Code Lyoko:

The Diitto Generation

Part Seven:

The Return to the Past

Author's Note: Kokoro is one of the most annoying names for me to type. I type fairly fast, so I've spelled it Kokro, Kooro, and Kokoo - and those are just the ones I stopped to record up here after realizing that I kept messing up Kokoro's name up here.

Also as an aside, nyet, or нет in Cyrillic, is definitely Russian. ;) I'm a foreign language major – take my word for it. The German word for 'no' is nein.

Also, thanks to my wonderful readers yet again for reading and reviewing when they can. Especially since you now have to deal with such irregular long-intervaled updates . . . I hate school for preventing me from writing . . .

Kokoro (Section 7.3)

Kokoro slipped into the empty classroom after spending a solid minute peering in the door window, assuring herself that nobody else was present before making her entrance. The empty Italian classroom belonged to the teacher that oversaw the school newspaper. A stack of organizational trays in the back of her classroom contained everything essential to printing each issue. Moving swiftly, Kokoro headed to the trays, deposited her article in the one marked 'To Print' and picked up something from the 'To Be Edited' pile before turning around. She took a step toward the door, flinching as the echo of footsteps in the outside hallway told her that she was not the only one in the area.

To Kokoro's great annoyance, two kids entered the classroom before she could leave. Joshua Gardener, the self-appointed head of the group of students that worked to have the Kadic News printed, was flanked by Bridget Rosette, a girl whom Kokoro would have bet money that, if someone sawed off her skull, they would find nothing in her head.

"Hey, Kokoro, I've been looking for you," Joshua said.

"I know. Hence why you haven't been able to find me," Kokoro said quickly, speaking before Joshua could continue. She tried to move around him and Bridget, but the pair of seventh-graders moved to block her path.

"Kokoro, it would be really good for the newspaper if you let me interview your friend from America," Joshua added hastily, reaching up to readjust his glasses. "Such an insight into the life of a fellow student would-"

"Valentina would prefer not to be interviewed for the paper, hence why we haven't already run an article on her," Kokoro said stiffly. "Now, if you'll excuse me-"

"But, can't you talk to her? See if you can change her mind?" Joshua begged, moving again to keep Kokoro from the door of the classroom.

"Joshua, I swear that if you don't let me go to lunch I'll crack your skull-"

"Okay, okay," the brown-haired boy said, briskly moving out of Kokoro's way. She slid past him and into the hallway, moving swiftly in the direction of the stairwell. Behind her, Joshua and Bridget moved out in the hallway to watch her go. As expected, Joshua couldn't help calling after her, "Please, Kokoro, at least try!"

"I try to keep from throwing you out the window on a daily basis," Kokoro muttered under her breath, disappearing into the stairwell on her way to the cafeteria.

When she got there, Kokoro moved through the lunch line, obtained a tray of food and a glass of water, and then crossed the large room to sit at her usual table with her sister, Franz, Waldo, Nancy, an assortment of sixth-graders that varied day-by-day, Valentina and Matthias, the latter two of whom had begun sitting at the table since the start of the week. It was now Friday.

As Kokoro took her seat, she immediately noticed that something was amiss: Katja was moping, as shown by how she was reading instead of talking to Franz; Franz and Matthias weren't talking either, and both, who were sitting diagonal from one another, weren't even acknowledging the other. Waldo, Nancy and Valentina, the only others at the table that day, were talking a bit – Valentina had finished correcting Waldo's Russian homework and was going over his errors with him. As Kokoro took the empty seat beside her sister, she noted that the seating arrangement of the table was slightly altered that day. Katja, Franz, and Waldo sat on one side of the table while Matthias, Nancy, and Valentina sat on the other.

Stealing a second glance at each of her tablemates in turn, Kokoro rolled her eyes and then began to pick at her meal with her fork. If Kokoro had to guess what was amiss – and she was fairly sure about the accuracy of her guess – she would say that the sixth-graders had purposefully blocked Valentina off in the corner of the table, probably with her consent, to assure that she didn't have to sit beside either Franz or Matthias. Because thinking about why Valentina felt the need to isolate herself from her classmates would take more effort than Kokoro was willing to give at the moment, she didn't bother, instead silently accepting the rearranged seating of the table as she began to eat.

"I take that we still don't have the original," Kokoro said, referring to the return to the past from Lyoko.

"No, they failed to obtain it," Nancy said, answering after a brief pause when it became clear that nobody else intended to speak. This agitated Kokoro somewhat: Franz and Matthias had failed to obtain the source code (falling out in the process) so they still didn't have the Lyoko return to the past.

"Are you busy after school today?" Kokoro asked, leaning forward to address Franz. "Or is take two already in the works?"

"Do you want to try again with me after soccer practice?" Franz asked. "It'll probably be around eight, after we grab some food at dinner."

"It's not as if my dad won't let me go," Kokoro mused. Before Diitto, Ulrich would have thrown a fit if Kokoro tried to leave the house after dark. Now, all she had to do was say that she was going to go somewhere for something related to a virtual world and he waved her off without a second glance.

The remainder of lunch was spent in relative silence. Nancy and Waldo decided to talk about the class trip they were supposed to have that afternoon, speaking for the sake of speaking (which Kokoro usually disapproved of, though in present situation she agreed that someone needed to break the ice that had frozen her friends and Matthias). When everyone had finished eating and begun to scatter to prepare for afternoon classes, Kokoro made a point to catch up to Nancy, tapping her on the shoulder to grab her attention.

"What the hell is wrong with everyone?" she asked the younger girl.

Nancy seemed slightly intimidated by Kokoro's sudden appearance, though she answered willingly enough, bluntly stating the problem. "The reason that Matthias and Franz didn't make it into the celestial dome yesterday is because they fought over Valentina."

As Nancy turned away to head back to her next class, Kokoro did a facepalm. Both Franz and Matthias liked Valentina, which explained why she was distancing herself from them, why they were mad at each other, and why Katja was depressed. Great. Just great. Once again Franz and Matthias had proved to Kokoro that boys were idiots . . .

After school, Kokoro tried to talk to her sister, wanting to point out to her that boys were idiots and that she shouldn't worry or pout or bury herself in her textbooks, though Katja ditched her by speeding away on her bicycle before Kokoro got the chance. When Kokoro got home, she tried again, but Katja had locked her door and refused to open it when Kokoro knocked.

"This is just great . . ." Kokoro mumbled under her breath, heading to her own room to do her homework before dinner. That evening it was her turn to do the cooking, so she headed downstairs early and heated up soup to go with the garlic bread her father had brought a day earlier. She finished setting the dinner table right as Ulrich returned home from work.

"Your sister isn't downstairs yet?" Ulrich asked, glancing up the stairs as he fumbled with his tie.

"No, she's studying for something or another. We might have a test next week." Though Kokoro wished Katja would crack the metaphorical shell she had covered herself in that day, she was more than happy to provide an excuse for why she was acting as she was so that their father wouldn't have to worry about her and so that Katja wouldn't have to deal with his worrying.

"You know, Kokoro, it wouldn't hurt if you put slightly more effort into your own studies," Mr. Stern said, meeting his daughter's blank gaze with his own.

"No, I doubt I'd receive any physical injury either," Kokoro mused, deciding it was time to turn away from her father to ensure that he did not press the issue. "Oh, and after I eat I'm going to meet Franz, Waldo, and Nancy at the factory to try and get the return to the past from Lyoko with them. Franz and Matthias didn't succeed last night."

From behind her, Kokoro heard her father sigh. He didn't like the idea of her going to Lyoko's core, but he wouldn't do anything to stop her. The little risks and sacrifices they all made on a daily basis were for the greater good – there was no way in hell that Kokoro would ever activate the program dragon's dance if there wasn't a greater good involved; the following headache wasn't worth a joy ride as a dragon.

Kokoro left her house twenty minutes before she was supposed to meet the others in the factory and arrived before them. She paced back and forth in the shadows of the factory's gallery until she heard voices. One by one, Franz, Waldo, and Nancy climbed down the ladder into the gallery and then joined her by the elevator, which Kokoro pressed the button to call.

"So, Franz, what are we up against?" Kokoro asked as the elevator lurched, beginning its descent down to the scanner room.

"Creepers. The room we entered was made up of moving blocks that went up, down, left, and right – but according to my mom the core changes shape constantly so we will undoubtedly encounter something different this time," Franz replied. Though he looked alert - his eyes were wide, he was awake - something about him still seemed lifeless at the same time. A tingling feeling of agitation tickled Kokoro's chest. No doubt the jerk was moping because Valentina had avoided him all day. He was probably completely oblivious to Katja's suffering, the fact that he was the cause of it.

When the kids reached the scanner room, Franz and Waldo plugged in their respective laptops. Franz then moved to stand in Waldo's scanner as Nancy sat down by his abandoned computer, so Kokoro moved to stand in the second connected scanner.

"Ready?" Nancy asked her, glancing up to meet Kokoro's gaze.

"Yup," Kokoro said, closing her eyes. She heard the scanner's doors close, heard it hum to life around her. The virtualization process began, and when it was over Kokoro opened her eyes to find herself in an off-white dome. She dropped through the air and caught herself before crashing on her behind. Kokoro gave herself a quick look-over to confirm that her Lyoko attire was the same as her Diitto attire – seeing as both were derived from her subconscious, they would be identical.

"When the room stops spinning, we run," Franz said simply, eyes fixed on the rotating walls around them.

"Hmm," Kokoro snorted in response, casting a sidelong glance at her old friend. The room showed no sign of slowing to a stop, so she decided to add "By the way, you're an idiot if you can't even see what's in front of your own eyes."

Seemingly alarmed, Franz turned to face Kokoro, his expression radiating bewilderment mixed with disbelief. While Kokoro frequently insulted him, her insults were typically amicable; among her friends, Kokoro's teases were almost like terms of endearment. Franz had figured this out long ago and knew not to let anything Kokoro said to him rub him the wrong way, and yet he had quickly singled out the unusual stiffness in Kokoro's tone, instantly knowing that her most recent phrase was not in any way endearing.

"What?" he said, seemingly lacking a better response.

Kokoro turned away from Franz; the room had begun to slow. She didn't intend on spelling the obvious out for Franz – it would be better for him in the long run if he worked things out on his own if he was able to do so.

"Really, Kokoro-"

"Let's focus now, Franz," Kokoro said stiffly, watching as the wall stopped moving and began to reveal a passageway as chunks of the off-white blocks began to rearrange themselves. She began to run down the passageway, watching as the blocks continued to part themselves before her. Franz ran a few paces behind her, and the pair of them stopped when the path stopped abruptly.

Before Kokoro was a circular room. The floor was spinning slowly in a counterclockwise motion, and warped downward to the center. Spinning around the room were a dozen or more large white orbs. At the speed they were going, Kokoro was sure that if one of them hit her she would be instantly and painfully de-virtualized. But, the spinning balls weren't the only problem – sitting in niches in the walls were creatures of a silvery color, somewhat snake-like, that propped themselves up on arm-like things.

"More creepers," Franz muttered, watching the strange creatures.

Kokoro's eyes scanned the room once more, locking on the exit on the opposite side of the room. To get there, they had to run across the floor, dodging the spinning balls, and avoid being de-virtualized by the creepers as well. That didn't seem easy.

"If worst comes to worst, I'll just dragon's dance our way across," Kokoro grumbled, ruing the headache that would follow her use of the kamikaze program. She'd ruin her weekend, but if that was the only way Franz could get to the celestial dome and retrieve Lyoko's return to the past, then she would do it.

"No, there's got to be a way across without you doing that to yourself," Franz said. Kokoro wanted to hit him – he was against her using dragon's dance because of what it did to her, and yet he was completely oblivious to the fact that he was taking Katja for granted and her blatantly obvious feelings for him?

"No, I think I'll activate the program. That'll get you to the other side, and depending on how large the path is I should be able to follow you-" Kokoro said, beginning to rip the red bracelets off of her arms and toss them to the ground.

"Wait, Kokoro, stop!" Franz said, reaching out and pulling Kokoro's right arm from her left so she couldn't remove any more red bracelets. "I'll try shooting the creepers I can see from here, and then we should be able to go."

Without waiting for some sort of reaction, Franz prepped his bow and raised it. He aimed at the three creepers within view in turn and shot them down. Then, he turned back to Kokoro. "Now, let's try to get across. I'll use timewarp to keep from getting hit, so just focus on saving yourself."

"Fine," Kokoro grumbled, taking a step forward as Franz said "Timewarp."

Instantly, the boy whirled around and raised his bow, aiming down the tunnel that the two students had taken to reach the circular room from the place where they had been virtualized. Kokoro turned just in time to watch Franz's arrow, which he tipped with flame using the program "Fire," fly through the air. However his target, a ripple of black smoke on the ground, was not hit. It traveled through the ground until it was only a few feet away from Kokoro and Franz, when it seemed to rise up from the ground and solidify. The black smoke's new shape was human-like, though not one piece of skin was visible. It wore a full, black body suit with a black face cover. On its arms were black spikes, similar to Odd's though curled, hook-like. Around the new monster's waist was a band with more than a dozen tiny star-shaped items fixed to it. As the creature reached for the first star, Kokoro grabbed Franz and then leapt backward into the room.

"It's going to attack us!" she shouted, shoving Franz in the direction of the exit on the opposite side of the oddly shaped room. "Go, I'll hold it off!"

"Kokoro, what's happening?" Nancy asked, seemingly alarmed by her panicked words.

"There's humanoid monster attacking us!" Kokoro yelled.

"Oh – Franz's visuals haven't been working in the core too well. We only get a new still image every once and a while so we didn't get to-"

"Shh, let them concentrate!" Waldo hissed.

"Oh, oops . . ."

As Nancy and Waldo spoke, Kokoro nimbly dodged the first throwing star, then ripped a red bracelet off of her arm and tossed it as the creature threw a second star at her. As the creature dodged her flaming bracelet, Kokoro spun around, opened her fan, and then threw it in the direction of the creature a moment before leaping into the air to avoid one of the balls that was constantly rolling around the room.

There wasn't time to check where Franz was – Kokoro launched herself into the air to catch her fan, which had failed to strike the humanoid monster, as it returned to her. She then launched it again, flipping through the air after it. The humanoid jumped away from the fan for a second time, landing on the floor of the room, and Kokoro bounced off the ground before bowling the monster to the ground, fist aflame with the four remaining bracelets from her wrists. She struck the monster in its chest; it let out an angered cry, de-virtualizing beneath her hand.

"And that's why you don't mess with me," Kokoro said smugly, quickly sticking her fan back into her obi and leaping out of the way of a spinning ball. She crossed the room, dodging lasers from the two creepers that remained in the walls. Then, she landed on the platform that supported the exit, where Franz was waiting for her, shooting down the final creepers. When he was done, he asked Waldo to send his arrow-reloading program before turning to Kokoro.

"What was that thing that you fought?" he asked.

Kokoro shrugged, drawing her gaze to her nails and flicking a bit of imaginary dust from them so she didn't have to make eye contact with Franz. She was mad at him still, and while the action had temporarily distracted her from that feeling, it had now returned full-force.

In truth, though, Kokoro had no idea what she had fought. At times, it was almost as if she was fighting another human; the way the creature had moved and reacted to her own actions had hinted the intelligence of something greater than a simple Xana monster. And when Kokoro stopped to think about it, she couldn't recall seeing the mark of Lyoko on the creature – though she hadn't exactly looked too carefully . . .

Ten new arrows materialized into the quiver on Franz's back a few heartbeats later. Franz glanced skyward, thanked his brother curtly, and then turned back to Kokoro. "Let's go," he said, turning to the passage behind him. Kokoro did the same, and the two of them began to run through the narrow opening into the unknown. Kokoro heard, though she didn't look back to check, the wall slowly beginning to close behind them – preventing their retreat.

Then, Kokoro drew to a sudden stop as something appeared in the pathway before them, forming from a pillar of white and black smoke. A second humanoid monster, this one wore drastically different attire. It wore sandy brown pants, somewhat loose, and a white shirt-like chest plate. It's – or his, since the creature was clearly masculine – pale shoulders were bare, as were the upper part of his arms, though from the elbow down he wore sand-colored braces that covered everything on his lower arms to his hands. No weapon was visible on the creature, but a mask identical to what the ninja-like monster had worn covered his face.

Kokoro's mind whirled. She and Franz needed to pass the creature, which was calmly blocking her path. He hadn't yet attacked, though Kokoro was sure that would change if she advanced. Without a second glance, she bolted forward. Without anymore red bracelets, Kokoro lacked a weapon to fight close-combat with her new opponent, though she didn't aim to de-virtualize the creature just yet. Now, her object was to remove his mask, to see his face, and to distract him long enough for Franz to pass.

The creature hesitated as Kokoro approached, which was why she succeeded. Ripping the mask off the creature's face, she tossed it down the passageway and shouted for Franz to keep going without her. He didn't need to be asked twice, beginning to dart down the path, conscious of the fact that it was slowly closing behind him and that his current position would disappear soon.

"What the hell?"

In addition to Waldo's strange curse, two more things happened in quick procession. The creature raised his hand and pointed his palm at Franz; he became immobilized with a startled cry. Then, the walls began to close at an increased rate, the sound of one side meeting another echoing throughout the passageway. Panicked, Kokoro turned to Franz, lost for what to do. He seemed just as bewildered. Moments before the wall closed around her, Kokoro glanced back at the strange creature, standing beside her with his arm still held in Franz's direction. She watched him become squished into a thousand tiny panels at the same time as her.