So, I've just realized a slight problem. As it is, each time I update a chapter, I post first on Ao3, then copy and paste here. Between each change of point of view, I *always* have a line breaker, either a series or hyphens or extra spacing, in order to make the transition smoother. Unfortunately, neither the lines nor the spaces register when I post. So if you're getting that problem too, please blame FN :)
In the meantime, I'm trying to find a way around it.
"No, I changed my mind, I'm not going."
"Jeremy!"
Several voices rang out in exasperation as Jeremy halted on his way to the gates yet again. He turned to face his entire friend group, shaking his head.
"No, it's a silly idea, I'm staying behind."
"Come on, Einstein, we talked about this," Ulrich said.
"He's right, Jeremy. Go, we'll be fine without you," Aelita said in a soothing voice, but Jeremy wasn't reassured.
"But this could be exactly what XANA is waiting for, Aelita! For our group to divide so that he can strike the moment we're weakened!"
A collective grumble rose across the air again. Odd rolled his eyes and said, "Here we go again."
Three days prior, Jim and Mr. Delmas, the school principal, had entered the cafeteria during lunchtime and announced that they were planning a special trip for all students to the amusement park that had opened up recently on the other side of town — a so-called "breather" from all the hard work that the students had been doing this year, which, he had stated proudly, had brought the school's average up to the highest they had seen in years. Nearly all the students in each grade had signed up for the trip, and after a lengthy, winding discussion, Jeremy had agreed to go with William, Gabrielle, Ulrich, and Mila, while Odd, Leo, Yumi, and Aelita remained behind, in case XANA decided to launch another attack.
"Jeremy, stop worrying," Aelita said, losing patience now. "We all learned how to use the supercomputer for situations just like this, and we can't all stay anyway — Jim seems suspicious enough as is. Besides, you could really use the break. Go on, we'll be fine."
There was a slight pause. Jeremy stared at the asphalt-lined ground, his brow furrowed. Then his shoulders sagged. He looked up, defeated, and sighed, "Okay."
Aelita smiled and placed a kiss gently on his cheek, which seemed to raise his spirits slightly.
"About time, too," Ulrich said, resting a hand on Jeremy's shoulder. "The bus is almost ready."
They looked around. The line leading to the bus had indeed dwindled severely in Jeremy's moment of indecision. There had been four in total: four large coasters of varying colours, all rented by the school, ready to take the students who'd signed up. Three of them, each sheperded by the teachers Mrs. Mayer, Mr. Fumet, and Mr. Chardin, the art teacher, who had a shock of untidy grey hair and who was slightly mad, had already left. Jim Morales was escorting the final bus, and now, as he checked off the names of the last of the students before him from his list, his beady eyes found Jeremy and the others.
An evil smile stretched his lips and he came marching over to them, his eyes glittering unpleasantly. "So," he said loudly, staring from one to the other. "The whole gang is staying behind, are they?"
"Er — no, Jim," Jeremy said, hastily plastering a smile of his own across his face. "We're going, we were just saying goodbye first."
"I bet you were," growled Jim. "On the bus, Belpois, and anyone else who's going too. We're ready to leave."
As Ulrich, Mila, Gabrielle, and William followed Jeremy off to the bus door, Jim turned to glower at the others, who all, like Jeremy, tried to muster up the most innocent looks they could. He gave them a plainly mistrustful look, then glanced wistfully at the school behind them, as though he was having second thoughts about leaving. Then he turned on his heel and marched away, disappearing into the coaster.
Jeremy was staring anxiously out his window at everybody else. The bus roared to a start, and they waved until it was out of sight.
"Well, I suppose we should get back now," Yumi said. "What are we going to do now?"
"Well, I don't know about you all, but I'm going to bring Kiwi out for a walk," Odd said. "Wanna come?"
"Sure, why not?" Leo said, and they headed off up to Odd's room.
On the bus, Jeremy had taken a seat beside Mila and Gabrielle, who were talking in cheery voices about the day's prospects. He was still staring out the window, watching buildings and lush green fields fly by the bus. He supposed that he ought to take Aelita's advice and simply relax, as opportunities like this did not come often in their fight against XANA, but he couldn't shake the feeling that they had made a mistake by coming here.
Little though he knew it, his thoughts were shared by William, who was sitting just behind him, beside Ulrich, in an uncomfortable silence. Now that he came to think about it, he had never really had a proper conversation with Ulrich since he had been reinstated as a Lyoko Warrior. Most of their talks, if they had any at all, were limited to Pencak Silat lessons. It was simply too awkward hosting a casual conversation with him, seeing with their past. Yumi had made it clear to him that she had no feelings for him — at least, not anymore — but on that front, why was she not with Ulrich then? Had it not been because of him that he and Yumi had never really taken off in the first place?
William grit his teeth. He would much rather have been back at school, with the possibility of going to Lyoko to fight XANA, than stuck here in this uncomfortable silence, going to an amusement park he did not feel much enthusiasm towards, with such unpleasant thoughts whirling around his brain. Ulrich coughed.
"Hmm? Did you say something?"
"What?" Ulrich said, bemused. "Oh, no, nothing . . . Just a cough. . . ."
They lapsed into silence again, somehow more uncomfortable than before. The ride to the amusement park took about three hours, and nearly every minute of that period, for Ulrich, Jeremy, and William, was spent in anguished silence.
When they had arrived, however, their mouths fell open, and like everybody else along the bus, they breathed sighs of awe.
Superb-looking rides of all shapes and sizes loomed ahead of them, as inviting as they looked dangerous. There was a gigantic, spinning ferris wheel; a rotating tea-cup ride; long, winding, looping roller coasters painted in bright, vibrant colours; and old-fashioned arcade games, among many others.
The air was thick with loud, raucous music, screams of enjoyment (and a few of terror issuing from the enormous Haunted House that rose in the distance), ringing bells that signaled the end of games, squealing brakes.
The sight had completely driven their worries from their minds.
"Well?" Jeremy said keenly. "Which one should we try first?"
Ulrich was looking out at a woman and her young son who had just disembarked from a roller coaster a bit farther out from the gate, labeled, "The Dive of Death." A smile spread across his face as he watched the boy splatter the ground with sick, and he pointed at the ride he had just gotten off of. "Why don't we try that one first?"
It was a quiet day, with about three-quarters of the school gone. Aelita, Odd, Yumi, and Leo weren't the only ones who had chosen to stay behind. A few others had opted to remain as well, a trickle of kids from each grade, including Sissi.
This struck Aelita as particularly odd, as it was her own father, Mr. Delmas, that had suggested the trip. Wouldn't he have wanted his daughter, especially, to go, if he really wanted to treat the student body? It was indeed peculiar, but all the same, Aelita tried her best not to dwell too much on the subject of the trip. There was a small, wistful knot in her stomach; a part of her would really have liked to have gone, but she knew there was no way. If XANA attacked while they were all the way on the other side of town, there would be nothing they could do.
At least this way, someone got to have fun. Well, maybe Mila and Gabrielle. Jeremy, William, and Ulrich didn't seem particularly fond of the idea, which was precisely why she wanted them specifically to go. They had the most problems of the entire group, they would need the reprieve the most.
The rest of the day passed smoothly and quietly. After a nice walk and talk through the forest, the four ventured to the cafeteria. Since so many students were absent, Rosa had decided to have a small, casual luncheon with the remaining students. They moved their tables to form a small circle with her at the center, and she began to tell them stories of when she was younger. Aelita was quite intrigued when she started on the time she had helped the police solve a murder mystery, but at this point, Sissi moved her seat a little nearer and smiled at Aelita. Aelita wanted to return her attention to Rosa's thrilling tale, but her curiosity got the better of her.
"How come you didn't leave with everybody else?" she asked.
Sissi's eyes glinted rather suspiciously. "I was the one who brought the idea to Daddy, you know. After he told me about the school's improvement, I suggested a reward. I didn't really feel much up to going to some silly theme park, but I'm sure the other students would have liked that. And you? How come you stayed behind?"
Aelita shrugged. "More or less the same," she said carelessly.
Sissi made to respond, but she was forestalled by a sudden muffled sort of beeping. Aelita quickly opened her bag and plunged a hand inside, extracted her laptop, and opened it a fraction. A tower had been activated on Xanadu.
She looked around, intending to inform Yumi, Odd, and Leo, but they had caught the alert too. She nodded, gesturing furtively at the door, then turned to Sissi with a huge, fake smile. "Well, thanks for the talk, but we were going to go study now. Bye."
They stood and, as casually as they could, strolled out of the room. Once out of sight of the lunchroom, they broke into a run towards the woods.
"Activated tower on Xanadu — Volcano Sector," she told them.
"And we don't even know what XANA's attack could be," Odd said. "Do you think somebody should stay behind, watch the school?"
"No, XANA's aiming for us so we need to stay as far from the other students as possible, to protect them."
"What about the others?" Leo asked, as they made their descent into the sewers. "Should we tell them?"
Aelita hesitated. "No," she decided, picking up her scooter. "We'll handle it. We don't need to worry them about anything, let them have today. Besides, they're on the other side of town, there's nothing they can do."
This was, of course, true, but a feeling of unease still hung in the air as they made their way to the factory, like a dark cloud looming above them. Once they had arrived, Aelita virtualized Yumi, Odd, and Leo, then set up a timed, automatic process for herself. As she landed in the Arena, she looked up and said, "Okay, let's go. The vehicles are already at the Dome."
They hurried off through the Core Zone, then rode the elevator up to the Celestial Dome. Yumi, Aelita, and Odd all took their places at their vehicles' helms, but Leo hesitated, staring at the Overbike. Then he jumped onto it, smiling, and revved the bike. "Oh yeah, driver's seat for once!" he said happily.
They flew off into the long, golden tunnel, then emerged into Xanadu's atmosphere, and they all paused in midair.
"Ah great," Odd said bitterly, looking around. "Now what?"
They had arrived in Xanadu's Swamp Region.
It had to be the Haunted House.
Jeremy, William, Ulrich, Gabrielle, and Mila had had a good morning, rushing from ride to ride along with the rest of their peers. They had played the bumper cars, ridden the Dive of Death (Jeremy felt woozy for a solid twenty minutes afterwards), the Ferris Wheel, and several other major attractions. By midday, they were all laughing as hard as the other children, actually enjoying themselves.
After a quick snack on the bus, Gabrielle suggested that they try the Haunted House next. Jeremy had promptly refused, claiming that it would undoubtedly be a waste of time, with all the poor, cheesy effects and non-frightening, overused gimmicks that the house had surely been stocked with. Eventually they wore him down, and he grudgingly agreed to go. His snorts did not subside, however, after they had entered. The room was precisely how he had expected it to be. Poor lightning, bad props, cheap, predictable scare tactics. By the time they had gone three rooms in, even the others seemed disappointed.
He was about to tell them a hearty "I told you so," and suggest that they not waste any more time and simply find a new ride, when the front door slammed shut with a very audible thud. They had to have been several rooms into the House by now, which was full of screams and all sorts of weird sound effects, but the noise had reverberated through the hall as though they had been standing right in front of the door.
Then, quite abruptly, the lights and sound all went off, as though the park had lost power, but they could hear the rides going steadily outside. There was a short pause — then a long, piercing scream suddenly rent the air, shattering the bewildered silence. Jeremy felt a flush of genuine fear.
"That — that sounded pretty real," he said, gulping.
"Because it was." The voice spoke from behind them, deep and oily, and vaguely familiar. They all whipped around at the sound, just as a blood-red glow filled the room, streaming from the fixtures around. They were now looking up at the clown that had been posted at the door in the room they had just left, which was set up to jump out at people when they approached and laugh.
"That — that was in the other room, wasn't it?" Ulrich said, his voice quivering slightly. "How did it get in here?"
The clown let out his awful laugh, and he lunged. The fake knife he was holding slashed through the air, and William fell backwards with a scream.
"William!" Jeremy shouted. The blue-haired youth was lying on the ground, clutching his shoulder, his face screwed up in pain. Underneath the scarlet light, they saw that a long gash had spread along his arm, and blood was welling up from the wound.
They looked around in horror. The knife that the clown had used was covered in blood, and the clown was running his tongue across the blade, licking the scarlet splatters off with the same relish Odd often reserved for meatballs and gravy at school. He looked up slowly, and his eyes flashed. Even by the dim, bloody glow cast by the overhead bulbs, there was no mistaking that symbol.
"XANA!" Jeremy shouted.
The clown launched itself forward, seized Jeremy by the collar and slammed him to the ground, then raised its knife, so that droplets of blood spattered across his glasses. Just as it swung downwards, Ulrich came lunging out of nowhere. He kicked the clown aside, then heaved Jeremy from the floor.
"Come on!" he yelled, and they all sprinted away, the clown's terrible laughter still ringing in their ears.
"How are we supposed to find a Way Tower like this?" Yumi demanded.
"We can't. Oh, I'm so lame, I completely forgot that entrance into Xanadu is randomized!" Aelita moaned.
"All right, one of us will have to go back to get the right coordinates for that tower," Leo said. "I'll go."
"No, I should do it," Odd said. "I have more experience with the supercomputer, it'll be easier that way. Someone fire at me."
They exchanged looks, then Yumi said, "Okay," and flicked her wrist; a fan appeared in her hand, the metallic leaves glowing brightly. "On three, Odd. One . . . two . . ."
Odd closed his eyes, waiting for "three" — but it never came. He felt a blinding, searing pain in his chest, followed by the sensation of falling. . . . Then he was sitting on the floor of one of the scanners, rubbing his chest as the doors opened. He stood up and slouched up to the Lab Room, muttering darkly.
He plopped himself down in Jeremy's seat, seized the mic, positioned it upon his ear, and began to type. His fingers were less practiced on the keyboard than Jeremy's, but he managed well enough. A digital map of the Swamp Sector appeared, with three dots marking his friends. The map expanded, spreading outwards, and at last the target tower swam upon the surface.
"Aelita, Yumi, Leo," Odd called.
"Odd, have you found it yet?" Aelita said.
"Yes, that Way Tower is bearing northwest of where you are now."
"Got it, we're on our way."
The Haunted House was full of screams once more, but this time the shrieks were of genuine terror, issuing from victims of the once-corny attractions that had sprung to life into horrible, malevolent beasts the moment XANA had taken control of the site. Footsteps thundered through the rooms above, below, and just beyond the rooms where Jeremy, William, Mila, Gabrielle, and Leo were, along with other, sinister noises that they didn't want to think about what they could have belonged to.
Ulrich led Jeremy, William, and the two girls into a room that had clearly been adorned with large, inanimate spiders; there were cobwebs strung all along the room, which were now empty except for several huge, black balls stuck here and there along the threads.
"I think we're safe here," Ulrich panted.
"Don't bet on that," William said, looking deeply uncomfortable, still clutching his shoulder; Ulrich had just remembered his fear of spiders.
"Oh, William," Mila said. "Here — let me have a look —" She pried his hand from his shoulder, examined the wound, and then ripped a piece of fabric from her skirt, finishing by wrapping the cloth firmly around his shoulder. "Now keep pressure on that."
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine," William said, though he maintained a tight grip on the cloth regardless. "Our priority right now should be getting out of here."
"Out?" Ulrich raised his eyebrows. "And what about everyone else, huh, we just leave them to die?"
"We can't help anybody if we get killed too!" William said angrily. "XANA is after us, everyone else is just —"
"Just what?" Ulrich's hands had balled into fists at his sides, and he was gritting his teeth. "Just what, William?"
"That's enough, you two!" Jeremy said, leaping up and launching himself between the pair, who were still glaring at each other. He hastily wiped the blood from his glasses, replaced them on the bridge of his nose, and then said, "We won't get anywhere by arguing."
"No." William pushed Jeremy's hand out of the way. "I want to hear what Mr. Bigshot has to say."
Jeremy started to protest, but before Ulrich knew what he was saying, the resentment that had been building up inside him for however long he didn't know came bursting out as though a hole had been punctured in his chest: "You want to know what my problem is, William? It's you! You keep trying to prove to everybody that — what? — you're as good as everyone else? Better? You're reckless and impulsive, you don't care about anybody else so long as you get what you want — like right now, and like your "revenge" on XANA. We're all just a means to an end to you, aren't we? Just an easy way to get some action on Lyoko, because the normal world's too boring for you, isn't it?"
"You don't know what you're talking about!" William roared.
"Shhhh!" Jeremy said desperately, looking around nervously. "William, please —"
But Gabrielle now seized his shoulder and pulled him away from the glowering duo, shaking her head. "You don't get it, Jeremy," she said quietly. "Growing up with a sibling, you learn: sometimes you need to get it out, before you can get past it."
Mila looked uncomfortable, but she did not protest. Jeremy looked at her, then at William and Ulrich, and sighed, watching anxiously as William began to shout again.
"You think this is about having a good time on Lyoko? That I just want to have revenge on XANA? Yeah, I'm not going to deny that I still have those thoughts, but you know the real reason I wanted to join you guys again? Because you understand! I had months of my life stolen away from me, by an evil computer virus that wants to destroy the world, that lives in a virtual space projected by a supercomputer in the factory near our school! Did you ever stop to think how hard that could be for me? Having to bottle all of that up? I can't talk about anything that happened to me, because I'll end up exposing everything, and that's if they even believe me instead of just thinking I'm nuts!
"I wanted to join you because I wanted friends!" William bellowed. "There, I said it. The cool, stoic bad boy was lonely. You happy? I don't have anyone, and I saw how close you all are with each other and you know what — maybe I wanted that too. It'd be much better than what I've had to suffer through in the past few months. You know how hard it is to reconnect, when I've been out of touch with the entire world for months? But I can see that I'm still not welcome, that I'll never be welcome. So you know what? I'm done."
William's eyes were swimming with tears, but his expression was still as hard as stone.
"You won't have to worry about me anymore. I've been thinking for the longest time anyway, just to get my dad to transfer me, put me somewhere I can try to leave all this behind me. If I make it out of here, you'll never have to see me again. I'm sure that'll make you happy." And he strode past Ulrich, banging his shoulder against him as he moved, and out the door, leaving a stunned silence behind him. It stretched on for a few seconds, then Jeremy swallowed and said, "I should go after him." He started to move, but Ulrich waved him down.
"No," he said. "I should be the one."
"Hurry back," Jeremy called after him, as Ulrich rushed out of the room. He hurried through the dark halls, whose walls were stained horribly with what he sincerely hoped was fake blood pasted there before the park had opened, and caught up with William around the corner.
"Wait!"
William ignored him.
"You're right!"
At these words, William stopped, but he did not turn around. "About what?" he growled.
"Everything," Ulrich sighed. "I've been a jerk to you, ever since we met, and it's . . . it's . . ." He hesitated, but William had told him his truth, it was only fair to do the same. He took a deep breath and plunged on, "Because I was jealous!"
At last, William turned around. He looked shocked. "Jealous? Of what?"
"Of you, idiot," Ulrich said. "And no, it's not because of Yumi. That's part of it, yes. But it's mostly because of . . . well, you. You're cool, good-looking, popular. Then there was how great you were on Lyoko. I guess I was just jealous of how perfect you are."
"But I'm not," said William. "Far from it."
"I know that, but it's still not that easy to wrap around with . . . with everything that's happened. I was being stupid. I treated you badly because I was viewing you the way I did in my head, and that's not the real you. You don't have to change schools, you're as much a part of this group as any of us. And I'm sorry I made you feel differently."
William's face slowly broke into a smile, and so did Ulrich's. Before either could say anything else, the clown's horrible laughter reached their ears again, alarmingly close.
"First thing's first," Ulrich said, grinning. "Shall we take out the trash?"
William smirked. "It would be my honour," he said, and they hurried back towards the others.
Following Odd's directions, Yumi, Aelita, and Leo located the tower, entered, and then changed sectors. They erupted onto the pitch-black terrain of the Volcano Sector, illuminated by the dark red glow of the digital lava.
"The activated tower is bearing west," Odd told them.
"Got it," said Yumi, as they changed direction. "Have you gotten through to Ulrich and the others?" she added.
"No, still nothing."
"That's not ominous at all," Leo muttered. The tower loomed into view, like an enormous stick of chalk sprouting from the dark ground.
"Careful," Odd said. "Three tarantulas up ahead!"
"All right, one for each of us," Aelita said. All three broke off, soaring towards the monsters settled on the ground. The tarantulas were adjusting their positions, reclining on their hind legs and taking aim with the lasers attached to their front. Streaks of red light burst through the air. Leo wove around the oncoming strikes and seized his lightning bolt, preparing to fire, but a laser suddenly crashed against the front of the bike and it vanished beneath him. Screaming, Leo fell towards the ground. He crashed onto the dark earth, his lightning bolt clattering away from him. He looked up, groaning, and saw the tarantula taking aim for him again.
"No!" he yelled, his hands flying up before him, almost automatically. He heard several dull thuds, felt an odd tingling feeling, and looked up slowly, curiously. A yellow aura was lining his body, like a kind of golden halo. The tarantula's lasers were crashing against him, but he couldn't feel a thing. "Hey, what's going on?" he said, bewildered.
"I don't know, but — you haven't lost any life points at all!" Odd said, sounding amazed.
"Woah," Leo said, examining himself. The tarantula had stopped firing, looking just as bemused as Leo himself. Yumi swooped past, a fan glowing in her hand. She flung, and the fan spiraled through the air, streaking towards the confused tarantula. It sliced through the mark along its massive snout, and it exploded in a shower of digital bits.
"Yeah!" Leo cried. He heard a metallic, clanking sort of noise, and turned to see a second tarantula, Yumi's target, aiming at him. He smirked — then the golden halo, which he had taken as some kind of shield, suddenly faded. "Huh? No —!"
A volley of lasers shot towards him, sank into his chest, and sent him flying backwards, his digital form bursting into a storm of digital strips. Yumi dived again, this time throwing both of her fans. The tarantula's lasers crashed into the Overwing, and it disappeared beneath her feet, sending her plummeting into a pool of digital lava, which swallowed her with a shriek of pain. The tarantula dodged the first fan, but the second ripped through its snout, exploding it.
"Aelita, there's only one left now!" Odd said. "Hurry!"
"I just have to — take care — of this one," she said, dodging several lasers as she spoke. The Overrose too was hit, vanishing in midair like the Overwing and Overbike, but Aelita spun through the air, her wings blooming from her back, and she managed to remain airborne.
"Energy Field!" she said, and she fired at the tarantula. The strike hit it point-blank, coating it in rippling pink energy, and Aelita swooped towards the tower just as it exploded.
She floated up to the second level, placed her hand on the interface, and watched as the data in the tower streamed below as it fell neutral once more.
"Odd, have you programmed the return to the past?" she asked.
"Of course I did, Princess. Get ready then — return to the past, now!"
"And that's what happened," Jeremy said.
"Wow, that sounds terrible," Aelita said. "I just hope no one was — you know —"
"No, I don't think anyone was. We got really close, though. Especially when those spiders came back —" His face twisted in disgust. "But apart from that, it wasn't too bad. William, Ulrich, and Gabrielle did a pretty great job."
"I wish we could go," Aelita said, sighing. "Now that it's over."
"Who says you can't?" said Jeremy, gesturing happily at the buses. The motion was caught by Jim, who saw off the rest of the students and came stomping over to them.
"So, the whole gang is staying behind, huh?"
Jeremy exchanged looks with the others, then smiled brightly at Jim.
"No, Jim. Actually, we'd all like to go. It's not too late to sign up, is it?"
Jim looked taken aback. "Well . . . no, I suppose not. Get on. But I don't want any funny business, you hear me?" he growled suddenly.
"None at all!" Jeremy told him, and they all hurried onto the bus. Ulrich sat beside William once again, with Leo and Odd on their right, and Yumi, Aelita, Mila, Gabrielle, and Jeremy in front. None of them appeared uncomfortable anymore. William and Ulrich smiled at each other, an easy gesture. And they drove off, talking cheerily about the ride.
"So," Odd interjected around a half hour later. "I've been thinking. Seeing as we've taken care of XANA for now, how about we check out the Haun —"
"No!" they shouted.