Did I ever mention how much I freaking love Code Lyoko? I'd watch it every Saturday before Pokémon came on back in the day, and though I never truly understood it then... I remained intrigued and watched the entirety of the show online at a later date. And just like I'd hoped, it was fantastic.

And with the show, I also adore the pairing of Jérémie and Aelita. As a result, I was at last inspired to write another fanfiction for the first time in eight months. And in honor of that, I'm going to try out an odd writing scheme. It won't likely occur in any of my future pieces, but I thought that I'd use it anyway.

Enough of that, I hope that you guys enjoy this!

Wolves.

Like a riptide, they charged. Their fangs were bared menacingly, and appeared almost too sharp for such canines to have. Under the eerie shadows of the forest trees paws and claws tore at the ground, destroying the tiny footprints in their wake. The growls and howls exchanged between the tight pack masked any noise that came near with ease. This was especially true with the cries of an elf. His breaths came short and shallow. He willed himself to run faster.

Rustling.

Bushes shook on both sides of the narrow path. The noise only grew louder and louder still until the pack leapt violently from them. A shrill scream sounded from the imp when a flash of grey whipped past him. He skidded to a halt and rushed back in hopes of evading his hunters. His head was spinning, and his heart pounding faster than it had ever had. But after a few missteps, the small creature had collided with a gruff and furry leg. He felt the rumbling of the wolf's gnarl rip through the cage of the monstrous body. Daring to look up, the elf shakily rose his head and was met with the too-familiar set of knife-like teeth.

Fear.

It overwhelmed the sprite faster than he could run. The eyes of the beasts were glowing and yellow, their expressions were wild with bloodlust. The ashen fur of the pack member shifted seamlessly over its muscles as it bent down to the imp's level. It's jaws gaped wide and gave an earth-shattering bark, causing the elf to stumble backward. The rest of the group gave their barks and bellows in anticipation. The noise was muffled to the ringing ears of the sprites. In a feeble final gambit, the elf rose back to his feet and struggled to fake out the circling ring of death. Though, like he expected, he was snatched up in the teeth of one of the wolves by the scruff of his neck. He squirmed in the tight grip, but as he began to feel the fangs of the wolf poke at his skin, he ceased.

Savagery.

To them, it was all a game. They tossed the sprite from one to the other. The shrieking, the howling... all horrific. All of it had a disgusting contrast to the unreal white sunlight that casted into between the leaves. Throw after throw, catch after catch, he was growing more and more feeble. With one inaccurate throw, the imp fell with a thud onto the hard-packed earth. Frustrated, the pack made sharp lunges toward him.

With one final scream, his world cut to black.

And just as quickly as the elf went, the second of darkness became light again.

Screaming.

Grabbing her head, a girl scrambled from her bed and onto the floor. Visions of beasts- of wolves- lingered in her line of sight. Her blanket twisted and bound her body together, and her struggling only worsened her state of mind. Kicking and clawing at the blanket as it covered her face made her misplaced desperation only grow. She had to run, get away. And these linens were only counteracting her, suffocating her, and leaving her with shallow and panicked breaths and a body covered in an uncomfortable cold sweat.

Escape.

With great strain, the teenage girl was at last freed from her net. Her eyes still squeezed shut, she stumbled forward, at last shaking her blanket from her small feet. The floor was cold in the moonlit room, and for a moment the girl had a flash of her dream from seconds ago. Teeth like daggers, eyes like broken streetlamps... It was all too much. And she could've sworn that she's just seen a wolf out of the corner of her eye, could it be that what she was seeing was real?

Panic.

She grabbed on to a couple patches of her short, pink hair, and barreled her way towards her bedroom door. She gave a terrified wail and ducked her head. Run, run, she had to get out. Reaching out a shaky hand, she desperately grabbed at the dimly lit air for a doorknob. After a few failed attempts, sobs from her hysteria broke through the thin sheet of calm that barely held up in her. She crumpled to the ground in defeat and curled into a ball at the foot of her doorway. Her long sleepshirt draped over the youth's knees as she buried her face in them. Her ear resting on the cool wood of the door. These nightmares had never been as bad as they'd been on this night, and never before had her visions lingered. At the same time, she both believed and disbelieved in what she was seeing. It was as if her only shreds of her usual, clear mind were slipping right through her fingers...

Knocking.

It was more of a furious pounding on the student's door, causing the girl to give a cry of fear and hug her knees closer to her. From the other side of the door, there was an exasperated growl and a louder round of rapping at the door. Flinching, the youth hurried to retreat back from the door and its booming hammers on the door. They resonated deep in her ears... it was almost as if she were the elf again. An irritated grumble sounded from the hallway, and as soon as she knew it, the door flung open. Light poured into her room and stabbed threateningly at her eyes. She trembled at the sudden motion, but clenched her teeth together to prevent further cries. After all, she still had some pride to hang onto. Though, when she looked up at the looming figure above her, all that she could see was a dark colored wolf. Her jaws snapped in what she thought was alarmingly close to her. If any words came from the intruder, she couldn't hear them. She tried to contain the fear welling up inside of her, but she just plain couldn't. She released a second sharp screech and curled up into a smaller ball.

Awakening.

It took a little bit, but after at last rubbing her eyes, the teen was at last completely free of her state of half-sleep. Looking up again, she swept some tears from her face and found that the big bad wolf that she saw was nothing less than just another girl like herself- one with black hair. The pink-haired student recognized her quite quickly, what with her bright pink-and-yellow sleepwear. It could be easily told that she was absolutely fuming.

"Stones!" she roared, "Have you been listening at all?"

Well, she could probably pass as a wolf with the tone she was deciding to take. It had caused the already agitated youth to cry harder. Moving her hands from her head down to her face, she made a great effort to stifle her shaky weeping. She thought that maybe, she should defend herself, but at that point in time, she just... couldn't. Whenever she was successful in opening her mouth, only unintelligible bumbling could be made out.

"What is wrong with you?" the black-haired teenager bellowed in a tone far harsher than predicted, "This is the second night in a row you've woken me up!"

She still failed to give a response to the riled youth.

"Honestly... how can you be human with the amount of racket you've made so quickly?" she continued harshly, completely unaware of the nerve she had struck.

It had happened to be quite a long day for everyone at Kadic in the eighth grade, what with the onslaught of pop quizzes and a cancelled field trip. So it was of course normal that someone, anyone, would react in such a way at around wee hour of three in the morning. Taking a deep breath and raising herself to a sitting potion, she tried once again to make words.

"I... I-I..." she stuttered before feeling fresh warm tears stream down her face. Also being in the eighth grade year, she, too had quite the day. However, with the rude awakening of her conscious and the hurtful commentary... it had left her a little bit more than just "shaken".

"I can't believe this," she hissed at the flustered girl, "I'd think that an Einstein like you'd be able to at least talk."

Giving a raucous snivel, the pink-haired youth looked down at her feet, giving up finding something to say.

Footsteps.

They sounded from the immediate hallway just outside. The distraught teenager took a sharp inhale, preparing herself for what she was almost certain was another annoyed girl on their boarding room floor. She had been rather loud, and she would understand their frustration. But that didn't mean that they would help her situation in the slightest...

"Aelita?" an unexpectedly low-key voice asked from the open doorway, "What's going on in there?"

"Jérémie?" she hiccuped. "W-what are you d-doing on the girl's floor?"

"Mr. Einstein?" challenged the irked female, "You know that you're not allowed up here, so what's a goodie-goodie like you doing, going against the rules?"

"I heard Aelita screaming," he replied steadily, but calmly, "I got worried, and came up to check on her."

Jérémie's light blue pajamas practically glowed in the eyes of Aelita. At last, a kind face!

"Besides," he continued strongly, straightening the glasses on his face, "what are you doing in here, Sissi?"

"Well, well I..." she stammered, taken aback, "Well... I was just trying to give her a piece of my mind! It's been too long of a day, and this isn't the first time she's woken me up with her noise!"

"Well, that's just too bad," Jérémie answered firmly, "It's not exactly Aelita's fault for getting scared."

"Yeah, but what a show she put on!" scoffed the indignant Sissi, "It's almost as if she were trying to wake everyone up!"

"Aelita would never do such a thing on purpose!" the blonde boy defended in an equally miffed force, "How dare you accuse her of such a thing?!"

Confrontation.

Though usually a passive person, Aelita slowly rose to her feet to look over at Sissi, interrupting her current run-in with her friend. Her breathing still came in short, rattling cycles from the aftershock of everything, but she tried to the best of her ability to say at least something on all of this. Her adversary turned to her with a fiery expression. Whatever she was about to say, it had to be good to end this quickly. Inhaling once more before beginning again, Aelita looked down at her bare feet. The tears in their continuous stream began to now splash on the floor.

"I-I'm sorry I woke you up, Sissi," the girl began, now raising her head to meet Sissi's eyes, "A-and I know that it's b-been a long day for all of us, but I do not believe that your input is helping anything."

Sissi continued to stare her down. Her annoyance was justified, but so strong that it could almost pass as malice.

"I'm going to ask you t-to leave." she concluded simply, "Please."

"Hmmph," she huffed, "Well, if I'm leaving, then so is your boyfriend,"

"In due time," answered Jérémie as he began to walk over to Aelita's side, "I just need to talk with her for a little bit before I go back to bed,"

There they all stood, shooting intense looks from one another. Somehow from just that, they had all come to somewhat of an understanding.

"Fine," grumbled the taller girl, "But if you wake me up again tonight," she pointed a finger at her for emphasis, "I'm going to have to tell my father that Belpois has been up here."

"Thank you, Sissi," the boy replied curtly, "We'll be careful."

"I hope so," she griped colorlessly on her way out, "After all, some of us want our beauty sleep."

Order.

She had left the door cracked slightly open when she had left, and it was needless to say that it was quite a relief to at last have her leave. Though on the surface, Sissi didn't seem like a big deal, but for Aelita, it had simply added more chaos to the entire ordeal. And with that garish nightmare and her uncontrollable crying, yelling was definitely the last thing she needed. The nerve that had been struck, and the shock of her horrid dreams... all that angry shouting was accomplishing was throwing some water on that electrical fire...

"So..." he began, looking up at Aelita with concern, "Another nightmare?"

A flash of a wolf and unimaginable terror instantaneously filled her senses, but only for a moment.

"Y-yeah..." she answered, her heart pounding in her chest. "A-and the same one... But worse. I-is that normal?"

"Normal?" said Jérémie, "Well, no, not exactly..."

A bit of new panic began to grow inside of her. Was this, perhaps, a ploy of XANA's? It would explain the sheer intensity and the recurrence of her dream.

Disarray.

Just as quickly as the sense of soothing normalcy came, it drowned in the chaos inside of Aelita's mind. Was it the virus that the accursed system had implanted into her? Was that virus only just now giving her its full effects? For how long would this continue? How much longer until this began to hurt not only her, but the people around her, her friends? Her face became a pinker pink, and though exhausted, her the rest of her body refused to let her settle. Her energy fueled by her fear allowed her to only react stronger and to make her emotions spiral more out of her control.

"H-hey, Aelita," he cut in, noticing the quickening of his friend's breaths, "please try to calm down..."

She was already in a fragile state, so it was no wonder when she began to feel more warm tears roll down her cheeks. And doubled with her woe, now familiar sobs began to return her breathing to its clattering form.

"What I meant to say," he now tried to add as fast as he could, "that reoccurring nightmares aren't usual, but they're not unheard of, either."

Explanation.

She now began to cool down, but only the slightest bit. This could still be the doing of their favorite AI, but it was at least known that there was a possibility against this. Though, this could likely become knows with the answer of one question- and what Aelita needed most at that point in time was information. And knowing her friend, he was almost certain to have at least some information on the matter, even if the knowledge base of a human had its limits.

"S-so, Jérémie..." she sniffed, "Are there a-any known causes for this kind of instance?"

"Let's see..." he mumbled, grabbing his chin with his thumb and index finger, "Well, I don't know if this applies to you, Aelita, but I believe that recurring nightmares are usually triggered by some past trauma..."

"Trauma?" she interrupted after regaining (most of) her composure, "Like when you hit your head really hard?"

"No, not exactly," he explained patiently, "That's physical trauma. What I meant was psychological trauma, or something that caused you extreme emotional pain."

"Okay... I think I get it." she nodded.

"That's all fine and good, but as far as we know, you haven't had any trauma of this sort since we brought you to Earth," he puzzled, "So these... these dreams... they don't have a conclusive cause."

"Do you think that this could be XANA's doing?" she voiced fearfully.

"It is possible," he said grimly, "But we can always analyze this properly at the lab tomorrow."

Her green eyes searched him with uncertainty. The fear within her, though weakened, was still stirring and strong. The pieces of her much needed answer were all there, but at the same time, they were nonexistent. Jérémie, noticing this, took a step closer to her and took her hand soothingly.

Comfort.

His hand was cold, but the sensation rippled through her with surprisingly intense warmth. It splashed up to her face at as soon as she comprehended that her hand was intertwined with her closest friend's. It tinged her face in a reddish hue and made her heartbeat to accelerate, and for the first time this night not in distress. Ducking her head shyly, she couldn't help but crack a bright smile. Glancing back up at her taller companion for only a second, she saw that he had a similar expression. Before she could look back down at their hands, his blue eyes caught her.

Out of their embarrassment, they both quickly withdrew their hands in what they felt was too soon.

"So, eh..." Jérémie spluttered, rubbing the back of his head nervously, "H-how does tomorrow afternoon at lunch sound?"

"For what?" she murmured in a daze before snapping herself sharply back into reality, "O-oh! For the lab. Y-yeah, sounds good."

Goodbyes.

Though being in the others presence was more than pleasant for them both, they had to part ways to sleep the rest of the night away. School was not usually all that long for these two star students of Kadic, but without a proper amount of sleep, they both knew that they were likely to end up falling behind that day. And though tomorrow was going to be an ordinary day for everyone in their year, they both took each day as seriously as the next.

"It's getting late," he announced, "I should head off to bed."

"Oh, so soon?" asked Aelita, instantly kicking herself for saying it, "Well, okay then..."

He made his eyes break away from her gaze when he turned around and made his way to her bedroom door. The floorboards creaked quietly as he walked, and something in the back of her head reawakened when they did. She didn't know if it were just a random happening of the human mind, or if it were just a subconscious excuse to make him linger for a while longer, but at the front of her mind stood the comment that Sissi had made to her earlier. Yes, she knew that when people said such a thing to one another that its meaning was near meaningless, but to her... it made that too-familiar air of doubt fester within her, to the point that it was firmly planted to the front of her mind.

And when his fingers closed carefully onto the door, Aelita couldn't help but practically leap towards him. By instinct, she grabbed his free hand with her own. He jumped in his own skin in a response, but allowed his hand to once again to weave into her's.

"Jérémie... please wait." she pleaded timidly, "I forgot to tell you about something Sissi said."

"Y-yeah?" he stammered, "What was it?"

"When I was crying- okay, more like screaming- she asked me how I could possibly..." the she swallowed, "Possibly be human."

Reassurance.

"Call me childish, but I really let it get to me tonight," she extended through Jérémie's silence, "A-and it really started to make me think... is it possible that people are going to find out about me? And if they did, then how would everyone at school react? How would the world react?"

The boy only tightened his grip on her hand and stood in the quiet of the night. It was evident that he was thinking with care of what to say next, but for that moment, it was another window of time filled to the brim with the glow of mellowing grace.

He took a deep breath through his nose and looked her dead in the eye.

"Aelita," he began seriously, "Let me assure you that if the world found out about Lyoko, about you... I'd- we'd do anything in our power to keep you safe with us."

He paused, leaving the two once again suspended in the familiar calm air before he once again continued.

"And if anyone at all found out, I don't really think that it should matter all that much. I've said it before and I'll say it again; you're just as human as Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, or me. It doesn't matter how you came here, its who you ended up being."

Aelita briskly closed the gap between them when she wrapped him up in a hug. He was at first frozen, but then became accustomed to the feeling. Very soon, he enveloped her, as well, resting his head on her shoulder as she did the same with him.

"A-and I can't make any promises at this point in time, but Aelita..." for this, he lowered his voice to a comforting hum, "Whatever happens, you have to know this; you're going to be okay, you're human, and... and you've got friends in this world who, uh... care about you."

Gently breaking their embrace, Jérémie took a step back.

"Please don't ever forget that."

Goodnight.

At least for this night, she could have one. To be able to sleep soundly and knowing that she was going to do so was quite uplifting. And though they were to say goodbye, it was only until the sun rose once again.

"Bye, Jérémie," she murmured, looking up at his flushed face, "And thank you. Thank you for the help tonight..."

"It's no problem, really," he responded sheepishly, once again reaching for the door, "Anything for you, Aelita."

"Goodnight," she wished him softly, turning her own way back to bed.

"Goodnight, Aelita." yawned Jérémie, before carefully stepping back out into the illuminated corridors of the Kadic boarding rooms.

Sleep.

Though it took a little while to thoroughly wash over her once again, sleep came deeply and pleasantly. This second reign of sleep first came with the expectations of a dream of dark but blissful nothingness, but this became untrue very shortly. A dream soon painted itself into her mind, a dream thankfully different from the one before it...

No wolves raced through her head this time, though she still walked in a bright wood. The sense of unease hung in the air, but only until she realized that she was no elf... but that she was, in fact, herself. She was walking, not running. She was at ease, not panicked. And instead of screams, only the melodic sound of her humming filled in the gaps between the trees...

And she did not walk alone.

Beside her walked a boy. He donning his usual blue shirt and glasses.

He strolled beside her with relaxed strides, listening intently to the tune of her melody.

And as they strolled... he was holding her hand.

Sweet dreams...

I realize that there are very likely more than just this version of this story for the pairing and fandom, but I really wanted to throw my hat into the ring anyway.

And to be clear, this one-shot is set before anyone knew that she was human. I hoped that I made that clear enough for everyone, but just in case...

Other than that, I can safely say that I'm very proud of this piece! It took quite a bit of work, but I'm ready to at last, submit this. I hope that you guys had an enjoyable read.

Thanks for reading, and have a good day!