Author's Note 1: I do not own any part of Code: Lyoko, the show characters, or anything else.
Author's Note 2: The only thing within that I claim as my own is the created characters Maethus(aka Project Element), Legacy(aka Project Shadows), and Daemon(aka Project Demon).
Hidden From View
Maethus opens the door to his room, ushering Legacy out so that he would be alone when Jeremy arrived at his door. No sooner than Legacy had dissappeared around one corner, did Jeremy appear around the one at the other end of the hall. Maethus flashes him a grin. "Have a good run?" Jeremy stops dead in his tracks.
"But, how? When?" he stammers and Maethus slowly walks up to him.
"Legacy. Just now." Maethus answers.
"Is that one of your secrets?" Jeremy asks, and the other boy shrugs.
"What other secrets do you have? I know that we put on a display for you and your friends. I know Legacy and I did not dream that. Then something went wrong with the Elements and the Shadows. You dissapeared just before that happened. What do you know?" Maethus blocks Jeremy from entering his room. The blonde hangs his head, defeated.
"You play a dirty game, Maethus." the other flashes a 'tell-me-something-I-don't-know' grin. "Alright. As you wanted, a total of five secrets. First, the Factory itself. Second, that loop with the lightning revealed a virtual world known as Lyoko. Third and fourth, that girl in the lightning loop is Aelita, and we are trying to get her into our world. Last is a super-computer named XANA that's trying to get rid of the world, and he can control everything but human beings." Maethus nods.
"Ok, another exchange, because of that light and the flashes during our display. Legacy controls the effects of Light and Darkness. Your next secret?"
"When XANA attacks, we can return to the past a certain ammount of time so as to erase the memories of people that have seen the event. But, what I don't understand, is how you and Legacy remember." Jeremy explains.
"It must be that the technology of the world today cannot overpower the Elements of the Old World. Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Shadow, Darkness, Light, and... ahh CRAP!!!" Maethus stomps, remembering something. "There was a third! What did they do with him? Legacy!" Maethus yells, turning from Jeremy's door and hurrying down the hall, calling out the younger girl's name. Jeremy enters his room and logs onto the computer.
"Aelita, are you there?" he asks. After a moment she appears on the screen.
"Hi Jeremy. What's the matter?"
"Aelita, the new guy is talking about 'Old World Elements'. Do you have any information on them?"
"Just a moment Jeremy." Aelita stops for a minute. "Here's what I've found: In the Dark Ages, your people believed in the four Basic Elements of Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. Several groups also believed in a set of Evolved Elements, specifically Dark, Light, Shadow, Demonic, Angelic, and Godly. What is it you needed this information for?" the computer program asks.
"Maethus controlls the basic Elements, or so it seems. Legacy controlls two of the Evolved Elements. And Maethus said something about a third person being like them. This third person could control the Shadow, Daemonic, Angelic, and Godly Elements." Jeremy explains. "Legacy called him 'Element', according to Yumi and the others. I'm so confused." Jeremy rubs his eyes.
"It could be a, what do your people call them? Second names?"
"Nick-name. It could be that." Jeremy shakes his head, completely confused.
Maethus finally catches up with Legacy. Grabbing her by the arm, he pulls her into a fairly empty hall. "Legacy. Do you remember anything about where they kept you?" he asks his friend.
"Not really. It was more or less the same as yours, I think." Legacy answers.
"Was there any other 'Projects' they spoke of?" she thinks for a minute.
"Yes, but rarely. Project Daemon, or something like that."
"I heard them speaking a little about the third 'Project' too. It was something similar to that. But enough for now. We need to talk with Jeremy about his secret other world."
Maethus and Legacy confront Jeremy and his friends at dinner that same day. "Jeremy, we want to make you an offer." he starts.
"What is this one about?" the blonde genius doesn't look up from his food.
"We want in Lyoko." Odd spews his soda all over Jeremy's face at Maethus's words.
"You told him!" Ulrich exclaims, pounding Odd on the back.
"Not without a return. He said why he thinks he remembers what happened during lunchtime." Jeremy wipes Odd's drink from his face, using his shirt to clean his glasses.
"And why do you want onto Lyoko in the first place?" Odd manages to stop coughing to ask the question.
"We are going to be the target of a group of scientists that held us prisoner for over a year. We want to disappear from their sight for a while, so they don't think we still exist. We want to keep away from them." Legacy says. Jeremy looks over to his friends, wanting their input before he descides.
"You can't be serious! What would we do with them?" Ulrich glares at Jeremy.
"Well, it WOULD keep our secret a little safer." Jeremy confesses. "We need to check with Aelita and Yumi first, though. It needs to be a majority vote." Maethus nods and the group eats their dinner silently.
After returning to his room, Maethus cannot sleep. He tosses and turns in his bed, trying to remember the details he'd head of the third 'Project'. Hours pass, and Maethus finally finds sleep.
Maethus and the group of scientists in charge of him sit at the round table, eating silently. They hear a crash, and look up to see a sixteen-year-old kid being forced into a straight jacket. Maethus looks back to the scientists and jerks his head toward the boy. "That's Project Demon. They're doing horrible things to that kid, I hear." one of the others speak up. "He's supposed to be the most dangerous of the three. It scares me." a third agrees. "He's not like Element or Shadows. Element is here to help reduce natural disasters, and Shadows to help save victums trapped underground. I don't think that kid's going to live long, seeing how they treat him and the rumors we hear." all the scientists agree with this statement.
Maethus jerks out of his bed to a knock at the door. "Hey, Maethus, you awake?" comes Jeremy's voice.
"Yea, just give me a minute." he rolls out of his bed and grabs some clean clothes. Opening the door, Maethus finds Jeremy and his friends all standing outside. "And what do I owe this awakening to?" he yawns.
"We've voted, and by a three-to-two majority, we regret to inform you..." Jeremy pauses, noting Maethus's downcast look. "that the ruling is you shall live in Lyoko for a while." a smile spreads across Maethus's face at the turn-around of Jeremy's words.
"It was a tie at first." Yumi says.
"But Aelita voted for you and Legacy." Odd states.
"What are you planning on doing about schoolwork?" Ulrich asks.
"How he was sounding, he's planning on skipping school for the rest of the year." Jeremy sounds confident in his answer. "But, besides that, we need to descide on a virtual form for you, Maethus. And we need to break the news to Legacy." Maethus shakes his head at the sad bit of humor his new friend had.
"Me and Jeremy could go now to the Factory and get up my character, while the three of you tell Legacy."
"I." Jeremy says.
"Huh? What about you?" Maethus looks at the genius.
"You should've said 'Jeremy and I', not 'Me and Jeremy'." Maethus throws up his hands and walks toward the boiler room, Jeremy close behind.
"Ok, who wants to tell Legacy?" Is the last thing Maethus and Jeremy hear from the others.
"So like this?" Jeremy asks, sitting at the super-computer.
"No, they need to have an elemental enchantment that I can put on them." Maethus says.
"That'll take a while to put into the computer."
"I can wait." ten minutes pass and Maethus is back looking over Jeremy's shoulder at his character.
"Now, change the hair. Make it like this." Maethus points to his. "But not black. How about silver?" Jeremy inputs the information into the computer. "No footwear. And a staff. Not like that! Like a walking staff. Taller." Maethus instructs Jeremy, who does as he is told. "Now darker. Darker. That's good." Maethus looks pleased with himself.
Two hours later, and Jeremy finds himself taking orders from Legcy. "Two of them." she says. "And clothes like Maethus's. But not grey. Blue. Lighter. Yes. Can you get boots into this thing? Good. Make them the same blue." She gets giddy seeing her virtual self. "Can you change my hair? Blue. Darker. Like that." Legacy wraps herself around Jeremy's shoulders. "Looks great!"
Jeremy yawns, walking with Legacy back to the school. "Are you excited about Maethus's plan?" he asks.
"Yes. Those scientist won't know what happened to us." Legacy says with a big grin. "It will be sad to leave the real world, but I've always wanted to be in a virtual reality game."
"But if you fall off the edge of the lands, then you can never come back. Don't be so careless as to overlook that one detail." Jeremy cautions.
"If Maethus has as much control in there as he does out here, I shouldn't have to worry about that. He can controll the winds of any place."
"That's the kind of carelessness I'm talking about. What if he's not around when you fall over the edge? You will be stuck there forever!"
"If I can get into a shadow, I'll be fine." Jeremy throws up his hands, giving up.
"Just be careful. I don't want to risk anyone getting infected by XANA's virus." he says softly.
"Did you say something Jeremy?" Legacy turns to look at the boy. He shakes his head quickly.
Maethus enters the principal's office. "Sir, there's something I need to tell you."
"Take a seat and speak your mind." the principal motions toward one of the chairs and Maethus sits.
"My parents want me to move back home with them." he starts.
"But you've only been here a few days."
"They want me back because of an incident with their money. Someone has done something and drained their bank accounts. The same has happened with Legacy, but she's in my parent's charge."
"So what you're saying is that someone hacked into your parent's bank, stole not only their money, but also yours and Legacy's?" the principal looks skeptical at this.
"We have to go back, sir. One of my father's friends is going to pay for our tickets back, but he doesn't want to get any more involved because of a strain of thefts involving my family for several years." Maethus says sadly.
"Well, I'm sorry. When do they want you back by?" the principal's voice is touched with sadness.
"I just got the letter today, and they want us to leave tomorrow."
"That's kind of a rush job." the principal starts.
"It's too bad, because some of the thefts were close calls with murderers. I'd hate for something to happen to anyone in this school because of me and Legacy." Maethus continues his sob story.
"Alright. I'll have my secretary rush for the papers to be filled out." the principal says.
"Thank you so much, sir. You don't know how much safer you've made this school." Maethus catches the principal's raised eyebrow, but quickly exits the room before another question is asked.
Late the same night, a tall person wrapped entirely in black enters the campus gates, searching for something. He makes not a sound, his feet don't crunch the fallen leaves. He crosses the courtyard and opens the door leading into the gymnasium, letting it slam but making no noise. His footsteps echo loudly throughout the halls, awakening the light sleepers and causing them to either feel a demonic or angelic presense, whichever is opposite their personality. His steps faulter as he passes one of the dorm rooms. Light shines beneath the door, not the kind of light from a lamp or overhead light, but one such as a computer or television emits. He returns to the door and lays his left palm against it, calling upon the powers they had given him. "Those two should be ready for the jump tomorrow. I just hope that Maethus's plan works out how he wants it." the voice says. "It will be strange for you to have company, won't it Aelita?" the man removes his hand and proceeds down the hall, back the way he came, making the light sleepers fall back asleep with his second passing, but causing them to suffer nightmares about the being that had awakened them from their slumber. He knew the two they searched for were here, he'd completely removed the last bit of doubt upon hearing the muffled voice's conversation with himself. She would be wherever he was, the man knew, she never was away from his side if she could help it. Demons and Angels know what rest in the hearts of man, and Daemon was no differant than those legendary creatures.