Militibus ex Vetus
Militibus ex Vetus
Chpt.1-Revelations
Summary: The Hermitage had been a source of mystery of Aelita's past. One she thought she had unraveled. However, a discovery has shown light on a new mystery and the Lyoko Warriors once again activate the supercomputer. Little did they know, XANA had been able to preserve itself, and with the reactivation of the supercomputer, XANA is out to seek revenge. But this time, he isn't alone.
Disclaimer: Don't own Code Lyoko. Time frames of this story may not coincide with those of the original series. Not Evolution compliant.
-(Kadic Academy)- ((Jeremy's Dorm)) (-Aelita's P.O.V.-)
"Where are you going Aelita?" Jeremy asked me as I opened the door. Turning back, I saw the whole group had their eyes on me.
Smiling, I replied, "Just thought that I would take a walk and visit the Hermitage."
"Why?" Odd said, not looking up from his game boy.
"Just want to see what else is there," I said. "It's been months since I visited it after the fall of XANA." Ulrich stands up.
"I think I'll go with you Aelita," Ulrich yawned. "I can't stand being cooped up in this place for another minute." I smiled.
"All right, Ulrich," I replied. As Ulrich closed the door, we heard Odd's voice.
"Have fun you two love birds," Odd yelled. Ulrich and I both rolled our eyes.
We made our way down the building and into the cold weather of October.
'Such a bad time to wear a tank top,' I thought shivering. Suddenly, I felt a cloth being hung on my shoulders. I looked to my right and saw Ulrich with a t-shirt and his jacket missing.
"October is a really bad time to wear a tank top Aelita," Ulrich stated, chuckling. My eyes went in a circle.
"I hadn't noticed Ulrich," I replied sarcastically. "Won't you get cold though?"
"Don't worry about me Aelita," he waved my question off. "You get used to the cold when you run in it in the morning." We were now in the woods and the sound of crunching leaves echoed in the cold air.
"That's cause you're the only one crazy to actually get up in 4 in the morning and run," I accused.
"Then call me Crazy," he replied. A second later, he tripped on a tree root. I laughed.
"Well then Mr. Crazy," I teased. "Maybe tomorrow morning, you could train on not tripping on roots."
"I will if you give me a hand up," he groaned. Reaching out my hand, he gripped it. That's when I saw his mischievous grin plastered on his face and soon, my wonderfully pink hair was full of orange and red leaves.
"That was so not fair, Ulrich," I muttered, trying to collect the leaves from my hair.
"You know what they say, 'All's fair in love and war,'" he replied.
"And exactly which one would this pertain to?" I inquired, still trying to rid my hair of the orange and red beasts.
"I like to think of it pertaining to love," he started, "but, if you want it to be war, that could be arranged."
"How so?" I asked as I picked the last the leaves from my hair. He just smiled at me and started to walk again. Hesitating a little, I ran to catch up with him. There was a sort of content silence between us with it only being broken by the leaves crying into the air. Then, Ulrich stopped and bent down.
"Go ahead Aelita," he said. "I have to re-tie my shoe." I nodded and started to walk. Suddenly, I felt myself get pushed from behind and landed into a big pile of leaves. I heard the sound of laughing from behind.
Getting up into a sitting position, I glared at him. "You do realize this means war right?" I asked. He smiled.
"That's what I was planning for," he smirked and dashed away.
"Get back here Stern and face your punishment like a man," I yelled as I ran after him. I heard him laughing as he came into sight and I couldn't help but start laughing too. However, that was cut short as I tripped on a tree root. I heard Ulrich's laugh grow closer.
"Now who needs to work on not tripping over roots," Ulrich panted in between his laughing. He turned his back to me. Bad move. I stood up and tackled him to the ground. We rolled around the ground, both of us trying to get on top of each other. In the end, I won out. I smiled in victory.
"Okay, you win," Ulrich admitted. I rolled off of him and silence filled in.
"We all have changed ever since XANA," I stated. I heard Ulrich go into a sitting position, and I followed his example, turning to face him.
"Why would you say so?" he asked with a contemplative look on his face.
"Well, I'll use you as an example," I said. "If Jeremy hadn't turned on the Supercomputer, you would still be your closed up person chasing after a tall, dark haired, Asian girl and have border line failing grades. You wouldn't have done what you did just a few minutes ago and you probably wouldn't have any friends. Odd would have probably been expelled within the first few days of his starting here and probably would have gone out with every single girl in the school including Yumi and Sissi." We both shuddered at that last thought of Sissi and Odd dating.
"Jeremie would be more of a computer geek than he already is and probably married a computer if he didn't meet you guys," I continued. "Yumi, well, I don't know Yumi all that well, but you get the idea Ulrich."
"I do," he said slowly. "You have to wonder kind of people we would all be if Jeremy hadn't turned on the Supercomputer and we hadn't met you or each other. Well, me and Odd would've met either way, but we probably wouldn't have been as good as friends as we are now. Anyway, we should probably get to the Hermitage and back before dinner time or who knows what Odd will come up with on why we were really late getting back."
I agreed and we continued to the Hermitage. The rest of our journey was made in a content silence. Soon, we were at the gate of the battered down building called "The Hermitage", my home before Lyoko and XANA.
As we entered, the musty, moldy air that filled the house filled my nosed. The inside looked worse for wear than the outside. It looked like the whole placed was turned upside down by someone looking for something, but couldn't find it. And for all I know, it could have been.
You see, a long time ago, me and my mom and dad used to occupy this house. However, my father was working on a project and an organization that I call the Men in Black were trying to stop him from completing it, but they failed. And from their failure came the world's greatest technological advancement: the Supercomputer and XANA.
In the MiB's quest to try and stop my father, my mother was taken from us as bait to get my father to tell them the location of the Supercomputer and to stop its construction. My father didn't bite. Anyway, the MiB decided to play no more games and came after me and my father. Well, long story short, my father transferred us to Lyoko, and XANA, an AI, turned on my father.
As a last resort, my father turned off the Supercomputer. 8 years later… wait no 10 years later Jeremy turned on the Supercomputer and we fought XANA up until this point.
Suddenly, an image of a pink and blue haired girl crossed my mind and seemed faintly familiar.
'What's going on,' I though. 'First, I mix up the time when Jeremy turned on the Supercomputer after my father turned it off and now a faintly familiar image crosses my mind.'
"Aelita, you okay," a voice broke me out of my reverie. Looking to my right, I saw Ulrich staring at me with concern filling his eyes. I smiled and nodded my head.
'No need to worry him,' I thought. With that, I headed upstairs and I heard Ulrich follow me. Opening the door that led to my bedroom, my vision was filled with lots of different shades of pink. Apparently, I wasn't only attracted to pink now, I was attracted to it when I was a child.
Looking around the room, I saw a bookcase that I didn't notice until now. Thinking that now was as good a time as any, I went over to it. There were a number of short kids stories and some small chapter books. A book that really caught my attention was one that looked fairly recent but still had a couple years on it. But it was the title that really caught my attention: A Tale of Masters.
I took it from the shelf and flipped it open. What I saw on the inside surprised me. It was a sketch and the list of abilities and observations of a Kankerlat! Gasping I whipped around to try and find Ulrich. I saw him holding an old children's book
"Hey Ulrich, you should really see this," I called with urgency in my voice. He must've sensed it because he quickly put the book down and made his way toward me.
"What is it?" he asked, concern permeated his voice. I didn't say a word but just showed him the book. His eyes widened in surprise.
"We got to show Jeremy," was all he said and like that, we were just a blur as we bee-lined it for the Academy.
We got to the front of Jeremy's room and Ulrich slammed the door open, startling the occupants.
"What happened?" Yumi asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost." We said nothing as I tossed Jeremy the book and fell into a heap next to Yumi on the bed. I saw Jeremy open up the book and his face pale as he saw the first page.
"What's wrong Einstein?" Odd asked as he took the book. His face also paled and he handed Yumi the book. She showed a generic expression.
"W-where did you find that book?" Jeremy was the first to find his voice.
"Hermitage," was all Ulrich said. Jeremy nodded and took the book back.
"What does this mean Jeremy?" Yumi was second to find her voice. Jeremy didn't answer and just kept looking at the book.
"Speak Einstein," Odd finally found his voice and he was anxious to find out what this meant. There was a long pause before Jeremy answered.
"Well, from the dates in this book," he started, "it's safe to assume that whoever made this turned on the Supercomputer before us and also fought XANA, but shut it down about 1 year after they turned it on. It would also be safe to assume that they were forced to shut it down as it briefly explains that "someone" was watching their actions and were going to go to any lengths to find out what they were doing."
"So, we weren't the first to find Lyoko after Franz Hopper shut it down," Odd stated. Jeremy shook his head.
"The book," Jeremy continued, "also has excerpts of some of the attacks that XANA launched on Earth though they seem to have been weak attacks and tamer than the attacks than we are used to. It also talks about the tests they ran on materialization programs."
"Like the one that you used on me Jeremy?" I inquired. He nodded again.
"It seems that you and whoever found the Supercomputer first were very good friends, though they were never successful in materializing you. They spent most of their free time with you in Lyoko. Do you remember anything about these people, Aelita?" I shook my head.
Suddenly, a picture slipped out of the book and floated to the floor in front of my feet. I picked it up and took a look at it. I gasped in surprise. The image that popped into my mind was on the picture with 3 other people and me in a computer screen in the middle.
Ulrich took it from me and Jeremy, Odd, and Yumi all tried to get a good look at it over his shoulder. They all gasped in surprise.
"I remember one of them," I admitted. "Well not really remembered. More like a faint image of the girl behind the laptop." 'Why do they all look familiar?!' I mentally screamed in my head. Silence filled the room.
"We should probably get down to dinner guys," Odd broke the silence somewhat awkwardly. We all nodded and headed down to the cafeteria in awkward silence.
"Yeah, I should probably head home, it's getting late," Yumi announced, grabbing her bag. "Hey Aelita, you mind me hanging onto that photo for a bit? A couple of those faces seem familiar to me."
I, having gotten the photo back from Ulrich, hesitated for a moment before handing the picture. "Sure. Anything that could possibly lead us to answers would be helpful." Yumi took the picture from me and put it in her bag. "See you tomorrow after class Yumi." The others said their farewells as Yumi left for her home.
Jeremy studied the book for a bit longer before giving it back to me. "Make sure you put that in a safe place in your room Aelita before we head down to the cafeteria. We will probably need to bring it tomorrow for when we go to the factory after class." I nod as I begin to make my way to my room with the others following behind me a little bit after.
The next day, I woke up feeling very tired and anxious. I had stayed up looking through the book and reading in every last detail. The book was far from a log of my apparent missing past.
One of them, however, had created a log of everything they had done and put them into a file with everything related to them and encrypted and hid it within the supercomputer. Using a passcode was the only way to easily reveal it. Unfortunately, the writer of the book was smart enough to not write the password in the book, at least, not obviously.
Hearing my phone buzz, I rolled out of bed and grabbed it. Seeing a text from Odd wondering if I was up, I shot a confirmation text and started getting dressed and getting my classwork together. After getting everything situated, I grabbed the book and headed to the cafeteria.
When I got there, I found the others already there Yumi included, and set my stuff down before getting my food. Once I got back, our talks began.
"So tonight's the night that we get to go back to Lyoko right?" Odd asked through a full mouth. It took us a bit to understand him, but Jeremy was able to decipher Odd-latin.
"Well, only if we can't manage to find anything on the supercomputer itself first," Jeremy said, disappointing Odd. "The group before us must have left some kind of trace if they were using the supercomputer. Character profiles, materialization program, anything that might give any indication about who they were."
"Well, you are right about that Jeremy," I chimed in after swallowing my food like a civilized person. "I was reading the book last night, and I was able to find a passage that said that they had kept a log of their adventures and hid it and everything pertaining to them behind some encryption and a password somewhere within the supercomputer."
"Last night huh?" Ulrich voiced, handing me a napkin. I looked at him confused. "Sounds more like you reading early this morning. You got applesauce all over your face there." His face had an amused smirk on his face as he pointed around his mouth. I quickly lifted my hand to my mouth and felt the food around my mouth. I felt my face flush as I quickly murmured thanks and wiped my face. I heard everyone chuckle.
"The book didn't happen to have the password at all, did it?" Yumi asked as the laughter died down. I shook my head as finished wiping my face and threw the napkin at Ulrich as he still had a bemused grin on his face. "I can only imagine that they hid they hid the password in the book in a way that only they could find it or they had another method of finding the password."
"Well, I still want to go to Lyoko, at least for a little bit," Odd declared. "I mean it's been several months since the last time we were on Lyoko. It can't hurt to mess around in it for a little bit, right?" We all looked at Jeremy after that. He looked contemplative for a bit before looking back at us, his face stoic.
"A trip to Lyoko is unnecessary," Jeremy stated and all of us had a look of disappointment on our faces. "But I don't see any harm in us making a quick detour." All of us looked at him surprised. He simply shrugged and said, "Besides if we don't have a definitive clue for the password, then it's possible that we would need to access Sector 5 for more computational power if the data is encrypted and password protected in order to hack into it." We all broke out in smile and cheered. Odd and Ulrich clustered around him and rubbed his head. The students around us stared at us at this energetic display so early in the morning, but we didn't care. We were going to reunite with an old friend.
AN/: This isn't my first story, but I have been out of fanfiction game for many years and just recently found my collection again. I figured I'd try to rewrite them to hopefully a higher standard than my younger self. Hope you enjoy. If you have any criticisms, please lay them out in a constructive manner and I will try to address them best I can as the story progresses. Here's to hoping that this new era will be longer lived.