Hi! Thanks to all for the reviews! You will all receive love and hugs. For those not used to my ways, review response will be at the forums.

Now, this is a chapter that introduces another OC of mine- Brietta Belpois. She...eeh, you'll see. She's VERY evil. She doesn't even show all her evilish expenditure in this chapter... ;)

Chapter One: Welcome Back to Kadic

Date: One month later
Time: 7:00 AM
Place: The Belpois' Car, Driving Downtown

"Ugh."

Brietta Bellatrix Belpois (try saying THAT seventeen times fast!) groaned. She adjusted her earbuds, currently blasting a loud techno/rock remix into her ears, and tossed her long, blond hair over her shoulder. She was trying to look intimidating, which she was doing a good job with. Especially with the annoyed look on her face. With her hypersensitive ears, she could hear a faint beeping in the back of the small car.

Ugh. Did her stupid brother EVER get off that dumb machine? Oh sure, he had always been a computer geek. But the past vacation especially, it seemed like he was on it 24/7, making a routine way of skipping meals and running on very little sleep. She wasn't concerned about it. Okay, maybe a teeeeeny bit. But mostly, it annoyed her.

She turned her head from the front seat. "Jeremie, turn it OFF! It's driving us all nuts!"

Jeremie, who was hunched over his faintly beeping laptop, shot her a nasty look to rival one of her own, only tearing his eyes from the screen for a grand total of five seconds. He grunted. "It's important."

"Yes. I see the importance of IMing that weird girl, Aelita," she groaned. "Go ahead. IM her a novel for all I care."

"Shut up."

"Brietta, Jeremie, calm down," their father chirped from behind the wheel. It was the fifth time he had said it, but he was not deterred. At least, once they pulled up to Kadic, and Jeremie got out of the car and disappeared into the whirlwind of students, the car ride would be silent. Almost...too silent.

But, that was in the future. Or, maybe not that far in. Looking out the back window forlornly, Jeremie could see Kadic's gate in the distance.

It was the most welcome thing he had seen in a month. Before he had met Aelita, vacations were a blessing. He had desperately wanted to get away from the bustle, and just be alone with the things he liked. But, now that she was no longer virtual, he couldn't bear them. He knew Aelita was safe, or at least safe enough. She had been staying at Yumi's over the break. But, he could never be too careful. Besides, any home with his sister was no home at all.

What really troubled him was, XANA had been absolutely quiet the entire month. After a month without seeing the familliar green of the supercomputer room, he was actually...quite bored. As a matter of fact, if he had been a bit less prudent (y'know, prudent is where the word 'prude' comes from...and prudent is a compliment...tell that to people. You'll get odd looks), he could have strolled over and perhaps activated a few towers, just to annoy XANA. Hm...he was out of the computer. Maybe he hadn't figured out how to attack without a tower yet. Feh. Dumb, dumb XANA.

Finally, the car slowed, a relief to Jeremie's tense mind. He shoved his laptop into his bag, opened the door, and jumped out before the car had even stopped fully. He did land on his feet-but he lost his balance and fell anyway.

In the car, Brietta laughed to herself. Stupid Jeremie.

Thankfully, he wasn't hurt. He stood up, waved goodbye, and ran off faster than his dad or sister could say anything. (Okay, she's gone now.)

He stopped once he was in the main part of the grounds. He looked around. Friends who hadn't seen each other for months were excitedly chatting to one another. Several were running for the dorms, as to get their rooms to their liking before their first class. He could point out a few people in the crowd- Sissi, trying to avoid Nicolas and Herb- didn't blame her- William, hanging by the science building, looking, probably, for Yumi, and several other people he knew and kinda knew.

Then, his gaze jerked to a stop. He had found Yumi before William had-Ulrich would be happy about that. But he didn't care about Yumi.

Not at the moment, anyway. Guys have a one-track mind like that.

The one he really cared about was standing a few feet away, looking in exactly the opposite direction, at the road, not even aware of him. Aelita. Thank God.

He couldn't restrain his happiness and relief. He ran towards her. "AELITA!"

She, who had previously been looking to the left for him (he had come from the right) spun around, delighted. "JEREMIE!" She took off.

"AELITA!"

"JEREMIE!"

"AELITA!"

"JEREMIE!"

Yumi looked after them. In a way, it was kin("AELITA!")da cute. It had been one of the two's longe("JEREMIE!")st separations, and seeing the two love("AELITA!")ers reunite was a pleasant sight after staying cooped inside her house for a month, with her squa("JEREMIE!")bling parents, annoying little brot("AELITA!")her, and Aelita-at least, she was actu("JEREMIE!")al company. Yep. I sure know how to ramble, don't ("AELITA!") I?

Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Aelita! Jeremie! You're gonna-"

CRASH.

"Never mind. The bold print finished it for me."

And, indeed, it did. In their excited haste, our two heroes smashed into each other at high speed. Aelita just fell down, but Jeremie went flying. He landed a few feet away, by Yumi. Slightly dazed, he laughed.

"Yeah. Hi." He got up for the second time that day. "Well, looks like the semester has gotten off to a good start."

"Yep, two falls in ten minutes." Aelita giggled. "So...how was your vacation?"

"Really boring, to tell you the truth. With Lyoko becoming so familliar, it was unusual. I spent most of the time hacking onto military sites, y'know, to stay in practice. And, to check for XANA activity."

"A working vacation?" Yumi cocked an eyebrow. "You're the weirdest person I know."

"Yeah. Sure." Now his attention was on Aelita. "How was your vacation?"

"Probably the opposite of yours-very relaxing." She smiled at him. "It was nice, taking a little break once in a while."

"Mmmhmm, yeh, sure," Jeremie mumbled. "So...where are Ulrich and Odd?"

"Odd's flight comes in an hour. Ulrich'll be here in half an hour." Yumi leaned against a nearby tree. "It's at least an hour and a half before classes start. We're going to be here a while."

"Well, in that case..." Jeremie did the thinkable. He whipped out his laptop and began to type something I guess was important to him.

Aelita and Yumi exchanged looks. It was going to be a long day.

In fact, longer than they had even expected.

Date: Two hours later
Time: 8:27 AM
Place: Outside a classroom, Kadic

The halls of the old school, ready or not to welcome back the steady flow of students, did so anyway. Children ran to classes, hung in the hallway, contributed to the usual pre-day bustle.

All children, that is, except for one boy, leaning against a wall. He was fuming. Fuming at the wait. How could he have been so dumb?

He had known something was wrong, one month ago, when he had struggled up to the Kadic, twenty-seven falls and a not-so-quick nap later, to find the entire school empty, except for a lone janitor, keeping watch by a gate. The janitor was little to no help. He had shooed the boy off the property, shouting after him, "Get off th' place, punk! School's out, y'know, nothin for yeh to steal...or vandlize...or nuttin."

From the guy's unclear speech, the boy had gathered that the school had taken its vacation. Sour luck, but he could take it. He could wait...

Of course, he didn't expect to wait a month. And what a month it was. For most of the thirty-one days, the boy had slept in Kadic forest, walked around town in endless circles, paying attention to nothing, and occasionally stealing sushi from this same sushi place. Sushi actually wasn't that bad. Then, yesterday, he had walked into an intercafe, created a file for himself in the federal computers, and then strolled up to the big fat grey-haired guy and got himself enrolled. Now, all he had to do was wait to be introduced.

He had been human before. But, his sole purpose then had been to destroy and go. He had taken little notice of human social habits. He could be here for a few more weeks, so he had to learn.

He stared intently at the crowd.

He saw nothing of interest to him.

He groaned. This world bored him already.

Then, he snapped to attention. Someone was walking towards him-someone he knew. It was that purple kid...Odd. Quickly, he stuffed his pendant into his shirt. Best to instill fear with a grand entrance.

Odd stopped to look at him. He smiled. "Hey," he said. "Never seen you before. You new here?"

The boy saw the Odd's friends file into the classroom...yet, the Yumi girl wasn't there. Strange. He grunted. "Sure."

"Well, you're going to love it here. All you need to know is, hang with the right crowd. Some people here are real goons." He elbowed him in the gut and walked into the room. As soon as he was gone, the boy, annoyed, took out the pendant. It was almost time. He could hear the teacher introduce the lesson. He knew this was happening. He had been there before, in others' bodies.

"Welcome back, class! I hope you all had a wonderful, restful vacation. Now, before we start our lesson, we have a new student joining us today...his name is...er...well, I can't seem to pronounce it. I'll let him say it."

He knew it was his cue to walk in. With a coy smile, he walked in, back slightly turned, to hide the pendant. He had planned this for weeks. It had to be perfect.

He recognized the teacher, with the lab coat and grey hair. She was staring at a piece of paper with an odd look on her face. She noticed he was there, and looked up. "Ah, there you are. Now, what's your name? It's rather..."

"Yes, I know." He had to sound calm, even if excitement tingled from every nerve. He turned his head around. Drama, time, effect, it was all important.

"I am...XANA."

Ooooo.

-SP