Unlocked

It was so cold out. She could see her breath coming out in puffs in front of her. Her face stung and her fingers felt nearly numb.

But she didn't care. None of that mattered.

Because it had snowed!

She'd woken up to find snow spanning as far as she could see! Maybe even further than that. Only one way to find out!

She'd raced outside just as soon as Mommy and Daddy had let her. They trailed behind her as she dove straight for the pole closest to her. She took as much of it as she could hold and threw it into the air with a gleeful giggle.

It was so amazing! So fun!

Soon she has gone through all the required snow activities. Making snowballs, snow angels, catching snowflakes on her tongue, all of it. Except for one.

She still had to make a snowman. And she was gonna make the biggest, best snowman the world had ever seen!

She immediately got to work on rolling another snowball. She laughed the bigger it got. Wasn't it just great? Mommy and Daddy thought so too, but they also warned her not to go too far.

Of course she wouldn't do that! They couldn't see it if she did that! She'd be careful!

But then, something weird happened.

She started to work on the second snowball for the snowman's body and… they were just gone. She turned around and her parents were just gone. The cabin too.

She stopped and tilted her head. Where had they all gone? She couldn't find them no matter where she looked. They hadn't just left her, had they?

And then she heard it. A scream.

From a voice she knew well.

"Mommy!?" She ran as fast as she could to follow it. She didn't know where she was going—they'd both always said not to leave their sight. She just ran.

"Let go of me!" She heard, and then she finally found her. But she wasn't alone! There were men in black suits and dark sunglasses all around her, dragging her into a black car.

That wasn't right! "Mommy!" She cried. She had to run faster! She had to stop them! They were taking her away!

"Aelita!" Her mom reached out for her. She had a wide look in her eyes that she'd never seen before.

She could feel tears starting to stream down and freeze on her face. She reached her hand out too. She was so close!

But then the men in black shoved her all the way into the car. They got in too, and then it started moving away.

She could still see her in the backseat, looking at her with those wide eyes.

"Aelita!" Her mommy screamed again. She could barely hear it over the noise of the car.

"NO!" They were getting away! They couldn't do that! That was her mom! She had to stop them! She had to go after them!

But she only made it a few more steps before her legs gave out from under her. Through blurred, frozen tears, she could see the black car getting smaller and smaller as it got further and further.

She could do nothing but lay there and sob against the bitterly cold snow. She'd failed...

She was gone… Mommy was gone.

The last thing she remembered before her vision went dark was the car completely disappearing in the distance, the feeling of cold seeping into her bones, and the sound of a wolf's howl echoing in her ears...

Adrenaline still had a hold on her when she woke up. Her heart was still racing, making her feel breathless. Tears dotted the edges of her vision as she tried to look around. She wrapped her arms around herself as a violent shiver overtook her.

And then, just as it always did, the feeling quickly passed as realization hit her. Her heart rate settled and her breathing normalized again. She closed her eyes, leaned back against the wall again and let out a shuddering sigh.

She was safe. That was all she needed to keep thinking about and repeating: she was safe. There was no snow, no men in black, no wolves. Nothing was chasing after her.

She wasn't stuck in a desolate, snowy mountain from the past.

She was in a warm, comfortable dorm room at Kadic Academy in the present.

"Aelita?"

Although… not her dorm room.

She opened her eyes to find Jeremy sitting cross-legged on the other side of the bed, his laptop laying open in front of him. His fingers were hovering just above the keys as he stared over at her. The room was dark, but his face was illuminated by the glow from his screen, making the concern on it stand out.

The bluish tinge it gave him made him look a bit strange at this hour, but she was used to it anymore. It was normal by now. She'd seen much worse. At least she could see his expression—he wasn't just some faceless being who-

She suppressed another shiver as she tried not to think about it. Now was not the time...

When their eyes locked, his already furrowed brow seemed to crease even further. "Are… you ok?" His words were quiet, almost hesitant.

"I…" she hesitated too. The words, 'I'm fine' had been on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't bring herself to say them. They were her typical answer in these scenarios, she'd said them many times, but this time she just couldn't do it.

Not when they both knew that wasn't even remotely true.

She shut her mouth and looked away from him toward the floor. She could see her boots still tucked in the corner by the door where she'd left them earlier. His shoes had been more haphazardly thrown, landing in a pile just in front of his wardrobe. She closed her eyes again and swallowed thickly, taking in a deep breath through her nose.

How was she supposed to answer that question?

Less than 48 hours ago, she'd been living under the assumption that she was just an AI that had been created to protect Lyoko.

Less than 24 hours ago, she'd learned that was a lie; she was actually human, and the daughter of Franz Hopper no less.

In even less time than that, she had the memories of that past life suddenly returned to her in full force after being captured by their absolutely ruthless enemy.

Could she really even be 'fine' after all that?

"I… don't know," she finally settled on answering with the most honest thing she could muster. She opened her eyes again and lifted her head to look at him proper again.

Jeremy looked like he wanted to say something, but didn't. He closed his mouth with a soft clack, lips pressing into a thin frown. His fingers visibly tensed into tight fists over the keyboard. Then, he pulled his gaze away from her, almost seeming like he was forcing himself to do it, and stared back down at his computer screen.

An awkward silence hung over them for several minutes. Neither of them knew how to move forward.

She decided to change the topic.

"What time is it?" she asked. The others were gone, and seemed to have been for awhile, how long had that been? Her neck felt stiff and sore. She reached one of her hands up to rub the back of it.

"Oh, it's uh…" Jeremy reached over for the alarm clock sitting on the table next to him and turned it toward him. "Just a little after midnight."

"Oh…" she let out. She'd been out for several hours then. She hadn't even meant to fall asleep in the first place; she certainly would've picked a better spot to do so if she had. The last thing she remembered, she'd been listening to the other talk in the aftermath of, well… everything.

The next thing she knew, she was staring at-

She shook herself a bit. Still not the time.

Jeremy set the clock back down and gave her a weak smile. "You really didn't miss much, maybe just a few more of Odd's bad jokes. The others left not too long after you dozed off," he explained.

"You could have woken me up," she pointed out.

"Well, yeah, we thought about it but..." he gave a half shrug. "After… today, no one wanted to disturb you."

A small part of her wanted to point out the obvious trouble that her being there would pose if Jim decided to barge in. That it was stupid of them to leave such a chance open; they should've just gotten her back to her own room. The rest of her, however, couldn't bring herself to care about that fact.

Honestly, she was just glad she wasn't alone.

She just let out a hum as a concession and looked back down. She still had the green blanket draped over her that Jeremy had pulled out and given to her earlier. It was an old thing that he'd claimed he didn't like very much due to how itchy it was. She, however, was grateful for it, as she slowly ran her hands against the scratchy fabric. The feeling of the texture against her hand was something she could focus on; something to keep her present.

Another silence hung over them, but soon she heard the familiar clicking sound of Jeremy's keyboard as he started to type on it again. He seemed completely focused on the screen as his fingers flew across the keys.

She frowned. She recognized that look.

"You're not still working, are you?" She knew he could be obsessive about his work but, even now?

He flinched and looked back at her with a sheepish expression. "Ah, yes… and no?" he made it sound more like a question than a solid answer. "I'm mostly just looking over your, uh… Hopper's notes again."

She elected to ignore his fumbling, and tilted her head at his explanation. "Why? I thought you already went over it,"

"Well, yes I did, but there was only so much I could look at in closer detail. There's… a lot to go through." He rapped his knuckles against the side of the computer as he spoke. "I'm hoping there's some kind of insight into XANA's programming or just… anything that would help me figure out his next move really after escaping the supercomputer. It's probably a longshot but…" He gave a halfhearted shrug, his way of saying that anything was possible. Then, before she could react, he pressed the spacebar and a new video played.

Perhaps a mistake on his part.

The image of Franz Hopper—her father—appeared on screen. He sat in the chair in the lab that practically served as Jeremy's second home anymore, leaning forward as he adjusted the camera. Then, he sat back with straight posture and his hands clasped closely in front of him. He had a slightly frazzled look about him, but not quite as disheveled as he'd been in some of the slips she'd seen before.

The sight of him made her heart practically leap into her throat.

But then she heard him speak…

"June 6th, 1994, day scanners still need a lot of work before they're fully functional, however-"

...and that was all it took.

It was only a video. She knew that—she'd seen a bit of it earlier. She'd heard him speak before. She should've been able to handle it. But… there was something about his voice now…

Panic wrapped itself around her chest like a vice. Every muscle in her body felt tense as she started to shake again. Tears pooled at the corners of her eyes once more; she squeezed them shut and shook her head.

Everything was just so loud. The sound of his voice echoed so very loudly in her head. Fragments of old conversations about pianos and fairytales and promises of safety fought desperately for her attention. Some words were faint and distant, while others pounded so loudly in her ears that she was almost convinced she was hearing them again. One after another, they kept coming.

She wanted it to stop. She tried so hard to focus on something, anything else, but she couldn't do it.

It was too much.

Her heart felt like it was ready to explode. She let out a choked breath. Her throat felt incredibly dry. She couldn't breathe! She couldn't-

"H-hey!"

Jeremy.

The sound of his voice startled her. She jumped, and finally, for a brief moment, the noise shattered around her, allowing her to hear herself think again. She snapped her head up to properly look at him.

He'd pushed his laptop aside to the table and had turned to face her. He had an arm outstretched, and his hand hovered just a few inches above her own. At the sight of her looking at him, however, he seemed to think twice, and pulled his hand back. She couldn't see his face clearly, her vision was too blurred and teary, but she could practically feel the concern radiating off of him.

"H-hey…" he tried saying again, softer this time. "Aelita, what's wrong? What… er, what is…" His voice wavered as he fumbled with his words, clearly uncomfortable. He let out a worried noise and knit his brow, letting the unfinished question hang in the air.

"I…" Her breath hitched.

How was she supposed to explain to him that the sound of her father's voice now brought up so many memories, good and bad? That they also brought with them a myriad of conflicting emotions from the past and present. That she still didn't know what to make of them, because they were so familiar now that they were back, and that she finally knew what the strange feelings of deja vu she'd been getting were, but they were also so strange and new.

How could she explain any of that?

She couldn't.

She let out a sob and threw herself against Jeremy instead, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she trembled against him. She couldn't hold the floodgates back anymore; hot tears streamed down her face as she grasped at his sweater, taking in tight handfuls of it.

Initially, he buckled against her unexpected weight and nearly hit the wall. "W-whoa!" She felt him tense as he tried to right them. Then, she felt him return the favor, wrapping his arms around her in return, and started to rub circles along her back. "Hey, it's ok. I've got you," he whispered softly in her ear. "I got you, you're ok,"

She didn't know how long they stayed like that—it could have been minutes, or it could've been hours. The rational part of her thought it was the former, but it certainly felt like the latter. Regardless, Jeremy didn't make any move to break away. He stayed there, whispering kind reassurances to her for as long as she needed. Finally, her tears started to slow, the noise started to fade completely, and her chest no longer felt so constricted by panic.

When she felt like she could breathe again, she slowly pulled away. He let her lean away without resistance, but he finally placed his hand on top of one of her own and started to stroke his thumb across the back of it. Normally his hands felt so cold, but she welcomed the feeling right now.

"I-I'm sorry," she hiccuped. She reached up to wipe away the remnants of her tears with her arm. "It was just… the video, I couldn't…"

"It's ok!" He was quick to respond. "You have nothing to be sorry for. It'll be there tomorrow; I can do it later."

A part of her wanted to laugh. Jeremy Belpois, putting off work for later? Today really was crazy.

"I must look like a mess right now," she noted. Not the first time she'd felt that way today either.

Jeremy gave her hand a light squeeze. "If you ask me, if anyone's earned the right to that kind of thing, you definitely have after a day like today." Then, he smiled as he added, "For what it's worth though, I don't think it's as bad as you think it is."

A ghost of a smile twitched at her lips at the sentiment, but it didn't last. A wave of exhaustion came in its place. She was just so tired of fighting them…

Just so tired in general, really.

"I… I just remember so much, Jeremy, and I…" She paused, letting out a shuddering sigh as she tried to find her words. Jeremy squeezed his hand again, and in response she turned her hand over and grasped it back. He let out a startled sound, but made no move to retreat. "I-I was this old over 11 years ago, and now I actually remember that. I'm supposed to be older than all of you but… I'm not. I'm not supposed to be here, n-not like this at least. A-and I… on one hand, I'm grateful for it, because it means I got to meet you and Ulrich and Odd and Yumi, but at the same time, I had a life before and-"

She cut herself off as a certain image overcame her head again. An image of snow, of a dark, shadowy car, of her…

"Jeremy… I had a mother." She spoke in a faint whisper that was so quiet, she wasn't sure he could hear her. "I had a mother and… I don't know what happened to her. She got taken away. I don't know by who but I just… I can't stop thinking about it and everything else that's happened and I just…" Tears were threatening to spill again, and no matter how much she blinked they wouldn't go away. "I don't know what to do…"

"I'm sorry…" he whispered. "I wish there was something I could do to help, but… I'm so sorry."

She shook her head. It wasn't his fault. She didn't expect him to fix it, there was nothing that could be done about it.

Still, he tried.

"Maybe… maybe it just needs time," he suggested. "Maybe they're only so bad right now because you just got them back. They're still kind of new to you right now, so maybe you just need some time and they'll calm down."

"Maybe…" She mumbled. A small part of her wanted to argue no, that the idea of the memories ever seeming less vivid sounded ridiculous.

But the yawn that came out of her mouth a moment later shot what little mind she had to pursue that idea down.

Jeremy noticed and offered a kind smile. "I think for right now though, you should focus on getting some proper sleep. It's been a long day for all of us, you especially, and that's probably not helping either."

Sleep… that was probably a good idea. She gave a more nod and started to move to get up, but then stopped just before letting go of his hand as another idea came to mind.

"Could I… stay here with you?" Being alone still didn't sound so appealing, even now.

Jeremy visibly jumped at the question. He rubbed at the back of his neck and looked away. "I er, uh…." He stammered out. "I-I mean… if that's what you'd like, t-then sure,"

She smiled. He could be so kind, yet still so easily flustered. "I would, Jeremy, I really would." Then, she readjusted herself and leaned back against him.

She felt him stiffen for a split second, but that was all. A moment later, he let go of her hand, but before she could ask why, she felt him instead wrap his arm around her shoulders and pull her closer.

"Thank you, Jeremy," She whispered, then rested her head on his shoulder as she closed her eyes.

Slowly, she drifted off to the sound of Jeremy's breathing. And for once tonight, her mind was not haunted by the images with the part, but instead filled with that of the present.

She watched as Yumi and Ulrich moved ahead on one of the paths around campus. Odd, also ahead, beckoned her to follow with a loud, enthusiastic, yell.

And beside her was Jeremy, waiting patiently with a hand outstretched. "Are you ready to go, Princess?"

She took it without hesitation, and the two started to follow after the others, toward whatever the future held for them. Whatever it was, she was sure they'd get through it together.

Just like they always did.

Look, dealing with suddenly getting memories like Aelita's back probably can't be easy on you, especially after it first happens.

I know the whole 'Jeremy comforts Aelita after a nightmare' thing is kind of overdone, but god if I'm not still a sucker for it. I've honestly wanted to do this for like, at least a year, but I was really hesitant to do so. Just the usual fears of wanting to get things 'right' mostly. As much as I love Jerlita, writing them sometimes feels a little difficult for me.

I think part of this one's is just because Aelita is such an emotional character. That can be really fun to play with, but I guess it also reminds me of myself in a way? So that makes it kind of weird sometimes. But, I really wanted to do it this way, and I'm proud of myself for at least trying, regardless of what the end product is.