IMPORTANT: This fanfiction contains potential spoilers. If you haven't made it past Season 1, I'd recommend not reading.
A/N: I didn't expect this chapter to be nearly 5k words long. I guess it's something to be proud of, though. Please enjoy reading this chapter, and make sure to follow, favorite, and review.
The day repeated itself, the events that transpired thanks to XANA, hopefully, never to occur again. The return to the past had done what it was intended to do without any problems or setbacks. Nobody except for the five Lyoko Warriors remembered the events that happened before they traveled back in time and it was going to stay that way. They were hanging around near the building containing the drink dispenser again like they usually did before school started, chatting away.
Their collective conversation shifted from topic to topic, like personal problems, trivial subjects, and other topics that would appear in a regular conversation. Sissi and her posse were coming their way to greet them. The group heard the same footsteps from when they started their day before they returned to the past grew louder and they already knew who was approaching. After hearing those footsteps, you'd never forget them.
"Hello, Ulrich. How are you?", asked Sissi, putting her arms behind her back with an innocent-looking smile on her face. Ulrich looked at her, his expression indifferent.
"I already know what you're going to ask me, and the answer is yes.", said Ulrich, with a somewhat bored tone. Most of the group thought that this was a stupid move as they thought it would arouse some suspicion. Except for Odd. He also thought it was stupid, but he also thought it was hilarious. Sissi started to stutter, not expecting his response. Her expression told everyone that was looking at her that she was surprised by the response. The party hadn't even been announced yet, so how did he know about it?
"Did Odd tell you about the party? That seems like something he would do.", asked Sissi, her curiosity piqued, and her left eyebrow raised in suspicion of Odd's impromptu fit of laughter. The things that Odd laughed at would make anyone question his sense of humor.
"No.", replied Ulrich. Odd was still trying to stifle his laughter but he was miserably failing to do so at the same time.
"Whatever. I'll see you at 6:00, Ulrich dear.", said Sissi, blowing him a kiss. Yumi scowled at her, seeming rather upset by the gesture.
Sissi was still in thought about how Ulrich knew about the party. She decided to forget about it for now, despite how bizarre it was. She turned around and walked away, confused. But her feelings of confusion suddenly shifted to happiness as she realized that now she might have a chance with Ulrich. Maybe after months of failing to win him over, she would finally succeed. She couldn't help but let out a quiet "Yes!" from her mouth because of the thought of Ulrich showing up to the party.
While she was walking away, the group of Lyoko Warriors laughed at the events that took place just a few seconds ago and went back to chatting, the current topic being about how they were going to spend their summer vacation and what they were going to be doing.
"I'm going back to Germany to visit my parents over the summer.", said Ulrich, looking somewhat displeased as he finished his sentence. The others knew how Ulrich's father could be from experience and from Ulrich's stories about him. Ulrich once told the group that his father made him stay in his room for nearly a week just because he accidentally dropped a spoon while he was eating.
"I'm going back to Italy, so I can see my grandparents. It's been an awfully long time since my parents sent me here to attend Kadic Academy. Coincidentally, they're also going on vacation on the day I get back, so they're leaving me with them! Hey, did I mention I have grandparents?", Odd rambled, talking at incomprehensible speeds. He looked overjoyed just thinking about seeing his grandmother and grandfather. The group looked at him in confusion, trying to process what he just had said. Embarrassed, he rubbed the back of his neck, smiling nervously.
"Sorry. I'm just really excited to see my grandparents.", he said, chuckling nervously. Shortly after his incoherent rambling and subsequent apology, Yumi spoke up.
"I'll be spending summer vacation here with my family. Unfortunately for me, however, I'll have to be constantly putting up with Hiroki.", said Yumi, looking somewhat annoyed by the fact. She loved her brother, but she just hated his attitude and how annoying he could be sometimes. She huffed at the thought of him mocking her relationship with Ulrich. They were just good friends, that was all.
"Nothing special. I'm just going to be staying with my mother and father. I'll keep working on a way to free Aelita from XANA, though.", said Jeremy, with a tinge of determination in his voice.
"And you, Aelita?", asked Odd, turning to look at her. Aelita crossed her arms and replied.
"I'll be staying here and watching over XANA to make sure he doesn't attack. It's not like I have anything better to do, anyway." replied Aelita. She didn't sound like she was looking forward to watching XANA every second of the day.
The bell rang, signaling that classes were now beginning. It was time to go through the same boring classes for the second time today. Ulrich, Odd, Jeremy, Aelita, and Yumi got their stuff and headed to class. Just like she did every day, she headed to her homeroom class and waved goodbye to her friends causing them to reciprocate the action by waving back at her.
The school day went by in the blink of an eye. Nothing interesting had happened, but Ulrich paid attention in class so that he wouldn't suffer from the pain of Mrs. Hertz's insults to his intelligence, or embarrassment. And gym class was canceled for the day so that Sissi's party could be held there. Jeremy could be heard breathing a sigh of relief once the announcement had finished while the three of them were in math class. The students began to murmur, asking many questions to the others around them quietly before Mrs. Meyer told them to be quiet, continuing her lesson on algebraic functions.
It was now 4:30 PM, and the students attending Kadic Academy, along with a certain employee, were heading to their dorms for the day.
Jeremy was in his room, recording a video log on how his week had went and the new discoveries he had made relating to Lyoko. He had to stop talking a few minutes in as his toolbox had fallen off of the very top shelf in his room. Annoyed, he paused the video log, and picked it up, putting it on his table. After he set the toolbox on his table he got on top of his chair so that he would be able to reach the shelf. He bent down and carefully picked up the heavy toolbox so that he wouldn't fall off. He put it on a lower shelf so that the impact would be reduced next time, and it would also be easier to reach.
He sat back down in his seat, sighing. He forgot what he was going to say. That irksome toolbox had disrupted his train of thought. He chose to just forget about it for now and delete the video from his hard drive. After the process was finished, he closed the program window and started doing whatever he usually does on his computer.
As for Ulrich, he was studying while Odd was playing on his Game Boy in the background. Ulrich had become incredibly irritated over time, to the point where his pencil lead broke from pressing it too hard on the paper he was writing on. He turned to Odd, fuming with anger.
"Odd, shut that thing off before I shut you off!", he shouted. Odd, startled by the sudden outburst, exclaimed in fear and dropped his Game Boy. His dog, Kiwi, was also startled, causing him to wake up and bark at a high volume Ulrich before Odd soothed him by rubbing his back. His heart was beating at a mile a minute. As he regained his composure, his expression changed, turning from one of bewilderment to one of sadness. He didn't look at Ulrich. Instead, he just focused on his dog as he rubbed him on his side as he laid down on his bed.
"I'm sorry... I should've turned it down earlier...", were the words that Odd spoke from his mouth. His voice was quiet. Ulrich sighed, regretting his actions deeply.
"Actually, I'm the one who should be sorry, Odd. You didn't deserve to get yelled at. I didn't mean to scare you. Just please, keep the volume of your game down when you play it in here. I can't focus when you have it turned all the way up.", said Ulrich, his voice calmer than before. He really shouldn't have lashed out at him like that. Odd, of course, accepted his apology, although he really didn't feel like Ulrich was the one who should've apologized. This was one of the rare times he actually felt bad about doing something.
He turned down the volume of his game and continued playing it, becoming increasingly concentrated on the game by the minute, while Kiwi curled up next to him in bed. To Odd, it was as if what had just happened never occurred. It was pretty bizarre how quickly he could just get over something as if it never even happened. Ulrich turned back in the direction of his notebook and kept appending more text to the previously vacant page, the source of the aforementioned text being the book next to his notebook.
In Aelita's room, she was listening to the cassette tapes that she had in her portable cassette player, both objects being a gift from Jeremy for Valentine's Day. Jeremy didn't really know what kind of music she would be into because when he had first devirtualized her and brought her to the real world, she had most likely never heard any music. So he just picked out some music from the band that everyone else enjoyed (at least in France), the band being The Subsonics.
Well, at least that's what she, Odd, and Yumi believed, anyway. Only Jeremy and Ulrich knew that wasn't the case. Apparently, Ulrich was feeling generous on Valentine's Day and so he decided that he would invest his money into helping his friend get closer to Aelita. He knew how he felt about her, so he bought a cassette player and a few cassette tapes containing songs from The Subdigitals so that he could give them to her. Jeremy was forever grateful to Ulrich, thanking him profusely for going out of his way to help him.
Sometimes nobody in their group could believe that Aelita was really... there. There with them, in the real world. It seemed like it was only days ago when she was still living in Lyoko and talking to Jeremy and the others through a visual interface.
Aelita simply sat down on the edge of her bed. It was evident that she was enjoying the music as she moved her head from side to side while following the rhythm of the current song that she was listening to. She quietly sang along with the singer, sporting a smile on her face.
Meanwhile, Yumi was in her father's car, being driven home by him. He looked like he was deep in thought about something important. Yumi wondered what could've been so important to him, that he would be pondering over it for the entire drive home. After what seemed like hours of silence, she spoke up.
"Hey, dad. Is something wrong?"
This startled Mr. Ishiyama, causing him to yelp and lose control of the car for a moment. The car swerved a bit to the left, its trajectory being corrected by the driver. Mr. Ishiyama quickly became annoyed, and he raised his voice at Yumi.
"Are you trying to get us arrested, Yumi?! Or even worse, killed?!", he shouted, angrily. Yumi didn't expect his outburst, but she recovered from it quickly.
"Sorry. I just wanted to know if something was wrong.", explained Yumi, looking at Mr. Ishiyama from her passenger seat. He sighed and answered her question, careful to not lose focus on the road.
"Well, Yumi... your mother and I's 14th anniversary is coming up, and I don't know what to get her. So I'm a bit scared. I want to try something different but I don't know how she'll react if I get her something she doesn't like. Your mother can be a very scary woman sometimes.", her father answered, stuttering multiple times throughout his sentence. He was feeling anxious, his shaking hands hinting at this fact.
"Dad, mom loves you. Don't be afraid just because you think she'll hate you because you got her the wrong gift.", replied Yumi, attempting to reassure her father. It seemed to work because the amount of shaking his hands were doing became reduced. He took deep breaths, and eventually calmed down.
"You know what, Yumi? Maybe you're right.", he replied, shifting his focus to her and then back to the road. Yumi smiled, knowing that she had calmed him down. After a long drive, her father took the keys that were inside of the ignition out, causing the car to immediately turn off. He stepped out of the car, with Yumi doing the same. She and her father scaled the staircase to the front of their house, Mr. Ishiyama knocking on the door once they had reached the front porch. The door opened, revealing Mrs. Ishiyama and Hiroki on the other side. Hiroki had a mischievous grin on his face and Yumi knew exactly what it meant.
"Back from your date with Ulrich?", he mocked, laughing. Yumi and the rest of the household were in no way entertained by his words. Yumi simply groaned in annoyance, stepping inside of the house and past her little brother and their mother. She took off her shoes and put them next to the entrance. She went up the flight of stairs leading to her room, entered, and slammed the door behind her. Exhausted, she lobbed her backpack next to her Totoro plushie and threw herself onto her bed. She turned over, took out her phone, and dialed a number.
Ulrich's phone began to ring, now consequently becoming the second thing distracting him from his studying. Aside from the ringing, Odd was also snoring like a beast. It was truly baffling how he could be just as loud while sleeping. He picked up his phone and looked at the number. Upon seeing who it was, he wasted no time hitting the "Answer" button.
"Hey, Yumi. What's up?", he said, with a smile. He tapped his pencil on the desk multiple times, causing Odd to wake up. He looked slightly annoyed at the fact that Ulrich had woken him up.
"Ulrich, can you please stop tapping your pencil on the desk?", he asked, bearing an expression of annoyance. Ulrich heard him and stopped tapping the pencil he was holding so that his roommate and friend could get some sleep.
"Thank you.", Odd said, immediately starting to snore the second he closed his eyes. Ulrich could hear Yumi talking over the line. He quickly put his phone back up to his ear.
"Ulrich? Are you there?"
"Yeah. I accidentally woke up Odd. You know how he is about getting his sleep. So, why did you call me?"
"Oh. I just wanted to talk to you.", Yumi said, sitting on the edge of her bed.
The two of them continued to chat for about a half-hour about their own lives and family problems until Yumi was called downstairs for dinner. Unfortunately for both her and Ulrich, her parents had a strict policy at the table. No phones. The last thing Ulrich heard from her over the phone was "Coming!", and then a disconnect tone. He put down his phone and continued copying the information from the book into his notebook and going over it to make sure he understood.
Studying was mostly hard, but it was also boring. Not to mention that in less than an hour, he had to go to Sissi's party. He decided that he would use the party as an excuse to pause his studying and get prepared. He still would've gone, even if he wasn't studying, considering how he accepted her invitation at the beginning of the day.
As he got up from his chair, he looked over to his right and noticed that Odd's cover was only shielding his legs from the slightly chilly room. He grasped the cover and carefully put it over his upper body, making sure to not awaken him and his dog. Odd looked a bit more comfortable now, meaning that Ulrich could now get ready. He wasn't necessarily looking forward to going to the party, but there was no turning back now. He opened the door to his closet and took his green shirt and vest that were next to Odd's clothing off of their hangers. He neatly folded the clothing, placing his vest on top of his shirt.
He walked to the boys' showers, carrying his clothing. He wasn't necessarily in a hurry so it didn't matter to him how fast he moved. Of course, there were a few other boys heading in the same direction as him, for the same reason as him. They were arguing over who Sissi would want to go out with the most.
"Typical.", Ulrich thought, losing interest in the boys that had now walked past him and into the showers at this point.
He had finally made it to his destination. He stepped into the room which had mirrors and sinks on one side, and showers on the other. He did whatever it was he needed to do, before stepping into one of the stalls and taking a shower. Ulrich had always liked a hot shower. It relaxed him and calmed his mind.
After he finished his shower, he got a towel on and went to a changing room, so that he could get dressed to go to the party. Hopefully, he would be able to make it to the gymnasium without any interruptions. He marched on to his second destination with his hands in his pockets.
Meanwhile, XANA was awake, pondering over why his plans failed time and time again, and why those kids always succeeded in stopping him from taking over the Earth. He was quite possibly the most intelligent AI on the planet, but he couldn't stop a group of human children from interfering with his plans. Why? That was what he needed to figure out.
After some computing, he had a possible reason as to why. The reason as to why those children always got the better of him.
The reason why was because XANA knew nothing about his enemies. He didn't know all of their weaknesses, strengths, or past. If he could procure this information relating to his enemies, he would have an advantage over them. Desperate to defeat them, he decided that he would try something new.
So, he hatched a plan. A plan based on this one reason. For phase one, XANA issued a special set of instructions to the processor of the supercomputer that he was taking refuge in. These instructions would tell the superscan to not pick up an activated tower, and relay this information to Jeremy's computer. He had refrained from doing this a long time ago as today was a special occasion, and this ability of his was valuable. If Jeremy found out about his ability and made a program to prevent him from using it, then XANA would be at a disadvantage.
Even if they were enemies, XANA couldn't help but think that Jeremy was a very intelligent and gifted child. He would never admit it, but sometimes Jeremy surprised him with what he could do. He was a formidable foe, intelligence-wise.
But if the superscan detected his activated tower, his plan would be ruined.
And so, once XANA successfully sabotaged the superscan, he laid dormant. He wouldn't execute phase two of his plan just yet.
After attacking the school so many times, he had gained some knowledge of it. This knowledge would probably later turn out to be very useful.
Some time had passed and Ulrich had made it to the gymnasium. He saw that he wasn't the only person outside, however. There were multiple people outside, most of them being boys.
The time was now 6:00 PM, and the party was now taking place. Everyone that was previously outside walked into the gymnasium, the room now being filled with the chattering of teenagers. Ulrich sighed and walked in after everyone else. He put on a fake smile so that he would at least look like he was enjoying the party. He simply sat around and stayed inside of the gymnasium, until Sissi came up to him.
"I'm glad you could make it here!", she said, embracing Ulrich in a hug. He awkwardly hugged her back, so that he wouldn't look weird or offend Sissi.
"Yeah, I am too.", replied Ulrich, still sporting his fake smile. He wasn't surprised when Sissi grabbed his hand.
"Will you dance with me?", she asked happily. Ulrich internally groaned and felt his façade start to fall apart, slightly. He nodded slightly before he was led to a free spot in the gymnasium by the principal's daughter. The two began to dance, with Ulrich occasionally glancing around him to see if Yumi was there. He really didn't want her to see him dancing with Sissi. Thankfully, she never showed up to the party.
The party didn't last too long, which was great for Ulrich. It was 7:14 PM and he was now walking up the stairs to the boys' dorm room so that he could go back and sleep. Just as he expected, the party wasn't that great. Sissi looked pretty happy to see him, though. He couldn't wait to get back to his dorm. He was very tired and tomorrow would be Saturday, so he would be free to do whatever he wanted.
He stood at the door of his dorm and opened it quietly in case Odd was asleep. He looked into the room and looked over to him. He was in a rather peculiar sleeping position, with his right arm raised and his left hand on his forehead. His right leg was on the wall.
Ulrich had to try his best to stifle a laugh due to the absurdity of what he was seeing. Kiwi was woken up by Ulrich's attempt to extinguish his laughter and began to pant heavily. He happily jumped off of the bed and jumped on Ulrich's leg.
"Hey, Kiwi.", he whispered, bending down to pet the small dog. Kiwi was enjoying the affection Ulrich was giving him. Ulrich opened the drawer that was beneath both of the dorm room occupants' closet and put the small dog inside. He closed the drawer, hoping that he hadn't disturbed his roommate. He quietly stepped over to his bed and laid down, feeling calmed as soon as his head made contact with the pillow. He drifted off to sleep.
More than two hours had passed since the party, and it was now night time in the small commune of Sceaux, France. The time was 8:32 PM, just past curfew, meaning that most, if not all of the students at Kadic were now sleeping, including Jeremy, surprisingly. The birds had stopped chirping just a few hours earlier, at sunset. The lights were out in the interior of Kadic Academy. Well, most of them, anyway. The sizable city that contained the private school was lit up like a star and every few minutes a car could be heard passing by.
XANA decided that this would be the perfect time to execute the second phase of his plan. He transferred himself to the city's power grid, fusing with the electricity. He traveled through the power grid to get inside of Kadic Academy's administrative building without any problems. Once he got inside of the building, he seeped out of a power outlet inside of Principal Delmas's office while he was playing a game on his computer instead of doing work. The man sitting in the chair was getting slightly annoyed as he was unable to play the game properly. XANA lingered right behind him, not sure of what the principal was doing.
However, he didn't care. He possessed the man in front of him, although with a little trouble since Mr. Delmas was a mentally strong man, despite the fact that he had to put up with Sissi most of the time and manage an entire educational facility. After a brief struggle, XANA took control of the principal and used him to enter information on a student who didn't exist into the school's records.
XANA then exited from his body, causing him to faint and fall to the floor. XANA once again entered the power grid via the same electrical outlet he had come out of a couple of minutes ago. This time, he was headed for Jeremy's room. He was aware that his computer contained multiple legal documents relating to Aelita. Birth records, medical records, you name it. XANA knew that this would be vital in making the existence of a currently non-existent person believable.
XANA came out of an electrical socket in Jeremy's room in the form of a spectre. His entrance caused some noise, however, causing Jeremy to wake up and groan in exasperation.
"The one time I try to get some sleep, and I get woken up immediately!", Jeremy said, opening his eyes and sitting up, annoyed.
XANA, alarmed, quickly exited the room, hiding outside. He was even more annoyed now that Jeremy had woken up. He wished that he could just knock out that little twerp, but that would cause too much attention.
Jeremy got up and walked to his desk, careful as to not bump into something due to his lack of vision.
"I'm not in the mood for this."
Still annoyed, he put on his glasses that were resting on his desk and walked to his dorm's door to turn on the light in his room. He was surprised to see that there was nothing that could've caused the noise. He was confused, however, considering how he could've sworn that he heard the crackling of electricity. He walked back to bed, listening for any kind of disturbance in his room. He fell asleep while he was listening, however.
A few minutes later, XANA floated back into Jeremy's room, He then proceeded to turn on the computer, wasting no time in transferring the invaluable information from the computer to Principal Delmas's computer. After the file transfer was complete, a sound came from Jeremy's computer.
The sound meant that a data transfer or download had been completed. Fortunately for XANA, the sound didn't wake up the genius that was sleeping in the same room as the computer that XANA was currently controlling. He turned off the computer so that nothing would look out of place, and traveled back to the administrative building so that he could edit the files that he had transferred.
Once he was back in the principal's office, he repossessed Delmas and used him to manipulate the new files that were now on his computer. After a few minutes of editing and doctoring the images to his liking, he put them inside of the non-existent student's records and deleted the images from Principal Delmas's computer. XANA freed Delmas from his control, causing him to once again faint, this time in his own chair.
He traveled back to the mainframe of the supercomputer via electricity, now once again laying dormant. If he could feel happy, he would be metaphorically jumping for joy. There was no way that this plan could backfire on him.