lostmoonchild: Thanks everybody for reviewing! Here's chapter three, enjoy!

Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I don't own Code: Lyoko or any of the songs unless I say otherwise. I only own the characters who aren't part of Code: Lyoko so don't sue me!

"Not here." Jeremy said. "We'll explain in my room."

"Seriously looking forward to hearing what the hell just happened." Morgan said walking between Yumi and Odd.

Odd smiled a little and said, "You fought pretty good in Lyoko, Morgan. I was impressed."

Morgan blushed slightly and Yumi laughed a little. "Already getting a crush?" Yumi asked in Japanese.

"Shut up. You know the rules.." Morgan said quietly in Japanese. "I'm not allowed to have a boyfriend yet."

Yumi sighed and rested one of her arms on her cousin's shoulders. "Cousin dearest, Jason had no idea on what he's talking about since he's drunk half the time." Yumi answered still talking in Japanese. "It's because of you and Derrick that your daughter isn't severely messed up mentally."

Morgan pushed Yumi's arm off of her shoulder and rolled her eyes at her cousin. "Not that its any of my business, but who raised you since your parents died?" Ulrich asked.

"My brother and I raised ourselves basically with some help from Grandpa and Yumi's parents." Morgan answered looking away.

"Then why aren't you staying with Yumi? It'd make more sense if you two are family." Jeremy answered.

"Kaji never liked doing anything simple." Yumi answered with a grin. "Besides, she and my dad don't really get along and when the subject of Kaji staying at my house came up, dad said no."

"How come?" Odd asked.

Morgan looked at Odd and said, "Her dad had a thing for my mom. But my mom met my dad and got married after they found out that she was pregnant with my older brother so Yumi's dad married my mom's sister. Then about nine months later, my older brother was born. A week later, Yumi and me."

They waited as Jeremy unlocked the door to his room and let them inside. "Hey, Jeremy, contact Aelita so she can help explain Lyoko's origins." Ulrich said leaning against a wall.

Morgan sat on the bed and looked around with some interest. "Genius at work." Morgan said with a grin as she saw Jeremy's computer.

"Aelita? Are you there?" Jeremy asked before Aelita showed up on the screen.

"Hello, Jeremy. What's going on in the real world?" Aelita asked.

Jeremy blushed slightly and said, "Well, we've got a new volunteer. Remember that girl, Morgan, that we brought to Lyoko to help against XANA's monsters?"

Aelita nodded and listened as Jeremy explained what was happening. "Okay, stupid question: what's the deal between him and Aelita?" Morgan asked quietly.

"Einstein has a crush on Aelita." Odd whispered with a grin. "Aelita returns the feelings except both are completely unaware that the other likes them."

Morgan grinned and said, "Sounds amusing."

Both laughed quietly and Odd added silently, "You know, Ulrich and Yumi have a crush on each other except neither don't want to admit it since they're both shy."

"Yumi-chan, shy?" Morgan asked looking amazed. "Amazing."

Odd nodded and said, "She got all jealous once because Sissy said that Ulrich was dating Emily."

"Who?"

"A girl in Yumi's grade." Odd answered with a shrug. "You should have heard Yumi."

Morgan giggled and Yumi looked pleased that her cousin was at least smiling and giggling. "Something on your mind, Yumi?" Ulrich asked.

"Just thinking. All the time that Morgan was in Japan, I never saw her smile too much and when she did, the people who knew her best all knew that she was simply smiling to make everything seem like it was alright. Now, she's truly smiling instead of trying to hide behind a mask (A/N see where the title comes in?) like she had done so many times before." Yumi answered watching as her cousin and Aelita started talking. Mainly Morgan asking about Lyoko and how they found Lyoko.

Ulrich nodded and said, "She seemed to be extremely timid around us before. But now she's acting like she's known us for years."
"She never really had friends back in Japan." Yumi answered. "I guess she's trying to make attempts to get along with everybody."

"Except Sissy." Odd added.

Yumi nodded and listened to Jeremy question Morgan about her special viruses. "How do you program them not to destroy a computer?" Jeremy asked.

"Each virus, whether a computer virus or one that can get a human sick, has some form of genetic code. All you have to do is figure out what that code is and you can reprogram it to do whatever you want. To destroy computers, to protect, or to help protect virtual beings."

"Is that even possible?" Jeremy asked looking at Aelita.

"Theoretically, yes." Aelita answered. "But I've never met or heard of anybody who could actually do it. Just rumors that it could be done."

Morgan smiled and said, "Well, its basically the same principle as if there was a virus running around that could get humans extremely sick."
"Inject dormant viruses into the person to work as a vaccine." Jeremy said nodding in understanding. "That just might be what we're looking for to act as the anti-virus."

"Whoa, time out! From what I understand from what you two explained so far while Kage and the guys were talking, Aelita is infected with a virus that XANA put in her to keep from getting shut down." Morgan answered. "I told you, the virus that I'm working on isn't a materialization virus, it's a protection virus for virtual people. Now we could change the virus slightly to help get rid of the virus XANA put in Aelita except it's going to be a pain in the ass just to change it so that Aelita's code is unharmed and that only XANA's virus gets beaten. Then there's the materialization which I'm actually AMAZED that you two managed to do without turning Aelita inside out."

"How far are you on the special virus?" Aelita asked.

Morgan closed her eyes and leaned against a wall. "Well, I'd have to say still designing what I want it to do." Morgan answered. "Then once the protection virus is done, I'll test it to see how well it does with virtual beings. If it does well, then some more tests will be run and then here we go. Aelita is human. Assuming of course Jeremy still has the materialization program."

"Still got it." Jeremy said. "If you need help, just let Aelita and me know and we'll try to help out as much as possible."
Morgan nodded gratefully and stretched. "Well, I gotta get to my room and unpack. Then I might take a nap since my brain is still trying to absorb all the weird stuff that's happened today."

"See ya later, Kaji." Yumi said as Morgan left the room and closed the door behind her.

"She's really warmed up a bit." Jeremy said looking surprised. "How come?"

"I guess she wants to help with the fight against XANA." Yumi said.

Nodding, Jeremy went back to chatting with Aelita and started working on a character for Morgan to use while Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd talked about their summer vacations.

A couple hours after Yumi had gone home for supper, Ulrich and Odd headed back to their rooms after they escorted Morgan back to her room after they had all eaten. Ulrich was now asleep seeing as it was eleven at night. Odd, on the other hand, was wide awake. "C'mon, Kiwi. We're going outside." Odd whispered.

Kiwi wagged his tail happily and followed Odd out the door and outside. When Odd got outside, he saw Morgan looking up at the stars with a hopeful look. "Hey." Odd greeted.

Morgan jumped a little and braced herself as if expecting to be hit but relaxed when she saw Odd. "Hey, Odd." Morgan greeted and then noticed Kiwi. "Uh, what's that?"

"Oh, this is Kiwi, my dog." Odd answered watching as Morgan walked over to him and knelt down so Kiwi could sniff her hand.

"He's charming. I almost brought a fox to Kadic with me except then Yumi said that she would take me to the mall sometime for new clothes. Then my bag started growling."

Odd started laughing as Morgan told him of how she tried to convince the security guards that her bag was possessed. "Too bad." Odd said laughing. "Would have been interesting to see a fox running around."

Morgan nodded and looked up at the stars. "Yeah, it would have been." Morgan said looking up at the stars with a wistful look in her eyes.

"You want to talk about something?" Odd asked as they started walking through the park.

"I don't know, Odd. This just seems so strange. I feel like I was thrown into some other world and have to learn how to survive all over again." Morgan answered. "I don't know exactly how to trust people."

Odd grabbed Morgan's hand and looked at her with calming eyes. "Hey, you'll get used to this." Odd answered. "Listen, I've known you for only a day and already you trust us enough to help us fight against XANA."

"The world doesn't help some people, did you know that? I don't plan on acting like a majority of the world's assholes." Morgan answered calmly before looking at Odd again.

Odd looked at Morgan and said, "We're special. We get to save the world like superheroes. Except nobody remembers or knows."

Morgan smiled and said, "Sometimes, what the world doesn't know is good. Ignorance is a bliss."

Odd nodded and they watched as Kiwi ran in front of them, sniffing the base of the trees for a place to mark his territory. Why's he still touching my hand? Most people try to have as little contact with me as possible. Morgan thought looking at Odd. Why am I not pulling away?

They stayed outside for half an hour before heading back inside. "Listen, Einstein made a character for you to use. Tomorrow after classes we were planning on taking you to the factory so you can take a look at the super computer and then we'll go to Lyoko so you can get used to your character." Odd said watching Morgan's expression and seeing only confusion.

"Odd, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

Morgan hesitated a minute and asked, "Why are you all so nice to me?"

Odd looked surprised and said, "Because nobody deserves to be treated like shit. I think that you're a remarkable woman and that you deserve some kindness. Besides what your family and friends in Japan show you."

"I guess this is a second chance."

"Yeah, it is."

Morgan smiled and gently kissed Odd on the cheek. "Oyasumi nasai, Odd, and arigato." Morgan whispered before quickly retreated to her room.

Odd grinned happily and headed to his room with Kiwi. "That, Kiwi, is a woman." Odd said before falling asleep.

lostmoonchild: there's chapter three! Surprisingly this only took me three days to write but that was probably because my dad (AKA my parole officer) was telling me to get this done and posted by Saturday since he thought I was still on chapter two. As always, read and review, flames are accepted. I've got to go now, my stupid little brother (who I think is my THIRD parole officer, my mother being my second parole officer) wants to use the computer. Oh the woes of big sisterhood.