"You can't have him!" Xana yells, tugging harder on the collar of my shirt. Aelita frees herself and joins Zombie Ulrich's side, getting a firm grip on my hand and pulling.
"Let me go!" I scream, writhing. "Let me go!" Nobody listens to me, instead both sides locking their grip tighter. Odd and Yumi both grab Xana and help him pull, but Zombie Ulrich has incredible strength. It keeps all three of them-struggling against him-busy.
Many doctors congregate near us, too stunned to move. Many are frozen with fear. Patients peer out of their rooms and scream, some of them join the doctors. One of them glances at me with a scowl on his face.
It's Zahnne, here to watch me suffer. Here to watch all of us. And he thinks it's all a waste of time, now that he's here.
Note to self: Stay away from this hospital in the future.
Ulrich gives a white packet to Xana, who releases his grip on me. As Zombie pulls me to him, water splashes on us. Salt water. I grab Odd's hand to avoid facing my captors, and something amazing happens at that instant.
Slowly, very slowly, I pull another hand from Odd's body, but it doesn't resist at all. Finally, the face of a surprised ghostly Ulrich appears, as I yank him out. Someone else tugs on my leg, hastening the operation.
"Aelita!" The water missed her completely due to Xana being distracted by some of the doctors yelling in fear and scattering. Zahnne had also thrown a bucket, a steel girder, a cup (full of the red stuff in all of us), and a couple of sharp pointy things at us; to make us distracted. Zombie Ulrich bares his teeth, also tugging on my leg.
I know what I need to do. Jumping back inside my body, I take over Xana (at last!) and run up to Aelita and her 'master.' "Forgive me, girl," I mutter, taking my own cup of water. Ulrich tosses me another packet. I rip into it and pour the salt into the water.
Salty water splashes on both of them as Aelita prepares to bite me. She spits out the water and makes a face. "Yuck! Salt water!" she complains, as Zombie Ulrich shrieks in pain, rubbing his eyes.
"Ulrich! Do it!" Yumi cries, as the brown-haired boy darts toward his body and enters, taking control. Another spirit is cast out, glaring angrily at us as it slips into the floor.
"It's great to have my body back!" Ulrich cries, feeling himself all over. "Yeah! I'm not scrawny anymore!" Slowly, his eyes turn back to their normal color, and his skin gains a more peach color. Ulrich's teeth aren't so pointed, and in general, he looks human again.
"I'm not scrawny, for the last time! I'm svelte!" Odd complains. "And I'm glad to see that your features don't blend with mine anymore!" It's true-each is their own separate person.
Something ejects me from my own body. I gasp and look up into Atilea's face, which is darkened with sadness. "Jeremie, you spent too long outside a body. It's time for you to leave." "But I don't even remember all of my past!" I cry, dripping water on the floor.
Yumi turns around and uses a strange power to force back all the doctors and the patients, scowling angrily. "This isn't any of your business!" she yells, her voice cracking from strain.
"You're going to Heaven, Jeremie." Atilea chokes on her own words. "If you found a dead body, you could take it over, but then that spirit-the one that was controlling Ulrich's body-he will come back. He will come for you."
So, this was it: two choices. One: I take over someone else's body, but risk letting the ghost from Ulrich's body come back. Or two: I go to Heaven and let my soul sit there, waiting for Aelita in 'eternity.'
"I know what I must do."
Atilea disappears as I rub my eyes and stop crying. "I have something to say to all of you."
Parts of me begin to disappear.
"Aelita. I'm really glad I got to know you...again. I wish things didn't end like this. I wish things could've been different. I'm glad...to say that we met." I stumble over the words, fading fast. My feet were already gone.
"What are you saying?" Aelita chokes on her words, her hands clasping each other until they turn white at the tips.
I give her a sad smile. "I'm saying goodbye." I then turn to the group. "I'm saying goodbye to all of you. Even to Xana."
"You can't go!" Yumi gasps. "You can't!"
"That spirit we saw...won't stop until I disappear. He won't stop endangering your lives until I'm gone. And it's a fair trade, one life only, for the price of maybe even five. That includes Xana. It's fair."
"Fair?!" Odd yells. "We just got you back, and you're leaving us again, this time for good! Why are you leaving?!"
"For you. I can't just think of myself." I give Yumi a hug, shake Odd and Ulrich's hands, soothe the teary Xana, and finally return to Aelita's side, everything up to my chest gone.
And for my final moments in this world, I embrace the girl I first met in the woods, back when I thought she was scary, when I thought she would kill me, and here I am now, giving myself for her.
"I love you...you know that, right?" Aelita murmurs.
"I do. I'll see you in what Xana calls 'eternity.'"
My chest disappears, my throat, my mouth, and finally, all of me disappears, as I sink into blackness.
I am floating. I don't know where I am, but this place...I cannot describe it. It's beautiful but terrifying, saddening, traumatizing, and it stimulates something in my brain.
And suddenly, I know who I am.
I am Jeremie K. Belpois, from Paris, France.
I am an experienced hacker.
My friends are Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita.
I was the one who discovered Lyoko, the one who turned Xana on.
I was the first one to 'befriend' both Aelita and Ulrich.
I cannot imagine life without my friends.
I am a programmer.
I try to lead as normal as a life as possible, with Lyoko's secrets in the back of my mind.
Xana was my enemy from the start. Zahnne is my enemy now.
I loved Aelita the moment I saw her. I still love her, even more now. And I miss her, I feel so empty right now without her.
And then I notice which direction I'm going.
Down. Back to Earth. Reincarnation. And judging by the fact that I just received my memories, I'm guessing that I will keep them, for good.
Atilea appears, holding a bunch of papers in her hands. "I was able to send you back, Jeremie! I got you another shot at life!" She grins. "Your name'll be Jake, since you'll be a boy. You'll be taking the place of the eight-year-old, who is about to die."
Atilea winks at me before vanishing, leaving me to ponder.
I head back to Earth, down...down...down...until everything is black. I open my eyes and glance around, in some sort of cot, hooked up to an IV. The first words I hear make me sigh with relief (well, almost.)
"Ma'am, your son is responding to treatment!"
END OF ROUND ONE