Chapter 3-Blank

Aelita had managed to lock herself in her dorm before anyone caught her. She'd never done anything like that, at least, not purposely. She simply kicked off her boots and crawled beneath the sheets of her bed. What would she do now? How would she get through the realization she had no true home?

Aelita was so frazzled. She closed her eyes and let tears slowly creep down her cheeks from her eyes and she silently cried herself to sleep.

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"Jeremie, the Schipozoa..." Aelita said. She watched in disbelief as numbers continued to appear on the screen in front of the creature. '437910103 22105610 44461.'

"Aelita, what's it doing?" Jeremie called. "It's showing me numbers," Aelita answered.

KNOCK BANG KNOCK! "Miss Stones!" the voice of Principal Delmas yelled. "Are you in there? Open the door!"

"That was short-lived," Aelita mumbled to herself. She sat up and yelled, "I don't want to be bothered! I won't open the door! Not for anyone!" She buried herself in her bed sheets again.

"What if your friends spoke to you?" asked Jim.

Aelita paused. "That would be OK. But only my friends can come in!"

"Yes, alright Aelita! We are just trying to help, though," Jim said. Aelita got out of bed and opened the door. After Jeremie, Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd had all come in, she slammed the door shut. Yumi and Odd sat on Aelita's fluffy pink bedside rug. Ulrich leaned against the armoire, hands in pockets. Jeremie sat beside Aelita on the bed.

"So... what's up?" asked Yumi, in so quiet a voice it was almost a whisper.

"You heard me..." Aelita said. "I have no home."

"But... what about Lyoko?" Ulrich asked.

Aelita sighed and poured out all her thoughts of why she didn't really think of Lyoko as a home and about how worried and sad it made her she didn't have that or a family.

Everyone was silent after she finished. Yumi finally said, "I see." And then there was more silence.

"Y'know..." Yumi started after another while, "...you can stay at my house for the summer!"

"I'm going to be at Lake Aphrodite," Jeremie said. "That means near you, Aelita. So I can visit you both."

"We're only about twenty and thirty miles from you guys too," Odd and Ulrich added. "We could probably visit once in a while."

"So you see," Yumi said, "it all works out! You don't need an official home; you have us!"

Aelita smiled. "Thank you," she said. "I feel better." Everyone else smiled too.

That's when the first incident happened. Aelita couldn't breathe all the sudden. She felt like her lungs had just been swiped out of her body! She clutched her throat with both hands and in a split second she fell on the floor. The last thing she saw were her friends' terrified faces before she blacked out.

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Aelita lay on the brown-amber ground of Lyoko's desert region. She slowly opened her eyes. She thought it must be a dream, but it was so real she knew it wasn't. "Jeremie!" she yelled. "How did I get here! Why am I here!" But Jeremie didn't answer. She was alone on Lyoko!

And she didn't even know how it happened.

Alone on Lyoko, confused and afraid.

What if XANA's monsters were around? Or worse; the Schipozoa? She would have to find a good hiding place. Right now she was in a thin and roughly circular piece of land floating above the Digital Sea below (AN: Friends who read this; the Digital Sea is below every piece of land in every region of Lyoko; if anyone were to fall in the Digital Sea they would be virtualized forever, so this is something avoided.). It was all an open field of virtual sand.

She walked to the side and looked down. There was another flat piece of land, covered in slabs of rock sitting upright. She could hide behind those, but how to get down there? It was so far.

"I wish I had a vehicle!" she shouted. Then she heard a faint perrrr-annnggg... It sounded like something was being virtualized! "Oh no! XANA is sending a monster!" She whipped around and saw... something flat and purple, floating above the ground. It was the Overboard, the hover board Odd used and it was one of Lyoko's vehicles! Her wish had come true! She hopped onto it.

Aelita simply willed it to move and it was heading forward. She kept thinking, 'Why did this happen? Since when did Lyoko grant wishes?' but she knew she had to hide. So she went quickly forward. Usually she would do flips and tricks with the Overboard on the way, but she didn't really feel like it right now.

As she flew she felt a sense of deja vu. She kept going and finally hopped off on the land of rocks. Suddenly a voice called out. "Aelita! Are you... are you in Lyoko?"

"Jeremie! I'm so relieved! Is there a tower nearby? I want to be materialized now!" Aelita answered.

"You're not in a tower!" Jeremie exclaimed. "No," Aelita replied. "Why? You're in the factory, right?"

"That's what I'm saying. I'm not in the factory and you're in Lyoko!"

"B-but... what! How can that be? When I'm in Lyoko and you're not in the factory you can only talk to me when I'm in a tower!"

"OK, OK, we'll figure this out later! Just... just relax! Right now, we have to get you to a tower or the Schipozoa may come!" All was silent for a minute. Aelita knew he was searching for the nearest tower. She moved in between two vertical rocks and crouched down. She looked out as far as she could into the desert and listened for monsters.

"OK!" Jeremie called. "The nearest tower is due north, 45 degrees."

"Thanks, Jeremie!" Aelita ran frantically from her place of hiding and hopped back onto the Overboard."

"Aelita, you're moving pretty fast. Are you... no never mind," Jeremie.

"No, what?"

"Are you on a vehicle?"

"Yes, Jeremie. It's hard to believe, but I just wished for it and it was virtualized!"

"This is getting stranger and stranger."

Aelita was swooping in the direction Jeremie gave her. "I see the tower! I'm going in," she called. Sure enough, the tall white figure stood like a ghostly silhouette against the sandy hills of the desert region.

She smiled at the sight of it, but no sooner had she done so than she heard the sound of lasers and red flashes flew past her. "Aaaaaaaaaaa!" she screamed as she turned around and saw Hornets of XANA's firing at... wait. Not her. The Overboard!

"Aelita faster!" Jeremie yelled. They're firing at the Overboard so it will be destroyed and you will fall to the Schipozoa!"

She sped forward focusing on getting to the tower. But to no prevail: the Overboard was destroyed and Aelita was falling at a fearful speed to the ground below!

"Don't worry Aelita; I'm now in the factory and I'm about to virtualize Ulrich and Yumi!" Jeremie said.

There, in front of Aelita, was the towering Schipozoa. It stood with an air of important status in XANA's monsters, waving its tentacles menacingly and hissing its inhumane and slightly throaty hiss. Aelita stood frozen, as she did many a time when in the presence of the creature.

"Jeremie!" she screamed.

"Aelita-!" cried Jeremie. "Don't worry! I'm bringing Yumi and Ulrich to you!"

Aelita felt another sense of deja vu, this time much stronger. The Schipozoa reached a single tentacle to her and held before her face. Aelita was breathing deeply with fear. 'What is it waiting for?' she thought.

She nearly fell over, jumping with the startling sound of a blip! There was a blue screen in front of the tentacle. '437910103 22105610 44461' flashed on the screen. Aelita was so scared. This was no mere coincidence. Her dream had come true... literally.

"Aelita, what is it doing?" Jeremie asked.

"It's showing me numbers..." Aelita almost screamed. She was breathing so hard she was almost hyperventilating. She looked at the Schipozoa and said firmly, "Tell me why. Tell me why you are showing me this."

Suddenly the world around Aelita dissolved in a blanket of white smothering everything. Aelita stood on white ground, with white sky and white surroundings. It was nothing but a blank. Images formed in her head, right out of the blue.

First was the image of a small girl, with adorable green eyes and long pink hair. She stood by a tall woman who greatly resembled her, the only difference being she had blue eyes. A pleasant looking man with a wide smile stood next to her and held her hand. They walked along a city sidewalk.

After that image faded came the image of the same girl, lying in a bed and looking very sickly, pale and with a grief-filled expression. A female voice called sweet and serene; "Don't worry, little Irene. You'll get better sweetie."

Then it evaporated to another scene; an image of a girl on a screen. Not just any girl; the same exact one. That Irene.

Aelita looked around her once again. The blank land was clear again.

"There is a connection. It's all connected," she said to herself. "I feel like I know this Irene."