The dorm room was rather small for the kind of college he went to. It consisted of a simple bed, a stable wooden desk, two chairs, and a dresser, all pushed against the dull beige walls. On the desk lay a newspaper, worn and yellowed by the stain of time, with the pages curling and tearing slightly at the edges. Normally, he would clean up a mess like this one, scanning the pages to preserve its content and then laminating them to prevent it from giving in to decay. However, he could not do it for this one. In fact, he could barely touch it at all. The headline's bold, block letters stayed in his sight even after he closed his eyes, being able to see clearly what the words said:

OLD FACTORY NEAR KADIC ACADEMY EXPLODES OF UNKNOWN REASONS: FOUR STUDENTS PRESUMED DEAD AND TWO STUDENTS SEVERLY INJURED

Tears formed and threatened to spill over when Jeremy Belfois opened his eyes once more. He blinked and a single tear rolled down his thin cheek, cutting a damp path on his face. He could clearly remember what had happened that fateful day, ten years ago:

Jeremy was frustrated. Upset. Those words didn't even convey the emotions he was feeling. Franz Hopper had given his life to provide energy to run the program that would destroy XANA, the evil supercomputer that was aiming take over the world. His heart panged as he heard Aelita's cries when her father died. What made it worse was that the energy from Hopper still wasn't enough. Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich ran to her side as she slid to the ground, sorrow tearing at the young, pink-haired girl. Eventually they became aware of the Mantas shooting their red lasers at the team, and Ulrich and Yumi began to deflect their shots.

"Jeremy! Why isn't the program running?" Yumi called out.

"It's ready to be run, but there just isn't enough energy! We need just, at the most, five more Franz Hoppers in order for the program to run successfully! We're one tiny step away from destroying XANA but…but…" Jeremy's voice trailed off in that inexplicable emotion that ran hot through his veins.

"More Franz Hoppers, huh," mused Odd. "Hey Jeremy, would it be possible if we happened to give our energy?" At this, the others temporarily looked back at the cat-like teen. Through their unbreakable bonds, they were able to convey one message to each other, unknown to Jeremy.

"Well, if you guys did what Hopper did I suppose it would work…after all, you four have more energy than Franz Hopper."

"That settles it then!" chirped Odd, as if he was simply scheduling another date with one of his many girlfriends. In response, Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita stood up, tears in their eyes and weapons dropped. Groans of pain were shared by the four Lyoko warriors as lasers struck their bodies over and over again.

"Wait, guys, what are you doing? You're losing life points by the second! If this keeps up, you're all going to be devirtualized and we'll have no hope of beating XANA!"

"That's the point, Jeremy! We're just doing what Franz Hopper did—no, we're finishing his work for him," answered Ulrich with a grunt.

Jeremy was speechless. His hands dropped to his sides as he began to process the strategy of his best friends. In order to defeat XANA and ultimately save the world, Franz Hopper had deliberately died to do so. His energy was not enough, however, and his friends began to fuel the program to be run. William, standing close to Jeremy, listened and reacted similarly. Grabbing Jeremy's mike, he yelled at the four warriors, "Are you guys INSANE? If you do that, you're all going to die like Franz Hopper did! He sacrificed himself to not only protect the world, but also all four of you! If you guys die, then his efforts..." His voice trailed off as Odd was destroyed first.

"NO! ODD!" cried Jeremy. Tears flowed openly from his eyes as Odd's icon vanished. Yumi was the next to go, trigging William's own rivers of tears. With a "c'ya" Ulrich disappeared as well.

Aelita was still holding out on the battlefield. Despite her pain she managed to restart the program with the touch of her right hand, the hand that had foiled XANA's plans so many times.

"A-aelita…don't leave me…please," wailed Jeremy.

Aelita smiled weakly as her body began to fade. "Be strong for me, Jeremy…Protect the new world we'll create with your sharp mind and love of technology…Never stop what you loved doing even before I met you. You must promise me that you won't break down from this." Jeremy nodded so hard his microphone almost flew off. "Use your talents to shape the new world and don't mourn. I…I love you, Jeremy. And we will all be in your and William's hearts." She managed a small laugh. "Good-bye, Jeremy…Be well, and never forget us…" And with those words her icon blinked four, five, six times before disappearing entirely.

Jeremy was crushed and his vision was blurred from his tears. He didn't want to move. Hell, he didn't want to do anything. Within the span of a minute and a half he had lost all of his closest friends, the only friends he had since he entered Kadic Academy. He dimly heard William yelling about the anti-XANA program before remembering what his friends had died for. With all of his remaining strength he pushed the 'enter' key that had been pressed along with Aelita's life-saving hand. His own hands trembled as the Replikas vanished one by one just as huge explosions sounded from the scanner and supercomputer rooms. The factory shook as if struck by an earthquake and William managed to drag Jeremy all the way to the entrance before it caved in almost on top of them.

The next thing Jeremy saw was the depressing white hospital walls. He was somewhat aware of his parents anxiously talking to him, and of William's own parents on the other side of the room. Just outside the open door he could hear sobs and wailing from his dead friends' families. All except for Aelita, but he cried for her himself as a friend. As family.

Suddenly, Jeremy turned around abruptly and sat down on his bed. It had been ten years since that incident, and he was now a twenty-four year old college student. In order to get his mind off what had happened, he applied to and entered one of the most difficult schools of technology in France. He lost himself in more modern technology and refused to take part in robot competitions and discussions and inventions of future technology. The pain was too much for him to bear. Whenever he saw something—a simple picture or a small model—of a supercomputer, a robot, anything of the like, he saw the faces of his best friends and collapsed on the spot. He stuck himself in the past and refused to look towards the future, only being supported by William, who remained his last friend and link to Lyoko.

William had always been there for Jeremy and even attended a nearby college in order to keep an eye on him. Ever since the incident with the zombies, William found himself more and more protective of others, including Jeremy. Some days the two of them would sit at a small café and just talk about the four—Aelita, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi—and about Lyoko. They spoke of the factory and its supercomputer, scanners—all the equipment to get to Lyoko, although they presumed it was all crushed beyond repair and buried. They often pondered about the virtual world and on Jeremy's better days, about whether the Lyoko warriors truly died or maybe just stuck in virtual limbo. These discussions left Jeremy feeling extremely uncomfortable and often ended with him hurrying back to his dorm to study 17th century gunnery.

Aelita's last words were scribbled on a piece of notebook paper which he constantly looked back at, and internally beat himself up for not completely abiding by what she said. By deliberately ignoring the future and not contributing to make it a better technological experience for the rest of the world than themselves he was flat-out going against her. But he was not strong enough, he often told himself. Then he would inwardly punch himself because that was the first thing Aelita had told him. To be strong.

At that moment, Jeremy remembered the project he had started not that long ago. If he was going to use his intelligence, he might as well use for them. They might not be really gone, Jeremy thought excitedly. They might just be trapped, like I was when I first tried going there. He was afraid, that much was true. If this didn't work, he would become even more depressed with the fact that he failed and that his friends were really, truly gone. But he would never know until he tried that. He had to try running that certain program. With a grunt, Jeremy grabbed his coat and rushed out the door, dialing William's number.

"'Sup?"

"William, I want you to meet me at my lab. There's something I want to show you."

William seemed perplexed, but answered, "Sure, I'll be there in a sec."

Within minutes William ran into the lab, his dark blue hair tousled by the wind.

"What is it?" he asked as he walked over to Jeremy, who had sat down at one of the many white computers in the large, unlit room. Science tables were scattered around, with beakers sitting delicately on their black surfaces. Next to him was a strange contraption consisting of a large box marked with technological symbols and two sci-fi-looking helmets attached to it with complicated, colored wires.

Jeremy began to speak. "After the factory got destroyed, I started creating and programming these helmets when I got into this college. After a couple of weeks I abandoned the project, but I was already almost finished."

"And? What's it got to do with me?"

At this moment Jeremy turned around in his swivel chair. His eyes, once glazed from the incident, was now bright and clear and staring fiercely back at William from behind his dark-framed glasses.

"How would you like…to go back to Lyoko?"

Well, if that wasn't crap I don't know what is anymore.

I just thought of this after watching some random Code Lyoko episodes and I just had to write it down, although it's not what I wanted it to be. Also, I think I made William too...motherly, I guess, but I promise he'll be somewhat more William-ish, as William-ish as I can write him, as the story goes on. If it goes on.

At any rate, hope you liked it to some extent.

~Wings~ flying off.