This is a CONCEPT fic I did after reading Tsubasa. I'm not sure when I'll continue it... but I WILL continue it.
It had started like every other Xana attack. A simple, activated tower. It had come in the middle of the night... while Jeremy and Aelita were alone in the factory, plugging away at their latest Lyoko venture. They had only seconds after the tower window appeared before the specter did. Before they could call the others for help, they found the specter, in the form of a man in a black suit with sunglasses, clutching at their throats. They found themselves lifted on the ground... being strangled by the specter... it was made even worse by pulses of electricty running through their assailant's hands. They had been caught off guard... and it was too late to fight back. As they lost conciousness, eyes closing, the specter grinned as it finished them off, and then, threw them both on the ground with a thud and grinned before disintegrating and returning to it's master.
Jeremy felt himself lying on a cold floor, face-down, every muscle in his body aching. He groaned as he tried to move, but found himself unable to do so. With some considerable effort, he turned his head enough to see his surroundings. Everything seemed ludcirously bright... he could roughly make out Aelita's form, also unconcious, lying beside him. He made an effort again to move, but failed. He reached out for his voice, to try and call out to her, but it would not respond. His head was throbbing... he could barely remember what had happened.
"You both died, genius." A seductive female voice said, as if it had read his thoughts and answered the question he had asked of himself. He turned his head again, to the opposite side, from which he believed he had heard the voice come from. A woman was sitting on a chair at the edge of the room, staring at him quisitvely. She had incredibly long black hair... even though it was partially drawn into a looped ponytail on the top, bound by ribbons, it was still longer than she was tall. She wore a flowing black robe that was just as long as her hair. The robe was low cut, making her look somewhat like a seductress. She also had a necklace with a pendant, and a small black rabbit like stuffed animal with a jewel in it's forehead, and a an earring in it's left ear sat on one of her shoulders.
"I find it hard to believe you went down that easily." The woman said. "It makes me wonder what he saw in you." Jeremy struggled to move again, to speak, but he still could not. "Oh... I forgot about that." The woman said as she waved her hand towards them. Suddendly... Jeremy felt a large amount of his pain allieviate. The feeling returned to his muscles, his voice came back to him. The aching in his muscles all but gone, he rose from his place, and, rather than question the woman, he crawled over to check Aelita. She was breathing steadily... she was just as beaten up as he was, but she seemed to be okay. Jeremy stood up all the way and turned to the woman, who said nothing else, and just kept staring at them.
"Who... are you?" Jeremy asked.
"My name is Yuko." The woman said. "I'm a witch."
"Witch?"
"The space-time witch." She said casually as she stared at her manicured nails, painted with black polish. "And you're in my home, in another world." She said without any thought. "I can grant anyone, anything they desire... if they're willing to pay the right price." She stood up.
"Why are we here?" Jeremy asked, dubious of the woman's claim. "Did you save us or something?"
"That's an intelligent question, unlike the rest of them." Yuko said. "He was such a strange man... he paid such a great price, and wanted nothing for himself in return... he wanted something for someone else." Yuko stood right in front of him. "His name was Franz Hopper. He bought my services... should they ever be needed." She waved her hand and a circular mirror appeared behind her. But when Jeremy looked into the mirror, he saw not himself, but Franz Hopper. His voice rang out as the reflection began to talk.
"There are two children... a boy and a girl... the girl is my daughter. If... after I pass on... they are attacked and are about to be killed... I want you to save them. Do something to give them a second chance... a second chance at life."
"And what price are you willing to pay for this?" Yuko's voice also rang from the mirror.
"My memories. All my memories... of my family. My wife... my daughter... I give them all up for this." There was a period of silence, and then, Yuko's voice spoke again.
"Very well. It shall be done." Yuko waved her hand again and the mirror dissapeared.
"I think that explains everything sufficently." Yuko said in person. Jeremy looked at her conspiculously. This was illogical... strange... and yet somehow seemed to be true.
"So... you saved us from the specter because Franz Hopper hired you?"
"Yeah." She said quietly.
"So... you said this was another world... are you going to send us back to our world then?" Jeremy asked. To this, Yuko laughed hysterically.
"No, no, no. It's not that simple." She said while still chuckling slightly. "He said a second chance... where would the "chance" be if I did that?" Yuko grinned. "You two are going to have to earn it. Think of it like a video game... you haven't earned enough points to get an extra life yet."
She glanced over at Aelita, who was still completely out cold.
"I'll go ahead and explain it to you... and you can explain it to her when she wakes up." Yuko told him. "Here's how it's going to work." Yuko began to pace in a circle around the two of them. "I'm going to send the both of you to different worlds... you'll find yourselves thrust into different roles in each world. It will be like taking over someone elses life... people in that world will already know you... you'll even gain knowledge or abilities you wouldn't normally have that applies to that world. The ways of each world are different... you'll have to think on your feet and live out your new lives in each world." She grinned. "In each life, there'll be some hidden requirements you'll have to discover and meet to move on to the next life."
"If... and only if... you can survive and live through nine lives... I'll send you back to your own world." Yuko held up nine fingers on her two hands. Jeremy gave her a distrustful look.
"Why?" He asked.
"Because... I have nothing better to do."
"But... won't that put us at risk? Didn't Hopper ask you to help us?"
"I did help you... but he was pretty vague on what he meant about a "second chance". Blame him." Yuko told him. "Well... that's it. Good luck... I'll be watching the two of you, just for the entertainment of it." She picked up the small stuffed animal off her shoulder, and held it in front of her in the palm of her hand. She scratched just beneath it's chin, and it stirred. The small creature wasn't stuffed at all... but was rather a real animal of some sort. It yawned, and then opened it's mouth wide, shooting out a beam of light that spread like a headlight, swallowing up Jeremy and Aelita. Jeremy yelled as he felt a strange sensation, and when the creature shut it's mouth, the light dissapeared and the two were gone.
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