Stronger After All IV: Easier to Run, a code lyoko fanfic

Okay, this is a spin-off songfic of Stronger After All IV: Betrayalby lyokolady. If you haven't read her series yet, you're really missing out!

Anyway, in order to understand this, you have to read her stories up to the part of the fourth story when Ulrich makes the deal. For those of you who have read it, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko, and I don't own Chelsea or the basic storyline. Moonscoop or Antefilms or whatever owns CL, and lyokolady owns the rest. I also don't own "Easier to Run" by Linkin Park.

Stronger After All IV: Easier to Run

Chelsea stood at the edge of the track on a windy autumn morning. She stared vaguely off into space, and a single tear fell from her eye.

She sniffed, wiped away the tear, and began to sprint around the track

It's easier to run
Replacing this pain with something numb
It's so much easier to go
Than face all this pain here all alone

She could feel the burning claws of anger settling into her heart. Her shock at the sudden turn in events had finally worn off, and her anger was threatening to break through.

So, she ran.

Something has been taken
From deep inside of me
The secret I've kept locked away
No one can ever see
Wounds so deep they never show
They never go away
Like moving pictures in my head
For years and years they've played

She remembered, as if it was yesterday, all of her friends dying in front of her, on a day that never happened, that nobody remembers.

Except for the six…now five…

If I could change I would take back the pain I would
Retrace every wrong move that I made I would
If I could stand up and take the blame I would
If I could take all the shame to the grave I would
If I could change I would take back the pain I would
Retrace every wrong move that I made I would
If I could stand up and take the blame I would
I would take all my shame to the grave

She imagined that the surface of the track was XANA, and his "pact" with Ulrich. She dug her feet in further.

Then, her anger slowly began to dissipate. Every time her anger threatened to explode, she would find an open space and run.

She would run on and on, until her anger dissolved like the last wisps of a fog after the sun comes out.

It's easier to run
Replacing this pain with something numb
It's so much easier to go
Than face all this pain here all alone

The pain in her heart was not just anger. If it was, she would have run it off long ago. No, there was another emotion…

Sadness filled her heart, her entire being. She felt more tears begin to fall as she sped up, feeling the cool breeze touch her skin, contrasting with the numbness that she was finally beginning to feel inside.

Sometimes I remember
The darkness of my past
Bringing back these memories
I wish I didn't have
Sometimes I think of letting go
And never looking back
And never moving forward so
There'd never be a past

Why had Ulrich chosen to team up with…with XANA? Why had he betrayed everybody? Only he, and maybe XANA, would know the answer, and neither of them were likely to tell.

She wished that it was as easily undone as his death had been. But he had died in a different way. He was the only one who could resurrect himself, but she had seen that he wouldn't.

The last of the anger was gone, and her sadness began to slowly drip away. Her tears began to slow and eventually stop falling. She looked content, but there was still a raging turmoil in her heart, buried so deep that nobody could see it.

Just washing it aside
All of the helplessness inside
Pretending I don't feel misplaced
It's so much simpler than change

She began to slow down, her anger and sadness had appeared to stop consuming her, but those who really knew her could tell that she was barely happier than when she had began.

But she now had control. Her temper was within her grasp. She sat down on a bench, letting a few more tears drip from her eyes. These would be the last for the rest of the day.

It's easier to run
Replacing this pain with something numb
It's so much easier to go
Than face all this pain here all alone

She faced her two problems, one of them infinitely more important, but both would drastically affect her life.

First, Ulrich. He was the most important problem. He had made a pact with XANA, and was now working on destroying the gang once and for all.

She had no idea how to solve the problem, to bring him back to her. He would have to deal with it himself, assuming his soul was still there somewhere, crushed under XANA's hold, but still alive. If XANA had destroyed it completely, then he would not return.

It's easier to run...
If I could change I would take back the pain I would
Retrace every wrong move that I made

Not only that, but she was also going to move! She wouldn't even be able to see Ulrich come back. He would definitely come back. She couldn't doubt it for a second, or she would lose all hope.

She stood up and shook her head. She was filled with anger and sadness again, so she turned to her only consolation.

It's easier to go...
If I could change I would take back the pain I would
Retrace every wrong move that I made I would
If I could stand up and take the blame I would
I would take all my shame to the grave

She ran…

So? Is it good? If you read this and you still haven't read lyokolady's series, Stronger After All yet, go read it now! It is one of the best Code Lyoko fanfics that I've ever read!

UPDATE: For those of you reading my Living Up To A Legend series, I'll upload chapter 10 sometime this weekend.

Rycr