Chapter 2: Demeter and Digital Dust

IF YOU ARE READING THIS MESSAGE NOW, YOU ARE IN TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DANGER.
THE MEN IN BLACK HAVE FOUND YOU.

Jeremie's heart beat faster. Men in black? Could he have meant...those government dogs who tore apart Aelita's family and came after him? But how? Why?

I AM SURE THAT YOU ARE VERY CONFUSED ABOUT WHO THE MEN IN BLACK ARE. IT IS TOO RISKY TO TELL MY ENTIRE STORY ALL IN ONE PLACE, HOWEVER, SO I WILL SCATTER THE INFORMATION AND IN CODE IN PLACES YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND, IF YOU ARE ON OUR SIDE.
THE MEN IN BLACK ARE DANGEROUS. THEY WANT THE SUPERCOMPUTER. AND THEY HAVE THE POWER OF POLITICS IN THEIR HANDS.
PLEASE FIND THE REST OF THIS MESSAGE. THE FATE OF THE WORLD LIES SOLELY WITH YOU.

FRANZ HOPPER.

He scanned the message over and over again, but his heart was still racing, faster than it had been since the destruction of XANA. What could Franz possibly mean by this? And if they were on Franz's side, then another part of the message must be in…His fingers twitched towards his phone, but it was late and he knew the others were tired out by their little party at the factory.

It was half-past eleven when he crept out of his room. Déjà vu flashed through him as he slipped away, just barely catching himself as he hit the hard-packed earth outside. Pushing up his glasses, he trekked through the forest and reached the manhole. He cleared away some fallen leaves and climbed down the metal rungs, replacing the heavy lid above him.

The scooter was still propped against the wall from the party earlier. Jeremie was glad that their celebration forced him to bring the old thing back to the sewers. He guided it down the stairs and kicked off, rolling towards the end of the tunnel. Upon reaching the other set of bars leading to the surface, he placed the scooter on the ground before scrambling up the ladder.

He shone the light of his phone in the darkness of the factory, trying to find his way to the ropes that would bring him down. The party had been held there, right outside the elevator; hosting it in the computer room or any of the connected rooms would only have tempted them to turn the supercomputer on, the way a quitter would be tempted to smoke again if he returned to the smoking areas in restaurants. But Jeremie was no smoker, and judging by the mood of Franz's message, they all may actually be in danger. If it were those men who were after them again…he had an excuse to return.

The supercomputer room was exactly the same when he had first stumbled upon it. The amount of dust that coated the floor and the walls was Odd-worthy, but there were no signs of decay or aging otherwise. Jeremie choked up at the sight of the old eye in the center of the room; this…this is where it all began. "It's the dust," he muttered to no one in particular, clearing his throat and rubbing his damp eyes.

But the lack of cracking stones or growing vegetation concerned him. After an entire year of not being put to use, theoretically the room should have been falling into despair by now. At first, he was relieved that no harm was done to his site of precious memories, but when he thought about it, the relief turned into anxiety. "What if someone had been coming in here and maintaining it?" he said to himself, adjusting his rectangular glasses and coughing again. "But that doesn't explain all this dust. If someone had been taking care of this room, the dust would have been cleaned, or at least would have carried tracks of anyone stepping foot in this factory. But it looks like this room has been untouched since we left it last year…unless…"

He knelt down and, with a shaking hand, slowly rubbed the dusty floor with his index finger.

There was no dust. As if triggered by a sensor, the virtual layer of dust flickered and vanished, leaving the room with a brand-new appearance. Jeremie gasped and fell back on his bum, ignoring the pain from the sudden impact.

"W-who…" he whispered. He got up, wincing slightly, and walked cautiously into the room. He noticed a slip of yellowed paper tucked in a tiny crevice by the raised platform in the center. Gingerly, he picked it up, mildly surprised that it was real. Then someone really had come in here and kept the room, while creating digital dust to imply abandonment. Was it to throw off the men in black, to keep them thinking the computer was broken? But again, who could have done it? Jeremie shook his head and pushed the thoughts aside. He unfolded the paper carefully. On it were three simple words, written in fading calligraphy:

Cum amor,
Demeter

He knew it wasn't from Franz, but someone else. The message was in Latin, and he translated it easily in his mind: With love, Demeter.

Who was this 'Demeter'? He knew that Demeter was a Greek goddess of the harvest…was it a code name? Was she—maybe even he—a friend or a foe? And how did this person know about the factory? Could 'Demeter be the one maintaining the factory? But…how? He tried to think of the possible candidates responsible, but it was already past midnight. He knew if he didn't return home soon, he would end up fast asleep right here. Not only would he be at the mercy of whomever this was, he would also be severely punished by the school. He reluctantly took the elevator back, heaved himself up the ropes (also in shape), and headed through the tunnel again. The slip of paper was placed on his desk by his glasses as he tumbled in bed and drifted away.

"You what?" William nearly yelled at the cafeteria table. Snickers arose from the students as they stared at his outburst, and he sank back in his chair in embarrassment, hiding his face in his jacket collar. The gang laughed along with the crowd, but quickly assumed more serious expressions when the laughter died away.

Odd messily ate his breakfast as Jeremie sighed. He was already drowsy from his midnight trip and his mood was growing worse. "I told you already; I went to the factory last night."

"But why?" Aelita asked.

"We swore we would never go back to the computer again, Jeremie. You said so yourself," Yumi agreed, crossing her arms across her chest.

Ulrich nodded quietly, being just as sleepy as Jeremie was. Cramming for science tests had that effect on him and he was barely paying attention to the arguments of his friends. Instead, he was reciting formulas under his breath, mixing them up now and then.

Odd looked up from his bowl. His eating habits had not changed at all since the last year. "Don't worry; Einstein always has a reason, right?"

"Thank you Odd. Now if you'll let me explain—"

The bell rang and students filed out of the cafeteria, leaving behind trash and spills everywhere. Jeremie tossed the remnants of his meal in the garbage. "Meet up at the pothole after classes today and I'll tell you everything."

"Whatever you say, Jeremie," Ulrich muttered, still half asleep. He rose from the table, rubbing his eyes, and stumbled out the door. Odd wiped his mouth and trailed after him, teasing him all the way. Yumi and Aelita excused themselves as well, confirming the meeting place and leaving the same way too. Only William stayed behind, with an unreadable expression on his face. By the time the cafeteria was empty, William and Jeremie were the last students in the room.

Jeremie sighed again. "What is it, William?"

"Why did you go back? Did you turn it on?" he demanded.

"I didn't, but I told you, I'll spill everything after—"

"Screw that!" William snapped, pounding the table with a tightly clenched fist. The impact echoed in the empty room. "I'm here now, so tell me!"

"Why are you so determined to know?" Jeremie countered.

William bit his lip. Appearance wise, he hadn't changed since he was freed, either. But even though he didn't remember his possession at first, flashes of times when he attacked the gang surfaced every so often, causing migraines and even fainting. The time gap threw him behind in school, adding mental stress to physical stress. While he wasn't failing, he was struggling to keep up both in mind and body. Diminished yet constant teasing plagued him as well, and his hatred for XANA was more intense than anyone's in the group, even now.

"William, you know XANA is destroyed," Jeremy said, a little more gentle this time.

"I know that," he said. "But what if there's something else out there, watching the factory or something? I can't stand to think that there might be another shit-bag program just waiting to pounce if you ever return to Lyoko."

"I never said that we would—"

"Then why would you go back? If you went there, the reason must have to do with Lyoko or the factory or anything about it, and if that reason leads to another huge problem like XANA, then what's stopping you from flipping that lever and starting the fight all over again? I'm no genius, Jeremie, but I'm a lot smarter than what I was last year."

William was right. He worked hard to catch up and acquired some skills he never had before in the process, including quick analysis. He wasn't as smart as Jeremie or Aelita, but he was still sharper than he had been in the past.

All Jeremie seemed to do was sigh nowadays. "Fine, I'll tell you now, but don't say anything till everyone else knows, alright?"

"Works for me," William said with satisfaction. He settled in his seat as Jeremie leaned against the table and began to explain.

Jeremy cleaned his glasses as he waited for everyone's jaws (minus William, who was acting), to close again. The fact that they said the same thing at the same time goes without saying.

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?" they half yelled, with the same fervor as William back in the cafeteria.

"That's all," Jeremie said. He replaced his glasses and produced from his pocket the same slip of paper he had discovered under the layer of digital dust. It was laminated, encased in protective plastic, and reflected the soft afternoon light streaming through the trees. With trembling hands, Aelita took the paper and read the foreign words aloud.

"Cum amor, Demeter," she said softly.

"In English please?" muttered Ulrich, who was far more awake now.

"It means 'with love, Demeter," Jeremie replied. "I found it after I realized the dust was fake and someone was keeping the supercomputer room in top condition. I hadn't checked the other rooms but I'm pretty sure they're in the same shape."

"From Demeter? But Demeter is a goddess, right?" Yumi remarked.

"It's probably a code name," Jeremie said. "Obviously we don't know anything about this Demeter, but I feel like she or he has something to do with all of this."

"There's only one way to find out," Aelita said.

"So are we going to check them out or what?" Odd chirped. He didn't even bother about the purple hair in his eyes as he did a little dance of excitement, shuffling around in the grass.

"Odd, try and see the seriousness of this situation. We're not going back to the factory for fun. If what Franz said is true, we have people after us so official that even the government doesn't know about them. And we have some stranger who's been watching the factory this past year, and we don't know who's side she's on. Think about the danger we—and the school, and our families—are in now because of this. We need to find a way to keep everyone safe and in the dark till it's over…if it can be ended in the first place," Jeremie said. The mood grew solemn and sober as the truth of his words sunk in and they stood there for a moment, feeling the weight of their new burden.

"Well, we better go," Jeremie said awkwardly. "I think another piece of Franz's message is on Lyoko, so we should go find it."

"Y-yeah, let's go," William said, and headed towards the pothole.

"Wait. William's going?" Ulrich said, snapping up his head.

"William is technically part of the warriors," Jeremie replied. "And we'll need all the help we can get now that the situation is so dire."

"Fat lot of help he was last year," Ulrich spat. "He was being reckless and stupid and got himself possessed and made our job even harder than it actually was, with XANA running free all over the world building robot armies and sending monsters after our asses!"

William clamped his mouth shut, not trusting what he would say.

"Ulrich, it's been a year. I know he's matured," Yumi said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah, and you've been cool with him the entire time after the shutdown," Odd added.

"Because we weren't in a life-threatening situation that could end up in total domination of the world by a hunk of power-hungry data if we didn't fight it every single day while having to deal with people who were suspicious and protecting them at the same time!" Ulrich's chest heaved as if he had just run a race. His eyes were narrowed down to slits and he glared at William, who stared back at him defiantly.

"You heard them," William managed to say. "I'm better now, I swear."

"Sure," Ulrich scoffed. He turned around so his back faced the group. "If he goes, I'm not going."

"Ulrich!" chorused the gang.

He turned his head towards them, looking from the corner of his eye: "You heard me."

Aelita motioned the others to stay as they opened their mouths. She walked up to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. He had grown tall enough to make others have to look up at him, although Aelita wasn't as short as she had been, either.

"Ulrich."

"Aelita, I'm not going to change my mind."

"Listen to me. I understand what you're feeling. I was there myself when William wasn't cooperating, and it was really frustrating to me. But we all know—you too, Ulrich—that he's grown up more and he can handle it now. And we'll really need everyone together now, as a team, because there's a threat that's even greater than XANA out there. They're not like XANA. They can hurt us even more than some computer program, and everything relies on us again," she said.

Ulrich groaned and covered his face with a broad hand. "I guess you're right," he mumbled. "I just thought we wouldn't have to deal with this anymore, after we shut down the computer, even though it was exciting on Lyoko. I wish…"

Aelita squeezed his shoulder. "We all do, Ulrich. We all do."

A/N:

A rare chapter has appeared! Rare! Rare!

So who is this…Demeter? I won't say anything about him/her because that would ruin whatever effect I'm trying to make…so yay for suspense!

Regarding the Latin: I'M SORRY. GOOGLE TRANSLATE STINKS. D:

Ulrich is a bit bipolar regarding William now that I realize it, but while he forgives William a little, he still doesn't like him-ish. He never liked him in the first place anyway... I don't make any sense, I'll do better next chapter!

Also, I would like to clarify that I am NOT making William a Sue whatsoever, with sparkly new powers of observation where he's the only one who notices the enemy when no one else does and sudden epiphanies all over the place or anything stupid like that. I just had him mature more after his immaturity made him lose a portion of his school life. Does that make sense? But if you have an issue, please tell me nicely.

In fact, if you think my writing is too boring/bland/dumb, please tell me nicely.

Flames will be devirtualized. HA SEE WHAT I DID THERE

Thanks to obsessivefanno.4 as my first reviewer!

~Wings~ flying off