursuit. Then they stopped as two Creepers slid into the room through the door that William had just went through in the opposite direction, as if warning them not to follow him.
“Jeremie? Franz?” Ulrich asked, as he drew his sabers. Yumi also drew her fans as the Creepers started firing. “What just happened? Did XANA just re-possess William?”
“It looks like it,” Franz said, pondering the thought.
“Why?”
The one-word question came from Odd. It was simple, and yet very hard to answer, even for Franz and Jeremie.
“That’s a good question,” Jeremie said, as Franz started typing in response. “We’ll have to get back to you on that, because we don’t know. Franz is trying to figure it out right now.”
Aelita and Odd started to run forward to help Ulrich and Yumi, but were distracted by a bird-like call from behind him. They turned.
“Great,” Odd said, as a group of three Mantas emerged. “I was hoping for some company.”
“Guys,” Jeremie called, as Odd and Aelita started fighting the Mantas, "we’ve just realized why XANA was able to repossess William. The so-called ‘Spiritual Essence’ I located in the databanks of the activated tower was another decoy.”
Everyone groaned.
“Wouldn’t XANA have been able to repossess William anyway?” asked Yumi.
“No. I don’t think so. I’ll have to explain it.” Franz closed his eyes for a moment, thinking how to explain it. “Okay. To bind William to him, XANA took a part of William. That part, the Spiritual Essence, kept a bond with William, therefore binding William to XANA. Just like you, Aelita.”
Aelita stopped fighting for a minute, with the understanding, and then started fighting again, shooting an Energy Field at a Manta. “But then Dad,” she asked, dodging a shot, “how was XANA able to control him? XANA’s power over William seemed to have increased from the weak control of the Scyphozoa, ever since he came back to Earth after being on the Network for a week. How is XANA able to keep him under his control, even when he’s on Earth?”
Jeremie took over. “I can answer that. XANA didn’t only take William’s Spiritual Essence away from him; he also put something into William. That program allows XANA to keep William under his control. Essentially, XANA can release the control, but why would he do that? It brings up something I was working on after we destroyed that Ice Replika. Right before we located that ‘Last Replika’, I was working on a program to remove that program from William’s bio-structure and mind, before I realized that it would go away once we freed William’s Spiritual Essence and gave it back to him. It’s like a rubber band, in the sense that the rubber band is stretched in two directions. The end holding the Spiritual Essence is on the opposite side of William’s now-empty mind. Technically, the essence won’t snap back, because we have to enter it into William, but you should get the idea.”
Odd paused. “But doesn’t that mean that we still need to free William’s actual Spiritual Essence? The copy in the tower was another decoy. And I’m starting to get tired of decoys.”
Ulrich had destroyed his Creeper. He watched as Yumi threw her fan, which finally met its mark on the Creeper. The Creeper groaned, and exploded.
“Nice job, Yumi,” complimented Ulrich.
“You too,” said Yumi, grinning.
There were now only two of the Mantas.
“Jeremie? Franz? Anyone there?” Odd turned and shot at a Manta again. It dodged the shot.
“Yeah, we’re here,” Jeremie said, sounding a little annoyed. “We just located the Spiritual Essence. And it’s real this time. Franz and I ran a few ‘tests’ on it and it’s the actual thing. We need at least one of you to free it.”
Ulrich turned to Yumi. “Do you want to go?”
Yumi shrugged. “Might as well. Jeremie, Franz, Ulrich and I will go.”
Aelita quickly turned and made a significant, silencing glance to Odd. He made a face, as if to say, “Okay, okay! I won’t say anything.” Fortunately Ulrich and Yumi didn’t see any of it.
Jeremie was a little surprised. “Okay. Get back into the Arena. We’ll reprogram the Corridor, and then Franz and I will guide you.”
---
On Lyoko, in the Ice Sector, five Tarantulas sat around a tower, guarding it from outsiders, specifically the Lyoko Warriors. XANA knew that they were on his first Replika, but still wanted protection just to be safe. No one, or nothing, was going to stop his ingenious, evil plan.
Suddenly, there was a sound from the right. The Tarantulas turned.
Walking towards them were three Tarantulas, and William in the middle of the group.
William turned to his Tarantulas. “Go! What are you waiting for?” William ordered. The three Tarantulas nodded, made their call, and surrounded William, drawing their laser cannons at the ready to protect William. The five Tarantulas around the tower also readied their laser cannons.
William nodded approvingly, and then turned to face the tower squarely. He drove his sword into the ice, and then put his arms out in front of him, as if trying to push an invisible wall. He closed his eyes.
Slowly, he rose off the ground, and black wisps of smoke circled his dark form, as if there was a fire beneath him. Blue sparks flew through the cerulean-blue cables connected to the tower.
---
Ulrich and Yumi ran out of the corridor, onto the circular platform displaying a white Lyoko eye against dark blue floor. “Okay, Jeremie and Franz, we’re here. You can program the Corridor.”
“Good job,” Franz said, and promptly started typing.
The door to the Corridor closed upwards, and the floor started to rotate. Ulrich shifted nervously, and glanced at Yumi. They accidentally made eye contact, and turned away quickly, embarrassed. Yumi was still in deep thought.
The room stopped gave a little shake and stopped rotating. Ulrich and Yumi immediately stiffened, focused. The door opened again, facing the bottom of the Lyoko eye.
“Okay,” Jeremie said. “Go. Don’t forget the countdown.”
Yumi stumbled. “What? Why do we have the countdown?”
“You have three minutes,” Franz said. “And you have the countdown because this is a Replika of XANA’s, not my Replika, or a reprogrammed Lyoko. I didn’t write the source codes or the creation algorithms. I could try to delete the Countdown out of the Carthage system, but it would take a while, especially since XANA’s probably written high security measures to the Replika’s operating system that would take time for me to hack. And flipping a switch in three minutes isn’t really worth it. You two can do it, and I have faith in you.”
Ulrich and Yumi ran out of the Corridor. The room had smooth walls, and a flat floor.
“I see the key,” Yumi said, pointing. Ulrich looked. The key was high up on the wall facing them, about twenty yards away. Ulrich and Yumi didn’t know it, but it was a lot similar to the setup when William went to Lyoko for the first time.
They quickly ran forward. Suddenly, the floor beneath Yumi dropped into darkness in the shape of a square. Yumi screamed, and jumped.
“Yumi!” Ulrich shouted. Yumi had a handhold on the platform, but she was slipping. Ulrich quickly ran forward, and caught Yumi’s hand as she lost her grip.
Ulrich heaved. Two seconds later, they both sat panting. “Thanks, Ulrich,” Yumi said as they got up.
“What wouldn’t I do for you?” he said, grinning.
Suddenly, there was a groan. Ulrich and Yumi turned to the source of the noise. “Great.”
Four Creepers crawled out of the space that had just appeared in the floor.
“Go for the key,” Ulrich said, drawing his sabers. “I’ll cover you.”
Yumi nodded, and ran toward the opposing wall as the Creepers started firing.
---
The tower in front of William in front of the Ice Sector turned a light blue. William landed on the ground, and panted a little, before taking his position again and rising.
The tower turned red once more. William smiled a dark smile, and grabbed his sword, swinging it over his shoulders. The three Tarantulas that had been surrounding him walked to stand around the empty space surrounding the tower, joining the other five.
---
A Super Scan window appeared on the screen again.
Franz frowned. “It seems that a tower on Lyoko just deactivated, and then reactivated. I have no idea why.”
Then a radar window opened on the screen.
Jeremie gasped. “William’s on Lyoko? But how did he get there so quickly? Five minutes ago he was on the First Replika!”
Franz’s face wrinkled in thought. “I don’t know for sure, but it may be a tower connection from the First Replika to Lyoko that allows William to travel that quickly. It could be a certain quantum connection with a bipolar access preset situated at zero. That would allow the virtual transportation to operate on a highly fluxional and quick scale.”
“But there’s only one tower in the Replika’s Sector 5,” Jeremie said, thinking.
Franz turned to Jeremie. “William could have traveled very fast to one of the surface sectors or something.”
Suddenly, Jeremie screamed. A black specter descended from the wires and pipes that made up the lab’s ceiling.
The specter immediately went for Franz. Jeremie watched helplessly as Franz’s form blinked black, being taken over by XANA.
---
Yumi blocked more laser shots and threw her fans. One fan hit another Creeper, leaving only two Creepers firing at the super-sprinting Ulrich. One of the Creepers, upon the destruction of its companion, turned away from Ulrich and started firing at Yumi instead.
Yumi “pocketed” her fans and spun around in a handstand, avoiding the shots, as she often did. “Ulrich, cover me,” she called over, jumping out of her handstand and running toward the key.
Ulrich obliged, shouted “Super Sprint!”, and ran at the Creeper that had been attacking Yumi. He quickly took it out in one blow, leaving the Creeper he had been fighting before. “Looks like it’s just you and me,” Ulrich grinned, as the Creeper groaned and started firing again.
“Ulrich? Yumi?” Jeremie’s voice sounded oddly frantic. “Are you guys there?”
Ulrich blocked a few more shots with his sabers and looked up, frowning. “Yeah, we are. Something wrong, Jeremie?”
“XANA’s possessed Franz.”
Ulrich and Yumi both gasped. Yumi kept running toward the key. “Now what do we do? Jeremie, you can’t stay in the lab! XANA will kill you, and Franz too if he gets the chance!”
But instead of responding, Jeremie screamed. There was a loud clunk, and his scream stopped.
---
Jeremie stood up, relieved. XANA had unsuccessfully possessed Franz. Why, he did not care, but he was glad that his mentor wasn’t Xanafied anymore.
Franz kneeled, coughing, as the black specter left his body in wisps.
Jeremie sighed in relief. But his mood changed to shock and despair as the specter instead went for him.
---
“Shield!”
The purple, transparent, circular shield appeared in front of Odd as he blocked a few more shots from the remaining two Mantas.
Odd sighed. “I’m starting to get tired. How about you, Aelita?”
Aelita was blocking more shots with two of her Energy Fields linked as a shield. “Yeah, I am. Do you realize it’s been at least four hours since we’ve been on Earth?”
“I can’t say you’d like being back on Earth at the moment,” Franz said. “Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a problem for either of you, but XANA has just tried to possess Jeremie and me.”
Odd and Aelita stopped fighting for a split second, but they were too tired to make remarks. “I know you and Jeremie have just been through a lot,” Odd said, “but there’s just been too much shock. My heart must have restarted five times today alone. But why wasn’t XANA able to possess either one of you?”
Franz looked at Jeremie. Jeremie shrugged. “It could have been that Franz and I have just as much resistance to XANA now as you two,” Jeremie guessed. “But as to how, I have no idea. Even though both Franz and I have been to Lyoko, neither of us did much fighting to build up our resistance through the virtual combat.”
Franz thought. “It could be that a different kind of resistance has built up in our minds, in place of the resistance you two have from virtual combat. I’m not entirely sure why sitting in front of a computer will build up resistance, but something seems to have happened.”
A laser shot knocked Odd and Aelita back into the present. “Don’t worry about it for now,” Aelita said, as she and Odd ran back towards the Mantas, firing their weapons. “The main thing is that both of you are okay.”
---
Ulrich blocked another shot. He had destroyed his Creeper, but four more Creepers had appeared.
“Super Sprint!”
“Ulrich? Yumi?” The voice that rang through the room was somewhat weak.
“Franz?” Yumi jumped onto the rising platform just as it rose out of reach off the ground.
“Jeremie and I are okay, so there’s no need to worry. XANA has tried to possess both of us, but he failed. We don’t care why, as long as XANA isn’t at the manual controls of the Lyoko supercomputer. But apparently we’ve built up some resistance against XANA, but not from virtual combat like you two.”
Yumi quickly jumped off the still-rising platform onto the platform in front of the Key. She quickly pressed it. “That’s a relief.”
“Great job, Yumi!” called Ulrich. Yumi did a virtual-blush, and jumped off the platform. As she fell, she threw her fans right before she landed. The fans met their marks on two of the Creepers. Ulrich quickly slashed the remaining two.
“Once you’ve taken care of those Creepers, go through the passage, and we’ll guide you,” said Franz.
Yumi caught her fans as Ulrich ran up to her. They both turned and ran through the doorway that had just appeared as the platform in front of the Key dropped to ground level.
The short passage opened up to a room with platforms surrounding the perimeter of the room, but empty space loomed in the center of the room. “Okay, we’re through the passage,” Ulrich said. “Where do we go now?”
“Take the next hallway on your left,” Jeremie said. Yumi and Ulrich ran clockwise around the perimeter of the room, bypassed a corner, and ran through the opening in the wall.
“In the middle of the hallway is an opening on your right,” Jeremie said. “Do you see it?”
“Yeah, we do, Jeremie,” Yumi said. She and Ulrich turned right and ran out of the hallway.
“Whoa!” Ulrich almost lost his balance. They were standing on a small platform, jutting out of the Core Zone. The closest wall was twenty meters away. Yumi quickly caught his shoulder and heaved him back onto the platform. Both of them fell backwards and collapsed onto the platform.
“Thanks for the warning, Jeremie.” Ulrich sighed, getting into a kneeling position. “You could have told us that we needed to take the Elevator.”
“Sorry,” Jeremie said, as a creak of gears and metal mechanisms sounded. “Franz and I were concentrating on determining how to enter William’s Spiritual Essence back into him. I’ll explain it to you once you’ve freed it. The elevator should be coming soon.”
There was another creak, and the Elevator rose down from above. Ulrich and Yumi stepped onto the blackish-blue base. The Elevator quickly rose up.
After a little while, Yumi and Ulrich realized that the Elevator was taking them straight up. “Jeremie? Franz? Is the Spiritual Essence room located directly above the Arena?” asked Yumi.
“Yes,” Franz said. “Why do you ask?”
Before Ulrich or Yumi could respond, the Elevator made another metallic sound, and stopped. Ulrich and Yumi quickly stepped off of the Elevator onto a platform not unlike the one they had been on a minute ago. They quickly ran back into the Core Zone.
“Well?” Franz said. “It looks like you’re there. Are you there in the right place? Is there anything there that looks like William’s Spiritual Essence?”
There was only a gasp in response.
The room looked somewhat like a cross between the Core of Lyoko chamber room and the Skidbladnir Hangar, with dark blue platforms surrounding the circular perimeter of the room, while the walls were their usual light blue. In the middle of the room, there was a circular opening in the navy blue platform.
And in the very center of the room, surrounded by that navy blue platform, was something that looked like the Core of Lyoko, with its two shield layers. There only two changes. The sphere in front of them was smaller than the Core of Lyoko, and was the exact shape and size of Aelita’s “supposed” fragment they had found in Sector 5, the fragment that they needed to free Aelita, the sphere that had turned out to be a trap set by XANA. It was also the size of the Core of Lyoko, seen in this stage only once, with only Sector 5 showing on the “virtual map”, the orange sphere with four XANA eyes that the Xanafied William had jammed his sword into to destroy Lyoko. Its circumference was the size of a body.
And instead of an outside appearance of Lyoko in the central sphere, there was the slowly turning shape of a boy with black hair with a bluish tinge, wearing a white-and-black jumpsuit with a red belt. His eyes were closed, and he held his arms out as he rotated, as if he was at the center of the Arena. He held in his right hand was a huge sword pointing down, as if he was about to draw it out in front of him to shield himself from some attack.
“Jeremie. Franz.” Ulrich and Yumi grinned. “We’ve found it.”
---
The Energy Field hit the last Manta. The Manta sizzled pink, and then exploded.
“Jeremie. Dad. We’re finally done. What should we do now?” Aelita put her hands on her hips in waiting.
There was a slight pause. “Try to get occupied with doing something,” Franz said after a little while. “Ulrich and Yumi have found the essence, and they’re working to free it. And it looks like you have more monsters coming your way.”
There was another bird-like call, and three more Mantas flew into the wide room from the right.
“Shield!” Odd blocked the first few shots. “Laser arrow!” He quickly let go of his shield and started firing at the Mantas.
Aelita charged up for an Energy Field, but just as she was about to fire it, there was a strange sound. A sound she used to hear a lot on Lyoko before she was reunited with her human memories, although she hadn’t heard it recently, only at one point since Lyoko had been recreated. She turned around, letting her Energy Field discharge and disappear in the process. “Oh no!” she shouted in shock. “Not now!”
The Scyphozoa entered the room through the hallway, and started slinking in the general direction of towards her. Aelita intuitively started backing up toward the edge of the platform adjacent to the Skid docked at the tower.
---
As Ulrich and Yumi stood looking at the sphere in awe, there was a sudden circular bluish-purple energy blast shot from their left.
“Watch out!” Ulrich quickly pushed Yumi out of the range, and then jumped himself. The energy blast missed him by inches.
Ulrich drew his swords as the smiling, still-Xanafied William walked toward him.
Yumi was about to go and help Ulrich, but shots from behind her made her stop. She threw her fans at the three approaching Creepers that slinked toward her out of the hallway.
“How’s it going, you guys?” asked Jeremie.
“Not too well,” Ulrich said as he jumped out of the way as William slammed his sword to the floor. “Our hosts have horrible hospitality.”
“Try as best you can to free William’s Spiritual Essence, and quickly,” Franz said. “As soon as you free it from its restraining shields, I can upload it to the supercomputer to keep it safe, to keep XANA from destroying it.”
“Super Sprint!” Ulrich rushed at William and jumped up at the last second. He then somersaulted down to William and slammed his sabers down. There was a loud crash, and William’s sword was knocked from his hand as he tried to stop the swords’ path with his wrist guard. The force alone threw him off balance, and he tumbled onto his back.
William blocked Ulrich’s saber again with his wrist guard as Ulrich slashed a saber at him. “Mantas!” William called out in a commanding tone.
There was a sound like a bird call. Ulrich and Yumi looked up. Two Flying Mantas lined in dark blue, alongside William’s Black Manta, streamed into the room through the opening in the ceiling.
Yumi sighed. “Jeremie, Franz, these odds are too strongly stacked against us. We need backup!”
“Odd and Aelita are too far away,” Franz said apologetically. “If I told them to help you, it could be another five minutes before they arrived. By then both of you could be gone, and we’ll have lost half our force. And neither of you need them. Don’t worry, you two can do it. Jeremie and I have faith in you, as do Odd and Aelita.”
A Manta started firing at Ulrich, along with William’s Black Manta. The other Manta went for Yumi. Ulrich blocked the additional shots, and still fought William, while Yumi blocked the additional shots as well from her Manta. She threw her fans, and they hit both the Manta and one of the Creepers. She then turned and threw her fans at the Spiritual Essence.
“How’s that for a power hit, pretty-boy?”
William slammed against the wall, and looked up, growling. Ulrich walked toward him, smiling.
“Ulrich, wait!”
Ulrich paused and frowned, halfway toward devirtualizing William.
“Don’t devirtualize William!” said Jeremie. “If you devirtualize him, we won’t be able to give him back his Spiritual Essence! We’ll have to wait till he appears again, which we can’t afford to do with XANA controlling both the real and virtual universes.”
William got up, smiling, and pushed Ulrich. Ulrich stumbled backward, trying to keep balanced. “If XANA wanted William to flee for that reason,” Ulrich asked, panting, “then why hasn’t William fled?”
“Probably because XANA doesn’t want to appear cowardly.” Ulrich glanced at the direction the voice had come from. Yumi ran toward Ulrich, her monsters now destroyed.
“Then Jeremie, or Franz, what do we do to keep William here? Just in case he does flee?”
Franz thought. “I can construct a temporary holding cell for him. It’ll only last five minutes, though.”
“Why would I leave when the battle’s just getting started?” William grinned mockingly, and turned away from Ulrich and Yumi to face his Spiritual Essence. He fired an energy blast at Ulrich and Yumi.
Ulrich and Yumi both dodged the shot, and Ulrich ran at William. Yumi proceeded to throw one of her fans at a Manta, and the other at a Manta. They both hit their targets.
“Nice hit, Yumi,” Jeremie said. “The first shield layer is just about ready to go.”
“Ulrich,” Yumi said, addressing the boy in spandex fighting the black-clad William. “Isn’t it strange that instead of us protecting the Core of Lyoko and XANA trying to destroy its shields, that we’re doing just the opposite as well as XANA? To this thing, anyway.”
“Yeah,” Ulrich said, dodging a sword slam by William. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“I’ll cover you from William and his Manta,” Yumi called, running over. “You go ahead and work on freeing that essence.”
Ulrich nodded, and ran toward the edge of the platform.
---
“Aelita!” Odd shouted, running towards her and firing at the Scyphozoa. Too late.
Aelita fell to the ground. The Scyphozoa floated away, back through the hallway it had come from. The two Mantas took advantage of Odd’s distraction to fire at the Skid.
Odd sighed in frustration, looking at the Mantas and then back at Aelita lying in front of him. He quickly stepped back as the Xanafied Aelita rose up.
“Jeremie, Franz, what do I do?” he yelled as Aelita started firing Energy Fields at him. “Didn’t you once develop a program to free Aelita in this kind of situation?”
“It was originally a program to reboot the supercomputer, remember?” Jeremie said. He glanced at Franz. “Franz was the one that made it, not me. Remember how I had to upload it from a computer code written on a blackboard in the background of a photo of Aelita and Franz?”
Odd fired another shot. “Uh…vaguely. Oh yeah…that was the time I accidentally sent the photo to Sissi by mistake, and XANA possessed Delmas.”
“I can adapt the program to work with the Replika’s supercomputer,” Franz said. “We don’t have enough energy in the Lyoko supercomputer, so I’m going to have to use my Replika’s supercomputer. I’m starting the program now, but uploading it to the system will take time.” He turned to Jeremie. “It’s a good thing you uploaded it to this supercomputer instead of keeping it on a CD.”
Jeremie smiled, and nodded. “Thanks.” The CD was back in his room. After XANA had possessed Aelita that last time, and Jeremie had used Franz’s program to reboot the supercomputer, he had uploaded it to the Lyoko supercomputer so he could work out the few remaining bugs in it. The program had worked that time, but had left Aelita barely conscious with little energy to deactivate the remaining activated tower, since she had been the one most affected by the program, with an implant from XANA placed in her brain by the Scyphozoa. Now the program was improved and collecting virtual dust in the restricted part of the supercomputer.
“Shield!” Odd blocked another Energy Field with his purple shield. He glanced at the Mantas. They were still firing at the Skid. He turned and shot three arrows at them. Two of them missed and hit the Skid, but one of them hit a Manta.
“Good job, Odd,” complimented Franz. “The program is ready. Hang on.”
Franz pressed the enter key. Immediately, an opaque wall with a blue tinge slid across the room. As it passed things, they froze, including the Manta, Aelita, and Odd.
After half a minute, the wall moved across the room once again. Aelita dropped down onto the ground. Odd felt hazy, and dropped to all fours. The Manta lost its flight, and dropped out of sight.
Aelita blinked open her eyes. “What…what happened?”
“XANA possessed you,” Franz said, “but we managed to reset your memory again with my program, the one to reboot the supercomputer. How do you feel?”
Aelita slowly stood up. “I feel…better than last time.”
“It’s thanks to Jeremie that you feel better,” Franz said, and Jeremie blushed on their end. “He worked out the kinks in the program, and now it seems to function perfectly.”
“What do we do now, Franz or Jeremie?” Odd asked, looking up toward the sky.
“Stay put for now,” Jeremie said. “Ulrich and Yumi have almost freed William’s Spiritual Essence.”
---
Ulrich and Yumi slowly got up. The blue wall had passed through all of the Replika, including the room where they stood. Both regained their tasks. Unfortunately, William and his Black Manta were still there.
Ulrich threw his sabers at the sphere. They hit it and bounced off the top, continuing their path. Ulrich quickly sprinted around the edge of the platform, caught them on the other side, and flung them back.
The outer cube shield of the sphere started to glow red. Ulrich was about to throw his sabers back at the sphere, but he stopped as he was hit by a laser shot. He groaned, and turned to his left to see the Black Manta flying towards him.
This gave Ulrich an idea. He made use of the oncoming fire, and rebounded the shots fired at him at the sphere. The outer, cubical shield layer glowed red and exploded. Bits of red particles flew through the room.
“Good job, Ulrich,” Franz said. “Just one more shield layer and we’ll be able to free William.”
Yumi turned away from dodging William’s blows and gave a thumbs-up to Ulrich for a split second. She quickly turned back to her battle, flinging her fans at William. William quickly blocked them, and the XANA eye on his sword glowed orange as they made contact.
Ulrich quickly turned back as the Black Manta fired another shot at him. He blocked another shot, and sprinted back toward the edge of the platform.
“Ulrich,” Jeremie said, “if you drive both of your sabers into the final shield layer, and if Yumi hits the layer also with both her fans, the shield should explode.”
“Okay,” Ulrich said. “Yumi, you ready?”
Yumi jumped over William and power-kicked him into the wall. He didn’t get back up. “Okay,” she called, running toward him. As she ran, she threw her fans at the still-firing Manta. The Manta exploded. “Are you ready?”
Ulrich and Yumi both arrived at the edge at the same moment. Ulrich drew his sabers as Yumi readied her fans. They threw their weapons at the same moment. The fans hit the sphere and stuck, along with the sabers that drove into the sphere so that only their handles showed.
The shield layer glowed red and exploded. Ulrich and Yumi caught their weapons as they flew out of the sphere.
Only the human-size sphere was left. As Ulrich and Yumi were about to hold hands, there was a groan from behind them. They both turned. William was waking up.
“Keep William occupied!” called Jeremie’s voice, as the sphere in the middle of the room started blinking, as if invisible, horizontal lines were rising through it at light-speed. “If he hits his essence even once, it’ll be destroyed before we can upload it to the system.”
“But won’t something bad happen to William and XANA if XANA destroys William’s Spiritual Essence?” questioned Yumi.
“To William, yes,” Jeremie replied, “but not to XANA. If XANA destroys the Spiritual Essence, we’ll never be able to free William! So go and fight William, but remember: Do NOT devirtualize him!”
“Got it,” Ulrich and Yumi replied. They both ran towards William. William picked up his sword and ran toward them as well, firing an energy blast along the way.
Ulrich did a dual-sword block to counter the blast. The blast exploded, but it knocked Ulrich off-balance. He fell backward, dropping his swords in the process.
William jumped up, and was about to drive his sword down into Ulrich, but Yumi quickly jumped over Ulrich and kicked William in the side, pushing him away from Ulrich. This gave Ulrich time to gather his swords back.
William landed hard. He groaned, and again didn’t get up as he closed his eyes.
“Great job, Yumi!” called Ulrich. Yumi smiled back, but frowned as there was a bird call. She sighed, and drew her fans.
Two Mantas flew into the room, through the entrance hole above the now-almost-disappeared sphere.
“Don’t let them fire at the Spiritual Essence!” shouted Jeremie. “If they do, it’ll be destroyed!”
“Watch William,” Ulrich said as the Mantas split, one going for the Spiritual Essence and one flying straight at them. “I’ll go for that other one.”
“Okay,” Yumi said, blocking the oncoming shots. Ulrich sprinted to the edge of the platform once more. His Manta turned and fired at him. Ulrich dodged the shots and rebounded a few. The Manta also dodged the shots, and turned away from Ulrich. It faced the almost-disappeared sphere and charged up.
“NO!” Ulrich shouted. “Super Sprint!”
In the nick of time, Ulrich jumped in front of the Manta as it shot twice. He rebounded the shots to the Manta, and the Manta exploded. Ulrich managed to catch a hand on the platform as he came back down.
“Well done, Ulrich,” Franz said, as the sphere finally disappeared. “We’ve uploaded William’s Spiritual Essence to the system. All you have to do is get William back to the tower so we can give his Spiritual Essence back to him. I’ll tell Aelita to deactivate the tower.”
Ulrich ran over to Yumi as she destroyed her Manta and caught her fans. “Yeah!” Yumi hi-fived Ulrich, smiling. William was still unconscious.
Ulrich motioned to William. “How do you suggest we get him back?”
In answer, Yumi closed her eyes and put her hands to her head, as if in thought. William rose off the ground, as a thin pinkish-orange aura appeared around Yumi’s upper body.
Ulrich walked alongside the slowly moving Yumi, as she guided William out of the room and onto the Elevator.
---
Aelita flew into the tower. She sprinted into the middle of the platform and rose up to the circular platform above her. She pressed her hand lightly to the blue interface that appeared.
Odd tapped his foot impatiently as Aelita flew back out of the tower, and the tower turned back to blue. “Franz? Jeremie? Where’s our pleasant guest and his escorts?”
“Right here,” Ulrich said. Ulrich and Yumi walked out of the hallway, onto the platform. Upon exiting the hallway, Yumi collapsed, sighing. Ulrich lightly caught her as she dropped to the ground. “You okay, Yumi?”
Yumi slowly opened her eyes and nodded. “Just a little woozy.”
“Oops,” Jeremie said. “We forgot to tell you guys, but upon the tower’s deactivation, you have two minutes to get William into the tower. If we don’t give William’s Spiritual Essence back to him within two minutes, XANA’s controlling program will be locked in his mind forever in place of his Spiritual Essence!”
“WHAT?” Yumi quickly got back up, and resumed her Telekinesis position. “I’ll Tele-transport him over the gap. You three find some way to get into the tower.”
“Actually, Yumi,” Aelita said, closing her eyes as well, and dropping on her knees, as if in a praying. A light singing tone filled the room. Yumi opened her eyes a few millimeters. A blue platform appeared at the edge of the platform they were standing on, just big enough to hold four people and an unconscious boy.
Yumi closed her eyes and concentrated, smiling slightly at the nostalgia this gave her. “I get it,” she said, just like she had said all that time back in the original Sector 5. She walked forward, William still floating face-up in front of her. He dropped onto the platform as Yumi walked onto it. She dropped on her knees again; weary from the energy the Telekinesis was costing her. Ulrich quickly ran onto the platform, putting a hand on her back in sympathy. “It’s okay, Yumi. Just a little more and we’ll be finished.”
A glance passed between Aelita and Odd before they walked onto the platform as well.
Yumi slowly stood up again, turning to check that everyone was on. “Everyone ready?” The platform moved forward.
“One minute, everyone!”
As they were halfway across the gap, Ulrich heard a groan. He looked down. “Oh no. William’s waking up!”
“Be careful!” Franz shouted. Aelita had never heard her father so agitated. “Keep him on the platform! You only have half a minute!”
Ulrich and Odd quickly ran forward and tried to put a foot on him, but it was too late. William deliberately rolled off the platform to the depths of the room below.
“NO!” Aelita shouted. She quickly waved her hand across the star bracelet on her right wrist. She flew down, down, down, to the falling William. Aelita shot an Energy Field at him, putting him in a mildly unconscious state. She saw her chance. Aelita hooked her arms under William’s, and pulled him up with all the strength she had.
Yumi dropped to the ground, completely exhausted, as the platform bumped into the tower. Odd quickly entered the tower, and Ulrich helped Yumi into the tower as well. Aelita flung William into the tower, deactivated her wings, landed on the platform, and ran into the tower.
William was lying in the center of the tower’s base, dazed. Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi stood around him on the other side of the platform. An interface opened in front of Aelita as she arrived on the second inner ring of the platform, and started pressing various spots.
“Ten seconds, Aelita!” Jeremie shouted.
“I’m......ready, Dad and Jeremie,” Aelita said, pressing her hand to the now-blank interface.
“Okay,” Franz said, typing in response, and pressing the enter key. “Let’s go.”
William slowly rose off the floor, not unlike how Aelita had rose off the floor of the tower with her Code: Earth program. His hands slowly rose so that his body formed a “T”. The interfaces lining the walls started circling slowly around the wall, and then faster and faster. Blue rings appeared around William, and a thicker, bigger ring appeared around the other rings.
Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd watched in awe. The thick ring moved to the bottom of William’s unconscious body, and slowly started rising up. As the ring rose higher, the portions of William’s body slowly evaporated so that just his white-and-blue digital frame was showing.
William’s body was now fully transparent. The thick blue ring dropped to his feet once more, and started slowly rising up. This time, under the ring, instead of the black Xanafied outfit, William’s old outfit returned: first the dark blue bottom part of the jumpsuit, then the red belt, and finally the white top of the jumpsuit and his face. Upon meeting the empty space above William’s body, the thick blue ring disappeared.
“Look!” said Yumi, pointing. Aelita, Odd and Ulrich looked. The black Zanbato flew into the tower on William’s right, and stopped in front of him. Blue rings appeared around the Zanbato as well, and the Zanbato went through the same process as William had just did.
William was now fully returned to normal. The blue rings around him and his sword disappeared. His sword floated into his hand, pointing down like it had been in his Spiritual Essence. He gracefully rose back to the middle of the platform, his sword in hand. He dropped his sword and collapsed to the ground.
All four of them ran forward. Yumi lightly put a hand on him.
William slowly looked up again. “Am I free this time?”
Aelita, Odd, and Yumi shouted gleefully. Even Ulrich joined in. They all gave William a welcoming hug for his freedom.