Code Lyoko: Case of Delenda
*theme*
Episode 1: "Return of X.A.N.A."
Three weeks have passed since X.A.N.A.'s defeat and the gang's lives were less complicated than before…but still many knots needed to be fixed.
Yumi smiled at her drawing: she had finished her twelfth-no, twentieth-sketch in three weeks and it pictured a Krabe, one of her fans cut over his symbol.
It was first period of the first day of a new semester and the Principal was happy to introduce a new girl; he invited her in. The moment he did so, a thousands of mouths flapped open as the shy girl entered the math class.
"Uhm…hi" she smiled, clutching her bag. Yumi interrupted for her brief moment her new sketch (Lyoko from the Holomap) to look at the new girl: she had unusual long orange hair, the color of a, well, orange, which looked a bit messy, as if she'd never used a hairbrush before. She wore a black jacket slightly opened to reveal a dark blue shirt inside, with a white symbol on it; her skirt was a little frilly and blue, her leggings were dark purple like her small boots and her bag was black, with a red symbol hidden by her hands. A silver belt completed her look: it was shiny and made of ten ovals bearing strange markings…
"Hi!" the newbie repeated, smiling. "I'm…I'm Layla Carthago, and…I'm fifteen, and…uh…" she blushed "Well, I like math".
"Nice to meet you, Ms. Carthago" Ms. Meyer smiled at her. "I'm Ms. Meyer, your math teacher, and I hope you had good grades in your old school…"
Layla smiled: "Especially in science and mathematics" she confirmed.
"Very good. Now, please go and sit in the empty desk and we'll start the lesson" Layla sat near a girl who was too busy sketching to notice the fifteen pair of eyeballs staring at her new desk-mate.
"Now, since Layla's records say that she's an explanation behind us all, today's math quiz is delayed". A roar erupted in the classroom, while Layla opened her bag to get her notebook.
"Nice drawing" she said to Yumi, her desk-mate. Yumi smirked in response, looking at the X.A.N.A. eye she'd drawn just now.
"You have any friends here?" Layla pointed at a photo coming out of her notebook, a picture of the Lyoko Gang minus William.
Yumi nodded: "They're all a grade below us: that's Odd Della Robbia, Aelita Stones, Jeremy Belpois and Ulrich Stern" she pointed at her friends as she said their names.
"Is this Ulrich German?" Layla asked.
"Yep"
"Is he your boyfriend?"
Yumi's cheeks turned red as she quickly opened her notebook. Layla smirked at her: "Is he?"
"It's…no".
"Sure?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Dunno. You look pretty close in the photo" she smiled, as if to apologize. Yumi smiled back and held out her hand under the desk as Ms. Meyer started speaking.
"Yumi Ishiyama"
"Layla Carthago" and they secretly shook hands, smiling.
The bell rang announcing lunch. Yumi walked towards the cafeteria, her new friend tugging along.
"Where did you get the bag?" she asked the shy girl: she had seen a few hours ago that the strange symbol on it was none other than X.A.N.A.'s.
Layla scratched her head, thoughtfully: "Can't remember; why?"
Yumi opened her mouth to say something, but then shook her head. "I'll tell you later" she said.
"Hey, Yumi! Right here!" Odd waved to sign his older friend their position, but stopped when he saw the shy girl tugging along.
Yumi smiled when he saw his mouth open and close like a fish out of water and his eyes staring at her new friend.
"Guys, meet Layla Carthago; Layla, meet Odd, Ulrich, Aelita and Jeremy" Layla was about to sit near Aelita, but Odd pushed her near his empty seat in a heartbeat, much to the new Kadic student's surprise.
Aelita helped her out of her 'embarrassment': "So, Layla, where do you live?" she asked.
Layla took a spoonful of rice before answering: "Well, my parents grew in France, but I lived in America; I didn't like the schools, though, so Mum signed me up for Kadic".
"You've got any friends in America?" asked Jeremy, pushing the glasses up his nose.
"Not that I remember" she answered, sadly. Odd put an arm around her.
"Don't worry" he said "You were lucky to meet Yumi, because she introduced you to the best pack of friends you could ever had, me as a bonus".
Everyone laughed as Odd started to tell her things they had done and, by the time lunch break ended, the six were bonding
At dinner time, same thing: stories and bonding. But Layla had doubts.
"When and how did you meet?" she asked him. Odd thought about it.
"Three years ago, at least: our two lovebirds that go by the name of Ulrich and Yumi met during a sparring practice; it's a story they'd rather not talk about" Ulrich blushed slightly, remembering that day.
"Jeremy met Ulrich during an accident he had and they became friends shortly after; during that time, I was Ulrich's new roommate and one day, when I caught both of them sneaking around, that's when our friendship started and Yumi was officially invited a day later. I don't remember how, though.; probably Ulrich's pleading" Everyone laughed while Ulrich blushed even more, this time of anger.
"Aelita? What about her?" Layla asked. Odd explained: "I kept in contact with my cousin and introduced her to all of my friends; she joined Kadic a year later, sort of"
Layla smiled, but her mind was still elsewhere. She looked at her watch.
"I'd like to stay and chat, guys, but I need to go and unpack" she waved at her new friends and walked upstairs to the dorm.
She opened the door and sighed: She had been assigned a two-person room, but she didn't have any roommate; she looked at her suitcase: she had two, one blue and the other one purple, both with the X.A.N.A. symbol, even if she didn't know why.
She opened the suitcase: the blue one contained some clothes and a set of sheets and pillow covers; the purple one contained two dolls, a teddy bear, a notebook with "Diary" written on it, a PC with its bag, mouse and plug, a silver-colored telephone with binary codes as the screen wallpaper and phone cover, the telephone plug and a camera.
She put everything on place: the sheets, the pillow cover and the toys on her bed, the clothes in the wardrobe, the phone and the PC on the table. She then slipped into her pajamas, a pair of green moss-colored shorts and a slightly darker-colored t-shirt.
As she laid in bed thinking, she wondered what her friends were hiding from her: of all the adventures they had together, she knew they were too few to last over three years; there had to be something else to know…
She looked at the PC: it was brand new, she still had to personalize it; why not do it now?
Layla walked towards the computer and turned it on. That's when the visions came:
A weird-looking crab walking towards a pink-haired elf, before a fan hit it…A purple weird cat jumping on a weird skateboard…Yumi stalked by an army of crows…the symbol on her shirt, bag and suitcases in the eyes of the principal…
She held her hand in her head, trying hard to control these visions…a pack of wolves…a code…a white, cylindrical figure…mist creeping towards Kiwi, Odd's dog…
"Get away from me!" she screamed. Just then, the computer blinked and a user appeared; it said "Delenda". Layla opened it, curiously…
The desktop was filled with little folders. She read the titles: "Jeremy Belpois", "Odd Della Robbia", "Projects", "Camera", "Ulrich Stern", "Yumi Ishiyama", "Aelita Schaeffer"… what did they mean?
Curious, she opened one named "Lyoko's future". She screamed when she saw what the folder held.
Aelita ran to her room, followed by the three guys, and one look on the desktop image said it all. They picked her up from the seat and laid her down on the bed; she stared at them, her eyes terrified: "My dreams…" she murmured.
"What?" Ulrich was staring at the PC as if it was a grenade about to explode
"Those images appeared in my dreams" she explained, pointing at the images of Lyoko.
"Say WHAT!" Jeremy and Aelita's eyes were rounder than hers. Layla stood up from her bed, took a pencil and drew a few figures on a piece of paper:
"The elf girl, the crabs, the cube things, the white cylindrical thingy…I saw them in my dreams!" she looked at their faces, her eyes still wide with terror "And you know something about it, right?" they all nodded and looked at each other for a minute, before Odd took her hand to help her stand up.
"…And this is all" the five friends concluded to a surprised Layla. They were at the factory, in the lab, where she was told everything about X.A.N.A. and Lyoko. She smiled as she passed her hand through the Holomap.
"What an adventure" she murmured and everyone smiled: they have always missed the tension, the suspense and the action that X.A.N.A. had brought in their lives, but now that it was all over, they could forget all of it and live more relaxed lives...still, it didn't feel right. It was like a part of them was shut down, like the Supercomputer.
"I wonder who's Delenda?" Layla asked, suddenly. They all looked at her.
"'Delenda'?" Jeremy asked.
"The user of the PC, it said 'Delenda'" she explained. "X.A.N.A. must've known something or someone named after it".
"But X.A.N.A. is dead" Aelita complained, trying to convince more herself than Layla "I saw it, my father died killing him; unless there was some way X.A.N.A. could recover his strength, he's dead". Layla signed: somehow, she wasn't entirely sure.
"Then what about the user, the images...is someone threatening you and me or something?"
Then, they heard a click behind them. They turned around, staring at the elevator which was slowly opening…
Cliffhanger…Stay tuned for the next episode: "Return of X.A.N.A. part 2: Make Evil Go Away"!
