By Nyassa Kaiba
It was a typical evening for Aelita Stones. She was contemplating going downstairs to visit the boys. But she had homework to do. Still, she'd been dreaming lately, and that was never a good thing. But unlike her other visions, this one was pleasant.
It was symbolic more than an actual vision. Aelita had a circlet of shining light on her head, dressed in flowing white robes. Four knights knelt before her. In her dream, she couldn't see the knights faces. Not until they pulled off their helmets. First Yumi, then Ulrich, then Odd, and last, but not least Jeremy.
And then two children about her age would appear. Each were dressed in beautiful flowing robes, one, a boy, would be dressed in gold. The other, a girl, dressed in silver. Aelita wished she could see their faces. But all she saw was a blur. But as the two of them stepped forward, Aelita felt as though she'd known them all her life.
The two children stood on either side of the knights, the boy next to Jeremy, the girl next to Yumi, and the two of them bowed before her.
And then Aelita would wake up.
A hard knock on the door broke Aelita out of her ruminations. "Miss Stones a moment?" It was Jim's voice.
Aelita groaned. "I'm coming." She said as she opened the door. She'd been expecting it. A new school policy abolished singles except for students with medical conditions. So far neither she nor Jeremy had gotten a roommate. But Jeremy had figured it was only a matter of time. They had rearranged the furniture the day before, putting in a bed, a closet, and a 2 sets of shelves, one for Aelita, one for whoever her roommate turned out to be.
Aelita opened the door. Sure enough, standing next to Jim was a girl with long, reddish hair dyed pink at the tips and dark, forest green eyes. "Your roommate came tonight." Jim explained. "I've brought one of her boxes and she's hauled up quite a bit of luggage…"
That was the understatement of all time. This girl had three backpacks on her back, a purse and a messenger bag on her shoulders, led a rolling duffel and carried a gym bag. "Um… wow…." Aelita took a nervous step back.
"This is nothing. I once hauled a hundred and fifty pounds." The girl said with a chuckle.
"That's about as much as Jim can lift!" Aelita exclaimed.
"Yeah, well, you get strong fast fencing." Replied the girl as she went over to the empty bed and dropped her bags on it. "I may stink at it, but I'm pretty fast. Set the box on the bed please Mr. Jim."
"Certainly." Jim put the box next to the bags. "Anything else you need?"
"Just the rest of the boxes downstairs." The girl replied as she dug through the box. She carried it over to the shelves. From there she started setting figures on one of the shelves. Aelita came over to look and gasped.
The figures were all XANA monsters. Spider, Hornet, Crab, Block, and Tank. No crawlers, not tarantulas, no Scithozoa. There /was/ a flying manta, which the girl hung by a string from a shelf above.
"Those creatures, where did you get them?" Aelita asked, heart hammering in her chest.
"Oh these?" The girl didn't seem to notice Aelita's nervousness. "My dad made them for me. He says they're grandfa's demons." The girl rolled her eyes. Then she laughed and explained. "There's a story passed down in my family, from my grandfather, to my mother, and now to me and my brother Mikael. According to the legend there was a world called Lyoko. In Lyoko there was a war between an Elf Queen and an evil demon named Xana. The Elf Queen opened the portal from time to time, and every time it did she would choose 4 champions, one for each direction of the compass. If the story is to be believed the Elf Queen's brothers and sisters were sent to this world so that they could be safe, andif my mother's to bebelievedthat's where my mother's side of the family came from." The girl explained. "Also according to the legend, my father was descended from one of the champions. Anyway, its just a legend. But according to the legend Xana had soldiers, called Spiders, Crabs, Blocks, Hornets, Mantas and Tanks. And according to mom that's what they looked like." She pointed to each of the models in turn. "Why have you gone so pale all of a sudden?"
"I need… to get a breath of air…" Aelita's eyes were wild.
"Okay, um, before you go, I didn't get your name."
"Aelita, Aelita Stones."
"I'm Gwen, Gwen Hopper."
Aelita let out a yip, and a "See you later." And went pounding downstairs like Xana's wolves were on her tail.
"JEREMY JEREMY JEREMY JEREMY!" Aelita shrieked "OPEN UP!"
"Aelita? What's wrong?" Jeremy was in his pajamas.
"I'm sorry if I woke you up, but there's somebody else at the school who knows!"
"Knows what?" Jeremy asked. "Aelita this is no night for games."
"Knows about Lyoko!" Aelita hissed in a softer voice.
"You're kidding me!" Jeremy let Aelita in. "What's his name?"
"/Her/ name… is Gwen Hopper!"
Jeremy gasped. "You're kidding me! This is great! We might finally be able to find out who Franz Hopper was!"
"She doesn't know the whole story Jeremy. Her mother told her stories about Lyoko apparently." Aelita replied, and repeated the story about the Elf Queen.
"You realize who she meant by that right?" Jeremy asked. "Who the Elf Queen was?"
"No I don't." Aelita replied. Jeremy called up Aelita's card on his laptop. "Look familiar?"
Aelita froze, then studied her own image. Her ears were pointed like an elf's. Her eyes were slanted like an elf's. "You mean me? I'm the Elf Queen in the story?"
"Yup." Jeremy replied. "Which would make Gwen your…"
"My sister?"
"Niece actually, if you want to get technical." Jeremy replied. "But yes, and that means that her mother is your sister. Which means we might actually be able to find out more about where you came from!" Jeremy reached out to give Aelita a hug. "This is excellent."
"What is?" Odd asked as he and Ulrich entered the room. "And Aelita you wanna shout a little louder? I need my beauty sleep."
Ulrich tweeked Odd in the back of the head.
"Hey! But it's true! You've seen me fall asleep in Miss Hertz' class."
"Don't forget that Miss Hertz is going to be out this year."
"Oh yeah, I forgot, but I never found out why." Odd commented.
"I did a little bit of fishing around. I really know that I shouldn't. But I found out she's got bone cancer. So she's staying out the months it will take for treatment. She'll be lucky if all she loses is her hair. And we don't know if she'll be coming back!" Jeremy was pacing now. "My worry is who they might replace her with."
"I can answer that." Said a voice behind the crowd.
The boy that stood there was about William's height, with ear length red hair dyed black at the tips, as if it had been burned at the end. His eyes were a deep forest green. He did, however, look about Ulrich's age. Behind him stood a woman with long pink hair and the same green eyes as… as Aelita!
"I'm Himiko, Himiko Hopper. I was a professor at Yale sciences, but business brought my husband back here to France for a year or so." Replied the woman. "And this is my son Mikael. My daughter Gwen is busy upstairs. I'll be dropping by to make sure she's getting settled in fine."
Aelita gawked up at Himiko. She looked almost exactly like Aelita, only adult and with long hair pulled back into a tight French braid. Himiko peered down at Aelita. "You look like you've never seen a teacher before."
"Oh no, I'm fine ma'am." Aelita pulled back shyly.
"You know… you remind me of my sister. But she died a long time ago." Himiko said with a sigh. "Well, I need to go." Himiko left.
Aelita gulped. "I… need to go too. We'll explain to you tomorrow. Meet you at the factory."
"What factory?" Asked Mikael suddenly. "I can't come along if that's what you're thinking. My dad said that if I go near the factory I'm a dead man. Said it was haunted by the demon Xana. I just laughed in his face. After all, there's no such thing as a demon." Mikael started unpacking. "What are you staring at?"
"Uh… Jeremy… Aelita… can we talk to you outside for a moment?" Asked Odd, calmly pushing the two of them outside, with Ulrich right behind. Odd calmly closed Jeremy's door and led them to the empty fire shelter. "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?"
Aelita explained, and Odd interspersed these explanations with… "WHAT?" "YOU"RE KIDDING!" And "MAY BE YOU'RE WHAT?"
Aelita was taken aback. "Basically that's what happened. Only they think that Lyoko is some kind of fairytale."
"Fairy tale or not they're dangerous." Ulrich replied. "What if they find out that Lyoko is real? What if it's a trap from Xana."
"But what if they really are my family?" Aelita asked.
"The story told by Xana when he was masquading as Hopper can be considered true." Jeremy replied. "That much I've been able to deduce from the portions of Hopper's diary that I /have/ deciphered. It's possible that this Franz Hopper could be one of Aelita's relatives, biologically I don't know, legally is more likely. But Himiko bears too much of a resemblance to Aelita for me to believe it's a coincidence."
"I'll go back upstairs. Gwen is probably wondering what's happened to me. Good night all of you. We'll meet Yumi at the soda machines tomorrow morning."