CHAPTER 9

Finally the so long awaited by the members of the group lunch break came. This time even for Odd food was not as important. Everybody was very excited when after a fast lunch they walked together to their bench in a distant part of the school grounds. There was also William, who was invited by Aelita.

"As you all know," Jeremie started, "through last week Franz Hopper was sending to us a programme. And just today when we got the last piece of it so that me and Aelita could merge it, we could figure out how it works. And it turns out we got something really unusual. Third key to Lyoko."

"Third key to Lyoko?" Ulrich repeated. "But... as far as I remember, there were only two keys, one belonged to Aelita and the other one to her father!"

"And if the third key exists, who does it belong to?" asked Yumi, who was as surprised as Ulrich. Aelita had an answer prepared.

"To the one who was supposed to live wit me and Dad on Lyoko. To my mom."

"But, if it existed, why do we learn about it now?" Ulrich kept asking.

"Because it was never written until now," Jeremie said. "Franz Hopper predicted the existence of third key in Lyoko's structure, but he never wrote it."

"He had another reason," Aelita added. "Third key has one specific property. It contains codes capable of causing XANA's auto destruction when all three keys are activated at the same time."

"Exactly," continued Jeremie. "I think XANA knew it and tried to kill Franz, so we could never use it. And that's why it was sent in pieces; to make it harder for XANA to intercept it."

There was a collective sigh of "wow" from the others, who were impressed with such clever plan.

"This Franz Hopper is unbelievable," said amazed William, "Did he play chess by any chance? Because I see chess player's mind in working here; planning a few moves ahead to forestall enemy's movements..."

"'Course he did!" laughed Aelita. "He even tried to teach me, but I wasn't too interested..."

"Anyway," interrupted Jeremie, "our aim today is launch the third key and get rid of XANA once and for all. Our plan is to send you all to Sector 5, so Aelita will launch it on the main terminal."

"But do really everybody have to go? XANA is no threat to us..." Ulrich was surprised.

"If Franz is cautious, then we ought to be, too," Jeremie explained quickly. "If everything goes as planned, you'll have nothing to do."

"What a shame, and I thought I'd crack the last monster's head," said Odd.

"I'd rather you were right. Let the last trip to Lyoko be a pleasant one," Yumi supported Jeremie.

"Well then, if you know everything, then we meet after classes in the factory."

"No need to say twice!" said William enthusiastically.

The break was coming to an end. The gang moved back to school. As they passed by the vending machines, Aelita decided to use a chance and talk to Yumi about William. She caught up with Yumi, who was walking slowly behind her, and stopped her by the machines.

"I hope you don't mind William going with us to Lyoko today?" she asked. She knew that Yumi already talked to Ulrich on the same topic earlier in the morning and she had to start differently then him.

Yumi shook her head indifferently.

"I don't mind... why not... why not..." she answered and shrugged. "Oh people, why you want to talk about William today so much...?" she got irritated and straightened up as if she wanted to leave. It was clear that she'd rather be left alone. But Aelita was not going to give up so easily. She leaned against the wall as if she wanted to block Yumi's way and told her of her talks to William. She mentioned also about what she learned from Ulrich and signified her full support for him, also that she should have talked to her earlier about her objections.

Yumi calmed down and felt uncomfortable, not only because she realized that she overreacted.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Come on, and don't feel guilty about it. Just tell me the truth... now."

Yumi did not answer for a while. Aelita often talked to her about her problems; why should she have any secrets to hide from her?

"Do you feel torn between William and Ulrich?" Aelita provoked her friend.

"Torn, huh?" Yumi was outraged. "I never was torn! It's William where the problem is! It's simply that... He still thinks things are like they were before XANA possessed him... and he thinks he still can mess in my head. He's a nice guy, okay, but I don't want to give him stupid hope that he's gonna be more than that-"

"So, why don't you tell Ulrich?"

"What?"

"Everything. Why... why you still hesitate to reveal your feelings to him?"

"Because..." Yumi paused, "because he took "the friends only" thing too seriously."

"Yumi Ishiyama who gives up so easily? Is still Yumi there?" Aelita was surprised with such attitude. "I think you... you shouldn't think of it that way. You should give him a chance."

"You think I didn't? He looks like he doesn't notice them."

"Oh Yumi, you pessimist..." Aelita smiled. "I see that you two still need more time."

"You're right. We need some more time..." Yumi sighed.

The girls walked away from the vending machines and came back to school, as the bell was about to ring. As they walked across the courtyard, in the distance of some 5 meters they passed a bench where boys were sitting and having a heated discussion. Aelita watched Ulrich, who was listening to Jeremie carefully and nodding at him in agreement. When Ulrich raised his head and noticed the girls heading to the main school building, he caught the attention of Jeremie and Odd that he noticed them. Aelita saw Jeremie who, glancing at his watch and having checked the time, gave a sign to stand up and join the girls. Ulrich was still looking at them – or rather at Yumi.

"I hope it's not Yumi who took the "friends only" thing too seriously," Aelita thought.

After the lunch the waiting was even more unbearable. Odd proposed seriously to skip the last lesson, but his friends treated it as rather a god joke. Skipping Chemistry class with Mrs. Hertz, who already observed them carefully due to constant runaways and being late in classes, was a straight way to detention; and additional obstacles on their way today were way less than welcome for the group.

The long awaited bell announcing the end of last lesson rang. The eight-graders left the classroom with shouts of joy due to the end of classes. The gang, especially Odd, were even more excited. But before they managed to leave the classroom, Professor Hertz asked Aelita to stay for a while. Aelita, feeling that it may take a while, told the boys not to wait for her and head straight to the factory.

The rest was about to run to the manhole in the park when Jeremie calmed them down and advised them to behave as natural as they could. His advice which purpose were to confuse Sissi turned out to be unnecessary, as Sissi's target was not them, but Aelita.

She waited for her to go out of the classroom, hidden behind a corner. She was equipped like professional paparazzo. In her pocket laid her new mobile phone with a camera, or rather – a mobile in a camera. Sissi was ready for hunting.

When Aelita left the classroom, Sissi followed her like a shadow. She followed her steps along the corridors and stairs, stopping from time to time to avoid being noticed. She leaned out on the banister and saw that Aelita stopped halfway on the stairs and reached for her mobile.

"Hey, sorry to be late... Hertz stopped me. Okay. Be right there, bye!"

Sissi couldn't hide satisfaction when she heard that chat. She couldn't wait to finally learn who Aelita's secret admirer is. She smiled under her nose, having a feeling to catch her red-handed. But what she couldn't know was that Aelita called to... Jeremie. Aelita ran downstairs quickly and having got out of the building, she ran to the manhole as fast as she could. Sissi ran after her, but when she reached the ground floor, Aelita was not already there. She rushed to the exit and took a look at the courtyard, hoping to spot her, unfortunately, with no luck. "I'll find you and your boyfriend either way," she snarled when she realized she missed her. She glanced at the courtyard once again before she went back to the dorm.

In the factory, Aelita traveled down with the elevator to the underground lab, where the rest of the group already waited for her. Jeremie was sitting in front of the screens and typing some commands. The others were sitting under the wall; they stood up together, when heavy doors opened with a screech of metal against metal. Jeremie turned in his armchair.

"Here I am. I see you're already warming up the scanners?" said Aelita.

"Yeah.. everything's set up. You can go," answered Jeremie and turned to the keyboard.

"Ladies first," he said through the intercom. The boys let Aelita and Yumi into the scanners. A few moments later the scanners' doors opened, letting Ulrich, Odd and William step in and be virtualized.

Soon they all found themselves on Lyoko in the arena of Sector 5 and walked into the corridor. The virtual world was quiet and calm. Jeremie stretched himself in the armchair with satisfaction as he watched his friends walking through the core zone to the elevator.

At the same time in the dorm, Sissi sat in her room in front of her big mirror, which, thanks to small lights surrounding it, resembled ones in celebrities' wardrobes and combed her long, dark hair. She could not get over the fact that she was so close to learning Aelita's secret and let her run away. She felt as if someone shut open door right in front of her nose. When she imagined that, her nose hurt, almost as if it really made contact with the imagined door. She was under such an impression of reality of her imagination that she leaned her face closer to her mirror and started examining her nose in search of any imperfections. As she focused her attention to her reflection, a plume of smoke emerged from the electric socket near the mirror and raised to her ear. For a moment Sissi felt as if she was electrocuted, then her vision blurred. Since then she had no longer her own will. XANA took over her mind, dictating her every move.

Jim Morales, like every afternoon on his duty in the dorm, was sitting in his room with legs on the table and was reading sumo magazines, listening to his favourite Dance and Techno. Suddenly, the door opened without knocking. Jim immediately took his feet back to the ground and muted the music when he recognized the incoming person.

"Yes, Sissi," he started mildly.

"Jim, I need you," said Sissi with an emotionless tone. "Jeremie and his friends do not respect the learning hours..."

"They aren't in their rooms? Are you sure?" Jim got interested. Usually he would not care if not the fact that it was principal's daughter who reported to him.

"Yes. Let's go, they deserve to be punished!" Sissi answered.

"I'll talk to them when they're back," said Jim indifferently.

"But I know where they are! Follow me, we'll catch them red-handed!" insisted Sissi.

"Okay, fine," Jim relented.

Sissi did not say anything, just rushed Jim and dragged him to the entrance to the sewers in the park almost by force.