The next morning, Elie leaned against the wall outside of the bathroom. There was a long line this morning and she was next in line. If only whoever was in front of her would get out... It wasn't like Elie was going to take long; she had taken a shower in the middle of night again. She just wanted to work on her make up. The small mirror in her pocket was well enough for fixing her contacts, but it didn't cut it for larger jobs.
Aelita walked out of her room, looking tired and vaguely upset. Elie was about to abandon her place in line to go talk with the girl, but the bathroom door opened and Sissi walked out. The girls behind her grumbled and Elie just glared silently. Of course she'd been the one in there for the last hour... Not wanting to delay the line any longer, she slipped inside and put on her make up quickly and made sure her contacts were in place. It took less than five minuets and when she came back out Aelita was gone. Maybe she'd decided it wasn't worth the wait?
Shrugging Elie got her school bag and went to find the others. Jeremie and Yumi were already at breakfast so she joined them. They didn't talk much, but it was an easy silence. Later Odd, Ulrich and Aelita joined them. Aelita still looked upset by something, but Elie didn't want to bring it up in front of everyone. Breakfast past quickly and the group left. There was still a bit of time before school so they decided to relax around the vending machine.
"Last night I did a search on that house we found. Apparently it's owned by a guy named Franz Hopper." Jeremie said. "And it turns out that a man named Franz Hopper was a science teacher here at school."
Yumi tilted her head. "You think the owner of the Hermitage and the science teacher are the same person?"
"Well, finding two guys named Franz Hopper in less than half a mile of each other would sure be a real coincidence." Ulrich said.
"There's only one way to be sure." Jeremie said, sounding rather eager. "After History, we have a study period in the library. What do you say we do a little research in the academy archives?"
Odd gave an approving grin. "Good idea."
"I'll go with you." Aelita added.
"That's not a good idea." Jeremie said, shaking his head. "You already got in trouble in the showers this morning. If Jim catches you snooping in the archives you'll be suspended for sure. We'll meet later in the cafeteria."
The boys walked off and Yumi put her hand on Aelita's shoulder. "Are you alright?" She asked. Apparently Elie hadn't been the only one to notice that their friend was upset about something.
"I just can't get used to living here." Aelita admitted, then looked at Elie. "I had another nightmare last night. The same one."
Yumi just smiled kindly. "You haven't even been here a week yet. You'll see, you'll feel better in no time."
Aelita smiled at this and Yumi left to go to class.
"Did you tell anyone else about your nightmares?" Elie asked. Aelita shook her head. "Well, I'm glad you've told us at least. I'm new here too you know, so if you're upset about something, come find me, ok?"
Aelita nodded again. "I will. Thanks Elie. We should get going to class." Elie nodded and fallowed her friend to math.
"What happened this morning? Jeremie said you got in trouble at the bathroom?"
Aelita looked down. "Oh, that. Sissi told me that since there was such a long line for the bathroom I should go upstairs. I didn't know that was where the boy's bathroom is and Jim found me there."
"She's such a brat... Didn't Jim let you explain?" Elie asked. When Aelita shook her head, she sighed. "Someone's got to do something about her..."
That afternoon, Elie was running late for lunch. She had wanted to talk to Aelita a bit more about her nightmares and maybe get help on their math work. What she saw when she arrived pissed her off. Sissi was picking on Aelita. Again.
"So Aelita, going back to the great white north?" Sissi asked in her annoyingly prim voice.
Aelita clenched her teeth and fists. "Why not? At least i feel at home there!" She ran towards the woods and Elie ran up to Sissi. She knew where Aelita was going and would catch up in a moment. "What's your problem?" Elie demanded, glaring at the girl. "Why won't you just leave her alone?"
"Oh honestly! Why is everyone so protective of her? She's just going to have to adapt." Sissi flipped a bit of hair over her shoulder.
Elie's glare darkened. "Back the fuck off. Pick on me if you've got the guts but leave her alone, got it?" Sissi took a steep back and Elie took off.
Aelita would go to the factory, she was sure of that. Ducking into the sewer, she ran as fast as she could. She got turned around once, but she could still hear Aelita's foot steps ahead of her. By the time she got to the factory, Aelita was vanishing in the elevator. Cursing her bad luck for getting her turned around, she waited for the elevator to stop, then called it up again. When she got to the scanner room it was to late; Aelita was on Lyoko and Elie had no idea how to work the computer or the scanners.
She frantically tried to figure out what to do. She didn't dare work the computer herself, so what should she do? Sliding her hands into her pocket she felt the new cellphone in her pocket and dialed Jeremie's phone.
"Elie? Where are you? You and Aelita were late for class and Sissi said-" he started.
"I know. We're at the factory. Aelita went to Lyoko. I don't know how to work the scanners to go after her. She's really upset, get here fast."
"Right." Jeremie hung up and Elie took the elevator up to wait for the rest of the group to arrive.
Everyone but Yumi arrived quickly, though not quickly enough for Elie's taste. "Where were you?" She asked, trying not to sound angry.
"We went back to her Hermitage." Odd said. "Jeremie found a book."
"We can talk about it later. Get to the scanner room." Jeremie got off at the computer room and Elie, Odd, and Ulrich went to the scanners. Yumi joined them a moment later and soon all four were on Lyoko.
"Where is she?" Elie asked, looking around. Jeremie told them to go due north and to hurry. Aelita had fallen into a trap.
"Ulrich, go ahead. With your speed you'll get there first." Odd said. Ulrich nodded but it was to late. Two large red monsters surrounded them. Elie had not seen the Krabs yet but it didn't take long to see their weakness. Cut the long legs and they would fall.
The rest of the group already knew this; Yumi and Ulrich took on one krab while Odd climbed up one of the trees, drawing the second one's attention. Ulrich cut their Krab's legs and Yumi threw her fan to kill it. Odd reigned arrows down on his to clear the path.
Jeremie seemed to remember the vehicles then and summoned them. Elie rode with Odd on his board. When they arrived where Aelita should have been, though, they found nothing. Aelita was nowhere to be found.
"She's gone already?" Odd asked, clearly teasing. "She must really be mad at us."
"This is no time to joke Odd, I've lost Aelita from my screens!" The panic in Jeremie's voice was clear.
"You mean... she's..." Yumi didn't finish, the thought was to horrible.
"No, I doubt it. I think she's just disappeared from the screens as if... Wait... what's going on?" He paused for a moment, then triumphantly declared "I got it! Wait, that's strange. Aelita's not on this sector anymore. She's not on any of the sectors!"
"Can you explain that any better?" Ulrich asked.
"No... Not really. Let's just say she's in a sector that doesn't exist." Another short pause and Jeremie said, "A fifth sector."
"Carthage..." Elie didn't know where the word came from, but she was sure that's where Aelita was. No one seemed to have heard her.
"Have you gone bananas Einstein?" Odd asked.
"No. Maybe if i could just fix this thing..." Jeremie sounded desperate, then confused. "Welcome to Carthage?
"Do you think you could hurry it along?" Odd asked.
Just then, three hornets buzzed in. Elie stayed on the ground while the other three took to the air in their vehicles. The fight didn't take long and Elie didn't even have to lift a finger this time.
"Jeremie what are we doing?" Ulrich asked.
"Wait, I've got a little problem. I need a password. Something to do with Carthage."
"This is no time for a history lesson!" Ulrich exclaimed.
"History...? That's exactly what I need!" Jeremie went silent for a bit longer.
More Hornets arrived and this time Elie got to join the fight. Only a few flew her way, but she took them down with ease. Her only complaint was that she didn't have a vehicle yet; she planed to fix that as soon as they went back to the real world. The others were not having such an easy time. They had to fight at least twice as many hornets as she had and they were in trouble. "Jeremie hurry up!" She ran forward and killed a hornet that was about to shoot Odd. More showed up and Elie knew they couldn't keep up this pace.
"I'm going to get it I'm sure of it." Jeremie told them.
The swarm grew as more hornets flew in from seemingly nowhere. There had to be forty of them at least. Everyone moved to stand back to back. Jeremie rambled off name after name with no result. "Scipio." Elie said. "Try Scipio. He defeated the Carthaginians."
A moment passed and Jeremie's voice returned. "I can't believe it! It worked. Nice one Elie." She grinned as the hornets flew away.
It was still to early to relax though; a strange white ball flew up over the side of the land, as if rising from the digital sea and circled around them. Nausea bubbled in her stomach. She felt the ball moving, flying at impossible speed and it took all of her will not to throw up. Then they stopped and the group found themselves in a strange round chamber. Under them was the Eye of XANA icon, and the roof over them wad domed and spinning wildly.
Odd seemed to have been similarly effected by the trip and she gave him a small smirk and put her hand on his shoulder. "That sucked." She groaned. He gave her a small smile of his own.
"Welcome to Sector 5 everyone." Jeremie said proudly.
"What's it look like?" Yumi asked.
"A sphere." Jeremie said. "Oh.. That's probably bad news. A timer just popped up." His voice turned urgent suddenly. "I think Aelita's being attacked! Hurry. Take the foot bridge behind you."
Elie nodded and turned, running with the rest of the group over a think blue bridge. In front of them was a wall in a darker shade of blue that opened up for them to revile more walls that opened. The end result was a slightly twisted hallway.
At the end they found a strange room made of blue blocks and jellyfish-like monster that had Aelita in it's tentacles. "Uh, Jeremie, there's this... thing here." Ulrich said.
"Destroy it quickly! That thing is taking Aelita's memories!"
Elie nodded and did as Jeremie said. Yumi threw her fan, cutting the creature's tentacles and freeing Aelita. There were three other new monsters in the room though, and Ulrich killed one of them, then caught Aelita as she fell. Odd's arrows took out the second one and Elie's knives claimed the third.
Without warning, the room started to change. The blocks lifted and lowered randomly and it seemed that the room was closing in on it's self. "Get out of there!" Jeremie told them. Ulrich, Aelita and Yumi did, running for the exit. Elie started to fallow, but Odd had yet to move.
"Come on!" She urged, turning and pulling him along with her. "The room's closing." The block under his feet started to lift and he nearly fell. She managed to keep him on his feet but it was close. Then the hallway of walls began to close as they ran threw it. They barely made it out, with less than an inch to spare between her foot and the final slamming wall. She panted, grinning at Odd. He smiled back and pat her on the back.
"Thanks Elie. You really saved my tail." He said. She just smiled, to out of breath to reply. A moment later the white ball came back and returned them to the forest sector, then Jeremie brought them back to earth.
That night, just before lights out, everyone gathered in Jeremie's room to tell him about sector five. "You should have seen it Jeremie. There were all these creepy things, and in the middle a giant jellyfish thing holding Aelita." Odd said. From his lap, Kiwi growled. Elie scratched behind his ears and he calmed down.
"Can you believe that thing was stealing my memory?" Aelita asked, having trouble with the idea herself.
"Yeah. One thing's for sure, XANA wants to get something out of you. But what?" Jeremie asked. "We've got to find out.
Ulrich nodded. "I can't wait to go back to the fifth sector. There's so much to explore there."
"I'll go with you." Yumi said.
"Wait a minuet." Jeremie said, waving his hand to stop any more comments. "It's still uncharted territory, which means whatever's there could be really dangerous.
The group nodded, then Aelita sighed. "You guys aren't mad at me for going back to Lyoko are you? I don't know what happened, I just..."
"You don't have to explain Aelita. We already know what happened, and we're not angry at all." Jeremie moved to sit next to Aelita. "I promise I'll spend more time with you."
"And I'll teach you plenty of ways to tell Sissi to go to-"
"Odd!" Sissi interrupted, moving to block the doorway. "Do you have any idea what your filthy mutt did in the shower?" She paused for a moment, then smiled condescendingly. "What a pretty picture! So you finally found Mrs. Einstein."
"Yeah, while you were taking your third shower of the day." Ulrich glared and pointed his finger accusingly at her.
"What can I say Ulrich dear? A beautiful flower like me needs to be watered often." She flipped her hair back and made a sound of contempt as she looked at the group again.
"Yes." Aelita said smiling brightly. "You never know; you might just sprout a brain!"
That earned a laugh from everyone in the group, and Elie gave Aelita a pat on the back. "Nice."
Sissi stormed off with a huff and Elie stood up. "I should get going. Lights out is in a few minuets. See you later guys." She waved and walked out. A few steps later Odd walked out of the room and caught up with her.
"Thanks again for saving me." Odd said, falling into step beside Elie.
"Any time." She said, still smiling a bit.
"You know, you should smile more." He said as they walked onto the stair way. "It's cute."
Elie blushed and looked away, feeling something strange in her chest. Rather than address it, she just smirked and teased. "But if I smile a lot, it won't be such a treat."
Odd's smile widened a bit. "But I like treats. You know me, I'd eat four or five deserts if i could. I guess I'll just have to make you smile more often."
Elie laughed lightly. They'd gotten to her door and she unlocked it. "I'll see you in the morning Odd. Good luck."
"Thanks Elie. See you in the morning." He smiled and waved as she locked the door. Turning she leaned against the solid wood, glad for it's support. Had Odd been flirting with her...? She as almost certain of it and the knowledge made that place in her chest squeeze again. Frustrated, she pushed off of the wall. No, he'd probably just been teasing her, like he always did. She had to be reading to much into this. Elie shoved the thoughts to the back of her mind, doing everything she could to forget the conversation and what it was doing to her.
This couldn't happen. Not to her. Especially not in her situation.