In which Taelia gives you her whole life story even though you didn't ask because that's the only way she can think of to get anybody to trust her.

"Alright you two. I have a lot of work to do, so I am going back to my office, but don't think that means you can just sneak off! I will be watching you from the security cameras! Now sit here and think about what you've done. Violence is never the answer. There are always more humane ways to-"

I already stopped paying attention. Violence was almost always the answer, or at least, the most efficient one. Mr. Delmas went on like that for a while, and then left to go do his work. So one Miss Isiyama and I were stuck in the library for four hours. For those keeping score at, home that would mean it would be about 5:30 before we got out. I hadn't had lunch...or breakfast. I was going to go get lunch after checking out the factory but, ya know, that didn't work out. I was used to not eating. It sucked but I was used to it.

"Nice to formally meet you." I smiled a little and extended my hand, hoping she would shake it. She did not. She just stared at me, her eyes were like daggers piercing my oh so fragile heart. Just kidding, it didn't affect me at all. I put my hand back. "My name's Taelia Twist. I caught that your last name is Ishiyama, but what's your first name?"

She didn't say a word. She just sat there, like she was trying to figure out something. It was understandable that she didn't want to talk. Right? I was reading the situation right? I sat and looked at her expectantly. The clock on the wall ticked. The seconds dragged on.

"It's Yumi." She said, then she got up and grabbed a book off a nearby shelf. She sat down and read it. I rested my head on my hands, covering my mouth, and leaned forward slightly. She was leaned back and had her legs crossed. She pushed off the ground with her foot so the chair was tilting back slightly.

I could tell she wasn't actually reading. Her eyes would get stuck on one spot or very rapidly go down the page. She would stay on one page for a very long time. She didn't look up at me. She seemed to be actively ignoring me. The clock ticked. Time passed.

And then I got bored. I was just sitting here in silence, and there wasn't any adrenaline rush to keep me going. I needed some form of mental stimulation. I got up and turned my back on her. I had a feeling the moment I did that she was watching me. She was probably watching me from the periphery of her vision the entire time. But whatever, let her stare. I had proved she posed no threat to me.

So what did the Kadic Academy Library have to offer? Well, I was looking in the fiction section. Oh, What was this? Harry Potter? It was a large book. I thought I recalled people making a big uproar about a Harry Potter movie a few years ago? I guessed this was the book it was based off of. Wizards weren't really my forte but hey, if something gets that much attention there's probably a reason for it.

"You never answered me." Yumi finally said something. I turned around.

"Hm?"

"Why are you here?"

"To get an education." I replied.

"Bullshit." She kept her face looking pretty calm. I got it, the security cameras didn't have audio. She didn't want to get into any more trouble. "You show up two years ago for a week, leave, and then suddenly show back up again to shoot Ulrich in the supercomputer room, run away, and then show up here as a student. You knew Aelita. You knew about the Men in Black. You knew about Xana. You remembered a Xana attack even after we erased it. There's only one way to do that. Who. Are. You?!" She was boiling underneath. I put my hands up in defense.

"Fine, fine. You wanna hear the whole tragic backstory? I'll tell you." I sat down.

It all began in the year 1978.

"Wait, what?" Yumi narrowed her eyes. "How about you just tell me about your involvement?"

"...My involvement started in 1978." I replied simply. I watched as she tried to wrap her head around that one.

"Stop lying." She finally said. "That's impossible. You're our age."

"Lyoko should be impossible, and yet there it is. Do you want to hear my story or not?" I rested my cheek on one fist. Yumi nodded in response.

It all began in the year 1978. I was attending Kadic Academy under the name Morgan Xenia Stones. I was only 10 years old at the time, but I was in a special program offered by the psychologist. I was...uh...to put it lightly, a gifted kid. My parents wanted me to get the best education possible. Every day I went to the psychologist and we would learn things together.

One day we went to a University to use their computer. The personal computer wasn't really out at the time. I picked up on it really quickly, and I don't know how little 10 year old me managed to do it, but I ended up somehow hacking into the servers of Project Carthage.

"Do you know about Project Carthage?" I asked. Yumi blinked. It was a lot to take in all at once? Was this not what she expected. Then she seemed to recover, she stammered a bit, then answered me.

"That's the organization Lyoko and Xana were built to take down."

"That's right. How did you learn that?" I asked.

"His diary." Yumi answered. I nodded.

"So, like I was saying. I managed to hack into their servers."

That alerted them to my presence. They were at Kadic the next day, offering me a job with the best applied education I could ever hope to get. They offered me a lot of money and other good things. Of course I took the deal. From then on, I was Franz Hopper's assistant. He taught me just about everything I know. I lived with him and his wife in a cabin by our base. When he had a daughter, I was pronounced the god mother.

"Wait, wait. How were you even alive back then? And if you're Aelita's god mother, why has she never mentioned you, not once?!" Yumi demanded. I crossed my arms.

"You really gotta learn not to interrupt. I'm getting to all that."

Project Carthage was supposed to be a project to block enemy communications, but they had us working on a virtual world...they had us working on virtualization. I'm not entirely sure what they were going to do with it all, but the higher-ups were keeping secrets from us. We suspected they were using our research for something corrupt. My personal theory was that they wanted to gain power and immortality.

Anyways, when they saw we were discontent they...they kidnapped Franz's wife to try to force us to stay. I was 19 at the time, Aelita was only 5. We fled to France, where a friend hooked us up with the abandoned factory. We built Lyoko and Xana. The Men in Black came after us. We ran out of time, except we didn't. Xana launched a return to the past, and then we started using it every day. It was something like seven years...I didn't keep track, but Franz did. With every return in time Xana got stronger, and smarter. He began to resent Franz for treating him like a mere tool, and trying to take away the things that were his. As Xana got stronger, Franz took away his ability to return to the past at will and cut off a lot of access.

"Oh, wait. I forgot the part about why I look like this." I interrupted my own monologue. "When I was in Project Carthage Franz Hopper Virtualized me as the first human subject." I was pretty proud of that, actually. "When we left we took all our research with us and sort of...re-used a lot of it to build Lyoko and the scanners. It already had my template from when I was 13. The return to the past program saw the fact that I was 26 at the time to be an error, so it fixed the error...permanently. Franz fixed it so it wouldn't happen to anyone else but he could never fix me. Anyways..."

The day came when all the preparations were complete. I dressed in one of Aelita's outfits. I already had the right haircut and it was dyed and everything because I was trying to fit in with the family. Hiding from the government, you know how it is. They hadn't seen Aelita in a few years and I looked enough like her to convince them. I ran in one direction to distract the Men in Black, while Franz and Aelita went to go get virtualized. They chased me for a whole year and a fucking half, and they caught me, and I was in prison for a while, and I broke out. I made friends with a supersoldier test subject Carthage had who was supposed to be tracking me down. I stayed with her for a while...

I went back to the factory after three years of being gone. I turned it on, Franz and Aelita and Xana were still in there. I tried to get them to stop fighting but it went really wrong, Xana drained Aelita of memory. Franz only managed to restore enough for her to live before Xana captured him and took him prisoner. I threw Aelita in a tower and protected them with a blue aura so Xana couldn't get in. Xana devirtualized me.

I ran, I went back to my friend and stayed there until return to the pasts started happening again...I enrolled here. I saw you were handling the situation, and left.

"And...um...now I'm here. I...uh...this lifestyle has left me pretty messed up. I'm not saying that's an excuse for shooting your friend. But um...you're up against something very powerful and I think I can help."

Yumi just sat in silence. I did sort of dump this all on her at once.

"Let's see some proof. Proof you aren't actually her." Yumi said.

"Uh...who?" I was genuinely confused? Did she mean Xana?

"Morgan."

"I just told you that was my original name was Morgan."

"Morgan Xanthos."

"Who?" I asked.

"Don't play dumb! You're using the same name. You have the same face! You're her. You're that spectre, Xana's kid. Jeremie told me everything, so you can just drop the act." Yumi was really on edge now. Was that the person I was calling Xana in a different form? There was another program entirely?

"I don't know who you're talking about. I'm really not her, though. I-I have proof."

Time elapsed since previous chapter: 4 hours

Time elapsed since chapter 1: a week, a day and like...3/4th of another day?

I've been setting aside time specifically to write so chapters come out faster. I do commissions!

Give this a fave and follow and review I really love hearing from everyone.

Have an awesome day!