The next thing Maya knew, she was being shaken by a hand on her back. Jolting up in a panic, she opened her eyes to see the face of her father, Jeremy Belpois, right in front of her.
"Wake up, Maya," said Jeremy in a chipper tone, "Protecting Lyoko may be important, but you still got to go to school."
Too groggy to respond, Maya checked the time on her desktop to see how much time had passed.
"Great," she said in an annoyed, sarcastic tone, "I slept for three hours."
"Oh, don't be embarrassed, I used to do that all the time back during my Lyoko days."
"Oh please, you didn't do any of that," she said, leaning into the monitor to check on the Lyoko front. From what Maya saw, the Creepers had brought down the level of Hornets across the Sectors. If she could maintain the results, they could have a chance to even gain ground in the Mountain Sector.
"Maybe not, but your mom did make you breakfast," retorted her father as he turned Maya's swivel chair to face the door, "So how about you head downstairs and treat yourself to some good food."
Maya could feel her stomach begin to growl. Her hand now forced; she began to make her way out the door.
"Don't worry my little angel," reassured Jeremy, "Your mother and I will hold the line until you get back from school."
Feeling condescended, Maya flashed a scowl back at him only for her glare to be reciprocated by a cheeky, loving grin. Knowing that there really wasn't a way to get back at him, she continued towards breakfast, mumbling and grumbling.
Alysa heard a series of sluggish thuds descend from the stairs as Aelita sizzled another omelet for her big sister. By the time Maya wobbled to the kitchen, breakfast was served with a cup of coffee.
"Morning Sis," said Alysa in an upbeat mood, "How did you sleep last night?"
"Not much," responded Maya as she took a gulp of her coffee, "I was able to add Creepers to our roster and needed to spend time finding their tactical niche. Did you learn anything new from dad's diary?"
"I had to catch up on some homework that I couldn't get done in study hall. I only listened to a couple entries. Just some box-standard tower attacks of X.A.N.A. possessing stuff; like a flock of crows or… food."
"Food?"
"Yeah, according to one of the diary entries, X.A.N.A. possessed the school's pantry to make like a- food golem?"
"Is… that really it?
"Actually, Dad did also mention something about X.A.N.A. raising the level of the Digital Sea to submerge all the sectors."
"The ability to wipe the sectors clean could be useful as a last resort," thought Maya, "How can we do that?"
"Change the sea level?" Alysa drew a large breath to reiterate what was now a tired line at the table, "Not without going to Sector 5."
Maya groaned at the answer, "Every time."
With the conversation now dead, the two sisters continued getting ready for school.
With their feet out on the sidewalk, Maya closed the gate with one hand and scrummaged her pockets for the keys.
"Come on we're going to be late," said Alysa.
"Just a sec. I only need to lock the gate," said Maya as she moved on to the next pocket.
"It's just a gate, whether it's locked or not doesn't matter."
Alysa's words only had fallen on deaf ears, as Maya had begun to pat herself down, "Shoot, I forgot the keys."
As the older sister started to move back into the Hermitage, the younger grabbed her by the arm and proceeded to drag her away to Kadic.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"Come on, sis. Lyoko's not going to get taken over because of a simple lock."
"It will only take a couple minutes."
"A couple of minutes and we'll be late again. I'm pretty sure Jim told us last time that we'll be getting detention if it happened again."
An extra hour of school; not exactly time well spent in exchange for fending off Lyoko's invasion. Maya had no choice but to relent.
No words were exchanged for the next several blocks. As they went further along their morning route, the Belpois sisters reached a house they were already familiar with. Standing on the sidewalk, a fifteen-year-old boy rested his lanky body against the metal fence that marked the property line of his home.
"Morning," said the teen as soon as he noticed Alysa and Maya.
"Morning Liam," greeted Alysa, "Are the A-twins sleeping in?"
"Nah, they went on ahead," said Liam, "They wanted to get some work done at the robotics lab before class."
"And you didn't go with them?" asked Maya, "You know, find an early scoop for the Kadic Gazette?"
"Ugh, I wish," groaned the student reporter as the three made their way to Kadic, "But it's been a slow news week. All anyone's talking about is that Marco kid; been a real hassle getting interviews about anything else."
"Well that sucks," sympathized Alysa, "I'm sure you'll find something to write about."
"Yeah, probably. On another note: I saw you two hanging out with Marco. I recommend not getting spotted by Cassandra anytime soon. I've overheard her talking with her friends; she's got it in her head that she can get an interview with Odd Della Robbia."
"I mean, what's wrong with that?" asked Maya.
"Because she doesn't do real journalism; nothing but gossip with her. What insight could she get out of the guy?"
Just then, their conversation was cut off by the ripping roar of a sports car passing by the three. In their passing glances, the only details they caught of the obnoxious vehicle was a purple paint job with gold edging before it veered off around a corner.
"Jeez louise," said Maya, "Who would drive such a gaudy car?"
Driving through the neighborhood, Odd remembered the area surrounding the Hermitage being more isolated than what he saw now. Individually walled-off, suburban houses lined the streets, the roads were freshly paved, and the atmosphere was more… relaxed. It wasn't until his car rolled up to the Hermitage that the changes began to strike a chord with him.
The first thing that stood out was the lack of overgrowth; no moss or vines grew along the walls, the ferns were trimmed down, and while the trees were more thick and sturdy, their branches were manicured from their previous wild mess.
Walking through the unlocked gate, Odd saw the main path bordered with blooming flower beds. As he turned his head to look at the flowers, he noticed that there were some new structures around the massive lawn. To his right, not far from the deep drain which he almost drowned in once, stood a small greenhouse. Naturally Odd couldn't see inside, but from the green visible through the white panes, it was bursting with life. To his left, a pavilion stood out all alone, covered with strokes of flowering vines.
"Looks like Mr. and Mrs. Einstein definitely made a home for themselves," Odd somberly commented to himself.
Walking up the steps to the porch, he heard the front door swing open for Jeremy and Aelita to walk out.
"Well, if it isn't Odd," greeted a cheerful Jeremy, "How unexpected. It's been what- 15 years."
"More like 20 years, Einstein," said Odd, "When did you get a goatee?"
"Around the same time you got chubby," Aelita coldly countered.
"I'm not chubby," retorted Odd, "I'm just … husky."
And with that exchange the conversation went dead. The only sound heard amongst the three were the birds chirping and the occasional gust of wind whistling through the trees and shrubs. It was only after a few moments that Jeremy decided to break the awkwardness.
"Do you wanna come in?" offered Jeremy.
The state of the Hermitage's interior was a new sight for Odd. Where there used to be tattered wallpaper hanging and loose items laying across every floor, was now a proper, lived-in home; an uncanny sight as far as Odd has ever known the place.
Jeremy motioned his guest towards the living room couch and asked, "So Odd, what brings you back to the Hermitage?"
"I've just finished with the pre-production phase for my next film last week, and I was on my way to the filming site," said Odd as he took a seat on the couch, "Figured I should stop by your place on the way."
"Congrats. Though, with your track record, that probably wasn't too hard to do."
"Oh, it was," his voice lowered to a whisper as he leaned in towards Mr. Belpois, "And you wanna know why?"
"Do tell, chum."
"Because every other time I finished a meeting, BAM! Return to the Past! Hours of negotiations and planning all gone."
"Sounds like fun," said Jeremy as he took another sip of tea.
"Well, I'm glad you're finding the comedy in all of this Jeremy," said Odd sarcastically, "But some of us don't appreciate having our lives interrupted by another one of your random attempts to open that 'Impossible Vault'."
"Odd… the Vault's been unlocked," explained Aelita, "Lyoko's connection to the Digital Sea has been open for months."
Odd took a moment to process the words he thought he would never hear, "What?"
"Yeah, it didn't go so well," explained a relaxed Jeremy, "Turns out there was an army waiting right outside the door. They're currently overrunning all the Sectors, but you don't need to worry about it, my guy. We're handling it."
Alarm bells went off in Odd's head. There may have been a large gap in time since he last talked to Jeremy, but he would never be this calm about Lyoko business. The Jeremy that he knew would be tirelessly working on ways to fix the situation, not relaxing on a couch while having casual conversation. But this Jeremy was too cocky, too casual, too… laidback.
Odd then realized what was going on, "I'm speaking to another one of your clones, aren't I?"
"Yup."
"Aelita, why didn't you say anything?"
"Because I'm also one myself," Aelita bluntly said.
For a moment, Odd had to deliberate on that answer. Did Jeremy finally make clones that were socially conscious enough to fool even him? Did he really take that long to realize that only one of them is a clone?
"Should have known not to waste my time here," muttered Odd, "Of course they would be at the Factory."
"You won't find them at the Factory," said the Aelita clone.
"Then where are they?" Odd impatiently asked.
"We don't know," replied the Jeremy clone, "No one does."
The answer echoed through Odd's head as he processed the implications. Slowly, silently, he took a seat on the couch.