CODE ANGEL - 4 - Premonition

EPISODE 4: PREMONITION

After the Xana attack, Jeremy's recurring nightmares returned.  But, the nightmares had changed.  Gone was the unfamiliar dark room with the swinging pendulum light.  The dream began with him sitting at the supercomputer.  The core had fallen under attack.  Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Zaber had been devirtualized.  Aelita had been possessed.  The core was a shot away from being destroyed, even if Jeremy had gone to Lyoko, it would be gone before he reached the scanner.  The core exploded.  Aelita disappeared off his readout, her vital signs flat-lined.  He was crying.  And then he heard a female voice in his head.  It repeated the same word over and over, echoing, growing steadily louder and steadily more assertive.  "Angel... Angel... Angel... ANGEL..." A window appeared on the supercomputer read out, it resembled the window that appeared when Jeremy had to enter code SCPIO, there was space for a five letter-word.  The voice continued to repeat in his head, escalating to a scream.  He typed the word "ANGEL" into the computer... and pressed enter.  A column of white light erupted from the supercomputer, whiting out the entire room.

"Jeremy, snap out of it!"  A sharp slap on the face awoke Jeremy.  Zaber stood over him, his hand extended.  "You've been screaming for the last three minutes!  What happened?"  Zaber looked a mixture of concerned and annoyed.  Jeremy's whole body shook his breaths quick and heavy.  His sheets were soaked with sweat.
"I... I just had a nightmare.  That's all."  He said.
“It must have been a pretty bad nightmare.  Sounded like someone was trying to kill you or something…" Zaber said skeptically.  "You sure you're okay?"
"Yeah."  Jeremy shuddered.  "I'll live."  Jeremy rolled over so he was no longer facing Zaber.  His eyes were still watering.

Jeremy explained his dream to no one.  Zaber readily agreed not to tell anyone about him having it.  These dreams that had been plaguing him since the start of the year had to stop, or he at least had to find out what they meant.  He did an Internet search on dream interpretation, but he could not piece together anything that could explain the meaning of either of his dreams.  The day itself was uneventful.  As Jeremy lay down to sleep that night, he could not help but feel apprehensive.  If the dream returned again, Zaber would be even more suspicions.  He remained awake, but still until roughly midnight, when he heard Zaber get up and redress.  He waited until Zaber was about to leave when he got up.  
"Where are you going?"  Jeremy asked him as he shot upright.  Zaber startled, he had thought Jeremy asleep.
"Out."
"At midnight?  Where?  If Jim catches you you're dead."
"It's my business.  Cover for me if I'm not back my morning."
"Only if you tell me where you're going."
"Fine, then don't cover for me."  Zaber slammed the door as hard as he could without waking anyone.  Jeremy was unable to sleep that night.  He heard Zaber return around three in the morning, but pretended to be asleep.  In payback for Zaber not discussing his nightmares, he pretended to no nothing about this excursion.

Another week passed, and Jeremy got little sleep.  Every time he dozed off the dream began again, and he was shocked back to reality.  Each time the dream got a little bit further before he woke up, but the added bit served only to increase his vexation.  On the fifth day of the nightmares, Jeremy fell asleep in class and netted himself a detention.

"Jeez Einstein, you've been out of it lately.  Is something wrong?"  Odd asked him at lunch.
"Yeah.  You don't seem like yourself lately."  Aelita said concerned.  
"You've even stopped butting heads with Zaber."  Yumi added.  Zaber sat there and rolled his peas around his plate with his fork, ignoring her.
"I just haven't been able to get to sleep lately is all..." Jeremy said with a yawn.  A physical toll had been clearly taken.  His complexion was paler than usual and visible circles had formed under his eyes.  An alarm blurred from his laptop.  Jeremy didn't respond.
"Uh... doesn't that sound usually mean something?"  Ulrich said, tapping him on the shoulder.
"Huh?"  Jeremy said, his reaction slowed so much by the exhaustion.  Zaber reached over and opened the laptop, taking over Jeremy’s responsibilities for a moment.
"The core's under attack.  Yippy frickin skippy for us."  Zaber said with a groan.
"Ugh..." Jeremy said as he passed out into the table in front of him.
"Jeremy, are you OK?"  Aelita asked him.  He was out like a light.
"I'd better take him to the infirmary."  Yumi said as she heaved him up onto her shoulders.
"I can virtualize us.  Just make sure Jeremy gets help."  Aelita said as she felt Jeremy's forehead, he felt incredibly warm.  Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, and Zaber took off for the factory as Yumi helped Jeremy to the infirmary.

Yumi dropped Jeremy off in the care of the school nurse, explained how he had collapsed, and how he had talked about his exhaustion.  By the time she had finished her explanation, the group had arrived at the factory.
"I'll virtualize us in two rounds.  Ulrich and Odd, then me and Zaber.  Get in position."  Aelita ordered them.  After a couple minutes they were all on Lyoko, and making for the core.  Yumi began to head for the factory as well.

The nurse took the unconscious Jeremy's temperature.
"My, you have a bad fever.  I may have to call the hospital!"  She said as she draped a wet cloth over his head.  Jeremy was lost in his nightmare again.  It was the same as before.  He inputted CODE ANGEL and the white light erupted from the computer.  But rather than the dream end there with his awakening, the dream continued.  His entire range of vision was white.  He could see nothing, and then off in the distance, he saw someone.  A man wearing a while lab-coat with light brown hair and round, reflective glasses.  It was Franz Hopper.
"Hop...Hopper?"  Jeremy stuttered.  Hopper nodded in response.  "What... what is going on here?" Hopper merely stood there. He made no effort to respond to him, his eyes blocked out by the reflective lenses.  "Answer me!"  Jeremy rushed forward the try and grab Hopper, but he passed right through Hopper, who faded out when Jeremy had gotten close, like a ghost.  Jeremy blinked, and the scenery changed.  Now in the solid white space stood the three scanners.  He stood in the center of them, and one of the scanners behind him opened up.  Out of the scanner tumbled a lifeless corpse.  Aelita.  She was not breathing.  Her heart had stopped.  She felt cold, and her skin had begun to pale.  Jeremy began to cry as he held her in his arms.  And then he heard the voice again. The voice that had been haunting him for the last week, repeating the word “Angel” every time the dream began.
"Only you can prevent this." Rang the voice.
"How?"  Jeremy asked through choked tears.
"The Code."
"What about the code?  Do you mean Code Angel?”  Jeremy cried out to the voice, but got no response.  “Tell me!" He cried as he awoke, uttering his last words aloud.  The nurse jumped at Jeremy's awakening, and ran to his side.
"Calm down!  Relax!  You'll be okay..." She tried to comfort him when she saw the tears on his face, all though she had no idea what had caused them.  "You're running a bad fever.  I've called the hospital.  You're going to be okay."  Jeremy felt an unexplainable sense of urgency.  He forced himself to rise out of bed, shoving the nurse out of the way.
"I've got to go." Jeremy said as he tried to run out of the room, but the nurse grabbed him by the arm and tried to hold him back.
"You're not going anywhere but to the hospital!"
"Let go of me!"  Jeremy broke her grasp and bolted from the room, the nurse on his heels.  He saw Jim standing just down the hall.
"Jim, stop him!"  The nurse shouted.  Jim tried to grab him, but in an uncharacteristic action Jeremy kicked Jim in the crotch, and Jim collapsed onto the ground.   Jeremy kept running.  The nurse stopped chasing him and stooped beside the dazed Jim.  "Are you okay?"
"This reminds me of my hockey player days... but I'd rather not talk about it..." He said grimaced in pain, too occupied to act angry.

Meanwhile, the group had struck the key and had made their way to the core with their only difficulty being a lack of vehicles.
"Looks pretty substandard today... three Creepers and two mantas?  I think Xana's just trying to annoy us to death."  Ulrich said.
"Let's get this over with, or I'll be joining Jeremy in detention."  Zaber muttered.
"You too, huh?"  Odd added.  They sprung into action.  Yumi arrived at the factory and spoke to them through the intercom.
"I left Jeremy with the nurse.  How are you guy's doing?"  She asked them.
"Don't bother trying to come to Lyoko, we've got the situation under control."  Ulrich said as he leaped onto the back of a manta.  Zaber's shots eliminated a creeper and the second manta, and Odd and Aelita wiped out a creeper each.  It was over in seconds.
"That was easy."  Odd said, as he sat down.
"Too easy.  Anyone have a feeling this was a trap?"  Zaber said, still holding Styx alertly.  They all began to stare around the room to try and find any sort of clue of a trap.  Odd let out a yell.  The other turned just in time to see the devirtualized fragments of Odd disintegrate around a giant black sword.  William, with the mark of Xana still in his eye and an evil grin on his face, lifted the sword back onto his shoulder.
"Yumi!  William's attacking!"  Ulrich shouted.
"Did anybody get the number of the cab that hit me?" Odd said as he stepped out of the elevator.
"Yeah.  William."  Yumi said as the door closed.  Odd walked over to Yumi, who was sitting in Jeremy's chair and keeping them posted on their LP.  She could not go to Lyoko herself because she couldn’t run a virtualization program.

Jeremy bolted into the sewers through the door inside the building.  He leapt on his scooter and moved faster than he had ever before.  So fast that he actually crashed and landed in the water a few seconds after reaching top speed.  He picked himself up and got right back on, completely disregarding a skinned elbow and a bloody knee.

On Lyoko, Zaber repeatedly tried to blast William, but all his shots we're blocked by the massive sword.  Ulrich ran forward and triangulated, slicing at William from all angles, but he seemed unfazed.  A swift kick from William and a 360-degree spin of the sword wiped out the clones and left the real Ulrich with a mere 10 LP.  Zaber held out his hand and helped Ulrich up.
"This isn't working.“  Zaber said, as he drew Cocystus.  “I’ll distract him.  Get a couple levels up and dive bomb him.”
"I don't think that will work…"  Ulrich muttered, as he sidestepped a vertical slash.  "But I'll try anything right now."  Ulrich sprinted away and up several platforms.  William turned around to target Zaber, but Zaber was now several feet above him performing a flip.  He shot six blasts from Cocystus, which left him with almost no LP, and William slashed upward, wiping Zaber out.  But the blasts froze him in place after that from the neck down, he strained to break free of the ice, grunting.  Ulrich dived downward from a platform two floors up, holding his katana in one hand and diving as aerodynamically as possible.  "Frigid Impact!"  Ulrich stabbed William, and the ice surrounding him shattered into a million pieces, and William glowed red for a second and vanished.  "It's alright, we won!"  Ulrich said exhausted.  "Alright Aelita, let's devirtualize each other and go home."  Ulrich muttered.  Aelita did not answer.  "Aelita?"  Ulrich turned around.  He saw Aelita standing with her hand outstretched, and a blast of red light struck him.  The Schipzoa floated behind her, the mark of Xana in her eyes.  Ulrich was devirutalized.  Aelita turned and began to blast the core.  Zaber and Ulrich came up the ladder to the computer room.
"Why didn't you tell us the Schipizoa was there?"  Ulrich demanded.
"Xana was blocking the intercom somehow.  We couldn't say anything to you!"  Odd answered.  The second shield on Lyoko broke, and the elevator door burst open.  Jeremy stumbled out, battered, bruised, and wet, still breathing heavily.
"Jeremy!  What are you doing?"  Yumi shouted.  Aelita charged another shot on Lyoko, and released it.  The core was struck and everything went black.  The holosystem in the lab shut off.  Aelita's vitals on the screen went flat-line.  Jeremy cried out in anguish as he collapsed to his knees.

"Jeremy... I'm so sorry..."
"It's not your fault..."
"We did our best..." Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi tried to console him, while Zaber said nothing, simply staring at the vanished holosphere in disbelief.  The words SYSTEM ERROR flashed in bright red letters on the main screen.  Jeremy stumbled to the computer, sobbing, and pressed the enter key.  A box for a five-letter word appeared, with the word CODE above it.  
"...Please... let this work!"  He typed quickly, "ANGEL" and slammed the enter key.  The light erupted from the computer as in his dream.  They all gasped, unsure what was happening.  Unlike a return to the past, this light was accompanied by fierce shockwaves and an intense, vortex like wind that originated from the center of the room.
"Jeremy, what did you do?!?!"  Zaber shouted to him over the roaring winds as he tried to shield his eyes from the blinding light with his forearm. The light faded out quickly.  The holosphere flipped back on.  Sector Five was back.  The four sectors which had been destroyed almost a year before were back.  Aelita's vitals spiked, and they heard a scanner door burst open below.  Jeremy let out a gasp and slid down the scanner room, the rest on his heels.  Jeremy ran to the open scanner.  But he feared what he would find.  Was he too late?

Aelita sat in the scanner, her eyes closed, rubbing her head as if she had just been hit.
"Oh..." She groaned.
"Aelita!"  Jeremy gasped as he dived into the scanner, hugging her, now openly crying in joy that she was alive.
"Jeremy... what's going on?"  She asked him.
"Lyoko got destroyed while you were there... I though you were..." Jeremy suddenly broke off his sentence and fell backwards in shock.  He stared in awe at the glaring change that had occurred, and he was amazed it was not the first thing he saw when he arrived.
"Jeremy, what's wrong?"  Aelita asked him.  He looked amazed and frightened at the same time.  The elevator door opened.  The others at first looked relieved, but the same shock spread across their faces like a wave.
"Aelita... look at your back!"  Jeremy pointed.  On Aelita's back, two large holes had been torn in her shirt.  Sprouting from Aelita's back were two, two-foot-long, white-feathered wings.  Aelita turned her head and looked behind her and gasped, then fainted.  The shocking truth then hit Jeremy.  He had been too late.  Aelita had died.  But she had some how been brought back to life... as an angel.

EPISODE 4: PREMONITION... END