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She is going to a place, a faraway place, the place where her future lies and for which she longs, so a distinctive place where it is all new and fabulous. She has not seen it for real, but they say that it goes beyond her imagination. People live there. They can be busy and work. They can be free and enjoy. At the end of a day, what they have experienced are concentrated into art. People empathize with each other. The sun rises and sets, casting light and shade. The wind blows, bringing water, leaves and fragrance. She wants to travel there, but she does not know of a clear way that leads her there. She knows that the place is, but she does not know where the place is. Little by little, she tries to move herself closer to her destination. Step by step, she is devoting all her energies to her wish. Motivated and vibrant, she feels that she is on the right track. Lost and exhausted, she wishes that she has not gone too far. She firmly believes she will eventually reach there and meet her dream. Forwards, forwards. However, to her dismay, the destination is still out of sight.
Aelita would call to the voice in the vast and bright sky. He would materialize an Overwing for her. Alternatively, if she would like some fun, an Overboard would also be available. With it, Aelita could fly through mountains, forests, deserts and icebergs, overcoming any obstacle, easily and simply. That voice in the sky would have her destination in sight, mark every turn that she would expect, and guide her whenever she seemed off the path. She would never doubt if she was on the right track. That voice could even gather her companions, let them be virtualized and escort her. Even if some animals were jealous of her, so that her vehicle were destroyed by laser, she would still hold that cherished gift, with which she could spread out a pair of wings of an angel, soar, and just let those monsters disappear beyond distance.
She takes another step, leaving another footprint. Gazing into the boundless horizon governed by the inky night, she continues to walk.
So a brilliant place from her dream, so an alien place for her living. Those road signs and those guideposts located there depict her new residence, which constitutes that point on her mental image of the world. A point, only one, but when magnified, it is all twigs and vines, which surround her, twine around her, and bind her. A point on a map is marked as her current position. What a map fails to demonstrate is the inside of this point of her, but from outside, she is just that point wandering on the map. What a map is for, when held in a traveler’s hand, is to let them imagine that the city were carried in their hand like toy bricks, but on the map, she can only perceive herself as a point, a drop of ink or a pixel ejected out of the nozzle of a printer, printed at some arbitrary position, all alone. She has never come to a new place only with herself before, with no one guiding her, with no one helping her. That year when she was enrolled, her friends received her, but now, she only faces the void, the empty concrete jungle.
Aelita would step forward and stretch out her hands. Aelita’s touch would ripple the tower. The tower knew her, and would let her in. Even if XANA stole control of the tower, the infected tower would still recognize her fingerprint. She would be admitted. Such a narrow space inside could surprisingly accompany her over the long night of a decade. The tower belonged to her. Those XANA’s monsters chasing her could do nothing but yield outside the tower. There was even this upper platform of her. Even though she once had forgotten everything, the tower still knew, and would lift her to the platform. She would be levitating, off the ground, but she would still feel safe. She would still be a point on the console, but that point would not be any lonely point, as it would relay her movement to Jeremy. On the upper platform, another interface would be awaiting her. She would press her hand on it. The tower would call her “AELITA”, and would let her enter “CODE LYOKO”. That moment would be a moment of reassurance, as all disasters would have been contained. Her comrade on the other world would bring her back to the past when everything was still intact.
She pauses her thoughts, closes her eyes, and turns behind. The same concrete jungle she faces, the unknown destiny she has.
What a place she quests for day and night! Materialization, first step out of the scanner, those only marked the beginning of the journey. Jeremy completed the materialization thanks to his doggedness. Reflected in the shiny CD storing the program was the image of her blissful life as a human. He could restore her human body and establish her human identity, but he could not make her the master of the real world as the owner of Lyoko she had once been. Even a princess is no more than a mere creature on Earth. Her broken past, her wild present, her unforeseeable future. She has been burdened so much.
Settling herself down, closing the eyes, undoing the cover that she takes while awake, travelling through space and time in a daze, she feels as if she were back in Kadic Academy, although somehow her sight of the school and the faces is blurred. Were she the Aelita of Lyoko, the memory of an artificial intelligence should be complete and everlasting.
Days have passed. The sun just rises and sets, the wind just blows, which no one seems to have asked for. Tomorrow is no different as life drags her. She is just here, just at this place, just at this time, never far off. Her name is written on the mail box. She is just a resident here, where people know her and they talk. Some have come, and some have left, but she is always here, to be washed by the weather like a lone rock in the mud. At an extraordinary moment she may run into someone special, have company, and wave goodbye, feeling so warm. The farthest where she has been is the frontier, where she has the distant horizon in her sight, only to stop and go back. Life here is colorful. Spring, summer, autumn, winter. The sensations are enough for her. Images transmitted through the cable, of the exterior world that she once belonged to and its people, are like every transient news on the Internet: she sees them, she smiles at them, and she forgets about them.
Aelita would not be confined on the four sectors. However faraway the dream of materialization could be, so near she could envisage. Jeremy had encountered countless difficulties and frustrations, but she knew for sure that one day it would be completed. She just needed wait and be patient. How hard could it be? Aelita had no choice but to return to Lyoko. In the tower, seeing the place where she had been through the digital interface, she felt as if she had still been there with the dream of materialization realized. Soon, after the Superscan was developed, Aelita would no longer remain on Lyoko. She would join them on Earth permanently. No more screens would be in front of their eyes. No more cables would stand tangled between them. No more recordings would be needed to imagine all their interactions.
She opens her eyes. She is still here. On her computer, digital windows only present her with the past that is impossible to revive. A return to the past is not available.
She goes like this. Never will she go back. Retrospectively, only her own tiny tracks are left behind, but through her eyes, there seem to be more, though unremarkable nevertheless, which, just like the history of Lyoko where she once acted, no one will know, and no one is needed to know.
She sees the world. She decides her path. The world goes, as she goes.