Serafina said nothing more to William, concentrating on the interface instead. With nothing to do, William lay down on his back and looked into the heights. Somewhere up there he had gotten up to seize the tower of the replica back to X.A.N.A. from the Lyoko Warriors' possession when the group had done its best to destroy the supercomputers conquered by the AI. Even though he had been on Lyoko a lot already by now, the memories and the thought of rising to the upper platform of the tower felt surrealistic.

The colors of the view were pleasant and did not hurt eyes at any point. William did not dare to close his eyes for he feared that the nightmares would come again. Now he might not necessarily have Serafina to support him as the girl had suddenly become very distant. Yet exhaustion weighed him and finally he closed his eyes to rest them. He would not fall asleep, that he planned to take care of.
"What will we even do with him?" Lyra asked, nodding towards William.
"I don't know," Serafina answered. "Let's just concentrate on getting the fixes ready now. Then we can think of our next move. But this is going dangerously if Alex goes apeshit like that."
"Yeah, he'll kill William in addition to us. What's he even trying?" Lyra blurted.
"Wish we knew," Alicia remarked. "He has something nasty planned for William but what?"

William trembled while listening to the ominous discussion. He did not know what would happen to him if and when his captors would get their base fixed.

The sound of a couple of steps came from near William. The rustle of a fabric against a fabric right next to him. A hand that touched his hair gently and stroked his head when it did not get a backlash. Was it Serafina? William did not dare to open his eyes but pretended to sleep and waited for the situation to proceed.
"I wonder how this ends when all is said and done," a quiet voice wondered aloud next to him. It was Serafina's voice.
"We win this fight. That's how this ends," Lyra stated and Dan nodded even though William did not see it.

Serafina returned back to the interface upon concluding that William was not in the claws of a nightmare. William opened his eyes. On some level, he wanted to ask Serafina to come back; the touch had felt good and safe. However, he was silent and sat up quietly. Dan noticed it but did not remark it at all. They all knew that William was not a threat.

All of a sudden, William felt his body twist from within and he noticed that his legs were disappearing. His cry startled Serafina and Lyra, who jumped and turned to see what was happening. They stared, thunderstruck, as William disappeared in front of their eyes.

After disappearing, William saw black and red, and suddenly the field of view was lighted by a bright yellow that blinded him. He noticed that he was leaning against a scanner, his legs shaking.

After his eyes got used to the light, William saw Ulrich and Odd in front of the scanner.
"Are you ok?" Odd asked.
"I feel a bit giddy," William admitted. Now he noticed that his arms were shaking as well.
"We'll help you," Ulrich said. He and Odd grabbed him from under the armpits and supported him. William managed to take some steps but he could not trust his own legs as they shook, weak under his weight.
"This is definitely the hardest return in a while," William sighed.
"It's alright. You just wait till you end up crushed by a Megatank or a boulder falling on you. That is a hard return," Ulrich remarked. "It did become familiar during the years."
"Sounds promising," William noted. He tried to put more of his weight on his feet. Despite of the giddy and weak state, he did not collapse, nor would have his comrades let him either.

The elevator opened at the lab. William tried to walk without help, but Ulrich and Odd insisted on helping.
"Listen, we've all carried each other around when we haven't been ok. You're not the first one," Odd said.
"True. Don't try to pretend you're strong when you're not," Ulrich advised. "We're all in the same boat together and we support each other at moments of weakness."
"Okay," William said and looked at the others. Alex was nowhere to be seen.
"How are you feeling?" Aelita asked, concerned.
"Giddy and a bit weak. But I'll be fine." Weak or not, William gathered his strength to a small smile. It did not make him feel any better, though.
"The return was harder than expected, then," Jeremy noted. "I returned you back to the way you were as soon as I could do it unnoticed and materialized you quickly so that you could still escape. The sudden changes probably caused your current state."
"Alright," William said. The explanation to the previous events made him feel better at least mentally.

Suddenly, Alex arrived at the lab along the ladders.
"William, thank god you're alright!" he said, relieved.
"Not thanks to you," William remarked. "That attack of yours almost collapsed the cave on me!" Alex was shocked.
"No way!" he breathed.

He tried to approach William but the boy said surprisingly calmly, "Stay away from me." William was surprised by his calmness himself but understood that it was due to fatigue; he did not have the energy for stronger emphasis or tones. He told, "The whole place is broken. Without Serafina and Lyra I would've gotten crushed or wouldn't have gotten out anyway."
"They helped you?" Yumi asked in surprise.
"Yeah, they did," William answered. Now that the adrenaline faded and he was safe, he realized that he had even gotten used to the friendliness of the quartet.
"By the way, how badly did you get hurt when you tried to defeat Serafina?" Ulrich asked.
"Both shoulders got wounded from Alicia's claws when she tackled me off," William told.
"It did sound painful. We saw nothing that happened from here," Jeremy told.
"Well, it did hurt," William remarked.
"Did the wounds carry here, to Earth?" Alex asked, concerned.
"They shouldn't have," Jeremy noted. "William, do they still hurt?"
"Well... the thing is, Serafina apparently healed them at the base yesterday," William told, hesitating.
"Huh?" came from the mouths of all the other Lyoko Warriors.
"Yes," William stated. It all felt so wrong. "Lyra would've probably made mincemeat of me from the get-go anyway, but Serafina defended me and... was very friendly towards me." He did not dare to tell what had truly happened during the night.
"How did you get out of the chains, by the way?" Odd asked.

William felt his insides shrivel. He did not want to tell. It was so wrong. He wanted to keep the event just inside the base.
"William? Is something wrong?" Odd asked.
"Serafina let me out of the chains during the night," William forced himself to tell.
"Why?" Alex asked, his eyes wide. William tried to get moral support from the presence of his friends. Putting the matter into words was difficult, for he feared that he would open up Pandora's box by telling.
"I... I saw a nightmare about what happened when I was under X.A.N.A.'s possession. The pressure of the chains just felt so strongly like back when I was under its possession and I got anxious," William said, feeling his voice shake from the weight of the memories and the revelation. "Serafina and Lyra released me right away. I... I think that they were startled by my sudden anxiety. It... it felt so violent."

The Lyoko Warriors were silent for a while, digesting the information they had just gotten.
"I thought that you didn't remember anything about the time you were under X.A.N.A.'s control," Yumi said, confused. "You've said that you don't remember many times."
"I lied," William admitted. "I didn't want you to worry or ask. I didn't want to remember any of it and at first I thought that at some point I'd believe in my lie myself as well and stop remembering. But... after getting freed, I have seen many nightmares about it all. And I can't forget."
"Why didn't you tell us? We could've supported you," Aelita asked. "At least I could've helped you with nightmares. I've suffered from them myself a lot ever since my materialization."
"I didn't want to worry you. And I've been fine until now," William said. He could taste the explaining in his mouth but he had to say something.
"What happened after you'd gotten free of the chains?" Alex asked. He did not come up with anything else to say.

William did not want to answer. That part he wanted to leave into the ruins of the base.
"William?" Yumi asked gingerly. "What happened?"

William shook his head. He did not want to tell.
"What did they do to you?" Ulrich asked. Concern was clearly audible in his voice now as well. Acting like this was not like William. Something must have happened.
"You can tell us," Odd encouraged. William heard the worry behind the encouragement from the group's joker's voice too.

He understood that by not telling he would worry the group – unlike he had intended from the beginning!
"Serafina... She..." William searched for the words. "She calmed me. Reassured that the events of my dreams could never repeat themselves. That X.A.N.A. could never hurt me again, unlike the Scyphozoa, which can't do anything without its master either."

He hoped that that information would be enough to quench the group's thirst for knowledge. He did not know whether there was some kind of a feeling of shame or just that it did not fit their view of this fight behind it, but he did not want to tell about the rest of the night.
"Did something else happen?" Yumi asked.

William looked at the floor. He did not want to tell but on the other hand he did not want to lie anymore either.
"So something happened. What?" Ulrich asked. William did not answer. It felt so wrong. He wanted to take the information with him all the way to the grave.
"William, what did Serafina do to you?" Alex asked, horrified.

William looked at his friends. The concern for him was mutual on everyone's faces, and William understood that he had become an important member of the group, one that was genuinely cared about. He did not want to cause worry to them, as each of the Lyoko Warriors who had fought against X.A.N.A. and him once was a truly precious and important friend to him. In addition to that, he did not want to retaliate to Alex's behavior if its cost was that his friends would be worried about him.

He had to tell.
"Serafina held me in her arms for the rest of the night," William told as briefly and evenly as possible and stopped to observe the reactions. The shock spread gradually as the group understood what William had said.

No one could say anything at all. In shock, they just looked at William who already felt capable of standing on his own but did not want to be apart from the others. Odd and Ulrich's presence by his side gave him moral support with which he could stand this situation.
"What did she do to you there?" Alex breathed.
"She held me gently," William told briefly. It felt so private – perhaps that was the reason why he did not want to tell. The details would remain untold now. "Th-that's all. Just as wrong as it feels, she was very gently towards me."

The Lyoko Warriors looked at one another. William did not necessarily tell everything and if he did not, something must have happened. They all knew how honest he was and the now revealed information about the memories from X.A.N.A.'s time proved that William did not lie to them without a substantial reason. However, no one wanted to ask anything and William was not willing to tell.
"How about we let this case be now?" Jeremy suggested. "William is tired. Let's let him rest now and continue with this matter tomorrow."
"Yeah," Ulrich said. He did not want to strain his comrade any more; he felt how stress like this made him tense.
"I agree," William said more quietly.

No one objected to leaving nor William wanting to move on his own after recovering enough from the materialization. At the bridge, William breathed his lungs full of the fresh air in relief. Freedom felt ridiculously awesome; it was taken for granted by them all until it was taken away from them. After being freed from X.A.N.A.'s control, William had learned to appreciate his freedom greatly, as it had once been taken from him. And now he appreciated his freedom just the same.
"I'll go on a walk. I need some fresh air," William said.
"Do you want company?" Yumi asked. She would go through the city anyway, so she could keep company to William. Ulrich felt a pang of jealousy but trusted Yumi; the lack of trust had been what had been wrong between them. William had made him understand it – after understanding Yumi's lack of trust towards him himself first.
"No thanks. I'd like to be in peace, on my own," William declined calmly and smiled. "Thanks for the offer."

The two older teens diverged from the group going into the sewers and then went to different directions in the city. William wandered the places a little only to return to the bridge to get shelter when it started to rain. While sitting under the bridge, he still tried to process what had happened and the situation.

Serafina was a tough fighter but extremely gentle and kind towards him outside of the battlefield. His body still remembered the warmth and the gentle touch and he could not forget the certain assurance and soft voice that had penetrated deep through his anxiety. Alex, on the other hand, was a comrade who had asked them to help in his fight against Serafina but had now put his life in danger not just once but even twice. He could no longer be trusted, but could he really trust Serafina either? Had Alex lost his discretion badly today or was he the bad party, and if he was, why had Serafina not told otherwise right away?

Questions started flooding. William shook his head and emptied his mind. Pondering questions without answers would not change the matter in any way. He could only enjoy the open air, the voice of the rain and the peace for this night and push everything back. He would have the time to deal with them later as well. Now was a good moment to enjoy the small things in life without which he had been while under X.A.N.A.'s possession but which he had learned to appreciate when the months-long paralyzed virtual darkness had switched back to Earth's colorful and lively life.

Unlike he had expected, the rain did not stop. Instead, it downright worsened, and in the end William had to run to the sewers and through the park to the dormitory in rainfall late in the evening. The water was cold and William felt like if he stopped, the rain that had gotten through all layers of clothing would freeze him.

Serafina, Alicia, Lyra and Dan stepped into the base through the emergency exit. The repair program had stabilized the base and erased the dangers, but it had not cleaned. The mess was horrible.
"What on earth did Alex even use for this? This mess is insane!" Lyra exclaimed. Alicia flew forward to set the crystal ball on the table, but the table collapsed right away from her weight. The hawk took off again, cursing, and set the crystal ball next to the now collapsed table.
"I don't know, but something scary it was," Serafina remarked. "This chaos isn't a good sign at all. He has something horrible in his use." Through the dead thorn bushes, she saw the lights that twinkled where they had normally done so. Therefore, they had been spared from the destruction and dared to come back. Serafina ignored them and moved to the crystal ball. She hummed.
"What now, Serafina?" Lyra asked. She recognized the hum; Serafina planned something important.
"It's time," Serafina said, looking at Lyra. Lyra saw a now familiar picture on the screen and understood.

In the staircase of the dormitory, it turned out that the water did not freeze William after the running had ended even though he was cold. At every step, water sizzled out of his shoes which were just as soaking wet as the rest of his ensemble, and each step sounded more and more like a splash than a step. After getting to the dark corridor of the boys' floor, William already believe he was safe from Jim, but he realized he was wrong when a sudden light blinded him.
"Dunbar! What are you doing in the corridor at this time?" Jim asked quietly.
"Jim?" William asked, trying to block at least the straightest light of the torch from in front of his eyes. "Could you please point that torch somewhere else? I can't see anything."

The light moved lower and William could see the PE teacher's irritated face when he observed his soaking wet appearance.
"Where have you been?" Jim asked.
"In the town," William answered. "I stayed to wait for the rain to end but it just got worse, so I had to run here. It's a full downpour right now out there."
"So it would seem, judging from you," Jim noted, scratching his chin. "But rain or not, rules are rules and they need to be followed."
"I know," William said humbly and looked at the floor. He was too tired to backtalk. "Give as much detention as needed. I want to get to change these clothes and go to sleep now."

Jim looked at the young man with pity. He understood how he felt like; after all, he had been young one day too.
"I'll turn a blind eye on this, this once. Go ahead, William, and make sure that this won't happen again," he said. William lifted his eyes from the floor, astonished. It took some seconds for him to understand that this was not a joke.
"Jim, thank you so much!" he said, genuinely grateful. "You're the best!"

Jim smiled for a long time after William had disappeared into his room. He heard those words very rarely.

William changed his clothes and dried his hair. By then, plenty of water had already dripped from the hair along his face and drenched the dry shirt around the shoulders. In silence, he sat down on the bed. He would not have wanted to sleep and face nightmares again, but he was too tired to resist sleep. He lay down under his warm blanket and fell asleep.

That night, he did not see nightmares.

/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Foes & Friends Remastered duology and its OCs (c) Me/