Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko or any of the original characters.

Authors Note1: This story was written before the second season and is based entirely off the first season.

Authors Note2: This story takes place immediately after 'Collection IV'

Key: Scene change

Code Lyoko: The Search

By. Tate Icasa

"Okoyl? Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. Besides, we have to get the program from Okoyl at some point anyway."

"But what about Milly and Timiya? They have school, and we don't know how long a trip to Okoyl will take!"

"They can come." Ulrich said. "It's a holiday. Have them tell the principal they're going home, and their parents they're staying , and they're free for a week."

"And if it takes longer than a week? What then, huh?"

"Then we return to the past like we always do." Odd said.

"Ok. You win." Yumi stifled a yawn. "It's eleven. Are you going to come back to Earth for the night?"

"No, I'll stay here. I'm going to use the interface to initiate your plan. When Milly and Timiya show up tomorrow we can just go. And Yumi?"

"Yeah?"

"Come to Lyoko this time. You can't use the super-calculator to see Okoyl.

"Ok. Goodnight Aelita." She put the headset on the keyboard. "Come on Sissi, we get the scanner room tongiht."

Unlike Aelita, Jeremie didn't lose consciousness during the tower's destruction. At least, not fully.

He sat up dizzily.

"Who is it?" Said a voice.

"I don't know. I've never seen him before."

Jeremie turned. Two boys stood a few feet away.

"We should take him to Her Majesty." One of them said. The shorter one. The other nodded.

He pulled a staff out of a pocket and held it read. "Come with us. Don't try to escape." He took a step forward. "Can you stand?"

Jeremie stood.

"Good. Walk that way." He pointed with one hand.

Seeing no other choice, Jeremie began to walk.

"I didn't know anyone else lived on Okoyl. Who are you?" He asked.

The tall one pushed one end of the staff into Jeremie's neck, sending a short but powerful electric shock through him.

"Ow!" He cried, stumbling.

"Do not speak unless spoken to." The tall one said. "Keep walking."

The short one spoke. "You don't look like us. Where are you from?"

"Earth. We use a computer to go to a place called Lyoko-."

The tall one zapped him again. "Do not speak nonsense! There is no Earth, and there is no Lyoko."

"Who told you that?"

The tall one moved to zap him again, but the short one stopped him. "You really don't believe that, do you?"

"Of course I don't believe it!" Jeremie exclaimed impatiently. "I was born on. . ." He glanced at the tall one, when he nodded he continued. "I was born on Earth. We discovered the super-calculator and Lyoko when I was twelve, I think. We've been fighting Xana for. . .two years no. . ." She stopped. "What?"

They were staring at him wide-eyed. "You mentioned the High Lord by name." The short one whispered. "You say you fight the High Lord."

"Xana? A Lord?" Jeremie laughed. "You can't be serious!"

"Don't mock the High Lord!" The tall one snapped angrily. "It is obvious that you are far too insane to be allowed to walk freely. Give me your hands."

"Pardon?"

"Your hands! Now!"

Jeremie held out his hands. Bulky rings were placed around his wrists. The tall one pushed a button on a similar ring around his own wrist. Violet electricity crackled between the rings.

"Hey!"

"Don't talk. Don't struggle." The tall man pushed him forward. "Walk."

"Let me go!" Fumbling because of the rings, he pulled onut his staff and swung it around. And he began to run.

He could hear their footsteps behind him. Something hit him from behind. He stumbled and fell, tumbling to a stop.

"You have given us no choice." The tall one said.

He put the staff to Jeremie's forehead.

Jeremie convulsed once, then his body went numb as consciousness ebbed away.

Everyone was gathered in the desert region.

"Ok, Aelita, mind explaining how we're going to get to Okoyl?" Yumi asked.

"Yeah, if I remember correctly, Mela Inverted us last time." Sissi said.

"I can Invert us. Mela, Cara, and I are made from the same root program."

"Meaning?" Ulrich asked.

"Anything they can do, I can do."

"Hey, someone want to explain about this, Inverting, Okoyl thing?" Timiya asked.

"No one explained that?" Aelita asked. "Yumi? I thought you told them everything."

"Long story short," Odd said. "Mela captured us, Cara saved us."

"That's real helpful Odd." Timiya said sarcastically.

"The story doesn't matter." Ulrich said. "Mela is the bad one, she looks like Aelita but black and grey. Cara is the good one, she looks the same in white and silver. Mela has these necklaces. . ."

"They look like chains. Don't let her put one on you. Hey conduct electricity."

"I thought we couldn't get hurt in the virtual world?"

"You can't get hurt on Lyoko." Ulrich corrected. "On Lyoko, we have lifepoints. When we run out we got to Earth. On Okoyl, there are no lifepoints. It's like being on Earth, except death doesn't exist."

"Could you be quiet?" Aelita asked politely. "I need to concentrate to Invert us. I'd suggest closing your eyes."

She closed her own and began to glow.

Jeremie woke up in a cell much like the one they'd been in last visit to Okoyl. His staff was missing as were his wings. He looked around the cell. There were two windows, and a door, each with a shield of electricity surrounding it. The good news was that his hands were unbound.

Not that it mattered in here.

His movement had alerted the cell guards. The two boys from before.

"You are awake. Good." The tall one said. "Come with us, the empress will see you now."

The electricity left the door.

Deciding that it was the best way to get information, and he didn't want to come into contact with that staff again, he followed them down the hallways to Mela's throne room.

The tall one shoved him forward.

"Your Majesty. We found this stranger in the swamp."

"A stranger? You disturb your Empress because of-!" She stopped when she saw him. "You! Guards, a collar!"

Before Jeremie could blink, a chain was fastened around his neck.

"You and your friends may have escaped before, but not this time. Nothing would please me more than to see you and your friends as functioning members of the High Lord's Society. Since your friends are not with you, I assume you are alone. You will do."

"I won't worship Xana."

"You will do as I say, when I say, and how I say. You will go with these two, their family will welcome you. You may ask any question you wish, go where you wish, do what you wish. But you will kneel when I say kneel, and you will never mention any part of your former life again." She paused. "From now on, your name is Baachek of Malo-Swamp. Go with them, when I release you." She fingered the silver ring on her left hand. "Kneel, now."

"I will not worship Xana." He repeated.

"To your knees or I'll put you there myself!"

Jeremie stood stubbornly.

Mela twisted the ring. As soon as Jeremie was on his knees, she turned it off.

"You will go with them now."

She turned the throne.

The short guard helped Jeremie to his feet.

"Come on, Baachek., I'll show you around Malo-Swamp. You'll get used to it in no time. By the way, My name is Jaenen. My brother is Maarch."

"Mela said family?"

"Lesson one, never say the empress's name." Maarch said.

"The empress did say family. We have an older sister, Talika, a younger sister, Naeline, and a younger brother, Samious. And mother and father of course." He smiled. "Don't worry, they can only have one more."

"You can reproduce on Okoyl?"

"Well, sure. You'd need the empress's permission, but. . .sure. It's possible." He laughed. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Never mind. Where's Malo-Swamp?"

"Not far from where we found you. Come on."

They hung, suspended in limbo.

Aelita was half of the way there. But she'd hit a barrier.

"This could take a while." She said.

"Mother? Father?" Jaenen said as they approached what appeared to be a fairly large shelter. "Talika, Naeline, Samious? Can out here, I have important news!"

A tall woman who must have been Mother came out of the house first. She had long green hair. Father, a tall black-haired man, followed.

An older girl with short blue hair came out next, holding the hand of a tree-ish little girl with purple hair, and carried a black-haired one-ish boy.

"This is Baachek." Jaenen announced. "By decree of the empress, he is to join our family."

Mother smiled warmly. "Welcome, Baachek." Father grunted.

"Hi, Baachek." The little girl said, "I'm Naeline!"

The little boy wiggled out of the blue haired girls arms. Jeremie caught him. "I'm Talika." The girl said, taking the boy back. "And this is Samious."

"Dinner is in five minutes." Mother said before going back inside. Father regarded Jeremie for a second longer before following.

"Dinner?" Jeremie asked. "I didn't think Okoylan's could eat."

"We don't," Talika said. "But we like to."

"Are you my brother now?" Naeline asked.

"I. . .suppose so. . ." Jeremie said hesitantly.

"Will you give me a piggy-back ride?"

Jaenen shook his head behind her.

"Not now. I have things to discuss with Jaenen."

"What is this?" Aelita asked herself.

"It's the time barrier." It was Cara's voice.

"Time barrier?"

"Of course. Okoyl runs on a different temporal plane than Lyoko. You have to cross the barrier slowly and at an angle."

"That. . .makes sense."

"I'll be waiting for you."

They appeared on Okoyl's Lava Region.

Aelita glanced around.

Cara waved. "Greetings."

Aelita smiled. "Do you know where Jeremie is?"

"At this time? No. Fifteen years ago he appeared near Malo-Swamp and was intercepted by two villagers. No, no, don't fret, remember the time barrier I told you about? Earth and Lyoko exist in a different temporal plane from Okoyl? Each minute of your temporal plane is a year here. His Inversion was quite slow."

"Villagers?"

"Fifteen years!"

"Temporal what?"

Cara closed her eyes and sighed. "This could take a while." Then she shook herself. "Or not. . ." She looked at Sissi. "You. You have it."

"Have what?"

"Telepathy. It's very rare. A special ability. Aelita doesn't have it, even. There's a way. . .a transfer of knowledge. . .I think it could work."

"What could work!" Sissi asked frustrated.

Cara lifted Sissi's hands to her temples and pressed. Instinctively, Sissi closed her eyes. And Cara's knowledge of the last fifteen years entered her mind.

Jeremie looked down at his sleeping child, Aelitette, and sighed.

"You're thinking of her again." His wife, Ritanalia said.

"Yes." Mela had lifted her restrictions about his prior life six years previously, when he had married.

"It has been - what?- fifteen years since you saw her last?"

"Almost sixteen."

"I'm here now."

"I know."

Just them the summons came.