"He sacrificed himself for us. Xana's gone. Forever. It's over."

Jeremy lowered his head, closing his eyes in silent respect for their beloved, unseen, mentor. Beside him, tears ran down Aelita's face, as she shook with silent anguish.

But that would pass, with time. All wounds healed themselves eventually. And they all believed, deep in their hearts, that it was better to live in the real world. To be normal.

But one man knew the truth. He knew that what they believed was nothing but a lie. And he would do his best to save them from themselves, no matter the cost.

Deep within the heart of the internet, a flash of light and sound shone for the most passing of moments. A dark, dark laugh echoed up through the murky water.

Finally, it had begun.

Chapter 1: Redémarrage

Two weeks earlier.

"Jeremy, I've reached the control center. What's next?"

"Uhh…weren't those spider droids any problem?"

Behind him, the smoking pile of droid parts collapsed, emitting a cloud of sparks. Ulrich chuckled,

"Nah, no big deal."

"Okay, good. Look around you, you should see some sort of control mechanism, or mainframe. It should be pretty easy to spot."

Ulrich craned his neck, peering around, "Oh, I see it. I'll take care of it, no problem!"

"Wait!—"

Jeremy was cut off with a burst of static as Ulrich was thrown across the room, slamming into the far wall, smoke rising from his shoulders. He groaned and stood up, cracking his neck, "Ouch."

"…I told you that would happen."

"I—"

"Twice."

Ulrich winced, and rubbed the bump on his head where he had collided with the wall, "Okay, okay, I'll stick to the plan."

"Good." Jeremy grinned, "Don't worry, though; Aelita and Odd are already almost to the tower. This Replika has been surprisingly easy; we'll be back in time for dinner."

Ulrich eyed the dozen new spider-robots that had just crawled in through the front door, and muttered, "Famous last words…"

Meanwhile

Replika 13

"Odd, I know you'd love to sit out here and chat all day long, but Ulrich just got himself into a lot of trouble. So could you, i don't know, go faster than 5 miles per hour!"

Odd scratched at the side of his head uncomfortably and quickly spun to fire off a few more lazer arrows, "Sorry! I didn't exactly expect to run into a swarm of Hornets out of nowhere like that. And no need to shout," he muttered.

"Hornets? Where?"

"All around us, Jeremy," Aelita said, out of breath as she fired another plasma blast towards the swarm that was, indeed, flying around them, "They just came out of nowhere."

"That's weird! I can't detect any of them, or the spider droids that are attacking Ulrich. It must be some new trick by XANA; I'll work on it later, but there's nothing I can see in the code that's obviously blocking my systems. Look, you're on your own here, sorry."

"Thanks." The word rang, sarcastically, from three mouths at the same time.

Jeremy adjusted his glasses, "I try to help, this is all the thanks I get!"

"Okay Einstein, Aelita is inside the tower. That wasn't so bad after all! They didn't have a chance against my awesome skills."

"So you destroyed them all?" Jeremy asked, distracted.

"Yeah, no sweat," Odd said flamboyantly, "Hey Einstein, it was kinda weird; the eyes on these ones were different from the hornets we've fought before."

"Oh, really…?" Jeremy still sounded distracted, as he skimmed through thousands of lines of source code looking for changes.

"Yeah, it was definitely different. It only had two little thingies poking out the side, instead of three like normal. And it was blueish instead of red."

"Two little thingies, you say…"

"Jeremy, are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah, yeah, right…"

Suddenly, Aelita's voice burst from the speakers like a rain of flowers, "Jeremy, the tower has been deactivated!"

"Ulrich! The firewall is down, you can hit the CPU now!"

Ulrich dusted ashes off his arm, and kicked the last of the spider robots into a second pile, "Firewall, huh? Good metaphor. Nice that those robots weren't fireproof, either."

"Sorry I couldn't detect them, XANA must be blocking my scanners."

"Oh well, I guess nobody's perfect. What do I do now?"

"Just slice it up a little, like the other ones. The chain reaction should permanently destabilize the Replika."

"Just slice it up a little?" Ulrich drew one of his swords and grinned a little, "I can do that."

"Phew! That was fun, we should do this thing more often!" Odd said, laughing slightly, and then glanced back when Aelita didn't respond, "You Okay, Princess?"

"Something is strange about this Replika," Aelita said, pressing her fingers to her temples and massaging slightly, "Can't you feel it? The Hornets earlier…they weren't defending the tower."

"I thought they were just a little bit bug brained. Hahahahaha, do you get it? Bug brained?"

Aelita smiled faintly, but shook her head, "No, there's something…almost familiar…about this place. I feel like I've been here before…"

"Hey, what's that thing?" Odd said, interrupting her to point off over her shoulder, "It looks like a big blue pyramid or something. I didn't know XANA was Egyptian!"

Aelita's eyes flashed open, and she repeated the words as her entire body stiffened.

"Blue Pyramid?"

A moment later, the sky lit up.

"Uhh, Jere', we've got a problem. Whatever Aelita did, it didn't work!" He sliced his sword across the shield in the shape of an eye of XANA that had revealed itself in front of the CPU milliseconds before his sword had penetrated it.

"A new force-field is up!"

To top it off, a second later, a hundred spider droids began to crawl their way in through every hole in the room.

"Awww….crap."

"Jeremy, Aelita and I aren't feeling too well; I think we should get back to the Factory and get her checked out."

"Sorry, looks like we'll have to wait on that." Jeremy's voice was pturbed and rushed, "Somehow, there's still a force-field around the CPU of the replika, but I've double-checked every single tower in this Replika, and none of them have been activated! You'll have to look around, and see if you can spot anything that looks like it could be broadcasting into the real world. Also, you have to be quick about it; Ulrich is in a tough spot!"

"Hmm…do you suppose it could be that pyramid we saw earlier? It's weird; I could have sworn we were going to do…something. But I can't remember!" Odd rubbed his suddenly aching head wearily.

Aelita nodded, still rubbing her temples slightly, "Yes, something about that pyramid is…calling to me. I think we should go back."

Odd pulled a sideflip on his board and reversed course, "Whatever you say, Princess!"

She didn't say exactly how much she had felt the sense of pull, almost as if the Pyramid had its own gravity, exclusive to her. It had been all she could do to stay on the hoverboard, but now that they were returning to it, everything fell back into focus, and the aching in her head immediately disappeared. Smiling, she leaned forward into the wind and let it blow her hair back.

A short minute later, they spotted the pyramid again, and immediately called Jeremy, "Jeremy, we can see the pyramid, I'll send you a visual. Do you suppose that could be it?"

There was a short pause, and Jeremy's voice returned with a slight note of confusion, "Uhh…yeah, that's probably it. See if you can destroy it, or shut it down."

"You got it, Einstein!" Odd said, and with a laugh he jumped off his board, flipped in midair, and fired off a triplet of arrows. And immediately twisted and barely dodged the arrows as they reversed course an instant before they hit their target. Instead he tumbled to the ground, and pulled himself to his feet, "Ugh…I guess that's not going to work. Jere'? Any ideas here?"

"Sorry, whatever they're using to keep me from detecting them still isn't working, I can't even see what you're looking at right now."

"Huh? How do you know this is it, then?"

"I don't, but Ulrich doesn't have much time! Just destroy it somehow!"

Aelita floated down from where she had fallen from the board, landing on the ground softly, "Okay Jeremy, I'm trying an energy field!"

She held out her arm and the pink sphere appeared at the tip of her hand. A moment before she fired, however, she paused, "I don't know, Jeremy, something feels strange."

"Don't worry, I'll run a full system scan later, but right now…!"

"Okay!" She closed her eyes and fired the sphere.

A second later, it impacted the Pyramid.

"Awesome! Direct hit!" Odd squinted at it as it glowed with pink light for a long moment. "Hmm. Shouldn't it have been destroyed by now? Aelita?"

He looked over at her, and saw that her eyes were still closed tight. In the replika, something twisted, and changed.

"Aelita? You okay, princess? Hey, wake up!"

He poked her in the arm, and suddenly her eyes flashed open, and words burst from her throat, deep and warm;

"Free…free at last! Free at…last!" A huge smile flashed across her face for an instant before faltering, "But—he's coming…I have to run."

In a flash, her hair shimmered between pink and a deep blue-black, and Odd stepped back in alarm as her eyes crackled with interference.

"Uhh…Jeremy! We have a problem! Jeremy! Jeremy, where are you!"

The girl that had been Aelita until a moment ago smiled slightly, "Communication attempt detected and decoded. Blocked."

Odd looked back at her, and backed up a step as she began to walk towards him, until he suddenly found himself pressed up against a stone wall; she slowly approached him, and raised her hand, lightly dragged one finger down the side of his face.

"Thank you. One day…I'll pay you back." Her eyes turned to the side, and she looked off into the distance, where an ominous color suddenly darkened the sky. "He is here."

"Who? Xana?"

Her fathomless eyes turned back to his. "What?"

"Who're you talking about?"

Her eyes went back to the distance, and she murmured, "Father."

Her eyes flashed back to his, "Thank…you."

And with a flash of light, the pyramid exploded, what had been Aelita fading into shatters of crystal.

"Odd! Odd! Can you hear me! Odd!"

"Jeremy, where's Aelita! What happened to Aelita!"

"She got devirtualized over a minute ago, what happened over there?"

Odd let out a breath that he hadn't known he was holding in, and wiped his hand across his forehead, "Thank goodness, I thought she was gone…just reflex, I guess."

"I-" Jeremy started, but was cut off a moment later by Ulrich's voice over the com, "Jeremy, the shield just went down, but not only did the CPU melt as I watched it, all the spider droids started counting down! I don't know what they're counting down for, but I don't think I wanna be here to find out! Pull me back now!"

"O-okay! Working on it!" Jeremy typed furiously for a few long seconds, as dozens of menus flashed up on his screen, "Odd, get back to the Skid and check on Aelita, Yumi is under attack!"

"You could help me out, too," Yumi muttered under her breath, but Ulrich cut her off, "C'mon Jeremy, get me out of here!" behind his voice, a female voice counted down; "10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…"

"Got it!" Jeremy exclaimed, "Detranslating now!"

Ulrich shimmered for a moment, and disappeared. Behind him, thousands of spider droids detonated simultaneously, sending an explosion into the stratosphere, pieces of metal raining down into the forest for miles around.

"Whew! That was way too close."

"Yeah, I feel like I'm going to throw up."

"Translation always feels like that."

"Yeah, yeah, I guess," Ulrich said, trying to control his stomach, "What now, Jeremy?"

"Mission accomplished, team, time to go home. Looks like we'll make it back in time for dinner after all!"

"Ugh…don't even mention dinner. I think I'm gonna be sick."

With a chuckle, Jeremy sat back in his chair and watched as their team returned proudly home.

Meanwhile, across an ocean…

Mathew Kileé stared out the window as leaves traced their slow patterns to the ground. The sky was grey and dark, and a chill wind blew from the north; he could hear it howling outside, like some sort of ancient monster trying to claw its way into the warmth hidden inside.

He hadn't moved in over 4 hours. In the beginning, his parents had tried to convince him, even force him to move; eventually even they gave up. Now, months later, they left him with his quiet time, to stare at the leaves as they fell, and to think. It changed with the seasons, of course; in the winter it was snowflakes, in the spring it was watching for the first green to appear, and in the summer, clichéd as it might be, even watching the grass grow enthralled him.

The one thing that could always wake him up, however, suddenly intrudes on his thoughts; a cold wet nose pressed against his leg, and he turned with a small smile to scratch his dog's ears. Instead, he found a leash deposited carefully in his outstretched hand, and he laughed lightly.

"You want to go for a walk, huh? Well, alright. Good dog. …Mom!" he yelled deeper into the house, "I'm taking the Aarod for a walk! I'll be back in an hour or so, 'kay?"

He didn't bother to listen for a response. He knew that his parents would just be glad to see him up and moving about earlier than normal.

As he left the house with the leashed and happily pulling dog, the lights flickered faintly. In the distance, the first clouds of a storm began to gather.

"That's strange."

Matthew looked over the lake quizzically. A moment before, it had been crystal clear and calm, but in a matter of seconds, dark clouds sprung up out of the empty sky, twisting and curling around themselves ominously. Lightning crackled in the distance.

Aarod growled and yanked on his leash, pulling Matthew's attention back to the present.

"Aarod! Drop that!"

He pulled on the leash, annoyed; reluctantly, the dog dropped what was it its jaws, and a baby rabbit dropped onto the ground. It wasn't dead yet, but a large hole had been torn in its fur, and blood was leaking onto the ground.

"Aw, man! Why'd you have to do that…poor thing." He shook his head, "You don't even want to eat it, you just bring it to me and hope that I'll praise you the 10,000th time."

Picking it up, he looked into its eyes, and put his hand over the wound, trying to hold it together, "Poor guy, wish I could help you." He looked down at it for a long moment, the corners of his mouth turning down. This was something he had always wanted; not the ability to heal rabbits, but anything special. C'mon…just this once? He thought, to no-one in particular, as he closed his eyes, ignoring the blood seeping through his fingers.

Something felt different about tonight. Something felt special.

He didn't notice as Aarod began to whimper, hiding under his legs. He didn't notice as the lighting began to crackle, high in the atmosphere. Everything was focused on this tiny, insignificant creature, clasped in his hand. If only…he could do something special. Just once! Just…One…Time!

And then, his eyes flashed open, as a billion volts exploded through his body, sending him flying through the air in a blast of air.

He almost passed out. Then he hit the tree. The stars in his head only faded barely enough for him to see what happened next; where he had been standing, bolt after bolt of lightning carved into the ground, slagging the gravel that lay there into solid glass, blasting consecutive circles into the ground itself.

And then, it happened. In a blinding flash of light, an orb of pure energy rocketed down from above, crashing into the ground with an explosion of sound and color.

As suddenly as it had begun, the forest around him fell dead still; only faint echoing bursts of static gave any indication of what had just happened. Quietly, carefully, he crept up towards the road, and finally peeked over; lying in the center of three concentric circles of molten glass, lay…a girl?

He didn't have time to think it though. An instant later, the sky above flashed bright once again, and the clouds suddenly boiled into a dark shade, red as blood. Before he could jump away, a sheet of lighting arced down, striking at the heart of the girl.

It wasn't thought that drove him to do what he did next; not even the most primitive part of his conscious mind controlled what he did next. It was raw, unbridled instinct. In a leap that was as much power as it was faith, he threw himself between the sky and the girl, feeling once again as a billion volts of electricity arced through his body, blasting him towards the ground.

And then, deep in his soul, he felt it. A core that he had never known, a pulsing center of gold, a billion zeroes and ones flying in tight formation, they had been deeply asleep. Until now.

With a roar, he brought his hands up to the sky, clutching at the lightning as if it were some physical force to be grappled with; inside him, he felt the gold expand, inspecting the world with cold interest; it turned its gaze on the sky. In an instant, the lightning blasted to a different color, from blood red to one of pure, molten gold.

And then, the sky itself detonated.

Finally, everything went dark.

"Matthew! Matthew! Matthew, are you okay? Oh my God, are you alright!"

Hands were placed on his wrists, and Matthew stirred slightly, and moaned.

The voice, frantic initially, got much louder, "Matthew! Please, say something!"

He groaned deeply, "Aww, Mom…let me sleep…mm'tired, okay?"

His mother laughed a shaky laugh, "Come on, get up, we need to get you home. When Aarod came home without you, were worried, so I came to find you…" She gently lifted him by the arm, and then froze at what was concealed under his body, "Matthew, who is this? What's going on here! I want a full explanation right this instant! I…" She stopped. Her words were falling on deaf ears; Matthew had fallen unconscious again.

Two Weeks Later

Kadic Academy

"So that's it? We're just going to leave it shut down, no more Lyoko Warriors?"

"We all agreed, Odd. None of us really wanted to have to fight in Lyoko all the time. I'm just glad I have some time to relax!"

Across the field, Jim blew his whistle loudly, "Stern! Della Robia! You're not running fast enough, get a move on!"

"At least, I wish I had some time to relax…"

"And scientists are still unsuccessful at determining the cause of the I-42 US Discharge Event. While many noted UFO advocates are insisting that this is clinching proof of the existence of aliens, most scientists agree that further study is necessary before any such unrealistic explanations are made…But let's see what one of these UFO advocates have to say! Charlie, what are things like there, on the scene?"

"Thank you Christine! Here's Russell Casse, a man who insists he was kidnapped by aliens! What do you have to say about this event, Mr. Casse?"

A man in an antique flight suit jumped in front of the camera, far too close, and saying frantically, "They're coming to kill us all! I was abducted by aliens 10 years ago, and they did all sorts of hideous science experiments on me! They've been watching us for years, identifying our weaknesses!" A police officer came on screen as he became increasingly violent, and he yelled, "They're coming to kill us all! We've gotta stop'em! They're gonna kill us all! Aaaaaaaahh-" His words were suddenly cut off as the door to the police cruiser he had just been shoved into was slammed shut.

In the Kadic Dining hall, Ulrich finished drinking his milk, and rolled his eyes,

"Wow, lots of crazy people out there, huh?"

Jeremy pushed his glasses up his nose, and looked at Ulrich dubiously.

He glanced back, "Aw, come on. Don't tell me you actually believe that stuff!"

"I don't see why it couldn't be possible. Remember, we've all been virtualized, fought with digital weapons, even been to space! At this point, I'd be more surprised if there wasn't something else out there.

Odd poked him in the shoulder, "Einstein? I know you'd love to meet some of your fellow creatures, but I somehow don't think this is one of them."

"What makes you think that?"

Odd grinned, "Because it looks like our old friend is still playing tricks on us." He pointed up at the TV, where an aerial view looked down at the blackened charred terrain, surrounding a huge eye of XANA, burned into the ground.

"We're restarting the supercomputer."

"What? Wait, what!" Jeremy spun quickly to look up at Yumi, "I thought we all agreed that it was best to turn it off! We all want a normal life, we agreed on that."

"You know as well as we do that if XANA is still out there, we can't stop until he's gone." Jeremy turned, stunned, to look at Aelita as she leaned across the table.

"But—How can you say that, after what happened to Franz Hopper? Your father?"

She squeezed her eyes shut, "I know…" She paused for a moment as her voice cracked, before taking a deep breath and opening them again, determined, "I know that he gave up his life to save us, to save the world. But if he failed, and we don't continue his work, then everything we've done will have been pointless."

Ulrich leaned over from the next table, "I don't get why your so against it, anyway, Jeremy. You were the one that started this whole business in the first place, now you just want to leave? What's the deal with that?"

Jeremy turned to face him, "I-"

Odd cut in, "Yeah, Einstein, one moment you're the most into it of any of us, and all of a sudden you're just quitting? I don't get it."

Shoving his chair away from the table, he stood up angrily, "What if I just want some time to be normal for a while, huh? What if I just want to…"He struggled with the words for a moment, then let out an annoyed growl, "Fine! Restart the supercomputer! But when we shut it down, I told myself that I was done with it. Don't expect me to help you!"

Without another word, he rushed from the room, leaving the others to stare after him, confused. Yumi turned to Aelita, "Hey, are you sure this will be okay? How did you know that he would react like this anyway?"

Aelita wiped her eyes, where tears had been growing; ever since Franz Hopper had sacrificed himself, she had found herself crying far too often. Nonetheless, she smiled bravely, "I won't let it bother me. If my father's work isn't finished yet, then I'll keep trying until it is finished. Jeremy…" she looked at the door he had left through for a long moment, "Jeremy doesn't understand that. I tried talking to him today, I told him I thought we should turn the supercomputer back on, and just make sure that everything was quiet. He thought we should go see a movie instead."

"What, how could he do that?"

"I don't know…I just—I don't know. But I know that I can't just let my father's work go unfinished. If XANA is really in America, then we can't stop at anything to destroy him, once and for all."

The others didn't hesitate; they simply nodded in agreement. Odd cocked his head to the side, "Even if we all go back to Lyoko, how can we go looking around in the net? Without the Skid, there's not much we can do."

Aelita's eyes lit up a little, and she smiled. "Leave that to me."

Across an Ocean...

Matthew groaned. It was that noise that startled him into wakefulness; something sounded wrong about his voice. Something was, in some tiny unmistakable way, off about it.

Blearily he cracked his eyelids open, and peered around the unfamiliar room.

Where am I? He wondered, looking at the antique wallpaper on the walls. It seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place it, and thinking about it too hard made his head hurt even more. And about that; why did his head hurt so much, anyway? He tried to think back...he groaned again as a flash of pain assaulted his senses.

"Oho! So you're awake!"

Groggily, he rolled over, and found himself looking at the base of an antique rocking chair, and more importantly the person sitting in that chair. "Grandpa! Where am I?" He paused for a moment, his eyes refocusing out a window behind his grandfather, and suddenly everything clicked, "Scratch that. Why am I at your place? What…happened?"

His grandfather laughed lightly, "I told them this is what would happen, but would they believe me? Noooo-ho-ho! Nobody respects their elders these days." He shook his head regretfully, "As for you, son, you apparently threw yourself in the way of some lightning! Same thing happened to me when I was your age, actually, which is why I knew just how to treat ya'! Bed rest and a familiar environment, does the trick every time!"

"Lightning?...when? How?"

His grandfather grinned a conspiratorial grin, and motioned for him to lean in close. Obligingly, Matthew did; his aging relation leaned in close…and with a grunt, clocked him on the side of the head, "Remember the damned memories!"

Matthew looked up at him, hurt, "Ow! What did you do that for! You didn't need to…" He paused, and his eyes widened, "I remember!" In a flash, all his memories of the night before returned.

His grandpa chuckled and stood up, "I told them, it works every time. But do they believe me?" He shook his head, and grunted, "Now get dressed and get up, son. Breakfast is getting cold, and after that your parents and I want to hear exactly what happened on Saturday."

As he walked from the room, Matthew called after him, "Wait! Saturday? What day is it today?"

His grandfather looked back at him, mildly surprised, "Why, Wednesday, of course. Now get up! Sausages!"

With that he quickly left the room, leaving Matthew behind, staring after him with deep confusion.

Part and teaser of my new Code Lyoko Fanfic, based on the assumption that, like it says, it had only just begun. I will be introducing one OC; however, I am going to use some characters that aren't shown very often, in ways that I hope remain as canonical as possible. This includes Aelita's Mother, since I was displeased at the lack of screen time she received.

All reviews are deeply appreciated, especially if they include something that I can change about my writing style; a single review with constructive criticism is worth a hundred with simple congratulations! I will, however, happily accept thanks from anyone and everyone, and appreciate that deeply.