Late nights were nothing new to Aelita, but tonight was different. No longer were the late nights a result of diligence to a great cause, or desperation to achieve their goal, or even just not requiring rest at that time. No… tonight, she simply could not sleep.

The clock had read 1:54 when she had left the dorm to wander. No one was allowed up at these hours, but if she were quiet, it would be as if it had not happened at all. In all honesty, she had no idea where she was going, but she felt the need to move. To do something.

It was not long before she found herself on the boys' floor, and a thought occurred when she did. Jeremie was on this floor, and perhaps he could help deal with the overwhelming restlessness. It would not be the first time, and many sleepless nights meant he was probably experienced in fighting off boredom.

Her pace was brisk, but eventually she found her way to his door, and heard… typing?

Honestly, she should not have been surprised, but she was. X.A.N.A was gone, and Jeremie was still typing with a similar fervor as to when it was around? This, she had to see, if for nothing else than to make sure he wasn't overworking.

And with a tentative nod, Aelita heard a few footsteps, before the door opened to reveal her boyfriend.

Jeremie looked back to her and smiled. "Hey Aelita. Couldn't sleep?"

She shook her head. "Seems like you couldn't either. You alright?"

With a simple gesture, Jeremie beckoned her forward, and Aelita complied without a word. On his screen, she could see various lines of code, so nothing too out of the ordinary. What intrigued her, however, was the formatting. He seemed to be working on various classes at the moment, and the names of the classes that she could see were what caught her eye.

'SternWarrior'

'IshiyamaMystic'

'DellaRobiaRanger'

"Jeremie, what is this?" She asked, bringing herself closer to get a better look at their bodies of these various classes.

Jeremie rubbed the back of his head, visibly embarrassed. "Well… I haven't been able to sleep ever since we shut down the supercomputer."

"And so you've been coding?"

He shrugged. "It's strangely soothing when you're not in a life-or-death battle against a science fiction supervillain."

Aelita giggled. "I suppose so. But why make classes based on our abilities if we're never going back to Lyoko?"

As if to answer the question, he pointed to a binder, and Aelita was immediately intrigued as soon as she saw it. Within it was a single piece of college-rule notebook paper, simply labelling the book as 'Lyoko Adventures'. Hesitance ran through her system as soon as she saw the title, but she decided to let Jeremie explain further.

"Ever since we left, I've felt this… great desire, I suppose would be the best way to describe it."

"Great desire?" Aelita asked.

Jeremie nodded. "Once we left, I felt this almost burning need to recapture that incredible time. And so, I started playing around in a game engine and well… I was hooked."

"And you intend to make a game on Lyoko?"

Once again, he nodded, gesturing to the code. "I realized with a little proper balancing, I could make a party of characters that are loosely based on our team from those times. I could even see about giving adding in unlockable characters for the purpose of giving some value to replaying the game, loosely based off Sissi, William, and possibly even Jim. I was…"

Suddenly, Jeremie got quiet, and started to scratch the back of his head once again. He'd developed that habit in the while since they'd beat X.A.N.A, and it usually signified he was nervous. Aelita knew this and was about ready to push him to finish his sentence. But as it turned out, she didn't need to.

"I was just getting down some ideas in pseudocode form, practicing the system. Before I get the actual game down, I wanted to get the rest of the group's approval. It's as much your story as it is my own after all."

Aelita didn't even have to think about her answer.

"I… don't think it's a good idea, Jeremie."

"I understand," he said, looking to the book. "I obviously wouldn't be using any of our real names, but the scenarios would likely be similar to stuff we've actually lived through, and that could be suspicious. And I don't want to put you guys through anything you're not comfortable with. Not anymore, anyway…"

A twinge of guilt ran through Aelita. After turning off the computer, Jeremie made a confession to the rest of the group. In it, he'd laid out every supposed failing he'd had during their tenure as Lyoko Warriors. No one had been sure of what to say, knowing that their resident Einstein blamed himself so harshly. It almost seemed unbelievable, but in a way, it made sense just as much.

"Well, I didn't say no, per se," Aelita said slowly, a smile forming as she saw Jeremie's eyes light up. "It's just that I worry it might hit… too close to home. So if you do it, I want a say in creative decisions. As well as the right to renege on the agreement at any time."

Jeremie nodded without any hesitation. "It's all yours."

"And if you want to do this, then I want you to discuss it with everyone as soon as you possibly can."

It took only a couple of seconds of rumination for Jeremie to agree to the terms. After everything that has happened, he can easily get the others together, and explain to them what happened. They'd even been discussing finally sharing the truth with Jim, since he'd almost been an unofficial member of the team. And if he wanted to add them together into the game, then it was only fair…

And so, he smiled. "I'll get everyone together tomorrow if I can."

"Glad to hear it," Aelita told him. "So… would you mind if I took a look at your ideas?"

"Have at it." Jeremie said and began typing again.

Looking over, Aelita picked it up and began to skim through the various notes. They were a bit sloppier than she'd been expecting, as if he'd thrown them together as he thought of them. Various little things such as 'Stern Warrior's 'Impact' needs a bigger hitbox' and 'Stones Angel should get Energy Field from the start', to bigger things such as the aforementioned 'Consider adding unlockable characters for second playthroughs'.

She couldn't help but smile.

"Seems your work is never done."

"Heh… I know I should probably be sleeping, but I just can't help but work."

"Well, I can't exactly be mad. I'm in the same boat."

Jeremie nodded. "I'm going to finish up here and go to bed soon, I think. Luckily, I can sleep in tomorrow."

"Yeah… I should probably do so myself." Aelita agreed. "I'll see you tomorrow, Jeremie."

"See you tomorrow, Aelita."

And with that, she left, trusting Jeremie when he said he would get to bed. It was a longshot, but he had been better since the fall of X.A.N.A it seemed. And hey, another new project could potentially be good, since he didn't need to work night and day on it.

So, she would have to make sure he did not overdo it.

So, this is something small to work on while I plan out a new version of 'Damian'. I wanted to get back into CL fanfictions for a while, but did not have any inspiration. I hope you guys like this small thing, as I'm going to get a couple more in if I can.

Or I'll make the new 'Damian', which will go up at some point. Until then, old 'Damian' is still there, and free to read.

But I'm rambling. If you enjoyed, read, review, all that good stuff, and I'll see you next time..