A/N: I've wanted to start on this for a while now. Read at your own risk. This first part, I mean for the diaries, or journals in some cases, to be a little clue as to what their characters and personalities are, to give you more insight to their characters. The two pairings I am thinking of are Jeremie/Aelita and Ulrich/Yumi. Odd and William can be paired with whomever you wish. (Which I may or may not change later on in the story.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko, sadly. It belongs to Moonscoop. I do, however, own the six new characters mentioned in this chapter.
~L~Y~O~K~O~
Code Lyoko: Convergence
Season One
Episode 1: Sector Five
September 11th, Year of 2024, Personal Computer Diary of Tristan Belpois. Entry Begin.
Today was my first official day at Kadic Academy, the old school of my parents. I am in ninth grade, age fourteen years old. I have a roommate, named Daniel Dunbar. He's cool, but he hardly understands me.
Yesterday afternoon, I needed some more parts to finish some of my inventions, so I decided to search in the old, abandoned factory nearby for some scraps of metal and other things. Man was that factory fantastic. I came to search for parts and it did not let me down. I found exactly what I needed.
But I also found a computer. It was turned off, so I decided to go down below where the mother-frame was. Hoping I wouldn't regret my choice later on, I flipped the switch and watched as the supercomputer came to life. When I got back to the main computer room, I read some data and, with my parents' stories running through my mind about a weird virtual world called Lyoko, I finally connected the dots.
Some people may say I'm some kind of blonde-haired, brown-eyed freak for using such complex words as my vocabulary, but surely my sister, Maya, will understand. Tonight, after everyone is asleep, perhaps I will show this Lyoko to Maya.
~C~O~D~E~L~Y~O~K~O~S~E~A~S~O~N~6~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
September 11th, 2024, Diary of Maya Belpois.
My pink hair combined with my blue eyes attracts enough attention for me, but now my brother, Tristan has been acting weird today too. He's been on his laptop all day, barely glancing up at me whenever I speak to him. I worry about him, maybe a little too much, and today was no different.
I'm in eighth grade, thirteen years old. My birthday was last Saturday. I met someone today, named Antonio Della Robbia. He has dirty blonde hair with blue highlights. When I asked about the blue, he replied that it was natural and then proceeded to make a joke. Despite his un-humorous joke and atrocious spelling, he and I became very quick friends. I also met a couple more cool kids through him. They were brother and sister, twins, and the girl is my new roommate. Amazing concept, twins are. At least, in my book.
But even after talking about my day and my new friends, I am still homesick. I miss Father's quick-minded, yet highly detailed scientific explanations and Mother's adventure-filled stories about a world named Lyoko and a group of six friends who had these adventures. I definitely miss their smiles, the way they always greeted me, full with happiness and love. Tristan may be more into brainy stuff, but I'm definitely the type who relies on their emotions more.
Tonight, I will confront Tristan about his behavior.
~C~O~D~E~L~Y~O~K~O~S~E~A~S~O~N~6~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
September 11th, 2024, Antonio Della Robbia's Awesome Diary.
Age 13, Eighth Grade.
I have a really weird roommate, Rafael Stern, but he is my friend and I say we complete each other. I met his twin sister today, Kimiko, and I met a really cool girl today, Maya Belpois. She has pink hair. Pink.
I mean, I have blue highlights in my hair, but her hair is completely pink. Blue eyes complete her look and I think that she thinks that I am funny. Man, I love tongue twisters. But I think I like her.
But I can't like her. She's my friend, and besides, I just met her today.
~C~O~D~E~L~Y~O~K~O~S~E~A~S~O~N~6~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
September 11th, 2024, Rafael Stern's Journal, not Diary.
My roommate is a little too annoying for my taste. He is the jokester type, and yet he has the nerve to say we're best friends. Maybe we are, maybe we aren't. I can't tell for sure.
I am now in Ninth Grade, age 14. I have dark brown hair and hazel eyes.
Sometimes, I wish I could say more, but today my wish has not been granted. Not yet.
~C~O~D~E~L~Y~O~K~O~S~E~A~S~O~N~6~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
September 11th, 2024, Kimiko Stern's Very Personal Diary. Keep Your Hands Off!
Why must my brother be so rude to his roommate? I mean, it's not every day you get to meet someone new. I just wish that he would make some friends every once in a while, and not have to hang around me all the time.
Speaking of roommates, I also have one, named Maya Belpois. She's got pink hair and blue eyes, but she's the sweetest person I know. I love her. She's fantastic.
Quite obviously, I'm better at making friends than Rafael.
Anyways, I'm his twin sister, so obviously, I am also in Ninth grade and fourteen years old. I have black hair and hazel eyes. In some cases we are so much alike, but in personality, we are completely different.
It's amazing how genetics work, isn't it?
~C~O~D~E~L~Y~O~K~O~S~E~A~S~O~N~6~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
September 11th, 2024, Daniel Dunbar's Journal, because I hate the word Diary.
You know I like to keep things short and simple, so I'll make this quick. I have a new roommate, and computer genius/tech-wiz named Tristan Belpois. He's a little anti-social, so I can't read him.
I met this really cute girl today. She's half-Japanese, named Kimiko, but she has this twin brother. If looks could kill, he would have had me dead in just three split seconds. Man, he's so overprotective of her.
I am in Ninth Grade, age fourteen. I don't know if I'll be making any friends this year. Last year was an absolute goose-egg, zip, nada, nothing. Hopefully, maybe this year, I will.
~C~O~D~E~L~Y~O~K~O~S~E~A~S~O~N~6~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
September 11, 2024
Maya raises an eyebrow at the text her brother has just sent her. She's already worried about him. What more could be wrong with him?
'Maya, meet me at the school gate two hours after curfew tonight. ~ Tristan'
First of all, he didn't need to sign his name at the end. He's the first person she has on her contact list, most importantly, her caller ID.
Second, he's sitting right across from her. They are currently in the cafeteria for dinner, spaghetti and meatballs, the latter of which could be substituted for chicken if desired. They are sitting at the same table, and once again, he's on his laptop, typing away.
Rolling her eyes, she texts him back with 'Why?'
A few seconds later, he sends back a reply, 'I have to show you something. Before you ask, it's a secret. I can't show you right now, where everyone can see.'
She reads his reply, rereading it over and over, before sighing, 'Okay. I'll be there.'
She sets her iPhone down, knowing that he is reading it right now. She continues with eating her dinner, reading over the lecture notes she got today in History.
Something about a missing scientist named Waldo Schaeffer.
Schaeffer...she's heard that name before...
But of course, it's her mother's maiden name. Aelita Schaeffer-Belpois.
Perhaps the two of them are connected. Perhaps they are not.
And it gives Maya something to really ponder over.
~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
Like he asked just four hours before, Maya meets Tristan at the school gate.
When he speaks, he's whispering, as if afraid of getting caught. Not knowing why, she follows his example.
"So, what did you want to show me?"
"Not here," Tristan whispers back. "Follow me."
And Maya follows her brother into the forest. In the background, Antonio sees them leaving from his dorm room window. Getting dressed as fast as he possibly can without making any noise, he quietly follows them, wondering where they are going.
Tristan leads Maya to a manhole cover. She looks at him with her famous 'are you kidding me' look.
"I'm not going down in there. It's a sewer, for crying out loud."
"The only other way to where we're going is through the gym, on school grounds. I don't want to risk getting caught," he replies. "Now please, Maya, after you. Ladies first, after all."
Sure, she's a bit of a clean freak, which is why this is so hard for her, but Tristan is her brother.
And she will trust him until the end of time.
And that's why she does as he says. He slides the cover off the entrance of the tunnel, and she goes down the ladder. He goes after her, covering the tunnel back up as he does.
He lands on the ground beside her, and turns to her, his voice a litter louder now, "Come on."
He runs down the hallway, and she follows, asking, "Hey, Tristan, if this is going to be a regular thing of ours, don't you think we should get some skateboards or scooters down here?"
"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. Come on!"
The tunnel is eventually blocked by a gate, but on the side, there is another ladder that goes upward. Tristan goes up this latter. Maya gratefully follows.
Tristan helps her out of the tunnel when she reaches the top, and closes the tunnel below them as Maya observes where they are.
An abandoned factory...just like the ones in their mother's stories...
But it couldn't be. Could it?
They were just stories.
Tristan grabs her by the hand and pulls her toward the entrance of the factory. Swinging down the rope, he drags her to an elevator.
"W-Wait! Are you sure this elevator is stable? I mean this factory is at least three decades old. One of the cables could snap or the floor could give away," she stutters, her heart frantic, refusing to believe that her mother's stories could actually be true.
"Erosion would show it, Maya," he replies, getting on the elevator. "Come on. I haven't even shown you my big secret yet."
Cautiously, Maya steps onto the elevator, and Tristan pushes a red button. The door closes, going downward, and Maya feels the elevator going down also.
It stops, and the doors open like two sliding doors. There...is a computer room...
The sphere in the middle of the room, almost like a grid or a map...
A computer which so many wires going into the ceiling and into the floor.
"T-Tristan...what is this?" is all she can say.
"Dad's computer lab."
"Huh?"
"When he was a kid, Dad said he used to go here and work on top secretive things. This isn't even the main frame. It's above us, I believe."
"That explains the wires in the ceiling. But what about below us?"
"I checked. There are three round cylinders, all of which are connected to this computer. According to some of the notes here in this book I found on the chair when I first came here," he takes out a thickly-paged book from big bag, "they are called scanners, and they scan you, place a copy of your genetic code into the computer, and replace you with an avatar when you are transferred within the computer itself."
Silence.
"In English, please..."
"Basically, they are what allow you to be sent to Lyoko, a virtual world inside the Supercomputer."
Lyoko...
"Momma always told us stories about a virtual world called Lyoko, and all of this is exactly how she explained it," Maya says. "Tristan... do you think Lyoko could actually be real?"
"What's Lyoko?"
Both heads twist and turn immediately towards the elevator. "A-Antonio?" Maya squeaks.
"Della Robbia?" Tristan asks. "Why are you here?"
"I saw you two leave the campus, and I just wanted to see what you were up to," Antonio replies, coolly, placing his hands behind his head. "No worries. Whatever it is, I won't tell anyone. I mean, it must be a big secret if you two are out past curfew."
Tristan and Maya share a glance. She gives him a nod.
"It's pretty hard to explain it all, but, in a nutshell, Lyoko is a virtual universe that resides inside this computer," the genius replies. "Our parents told stories about it all the time when we were kids, but we never actually believed that it was real until just now, when we first laid our eyes on it."
"Funny, my dad told stories about a virtual world too," Antonio speculates. His eyes widen. "That would explain the pink hair."
"Huh?" The two siblings were utterly confused now. Antonio was not making any sense.
"My dad had two friends during his childhood. I mean, I saw a picture of them and he told me all about them. Are you parents named Jeremie and Aelita?"
Maya slowly nods. "Yeah...listen, Tristan, do you think you could actually send me to Lyoko?"
"Why?" is his first question.
"I don't exactly believe it just quite yet. The only way to make me a believer is to go to Lyoko myself."
Tristan lowers his gaze to the floor. "Alright, fine. Go down to the scanner room." And he takes a seat at the computer. Typing a few buttons, as Maya closes the elevator doors, Tristan begins to warm up the program, according to the notes in the book. "Antonio, are you staying here, or are you going with her?"
"I think I'll stay here for the time being. If she gets into any trouble, that's when I'll go."
"Alright," Tristan replies, continuing to type.
"Tristan, I'm in one of these scanners."
"Alright. I'm starting up the procedure. Transfer Maya. Scanner Maya. Virtualization!"
~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
Maya feels her body diverse into millions of pixels, before reforming, and she falls from the sky.
"Ouch!" She had landed on her stomach. She shook her head, before getting to her knees, and then, finally standing up.
It appears she is in an arena.
"Woah!" is her reaction. "Tristan? Tristan, you have to see this!"
Her brother's voice comes from above, like a voiceover. "Do you think you can give me a visual?"
"I can try, but this is so cool. Are you seeing this?"
"I am now. Thanks for the visual there, Maya. Listen, you are in Sector Five, or Carthage. There were actually four sectors before, but they have deleted themselves, due to the computer being off for too long."
"Do you think you can restore them?" Maya asks and she continues to look around, mainly at herself, the outfit she is wearing.
It's modeled after her mother's doll, the one she passed down to Maya herself, even down to the pointed ears.
Mister Puck.
"I don't know. I don't think I have the right codes."
A hallway opens up on her left, and she runs towards it. She is forced to stop, however, when she hits a dead end, but as soon as she stops, the wall in front of her begins to split open, creating the continuation of the path she is currently on.
Maya continues on, walking, not running. She wants to take it all in. Tristan speaks once more from above. "According to the book, Lyoko was actually destroyed once, but it was recreated. Before its destruction, Sector Five actually had a Key Mechanism that you needed to press within three minutes, otherwise the arena would implode on you. But," he adds before he scared Maya half to death, "when it was recreated, the Key Mechanism was deleted. You don't have to worry about that. Just keep on exploring."
"Okay," she replies, walking down a long hallway, eventually reaching a large chamber. "Woah! Tristan, are you seeing this?!"
"Yes, I am, Sis. I still have your visual. It sure does seem exactly as Mom and Dad described it." He pauses. "Umm...Maya?" Now, he is nervous. He sees something on his screen.
"Yeah? What is it?"
"You're not alone...there's something behind you..."
Maya turns around, "What? What is it?"
The next thing she sees is white, and then she is back home again. Back at the Hermitage, the house her father renovated for her mother. This is her mother's old childhood home, and it has become hers as well.
But it is empty. Maya is back in her Earth clothes, her ears are gone, and she is still thirteen years old.
But the entire house is empty, save for the playing of the piano in the living room.
That and the house is no longer clean and safe for living in.
Half of it has been destroyed, but Maya follows the sound of the piano, and finds a man sitting at it, playing it, his fingers stretching across the keys like Tristan at a computer.
"W-Who...who are you?"
The man turns around. "My dear..."
"I-It's you...Waldo Schaeffer!"
"Also known as Franz Hopper, dear granddaughter..." he says.
Her eyes widen. "Grandpa!" And she rushed forward, wrapping him in a warm bear hug. "You're supposed to be dead."
"I am supposed to, yes. Yet, here I am, still alive."
"But...I was just on Lyoko. How'd I get back home so fast? And how do you know I'm your granddaughter if we've never met?"
"You are still on Lyoko, at least, your real self is. You are in the form of your own conscience. To answer your last question, I am on Lyoko as well. I am its creator, after all. I read your genetic code as you were being virtualized, and I compared it to my own daughter's, as I had found it very familiar. Once I connected to dots, I knew something had to be done."
"Grandpa..."
"Listen to me, Maya. XANA was never fully destroyed. Both Tyron's computer and the one in the factory were just shut down at the same time, trapping XANA on Lyoko forever, at least, until both computers are operational. XANA has not reawakened, not yet. He is in a coma, waiting for his lost source codes, all 100 percent of them. The original Lyokowarriors got the source codes back into their system as soon as both computers were shut down and XANA was left in limbo. Now, the source codes live within you and the offspring of the six original Lyokowarriors."
"Then...Tristan too? My brother?"
"Yes, however, these source codes are what XANA needs to regain his full strength. If the real world is ever in danger, the red towers must be deactivated as soon as possible. XANA will do anything to regain his codes. But...these source codes will not allow you to deactivate these red towers. Lyoko has a set of Keys than can allow you to deactivate the towers XANA threatens humanity with. You mother holds one half of Lyoko's Keys. I hold the other half, but not for long."
Maya blinks. "Momma holds one half of Lyoko's Keys?"
"Yes, and my half is now being transfered over to you. Maya...I am stepping down as the King of Lyoko. Your grandmother was Queen, and now your mother has taken her own mother's place as Queen, and your father shall be Lyoko's new King."
Maya can feel the Keys pouring within her as they speak.
"Maya, you and your brother are the new Prince and Princess. You are the new heirs to Lyoko's throne. As such, it is your duty to protect both Lyoko and the real world from XANA, and destroy him for good."
~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
"Maya! Maya! Can you read me?! MAYA!"
"Dude," Antonio calms down a frantic Tristan in the factory. "Remember when I said if she gets into any trouble that I would head to Lyoko to make sure she was okay?"
"Y-Yeah..."
"So, why haven't you started up the virtualization program yet?"
Tristan smiles as Antonio heads down to the scanner room and cautiously steps into one of them.
"Transfer Antonio. Scanner Antonio. Virtualizaion."
~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
Antonio virtualizes into the same arena Maya was in minutes before. "Uh, Tristan? Why am I a giant blue bird?"
"I have no idea why. Perhaps, the computer reads into your own subconscious desires and projects them onto your digital reincarnation?"
"I don't dream about big blue birds! But I do have to admit...my wings are pretty cool."
"You have wings?"
"Yeah, they're retractable and can disappear at will, but if I have wings, then I must be able to fly somehow. But no time for that now. Where's Maya?"
"Access hall on your right center."
"Gotcha!"
And he runs down the hallway. When he gets to the room Maya was last seen in, Antonio doesn't see her anywhere. All he sees is a giant blue and white energy sphere.
"Uh...Tristan? Is Maya here anywhere? I don't see her. All I see is a giant white ball of energy." Weird creepers began to crawl out of holes in the ground. "And now little creepy monsters are attacking it! What should I do?"
It takes him a while to answer. "Antonio, don't attack the ball. Attack the monsters! But don't trust the sphere as an ally until I know for sure."
"But I don't have a weapon, genius!"
"According to your ID card, you can shoot energy-based arrows with just your arms. You're not completely defenseless. Besides, you can also fly, remember?"
"Oh yeah!"
Antonio forms a bow with his left hand, while forming an arrow with his right. He releases the arrow, and one creeper goes down.
In the factory, Tristan gets another message from the man who calls himself Franz Hopper.
'Maya is still alive. If your bird friend attacks me, she will be gone also.'
'Where is she?'
'She is inside the sphere you and your friend see.'
'How do you know this?'
'Because I am the sphere, and I am also your grandfather.'
"Franz Hopper...Grandpa." Back on Lyoko, Antonio hears Tristan's voice over head. "Antonio, listen to me. Do not attack the sphere."
"Is it an ally to us?"
"In a way. Well, ally or not, we have no choice but to let it continue its mission here. Antonio, Maya is in that sphere. It's talking to me right now. That sphere is Franz Hopper, and it's currently in the process of downloading his half of Lyoko's Keys to Maya. You need to protect that sphere at all costs!"
A couple of minutes later, the sphere gently lowers an unconscious Maya to the ground, before devirtualizing her and Antonio both, sending them back to the real world.
When it did, the remaining creepers retreat.
~C~O~N~V~E~R~G~E~N~C~E~
Tristan meets Maya and Antonio in the scanner room as they emerge back into the real world. Maya is out cold, but she is stirring now.
"Man, that was rush," Antonio mumbles. "You have any Pepto-Bismal, Tristan? I feel like I'm about to throw up."
"Careful, Antonio." He turns to his sister, whose blue eyes are now open. "Maya, you okay?"
"Yeah...I met Grandpa. He said it was our duty as the heirs to Lyoko to stop XANA no matter what."
"I know. He told me the same thing."
Antonio interrupts. "What? Who are you talking about? I never witnessed any of you talking to an old man."
The two siblings gaze at him. It is their fault for getting him involved in this mess, but he's in now, and he deserves to know the truth. Tristan begins.
"Antonio, you know that sphere you saw?" He nods. "That was Franz Hopper."
"Lyoko's creator," Maya finishes, "and our grandfather."
TO BE CONTINUED…
~L~Y~O~K~O~
A/N: Well, what do you think? Review, please, and tell me.