Hello everyone! The twelfth chapter is now up. Jeremie and Sero chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.
(Jeremie's P.O.V, third person)
Jeremie woke up from the blaring alarm clock which said 6:50 AM May 10th. "At least it's Saturday." He said, muttering a small swear to himself. Jeremie decided to skip the shower and was about to get dressed when he thought about what happened to Sero yesterday. When he came out of the scanner unconscious, he looked so different, as if his body was slightly tampered by XANA. His hair, his eyes, he looked so unnatural but Jeremie never bothered to ask him about it.
Pushing the thoughts aside, Jeremie finished getting dressed and went to the cafeteria. Getting his breakfast, he sat down with Odd and Ulrich but noticed Sero's absence. "Hey have you two seen Sero today? I haven't heard from him since last night." Jeremie asked the couple. "I haven't seen him since." Ulrich said before drinking some milk. "I think I saw him going to the school park while talking to himself or something. He looked kinda conflicted." Odd said while finishing a chunk of meat. "I didn't see him enter the cafeteria too." He added, making Jeremie wonder about Sero's actions. Jeremie took only one bite of his toast before his curiosity got the best of him. "I need to look for him, maybe the diagnostic scan forgot something important." Jeremie said, pushing his plate full of food to Odd who accepted his gift. He got out of his seat and left the cafeteria, heading for the forest.
"Sero! Are you out here? I want to talk with you." Jeremie shouted as he explored the park, waiting for his boyfriend's response. When he said those words, he saw Sero fifteen metres away, sitting on a large tree branch while seemingly talking with himself. "Sero! What are you doing up there?" Jeremie asked him as he walked to the tree. Jeremie noticed that Sero's green streak still had an unnatural color of red in it, but in less quantity than the last time he saw him. His head of hair still had bits of black in it, which were longer than his brown hair. Noticing his lover, Sero muttered something and jumped from the branch he was standing on, landing gracefully on the ground. "How are your legs not hurt? That was easily a four metre drop!" Jeremie exclaimed in awe as he stared at Sero in confusion. While Sero was struggling to find an explanation, Jeremie looked at his eyes, which still had some black and red hiding inside his normally green irises. Something has to be going on.
"Have you been ok since that smoke entered you? You haven't looked like yourself recently." Jeremie asked Sero, who looked like he was arguing with his mind. "It's... Nothin- I can handle this X- I'm sorry Jeremie, just slightly preoccupied." Sero said, distracted by something. "Then can you explain the hair?" Jeremie said, wanting to know more. "I'm just... experimenting? Yeah, experimenting." Sero replied with some hesitation. "So what about the eyes?" Jeremie asked, pushing his lover to tell the truth. "Look I'm fine XA- I mean Jeremie. Just feeling off today, ok?" Sero said, his words showing his lack of focus. "Sero, you're a bad liar. Tell me the truth." Jeremie said, placing his hand on Sero's shoulder. He felt a slight static shock but ignored it.
"I'm sorry my love, but I can't tell you. For my safety and yours." Sero said, hugging Jeremie while accidentally sending him some stray static. Jeremie was about to kiss Sero but he pulled away, quickly grasping his head in pain. "Did you forget your meds again?" Jeremie hurriedly asked Sero, who removed his hand from his head. "No, just a passing headache. It happens to me often." Sero said, saying some words under his breath. "Look, can you at least come to breakfast? I already gave mine to Odd and I'm starving." Jeremie said, wanting to help his love however possible. "Ok I'll do it. For you." Sero said as the two walked from the tree where Sero was mumbling to himself. Sero glanced back, looking at the Eye Of XANA he had carved on the tree. He was hoping Jeremie would ask about it but he never noticed it...
(Sero's P.O.V, First person)
As me and Jeremie entered the cafeteria, I noticed Odd preparing to eat Jeremie's food but was interrupted by Ulrich tapping his shoulder. "Well the lovers are back, so why did you run off into the park Sero?" Ulrich asked me, slightly confused as he noticed the change in my hair. "And what's with your hair?" He added. ""I can make sure your friends don't return from Lyoko next time if you want me to."" XANA said with malice. Since this morning, he has tried to break my sanity to control me easier. I've tried my best to resist him but it's slowly becoming a losing fight. "I just needed some alone time, and I'm trying something new with the hair." I said, ignoring the evil voice in my head. I need to figure out someway to warn my friends of my problem. As me and Jeremie sat down, he took his food back from Odd and moved it between us.
"So Jeremie, have you found anything interesting in Lyoko such as new towers or the like?" I asked Jeremie, who started eating his reclaimed food. Thankfully, XANA didn't notice my subtle hint. "Actually, a new tunnel in Sector 5 has appeared! I haven't had the time to explore it, but it could lead to a new sector." Jeremie said, proud of his discovery in Lyoko. "We should go immediately! Who knows what we could find!" I said, trying to persuade my friends into going. 'So, hidden sector, Right XANA?' I said mentally to XANA, who sounded very displeased. ""It may no longer be hidden, but I promise once you set foot on the grounds of Lyoko, you won't come back the same."" XANA nearly shouted at me, putting all of his anger into his words. Now a trip to the sector wasn't such a great idea.
"Come on Einstein, today is Saturday. I want a bit of fun today besides..." Ulrich cut himself off with a tone of regret at the end of his sentence. "Besides you letting me be top last night?" Odd said, grinning while Ulrich couldn't help but blush and cover his face. "So that was the noise last night! Damn Ulrich, I'm surprised Jim didn't catch you." I said. "Bad sexual choices aside, who wants to see this new sector?" Jeremie said with a smile as he looked at us. Since I brought up the idea of investigating the new sector, I had no choice but to raise my hand while Odd and Ulrich did the same. "Great, now I'll just send messages about the new sector to Yumi and Aelita." Jeremie said. He suddenly looked at me and asked "Aren't you hungry Sero? I mean I haven't seen you eat at all." "I'm good, I'm not hungry at all." I said, lying to them. Strangely, since XANA entered my body, I have a near constant feeling of slight numbness along with feeling no pain, which somehow also meant not feeling hungry.
I heard Jeremie's phone vibrate as he was about to put it in his pocket. He opened it and sighed to himself. "Damn. Yumi has to help at home and Aelita did not respond." Jeremie said. "Maybe she is still in the showers, you know girls." Ulrich said, recovering his pride from Odd telling us what happened last night. "Let's go then. Last one to the factory has to be on bottom!" Odd exclaimed as he quickly got out of his seat and ran out the door. Ulrich cursed to himself as he quickly ran after him. Me and Jeremie just shrugged at each other and made our way to the factory...
As Jeremie and I exited the elevator and entered the room of the supercomputer, Ulrich and Odd were arguing about who was first. "I was first Odd! And besides, you pushed me." Ulrich yelled at Odd, who looked equally angry. "No way Ulrich, I was first because you pushed me out of the elevator!" He yelled back. ""I still have my offer of removing their virtualization codes available if you wish."" XANA suggested, which I swiftly ignored. Unfortunately, when I ignore him, he gives me a headache. Thankfully, they aren't as strong as my Ictal headaches. After pushing my headache aside, I broke the two up. "Calm down you two! We are here to explore a new sector and not argue about who was first!" I yelled at the two, leaving some anger in my voice. Normally I try to not show my anger, I usually bottle it inside my once-peaceful mind. The three were slightly stunned by my outburst, leaving me to talk. "Jeremie, please get the scanners ready for Sector 5." I calmly said to Jeremie as I decided to climb the ladder down to the scanners.
Dismounting at the bottom of the ladder, I entered the scanner opposite of the elevator. As I saw Odd and Ulrich exit the elevator, I pulled my hoodie over my eyes as they went in the other scanners. "Initiating scan. Transfer Odd. Transfer Sero. Transfer Ulrich." Jeremie said from above. As the scanners closed, my eyes instinctively closed, calming my claustrophobia. "Scanner Odd. Scanner Sero. Scanner Ulrich." Jeremie said. I felt like I was going to lose my consciousness with XANA making my phobia worse. "Virtualization." I heard Jeremie say before a bright light surrounded me...
I felt my body limply hit the artificial ground of Sector 5. I wanted to move but my muscles felt completely numb, my mouth wanted to speak but it felt like it has never been opened. "Hey Einstein, did something go wrong?" I heard Odd say above me. "What the? Apparently, Sero doesn't have full control of his body. I need to find out why." I heard Jeremie say from somewhere. ""Foolish Sero. Whenever you are in my world, I have greater control of you."" XANA said, proud of temporally disabling my body. I thought of what he said to me earlier today. "Odd... Lift me..." I managed to say with great difficulty. Odd didn't ask why and grabbed me off of the ground, immediately I felt control of my body and instantly activated my wings, leaving me to levitate off of the ground. "Huh? The issue vanished into thin air. Sero, I think you shouldn't touch the ground." Jeremie said from the computer. "Hey Jeremie, I think we have another issue here." Ulrich said, looking at me. The crimson crack in my scythe has expanded to cover most of the emerald blade and some of the handle, my wings became a schizophrenic mess of jade and ruby. My once vibrant patterns were a sickly black and dark green.
"That's strange, your appearance on Lyoko shouldn't change at all." Odd said, noting my appearance. ""Do you enjoy my handiwork? It would look better if you let me control your weak body."" XANA said, his voice had much more power in it on Lyoko than on Earth. "You won't get me that easy XANA." I said in my mind. ""What makes you think that you won? I have plenty of surprises, so just give in and touch the ground."" XANA replied with persuasion in his voice. I ignored him again and remembered what we had to do. "Let's go to that new tunnel, thank god Jeremie removed the key system." I said as Jeremie gave Ulrich and Odd their vehicles. Avoiding all surfaces, I lead the two out of the arena and to the Celestrial Dome. "Okay Jeremie we're here, so where is this new tunnel?" I asked him, wanting to get this expedition over. "The new tunnel is on the northern side of the dome." Jeremie replied. I looked behind and above me to see a tunnel just like the others. "Opening tunnel." Jeremie added as the information from the tunnel vanished, allowing us to enter it. "Hey Jeremie, quick question; what does this sector look like on the hologram?" Ulrich asked. "I think a better question is where the sector is, it's not on the hologram at all." Jeremie said with uneasiness. "That's why it's called exploring Einstein! Let's go!" Odd said, making his way to the opened tunnel. Ulrich and I simply looked at each other and followed him into the unknown...
AN: The twelfth chapter is now done! New sector, Ulrich making a bad choice, and Sero is slowly losing his sanity! What is there to not love?
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