Chapter 1
Impact
The air was unseasonably cool. It was a chill that cut deep to the bone of those who were out in it. The spring was giving way to summer, but only when the sun shone down upon the world, in the darkness of this moonless night it felt more like winter.
Despite the lack of a moon, it was far from complete darkness. A city is never truly dark, even when its people slumber. Streetlights swayed in the wind, and tress whipped back and forth. There was a constant whistling in the air, which fluxed between a high-pitched wail to a gentle humming at the slightest provocation.
For a lone figure this was all nothing more than a distraction. He walked with a purpose, his coat pulled up tightly against the wind. He cross the green grass of the Kadic Academy's main courtyard with great speed, having walked this path many times he could do so in his sleep. The wind shifted, blowing him a few steps off course. There was a crack of lightning and a clash of thunder, but no raid had begun to fall yet. Rather than slowing the figures advance it spurred him on. The wind shifted again and branch snapped free and fell just in front of the figure. He hesitated for a moment, but then continued his advance past it. He laughed lightly as he continued, it was as if the world around him were trying to stop him, but that was just nonsense. He reached the edge of school grounds and his destination.
A horn, a flash, a squeal, a crash.
Aelita tossed and turned in her bed. She was sleeping peacefully, and in the depths of a dream. She found a comfortable position hugging a pillow, which happened to be wrapped in one of Jeremie's sweaters in place of a case, and drifted off into a deeper sleep.
In her dream she was floating somewhere warm, perhaps in the ocean, not that she had ever been. She lay, floating in the water not a care in the world. She could dully hear the laughing voices of her friends calling out to her, but she was totally and entirly at peace. She gazed up into the sky and watched as a flight of clouds drifted overhead.
Suddenly the world changed, she was no longer floating, but falling. The air was cold, and wind whipped around her, howling violently. The sky turned dark, and a storm pelted her with icy daggers of rain.
She was on the floor, shaking.
A horn, a flash, a squeal, a crash.
Ulrich adjusted his position for, by his count, the bazillionth time. He was sore all over. He took in a deep breath and winced as his back spasmed. He glanced at his clock and sighed, 2:19 AM. He was lucky he didn't have class the following day, Sunday's were the best, but he still longed for the sleep that refused to take him.
He changed positions again, accompanied by yet another wince, and closed his eyes, thinking back to eariler today.
He stood leaning over the top of the stairs in the dormitory as Jeremie blathered on in his usual wall of techno-speak. He leaned back over the banister and sighed, rolling his eyes he shot Odd a glance.
Odd was prancing around behind Jeremie, pantomiming his longwinded explanation of the program he was so proud of. Ulrich chuckled and continued nodding to the story.
A commotion behind him stopped Jeremie mid rant as he dove out of the way just in time for some younger kid to come skidding past on his skateboard, totally out of control. Odd pulled the kid from his board just as Ulrich moved to snag it. He grabbed it just before it went over the edge, but the momentum forced him to move onto one foot, leaning just over the edge of the banister. Without warning the world around him seemed to shift and change. His vertigo got the best of him and the next he knew he was waking up in the infirmary. He was fine or course, and they had released him a few hours ago.
He rolled over in bed again and looked down at Odd, who had somehow ended up on the floor. He smiled as Odd snuggled Kiwi closer and went back to snoring loudly. "I wonder what he's dreaming about." Ulrich mused aloud. "Probably food, judging by the smile."
Odd suddenly began frowning and tossing about wildly. Ulrich looked closer, but despite the darkness, he could clearly see tears running down Odds face.
Ulrich grunted as he rolled onto his feet and moved towards Odd. Just as he was about to wake him, Odd shot bolt up, screaming. He dove across the room to his closet tossing his clothes around the room. "Odd, what's going on?" Ulrich asked.
"I've gotta find my phone, I haveta call Jeremie."
"It's 2 in the morning, can't it wait till tomorrow?"
"No, its gotta be now, he needs help." He grabbed his phone from a pair of purple slacks. He dialed Jeremie and shook his head. "No answer, we gotta go get him." He pulled a pair of pants and went for the door but was stopped by a noise outside.
A horn, a flash, a squeal, a crash.
William was asleep, and he was dreaming.. He knew that much at least. He had experienced this dream several times before, every night since his return.
He was in the dark and he was cold. He sat rolled up in the fetal position, and a wave of warmth passed over him. It wasn't a pleasant warmth by any means. He knew far to well what it meant. He was being copied onto Lyoko by XANA. He could feel himself being drained of power, he was using Super Smoke again. His arms felt tired, he must be fighting now, he wondered against who. He could feel a stinging in his right shoulder, he'd been hit by an arrow, he must be fighting Odd. He could feel a shock in his biceps, he'd connected with him and probably devirtualized him. He felt a pain in his leg, Yumi had pegged him with one of her fans. He could feel Super Smoke around him, as he made a hasty escape. He could feel XANA devirtualize him. He could feel XANA's displeasure with him, and the cold returned. He was alone with just XANA's disappointed gaze upon him.
He knew he was dreaming, he had to be, he couldn't be back in XANA's control. He had to wake up. He knew he had to.
He was startled awake by a noise outside.
A horn, a flash, a squeal, a crash.
Aelita poked her head out her door, only to see that she wasn't the only one. All around her the other girls of Kadic Academy had come into the hall to see what was happening. She grabbed her jacket and ran down the hall towards the exit. The horn outside was still sounding.
She ran down the hall with a mass of other students, all heading to check the commotion. By the time they had reached to exit there were sirens sounding loudly, just off in the distance.
The throng of students was joined by the boys from the other floor and they all pushed their way towards the exit. Once the doors were opened they were accosted by a wall of biting wind and rain.
Aelita pulled the jacket tighter around her as she stepped out into the rain. There was a snap as an umbrella opened over her head. She glanced over and saw that it was Sissi who was holding it. It was massive in size, and she looked like she was having a bit of trouble against the wind, but it was covering them both nicely. "Thanks," Aelita said smiling.
"Don't mention it." Sissi replied. In the past few weeks she had been trying to be nicer to Aelita and her friends, she was really trying to become part of the group. They walked amongst the mass of students in silence, despite the shouting from all around them. The sirens were even louder here, and they could hear Jim shouting. Sissi almost had to shout to be heard, "What do you think is happening?"
"I don't know, I hear ambulances." Aelita replied as the moved towards the sound.
The crowd slowed to a stop and people began pushing their way further forward. There was a sharp whistle and the crowd fell silent as Jim stepped up and waved his arms to get everyone attention.
"Alright, listen up, I want everyone back in their rooms, pronto. Get it moving!" He motioned for everyone to start backing up, but the wall of students kept pushing forward. The ambulances sped away at that moment and the assembly began to disperse. Mr. Delmas stepped up and whispered something in Jim's ear that made the large man go white as a sheet. He whispered something back to his boss and the man nodded. Jim walked into the now departing mass of students until he found Aelita, "Ms. Stones, would you please come with me." He way more polite than she had ever heard him, and he was whispering. He sounded really far away as he turned into the crowd, looking for something.
"What's going on Jim?" Aelita asked, walking slowly behind him.
"I'd rather not talk about it…" He trailed off as spotted what he was looking for and took off at a run. "Stern, Della Robbia, come here."
Odd and Ulrich, both still dressed in their night clothes, came running over to Jim. They slowed down when the spotted Aelita following behind him. Ulrich walked over to them. "What's going on Jim?" Odd shook his head and looked off to the ground.
"Mr. Delmas will explain when we get to his office, come on." He turned and began walking away. If Ulrich hadn't known any better he'd have sworn that Jim was crying.
They arrived at Mr. Delmas's office and entered quietly. The old man sat behind his desk with his hands steepled together. He motioned for the group to sit, and then stood. "Children, I have called you here because of" He paused briefly to gather his thoughts, "regrettable events that have occurred this morning." He walked over to look out his window, where he could still see students filing into their dorms. "There was an accident, and Mr. Belpois has been taken to the hospital."
The Lyoko Warriors were taken aback. "Then why are we here, we should get over there for when he wakes up." Ulrich said, stepping forward.
"I'm sorry Mr. Stern, but that isn't an option. He will be in surgery for quite some time and your presence would not impact that in any way. You are all to return to bed. I only informed you about this out of courtesy and I assumed that you would want to know." He turned and sat in his desk. "You may go. Jim, make sure there get where they need to go."
The group filed out into the hallway and Ulrich shook his head. "I can't believe that, Jim, we need to get to the hospital you've gotta let us go."
Jim walked on in silence and then stopped to look back. "Well come on, we need to stop by your rooms first, you don't want to go see Jeremie in your pjs do ya?"
Odd looked up in shocked surprise. "Jim, did you just say what I think you just said?"
"Say what you want about ol' Jimbo, but he never leaves a solider behind, now hurry before Delmas sees us."
They climbed into Jim's car and were on there way to the hospital. They sat largely in silence as they traveled, save for a short phone call to Yumi, informing her what was happening.
They stopped by her home to pick her up and she joined the rest of the gang in the car. They continued in silence for a while, when Jim finally broke the silence. "I'm sure he's fine. He's a tough kid, and he's got guts, he'll pull through. He reminds me of when I used to drive an ambulance."
Ulrich looked up at him and shook his head. "I'd rather you not talk about it right now, if that's okay."
Jim simply nodded and continued driving.
They arrived at the hospital a few minutes later and quickly walked inside. The night nurse looked up and shot the group an odd look. "May I help you?" She asked, setting her book down.
"Uh yeah, we're here to see the boy that was just brought in, Belpois comma Jeremie." Jim walked up to the desk and signed everyone in.
"He's still in surgery, but you can wait in waiting room 4, just down the hall." She pointed off into the distance and then went back to reading.
The group walked on in silence and found the waiting room quickly. They each took up seats around the room, with Jim standing, leaning against the wall next to the door. He watched over the group for a moment and then stood and moved to exit. "I'll go get you kids some hot chocolate. Stay here and shout if you need anything."
Left alone they remained quite for a moment. Ulrich broke the silence, "So, should we go to the factory? Could we maybe return to the past?"
Aelita shook her head. When she spoke her voice was hallow and quite, it sounded as if she was about to break down at any moment. "N-no. The supercomputer is turned off, it can't return to the past if it doesn't have any memory." She put her head in her hands and looked down at the floor.
Yumi put her arm around Aelita, "He'll be fine, I'm sure of it."
Jim returned just after that and began passing out cups of a strange brownish substance that clearly was trying to be hot chocolate. They all held the cups and looked down into them, but no one drank. "You kids are really brave." Jim said, swirling his drink absently, "You never seem phased by anything. Even when your running around and cutting classes, you never seem to stop." He took a drink, and then winced. "You kids have always impressed me, I think that's why I'm so hard on you all the time. You guys are really lucky to have found such a tightly knit group of friends. It actually reminds me of when I was a kid…" He trailed off and took another drink.
"Lemmie guess, you'd rather not talk about it?" Yumi said, trying her drink and spitting it out again.
"I don't think it'd be appropriate here and now." He replied. "I just thought you needed to hear that stuff, and it's all true."
Odd, who had been bizarrely silent this entire time crush his cup in his hands and leapt to his feet. He spoke in a far away voice, and had a totally listless look upon his face. "We need to go to the factory." Each word was drawn out and deliberate. "We need to launch a return to the past, or Jeremie will die." He put a hand to his head as he sat down and shook himself. "Did I just say what I think I thought I saw me say?"
Everyone around the room was silent for a moment. Aelita spoke first, "Odd, what was that?" She cut into a low whisper, "Especially with Jim around."
"This is gunna sound weird, but it felt like a future flash." Odd replied, "I saw us go to the factory and return to the past."
"I thought you lost future flash on Lyoko, why would it work here?" Yumi whispered sharply.
Odd shrugged, "I don't know but, it can't hurt to try, right?"
Ulrich crossed his arms and leaned forward. "I agree, but I'll stay here in case there's any news on Einstein. You guys get to the factory."
Jim walked over, "What are you all whispering about? What factory? What's going on?"
Aelita took in a shuddering breath. "Jim, we need a ride somewhere, right now."
Jim pulled right up to the edge of the factory's upper deck and parked. "So what you're saying is that you can go back in time?"
Aelita leapt onto one of the ropes and swung down to the floor. She shouted up from the floor. "Maybe, but we need to see if the supercomputer is working." The rest of the warriors leapt to the ground, followed by Jim. The quickly ran to the elevator and descended at it's leisurely pace.
They arrived in the control room, and to their total surprise everything seemed to be running. The massive holo map in the center spun slowly and the air was filled with the gentle humming of thousands of processors working to run the mammoth machine. Aelita quickly sprinted towards the chair and sat down at the controls. She typed furiously and gasped. "The supercomputer, its been on for almost six hours. There's just enough logged information to run a return program." She continued typing as she spoke. "It's warming up, it'll take a few seconds." The warriors were silent, none of them daring to make even the slightest sound. Odd's phone rang, and they all knew it was Ulrich. The control panel set off a series of alarms and she slammed down on the keyboard.
"Return to the past, now!"