William's Message

Karen

White, Dark Gold, Pink-Gold, Kind Bronze, and Strong Bronze were all in Kind Bronze's cavelet talking when Small Brown came barging in screaming. He finally managed to talk Dark Gold into taking his little rat somewhere and she left with it. Later, they went to the factory and...blue.

Afterwards, White flew back to her cavelet with Pink-Gold.

I opened my eyes. "Odd's going to be frantic about his dog. He'll beg Yumi for something and she finally agrees. We're all going to Lyoko for…something. I'm not sure what."

"Okay, but how's your transformation going?"

"I…" I looked briefly under my shirt, "think the only thing that changed last night was a bunch of new scales. But tomorrow…"

"What are we going to do about you when you become a full dragon?"

Well, I had to tell her eventually. "They already know. The teachers and the principal, I mean. I told them yesterday."

"What?!"

I stood up and found something else: my legs had altered position a little. I tipped forwards so my hands hit the floor and complained, "Oh, great, now I'm walking like Kiwi!"

Yumi

We all met up in Jeremie's room. Odd was panicking about Kiwi being found in a surprise inspection. "Yumi, you don't have class for another hour, could you…"

"Out of the question, Odd. My dad can't stand pets."

"Pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty please?"

"Oh, all right. You win this time."

"Thank you! Nothing can stop me from kissing you!"

I put my hand on his mouth. "I can."

I zipped Kiwi into my backpack and picked it up around the time Jim and Mr. Delmas opened the door. "Hello, sir. I've got to get to class."

As I walked off, I heard Jim ask Karen about any changes. Huh?

Jeremie

Jim asked, "So how's everything going, Karen? Anything new in your transformation?"

As I stared, Karen calmly answered, "Let's just say I can now officially get along without a shirt if I wanted, and I've become more comfortable walking on all fours."

"Any alerts on that virus of yours?"

I answered. "Uh…no, but something might turn up later."

"That's great! Well, if you need to run off for anything, just let your current teacher know, and be sure to tell Ishiyama that, too."

After they left, I looked at Karen. "What was that about?"

Aelita answered. "Didn't I tell you? Karen called up a teacher's meeting yesterday and told them all what was happening: about Lyoko, Xana, William, my father, and her transformation!"

Odd screamed, "What?!"

Karen snapped, "Well, it does make our job a whole lot simpler, doesn't it? Now we're not hiding anything, and we'll get free passes whenever we need them!"

"Well…that's true…" I admitted, "but you still should have told us first."

"Did we have this discussion with Aelita about her telling me about this?"

That set off a laugh, anyway. Even I thought it was funny how we were repeating a situation.

Later, when we met up with Yumi, we filled her in on Karen's little scheme, and she said, "That's great! It means I'll finally be able to retake an exam after a Xana attack!"

Then the supercomputer picked up a replica on its scan. "You all know what that means…"

Karen answered. "Exploration time!"

Ulrich

Odd was still worried about his dog when we arrived on Lyoko. We boarded the Skid and took off.

Yumi and I both guessed different sectors that Xana might have replicated, but it turned out that we were all wrong.

"Welcome to a replica of Sector Five," Aelita said.

We docked at a tower and Jeremie asked, "Odd and Yumi, would you like to go this time?"

"Aye, aye, Captain Einstein!"

"Would you give the bad jokes a rest, Private? Aelita, Ulrich and Karen – "

" – Stay and guard the Skid, I know."

"Right. I'm activating the tower for our own use." After he activated it, he asked, "Ready for teleportation?"

Yumi answered. "Just say the word."

Apparently, the supercomputer was on a satellite!

We waited outside the Skid for a while. I was wondering what Xana was doing. Then a glowing red ring appeared around the Skid! Jeremie told us, "Just like on Lyoko before, you have to deactivate a key to stop the mechanism. Any volunteers?"

"I'm the fastest. I'll go."

After tearing around the place, I finally found the key. I got smashed about the time I hit the key. When the scanner opened, I said, "Now that's what I call being really pressed for time."

Odd

After dodging some flying spike-balls and sending them off into space, we broke some water pipes and let that destroy the supercomputer. Then we were ready to go home.

Karen

Aelita and I wound up fighting William all by ourselves. Mostly Aelita threw Energy Fields at him, but soon she was knocked flat. Then I dive-bombed in. The look on his face was amazing. I destroyed his sword and stood on all fours, facing him. He just stared at me. Then he started acting like he had a headache. I had formed a fireball in my claw, but I didn't know if I should throw it. Finally, he looked at me again.

"K-Karen?" I cancelled my fireball and stared. Was he free? "What-what have I done to you? What did Xana make me do?"

I shook my head. "I'd rather not talk about it."

He smiled (I did sound rather like Jim right then), and then he held his hand towards me. "Karen…I – "

Then Xana took control of him again. His outstretched hand threw a shadow at me. If it wasn't for Odd and Yumi, I probably wouldn't have survived that encounter.

William jumped off the platform and we all left in the Skid.

As the replica exploded behind us, Yumi asked, "What's the matter, Karen?"

"The real William came back again. I think he tried to tell me something."

Jeremie said, "Well, let's hope that it will happen again so that he can actually tell us."

I remained silent. I was pretty sure I already knew what William had tried to tell me: "Karen…I love you."