The Day After

With Lyoko in the rebuilding process, XANA still alive and William back in the dark side, the gang find themselves back at square one. Episode 2 of The Reset Arc.

Disclaimer: Code Lyoko was created by Tania Palumbo and Thomas Romain. It was produced by Antefilms and then by MoonScoop. It is aired in France by France 3 and in America by Cartoon Network. The author is neither employed by or affiliated with any of the above companies or entities. All characters, locales, and other non-original entities are property of the parties mentioned above. All rights reserved.

An overcast sky dominated the morning in Paris. There was no ray of sunlight that rose on the horizon. The blue atmosphere that greeted people was not present today. Clouds of gray covered the sky this morning, indecisive as to whether or not they would make way for sunshine later in the day or give in to rain instead. This is the type of morning that make people wonder what their next move would be.

Standing outside of her house, Yumi Ishiyama felt the same way. As she waited for her little brother to finish things up so they could make the trek to school, she looked up at the cloudy sky and entered into deep thought. Just last night, she found out that her friend William had sided with XANA once more and regained his powers in the process. Unlike last time, however, he did so out of his own free will. That's what she believed. Her friends all saw it differently. According to them, William must have been under XANA's control once more, hence the reason for his appearance in the virtual world. Whatever the reasoning, the fact remained that XANA regained a major ally since he returned and the task of destroying him once and for all was just made a little tougher. Yumi got out of her train of thought just as her brother put on his shoes and exited the house. With both of them ready for the day, Yumi locked the front door and started making the commute to the Kadic Academy campus.

Hiroki Ishiyama looked at the face of her older sister. Over the years, he became good at figuring out Yumi's mood by simply looking at her face. With a good glance, he could tell if she was happy, sad, angry, or if it was 'that time of the month' for her. Based on the look on her face, he could tell that something was troubling her. Hoping that she would want to talk about it, he said nothing as they left the house. Halfway through the trip, however, they had not said one word to each other. After taking another glance and seeing that her countenance had not changed, he decided to speak. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," she responded in a low tone of voice.

A little bit of silence permeated until Hiroki broke it again. "Does it have to do with Ulrich?" he asked.

"No," she said in the same low tone.

"It has something to do with William, then?" he asked again.

A look of disgust covered Yumi's face. "None of your business!" she spat out.

Hiroki shook his head. "Honestly, sis, you should forget he exists. You know, flat-out reject the guy. He's nothing but trouble for you."

Yumi scowled at her brother again. "You know nothing about William. What makes you think I can just abandon him and forget about him?"

"Because there's Ulrich," he answered confidently. "You two are made for each other and all William is doing is getting you to split apart. You'll see. You tell William to get lost and you'll be happier for it."

Yumi sighed. "Whatever," she said as she tried to calm down. As far as she knew, Hiroki had no idea what William went through over the past year and he certainly had no idea what happened to him last night. It wouldn't be fair if she suddenly blew up on her little brother for speaking his mind. She took a deep breath to get her mind back in order. "What do you know about rejection, anyway? Did you finally get the nerve to ask Milly out?"

Hiroki's eyes bulged out as he was caught by surprise at his sister's question. "Um... no... I haven't... said anything... yet," he stammered out. "But I do keep telling Johnny that he's nuts for chasing you around."

It was now Yumi's turn to have her eyes bulge out in surprise. "You mean he still wants me?" she asked.

Hiroki nodded. "He still thinks you're hot, though I don't know why."

Yumi shook her head as she pushed her brother for that last comment. She made a mental note to herself to set things straight with Hiroki's friend before he goes and does something stupid. As they made their way inside campus, she saw William Dunbar just leaving the cafeteria on his way to his first class.

"Remember, tell him to leave you and Ulrich alone. He never had a chance," Hiroki reminded her as he started his trek to his first class. "See ya," he said as he departed.

The feeling of calm left as Hiroki moved away from her. That feeling was now replaced with anger as she saw that William was on Earth again. She knew it wasn't Jeremie's clone since he erased that program a long time ago. What she didn't know was whether or not this really was William in the flesh or if it was a polymorphic clone sent here by XANA. In her mind, there was only one way to find out.

"Oh, hey, Yumi," William called out as he waved his hand in her direction.

Yumi marched towards him with a sense of anger apparent in her step. "What the hell is the matter with you?" she demanded.

William had a look of confusion on his face. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Don't play dumb with me," she spat. "You went to Lyoko last night and sided with XANA. What's up with that?"

"Honestly, I don't remember doing any of this recently," he answered.

Yumi scoffed at the comment. "So you don't remember giving me a kiss before stabbing me in the gut, is that right?" she asked sarcastically.

William knew something was wrong with her. If he did kiss her, he would certainly remember it. "Are you sick or something, because..." he stopped as he tried to place the back of his hand below her cheek to check her temperature.

Yumi quickly snatched his wrist before his hand could get halfway to it's destination. "Don't. Touch. Me." Her eyes narrowed as she glared in his eyes. "Until you're ready to tell me the truth, I don't want to see you or hear from you again. I don't want to see you near my friends either. You caused them enough pain already. Do you understand?" she asked as she squeezed his wrist to prove her point.

William's face showed a bit of fear as he could feel the pain shoot up from his wrist to the rest of his arm. He nodded furiously until she let go of him. He then took his wrist and rubbed it as he watched her walk to her first class. As the school bell rang, he walked over to his first class, which also happened to be the same one Yumi had. Since they shared almost all of the same classes, he knew that this would be a very long day for him.