"Code: Insomnia"
By cdc100
Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.
Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation.
Chapter One
"Midnight Horror"
Jeremie Belpois sat in his room, typing fervently on his keyboard. It was a Saturday and not even noon yet, so with his homework done, he went back to work on a program he was working on, independent of any prying eyes, be they of his teachers or his friends.
(A/N: Jeremie Belpois – Sharon Mann)
Jeremie had named the program, "Princess," due to its importance, and also because its purpose was to help his dearest friend, Aelita.
He hadn't seen Aelita outside class for over a week now, as he was working hard on the project. He had reasoned that once he was done with this project, he could see Aelita as much as she wanted…if she wanted to.
The last thought brought Jeremie down.
He put his hands at the edge of his desk and pushed away from it. Once away, he ran his hands through his short blond hair, his eyes closed, and he took a deep breath. The tightness in his chest seemed to loosen a bit.
He tried to direct his attention elsewhere: finals, the factory not far from Kadic Academy, anything to dull the pain he felt inside.
Once he had calmed himself, he turned back toward the computer and continued typing. About a half hour more, and he felt a rumbling in his thin gut, but took little notice of it, deciding instead to keep up with his set task.
Within the span of another half hour, he felt his gut rumble four more times, and he shook his head, pushing fiercely away from his desk.
"Alright!" he said. "Fine!"
He went to his closet and pulled out a small container which held several packets of dry food. He pulled out one of the packets, opened it, and emptied the contents into his mouth. He chewed, swallowed and looked down at his stomach.
"There," he said. "You got some. Now, shut up."
With that, he went back to his computer and started typing insanely quick, not even noticing when his phone buzzed for what must have been the hundredth time since he started working that morning. He had it on vibrate because he could stand to have it in that mode and still hear himself think.
He continued with his programming until he heard a loud pounding on his door behind him, startling him out of his work.
Jeremie hurriedly closed the window he was working in.
"Who is it?" he asked without turning around.
"Ulrich," said the voice behind the door, which Jeremie recognized as his friend, Ulrich Stern.
Jeremie turned away from the computer and called back.
"It's open," he said.
The door opened, and in stepped a boy with slightly muscular physique and short brown hair.
"Hey, Jeremie," said Ulrich. "What are you up to?"
(A/N: Ulrich Stern – Barbara Weber-Scaff)
"Oh, nothing much," said Jeremie. "I'm just finishing up some homework, is all."
"Homework?" asked Ulrich. "Really?"
"Y-yeah," said Jeremie.
"What subject?" asked Ulrich. "Maybe I can help."
Jeremie smirked.
"With your grades?" he asked. "I doubt it."
"Whoa!" said Ulrich, smirking himself. "Shots fired!"
The two shared a small laugh before Ulrich addressed Jeremie again.
"But seriously," he said, "I might be able to help. What's the problem?"
Jeremie shrugged.
"I appreciate the offer, Ulrich, but I'm fine," he said.
"Really?" asked Ulrich. "If it's not a problem, then why's it taking so long? You've been ignoring your cell all morning."
"Oh, you know me, Ulrich," said Jeremie. "I get really caught up in physics, math, science, all that stuff. You know? It's just so thrilling I can't bring myself to stop too soon. That's all."
Ulrich cocked his head to the side, quirking an eyebrow.
"Alright," said Ulrich. "Well, if that's all it is, then I guess I'll leave you to it."
"Thanks, Ulrich," said Jeremie. "I appreciate it."
"But don't forget," said Ulrich. "Today is Aelita's 'birthday,'"
Ulrich used air quotations for the last word. When he said it, Jeremie felt a jolt of cold run from his head all the way down to his feet.
However, Ulrich didn't notice, so Jeremie smirked and just went with his last remark.
"Don't worry, Ulrich," said Jeremie. "I haven't forgotten. I got something nice picked out for her, but I can't tell you what it is."
Ulrich nodded.
"I hear you," he said. "Well, if you finish with that today, you know where to find us."
"Yep," said Jeremie. "See you later."
With that, Jeremie turned back towards his computer, but as soon as Ulrich shut the door, Jeremie immediately pushed away from his desk and rummaged through his desk, looking for his savings. He snapped his fingers as he remembered where he stashed them. He looked under his desk, and right on the underside of the desktop was a wad of bills held in place by several lengths of athletic tape. He grabbed the bills and looked out his door. He looked left and right to make sure none of his friends were in sight, and dashed out the door, headed for town.
Meanwhile, back at Kadic, Ulrich and Jeremie's other friends sat on one of the benches in the quad, talking to each other. Sitting on the back of the bench was Odd Della Robbia, the shortest member of the group, if you didn't count the large spike attached to his head that he called hair, and also the prankster of the group. On either side of him, actually sitting on the bench, were the only girls of the group, Yumi Ishiyama, a Japanese girl who was the tallest in the group and one grade ahead of the others, and Aelita Stones, a girl with natural pink hair and tied with Jeremie for the smartest in the group.
As the trio sat on the bench, Ulrich stood before them, talking animatedly.
"And he didn't find that odd at all?" asked Yumi.
(A/N: Yumi Ishiyama – Mirabelle Kirkland)
"No," said Ulrich. "He told me that he had it covered. Said he got something really nice, but that he wouldn't tell me what it is."
Odd scratched his ear.
"Poor Einstein," he said, using Jeremie's nickname. "Actually, I can't decide if it's him or Princess I should feel sorry for."
(A/N: Odd Della Robbia – Matthew Geczy)
"I'm okay, Odd," said Aelita, patting Odd's knee. "I'm more worried about Jeremie. He must be scrambling to try and put something together for me."
(A/N: Aelita Stones/Schaeffer – Sharon Mann)
"That is true," said Odd. "One thing I've always credited him with is if he thinks something is important, he'll drop anything else to accommodate."
"Big word for you, Odd," said Yumi.
"I'm trying to expand my vocabulary," said Odd. "I have to keep up with the lingo, you know?"
"There's a cute girl in English class, isn't there?" asked Yumi.
"No," said Odd.
This prompted both Yumi and Aelita to quirk an eyebrow at him.
"Maybe," he admitted.
"Guys, this is serious," said Ulrich. "I honestly think that Jeremy might be losing touch. I know we always get at him for putting so much time into his work, but this takes the cake. He hasn't spoken to us or even so much as waved at us for over a week now."
"I don't know," said Yumi. "If he was really going through something like that, wouldn't his grades be suffering?"
"She's got a point, Ulrich," said Aelita. "Jeremie's assignment scores haven't dropped at all. He still gets 100% on everything."
"Still, though," said Ulrich.
"I'm not saying that we shouldn't worry," said Aelita. "I just think that it's possible we could be overreacting."
Odd smacked his own head.
"Oh no," he said.
"What is it, Odd?" asked Ulrich.
"I just realized something," said Odd. "Jeremie is going to realize that we were fooling him. And when he does, Ulrich is going to get the butt-chewing of a lifetime. You might want to avoid him for the rest of the day, man."
Ulrich nodded.
"Yeah," he said. "You're probably right. Thankfully, we've got something to keep us occupied and away from him while he's seething."
Aelita sighed.
"Yes," she said. "But going to the amusement park just won't be the same without Jeremie."
Aelita hung her head, staring at her shoes.
Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, Aelita," said Odd.
Aelita then looked up to find that Odd's hand was the one on her shoulder.
"We'll get Einstein back, Princess," said Odd, smiling. "He never could stay away from you for long."
"Yeah," said Ulrich. "I remember him getting on his computer in the middle of the night just to talk to you."
Aelita shrugged.
"That's true, but…I don't know," she said. "When I was still on Lyoko, he never went more than two or three Earth days without contacting me. And when he did, we would talk for hours. Now…he hasn't even said so much as a hello to me in a week."
Aelita crossed her arms.
"Hey, Aelita," said Yumi. "Relax. It's just like Odd and Ulrich said. We'll get him back. We'll find out what's up eventually and we'll get him back with us. Don't worry, okay?"
Aelita looked over at Yumi and nodded.
"In the meantime, I think it might be best to just let things play out and see what happens," said Yumi. "For all we know, Jeremie is just finishing something up and he'll be back and talking to us tomorrow. I mean, you did say he was friendly with you, right Ulrich?"
"That's also true," said Ulrich. "He didn't tell me to get out or to go away, so that's something."
Odd nodded.
"I'm with Yumi on this one," he said. "With one stipulation. We can't leave him alone for too long. Remember what happened last time? He kept launching all those returns to the past?"
"How could I not?" asked Aelita. "It was the least pleasant version of Jeremie I had ever seen."
Yumi nodded.
"Okay, I can agree with that," she said.
Ulrich nodded.
With that, the group left the bench and began their walk toward the amusement park.
"So, what ride do you guys want to do first?" asked Ulrich.
As his friends were leaving campus, Jeremie returned to his dorm room, clutching the wad of bills he had retrieved earlier, and right after slamming his door shut, he threw the crumpled wad under his desk, not even bothering to re-situate it, and throwing his shopping bag onto the bed.
"I am going to kill him," he said. "Literally. I would expect this kind of thing from Odd, but Ulrich? I know for a fact we celebrated Aelita's birthday only a few months ago."
Jeremie closed his eyes and took a few calming breaths.
"Oh well," he said. "Maybe it's for the best. At least now I have something I can give Aelita for some special occasion."
He smiled.
"Or just to make her happy," he said.
At that moment, a visage of Aelita came into his mind. She was opening her gift and was absolutely beaming at what she found inside.
"Oh, Jeremie," she said. "I love it! Thank you!"
The visage of Aelita reached toward him, and he reached back toward her, but as he did so, it vanished. Jeremie then realized where he was. He was in his room alone, again.
He trudged back over to his computer and got back to work on programming. He took his time now, no longer in the rush he was in earlier. Eventually, he started to see double as the image on the screen became burned into his retinas. Lines and lines of code that he had sifted through, altered and corrected for hours on end, to make sure that they were exactly right. He needed to make sure everything was perfect…he couldn't…stop…
Jeremie's mind finally went blank as he lurched forward and fell asleep, his head bonking on his desk as he did.
As such, he didn't notice when his friends came back from the amusement park. Yumi went home, but Aelita, Odd and Ulrich remained at campus, Aelita going to the girls' dorm upstairs, while Odd and Ulrich remained on the ground floor with the rest of the boys. As they went back to their shared room, Odd and Ulrich went to Jeremie's door and knocked.
"Jeremie?" asked Odd.
There was no answer. The two of them waited a couple of minutes and then knocked again, pressing their ears to the door.
"Jeremie?" Odd asked again.
Still, there was no answer, so Ulrich and Odd went back to their rooms and went to bed.
Down on the girls' floor, Aelita wasn't able to go to sleep quite so easily. Once she got into her room, she changed right into her pajamas and huddled up on her bed. She took hold of her doll, Mr. Puck, and hugged it close. She brought it so that it was into her view and then spoke.
"What should I do?" asked Aelita. "I don't know how much longer I can bear this. I want Jeremie back. He spends more time with the computer than he does with us."
She laid back on her bed and let her head hit the pillow.
"With me…" she murmured as she drifted off.
When Aelita opened her eyes, she was in a snowy field, and she was rolling a snowball up to the size of her body. After she was finished with that snowball, she rolled up two more snowballs, each one slightly smaller than the last. Once they were rolled to the right size, Aelita stacked them, one on top of the other. As she finished stacking the last one, she giggled.
Suddenly, a snowball whizzed her way. Then another. She turned toward the source of the snowballs and saw a woman with long pink hair and a man with a beard almost as thick as his glasses. Each of them held a bundle of snowballs in their arms and chucked them at the young girl, giggling as they did so. In response, Aelita started to pick up wads of snow and chuck them toward her older assailants.
"Come on, Aelita!" yelled the man. "You can do better than that!"
(A/N: Franz Hopper – Paul Bandey)
The man threw another ball, but it missed her and ended up hitting Aelita's unfinished snowman.
"Ha!" exclaimed Aelita. "You missed, Daddy!"
She tossed her own snowball at the man, which nailed him right in the eye, sending him to the ground.
"Ow!" he yelled.
Aelita and her mother came rushing to her father's side. They all laughed and laughed.
Suddenly, her parents disappeared in a fog to be replaced with a rather angry-looking wolf.
The sight of the beast caused Aelita to stumble backwards, but with each step she took back, the wolf inched closer and closer.
Aelita screamed in terror as the wolf bounded for her direction.
Aelita bolted out of bed, her face cake in sweat.
She hugged Mr. Puck close as tears streamed down her face. She pulled a length of her night shirt up to her face and wiped the tears off.
She lie back in her bed and held Mr. Puck close again as she took a deep breath.
After she had calmed down a bit, she was just about to drift back to sleep when she heard a loud pounding.
Her eyes shot awake as she looked in the direction of the noise, which she found to be coming from upstairs. A little after the pounding, she heard something that sounded like screaming, and several feet bolting down the hall.
She sat up in bed once again, and looked toward the door. Underneath the door, she could see a narrow strip of light, meaning that the hallway lights were on, which in turn meant that people were out of bed.
With that in mind, she set Mr. Puck in her bed and walked over to the door. He opened it and saw several girl pass her door.
She stuck her head out just as a girl in Yumi's year, Emily LeDuc, was about to pass.
"Emily?" asked Aelita.
Emily stopped in her tracks at Aelita's voice.
"Sorry for the early wake up, Aelita," she said.
(A/N: Emily LeDuc – Barbara Weber-Scaff)
"What's going on?" asked Aelita.
Emily adjusted her glasses.
"Something's happening on the boys' floor," said Emily. "I think one of your friends is in trouble."
With that, Emily bolted to the stairs.
"Oh, no," said Aelita, putting on her slippers and bounding for the stairs herself.
As she ascended the stairs, she wondered if one of her friends was hurt, and if so, which one? Ulrich? Odd? Or…
"Belpois!" exclaimed the voice of the dorm supervisor and health enhancement teacher, Jim Morales. "What's gotten into you? Snap out of it!"
(A/N: Jim Morales – David Gasman)
When Aelita got upstairs, she saw a crowd of students around Jim, who was trying to restrain Jeremie, who in turn seemed to be trying to pry open his window for whatever reason. Aelita got just a glimpse of Jeremie, but in that glimpse, she could see a look of absolute panic in his eyes, and that panic must have been what was causing him to try clawing open the window.
Aelita pushed her way through the crowd of her fellow students and spoke up.
"Jeremie!" she exclaimed. "Please, calm down. Everything is okay. Please stop this."
As Aelita spoke, she saw Jeremie's arms relax. As they did, his eyes closed and he collapsed up against Jim. Jim held Jeremie in place momentarily, and then gently lowered him to the floor.
"Belpois?" asked Jim, gently prodding Jeremie's shoulder. "Are you alright?"
The body of the blond boy stirred and he gently rose up off the floor.
"Wh…what?" he asked. "What's going on?"
"You tell me, Jeremie," said Jim. "What were you doing trying to pry open the window?"
"What?" asked Jeremie, his head still foggy with sleep. "What are you talking about?"
"He's right, Jeremie," said Aelita, kneeling next to him. "You looked really…scared. Are you okay?"
"Aelita," said Jeremie, rubbing his forehead and sitting up. "Yeah, I'm fine."
He slowly got to his feet and looked toward the audience that had gathered. When he noticed the crowd, he got a blush that would rival Aelita's hair in terms of color.
"Look, I'm sorry I woke all of you up," he said. "I don't know what happened, but…"
He trailed off, and the crowd waited for his next word.
"Look, you guys, I…really need to get back to work," said Jeremie. "Please, just go back to bed."
Jeremie turned to go back to bed, but was stopped by two hands; one on each of his shoulders. The one on his left shoulder belonged to Jim, while the other belonged to Aelita.
"Belpois, what you need is to get some rest," said Jim. "You should probably go to the infirmary."
"He's right, Jeremie," said Aelita. "Please, try to get some rest."
"But…there's so much that I have to do," said Jeremie. "I'll go to bed when I'm done, alright?"
"Jeremie, please," said Aelita.
She turned Jeremie towards her.
"Please go to the infirmary," she said. "I think you are unwell. Please."
Jeremie heaved a sigh.
"Look, Jeremie," said Jim. "Whatever you've got going on, it can wait until tomorrow. For now, I think it might be best for you to go to the infirmary, have Yolande check you over and keep you there to make sure you're okay."
"But I…" Jeremie trailed off.
"Jeremie, please, listen to Jim," said Aelita. "Jim, would it be okay if I helped you escort him?"
Jim looked over at Aelita quizzically.
"I…suppose," said Jim. "But as soon as we get Jeremie checked out, both of you are going back to bed. Understood?"
Aelita nodded.
"Alright!" exclaimed Jim. "Everybody, back to bed! You've got a whole other day to yourselves tomorrow!"
As everybody returned to their rooms, Jim led Jeremie and Aelita to the infirmary, where the school nurse, Yolande Perraudin, checked Jeremie over. Yolande did a full checkup of Jeremie, including his vitals.
"Well, I'm not noticing anything other than some high blood pressure," said Yolande.
(A/N: Yolande Perraudin – Jodi Forrest)
"I take it that's unusual for someone his age?" asked Jim.
"No," said Yolande. "This would be unusual for someone his age who just drank an entire pot of coffee and smoked a whole pack of cigarettes. Jeremie, what have you been up to?"
Jim got on his knees and faced Jeremie with a furrowed brow.
"Belpois…" said Jim, putting his hands on Jeremie's knees. "Tell the truth. You haven't been doing drugs, have you?"
Jeremie's eyes widened and he shot backwards.
"No way!" he exclaimed. "Are you crazy? I don't even know where you would go to get them!"
Jim stood up.
"Well, there are a multitude of ways you can get them," said Jim. "First of all-"
"Hush, Jim," said Yolande with a scowl. "Counterproductive."
Yolande then turned toward Jeremie.
"I think you were right about one thing, though, Jim," she said. "I think it might be best if we kept him overnight just to make sure nothing else is wrong."
Jeremie growled under his breath. He needed to get back to his room.
"Alright," said Jim. "Well, then I guess we'll leave you to tend to Jeremie. Let's go, Stones."
Aelita made to follow Jim out the door, but was shortly stopped by Yolande.
"Not so fast, Jim," she said. "You said before that Aelita managed to snap Jeremie out of his episode?"
"Yes," said Jim. "Why?"
"If that's true, I think she could be a big help to me," said Yolande. "Leave her here tonight as well, Jim. If Mr. Delmas says anything, I'll take responsibility."
Jim looked like he was about to object, but then looked between Aelita, Jeremie and Yolande.
"Fine," said Jim. "I'm too tired to contradict you anyway. I'm going to sleep."
As if to accentuate his point, he yawned loudly and turned to leave.
"Good night, Yolande," said Jim.
"Night, Jim," said Yolande.
After Jim left, Yolande turned her attention to the two students.
"Well, both of you had better get ready to sleep," she said. "Aelita, if anything happens, come and get me. Jeremie, don't even think of trying to go back to your room. Understand?"
Jeremie sighed and hung his head.
"Okay," he said.
With that, Yolande left the room and Jeremie turned toward one of the beds. He got in the bed and pulled the blankets over himself, rolling over so that he faced away from Aelita and toward the exit of the infirmary.
Aelita looked over at Jeremie and spoke up.
"Jeremie?" she asked.
"What is it, Aelita?" asked Jeremie.
"Please try to understand," said Aelita. "We're just worried about you. That's all."
"I know," said Jeremie. "Good night."
Aelita sunk into the bed that she had taken a seat on and fell asleep looking in Jeremie's direction.
To Be Continued…
A/N: Okay, I'm sorry that took so long, but I'm hoping that this chapter I just showed you is better than what I originally had up. If you guys don't think so, just let me know.