Disclaimer: Code Lyoko is copyrighted by Moonscoop.

I only own Lila and Mia. Mary is owned by AeroJester203. Kayori is owned by decode9.

This chapter was written by me. It was edited by Discordant Night.

Author's Note: This chapter picks up immediately where Final Round ended.

Enjoy!

Confessions

Inside the Hermitage

POV Lila's

"But then that would mean Jeremy and me, we're your parents," Aelita says. She blushes shyly and Jeremy does too.

It's noticeable so I say, "Yeah you are… in a sense." Their blushing stops and turns into a look of confusion.

William raises an eyebrow, "What does that mean? 'In a sense?' I mean, last I checked…?"

"Well, William," I answer his implied question with a sigh. This is it… the day they find out the truth about everything. I only hope they can accept me for who I am now. Lila Belpois. Age 15… human… but born on Sector Five.

Mustering up the strength, I sigh and say:

"This is what I need to tell all of you. So, I'll start from the beginning…"

I start telling them about the Xana from my future. The one that saved me and created Mary. This is the only way I am going to be able to move forward with the ones I call my friends. No, they're more than my friends. They're my family and they deserve this.

It takes a little more than two hours for me to finish telling the others my history. My true history… and they're all shocked.

It makes sense after all… honestly it's a lot to process. There are days I still have difficulty processing it. But by confessing all of this… I hope things will end up changing in the end for this timeline.

Ulrich is the first one to speak up.

"So… there was no war after all? Xana… had won?" Ulrich asks. I nod, answering the question.

"And you're already 15 years old?" Odd asks. I nod again.

"I am."

"I just can't believe it…" Aelita says, trailing off. "Xana… really… protected you?"

"He did…" I trail off.

"The fact that he created Mary and not me… makes sense…" Jeremy trails off.

"You did make calculations for the time machine, as well as building the machine itself," I point out. "Future Xana and Mary… they just finished everything else."

"So, the reason your outfit and powers change so much-" Yumi begins, but I cut her off with a nod.

"Yeah, that's because Future Xana made it possible. Though Cameron did find that one loophole that one time."

"To think an evil being like Xana is capable of experiencing emotions," Jeremy says. "It puts everything in a new light, for starters."

William, Odd, and Sissi are still processing the information.

"So wait," Odd says suddenly.

"If all of us are gone by the time the factory blows up… what happens to Sissi?" he asks.

"I'd like to know that too," Sissi says, concerned.

"Honestly Sissi? I have no idea…" I trail off. "I'm sorry, I wish I knew."

I look at William. He's been silent up until now, still staring at me.

"So I was supposed to be taken by Xana?" he asks.

I nod. "From the bit of knowledge I know about yes… but Mia prevented that from happening."

"And… why did she? You didn't explain that part."

"William… she did that because-" I'm cut off as Jeremy interrupts me.

"Lila maybe you shouldn't," he tells me.

"Shouldn't what Einstein?" William asks, looking from my father to me and back again.

"She's your daughter William," I blurt, not wanting to lie anymore. William's eyes widen.

"My - my daughter?" he asks, stunned. He then makes a realization, connecting the dots.

"Of course… that's what she wanted to tell me in the woods earlier today."

"Most likely," I surmise. Aelita speaks up again.

"Lila this is a lot to um… process. Do you think you can give us some time to cope with it?" Aelita asks.

"That's fine Aelita. Besides, I need to make a call, then let Mary know what's going on. So I'll visit her. Jeremy… the information Franz Hopper sent you will help you recreate Lyoko. It'll take time… but-" I start to say but Jeremy pats his closed laptop.

"I've got it covered; don't worry," he smiles slightly and pushes his glasses to the bridge of his nose. I return his smile.

"I'll leave you to it then," I tell them and start making my way out of the Hermitage.

Afterwards

Crossroads

As I'm walking to Mary's house that's only in short walking distance from the school and the Hermitage, I take my cell out and dial Kayori on speed dial. I let it ring and put the cell phone to my ear. Someone answers it.

At the airport

POV Kayori's

"Hey you," I say, as all of our bags have already been scanned in. "Is everything okay with…" I look around, my parents are busy on their phones too, and everyone else is doing their own thing.

"Lyoko?" I whisper.

"Not exactly…" Lila answers.

This can't be good.

"What happened?"

Lila starts telling me about how Mia got possessed. How she saved William from being taken. And how… my eyes widen.

"... it's gone?" I ask.

"For now… but Hopper sent us some information that's going to help. And I have faith that we'll set Mia free in time."

"Faith or… other knowledge?" I ask her.

"... Both," she answers truthfully. I smile. It seems we're at a point where we don't have to lie to each other anymore.

"That's good," I exasperate.

"Listen… can you tell Emily I said goodbye? I didn't exactly get a chance to tell her that in person."

"I'll try to. She's nice to me on somedays but you know how she is with the others."

"I know," I say.

"Flight 897, you may now begin boarding. Departure will be in ten minutes. Again, flight 897 to New York City - John F. Kennedy Airport. You may now begin boarding," a spokeswoman says over the intercom.

"That's us," my father says in English.

"Time to get going sweetheart," My mom adds, again in English.

"Lila I have to-" I start to say, but she interrupts me.

POV Lila's

"I heard… have a safe flight, okay Kayori?"

"I will. And I promise, as soon as I can I'll write. Okay?"

"Okay," I reply.

"Bye Lila."

"Bye Kayori," I say and then she hangs up. I end the call too, and put my cell phone away. Time to go to Mary's.

Inside the Hermitage

POV Aelita's

"Do you think we can trust this version of Xana that's living within Mary?" I ask suddenly. The others look at me as we've all been thinking on what Lila told us. We've been pretty quiet and Jeremy was looking at the information my father sent us on his laptop.

"Well," William exhales. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the old saying goes."

Yumi points to him. "True," she points out. "But does that count when the enemy of my enemy, is actually the future version of that enemy?"

"Ugh!" Sissi screams, rubbing her temples. "Time travel… it's so… confusing!"

Odd and Ulrich can't help but chuckle lightly at that.

"You have to admit… it was pretty brave of Lila telling us all of this," Odd says.

"It was," Ulrich agrees.

"In any event, we need to start working on this data to recreate Lyoko," Jeremy says.

"Do you really think we can do it?" I ask.

"If we did it once, I'm sure we'll do it again," Jeremy replies. "You were right though about one thing Aelita. We do need some time to cope with all of this."

"Especially Ulrich and Yumi," Odd jokes, a sly smile forming on his face. Ulrich and Yumi look at each other, then blush and look away.

"Shut up dork!" Yumi snaps playfully.

"It's in the future."

I smile at that. Knowing Yumi and Ulrich end up not only forming a relationship but also get married is something most of us probably aren't going to let go. William can't help but look a tad sad though. Makes sense considering Yumi told me he tends to flirt with her sometimes. I wonder who he married in the future though? I guess it's one fact we'll never find out.

At Mary's house

POV Lila's

I'm sitting on the couch with Mary, a hot cup of tea in hand. It's cooled off since Mary initially brewed it, so I take a sip and swallow gingerly.

"That's really good," I offer.

"Thank you. It's herbal tea; it's supposed to be good for you," she tells me, then clears her throat. "I'm surprised you told the others everything. Were they upset?"

"No not as much as I thought they were going to be, honestly."

"They have been through a lot," Mary comments. I take another sip of Mary's tea and put the cup back down on the table. Mary clears her throat.

"Future Xana and I suspected Mia was going to sacrifice herself… we're sorry..."

"Don't be," I tell her. "Both of you have done all you can."

"Not quite," Mary tells me.

I arch an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Mary rises from the couch and dissolves into white smoke, taking a few seconds before reforming, as Mia this time. She's become an exact copy, right down to the white t-shirt she would wear.

"To keep up appearances," she explains sitting down.

"Makes sense. I'll let the others know."

Later at night

Inside the cafeteria

It's dinner time so everyone decided to take separate tables since they're still probably going over what I told him. I managed to tell Emily that Kayori told me to say goodbye to her. Emily thanked me for that, but that's all.

Mary is back in Sissi's room, keeping up appearances as Mia. Jeremy and Aelita aren't here since they're working on recreating Lyoko. Even though I told everyone most of the major things…. It's not like I told them everything. After all, I can't tell them everything when I don't know everything myself. I'm sitting by myself as I dig into some of the eggs Rosa made. Odd was pretty excited that we're having a breakfast for dinner night tonight. I swallow my scrambled eggs as William is walking toward me with his tray of food. He reaches my table.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" he asks.

'No go ahead," I reply. He nods and pulls the seat from under the table. He puts his tray of food down and then pulls the chair in as he sits.

"Lila I really want you to know… I'm okay with everything you told us," William says.

"You are?" I ask, surprised.

"I am," he replies. "It was brave and honest. Knowing Mia sacrificed herself for me just makes me want to fight our Xana that much harder to save her."

"What about Yumi and Ulrich?"

"Honestly…" he trails off. "It's probably for the best. Ulrich and I had a chat earlier. He told me about a time when I told him that we were racing for Yumi's affection. If he didn't act on it sooner, then I would've. I don't remember that conversation since a return to the past wiped it from my memory. But… if they're destined to be, then there's no place in the race for me at all."

Wow that's pretty grown up of him, I think.

Inside the lab

POV Aelita's

I'm helping Jeremy with recreating Lyoko; so far we're just starting to recreate Sector Five. Jeremy is working on removing the key mechanism from the original design before we get any further.

"You know," I begin, taking time to carefully select my words. "If my father really is alive now but he dies in the future, do you think knowing this means we can save him in this timeline?" I ask Jeremy.

"I'm not sure," Jeremy replies. "Anything is possible. At least we know how you'll…" he trails off, not wanting to finish his sentence. I don't blame him. I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"I know…" I tell him. "When that day comes I'll make sure my heart is checked out to find the infection." I screw my face in disgust. "We won't let that come to pass."

"No we won't…" Jeremy agrees, trailing off. He pulls his sleeve down and checks his watch. "Is that really the time?" he asks aloud. "Dinner will be ending soon."

"Let's go then." I smile.

The Next Day

POV Lila's

The bells ring, signaling class is ending; a lot of us are already gathering our materials. Mrs. Meyer reminds us to do our assignment for the evening. I zip up my backpack and am the first one of our group to leave the classroom. I decide to head to my room so I can get a start on the homework, as I'm sure the others are preoccupied. I chuckle to myself; Mary is probably going to go through the assignment easily.

Inside Lila and Aelita's room

I close the door and make my way to the desk. I set my backpack down and just as I'm about to unzip it there's a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" I call out.

"It's Sissi," the voice behind the door answers. "Can we talk?"

"Sure, come in," I reply.

Sissi enters, then closes the door behind her. "So I wanted to talk about what you told us," Sissi says slowly. I nod; I knew this would come eventually.

"Alright," I say as Sissi and I take a seat on Aelita's bed. Sissi turns to me.

"I'm glad you told us… it's just, it's a lot you know?" she says.

"It's like having all the answers right in front of you, but being unable to do anything about it."

"I know," I reply. There's not much else I can say.

"Knowing Odd went down fighting…" A tear falls from Sissi's cheek, almost unseen.

"It's sad, but I feel like he's probably okay with that. I'm just glad you weren't there to witness anything that happened to me."

"To be honest Sissi," I begin, "I feel like you were probably the only one besides William and Mia, who made it out."

"You think so?"

"Yeah," I nod. "After all, you were the principal of Kadic Academy. I'm sure you had the means to survive."

"I can't believe I kept the school running during such dangerous times," Sissi says. "It's… almost encouraging, really. I think my old self, my meaner version I mean, would have been in complete denial."

I nod, knowing exactly what she means. The Sissi from back then was… less than stellar. "Maybe."

Sissi smiles, then she hugs me. I hug back.

"Whenever you need to talk, just know that I'll be here for you," she says into my shoulder. We let go of each other with a smile between us.

"Thanks…" I trail off. "So… Kayori got back to the states okay," I tell her. Though for some weird reason she called me from her parents phone.

"That's good!" Sissi beams.

"By the way…" She looks at me as if she's debating on telling me something important. Finally, she sighs.

"Samantha Knight showed up at the skateboard competition. She… she overheard Odd and I dated."

"Sam showed up?" I ask, incredulous. "Yeah, I remember her. So what happened?"

"We had to prove to her that Odd and I were in a relationship… so we kissed," she says sheepishly.

My eyes fly open. "No way!" I blurt.

"I know!" she squeals a bit happily before trying to settle back down. "My father wasn't very happy about the news though. He saw the picture in the article Milly and Tamiya printed out earlier today at the last minute. Someone must have taken a picture of our kiss." Her face turns beet red.

"Thankfully Odd and I have already been dating for a little while, so it wasn't too big of a concern for my father. Though, he did have a few choice words to say to me and Odd."

"He did?" I ask.

Sissi nods. "Yeah… he meant well, so he wasn't upset or anything. Just… surprised."

"Ah," I say. "I'm so glad you had your first real kiss as a couple though!" The one on screen during that film Odd showed us a while back doesn't really count since it was acting, at least in my opinion.

"Yeah me neither!" Sissi agrees.

Inside Ulrich and Odd's room

POV Ulrich's

Odd is feeding Kiwi and giving him water. My eyes are about three times their normal size because of what he just told me.

"Ki-ssed?!" I stammer. "Did I hear you right, Odd?"

"Yup," Odd answers, sitting on the bed and watching Kiwi.

"On the lips?"

"Yeah," Odd says, flashing his signature grin. "Where else would I kiss her?"

"You guys are growing closer and closer," I say slowly. "Does Delmas know?"

Odd winces. "He does… We ah.. talked about it." Odd trails off.

"Thankfully our deal is still on, so as long as Sissi and I keep our grades up we can continue dating."

"Well that's good," I say.

I begin to wonder if I should tell Odd about the time Yumi and I kissed in the desert sector? We promised to never talk about it again, but... there's a chance she could have told Lila. At least Lila keeps the private stuff a secret. Odd though… I shake my head. In any case, I'm glad she never found out about me kissing Sissi to get Yumi out of trouble, and also that Sissi was willing to let go of her feelings for me when she joined the group. It really does make some things easier for me and Yumi...

"Um, hello? Earth to Ulrich?" Odd asks, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Huh?" I'm shaking from my thoughts. "What's up?"

Odd grins. "Were you daydreaming about your future wife?" he teases.

"I was so not!" I fire back. I get a text from my cell phone. I take it out and see the text. It's from Yumi.

"Speak of the devil," I mutter.

Meet in the park? - Yumi

"Speak of her what?" Odd asks.

"She wants to meet in the park," I answer.

"Then get going, Casanova," Odd jokes. I roll my eyes at him. Yumi made it very clear she wanted to stay "just friends," at the beginning of the term.

Inside Jeremy's room

POV Aelita's

Jeremy and I are now in his room, sitting on his bed while we finish our assignments and taking a break from recreating Lyoko.

"So Jeremy…" I speak up. He stops writing and looks up at me. His brown eyes show just how tired he is from his first night recreating some of Sector Five.

"Yes Aelita?" he asks.

I swallow, unsure. "Um… Can we talk about the elephant in the room?"

Jeremy looks at me, confused. He pushes his glasses to the bridge of his nose.

"What eleph-" he then makes the realization and blushes slightly. I do love when his embarrassment shows through.

"Oh… that we were married?"

I nod.

At the park

On the bench

POV Yumi's

Ulrich finally makes it to the park and walks up to me.

"Do you mind if I sit?"

"Of course," I reply. Ulrich sits down on the bench. There's no one out here so we're alone which is nice… but awkward too.

"Yumi-"

"Ulrich-"

We both say the other's name at the same time and can't help but chuckle. Ulrich puts his hand up gesturing for me to talk first, so I do. I put my hand under my chin.

"Do you… do you remember the one time we kissed on Lyoko?"

Ulrich nods, blushing profusely. He rubs his neck sheepishly.

"Um…" he coughs. "Yeah, I do."

Flashback

Ulrich stopped running with his super sprint after hearing that explosion and getting us away from it.

I hope Lila is okay, I thought. And the others too.

"Thanks Ulrich, but uh… could you let me down now?" I asked.

"Sorry," Ulrich replied sheepishly. Ulrich lets me down to my feet.

"Thanks for the save…" I trailed off.

"You're welcome," Ulrich said. "Yumi I…"

I looked at him and he looked at me. The others weren't around… and this felt strangely romantic. He and I started to lean in to each other, we then did something I wasn't expecting today. We kissed on the lips. It lasted for a second, but we pulled away from each other. Ulrich cleared his throat.

"That was um-" Ulrich started to say.

"Nice. Let's um, not tell the others? Especially Odd," I said. I rubbed my arm sheepishly.

"Right," Ulrich nodded.

"Hey you guys! Did you hear that explosion?" Odd asked, he and Aelita running up.

End of Flashback

"You know… I did happen to tell Lila about it later that day. I'm sorry about breaking our promise on not telling the others."

Ulrich's blush quickly fades. "It's alright," he says slowly. "I figured that might have been the case anyways."

"It's just… we were always so jealous of one another," I continue. "Back then for me, it was Sissi and Emily. Recently for you, it's William. At the beginning of the term I told you I just wanted to be 'just friends and that's it' because… we were going around in circles, you know?"

Ulrich nods. "I know," he answers. "And now?"

"Now… I'm not sure honestly. I don't want to rush into things because we're destined to be well… you know, married," I say.

"Yeah makes sense," Ulrich says.

I look at him and I'm a bit surprised he's cool about this.

"And… you're okay with that?"

"I am… honestly it's a lot to take in. We'll be okay though, we usually are right?" he asks. I nod and then smile.

"Yeah we are."

Inside Ulrich and Odd's room

POV Odd's

I'm playing with Kiwi in mine and Ulrich's room. Kiwi wags his tail happily. I can't help but think about how I'm supposed to die.

Going down fighting Xana, I muse. Yeah, I can work with that. Even though I married Sam in the future… that's obviously not going to happen with the way we ended things. I'm happy with Sissi… and I'm happy by the fact that she most likely got out alive. That means the Sissi I'm dating now may not die at all. That is… I mean, we'll obviously beat Xana way before that happens.

And now that Aelita knows she'll get an infection in the heart, she and Einstein can prepare for that. There won't need to be a reason to turn the supercomputer back on in this timeline.

I must have been extremely deep in my thoughts because Kiwi starts barking.

"Sorry about that Kiwi buddy," I say."You stay quiet okay? I'll be right back."

Afterwards

POV Lila's

I'm helping Sissi with her assignment when there's a knock on the door.

"It's Odd. Can I come in?" he asks.

"Sure," I reply.

"We're just doing homework Odd dear," Sissi says sweetly.

Odd dear? That's new, I think, amused. Odd opens the door and walks in.

"Lila… I just wanted to let you know that I'm okay with what you told me," he says, walking over to us.

"Thanks," I say.

"Did Sissi tell you what happened in the gymnasium today?" he asks. He points to the chair, the unasked question hanging in the air. I nod. He pulls it out and sits down.

I look at Sissi and she nods. I then look back at Odd.

"She did. I'm very happy for you both," I smile. "It's a shame I didn't get to read the article."

Odd chuckles. "Yeah, maybe, but I'm sure Milly and Tamiya will have a copy of one for you should ever want to read it."

I smile.

"Sure, I'd like that."

Dinner time

Inside the cafeteria

Aelita had mentioned to me that she wanted all of us to sit down together at our usual table night. All of us are at the table. Mary is sitting next to me. Even though she'll be posing as Mia, she brought her own plate of food. Odd and Sissi are sitting together by the right end. Ulrich and Yumi are sitting together by the front end. William is sitting on my right, next to Odd. It's spaghetti and meatballs tonight.

"Can you even eat food… 'Mia'?" William asks not too subtly.

"Not quite," Mary replies.

"However, if I am to keep up appearances as 'Mia', I believe Odd will be getting a lot of extra helpings from me."

"Cool!" Odd exclaims. All of us can't help but chuckle. Aelita clears her throat.

"Jeremy and I… we want to say something," She says.

"Go ahead princess," Ulrich says.

"Lila… we're really glad you told us what you told us," Aelita says. I sigh in relief internally.

She turns to Mary.

"We… want to thank the both of you for protecting Lila," she says. I'm a bit surprised, but Mary nods.

"There's no need to thank us Aelita," Mary says. "Future Xana and I were only doing what was right by her," she whispers, trying to keep the words to our table only.

"I know. And Lila… we do understand why you were hesitant in telling me that I'm your mom," Aelita says.

"You do?' I ask.

Jeremy joins in. "We do. We both agreed that knowing we're getting married… is great. That doesn't mean we have to rush into things. When the time comes…" he trails off, blushing shyly.

"... we'll work things out," Aelita finishes. I smile. I look at Yumi and Ulrich.

"And you two?" I ask.

"We're pretty much thinking the same thing," Yumi replies.

"Yeah, there's no need to worry about us Lila," Ulrich smiles.

"Good I'm glad… thank you so much everyone," I say.

"So Jeremy, Aelita, how are things going with rebuilding Lyoko?" Sissi asks.

"It's going," Jeremy answers.

"That's good," William says.

"But it'll take time to recreate the sectors. You probably won't see a lot of us for the rest of the week," Jeremy says.

"We're sure you can do it," Odd says. All of us nod, agreeing with him.

If anyone can do this… it's them. There's no doubt about it.

Author's Note: I hope everyone enjoyed the prologue for season 4. Sorry it's a bit shorter than our usual chapters. Mary throughout season 4 will be posing as Mia while at school. If she's inside the lab she will not be posing as Mia. Otherwise she'll be referred to as 'Mia'.

Mary is now bumped up to having a "reoccurring role" while Future Xana's status will be changed to a "guest star role."

Unfortunately there will be no Code Lyoko evolution. As much as I would like to fit in Evolution, it just doesn't fit with this fanfiction.

Ulrich and Yumi's alternate version of their kiss occurred during the filler saga: The Adventures of Lila Belpois, which is now complete!

I highly recommend reading Paladin777's fanfictions. "The News" was a reference to Paladin's fanfiction about how Delmas reacted to seeing Odd and Sissi kiss in an article. However, you should start reading Paladin's A Shoulder to Cry On first.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, this marks the last time we will see decode9's Kayori Avalon for a while. As for why Kayori called Lila on one of her parent's phone... you'll find out eventually.

Delmas had a better reaction than he did with the kiss in Contact and gave Odd detention. I believe because of the deal Sissi and Odd made throughout season 3, it has really helped their relationship, along with Odd forming a better connection with Delmas himself even though it's off screen. Even though Sissi and Odd did kiss on screen, as Lila mentioned, she believes (and therefore me too) it wasn't their first true kiss as a couple.

Mia Returns is up next. I hope you're enjoying the double update so far!

LyokoWarrior1994